One of the biggest winners in the sweeping Democratic victories in Senate races this month was a woman whose name appeared on no ballot: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
With a low-key style that contrasts with some of the Senate’s camera hogs, Murray may be the most powerful senator a whole lot of people have never heard of outside of the two Washingtons where she lives and works.
SINGAPORE: A small local coffee academy and a giant beer brand may be seen to be unlikely partners but such a partnership is brewing ways to help disadvantaged women here in Singapore.
Nineteen-year-old Shirley Ng is training to be a professional barista at Bettr Barista Coffee Academy.
The teenage mother of two did not finish her secondary education.
Besides learning how to make a great cup of coffee, she will also have sessions with a clinical psychologist and self defence and yoga classes.
Bettr Barista's founder Pamela Chng estimates that the company has to fork out about S$3,000 to S$4,000 for each participant who joins the 12-week long programme at no charge.
Funds come from profits which the social enterprise makes by running courses and selling coffee beans and equipment.
Ms Chng said: "We have developed into a first world nation, and we are really talking about issues like how to care for society, and the people around us and the environment and how to make Singapore a better place to live in. I think social enterprise has a role to play in that, working with government, working with private sector, working with the public to really use business as a tool to solve a social problem."
Ms Chng observed that obstacles such lack of childcare and transport are keeping single mothers or low income women from taking advantage of upgrading opportunities.
That is where bigger companies like Guinness can come in.
The global beer brand will be hosting a hackathon - a mega-brainstorming session where about 200 volunteers contribute their professional expertise and ideas to help social enterprises overcome their challenges.
The Arthur Guinness Fund Hackathon will be held on December 7 to 9 with a specific focus on helping single mothers and ex-offenders.
Newton Circus' chief executive officer and organiser of Hackathon, Daryl Arnold, said: "You can imagine how we can create a web portal for example, that would enable people to plan and volunteer time where they can provide childcare support within the local community, (or we can create) a mobile app to find somebody who might be travelling in that direction which our single mums can hitch a ride to reduce the cost of their transportation."
S$60,000 has been set aside to help viable ideas tossed up during the hackathon materialise.
Rene de Monchy, who is head of marketing at Asia Pacific Breweries, said: "We felt that the time was really right to introduce it to Singapore. Social entrepreneurship is becoming much more understood."
Bettr Barista hopes to increase the number of disadvantaged women it helps from 11 to 30 a year.
- CNA/fa
In a letter to BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Jethmalani said: "BJP is wrong in questioning the appointment of CBI director."
Earlier, leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had on Friday written letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that appointment of the new CBI director should not have been done when the Rajya Sabha Select Committee had recommended that such appointments should be done through a collegium.
However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected BJP's demand to hold the appointment of Sinha as CBI chief.
Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.
Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")
Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.
Staring at a Star
An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)
"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.
It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.
Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.
"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.
If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.
Coming Into Focus
The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.
"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.
"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.
Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.
Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.
The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.
Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)
And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.
The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.
A natural gas explosion in one of New England's biggest cities on Friday leveled a strip club with a boom heard for miles and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings but didn't kill anyone, authorities said.
Firefighters, police officers and gas company workers in the area because of an earlier gas leak and odor report were among the 18 people injured in the blast, authorities said.
"This is a miracle on Worthington Street that no one was killed," Lt. Gov. Tim Murray said at a press conference.
The explosion in Springfield, 90 miles west of Boston, blew out all windows in a three-block radius, leaving three buildings irreparably damaged and prompting emergency workers to evacuate a six-story apartment building that was buckling, police said.
Police Sgt. John Delaney marveled at the destruction at the blast's epicenter, where a multistory building housing a Scores Gentleman's Club, evacuated earlier because of the gas leak, was leveled.
"It looks like there was a missile strike here," he said.
The victims were taken to two hospitals in the city. None of their injuries was considered life-threatening, officials said. Those hurt were nine firefighters, two police officers, four Columbia Gas of Massachusetts workers, two civilians and another city employee.
Don Treeger, Springfield Republican/AP Photo
Firefighters responded to the scene at 4:20 p.m. and were investigating the gas leak when the blast happened about one hour later. The cause of the explosion hadn't been identified but was under investigation, they said.
Springfield, which has about 150,000 residents, is the largest city in western Massachusetts. It's known as the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, which is not in the vicinity of the blast.
The city has been rebuilding from damage it sustained in a June 2011 tornado.
The explosion happened in an area of downtown Springfield with commercial properties and residences. Area resident Wayne Davis, who lives about a block away from the destroyed strip club building, said he felt his apartment shake.
"I was laying down in bed, and I started feeling the building shaking and creaking," he said.
The Navy veteran said the boom from the explosion was louder than anything he'd ever heard, including the sound of a jet landing on an aircraft carrier.
The blast was so loud it was heard in several neighboring communities for miles around. Video from WWLP-TV showed the moment of the explosion, with smoke billowing into the air above the neighborhood.
Mayor Domenic Sarno said it was through "God's mercy" that nobody had been reported killed in the explosion.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the individuals that have been injured and the people who have been displaced," he said, adding that emergency shelter was being set up for those unable to go home.
An official of the gas company said there were no signs of any additional gas leaks in the area but crews would be monitoring the area closely over the next two days.
———
Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this story.
Politicians tasked with negotiating a deal next month to avoid the “fiscal cliff” can be thankful that their talks are taking place immediately after a clarifying national election that laid out exactly how the public wants Washington to deal with debt and deficits.
Or not.
BEIJING : China's economic growth can only continue if the country reforms, said its expected next premier and newly-promoted Communist Party number two Li Keqiang, according to state media on Friday.
The ruling party's new leaders - who were installed after a key congress last week and will also assume top government posts in March - took charge in the face of slowing growth, rising popular discontent and calls for reform.
"Reform and opening (are) essential to allowing people to enjoy a better life," the China News Service quoted Li as saying while meeting officials overseeing 11 cities and provinces that are test-beds for reforms.
"If we don't do it, then we won't make mistakes, but will bear historic responsibility," he said on Wednesday, in some of his first remarks since moving up the hierarchy.
Li focused on social and economic - rather than political - development, singling out uneven growth and the rural-urban imbalance as problems, both of which have generated popular resentment.
Strict residency rules needed to be fixed, as did land management and the social service system, he said, without giving specific details.
China's leaders have repeatedly promised reforms.
Li also warned that economic growth was likely to slow from the double digits of past years to around seven per cent annually, but added that it would still be possible to achieve a "moderately prosperous" society by 2020.
Analysts say that as vice premier Li has been at the forefront of efforts to pursue more balanced development, although the record has been mixed.
Some say that with no broad power base, he may have trouble effecting major change in the face of the party's consensus-based leadership, vested interests and provinces bent on growth.
China's incoming leaders also face mounting pressure to tackle official corruption, highlighted by Xi Jinping when he took over as the new party chief last week.
- AFP/ms
Former director general CAG's post and telecommunications, Singh, said that he was made to sign the 2G spectrum audit report by his seniors in CAG, despite disagreeing with it. Singh retired in September 2011.
The government, today, asked BJP leader and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief Murli Manohar Joshi as well as the CAG to clarify their stance on the controversy.
"The issues raised by R P Singh, former DG, P&T, in CAG are very germane. What is extremely important is that in May 2010 when the draft report was prepared the loss was quantified at Rs 2,645 crore but in November 2010 when the report was presented in Parliament this loss jumped to Rs 1.76 lakh crore. How did this leap of faith take place?" information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told reporters.
"Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi should clarify his stance on the controversy over the 2G spectrum losses mentioned in the draft report of the CAG," Manish Tewari said.
Giving twist to the allocation controversy, R P Singh had questioned the CAG's estimates of presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. "After completing the audit of Ministry of Telecom, which was under my direct charge, I prepared a draft audit report covering each and every aspect ... My report did not contain any loss figure," he had said yesterday.
Tewari asked who was responsible for increasing the presumptive loss figures and said this issue should be addressed by the CAG.
"The second question is about propriety. The PAC is supposed to independently exercise oversight over the reports of CAG. If what R P Singh has said is true about the CAG officials actually taking assistance of the PAC in the preparation of its report, does this not amount to a conflict of interest?" Tewari said.
He sought to know if this is a convention or a tradition which has been followed earlier and whether this was done officially or unofficially.
"These are questions that the PAC chairperson, Murli Manohar Joshi, for whom I have the utmost respect, needs to answer," the minister said.
BJP, however, denied these allegations and maintained that it has been proved that government suffered losses in the 2G spectrum allocation and that there was corruption in the deals.
BJP MP and party secretary Balbir Punj, said, "R P Singh's charges are meaningless. Two facts have been established in the 2G spectrum case. One that there was a huge loss to the government and secondly there was corruption in the allocations. Had there been no loss the licenses would not have been cancelled and A Raja would not have gone to jail."
NCP leader D P Tripathi maintained that constitutional bodies like the CAG should not be brought into a controversy. "If what R P Singh has said is true then the losses pointed out by CAG are too high."
Allegations by former auditor to malign CAG, PAC: Joshi
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi dismissed allegations by former auditor R P Singh that he tried to influence the outcome of the 2G report as an attempt to malign the institutions of CAG and PAC.
"R P Singh's allegations on 2G report are an attempt to malign Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and PAC by vested interests including the government," Joshi told reporters here.
Joshi said Singh had never raised the issue when he had appeared before PAC to explain the loss to the exchequer caused by the 2G spectrum allocation.
"I wonder why he is speaking today," he said.
"Singh had made a similar statement after his retirement. But when we questioned him he denied giving any interview. He was questioned on the issue by the Joint Parliamentary Committee as well but he failed to prove anything," Joshi said.
Joshi said it was impossible for the report to be written under pressure and Singh himself had written it.
On his fresh allegations, he said the former CAG officer has also not furnished any document to prove his claims.
"It (Singh's allegations) is an attempt by the government to cover up corruption by defaming these institutions (PAC and CAG) which are watchdogs of misappropriation of funds. It is part of that campaign," he said.
Joshi termed as "baseless" Singh's claims that CAG officials had met him at his residence on a gazetted holiday to help him prepare PAC's report on 2G spectrum allocation.
Asked about Congress demand for a probe into the allegations, the BJP leader said, "Congress can demand any absurd thing. It is their last attempt to cover up their misdeeds."
Law minister questions integrity of govt auditor
Law minister Ashwani Kumar questioned the integrity of the government auditor and demanded that truth behind the CAG's presumptive loss estimate of Rs 1.76 lakh crore be made public.
"Certainly some of the findings of the CAG have now become very doubtful. People are entitled to know what is the truth that has now come out," Kumar told reporters outside Parliament House.
The Law minister said, "I think the conversation between the chairman of PAC and CAG without knowledge of other members of the PAC should be made public" and added there is "need to preserve the integrity" of Constitutional institutions like CAG.
The CAG report, which was tabled in Parliament in November 2010, had pegged the revenue loss to the exchequer on account of allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008 at 1.76 lakh crore raising a political storm.
The controversy over 2G spectrum allocation also led to cancellation to 122 licences by the Supreme Court.
RP Singh pawn in the hands of Govt: BJP
BJP today accused former CAG official R P Singh, who has questioned estimates of 2G allocation losses, of being a "pawn" in the hands of the government and termed his charges as part of a "sinister conspiracy".
"This public comment by retired CAG officer R P Singh is a very sinister conspiracy. He is a pawn in the hands of Congress and government to defame the CAG," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters outside Parliament.
"He kept quiet for the whole one year. He presented the report on 2G before JPC, does not say anything. He appeared before PAC does not say anything," Prasad said.
About the allegation that the CAG official meeting PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi at the latter's residence, BJP leader said, "Meeting between the PAC chairman and CAG officer is a routine thing because they report to the PAC."
Attacking the government, Prasad said, "It is part of the pattern by the government. Their ministers have been attacking CAG and now this a fresh one. We completely condemn this. It is unfortunate and regrettable."
Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.
Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")
Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.
Staring at a Star
An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)
"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.
It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.
Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.
"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.
If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.
Coming Into Focus
The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.
"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.
"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.
Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.
Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.
The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.
Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)
And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.
The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.
With earlier-than-ever deals and 147 million people expected to hit the stores this holiday weekend, retailers such as Best Buy are taking extra steps to avoid the Black Friday shopper chaos -- and inevitable news stories -- of the past.
Best Buy officials said they've been prepping for the madness for days.
The retailer has created color-coded maps, moved merchandise around to ease congestion and held a dry run so that its employees can get practice.
"[We want to] get people in safely and out safely," said Jay Buchanan, a Best Buy employee. The goal is to get them "through the lines quick, fast and in a hurry so they can get what they need."
In Bloomington, Minn., the Mall of America extended its ban on young people younger than 16 shopping without an adult during the weekend evenings to Black Friday.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images
At the Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., security planned to place barricades at the mall entrance to control the crowds and officials planned to double the number of security officers.
In Los Angeles, the police were putting hundreds of extra officers on foot, on horseback and in the air to monitor shopping crowds.
"It seems like Black Friday's become bigger and bigger as the years have gone by," said Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith. "What we've seen across the country are huge problems with crowds. They just forget about everyday courtesy and sometimes go nuts."
According to today's news reports, though, things were already getting out of hand.
When a south Sacramento, Calif., K-Mart opened its doors at 6 a.m. today, a shopper in a line of people that had formed nearly two hours earlier reportedly threatened to stab the people around him.
And at two K-Marts in Indianapolis, police officers were called in after fights broke out among shoppers trying to score vouchers for a 32-inch plasma TV going for less than $200.
"When you have large crowds of people, control is the most important thing," Steve Reed, a security officer at the Arden Fair Mall, told ABC News affiliate News 10. "You want them [customers] to be able to get in the mall without getting trampled and having issues of any kind happening to them. That's really important for us."
Copyright © News pecuniary. All rights reserved.
Design 
And Business Directories
