Wednesday, June 19, 2013

UFC 161?s Three Stars: James Krause, Shawn Jordan and Stipe Miocic?s night

UFC 161 wasn't the greatest of cards, but some fighters did stand out. Who stood out for you? Speak up on Facebook or Twitter.

No. 1 star -- James Krause: In 2009, Krause had two fights in the WEC. He lost to Donald Cerrone and Ricardo Lamas and missed his chance to get into the UFC when it merged with the WEC. Krause kept training and kept fighting, putting together a seven-fight win streak in promotions like Resurrection Fighting Alliance and Shark Fights.

He was ready when the UFC called and asked him to fill in at the last minute for a tough match-up with Sam Stout. He not only had an entertaining fight with Stout, he finished him with a guillotine with 13 seconds left in the fight. He won both a Fight of the Night bonus and a Submission of the Night bonus, totaling $100,000.* After years of training and fighting in smaller promotions, that money is an excellent reward for keeping the faith.

No. 2 star -- Shawn Jordan: Perhaps it's just that Shawn Jordan is a really busy guy. He has many items on his to-do list, and he doesn't have time to waste on knocking out a fighter. He quickly finished Pat Barry, earning the TKO in 59 seconds. Next item on the to-do list? Heading to the bank to cash his $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.*

No. 3 star -- Stipe Miocic: Does it actually take throwing a kitchen sink at Roy Nelson's head to knock him out? Because Miocic's strikes were just short of kitchen-sink-level, and Nelson remained standing. That Miocic was able to put such a beating on Nelson showed that he is back to being the striking stud he was before being knocked out by Stefan Struve.

*UFC bonuses are paid out after fighters have passed their post-fight drug tests.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-161-three-stars-james-krause-shawn-jordan-153134442.html

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Canadian stocks seen climbing on global growth hopes: Reuters poll

By John Tilak

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's resources-heavy stock market, which has struggled to gain traction in 2013, is expected to kick into gear in the second half of the year as the global economy rebounds, a Reuters poll found.

The median forecast in a poll of 40 market strategists, taken in the past week, shows the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> is expected to end the year at 12,850, up 5 percent from Monday's close of 12,288.90.

It will then rise to 13,500 by mid-2014 - a level not seen since mid-2011.

The year-end projection was scaled down from the 13,450 forecast in a March poll as recent sell-offs wiped out the market's early 2013 gains.

But the more recent poll showed analysts forecast a late recovery in the sagging market, which has trailed global peers including Wall Street.

The Toronto market has shed about 1 percent this year, while the S&P 500 <.spx> has gained about 15 percent.

"Overall it's really going to boil down to the global growth story," said Craig Fehr, Canadian market strategist at Edward Jones. "We're starting to see some semblance of stabilization on the global stage, in terms of economic growth."

The TSX will benefit from export demand as confidence builds "around the ability for China to stimulate growth and for Europe to pull itself out of recession," he added.

The Toronto index was hit by a slow, grinding global economic recovery that has muted commodity prices, hurting profits at Canadian mining, energy and other natural resource companies.

More recently, signs of a stronger U.S. economy triggered concerns that global central banks might pare back on their aggressive efforts to boost growth.

Following their slump, some analysts polled say materials and energy stocks might have hit bottom and these groups will contribute to growth.

"The majority of the downside in both these sectors is over," said Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets. "(The resource group) is just going to be a volatile asset and it's going to be all about stock picking."

Bob Gorman, chief portfolio strategist at TD Wealth, said extremely low expectations for resource stocks could spur outperformance and predicted they will pick up and narrow the gap between the U.S. and Canadian markets.

Analysts said the lower stock prices in the Canadian market make valuations attractive.

Given its sluggish performance "the upside potential for the index is certainly greater than the downside risk," said Elvis Picardo, strategist at Global Securities.

"Based on the assumption there's no big resurgence in macro risk and based on the assumption the gradual growth scenario continues, we expect TSX to outperform the S&P 500 by virtue of the fact that it has done nothing for the last two years."

(Additional polling by Ashrith Doddi and Snehasish Das; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canadian-stocks-seen-climbing-global-growth-hopes-reuters-152619510.html

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

US, Taliban to start talks on ending Afghan war

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? In a major breakthrough, the Taliban and the U.S. announced Tuesday that they will hold formal talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan but President Barack Obama warned the process won't be quick or easy.

The comments came on a day in which Afghan forces took the lead from the U.S.-led NATO coalition for security nationwide, marking a turning point for American and NATO military forces, which will now move entirely into a supporting role. It also opened the way for the full withdrawal of most foreign troops in 18 months

After months of delays, the Taliban opened a political office in the Qatari capital of Doha, paving the way for talks to begin. The decision was a reversal of months of failed efforts to start peace talks while Taliban militants intensified a campaign targeting urban centers and government installations.

In Doha, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naim said the group opposes the use of Afghan soil to threaten other countries and supports the negotiating process, two key demands of both the U.S. and Afghan governments before talks could begin. He made the statement shortly after the deputy foreign minister of Qatar said the Emir of the gulf state had given the go ahead for the office to open.

Naim said the Taliban are willing to use all legal means to end what they called the occupation of Afghanistan.

He thanked the leader of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani for allowing them to open the office.

Obama administration officials said U.S. representatives will begin bilateral meetings with the Taliban at the office in a few days, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's High Peace Council is expected to follow up with its own talks a few days later.

Obama later called the opening of the Taliban political office an important first step toward reconciliation between the Taliban and Afghanistan's government, although he said the Taliban still must denounce al-Qaida and predicted there will be bumps along the way.

Obama, who spoke after meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland, also praised Karzai for taking a courageous step by sending representatives to Qatar to discuss peace with the Taliban.

The administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, vowed to continue to push the Taliban further and said that ultimately the Taliban must also break ties with al Qaida, end violence and accept Afghanistan's constitution ? including protections for women and minorities. Officials said that Obama was personally involved in working with Karzai to enable the opening of the office, and that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had also played a major role.

The U.S. officials said the first meeting in Doha will focus on an exchange of agendas and consultations on next steps.

The Taliban have for years refused to speak to the Afghan government or the Peace Council, set up by Karzai three years ago, because they considered them to be American "puppets." Taliban representatives have instead talked to American and other Western officials in Doha and other places, mostly in Europe.

Karzai also said he will soon send representatives from the High Peace Council to Qatar for talks but expressed hope the process would quickly move to Afghanistan ? something U.S. officials said was unlikely.

"We are hopeful that after starting negotiations in Qatar, immediately the negotiations and all the peace process should move into Afghanistan. Afghanistan shouldn't be center of the discussions outside of the country," Karzai said.

"We don't have any immediate preconditions for talks between the Afghan peace council and the Taliban, but we have principles laid down," Karzai said, adding that they include bringing an end to violence and the movement of talks to Afghanistan so they are not exploited by other countries.

The U.S. and its Western allies are trying to foster a peace process as foreign troops prepare to end their combat mission by the end of 2014.

The U.S.-led NATO coalition formally handed over responsibility for nationwide security to Afghan security forces earlier Tuesday, with foreign troops moving entirely into a supporting role. The transition comes at a time when violence is at levels matching the worst in 12 years, fueling some Afghans' concerns that their forces aren't ready.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, said the only way to end the war was through a political solution.

"My perspective has always been that this war is going to have to end with political reconciliation and so I frankly would be supportive of any positive movement in terms of reconciliation particularly an Afghan led and an Afghan owned process that would bring reconciliation between the afghan people and the Taliban in the context of the Afghan constitution," he said as reports were breaking that the Taliban were about to open an office.

For U.S. and other foreign combat troops on the ground, the transition means they will not be directly carrying the fight to the insurgency, but will provide training and mentoring, and back up as needed with air support and medical evacuations.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the coalition will help militarily if and when needed but will no longer plan, execute or lead operations.

"This is a historic moment for our country and from tomorrow all of the security operations will be in the hands of the Afghan security forces," Karzai said at the ceremony, held at the new National Defense University built to train Afghanistan's future military officers.

Karzai said that in the coming months, coalition forces will gradually withdraw from Afghanistan's provinces as the country's security forces replace them.

In announcing the fifth and final phase of a process that began at a November 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, Karzai said "transition will be completed and Afghan security forces will lead and conduct all operations."

Alliance training since 2009 dramatically increased the size of the Afghan National Security Forces, bringing them up from 40,000 men and women six years ago to about 352,000 today.

Afghans will now have the lead for security in all 403 districts of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. Until now, they were responsible for 312 districts nationwide, where 80 percent of Afghanistan's population of nearly 30 million lives. Afghan security forces were until now carrying out 90 percent of military operations around the country.

By the end of the year, the NATO force of 100,000 troops from 48 countries will be halved. At the end of 2014, all combat troops will have left and will be replaced, if approved by the Afghan government, by a much smaller force that will only train and advise.

There are currently about 66,000 American troops in Afghanistan. Obama has not yet said how many soldiers he will leave in Afghanistan along with NATO forces, but it is thought that it would be about 9,000 U.S. troops and about 6,000 from its allies.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, contributed to this report. Amir Shah, David Rising, Rahim Faiez and Kay Johnson contributed to this report from Kabul.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-taliban-start-talks-ending-afghan-war-170247308.html

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Origami-Inspired Clocks So Attention-Grabbing, You'll Never Run Late

Origami-Inspired Clocks So Attention-Grabbing, You'll Never Run Late

Sometimes a piece of design is so interesting, it's hard not to drop everything and pay attention to it. Dressed in bright, bold colors, with sharp, tessellated forms, these origami clocks from U.K. firm Raw Dezign definitely fits the bill.

The clocks come in turquoise, yellow, and cream, and you can pick from gold, black, or silver hands. Each one is cast in resin, and the tickers are hand molded to give each clock face its own custom look. They go for $78 and ship in two to three weeks (because, you know how custom work goes). They're eye-catching, one-of-a-kind, and infinitely more interesting than clock of the run-of-the-mill cuckoo variety. [RawDezign via Fubiz]

Origami-Inspired Clocks So Attention-Grabbing, You'll Never Run Late

Source: http://gizmodo.com/origami-inspired-clocks-so-attention-grabbing-youll-n-513873108

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