Teens: 'Rioting Vents Our Anger At Authorities'

Teenagers caught in the riots which have spread to towns and cities throughout England have been talking to Sky News about the reasons for the trouble.

They said there is widespread anger and frustration among young people over problems getting work and the rising cost of living.
They also cited the increase in student tuition fees and the attitude of police as major causes of the resentment felt by many.
One young looter in Manchester said it was a chance to get back at police for arresting young people for no reason.
"I've come for the money," he said.
"The police nick you for stupid things. This is our payback. They can't do nothing to us today."
Another told Sky's Mike McCarthy: "People are just taking out their anger (with the authorities).
"It is wrong but they're just trying to make money because they can't get to college and they just think 'Why not make quick money?'.
A third said: "All the Uni loans and all the finances have all gone up so everyone is frustrated.
"No one can see a future now because everything is expensive. Everything like the VAT has gone up and people are just showing their frustration."
When asked if that justified the looting, he replied: "No. To be honest I think everyone is just frustrated.
"Other people, though, are taking advantage to make a profit and just steal stuff.
"We're not here to steal. We're just trying to get home but we can't because the road is blocked."
They spoke as hundreds of youths went on the rampage in Manchester and Salford.
Firebombs were thrown at shops and windows were smashed as looters made off with designer clothes, electrical items, jewellery, mobile phones and alcohol.
Some of those involved in the looting appeared to be as young as nine or 10.
Greater Manchester Police said over 100 people had been arrested in connection with the disorder.
Source http://news.sky.com/

D-Day for Petrovic as Blackburn Rovers make plea to Home Office

By Andy Cryer 
SERBIAN international Radosav Petrovic faces his Blackburn Rovers D-Day today – as Steve Kean looks for the Home Office to give his Premier League preparations a major boost.
Partizan Belgrade’s 22-year-old midfielder has agreed personal terms with Rovers and passed a medical, after the club had a bid in the region of £3million accepted, but his fate is now in the Government’s hands as he waits for work permit clearance.
Boss Kean travelled to London this morning to speak for the energetic midfielder’s case, after he narrowly missed out on the criteria needed to trigger an automatic green light.
To automatically gain a work permit to play in England, players are required to have played in 75 per cent of their country’s matches over the past two years – provided they are ranked in FIFA’s top 70 in the world.
Serbia are comfortably in the top 70, ranked 27th, but Petrovic has not played in 75 per cent of his nation’s matches, despite having appeared 18 times for them since his debut in August 2009.
The 6ft 4ins midfielder was named in Serbia’s 2010 World Cup squad, appearing as a substitute in the win over Germany, and has been named in the squad for this week’s friendly in Moscow against Russia.
Petrovic is now understood to be considered as a key member of Serbia’s squad, which will boost the players chances of being granted a work permit.
Due to international commitments, Petrovic won’t be in attendance at the hearing but Rovers are confident their case is strong enough to be successful.
Kean said: “I will be down in London on Tuesday for that hearing. I think he has got a very good case.
“I have looked over all the notes and I think we have a very good case and hopefully the panel can be lenient that he has just missed out on the number of games needed to be an automatic trigger.”
Petrovic would become Kean’s third signing of the summer, having already added Myles Anderson from Aberdeen and David Goodwillie from Dundee United.
The Rovers boss is still hopeful of adding a new striker, midfielder and defender to the squad before the end of the transfer window as efforts to strengthen continue behind the scenes.
Rovers remain in talks with Greek outfit PAOK over the future of Portuguese winger Vieirinha, with sources close to Venky’s hopeful a deal can be done.

Paul Newman: Green experiment begins to bloom at Brighton's new home

Sometimes there is no justice.

On Saturday Brighton, playing their first competitive match in their new £100m home, fielded a team that included Craig Mackail-Smith, a £2.5m recruit from Peterborough who could eventually cost them £3.25m. Doncaster Rovers, who played much the better football for the first hour, also included their major summer signing, Tommy Spurr, a £200,000 purchase from Sheffield Wednesday.

No prizes for guessing which team left the Amex Community Stadium with their two leading scorers from last season on crutches, bringing to nine the number of first-team players on their injury list. Sean O'Driscoll, Doncaster's manager, was less concerned by his team's 2-1 defeat than by the ankle and knee injuries respectively which saw Billy Sharp and James Hayter leave the field on stretchers.

Money alone cannot bring you success – witness O'Driscoll's magnificent feat in taking Doncaster into the Championship three years ago and keeping them there since – but it sure helps. With his team trailing 1-0, Gus Poyet, the Brighton manager, summoned Will Buckley, another of his recent signings, from the bench. The £1m midfielder from Watford scored twice to end a perfect first day back in the Championship.

Only the most curmudgeonly – as well as some Crystal Palace supporters – would begrudge Brighton fans their current happiness. After leaving the Goldstone Ground in 1997, the Seagulls spent two years commuting 75 miles to ground-share with Gillingham before returning to Brighton to rent the Withdean Stadium, an athletics arena with as much atmosphere as the moon.

The Amex Stadium is a total contrast to what had been home for the last 12 years. Many modern grounds are so characterless they can make your local B&Q store feel like Harrods in comparison, but Brighton's new home, four miles from the city centre, is a fine addition to the football circuit. The 22,500-capacity stadium – they hope to install another 8,000 seats by the start of next season – feels bright and airy thanks to its blue, translucent, curved roofs, but still generates a resounding atmosphere. When Buckley scored the winning goal in the eighth minute of injury time, Poyet said he could never recall Brighton fans making as much noise.

Fittingly for a city with the country's only Green MP, Brighton encourage fans to arrive at the ground in environmentally friendly style. There is secure bicycle parking for those wishing to use new cycle paths from Brighton and Lewes, as well as subsidised bus and rail travel. Falmer train station is just yards from the stadium. No public car parking is available, although supporters can takes buses to the ground from three park-and-ride sites.

The new stadium was made possible by the generosity of the Brighton chairman, Tony Bloom, whose fortune derives from the sale of a betting website he set up as well as his property and finance interests, not to mention his winnings as a poker player. In his last major tournament, the Aussie Millions in Melbourne in January, Bloom won A$975,000 (about £620,000) as runner-up.

It is hard to believe that Bloom the gambler (in poker he is nicknamed The Lizard as he never shows any sign of pressure) would have put so many chips on the table in backing his team, but Brighton are in his blood. His grandfather was a vice-chairman of the club and his uncle has been involved for more than 20 years. Saturday's mascots were Jessie Bloom (aged nine), Katie Bloom (seven) and Sammy Bloom (five).

As for Doncaster, their manager might find some consolation in the weekend's events. Sharp's injury could just divert the interest of the many clubs willing to pay big money for O'Driscoll's most valuable asset.

Best Of The Weekend

Colchester United's 4-2 win at Preston North End Phil Brown's Preston, among the favourites for promotion from League One, were outplayed by a Colchester team bristling with confidence from good pre-season form.

Source  http://www.independent.co.uk/

Making the grade in financial literacy

By Michelle Rupe Eubanks
For the TimesDaily
Trent Cronin, a senior at the University of North Alabama, has made some of the mistakes a lot of college students make when it comes to money.

“When I started college, I had to learn the hard way how to budget my money, and, sometimes, I made mistakes with the amount I had in my account,” he said. “I'm still not an upper-level budget king, but I'm getting there.”
At 21, Cronin uses the lessons he's learned as an employee at The Hill, a branch of Listerhill Credit Union in the Guillot University Center on the UNA campus. Last fall, The Hill opened as a place where students can open accounts, check their finances or ask questions about money management.
Financial literacy is not a new concept, but many banks and financial institutions are hoping to make the idea attractive to 18- to 24-year-olds before they have a chance to make long-term mistakes that could affect their ability to get a mortgage, buy a car or get a job.
“Financial literacy for students is critical,” said Mackey McNeill, a certified public accountant, financial planner and member of the American Institute of CPAs.
If students are not prepared to handle the responsibility that comes with having money, they can fall prey to a number of pitfalls, she said, including debilitating credit card and student loan debt.
One way to avoid that is to begin the process of teaching children about money long before they leave for college, McNeill said.
“Our patterns about money are set before college, so if your kids are savers or spenders, you'll know before then; however, that doesn't mean you can't become better aware of the behavior and make difference choices,” she said. “Early on, get kids acclimated and give them practice.”
It's a lesson Alana Parker, the education and training director at First Metro Bank, puts to use in local schools through the Teach Children to Save program. It's designed for children as young as fourth grade to inspire them save money, a concept Parker admits is not popular among young people.
“Savings isn't where it should be, but it goes with the age group and being more worried about the right now and not their financial future,” she said. “What we want them to understand is that the first 10 years out of high school are the most important because it's when you're looking at buying a home, a new car, starting a new family, merging assets, and, if you've made a mistake in your first year of college because you didn't know about your credit, it's a big deal.”
Gradually, it seems, this age group is becoming more financially astute, McNeill said, helped along by some new federal regulations as well as the Great Recession.
“There have been changes in terms of credit cards and students loans that have been positive for students,” she said. “But the other thing is this Great Recession. Like those in the Great Depression, it left an imprint and changed the way they thought about money their whole lives. This recession has done the same things for these kids. They're permanently impacted by what happened, and I don't think that's a bad thing.”
It's certainly affected the way UNA junior Ian Love feels about money.
A steady income from a local fast food restaurant helps him keep track of his finances and spending, he said.
“It's not a lot, but it keeps me from blowing it all,” he said. “I think (I'm prepared) as far as money coming in and going out and knowing how to make (money) last. As far as adult things like investments and savings for retirement, I don't know much about that.”
Getting that grown-up education often takes a concerted effort on the part of parents and students, said Kristen Van Rensselaer, an economics and finance professor at UNA.
“We offer a personal finance course open to any level of student, and many take it as freshmen,” she said.
At the junior and senior levels of college, Van Rensselaer said students get the nuts and bolts of the financial world, such as how to calculate a car payment with interest, the definition of amortization and how to save for retirement.
Other students come to campus having taken those classes in high school, and that's where the information can be more meaningful, she said.
“Ideally, this would start in the home, and, if not there, in high school,” Van Rensselaer said. “Not all parents will have good financial habits to teach their kids.”
Macke Mauldin, president of Bank Independent, sees the children of his customers grow into bank customers themselves, and, to that end, he said parents, especially those with good financial habits, make the best teachers.
“The minor pitfalls I see come from not keeping up with their transactions, charging things at local stores and not understanding the future ramifications of today's actions,” Mauldin said.
Electronic programs, such as Quicken, as well as those operated through local banks, meet students where they are with their finances, he said.
“Technology like this really helps,” Mauldin said. “You have to go through it to see how it's going to work for you, but many students take full advantage of what's out there on their smartphones.”
Thanks to a personal finance class he took in high school, UNA freshman Mike McGee felt prepared for the financial challenges he'd face in college.
The lessons he learned in banking, credit unions, stocks and mutual funds helped him realize the importance of saving after graduation, he said.
“I'll buy just what I need and save the rest of it,” McGee said. “If there's something I want to buy, I'll save for it instead of getting a loan or a credit card.”
Without that basic financial literacy, Cronin said students miss the point of a college education.
“If you're financially illiterate, you're in for a world of hurt,” he said. “You've gone to school and gotten a degree, but, if you're financially illiterate, it nullifies that degree because you're not equipped to take care of yourself or your family.”
Writer Lucy Berry

Balochistan School Students harvest Poppy to make Money

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Afghanistan, as of March 2010, is the largest illicit opium producer of the world, ahead of Burma, and Pakistan has a clinical role to play in this statistic.

In 2007, Afghanistan produced an extraordinary 8,200 tonnes of opium (34% more than in 2006), becoming practically the exclusive supplier of the world’s deadliest drug (93% of the global opiates market), according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Afghanistan Opium Survey 2007.

Being one of the world’s largest opium and heroin producer, the labour demand needed to cater to this extensive poppy harvesting and cultivation is met in an invariably peculiar way.

Hundreds of school students from Chaman and adjoining tribal regions of Balochistan are engaged by Afghan farmers for poppy cultivation in Afghanistan’s two major heroin-producing provinces of Helmand and Kandahar for the past three months.

These Pakistani school students rush to the Afghan provinces with strongholds of the Taliban, on lucrative money-making projects as soon as their madrassas are closed in the first week of June for the three-month summer holidays.

“It is a source of easy money for school students,” says Saifur Rehman, a local social worker of Ziarat who is well acquainted with many in the poppy harvesting workforce.

“Each student makes around $15 to $20 a day,” Rehman reveals.

“They are being paid in the local Afghani currency which has gained strength against the Pakistani rupee in recent months.

“Most students returned home with $1,500 to $2,000 after the harvesting season last year.” Muslim scholars in Afghanistan remain divided regarding the issue of poppy cultivation and its harvesting in Afghanistan. A majority of these scholars declare poppy production against the Islamic injunctions but a few of them disagree and argue that it was permitted in Islam for medical purposes.

However, all of them remain unanimous that heroin production is forbidden in Islam.

Despite the debates, no serious effort is being undertaken by these scholars to prevent the students from engaging in poppy harvesting in Helmand and Kandahar.

“A few of the workers even fell unconscious during harvesting since they were not properly trained for the job,” Rehman says.

Poppy harvesting became the main source of livelihood for many Afghan and Pakistani families since the fall of the Taliban regime after the US and Nato attacks in September 11, 2001.

A 2007 UN report revealed that leaving aside 19th century China, which had a population at that time 15 times larger than today’s Afghanistan, no other country in the world had ever produced narcotics on such a deadly scale.
Source http://abna.ir/

U.S. economic woes hit home in York County

By LAUREN BOYER
Daily Record/Sunday NewsYork, PA - Sergio Rengifo doesn't follow the stock market.
The 22-year-old York man doesn't care about gross domestic product or the Dow Jones industrial average, which plunged 513 points Thursday, the worst drop since 2008.
He just needs a job.
His girlfriend works two -- at York Hospital and Colonial Manor Nursing Home -- to provide for their 2-year-old son. Three months ago, Rengifo left his job in the kitchen at Olive Garden, hoping to find something better.
Instead, he files seven to 10 job applications daily, working sparse shifts for a local landscaper.
"It's just hard," he said from the parking lot of PA CareerLink York County Friday. "You just have to keep trying."
While the country added 117,000 new jobs in July, a sudden economic downturn this week has some economists fearing the worst -- a double-dip recession, which occurs when the economy turns sour after a quarter or two of positive growth.
Such a phenomena isn't in the cards yet, but it's "doggone close," said Fred Bergdoll, first vice president at the Manchester Township branch of financial firm Janney Montgomery Scott.
"All that news does make everybody nervous," he said. "We have to remember that we've gone through some very difficult times. If you look back over history, we've seen some very very horrific things economically and politically, and we have survived and eventually prospered."
Slumping stocks this week present lucrative buying opportunities for longer-term investors, "anybody that has money that is willing to keep it committed for the next three or more years," he said.
"I think it'll probably be wishy washy this quarter and hopefully we'll end the year stronger," he said.
History, he said, shows the third year of a presidential term as the most positive economy-wise.
But this week's sell-off negated the Dow's remaining gains for 2011, sending U.S. markets spiraling 10 percentage points from highs this spring.
The news comes on the heels of the U.S. government's deal last weekend to raise the nation's borrowing limit, avoiding a default on some $14.294 trillion in federal debt. It wasn't a magic bullet.
"The United States was a debt addict. The first step toward conquering your addiction is to admit to the problem," he said. "I think that's what we did here. But like any recovering addict, the first step doesn't mean a full recovery right away."
Businesses feel the pain
Meanwhile, gold prices hit a record high of $1,681.74 per ounce Thursday as investors sought safe havens for their money.
York-based jeweler The Watchmaker's Daughter notes more customers electing sterling silver for rings, bracelets and necklaces.
"You've just got to change your product," said owner Karen Staub. "We carry a lot more silver things, and handmade, unique pieces that will hopefully get people to come in, because they won't find it anywhere else. You have to find a niche that sets you apart."
Staub said she doesn't raise her prices to keep up with gold rates, which results in a hit to her profit.
A volatile economy leaves small businesses like Staub's hesitating to seek loans for projects, said Michael Kochenour, president and CEO of York Traditions Bank, which has a lending portfolio of $200 million.
Banks pay interest to customers on deposits into their savings accounts. In turn, they make money from those deposits by lending the money and collecting interest on re-payments.
"If, on an extended basis, businesses feel constrained and don't borrow, there's not an opportunity for us to redeploy those deposits that we're gathering," Kochenour said.
Perhaps as volatile as the stock market were gas prices, which dropped 19 cents per gallon Thursday, said Scott Hartman, president and CEO of Rutter's Farm Stores. Friday, those prices went up between 7 and 8 cents per gallon, he said.
"Every day the markets are moving significantly on some piece of news. It makes it very hard to manage a business based on commodities," Hartman said. "Consumers don't like the volatility. The guy who fills up on a Wednesday and sees the price lower on a Thursday is mad. It adds to the business complexity."
A slump, or worse?
In data released Friday, the country's unemployment rate dropped from 9.2 percent in June to 9.1 percent in July.
Unemployment rates, however, are lagging indicators. By the time they are recorded and compiled, the data is about a month out-of-date.
The country must wait until next month to see if current conditions boost unemployment numbers, said William Sholly, industry and business analyst for the state Department of Labor and Industry.
If the economy is headed for double-dip recession, history could repeat itself. A mini-recession from 1980-81 and a deeper one from 1982-83 could compare to what's taking shape today, he said.
During that event, January 1983 boasted a 13.3 percent unemployment rate, the highest on record for the York-Hanover area, he said.
This July, the area's rates increased from 7.3 percent in June to 7.7 percent. But there's no need to panic, yet, Sholly said.
The relationship between Wall Street woes and unemployment numbers aren't as directly correlated as one might think, he said.
"A bad jobs report can affect Wall Street," he said, "but it isn't vice versa."
Stock plunges can occur instantaneously. Businesses don't react as abruptly, relying instead on long-term outlooks. They don't necessarily lay off the masses after one negative week, he said.
Time alone, Bergdoll said, will tell whether this week's slump is just that -- a slump -- or something much worse.
"It certainly has become something to consider," he said. "Our economists do not see a second recession, although it certainly has become much more of a concern."

Turning Transportation Infrastructure into a Publicly Traded Asset

By Alex Marshall
There is really no denying that transportation makes money. Just consider the huge shopping malls perched around interstate off-ramps, the office parks positioned close to airports, the skyscrapers next to subway stations.
But transportation itself is usually a money loser. We pour billions of public dollars into highways, airports and transit systems, while others, the home builders, the department store mavens, make the money that comes slows from those public investments.
Hong Kong's metro system, MTR, has changed this equation, and that is why it's worth looking at.
If you are ever lucky enough to visit Hong Kong, which is Manhattan-like with its narrow streets lined with high rises, you will see that the MTR's services are excellent. You may ride the gleaming new high-speed rail line from the new airport that takes you into the new central rail station. Or one of the nine rail and subway lines, including the special train that goes to Disneyland Hong Kong.
What's amazing about the agency that runs these lines, MTR, is that it actually makes money. So much money that it's listed on the stock exchange, although the government still owns a majority share.
The Hong Kong's metro system has been in the news in the New York city region because the chief of New York City's transit agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, shocked the region by announcing his departure to lead Hong Kong's system for a million-dollar plus annual salary. He left at a particularly bad time, breaking a seven year contract just as the MTA was facing yet another round of funding gaps and necessary cuts.
Given the perennial money-losing nature of most transportation departments, from highways to rail, it bears asking: how does Hong Kong do it?
The answer is that Hong Kong's MTR doesn't let private developers be the only ones that perch next to its stations. It builds its homes, offices and stores. In short, MTR acts as a real estate developer and business company, as well as a train operator. It owns, among other things, 12 shopping malls built around its stations. These properties and businesses produce substantial cash, which keep the transit agency as a whole in the black.
Hong Kong's MTR is unusual in also actually making money from its fares as well. How it can do this relates in part the uniqueness of running trains on an intense few strips of land filled with development. But for our purposes it's worth looking at its actions as a developer, and that as a model for transportation agencies and departments in this country.
By many standards, MTR is an unusual company.
The MTR only began service in 1979. But once cash was flowing (through development around stations), the government "graduated" MTR to become a private company, still majority owned by government, so that it could raise funding through capital markets and more nimbly enter into joint ventures with private investors.
In 2000, the Hong Kong government converted the public MTRC into the private MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), although the government maintains a majority stake. Shares are traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange. WIkipedia reports that MTR also invests in railways in different parts in the world, and has obtained contracts to operate rapid-transit systems in London, Stockholm, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Melbourne.
Could transit and highway departments in the United States ever do something equally innovative? Why shouldn't a highway department make money on the shopping malls built around its exits? Shouldn't it at least get a cut?
While it may seem extraordinary to have a transit company operating like a profit-making company, it's not novel. A century ago private streetcar lines made money more on the homes and shops built around their tracks, on company-owned land, than the nickel fares they received.
While retaining public control of vital infrastructure systems - a crucial point - governments can facilitate new versions of these old arrangements.
Let me be clear here. I don't want the transit agencies or highway departments to be only concerned with making a profit for their shareholders, which is how private businesses act. I want them to make a profit for the public, so that roads can be maintained well, taxes and fares kept down.
It's a long way from anywhere in the United States to Hong Kong, but there's no reason we can't learn from it.
Alex Marshall is a regular columnist on transportation for Governing Magazine. He is a Senior Fellow at Regional Plan Association, the seminal urban planning group in New York City, where he edits a bi-weekly email newsletter, Spotlight on the Region. He teaches classes on infrastructure at the Architecture School of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His e-mail address is alexmarshall@alexmarshall.org. His article is reprinted with permission from citiwire.net.