Tuesday, April 5, 2011

On Manhattan Streets, Loosie Men Sell Illegal Smokes

Rise in Online Class

Rise in Online Classes Flares Debate About Quality: via nytimes.com http://twurl.nl/xz7dv1

Rise in Online Classes Flares Debate About Quality

Severe Weather and T

Severe Weather and Tornadoes Pound the Southeast – ABC News: Powerful and fast-moving storms powered through ... http://twurl.nl/p3nle6

Severe Weather and Tornadoes Pound the Southeast - ABC News

Powerful and fast-moving storms powered through the South last night, bringing high winds, hail and lightning with them. At least seven people have been killed, while several hundred thousand woke up today without power. Within just one 10-minute period, there were 1,500 lightning strikes, causing 3 fires in Georgia.

Weigel : Trump at 21 Percent in New Hampshire

Public Policy Polling finds some evidence the Roger Stone theory of birtherism as a base driver:

If Trump actually run 21% of New Hampshire GOP voters say they'd vote for him, compared to 27% for Romney. The key to Trump's relatively strong showing? He does well with birthers and Tea Partiers, two groups he has seemed to actively court with his public comments of late. 42% of primary voters firmly say they do not believe Barack Obama was born in the United States to 35% who believe that he was and 23% who aren't sure. Trump leads Romney 22-21 with the birther crowd, but Romney holds the overall lead because he's up by a much wider margin with the folks who dismiss the birther theory.

Now: That might actually be as far as birtherism can take a candidate. New Hampshire's electorate in 2012 is going to be thick with independents, who don't have a Democratic contest distracting them.

U.S. Global Investors sees oil, gold prices doubling | Reuters

(Reuters) - Oil is a good short-term bet for another five months due to upcoming peak U.S. summer driving season, while prices in the long-term are likely to double along with gold in five years, said a leading fund manager.

BBC News - Yemen unrest: Three die in Sanaa clashes

New fighting has flared in Yemen between tribesmen loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and soldiers backing anti-government protesters.

At least three people were killed and 15 others injured in Sanaa after pro-Saleh tribesmen arrived at a barracks occupied by mutinous troops.

The violence came a day after at least 15 people died in the city of Taiz.

BBC News - Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo 'negotiating surrender'

France says negotiators are on the brink of agreeing his departure.

Mr Gbagbo is sheltering with his family in the basement bunker of his residence in the main city, Abidjan.

Troops loyal to Mr Gbagbo's rival, UN-recognised President Alassane Ouattara, say they have surrounded the compound.

The UN says Mr Gbagbo's military and civilian advisers are leaving him.

"We are very close to convincing him to leave power," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told the National Assembly in Paris.

Mr Gbagbo's spokesman, Ahoua Don Mello, said there were "direct negotiations based on African Union recommendations which said Alassane Ouattara is president."

Japan earthquake, tsunami: Seawater radiation measured at 7.5 million times legal limit - latimes.com

The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday that it had found radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times the legal limit in a seawater sample taken near the facility, and government officials imposed a new health limit for radioactivity in fish.

The reading of iodine-131 was recorded Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. Another sample taken Monday found the level to be 5 million times the legal limit. The Monday samples also were found to contain radioactive cesium at 1.1 million times the legal limit.

The exact source of the radiation was not immediately clear, though Tepco has said that highly contaminated water has been leaking from a pit near the No. 2 reactor. The utility initially believed that the leak was coming from a crack, but several attempts to seal the crack failed.

Oil could hit $200-$300 on Saudi unrest-Yamani | Reuters

LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Oil prices could rocket to $200- $300 a barrel if the world's top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is hit by serious political unrest, former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani told Reuters on Tuesday.

Yamani said he saw no immediate sign of further trouble following protests last month calling for political reforms but said that underlying discontent remained unresolved.

"If something happens in Saudi Arabia it will go to $200 to $300. I don't expect this for the time being, but who would have expected Tunisia?" Yamani told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference of the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES) which he chairs.

"The political events that took place are there and we don't expect them to finish. I think there are some surprises on the horizon," he said in a speech.

Saudi King Abdullah offered $93 billion in handouts in March in an effort to stave off unrest rocking the Arab world.

So far, demonstrations in the Kingdom have been small in scale and police were able to easily disperse a Shi'ite protest in the oil-producing eastern province last month.

But Yamani said that the reluctance of people to participate in popular protests was merely concealing underlying discontent.