Syrian rebels bombed, opposition open to peacekeepers

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombed rebel-held areas of Damascus on Saturday, residents said, as the opposition indicated it could accept an international peacekeeping force if President Bashar al-Assad is forced from power.

Warplanes attacked the Damascus suburbs of Kafar Souseh and Darraya, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked group. The air strikes follow intensified rebel activity in the capital, Assad's seat of power, as well as stormings of government military bases in recent weeks.

"Syrian regular forces are trying to control the areas surrounding the capital," the Observatory said. Bombings targeted a continuous arc of rebel presence in the capital's outer districts from the northeast to the southwest.

Opposition activists reported clashes and air strikes in the provinces of Homs, Deir al-Zor, Idlib and in Aleppo, where they said 14 rebel fighters were killed during an assault on an army base in the town of Khanasser early on Saturday.

It is difficult to verify such reports due to government restrictions on media access to Syria.

Syria's Internet connections began working again on Saturday after a two-day blackout, the worst communications outage in the 20-month-old uprising against Assad in which 40,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee the country.

Opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Coalition might allow an international peacekeeping force into Syria if Assad and his allies leave power, coalition spokesman Walid al-Bunni said on Saturday.

Some opposition members have argued against international troops, saying their arrival could serve as a rallying call for Assad loyalists in an area near the Mediterranean where many of his minority Alawite sect live.

Assad, whose family has ruled autocratically for four decades, draws much of his support from the sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Most of the rebels are Sunni Muslims.

Bunni said the coalition was open to any proposal if Assad and his allies, including top officers in the military and security apparatus, were removed.

"If this is the first condition then we can start discussing everything. There will be no political process until the ruling family and all those who underpin the regime leave," he said.

Bunni, a physician who spent most of the period after Assad inherited power from his father in 2000 in jail as a political prisoner, was speaking at a news conference marking the conclusion of the first full meeting of the opposition coalition in Cairo.

"IRON AND BLOOD"

Britain, France and Gulf countries have recognised the Syrian National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

Most foreign powers have condemned Assad, who has relied on his allies to stay afloat, especially regional powerhouse Iran. Russia, Syria's main arms supplier, and China have vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Assad and reject the idea of sanctioning his government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western states on Saturday of trying to advance democracy abroad through "iron and blood."

"Advancing democracy through iron and blood just does not work, and this has been made clear in recent months - the past year-and-a-half," Lavrov said, according to state-run news agency Itar-Tass.

Russia repeated its opposition on Friday to NATO's potential deployment of Patriot missiles in Turkey, which wants them because of fears of a spillover from the war in Syria.

Syrian state television quoted an information ministry statement saying Damascus international airport was open on Saturday and that the road leading to it was safe.

Since Thursday, clashes have been reported near the Aqraba and Babilla districts on the southeastern outskirts of Damascus which lead to the airport, effectively closing the road and leading EgyptAir and Emirates to suspend flights.

U.S. web tracking firm Renesys said in a blog post that it could confirm "a largely complete restoration of the Syrian Internet".

Rights groups said the communications blackout was a precursor to a wider offensive by government forces in the capital. Syrian security sources and diplomats say the government intends to seal off central Damascus from the restive suburbs.

Authorities had attributed the Internet outage to a "terrorist" attack or a technical fault. On Saturday, state news agency SANA gave a third reason for the outage: "Maintenance work."

Residents contacted by Reuters in the capital, the central city of Homs, and northern Aleppo said they had connectivity.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Cairo; Editing by Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-bombed-opposition-open-peacekeepers-000152898.html

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HBT: Royals' Powerball connection only a coincidence

UPDATE: Darn it, too good to be true. Sam Mellinger has tweeted the winning ticket and it appears as though the numbers were a ?quick pick,? meaning they were automatically generated (note the ?QP? after the number). ?Oh well. I guess it always was strange to think that a fan liked Mark Gubicza more than Brett Saberhagen.

10:30 AM: Not gonna lie. I bought a lottery ticket before that $580 million drawing the other day. This despite the fact that I am fully aware of the folly of doing so and the odds against winning. My reasoning is, at least when the jackpots get huge, that a few minutes of lottery fantasies are worth a buck or two. I?m not planning my life around winning a lottery and I don?t buy tickets that often, but it can be fun.

My problem, though, is that I don?t go all-in. I am aware of the randomness of it all, so I don?t pick my own numbers, I don?t believe any certain numbers have magic of?significance?to them and I don?t believe that any amount of?superstition will help me win. ?In light of this, however, I probably should re-think that approach:

One of the two?Power Ball winners is from Dearborn, Missouri, about 30 minutes North of the Kansas City Metro area. The winning numbers? 5 (George Brett),?16 (Bo Jackson),?22 (Dennis Leonard), 23 (Mark Gubicza), 29 (Dan Quisenberry), and the power ball of 6 (Willie Wilson).

After taxes and discounting for present value the winner likely does not have enough money to buy the Royals himself. But I bet he?ll find a way to spend his millions more effectively than David Glass spends his.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/30/the-powerball-winner-won-by-picking-his-favorite-kansas-city-royals-players-numbers/

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These are the 25 rarest Xbox 360 achievements ? Video Games ...

Logo for Xbox Live Rewards

After going through the 25 rarest PSN trophies, we here at Geek.com wanted to do the same for the Xbox 360. The problem, however, was getting our hands on that data. Fortunately, gaming site Giant Bomb lets readers link their Xbox 360 gamertags (as well as PSN and Steam accounts), and the people that run it were nice enough help us compile a list of the rarest Xbox 360 achievements in their database.

Of course, Giant Bomb?s info only represents the registered users who have linked their Xbox Live accounts, but that?s a pretty good sample size to work with. Here?s what we found?

(Note: As before, the rarity of these achievements is relative. That is to say that it?s based on the number of unlocks vs. the number of players for each game.)

  1. Pinball FX2 ? Ancient Martian Map ? Get the ancient Martian map by completing the Final Mission on Mars! (Single player only.) ? unlocks: 1
  2. Pinball FX2 ? Medallion of Power ? Beat all of the villains including the final boss on Ghost Rider (Single player only) ? unlocks: 1
  3. Pinball FX2 ? Stars and Stripes ? Defeat the Red Skull in the Final Clash mission series on Captain America (Single player only). ? unlocks: 1
  4. Pinball FX2 ? Defeat Ultimo ? Eliminate Ultimo on the Iron Man table! (Single player only.) ? unlocks: 1
  5. Pinball FX2 ? Bring Magneto To His Knees ? Spell out X-MEN and finally conquer Magneto on X-Men. (Single player only.) ? unlocks: 1
  6. Max Payne 3 ? Old School Moves ? Perform a 720 spin while prone in Nightclub. ? unlocks: 1
  7. Max Payne 3 ? WMD ? Get 3 kills from a single use of the level 3 explosives burst ? unlocks: 1
  8. Pinball FX2 ? Power Cosmic ? Complete all the main missions and save the Earth on Fantastic Four. (Single player only) ? unlocks: 2
  9. Pinball FX2 ? 3-Ball Wizard ? Defeat Magneto during Final Clash or destroy 2 Sentinels on X-Men. (Single player only.) ? unlocks: 2
  10. Pinball FX2 ? Story teller ? All tales have been completed on the Pasha table. ? unlocks: 3
  11. Pinball FX2 ? Lunar Eclipse ? Survive the Lunar Eclipse and defeat Seth on Moon Knight (single-player only). ? unlocks: 3
  12. Mutant Storm Reloaded ? Black Belt Grandmaster ? Complete all 89 levels in Adventure Mode on Black Belt starting from level 1. ? unlocks: 2
  13. Novadrome ? Dominion ? Finish SuperNova mode ? unlocks: 2
  14. Smash TV ? Game Master ? Finish the entire game without continuing while using default settings ? unlocks: 4
  15. Max Payne 3 ? Early Adopter ? In a single game, kill the same player with both the M24 and the IA2 AR ? unlocks: 3
  16. Cyberball 2072 ? Super Breaker ? Complete all 10 pages in Game Breakers. ? unlocks: 1
  17. Far Cry 2 ? Soldier of Misfortune ? Unlocked field manuals for all weapons (Ranked match) ? unlocks: 8
  18. EXIT ? Legendary Escape Artist ? Reached a score of 22,000 or more by the end of Situation 22. ? unlocks: 2
  19. Pinball FX ? Professional ? A valuable reward for your indispensable services, directly from the President. ? unlocks: 4
  20. Pinball FX ? Mr. Falcon ? Mr. Falcon is the eagle-eyed professional at the top of the Xtreme wasteland?s pecking order. ? unlocks: 4
  21. NBA 2K12 ? The Whole Shebang ? Earn every achievement in NBA 2K12. ? unlocks: 1
  22. Kameo: Elements of Power ? Water Time Attack ?A? ? ?A? rank on Time Attack (Water Temple) ? unlocks: 7
  23. Kameo: Elements of Power ? Snow Time Attack ?A? ? ?A? rank on Time Attack (Snow Temple) ? unlocks: 7
  24. Kameo: Elements of Power ? Airship Time Attack ?A? ? ?A? rank on Time Attack (Thorn?s Airship) ? unlocks: 7
  25. Kameo: Elements of Power ? Pass Time Attack ?A? ? ?A? rank on Time Attack (Thorn?s Pass) ? unlocks: 7

The two best known games on the list are Max Payne 3 and Kameo. MP3 has only been available since May, so there hasn?t been a lot of time for achievement hunters to completely clear it. Kameo was one of the Xbox 360?s launch titles, so it came out when the system?s install base was at its smallest. Buried under years of big releases on the platform, it seems that not many players have gone back to master Kameo?s time attack modes.

As I saw with rarest PSN trophies, pinball makes up a significant portion of the list with 11 achievements, and claims the top 5 spots. Why does that genre continually rank high on these rare achievement lists? One likely factor is that pinball is a rather niche genre, so there are fewer players working towards unlocking the top accolades. Many of the Pinball FX2 achievements on the list are from downloadable tables, making them even less common than the ones in the base game. It?s also worth noting that the Pinball FX series is made by Zen Studios, who also made the Zen Pinball games that dominated the PSN list ? so perhaps that developer simply makes some really tough games.

Several lesser-known Xbox Live Marketplace titles make an appearance on the list: Mutant Storm Reloaded, Novadrome, EXIT, and Cyberball 2072. Since none of them are particularly high profile games, it?s likely that there aren?t many players dedicated enough to unlock their most difficult achievements. Cyberball 2072, a port of the 1989 arcade title, was delisted from Xbox Live in 2010, so its player base is especially limited. Achievements for Smash TV and NBA 2K12 appear to have sneaked into the top 25 by being glitched (a quick Google search for either returns posts from many frustrated gamers), and thus have only been unlocked by players who either got very lucky or did some hacking.

Huge thanks to the fine people at Giant Bomb!

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/these-are-the-25-rarest-xbox-360-achievements-20121130/

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UK SAS sniper walks free after gun sentence suspended

LONDON (Reuters) - A British elite special forces sniper, whose 18-month jail sentence for possessing a pistol had caused public outrage, walked free on Thursday after winning a legal appeal.

SAS Sergeant Danny Nightingale, 37, had admitted illegal possession of a Glock 9 mm pistol and ammunition at a court martial earlier this month.

But he maintained he was given the gun as a present in Iraq and, because of a brain injury, forgot about it.

An appeal against the sentence, led by his wife Sally, had attracted over 100,000 signatures and was backed by several newspapers and Prime Minister David Cameron.

"Thank you to the great British public," Sergeant Nightingale told reporters outside the Royal Courts of Justice after his release. "It's been an extremely humbling experience."

His tearful wife Sally added she had not dared "dream this would be the outcome."

"We got justice today," she said.

Lord Igor Judge ruled that while Nightingale had been found guilty of very serious offences, he was satisfied the special circumstances surrounding his military and medical history called for a lesser sentence.

His court martial was told the gun had been packed up and returned to Nightingale by colleagues after he had to leave Iraq in a hurry for the funeral of two friends killed in action, the Press Association reported.

The Court of Appeal heard how Nightingale had served in extremely testing conditions in Iraq, fighting the enemy every night and losing several colleagues in combat.

During his time in the SAS, he also put his medical and explosives training to good effect by pioneering a new field dressing based on an adhesive used to stick explosives to surfaces.

"He has, in my opinion, saved many lives," his former commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams, said in court.

The Appeal Court judges ruled Nightingale's sentence should be cut from 18 to 12 months and suspended. His conviction has not been not quashed, but his wife Sally said they intend to "fight it all the way."

(Reporting by Peter Schwartzstein; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-sas-sniper-walks-free-gun-sentence-suspended-194930320.html

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Cash Paid Surveys Finding the Finest Companies | Blog4.RapiChat ...

Posted by CortinasSkeen999 on November 30, 2012 in Business Products & Services |

Cash paid surveys are fun and have turn into a source for extra cash for lots of folks nowadays. It is a hassle-free and effortless way to earn added income with not a lot of function, in the comfort of your own property. Sounds challenging to believe to some, but it is true.

If you are seeking for such an income generator, then prepare your self just before taking the plunge.

Simple Methods to Finding Setup with Cash Paid Surveys

1st, choose a handful of internet sites that offer you cash paid surveys and read cautiously what they are offering you. Some websites will offer you you direct access to the marketing and advertising businesses who process the surveys. In this case you will have to browse the database and apply for the surveys you are interested in, other websites act as the middle man ? thy have agreements with large marketing businesses from which they receive the surveys and then distribute them by way of their registered users. In this case, you will have to passively wait for surveys to full.

Also, bear in thoughts that not all paid surveys are truly cash paid surveys Some surveys do not offer cash as a reward for completing them. Rather, you may possibly acquire a totally free product or a service discounts at certain merchants, vouchers or coupons, free of charge trials, etc. there are even surveys that allow you to join a competition upon their completion. If you are not actually after these kinds of remunerations, it?s greater to make this choice oneself in advance to stay away from disappointment later.

An additional critical thing to take into account is how you will get the cash and who is paying. If you have joined a mediator sort of site, you are generally paid by that site, not the a single you are performing the finish survey for. If you have joined a database of businesses in search of survey participants you are most likely to be paid by the surveying organization. Regardless of the facts you should be aware of the payment strategy ? are you going to be paid by examine or by bank transfer and so forth.

Double Check Your Details!

Ultimately make positive that your individual specifics will be utilised as stated in the speak to facts you originally submitted. Regrettably, there are several fraud survey internet web sites that would offer you to participate in a cash paid survey, for the sole objective of finding hold of your personal details. From there, your particulars can later be sold to several other organizations and you might finish up receiving hundreds of unsolicited mail and SPAM emails. Make sure you investigate the company in which you are going to participate with. Do a browser search on your laptop or computer and see if any critiques appear in your search.

Don?t forget if you get with the correct organizations, money paid surveys can be entertaining and simple. If you would like a lot more reviews and tips examine out my hyperlinks below.

Really feel no cost to pay a visit to all some of my sites Cash Paid Surveys and Get Paid For Surveys

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Tags: cash, database, paid surveys, sger, surveys

Source: http://blog4.rapichat.com/cash-paid-surveys-finding-the-finest-companies/

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Electrician facing foreclosure collects $1M Powerball prize

Hoosier Lottery

Larry Chandler, 34, was one of the first people through the door at the Indiana lottery headquarters Thursday morning.

By Michelle Relerford and Marcus Riley, NBCChicago.com

A Powerball winner has 180 days to pick up their prize, but a Highland, Ind., man didn't bother to waste a single day after winning $1 million in Wednesday's Powerball.

Larry Chandler, 34, was one of the first people through the door at the Indianapolis lottery headquarters Thursday morning after discovering he was one of the big winners in the $587.5 million drawing.

But the union electrician says he'll be back at work on Monday -- after he hires a tax adviser and a financial planner.

For more, visit NBCChicago.com

Chandler's girlfriend's daughter tells NBC 5 that he had been living with them because his own home was in foreclosure. His immediate plans for the money include helping out his mom, starting a college fund for his daughter and taking his girlfriend to Red Lobster -- which should buy plenty of cheddar biscuits.

?

Chandler says he played his own numbers and matched every one except the Powerball.

The winning ticket was purchased at the Highland Citgo on Kennedy Avenue.

"It's really great that one of my customers has had good fortune," Citgo employee Keith Barnes said.

A second million-dollar ticket was purchased in Vincennes, IN, but it has yet to be claimed, and two other million-dollar tickets were purchased in Central Illinois.

Two tickets, purchased in Arizona and Missouri, matched all six numbers and the winners will split the more than half a billion-dollar jackpot.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/29/15546230-electrician-facing-foreclosure-collects-1m-powerball-prize?lite

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2012 a Big Year for Real-Estate Agent Activity, According to National ...

Homebuyers who used Realtors, including agents from Waterfront Properties and Club Communities, jumped 20 percent in a decade.

Jupiter, Fla. (PRWEB) November 29, 2012

The National Association of Realtors has tracked the traits of homebuyers and homesellers this year and, in a recent report of its findings, said married couples have captured the largest share of both markets.

The report found those in wedded bliss account for 76 percent of the homeselling market and 65 percent of the homebuying market, with the latter figure is at its highest level since 2001.

Realtors at Waterfront Properties and Club Communities said they have witnessed the market trend in South Florida markets, where many couples take their honeymoons. South Florida ? Palm Beach and Martin counties in particular ? offers desirable oceanfront homes for sale and a year-round calendar of great weather, cultural events and entertainment.

The town of Jupiter and the village of Juno Beach, which are filled with luxury condominiums, including Jupiter by the Sea and Ocean Royale, boast beautiful beaches with offshore reefs perfect for snorkeling, diving and fishing. Boating opportunities abound, including paddling, sailing and annual powerboat races. It?s no wonder newlyweds are buying homes here.

The association report also has statistics on first-timers. The percentage of buyers purchasing homes for the first time stands at 39 percent, while the percentage of first-time sellers is 34 percent.

Other statistics in the report focus on salaries and earnings. The average annual income of homesellers is $95,400. In the south, which includes Waterfront Properties? markets, the average annual income is $100,600.

As for homesellers, their average yearly earnings are $78,600 ($80,400 in the south).

The association also tracked the habits of buyers and sellers looking for a real-estate agent. Here?s what it concluded: Both buyers (40 percent) and sellers (38 percent) predominantly hired Realtors through referrals from their friends and relatives. Buyers hired agents based on their ability to negotiate prices and sales terms, while sellers looked for agents who could close the deal within a targeted timeframe and market their home to potential buyers.

In all, 89 percent of all homebuyers employed real-estate agents in 2012, compared with 69 percent in 2001.

Rob Thomson
Waterfront Properties Club Communities
561.746.7272
Email Information

Source: http://originatortimes.com/national-association-of-realtors/2012-a-big-year-for-real-estate-agent-activity-according-to-national-association/

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Who's tougher: Marlboro Man or Chuck Norris?

With all the information available today on the dangers of smoking cigarettes, why is it still so prevalent? What do you think we are doing wrong?

In my very first C-Force article back in 2010, in discussing the many consumptive threats that hinder a healthy life, smoking was high on my list.

Nicotine is a known super toxin that has no business inside the body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated one in five adults continue to smoke cigarettes in the United States, inhaling carcinogens each time one is lit.

According to a 2010 Surgeon General?s report, about 443,000 American adults die from smoking-related illnesses each year. They literally smoke themselves to death. Despite all the studies and all the warnings, smoking remains the leading preventable contributor to illness and death in the United States.

Anti-smoking efforts have been successful, but it seems only at a point. According to the CDC, between 1965 and 2010, smoking prevalence among adults dropped by more than half, from 42.4 percent to 19.3 percent.

As significant as that may seem, cigarette smoking clearly remains widespread. You would think that the progress in combating the smoking epidemic will continue to show declines, but that does not appear to be the case. Recent years have shown that the number of adult smokers in the United States has barely changed over the past few years. Traditional strategies in combating the problem, from increasing the price to implementing smoke-free policies at work and in public places, as well as restrictions on advertising, may need to be accompanied by new thinking and alternate approaches.

First, we must continue to make every effort to keep cigarettes out of the hands of kids. According to the 2012 Surgeon General?s Report on youth and smoking, the younger someone begins to use tobacco, the more likely they are to be an adult user.

According to the report, if kids stay tobacco free until age 18, most will never start using it. The Kids Health Organization?s (KidsHealth.org) ?Smoking Stinks? campaign is one approach in combating kids smoking, by creating a website where kids and parents can get the tools they need.

Engaging kids in sports is another important and tested approach of which I?ve seen the benefits firsthand in our KICKSTART KIDS (KickStartKids.org) program, which teaches the martial arts to middle school kids in Texas. Smoking is barred in this program.

We also need to continue to support tobacco-free schools and to insist that health programs include the latest in tobacco-use prevention education.

Most importantly, we need to continue to make every effort to eliminate smoking in the home. Research shows that the children of smokers are more likely to be smokers themselves. That means focusing on the nearly 20 percent of Americans who continue to smoke, many of them parents, who may want to quit.

According to the CDC, nearly two out of three adult smokers want to quit smoking, and more than half of them tried to quit the previous year. Maybe we need to focus more on those folks ? on new approaches to helping them get over the hump. Instead of bombarding smokers with information on the dangers, maybe it?s time for more reinforcement of the positives of stopping.

Quitting smoking has immediate benefits to health at any age. A new Health Forecasting Tool developed by UCLA has found that as of the year 2004, 9 percent of the total increase in life expectancy for women and 14 percent for men can be attributed to a reduction in smoking. It also shows that reductions in smoking may yield an average 3.4-year increase in life expectancy. A recent study of a million British women reported in The Lancet, a leading medical journal, found that women who quit smoking before age 40 may live 10 years longer than those who don?t quit.

The timing may also be right. Quitting smoking is consistently among the top five ?New Year?s resolutions.?

But quitting for most is not that easy. According to WhyQuit.com, one of the Internet?s first forums on the science and psychology of cold turkey nicotine cessation, the body needs up to 72 hours to reach peak withdrawal. But the chemical dependency, as with other addictions, infects almost every aspect of a smoker?s life and thinking.

?Treating a true addiction as though it were some nasty little habit is a recipe for relapse,? the website cautions. ?There is no such thing as just one puff. Nicotine dependency recovery truly is an all-or-nothing proposition.?

Rather than cold turkey, others prefer to use nicotine replacement therapy or other proven quit-smoking aids to get there. Regardless of the approach, we should not be daunted should a smoker in our lives fail. It has been reported that, on average, it can take even a smoker who truly wants to quit about four attempts before they find success.

According to a 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, smoking-related illness in the United States costs $96 billion each year in medical costs and $97 billion in lost productivity due to premature mortality. The human toll on survivors and caregivers of individuals affected by tobacco-related illness remains incalculable. It is a preventable health problem. We cannot afford to not solve it.

Write to Chuck Norris with your questions about health and fitness. Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook?s ?Official Chuck Norris Page.? He blogs at ChuckNorrisNews.blogspot.com.

Source: http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/whos-tougher-marlboro-man-or-chuck-norris/

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