Palestinian president returns triumphantly from UN

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? The Palestinian president returned triumphantly to the West Bank on Sunday, receiving a boisterous welcome from thousands of cheering supporters at a rally celebrating his people's new acceptance to the United Nations.

An Israeli decision to cut off a cash transfer to the financially troubled Palestinian Authority, following an earlier decision to build thousands of new homes in Jewish settlements, failed to put a damper on the celebrations.

But Palestinian officials acknowledged they were undecided on what to do with their newfound status, and were waiting for upcoming Israeli elections and new ideas from President Barack Obama before deciding how to proceed.

Outside the headquarters of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, some 5,000 people thronged a square, hoisted Palestinian flags and cheered their leader's return from New York. Large posters of the Palestinian leader, whose popularity had plummeted in recent months, adorned nearby buildings.

"We now have a state," Abbas said to wild applause. "The world has said loudly, 'Yes to the state of Palestine.'"

The United Nations General Assembly last week overwhelmingly endorsed an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 war.

The move to upgrade the Palestinians to a nonmember observer state does not change much on the ground, but it carries deep potential significance.

The vote amounted to an international endorsement of the Palestinian position on future border arrangements with Israel and an overwhelming condemnation of Israeli settlements in the areas claimed by the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects a return to Israel's 1967 lines. Israel remains in control in parts of the West Bank and considers east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, an integral part of its capital.

Israel also continues to restrict access to Gaza. Israel withdrew seven years ago from the coastal strip, and it is now ruled by Hamas Islamic militants who regularly fire rockets at Israel.

Israel, backed by the U.S., campaigned strongly against the statehood measure, accusing the Palestinians of trying to bypass direct peace negotiations, which it said were the only viable path to a Palestinian state.

The Israeli lobbying efforts failed miserably. Just eight other countries voted with Israel, and even its closest allies in Europe, including Germany, Italy, France and Britain, either abstained or voted with the Palestinians.

Israel responded strongly and swiftly. The following day, it said it would start drawing up plans to build thousands of settlement homes, including the first-ever development on a crucial corridor east of Jerusalem.

Although the project is likely years away, if it happens at all, the announcement struck a defiant tone.

Building in the area, known as E1, would sever the link between the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the sector of the holy city the Palestinians claim for a future capital, and cut off the northern part of the West Bank form its southern flank. The Palestinians claim such a scenario would essentially kill any hope for the creation of a viable state.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "grave concern" at the Israeli announcements, saying the new building and reported planning in the E1 area "would represent any almost fatal blow to remaining chances for securing a two-state solution," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

"In the interests of peace, any plans for E1 must be rescinded," he said.

"The secretary-general repeats his call on all concerned to resume negotiations and intensify efforts towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace and urges the parties to refrain from provocative actions," Nesirky said.

The U.S., Britain, France and other European states all denounced the plan.

On Sunday, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, expressed concern that such settlement expansion "may represent a strategic step undermining the prospects of a contiguous and viable Palestine with Jerusalem as the share capital of both it and Israel. She urged Israel to show its commitment to the early renewal of peace talks but not going ahead with the settlement plan.

"The European Union has repeatedly stated that all settlement construction is illegal under international law and constitutes an obstacle to peace," Ashton said in a statement.

On Sunday, the Israeli government delivered another blow, saying it would withhold more than $100 million in funds it transfers to the Palestinians each month.

Instead, it said the money ? taxes and customs duties that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians ? would be used to pay off its debts to Israeli companies, including $200 million owed to the state-run Israel Electric Corp., government officials said.

The monthly transfers are crucial for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority to pay salaries to its tens of thousands of civil servants and security forces. Israel has taken similar measures in the past before eventually releasing the money.

At the weekly meeting of his Cabinet, Netanyahu said the Palestinian statehood campaign was a "gross violation" of past agreements calling for disputes to be resolved through negotiations.

"Accordingly, the government of Israel rejects the U.N General Assembly decision," he told his Cabinet on Sunday. He also pledged to continue building settlements.

"Today we are building, and we will continue to build in Jerusalem and in all areas that appear on Israel's map of strategic interests."

Half a million settlers live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The ongoing growth of the settlements is at the heart of the current impasse in peace efforts.

The Palestinians view continued settlement expansion as a show of bad faith and refuse to return to negotiations unless construction is frozen.

Netanyahu has claimed a brief settlement slowdown in 2010 failed to jump-start negotiations, and he has refused calls for a new construction freeze.

The Palestinians have signaled that they may use their upgraded status to join the International Criminal Court and pursue war crimes charges against Israel. But officials say any decision to seek membership in the ICC is likely months away.

Palestinian officials said little was expected to change until Israel holds parliamentary elections on Jan. 22. Public opinion polls suggest Netanyahu is likely to win re-election at the head of a hardline coalition.

Palestinian officials said they were hopeful that Obama would present a comprehensive peace plan after the Israeli vote.

"If there is a meaningful peace process, we will join. If not, then we are taking the Palestinian cause to the international community," said Husam Zomlot, a spokesman for Abbas.

The new Israeli settlement construction plans remain far from certain and may have been announced by Netanyahu to impress voters ahead of the election.

New figures from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics show that Netanyahu has actually slowed settlement construction over the past year. The latest figures found that Israel began construction on 653 new settlement homes in the first nine months of 2012, down 26 percent from 886 housing starts during the same period a year earlier.

Israel insists that the Palestinians are responsible for the deadlock, accusing them of refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland and the Palestinian media of glorifying violence and promoting anti-Semitic caricatures.

Netanyahu said Abbas' speech at the U.N., in which he accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and omitted any reference of the Jewish connection to the holy land, was filled with incitement and hate.

"This is additional proof that this is not a dispute over land but a denial of the existence of the State of Israel," he said. "As long as the Palestinian Authority educates the younger generation to hate, how is it at all possible to talk about peace?"

___

Heller reported from Jerusalem. Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-president-returns-triumphantly-un-193522204.html

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Biggest PR Disasters Of 2012 - Business Insider

From corporate social fails to "pink slime" scandals to Apple launching a widely hated mapping feature, 2012 was filled with epic PR disasters.

While many of the public relations nightmares were due to typical company failings, others were unique to the digital era.

All it takes is a single employee's bad tweet ? like a Burger King staffer standing in a tub of lettuce ? to send corporate headquarters into damage control mode.

We've collected 10 of the worst PR disasters of the year.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-pr-disasters-of-2012-2012-11

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Netanyahu brushes off world condemnation of settlement plans

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday brushed off world condemnation of Israel's plans to expand Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto U.N. recognition of statehood.

"We will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places that are on the map of Israel's strategic interests," a defiant Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

In another blow to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Israel announced it was withholding Palestinian tax revenues this month worth about $100 million.

Israel said the reason for the move was a Palestinian debt of $200 million to the Israeli Electric Corporation, an obligation that has existed for some time.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz cautioned last month that if the Palestinians went ahead with the U.N. bid Israel would "not collect taxes for them and we will not transfer their revenues".

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official, said confiscation of the tax funds due the cash-strapped Authority, vital to meeting its payroll, was "piracy and theft".

Stung by the U.N. General Assembly's upgrading of the Palestinians' status from "observer entity" to "non-member state", Israel said on Friday it would build 3,000 more settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Palestinians want for a future state, along with Gaza.

An Israeli official said the government also ordered "preliminary zoning and planning work" for thousands of housing units in areas including the so-called "E1" zone near Jerusalem.

Such construction could divide the West Bank in two and further dim Palestinian hopes, backed by the United States and other international sponsors of the Middle East peace process, for a contiguous country.

"It would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Sunday.

Israeli officials said it could up to two years before any building begins in E1.

At the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the "unilateral step the Palestinians took at the U.N. is a gross violation of previous agreements signed with Israel". The government of Israel, he added, "rejects the General Assembly's vote".

The upgrade, approved overwhelmingly, fell short of full U.N. membership, which only the Security Council can grant. But it has significant legal implications because it could allow the Palestinians access to the International Criminal Court where they could file complaints against Israel.

Israel's settlement plans, widely seen as retaliation for the Palestinians' U.N. bid, have drawn strong international condemnation from the United States, France, Britain and the European Union.

"The recognition of Palestine as a state changes a lot of the facts, and aims to establish new ones," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a cheering crowd in the West Bank city of Ramallah on his return from the United States.

"But we have to recognize that our victory provoked the powers of settlement, war and occupation."

INTERNATIONAL CRITICISM

Netanyahu heads a pro-settler government and opinion polls predict his Likud party will come out on top in Israel's January 22 parliamentary election, despite opponents' allegations that his policies have deepened Israeli diplomatic isolation.

"All settlement construction is illegal under international law and constitutes an obstacle to peace," the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement on Sunday.

The United States said the plan was counterproductive to any resumption of direct peace talks, stalled for two years in a dispute over settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both captured by Israel in a 1967 war.

Netanyahu says Israel, as a Jewish state, has a historic claim to land in the West Bank and to all of Jerusalem. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Israel considers all of the holy city as its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.

Israeli Housing Minister Ariel Attias said that within weeks the government would publish invitations for bids from contractors to build 1,000 homes in East Jerusalem and more than 1,000 in West Bank settlement blocs.

"E1 is in planning, which means sketches on paper," Attias told Army Radio. "No one will build until it is clear what will be done there."

The E1 zone is considered especially sensitive. Israel froze much of its activities in E1 under pressure from former U.S. President George W. Bush and the area has been under the scrutiny of his successor Barack Obama.

Benny Kashriel, mayor of the Maale Adumim settlement adjacent to E1, told Army Radio building "will take a year or two".

Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said: "If we build in E1 the two-state vision will truly be history ... it is a strategic point that if built, will prevent the Palestinians from having a normal state."

Approximately 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

(Additional reporting by Jihan Abdalla and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-brushes-off-world-condemnation-settlement-plans-072953824.html

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The Best Approaches For Scaling Your Internet Business | Start Your ...

Scaling up your internet business is not as difficult as it seems on the surface. What you should be doing is learning more about the methods that are going to work the best for the business model you?re currently running. There are a few methods that are going to be a far less effective for you than others. So even though you can certainly use the methods that are going to product only modest results, you will be much better off using the methods that are best suited to your business. If you have experience in business already, you?ve got a pretty good sense of whatever it is that we are talking about. Do not ever think that the various techniques associated with get mobile money blueprint are for the old-timers and are no longer relevant. One of the most destructive things you could ever do in your business is restrict your self when it comes to new ways to promote or market. Not everybody has the kind of mind that lets them learn new things, and you have to make an honest assessment about your self about that. If you are not sure or feel you do not know enough to make a call, then you can just do more research and learning or ask people at a forum. Anymore there is no excuse for not ever having the requisite information needed about any IM topic. Once you are feeling confident, then either put it to practice or roll it out incrementally. Have a positive perspective on all you do, and that will contribute to the energy you put toward anything new.

Remember that scaling means you are moving into new directions and territories with your business and marketing. This is a suggestion that will involve finding a new place and way to network. This can be done both online and offline depending on what works best for your service or your product. The absolute easiest way for you to do this is online an through social media and forum marketing. The two obvious places on the net are Facebook and LinkedIn. Try to remember, however, that you need to consider your niche audience. Basically you need to put yourself where ever it is that they gather in groups. Sometimes it is helpful to, while you are networking, simply brand the name of your company or your product.

Business website expansion effort are things that many people can do. You can do search marketing or SEO ? both work fine in regard to expanding your business. The larger the number of pages on your existing website, the wider the net you are casting to attract more potential customers and visitors. The stronger your internal link structure, the more likely you will have better results. If you have more pages that are interlinked, then they will stay indexed much longer. You will get more visitors by simply driving the traffic to your internal pages that are interlinked. A combination of social media marketing, and more pages, will increase the traffic to your site. You need to take every opportunity to follow these strategies, plus there is so much more you can do.

Think about using branding even if you have never thought it about it before. Almost anything can be branded when you use the best approach. Just try to remember that you?re trying to position your brand in a very specific way. There are hundreds of ways to run a branding campaign. You can do this with banner ads on specific sites. The very first thing that you should do is figure out exactly how you want to be branded. This will usually be some sort of short phrase or even a logo design accompanied by some text. But just realize that branding is something that takes commitment and time before it becomes effective. The best way to increase your profits to where you want them to go is to use consistent scaling efforts. Still, maybe you feel okay settling for less than you can potentially achieve. If you want to better scale your web business, these are the methods you should be choosing.

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UK's Prince William and Kate expecting a baby

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine are expecting a baby, destined to be the country's future monarch, although the mother-to-be is in hospital with a type of very acute morning sickness that sometimes indicates twins.

"Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby," the prince's office said in a statement on Monday, adding that Queen Elizabeth and the royal family were delighted.

The couple, officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, married in April last year, amid a global media frenzy and there has been much speculation, particularly in U.S. gossip magazines, about a possible pregnancy.

"It's only been a matter of time. Everyone has been waiting for Kate to announce that she was pregnant," Claudia Joseph, who has written a biography of the duchess, told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the couple said 30-year-old Catherine, widely known as Kate, was in the King Edward VII Hospital in central London suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum, an acute morning sickness which causes severe nausea and vomiting and requires supplementary hydration and nutrients.

Britain's National Health Service website said the condition was common in the early weeks of pregnancy but did not put the baby at any increased risk.

Professor Tim Draycott, a consultant obstetrician at the University of Bristol, told Reuters that the condition may indicate more than one royal baby may be in the offing.

"Hyperemesis is slightly more common with twins " Draycott said.

William, a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, was at her side and she is likely to remain in hospital for several days. There was no detail about when the baby was due, although the prince's spokesman said she was less than 12 weeks pregnant.

"I'm delighted by the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby," Prime Minister David Cameron said on his Twitter website. "They will make wonderful parents."

BABY WILL BE KING, OR QUEEN

William, Queen Elizabeth's 30-year-old grandson, is second in line to the British throne, and their first child will become the third in succession when he or she is born.

Last year Britain and other Commonwealth countries which have the queen as their monarch agreed to change the rules of royal succession so that males would no longer have precedence as heir, regardless of age.

The agreement also means an end to a ban on a future monarch marrying a Catholic, a stipulation dating back some 300 years.

Britain's royal family are currently riding the crest of popularity on the back of William and Kate's wedding and the queen's diamond jubilee this year which has witnessed nationwide celebrations.

The young royal couple have become global stars after some two billion people tuned in to watch their glittering marriage ceremony and the sumptuous display of pageantry that accompanied it, and barely a day goes by without a picture of Catherine appearing in the pages of Britain's royalty-obsessed newspapers.

The duchess, the first "commoner" to marry a prince in close proximity to the throne in more than 350 years, is now a fashion icon, with her attire scrutinized every time she steps out in public and followed by legions of women around the world.

That has also brought unwanted attention and there was anger in Britain when topless photos of Kate relaxing on holiday were published in a French magazine in September.

The pictures rekindled memories of the media pursuit of William's mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi.

"I will be very surprised if this isn't handled with the utmost tact and sensitivity," said media commentator Steve Hewlett. "Newspapers realize there's a huge amount of goodwill towards Will and Kate, and they take their cue from their readers."

"DADDY'S LITTLE CO-PILOT"

Kate made her last public appearance on Friday when she returned to her old school - a minor event that nonetheless generated live television coverage on news channels - when she looked healthy and joined in a game of hockey with pupils.

Earlier in the week William had hinted at a pregnancy during a visit to Cambridge in central England when they were given a home-made baby suit emblazoned with the words "Daddy's little co-pilot", a reference to William's job.

"When I gave it to him he said 'I'll keep that', and handed it to his aide," said Samantha Hill.

Joseph, author of "Kate: The Making of a Princess", said she believed the couple, who currently live in north Wales where the prince is based as a search and rescue pilot, had been waiting for the right moment to have a baby.

"My feeling has always been that they were not going to take the spotlight away from the queen in her Jubilee. But now 2013 is going to be William and Kate's year," she said, adding the couple would make wonderful parents.

"We have seen her with children and she is lovely with them, she's got the natural touch, and her parents run a party business and she has spent a lot of time with children," Joseph said. "(William) he has always talked about wanting children, so I am sure he is delighted."

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle and Peter Schwartzstein, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uks-prince-william-catherine-expecting-baby-161223071.html

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Should Republicans look to Texas for immigration inspiration? (Christian Science Monitor)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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RPT-WRAPUP 1-Delta among suitors for stake in Virgin Atlantic - sources

NEW YORK/SINGAPORE, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines

said on Monday it was in talks with interested parties

to sell its 49 percent stake in British carrier Virgin Atlantic,

with sources revealing that Delta Air Lines Inc was

among the potential suitors.

Delta, the second-largest U.S. airline by operating revenue

after United Continental Holdings, wants to gain access

to Virgin Atlantic's landing rights at London's Heathrow

airport, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Delta has been looking to acquire a Virgin Atlantic stake

for more than two years but previous talks broke down over price

and other issues, and there is no guarantee that its recent

discussions would result in a pact, the people said.

Singapore Airlines said in a brief statement it was in talks

with interested parties but did not name them. It also cautioned

that the discussions might not result in a deal.

The European Union requires that EU carriers be under

European control, meaning Delta would need to involve an EU

airline as a partner if it wanted majority control of Virgin.

Delta has been considering ways to partner with Air

France-KLM, which could also take a stake in Virgin

and allow the two carriers to acquire majority ownership, one of

the people said. Virgin founder Richard Branson owns 51 percent

of the airline.

Delta has made clear that it would like to expand at

Heathrow, a lucrative airport for prized corporate passengers

where landing slots are generally hard to acquire. Virgin is the

second-largest carrier at Heathrow after IAG's British

Airways.

Delta's SkyTeam global alliance, which includes Air France

and 18 other airlines, trails its oneworld and Star Alliance

counterparts in slot access at Heathrow.

"Delta now finds itself going up against the combination of

American Airlines and British Airways," said George Hamlin, an

aviation consultant in Fairfax, Virginia, referring to the two

anchor members of the oneworld global alliance.

"British Airways brings along a feed from other destinations

- both Europe and intercontinental - at Heathrow. Delta is

basically a dead end at this point."

Branson, who set up Virgin Atlantic in 1984, has been

weighing the airline's future for years and two years ago

appointed Deutsche Bank to examine offers.

"We are always talking to many airlines on a number of

different matters but we never comment on the details of these

discussions," a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said on Sunday. News

of Delta's renewed interest in Virgin was first reported by the

Sunday Times of London.

Delta declined to comment. Air France were not immediately

available for comment outside regular business hours.

Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, is operating at close to

full capacity after Britain's coalition government blocked its

expansion in 2010.

Virgin lost out in the battle to take over smaller UK

carrier bmi last year to IAG, giving the owner of British

Airways and Iberia more than 50 percent of the takeoff and

landing slots at Heathrow.

However in November, Virgin won all of the Heathrow takeoff

and landing slots that British Airways was forced to give up

after the acquisition of bmi.

Like other European carriers such as Air France and

Lufthansa, Virgin has been battered by rising fuel

prices and the euro zone crisis. It posted a loss of around 80

million pounds ($128 million) in its last full year.

Virgin, which is hunting for a new chief executive after

Steve Ridgway announced he would retire early next year, is not

a member of a global airline alliance.

Aviation consultant Hamlin said a tie-up with Delta could

give Virgin access to hundreds of markets on a one-stop

connecting basis in the United States. For Delta, such a deal

would help plug a weakness in its global network versus key

competitors and make it a strong player at Heathrow.

"London obviously is the premier market and Heathrow is by

and large the market leader. It's the lynchpin transatlantic

market in terms of size and revenue, particularly premium

traffic revenue," Hamlin said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-delta-talks-49-pct-virgin-atlantic-stake-001342799--sector.html

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