You might wanna pause for a moment of silence, because it looks like Dell has just discontinued its Streak 7 tablet. As the folks over at Streak Smart recently noticed, the Android slate has mysteriously disappeared from Dell's website, replaced only with a note to confirm that it's no longer available online. Dell, which axed the smaller Streak 5 back in August, provided us with the following statement:
Dell remains committed to the mobility market and continues to sell products here and in other parts of the world. Streak 7 delivered a unique experience for customers who wanted a larger screen-size yet the freedom of staying connected to their personal and professional content while on the-go. It continues to be available in many markets through retail, distributors and carrier partners such as Optus in Australia. A 10-inch version of the tablet, Streak 10 Pro, is currently offered in China, offering the ultimate digital divide between work and life. The Venue and Venue Pro devices, as well, continue to earn accolades for performance, design and functionality around the world. We also recently launched the Latitude ST, a 10-inch Windows 7-based touch-screen tablet designed for vertical markets such as education, finance and healthcare in November of this year. We remain committed to expanding our reach beyond PCs with a targeted set of open, standards-based mobility solutions and services designed for commercial and mobile professional customers.
So Dell isn't leaving the mobile space entirely, and it doesn't look like the Streak 7 is completely dead, though based on the above statement, it certainly seems to be on its way to pasture.
The Chimera 4 (as indicated by the name) is iBuypower's fourth iteration of the Chimera series. It's built for speed on the gaming grid and comes in four base models, of which each can be configured down to the type of network card installed. The starting price for the most inexpensive version, the Chimera 4-FX is $799 and while it's the cheapest, it's no slouch.
The side of this mid-tower chassis features a mythical beast?possibly a fiery Balrog?wreathed in flames on a black aluminum canvas, giving it a "wow" factor, especially among fellow geeks. Inside it comes with a quad-core AMD FX-4100 processor (the other versions offer Intel options), 4GB of RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6770 (1GB), and a 600 Watt power supply. The processor can be upgraded up to an AMD FX-8150 for $200 more, and the GPU can be upgraded as high as an Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 (3GB) for $671 more.
The last version, the Chimera-V1, and most expensive features the new Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E processor, while the two middle units can only be upgraded up to a Core i7-2700K CPU. But you'll only really need these high-powered CPU if you plan on doing Photoshop CS5 work that would take advantage of such processing power. Every Chimera 4 also comes with its CPU overclocked by at least 10 percent.
A liquid cooling system and 120mm fan comes standard with every unit, but if you're uncomfortable with a liquid solutiuon iBuypower allows you to downgrade to a CPU fan and heatsink. There are grates on top of the chassis, utilizing the age-old science-fact that heat rises, creating a natural ventilation solution. There are also vents on the back of the case.
More desktop reviews: ??? HP TouchSmart 520-1030 ??? HP Pavilion Slimline s5-1060 ??? HP TouchSmart 9300 Elite ??? Polywell Poly ITX-Z6800 ??? Asus Essentio CM1740-04 ?? more
ROME (Reuters) ? Prime Minister Mario Monti will present a 30 billion euro package of austerity measures to parliament Monday designed to shore up Italy's strained public finances and help to stem a debt crisis threatening to overwhelm the euro zone.
Cabinet approved the mix of tax hikes, pension reforms and incentives to boost growth in a three-hour meeting Sunday, opening one of the most crucial weeks since the launch of the euro more than a decade ago.
The package, dubbed a "Save Italy" decree by Monti, aims to raise more than 10 billion euros from a new property tax, impose a new tax on luxury items like yachts, raise value added tax, crack down on tax evasion and bring forward measures to increase the pension age.
The measures come before one of the most crucial weeks since the creation of the single currency more than a decade ago, with European leaders due to meet Thursday and Friday in Brussels to try to agree a broader rescue plan for the bloc.
Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, has been at the center of the crisis since mid-year, when its borrowing costs began to approach the levels which forced Ireland, Greece and Portugal to seek an international bailout.
Packed into a single emergency decree, the measures take effect immediately, before formal parliamentary approval, but Monti will have to secure the backing of legislators within 60 days for them to remain in force.
Monti, appointed at the head of a technocrat government to replace former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last month, had been under growing pressure to come up with concrete measures to address fears about Italy's towering debt mountain.
He has held to Berlusconi's pledge of a balanced budget by 2013, despite growing signs that Italy is heading into a recession that will make it extremely difficult to make inroads into a public debt of 120 percent of gross domestic product.
Deputy Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli said the measures outlined Sunday would allow the goal to be met despite a forecast that GDP would contract by 0.4-0.5 percent in 2012.
TEARS
Monti, who brought forward cabinet approval of the measures by a day to Sunday, is due to give a briefing to the foreign press at 1100 GMT before presenting the measures to parliament in the afternoon.
The package is divided into 20 billion euros of budget tightening and an additional 10 billion euros that will be pumped back into the economy in the form of measures to help companies and boost growth.
European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed the "timely and ambitious" measures and said the Commission would carry out a detailed assessment once it had received full details of the package.
Caught between the competing needs of boosting growth and ensuring that cuts do not further depress an already fragile economy, Monti's technocrat government risks growing opposition after an initial honeymoon period with a public fed up with the scandals of the Berlusconi era.
"A package to cry over," the daily Il Secolo XIX headlined its front page Monday, over a picture of Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero, who broke down in tears while presenting measures that will mean an effective cut in income for many pensioners.
Unions criticised the package and in an early sign of possible opposition to the Monti government, FIM-CISL, a union representing metal workers, said it would call a two-hour strike Wednesday.
"Yet again, the sacrifices demanded fall mainly on salaried workers and pensioners and on the weaker sections of society," the union said in a statement.
(Reporting By James Mackenzie; Editing by Ralph Gowling)
NEW YORK ? A Christian congregation with just 48 members and not even a storefront is hoping the Supreme Court will overturn a ruling that says holding its Sunday service in a Bronx public school is unconstitutional.
At issue is a New York City Board of Education policy that allows community groups, including religious ones, to use its buildings, but specifically excludes worship services.
A divided federal appeals court upheld the policy in June, reversing a district judge. The Supreme Court is considering whether to review the case and could decide that on Monday. If it grants review, its eventual opinion could be a landmark decision, the church's lawyer says.
Robert Hall, co-pastor of the evangelical Bronx Household of Faith, said last week that his little group never expected to get involved in a big-time court case that has now lasted 17 years.
"I can assure you this wasn't strategic planning on our part," the 68-year-old Minnesota native said. "Basically we just outgrew the place we were meeting," a Christian halfway house for men.
In 1994, church leaders looked at the nearby public school in its University Heights neighborhood, applied for a permit to hold its worship service there, and were denied.
That began a legal wrangle that reached the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals four times as Supreme Court decisions came down and the law evolved.
An early key moment came in 1995 when Hall, who has been with the church for 39 years, heard Alliance Defense Fund staff attorney Jordan Lorence on the radio, discussing barriers to religious rights.
"He called me up and said, `We're facing that issue right here,'" Lorence said.
Enter the ADF, a conservative group that says it champions "the legal defense of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family." It has been on the case since and is bearing the costs. Lorence is the lead attorney.
"We took the case to defend the First Amendment principle of equal access," Lorence said. "This is private religious speech and we're requesting equal access to meet in the buildings the way New York City allows all other community groups to meet."
In 2002, during a time when the city was enjoined from enforcing its policy, the Household of Faith began using Public School 15, and it has been there ever since.
In its most recent ruling, in June, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted that the while city policy excludes religious worship from its buildings, it does not exclude "prayer, singing hymns, religious instruction, expression of religious devotion, or the discussion of issues from a religious point of view."
The court found the distinction reasonable, saying that when worship services are held in a school, "The place has, at least for a time, become the church."
The court said the distinction accommodated a 2001 Supreme Court decision allowing a Christian organization to use public school facilities. It also was a reasonable way for the city to avoid violating the Constitution's prohibition on government favoring any religion, the court said.
The Board of Education praised the ruling, saying it was "concerned about having any school in this diverse city identified with one particular religious belief or practice." However, it is allowing the 60 or so congregations that now hold services in schools to continue, pending Supreme Court action.
Lorence said the distinction between religious expression and worship is arbitrary.
"You can have singing and prayer and Bible study, with all the elements of what people traditionally understand a worship service to be, but you can't have a worship service?" he said.
He theorized that a group could hold a worship service and not call it that, "and the school district will need a theologian to figure out whether the group is conducting a worship service or not."
Hall said the Household of Faith's service lasts 90 minutes or more and includes Scripture readings, hymns, communion with grape juice and bread, preaching and "spontaneous prayer" from the congregation.
Lorence said he found "bizarre" the concept that the auditorium at Public School 15 becomes a church if worship is conducted there.
"When a labor union meets there, it doesn't turn into a labor hall," he said. "When Alcoholics Anonymous meets there, it doesn't turn into the Betty Ford Clinic."
But Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said, "When a church sets up shop in a public school in a manner that conveys the appearance that the church is part of, or officially favored by, the school, it seems to run afoul of the separation of church and state."
Lorence predicted the Supreme Court would grant review and reverse the 2nd Circuit. But if not, he said, "It's over for the Bronx Household of Faith" because he can no longer go back to the 2nd Circuit.
"We're at high noon here," he said.
Pastor Hall said the church isn't worried. Though the church office is Hall's home, and some of their meetings are held in backyards, they are raising funds to complete construction of a building across from P.S. 15 that would handle all their needs, including youth ministry and worship services.
"Nobody's getting angry, there's no bad-mouthing the Board of Ed," he said. "We're kind of rolling with the punches and trusting in the Lord that he will work things out according to his good wisdom."
Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
Cockerell's Bumblebee was last seen in the United States in 1956, say UC Riverside entomologists
RIVERSIDE, Calif. A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, last seen in 1956, living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico.
Known as "Cockerell's Bumblebee," the bee was originally described in 1913 from six specimens collected along the Rio Ruidoso, with another 16 specimens collected near the town of Cloudcroft, and one more from Ruidoso, the most recent being in 1956. No other specimens had been recorded until three more were collected on weeds along a highway north of Cloudcroft on Aug. 31, 2011.
"Most bumblebees in the U.S. are known from dozens to thousands of specimens, but not this species," said Douglas Yanega, senior museum scientist at UC Riverside. "The area it occurs in is infrequently visited by entomologists, and the species has long been ignored because it was thought that it was not actually a genuine species, but only a regional color variant of another well-known species."
Yanega pointed out that there are nearly 50 species of native U.S. bumblebees, including a few on the verge of extinction, such as the species known as "Franklin's Bumblebee," which has been seen only once since 2003. That species, as rare as it is, is known from a distribution covering some 13,000 square miles, whereas Cockerell's Bumblebee is known from an area of less than 300 square miles, giving it the most limited range of any bumblebee species in the world.
"There is much concern lately about declines in our native bumblebee species, and as we now have tools at our disposal to assess their genetic makeup, these new specimens give fairly conclusive evidence that Cockerell's Bumblebee is a genuine species," he said. "With appropriate comparative research, we hope to be able to determine which other species is its closest living relative. Given that this bee occurs in an area that's largely composed of National Forest and Apache tribal land, it's unlikely to be under serious threat of habitat loss at the moment. Since its biology is completely unknown, however, it nevertheless may require some more formal assessment in the future."
Yanega went on to point out that it is not especially surprising for an insect species to be rediscovered after decades, when people might otherwise imagine that it may have gone extinct.
"When an insect species is very rare, or highly localized, it can fairly easily escape detection for very long periods of time," he said. "There are many precedents some of them very recently in the news, in fact of insects that have been unseen for anywhere from 70 to more than 100 years, suddenly turning up again when someone either got lucky enough, or persistent enough, to cross paths with them again. It is much harder to give conclusive evidence that an insect species has gone extinct than for something like a bird or mammal or plant."
UCR entomologists rediscover many such "lost" insect species and discover entirely new species on a regular basis, at the rate of several dozen species every year, primarily in groups such as bees, wasps, beetles, and plant bugs. According to recent estimates, approximately 8 million species are in existence, the vast majority being insects of which only about 1 million have been described.
"It should come as no surprise that we discover so many new species of insects so easily," Yanega said. "But the pace of species discovery and description is incredibly slow because there are so few insect taxonomists relative to the number of undescribed insects. Moreover, the work is painstaking, time-consuming, and not very glamorous, at least in the public's perception, when compared to studying things like dinosaurs."
As for plans regarding additional work with Cockerell's Bumblebee, Yanega said that the recent expedition, carried out together with UCR scientists Keve Ribardo and Greg Ballmer, was funded in part by the Friends of the Entomology Research Museum, a non-profit organization supporting UCR's Entomology Research Museum, but that nothing further was yet planned. The DNA sequencing was also carried out at UCR, as part of a larger study on wasp and bee relationships.
"The first step is to come to a firm conclusion regarding the status of this bee as a species," he said. "The second step is spreading the word to the scientific community that this bee deserves some attention, as it has been completely overlooked. Here at UCR we may or may not be involved beyond that point, in gathering data on the distribution and biology of this species, but at the very least our discovery can get the proverbial ball rolling."
###
The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 20,500 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion.
A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call 951-UCR-NEWS.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
Cockerell's Bumblebee was last seen in the United States in 1956, say UC Riverside entomologists
RIVERSIDE, Calif. A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, last seen in 1956, living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico.
Known as "Cockerell's Bumblebee," the bee was originally described in 1913 from six specimens collected along the Rio Ruidoso, with another 16 specimens collected near the town of Cloudcroft, and one more from Ruidoso, the most recent being in 1956. No other specimens had been recorded until three more were collected on weeds along a highway north of Cloudcroft on Aug. 31, 2011.
"Most bumblebees in the U.S. are known from dozens to thousands of specimens, but not this species," said Douglas Yanega, senior museum scientist at UC Riverside. "The area it occurs in is infrequently visited by entomologists, and the species has long been ignored because it was thought that it was not actually a genuine species, but only a regional color variant of another well-known species."
Yanega pointed out that there are nearly 50 species of native U.S. bumblebees, including a few on the verge of extinction, such as the species known as "Franklin's Bumblebee," which has been seen only once since 2003. That species, as rare as it is, is known from a distribution covering some 13,000 square miles, whereas Cockerell's Bumblebee is known from an area of less than 300 square miles, giving it the most limited range of any bumblebee species in the world.
"There is much concern lately about declines in our native bumblebee species, and as we now have tools at our disposal to assess their genetic makeup, these new specimens give fairly conclusive evidence that Cockerell's Bumblebee is a genuine species," he said. "With appropriate comparative research, we hope to be able to determine which other species is its closest living relative. Given that this bee occurs in an area that's largely composed of National Forest and Apache tribal land, it's unlikely to be under serious threat of habitat loss at the moment. Since its biology is completely unknown, however, it nevertheless may require some more formal assessment in the future."
Yanega went on to point out that it is not especially surprising for an insect species to be rediscovered after decades, when people might otherwise imagine that it may have gone extinct.
"When an insect species is very rare, or highly localized, it can fairly easily escape detection for very long periods of time," he said. "There are many precedents some of them very recently in the news, in fact of insects that have been unseen for anywhere from 70 to more than 100 years, suddenly turning up again when someone either got lucky enough, or persistent enough, to cross paths with them again. It is much harder to give conclusive evidence that an insect species has gone extinct than for something like a bird or mammal or plant."
UCR entomologists rediscover many such "lost" insect species and discover entirely new species on a regular basis, at the rate of several dozen species every year, primarily in groups such as bees, wasps, beetles, and plant bugs. According to recent estimates, approximately 8 million species are in existence, the vast majority being insects of which only about 1 million have been described.
"It should come as no surprise that we discover so many new species of insects so easily," Yanega said. "But the pace of species discovery and description is incredibly slow because there are so few insect taxonomists relative to the number of undescribed insects. Moreover, the work is painstaking, time-consuming, and not very glamorous, at least in the public's perception, when compared to studying things like dinosaurs."
As for plans regarding additional work with Cockerell's Bumblebee, Yanega said that the recent expedition, carried out together with UCR scientists Keve Ribardo and Greg Ballmer, was funded in part by the Friends of the Entomology Research Museum, a non-profit organization supporting UCR's Entomology Research Museum, but that nothing further was yet planned. The DNA sequencing was also carried out at UCR, as part of a larger study on wasp and bee relationships.
"The first step is to come to a firm conclusion regarding the status of this bee as a species," he said. "The second step is spreading the word to the scientific community that this bee deserves some attention, as it has been completely overlooked. Here at UCR we may or may not be involved beyond that point, in gathering data on the distribution and biology of this species, but at the very least our discovery can get the proverbial ball rolling."
###
The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 20,500 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion.
A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call 951-UCR-NEWS.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic ? Sonia Pierre, a human rights activist who bravely fought discrimination against poor Dominicans of Haitian descent since she was a child, died Sunday, according to colleagues. She was 48.
The renowned activist died outside of the municipality of Villa Altagracia while being rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack around noon Sunday, said Genaro Rincon, a lawyer who works with Pierre's Dominican-Haitian Women's Movement.
Pierre's chronic heart troubles were first discovered in 2007 when she was in Washington to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award honoring her work securing citizenship and education for Dominican-born ethnic Haitians.
Through the decades, her activism made her the target of threats in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, but it earned her recognition from overseas as a fierce defender of human rights, including an award from Amnesty International in 2003.
Pierre was one of 12 children raised in a dirt-floor barrack in a Dominican migrant worker camp and was just 13 when she was first arrested and threatened with deportation for leading her fellow Dominican residents of Haitian descent in a march for cane cutters' rights.
Since then, Pierre tirelessly fought to secure citizenship and education for the beleaguered minority of Dominican-born ethnic Haitians.
"She was like a sister to me," said Edwin Paraison, executive director of the Zile Foundation, a Haitian group that tries to improve relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. "The Haitian community has lost someone who was a huge advocate in the fight for Haitian rights."
An estimated 500,000 to 1 million ethnic Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, many in isolated village slums that dot the countryside. Most of those born in the Dominican Republic are descendants of Haitians who crossed the border fleeing violence or seeking economic opportunity.
When she won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2007, Pierre denounced what she said were "massive abuses" in the Dominican Republic against people of Haitian descent, particularly children.
"They suffer discrimination from the moment they are born," she said during the award ceremony in the U.S. Senate. "The authorities refuse to recognize them as Dominicans."
While Haiti has been plagued by poverty, violence and political instability, its eastern neighbor, with a population of more than 9 million, grew out of its own early struggles to be seen as a comparative land of opportunity even as many Haitian migrants are exploited as cheap labor.
Police arrested Pierre in 1976 when she led her fellow Haitian-Dominican neighbors in a march to demand rights for those who cut sugar cane. She was jailed for a day and threatened with deportation to Haiti, where her mother was born.
"I was crying because I didn't know anyone in Haiti," Pierre once recalled.
Her advocacy also has made her and her family targets in the Dominican Republic. She was once chased out of her Santo Domingo office by a man waving a pistol. She was also punched at a stop light by another man who told her, "I know who you are."
Pierre insisted she was trying to help her people and not malign the Dominican Republic. "I am not a critic of my country, and this is my country," she said. "I am a critic of my government."
Paraison, a former minister of Haitians living abroad, said Pierre is survived by three children.
NEW YORK ? H&R Block Inc. on Thursday said its fiscal second-quarter loss widened by 30 percent including charges for closing its ExpressTax business and other items.
The nation's largest tax preparer reported a loss of $141.7 million, or 47 cents per share for the three months ended Oct. 31. That compared with 36 cents per share a year earlier.
Excluding the ExpressTax charges and losses from discontinued operations, H&R Block said it lost 38 cents per share.
Analysts expected an adjusted loss of 35 cents per share, on average, according to data provided by FactSet.
Kansas City, Mo.-based Block earlier announced it was selling its RSM McGladrey consulting unit and said the sale closed Wednesday.
The earnings shortfall reflects the shift of RSM revenue to discontinued operations, but Block typically posts a second-quarter loss because most of its revenue comes during the U.S. tax season.
Growth in its Australian tax business helped the quarter's revenue rise 8 percent to $129.2 million, from $119.6 million last year.
Analysts were expecting revenue of $328.9 million for the quarter, but that included revenue from the company's RSM McGladrey business consulting unit.
Block moved its accounting for RSM to discontinued operations after the sale closed. Last year, RSM McGladrey took in revenue of $203.4 million in the fiscal second quarter.
Block's discontinued subprime mortgage unit, formerly called OptionOne but renamed Sand Canyon Corp., set aside $20 million to cover claims from investors who purchased securities backed by mortgages that have since failed.
The number of claims received during the second quarter spiked to $483 million from $21 million a year ago. Sand Canyon reviewed $61 million in claims during the quarter, resulting in incurred losses of $3 million.
While the incurred losses remained in line with prior quarters, the company received more than three times as many claims during the second quarter as it had in the previous four combined. Block CEO Bill Cobb said the increased reserve was "prudent in light of second-quarter activity" and maintained that the unit is financially strong enough to handle all valid claims.
Wall Street has fretted over the potential for big claims payouts, however, fearing Block would have to kick in cash to support Sand Canyon if losses exceed reserves.
The issue has weighed on the stock for some time but didn't ignite concern after hours Thursday.
Block shares lost 26 cents in the late session after ending regular trading up 33 cents, or 2.1 percent, at $16.06.
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? A Pakistani actress who posed in the nude for an Indian magazine with the initials of Pakistan's feared and powerful intelligence agency on her arm has triggered fury across this conservative nation.
Veena Malik's photo on the website of FHM India, in advance of its publication in the magazine's December issue, has been lighting up social network website Facebook and Twitter since earlier this week.
Many here anticipate a backlash, as nationalists and Islamists regularly stage rallies against anything they deem an insult to Islam or to the national honor. India and Pakistan have fought three wars, and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency or ISI has been accused of sponsoring terrorist attacks inside India.
Malik has broken Pakistani religious and national taboos in the past. She is a target for conservative ire and a heroine to some Pakistani liberals.
Conservative cleric Maulana Abdul Qawi declared on Aaj TV on Saturday that her latest venture into controversy was a "shame for all Muslims." Farzana Naz, interviewed by the same channel on the streets of Lahore, said that the actress had "bowed all us women in shame."
Twitter commentator Umair Javed however called on Pakistanis to "make copies of the picture and bury it in your backyard. This way, our grandkids will know there were some amongst us who lived free!"
Asked by reporters whether Pakistan would "pursue the matter" legally, the country's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Saturday, "First, let us see whether it is real or fake."
Malik for her part says that the photo at the root of the current uproar was published in violation of her agreement with FHM India. In an interview with Pakistani Geo television broadcast Saturday, Malik acknowledged having been photographed for a "bold but not nude shot." She said the editor of the magazine had promised that he would cover most of the photo with the ISI initials.
Malik said that the photo was intended to poke fun at the Indian fear of Pakistani spies: "Whatever happens (in India), people say ISI is behind that."
Malik said she would "probably" take a legal action against the magazine for violating terms and condition.
Magazine editor Kabeer Sharma said Malik did all with her full consent.
"We have all the record(s)," he told the Pakistani television station. "Veena was very excited about that ISI idea."
Malik does most of her work in India. The entertainment sector there is booming, while Pakistan's is moribund. Her ties to Pakistan's archrival have landed her in controversy in the past.
During a much-publicized talk show appearance early this year, she lashed out her nemesis Abdul Qawi, who criticized her for having a scripted love affair with an Indian actor on an Indian reality show.
"What is your problem with me?" an angry Malik demanded of the scholar, who had accused her of insulting Islam.
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? A Pennsylvania judge on Friday approved the appointment of David Unkovic as the receiver for the city of Harrisburg, the state's debt-laden capital, even though Unkovic has had ties to some of the city's largest creditors.
Commonwealth Court Judge James Kelley said Unkovic's experience with the creditors was not a conflict. Unkovic is a long-time public finance expert
"The court is convinced Mr. Unkovic meets the statutory qualifications and that there are no demonstrable conflicts which would prevent Mr. Unkovic from performing his fiduciary duties in the best interests of the City and the Commonwealth," Kelley wrote in his memorandum.
Unkovic will now have 30 days to develop and submit a recovery plan to the Commonwealth Court. Harrisburg is saddled with $317 million debt incurred during expensive renovations of an incinerator.
The appointment of the receiver followed a ruling last week by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge that the city of Harrisburg could not file for bankruptcy to get out its outstanding debt.
Unkovic worked for 27 years at the Saul Ewing law firm, which is representing Assured Guarantee Municipal Corp. in its fight to have Harrisburg pay what it owes on bond finance deals related to the retrofit of the incinerator.
He also worked for three years with the law firm of Cozen O'Connor, where he was bond counsel on behalf of Dauphin County, another major player in the incinerator project. Cozen O'Connor represented the administration of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett in its petition to have Unkovic named as Harrisburg's receiver.
Kelley said he was confident that Unkovic could perform his job as receiver fairly.
"Mr. Unkovic assuaged the court's concerns in relation to possible conflicts regarding payment as receiver and his position as a state employee, possible involvement with all of the city's authorities or stakeholders, financial interest in entities involved either directly or tangentially in these proceedings, as well as financial interests and conflicts remaining from past employment," the judge said.
The emergency action plan submitted last month by the secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development, Alan Walker, is to be implemented by Unkovic.
Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson, who had opposed the bankruptcy filing approved by the City Council, has supported using a modified version of Pennsylvania's Act 47 process for distressed cities.
"I am pleased that any questions about the bankruptcy filing by the city council and the appointment of Unkovic as city receiver have been resolved so that the focus can narrow in the next 30 days to the development of a financial recovery plan that moves the City of Harrisburg to long term fiscal solvency," Thompson said in a statement
Unkovic will remain on the state's payroll with the same $125,008 salary he started with six months ago when he became chief counsel for the Department of Community and Economic Development.
The governor also welcomed the approval. "The administration is pleased that the court moved quickly on this decision putting Harrisburg another step closer to fiscal recovery," Kelli Roberts, a spokesman for Corbett, said in an email.
WASHINGTON ? The White House says the U.S. condemns in the strongest terms the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran.
In a statement, the White House says Iran has a responsibility to protect the diplomatic missions in its country. The U.S. is urging Iran to condemn the incident, prosecute the offenders and ensure that no other incidents occur at either the British Embassy or any other mission in Iran.
Hard-line Iranian students stormed the embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag, burning an embassy vehicle and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the 1979 attack on the U.S. embassy there.
The White House says the State Department is in close contact with the British government.
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