Greece, protesting workers barricading theAcropolis .. [ 1877 ]

Riot police, protesters clash at Acropolis,

Published October 14, 2010

| Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece –  Riot police clashed with protesting workers barricading the ancient Acropolis on Thursday, using tear gas to clear the entrance to Greece's most famous ancient site.

Up to 100 Culture Ministry workers had shut down the Acropolis on Wednesday morning, complaining they were owed up to 22 months' worth of back pay. The protesters barricaded themselves inside, padlocked the entrance gates and refused to allow any tourists in until their demands were met.

Police in riot gear arrived Thursday morning after a court order said the protesters were hindering access to an ancient site and its 2,500-year-old marble temples.

"Riot police and violence won't break the strike," the protesters chanted, clinging to the entrance gates.

But police used a side entrance to break into the site, then used pepper spray to clear the protesters and journalists covering the standoff from the main gate. At least one protester was led away in handcuffs to a waiting police bus.

Dozens of bemused tourists who had arrived early Thursday morning to visit the ancient site looked on as the standoff unfolded, occasionally snapping pictures of the riot police.

"We know the workers have a right to protest, but it is not fair that people who come from all over the world to see the Acropolis should be prevented from getting in," said Spanish tourist Ainhoa Garcia shortly before the clashes broke out.

Greece is in the midst of a tough austerity program which has cut public workers' salaries and trimmed pensions in an effort to pull the country out of a severe debt crisis. The austerity plan has led to a series of strikes and demonstrations as workers' unions protest the cutbacks.

Guards and workers at archaeological sites have long been complaining they are owed months of back pay, and have shut down the Acropolis before in protest, though usually only for a few hours at a time.

But authorities often are sensitive to protests at the emblematic ancient site, particularly as the country largely relies on tourism for revenue.

And visitors who have traveled from far-flung countries were unimpressed by the protest.

"We think this is a shame. We will not recommend that people come to Greece," said Veronica Traverso, a tourist from Argentina standing with a friend outside the padlocked gates. "We are not to blame for Greece's troubles."

Traverso said she had only two days to spend in Athens and was due to leave the city in a couple of hours — her hopes of visiting the Acropolis dashed.

Astronomers probe 'peculiar' object..[ 1876 ]

High-speed asteroid pile-up prompts X-File

By Lester Haines

Posted in Space, 14th October 2010 10:30 GMT

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the aftermath of just what happens when two asteroids collide at 11,000 mph (17,702 km/h), prompting an explosion "as powerful as the detonation of a small atomic bomb".

The result is a "peculiar" object - dubbed P/2010 A2 - which boasts a comet-like debris trail behind a mysterious X-shaped formation.

The asteroid belt pile-up happened in early 2009, according to NASA, but it wasn't until January this year that the Lincoln Near-Earth Research (LINEAR) Program Sky Survey spotted the tail.

Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 observations indicate a surviving 400-foot-wide (122m-wide) object, which was hit by a smaller body, "perhaps 10 to 15 feet wide" (3 to 4m). The latter was vapourised in the blast, and its remains and material thrown off from the former were swept into a tail by solar radiation.

Astronomers are keen to find out just how much dust such high-speed encounters eject into interplanetary space, and while they reckon that "modest-sized asteroids smash into each other about once a year", they're difficult to spot.

But P/2010 A2 doesn't conform to the scientists' predictions. David Jewitt, of the University of California in Los Angeles, said: "We expected the debris field to expand dramatically, like shrapnel flying from a hand grenade. But what happened was quite the opposite. We found that the object is expanding very, very slowly."

The X shape, meanwhile, has the boffins stumped. NASA says: "The crisscrossed filaments at the head of the tail suggest that the colliding asteroids were not perfectly symmetrical. Material ejected from the impact, therefore, did not make a symmetrical pattern, a bit like the ragged splash made by throwing a rock into a lake. Larger particles in the X disperse very slowly and give this structure its longevity."

Jewitt and colleagues plan to turn Hubble's attention back to P/2010 A2 next year, in order to "see how far the dust has been swept back by the sun's radiation and how the mysterious X-shaped structure has evolved".

Sentenced for assaulting police officer..[ 1875 ]

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Company director sentenced for assaulting police officer in Commons punch-up

Standard co. uk.,14.10.10 

 

 

Assaulted: Pc Christopher Leggett received a 'tirade of verbal abuse'

A company director will be sentenced today after being found guilty of punching a policeman in the face yards from the House of Commons Speaker's seat.

Ian Thomas, 41, was stopped by Pc Christopher Leggett in a corridor as he tried to leave a drinks party hosted by Conservative MP Eric Pickles.
After being told he was not authorised to be in that area, Thomas launched into a "tirade of verbal abuse" against the police officer before hitting him, causing his lip to bleed.

Thomas, of Colchester, Essex, denied assault causing actual bodily harm but a jury at Southwark Crown Court, London, found him guilty by a majority of 11 to one last month.
Thomas, who runs educational publishing company Sugar Media, decided to leave the drinks reception when his partner contacted him to say he was locked out of their flat.

The jury of seven men and five women was told he objected to being informed that he needed to be escorted out of the building under the terms of his visitor pass.
Prosecutor Martin Pinfold said Thomas appeared "intent on compromising the security of the House of Commons" on the eve of last year's G20 conference of world leaders in London.

He was abusive and aggressive before assaulting Pc Leggett at about 9pm on March 30 last year.
Thomas, who said he had drunk two-and-a-half glasses of wine during the hour he stayed at the party, had claimed he acted in self defence after CS gas was sprayed in his face.
He told the court the gas rendered him temporarily blind and that he had not realised he had hit the policeman.
Pc Leggett needed hospital treatment for the cut to his lip. Thomas had bite marks on his finger from where he made contact with the officer's mouth, the three-day trial was told.

Ahead of today's sentencing at Southwark Crown Court, the judge warned Thomas he could be jailed.
Recorder Martin Heslop QC told him: "The court is not holding out any promises by adjourning this case.
"The fact I am allowing you to have bail does not mean I am not considering other matters, which may involve an immediate custodial sentence. I want you to appreciate that."

The judge said he agreed with the jury's verdict: "The evidence, in my view, was absolutely overwhelming."
He asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared and said he would take Thomas's financial circumstances into consideration when deciding on a suitable sentence.
He added: "I am also considering a substantial compensation order in favour of Pc Leggett."

California's Silicon Valley in Russia ..[ 1874 ]

Russian President, California Governor Look for High-Tech Trade

Photo: AP 

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, front left, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attend a round table discussion for U.S. and Russian investors and computer experts in the Skolkovo Moscow school of management in Moscow, 11 Oct 2010

Voice of America // Jessica Golloher | 
Moscow 13 October 2010-AP

California's governor and prospective investors from Silicon Valley are in Russia looking for business opportunities.

"I have to say that I love places where there is an extraordinary potential and I think when I look at Russia I think the potential for growth and for, I mean really blowing this thing up, the economy, is just so extraordinary," said Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I mean there are so many opportunities here in Russia, that you just look at this and say, 'Oh my God.'

With that, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his intent to get American businesses to invest in Russia's information technology sector.

Schwarzenegger was in the former Soviet Union as a return gesture to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to the Silicon Valley earlier this year. During Mr. Medvedev's visit, he appealed for technical capital and American know-how.

Schwarzenegger led a delegation with representatives from high-tech companies, including the likes of Google, Oracle and Microsoft to Moscow. In discussions with Russia's president, Schwarzenegger talked about the importance of American's setting up shop in the Russian Federation.

"We are very happy to help in this process because as said we are the best in the world when it comes to this, I mean when it comes to biotech, to nanotech, high tech, green tech," he said. "You know there is no one like us, but we are not like holding on to our knowledge. What we want to do, we want to spread it around the world."

But political analyst Masha Lipman, with the Carnegie Center, says it is not easy to get started or stay in business in Russia.

"Risks are indeed high. Russia is not a law-governed place. Russia is a place where decisions are taken in a non-transparent fashion," said Lipman. "Russia is a place where businesses may fall out with the government and the government may take measures. Russia is a country in which government decisions are not contested. This of course creates a climate this is not auspicious, that is unpredictable."

American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow President Andrew Sommers agrees with Lipman and attributes some of the difficulties of operating in Russia to a sort of schizophrenia between the government and its attempts at modernization.

"Russia is trying to develop its own industries so it is not totally dependent on foreign investment, but at the same time exploit foreign investment and high-tech," he said.

President Medvedev has said several times this year that modernization and foreign expertise is important to the Russian economy. Mr. Medvedev promises Russia is committed to joining forces with the United States.

He says, he would like to say once again that Russia is very much interested in America's immense experience, and that Russia is not shy of learning. He says Russia must admit that in many spheres Moscow is behind Washington, and he hopes very much that the co-operation will bear fruit.

part of Mr. Medvedev's modernization plans, a new technology center on the outskirts of Moscow was created earlier this year. The facility, in Skolkovo, has been nicknamed Russia's Silicon Valley.

In addition to creating Skolkovo, Russia has also given $10 billion to innovation investment fund Rusnaro. The fund is run by a group that is financing nearly 100 high-tech products in partnership with the former Soviet Union and foreign firms.

Meanwhile, the U.S. group Cisco, says it will invest $1 billion in Russia during the next decade.

The Gender Wage Gap..[ 1873 ]

The Gender Wage Gap, Around the World

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

In honor of International Women’s Day, which was Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Factblog has been dissecting data on women’s role in the world.

Wages was one item examined. The chart below shows the percentage difference between the typical earnings of a  full-time male worker and his female counterpart:

 

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Across industrialized countries, men’s median, full-time earnings were 17.6 percent higher than women’s. 

The biggest gender wage gap was in South Korea and Japan, where men earn wages more than 30 percent higher than women, and was smallest in Belgium, where the gap is 9.3 percent.

In the United States, the typical full-time female worker earns 19 percent less than the typical full-time male worker.