DSK's DNA Found On Maid's Shirt

(AP)

A forensic test has turned up Dominique Strauss-Kahn's DNA on the shirt worn by a hotel maid accusing him of rape, sources tell a French website and NBC New York. The NY Post, which is really in its element with this scandal, reports that Strauss-Kahn's "reputation may be stained for good." Guess you could say its unusual to see men as powerful as Strauss-Kahn in this much trouble! But the positive DNA match might also help explain why his lawyers were quick to claim that the encounter was consensual—if they knew there was a chance of DNA surfacing, that strategy makes a lot more sense.

The 32-year-old Sofitel maid maintains that Strauss-Kahn groped her, locked her in a bedroom and forced her to perform oral sex. DNA testing on other evidence from the scene is continuing, a source tells NBC New York.

The Real Reason for NATO Attacking Libya EXPOSED

Is this a taste of the future? Outsourcing goes full circle as Indian firms look to the U.S. for cheap labour

It's a frustration experienced by most people when they've made phone calls to large companies.

An unfamiliar voice answers the phone in a call centre hundreds of miles away where cheap labour is commonplace.

But in a reversal of fortunes it now appears that large Indian companies are actually now themselves outsourcing - to U.S. shores.

Reversal of fortunes: Indian companies are now outsourcing their work to the U.S. where a struggling economy has caused lower wages

Large corporations that have boomed in India amid the country's nimble economy have been drawn to the U.S. where unemployment has soared.

Struggling residents desperate for work are paid between $12 and $14 a hour to be stationed in tiny cubicles for long shifts of telesales work.

Once the employees are established, many are offered the chance to be flown to India themselves - the same tactic Western countries have done in India.

Experts said that the phenomenon, which could become more widespread in the coming years, is partly due to Indian workers demanding higher wages and higher living standards.

'The U.S. became the fastest-growing location for us last year. We expect that to continue this year,' Genpact chief executive V.N. 'Tiger' Tyagarajan said.

Joseph Vafi, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. in San Francisco told the Washington Post: 'What you have going on in India are salary hikes. As these companies get larger and larger, it just makes sense for them to do some hiring in the States.'

Cheap: A number of large companies have targeted Manhattan in New York due to high unemployment, particularly among African Americans

The Indian economy - boosted by a savings culture of large cash deposits - has boomed and is this year predicted to outpace China.

Businesses around the world have targeted India - part of the 'BRIC' emerging economies - for their global expansion.

Residents there have seen an increase in living standards and higher wages, which has led to higher spending.

WHO OUTSOURCES THE MOST JOBS TO THE U.S?

1.Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Service is based in Mumbai and had a turnover of $8bn in 2011. They employ more than 200,000 worldwide with a significant number of those, believed to be around 15,000 based as outsourced jobs in the U.S.

2. Aegis Communications

Technology firm Aegis is part of the Essar group based in Mumbai with an annual revenue of $15bn. Aegis employs 9,000 in the U.S. at offices throughout the country.

3. Wipro

Based in Bangalore, IT specialists Wipro employ around 4,000 people in jobs that have been outsourced to the U.S.

4. Genpact

The IT outsourcing company employs 1,500 people in the U.S. but that is expected to triple over the next two years as bosses find it cheaper than employing Indian staff at home.

5. Infosys

The company is based in Bangalore with an annual revenue of $100m. They have 130,000 employees worldwide.

But in a stark contrast and further sign that global power is shifting from the West to the East, the economies of the U.S.- and many European countries - have spiralled downwards.

Around nine per cent of the work force is now estimated to be unemployed in the U.S. Massive debts have also seen harsh spending cuts.

Indian companies had previously used call centres at home, or shipped large numbers of local workers to the U.S. to work cheaply.

But a crackdown on visas by the Government combined with optimism in India has meant that fewer people want to leave. For Indian companies , it is just as efficient to open offices in America, where there are daily queues of people willing to work.

There is also a growing trend that companies want to have workers based in the countries where organisations have large customer bases, or wish to expand into.

Aegis Communications, based in Mumbai, joined the growing number of overseas companies opening centres in the U.S. to take advantage of the high unemployment.

They have nine centres in the U.S. which employ 5,000 people but that is expected to triple to 15,000 employees.

In Lower Manhattan, the call centre employs a large number of African Americans with few qualifications.

Line manager Ray Capuana said: 'Our recruitment model is simple. I don't care if you come from Park Avenue or the park bench. If you can do the job, we want you.'

He calls the process of hiring U.S. workers instead of local workers in India 'near-sourcing', 'diverse sourcing' or 'cross-shoring'.

But compared with Indian workers, managers have complained that those from the U.S. are 'spoiled' and 'lazy'.

The Revolution Has Started In Spain (Update 4)

The revolution has started in Spain as tens of thousands take to the streets in protest of high unemployment and draconian austerity measures.

In Spain, protesters rally a battered nation as Anti-system movement vows to press beyond election day

In the shadow of a landmark building in Madrid’s center, a village of unhappy Spaniards on Friday kicked off their sixth day of protesting against capitalism and a system they say is not representing them.

Slide show: Madrid protests on eve of elections.

Directly in front of it, the turtle-shaped dome that covers the Sol train station is plastered with banners that read “Spain is not a business, we are not slaves,” and “Now is the time, young people, do not stop.”

And stopping they are not.

Protests have swelled each evening from a clutch of 200 mostly young people who have been camping out into the tens of thousands. The protests have spread beyond Madrid to other cities and reportedly to Italy as well.

Complaints about austerity measures taken to keep Spain from a forced financial bailout are on visible display in Madrid.

Jorge Herrero, 34, has been coming to join the protests each evening after his job as a security worker. He said the government for years has been stripping away workers’ rights, with pensions frozen and labor rights diminished.

“We are 5 million unemployed here in Spain,” said Herrero. “A colleague of mine was fired five months ago just for being sick.”

Read More: In Spain, protesters rally a battered nation as Anti-system movement vows to press beyond election day

THE REVOLUTION HAS STARTED – SPAIN

PUT THIS INTO YOUR BROWSER (LIVE SPANISH TV)
http://ustream.tv/channel/motionlook
(Cliquez sur le lien en haut)

My thanks to eloyente for this snippet of spanish TV videotaped earlier today 21st MAY 2011

Je remerci eloyente a youtube pour la mourceau de video de TV espagnol et aussi a amosLee a Ustream pour la rapportage de mis a jour et actuelle.

Also amosLee at Ustream for the continued TV coverage

Watch The Revolution Live

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

Media Coverage Of The Spanish Revolution

Time Magazine writes:

Protests: Has the Revolution Come to Spain?

Protesters gather at the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid on May 19, 2011, to speak out against Spain’s economic crisis and its sky-high jobless rate – Pedro Armestre / AFP / Getty

Two political earthquakes have shaken Spanish life in the past week. First were the massive sit-ins that had tens of thousands of citizens camping out in the public squares of major cities in protest of the country’s capsized economy and unresponsive political class. The second came Sunday night, May 22, when voters in regional and municipal elections delivered a sound drubbing to the governing Socialist Party (PSOE). Now, in Monday’s harsh light, no one seems sure whether the first phenomenon had anything to do with the second. And everyone is wondering what both mean for the future of Spain.

Since May 15, tens of thousands of Spaniards have taken over squares in 60 cities, clamoring for political, economic and social reform. As articulated by the group Real Democracy Now, which helped organize the protests, unemployment (21.3% among the general population; a shocking 40% among youth) is high on the list of complaints. But so too are political corruption (more than 100 candidates in Sunday’s elections are currently under judicial investigation), social-welfare cuts and a general sense that elected officials in both of the two main political parties aren’t listening to them. “This isn’t solely about unemployment or the upcoming election,” says Raúl, 29, who works for a marketing agency when he isn’t volunteering in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol. “We’re after a more responsible society.”

The protests, whose success has taken even organizers by surprise, have transformed the public squares of Madrid, Barcelona and other cities into models of the participatory democracies their members would like to create, reminding some observers of the huge examples of civil disobedience in Egypt and Tunisia. Amid a festive air of concerts and impromptu theatrical performances, volunteers have organized themselves into committees to provide food to protesters, organize cleanups, set up an open-air reading room complete with a comfortable sofa and a battered copy of Franz Kafka’s The Trial and even plant an organic vegetable garden. Meanwhile, daily meetings of individual commissions (electoral policy, environmental protection, women’s rights) and a general assembly have helped the spontaneously formed movement elucidate its concerns and propose solutions.

So popular have the protests become that on May 19, when Spain’s electoral commission ruled the gatherings illegal because they would break the ban on political activities the day before elections, participation grew only stronger, even incorporating foreign cities like London, Mexico City and New York. “It’s incredible how fast this is spreading,” said protester Yanira Castro, a 30-year-old musician, as she prepared signs for a rally in Madrid. “On Monday I wasn’t sure about what it meant, but once I came down here, I knew I had to pitch in.”

[...]

Source: Time Magazine

Decay heat in Fukushima reactors

As we noted last week, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced it believes the fuel in Fukushima Daiichi reactor 1—and possibly reactors 2 and 3—has melted and is sitting in a lump at the bottom of the reactor vessel. But it believes that workers have been able to keep the lump cool enough that it has not melted through the bottom of the reactor.

Such a melt-through is a concern since it would mean that highly radioactive gases released from the melting fuel would be released into the primary containment. Moreover, the molten fuel mass would then react with the concrete floor of the primary containment and create additional radioactive gases. If these are released to the atmosphere, either through venting or a leak in the containment (which could be caused by the molten fuel), it could add significantly to the total radiation released by the accident.

TEPCO believes the fuel melting occurred on March 12, within a day of the earthquake. If all this is correct, it means that, despite the ongoing problems with the reactors, workers have so far managed to cool the fuel and avoid a reactor breach for more than two months.

The decay heat generated by the fuel is one factor that could result in a breach of the reactor vessel.

The decrease in the level of decay heat with time is shown in the plot below. It shows that after 2 months the decay heat would be about 30% of its value at the time the fuel melted, after 6 months it will be less that 20% of that value, and after a year it will be down to about 10% of that value.

Unfortunately, it’s not clear how the reduced heat load of the fuel affects the overall probability of a breach of the reactor vessel since that depends on a lot of unknown factors, such as the current configuration of the fuel and possible ongoing corrosion of the vessel.

The plot shows that after 5 years, which is the length of time after which people talk about moving spent fuel to dry casks, the decay heat is about 2% of the early value.

Decay heat as a function of time from 0.01 years (about 4 days) to 100 years for spent-fuel burnups of 33, 43, 53 and 63 MWd/kgU. The lowest burnup was typical for the 1970s. Current burnups are around 50 MWd/kgU.

Video: Going For Gold, Utah Legalizes New Currency

http://dailybail.com/home/video-going-for-gold-utah-legalizes-new-currency.html

Video - Henry Blodget with Aaron Task

Get more detail here...

GE Joins Intel to Advise Obama as Overseas Holdings Expand

Source: Bloomberg

Seven publicly traded U.S. corporations represented on President Barack Obama’s advisory council for jobs and competitiveness -- including General Electric Co. (GE) and Intel Corp. (INTC) -- have devoted a growing pool of their non-U.S. earnings to investments in other countries.

As a group, multinational companies with current or former chief executive officers on Obama’s jobs council have, over the past four years, almost doubled the cumulative amounts they’ve reinvested overseas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

By doing so, companies may be able to take advantage of faster-growing markets or lower production costs, and they can defer U.S. income taxes on profits from overseas sales. Underscoring the difference between corporate interests and the national interest, they’re also investing money elsewhere that could be helping the U.S. economy, said former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

“That’s a signal that they are betting less on America,” Reich said. “We’ve got to understand there’s a fundamental difference between the competitiveness of these companies and the competitiveness of America and American workers.”

Read Full Article Here...