SOMALIA: Two thousand students sit exams in Mogadishu University

May 27, 2012 ????? 7 Comments

MOGADISHU ? More than two thousand students have sat for their final exams in Mogadishu University for the fifth time since its official inauguration two decades ago on Saturday.

The students who are studying different courses in six different faculties across two campuses consist of men and women.

Prof. Dr. Ali Sheikh Ahmed, the President of the university, said despite violence and anarchy the university has not stopped teaching a single day since relocating to the outskirts of Mogadishu.

He added the new $25 million campus which was completed in 2007 can accommodate more than 12,000 students. It was partly funded by the Islamic Development Bank in Saudi Arabia, among other donors.

?The administration and teachers have sacrificed a lot during the civil war in the country, working in difficult conditions. The university is ready to add new faculties,? he said.

He thanked teachers, parents and students for having faith in the institution and for their dedication despite the instability in Somalia.

The university has also has small campus in the port town of Bosaasso in nort-east region of Somalia.

Mogadishu University is one of the leading institutions in Somalia and is currently ranked top 40 universities in Africa.

Somalilandpress

May 27, 2012

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By Qalinle Hussein

Tags: Education Links, exams, Mogadishu, Somalia, University

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Hong Kong travel agents | CNNGo.com

While travel agents are trying to make a comeback after more than a decade of waning in the developed world, they never went out of fashion in Hong Kong.

The Internet was a travel industry job-killer, particularly in the United States, where the number of agency locations has halved since the high of 34,000 branches in the mid-1990s.?Online flight and hotel booking services, such as Expedia, cancelled out the middleman so everyone could be their own travel agent.

But while EMarketer forecasts online travel sales in the United States to grow 11?percent to $119.2?billion in 2012, offline travel agents show signs of returning.

Nearly one in three leisure agencies in the United States is hiring, according to PhoCusWright, a travel research firm. Travel professionals can thank an improving economy, but also consumers' web-fatigue.

It turns out that online booking is not the convenient click-and-fly experience that travelers were hoping for. In one study by the IBM Institute for Business Value Studies, 20 percent of participants said it took them more than five hours of online research before making their booking.

In Hong Kong, savvy travelers learnt early on about the opportunity costs in booking vacations online. They never quite adopted Internet transactions for travel.

"Hong Kong consumers primarily want convenience when booking holidays," says Joseph Tung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong. "Hong Kong is not a big place, it is convenient for people to make direct contact with travel agents. We also have regulation mechanisms to protect the consumer."

This accounts for the 85 percent of travelers who go to Hong Kong's 1,650 registered travel agencies when planning their trips.

It feels like there is a travel agent on every corner of Hong Kong.?Travel Expert is one of Hong Kong's largest travel services agencies, with 50 branches in the city.?

Tung is optimistic that the demand for agents will continue to grow as outbound traveler numbers increase with the opening of the Kai Tak cruise terminal next year.

Hong Kong travel agents, almost as common as 7-Elevens.

The latest agency to take advantage of Hong Kong's healthy demand is Flight Centre, Australia's largest travel agency.?A second branch of the agency opened last week in Hong Kong's residential neighborhood Happy Valley and the company has plans to open 2-3 more stores by 2013.

"The expertise and support that an offline travel consultant can bring adds value to the holiday," says David Fraser, managing director for greater China for Flight Centre Hong Kong. "Given that a retail travel agency is no more expensive than booking on the Internet, I don't see why you would bother to book online when you have extra services effectively for free."

Flight Centre promises a 24-hour emergency support team so that in the event of a disaster such as 2010's Icelandic volcano ash cloud, travelers can in theory get hold of a Flight Centre consultant to sort out their travel itinerary.?

"As unfortunate as those disasters are, they are often good for our business because it shows the benefits of us," says Fraser.

Accountability and personalized service is almost as important as convenience for Hong Kongers who spend more per capita than Asia's two other major globetrotters, Japan and Korea.?

For the upper to mid-range Hong Kong traveler, a higher amount of consultation is required before booking a trip. Flight Centre targets this type of customer, particularly expatriate, English-speaking travelers who are less likely to book package tours, opting for customized vacations.

"Expatriates have a higher demand for service as they want to be given a lot of knowledge about their destination. When Hong Kong people want to go to, say, Thailand, they just want the agent to get them Thailand and don't ask for that much information," says Joseph Tung.

Hong Kong traveler Mr. Lee who just booked an eight-day package tour to Russia through Hong Thai Travel Services has never booked a trip for leisure or for business through a website.

"I need to know that I am making a transaction with a real person," he says.

Out-of-work travel agents who are knowledgeable, efficient and accountable might just consider relocating to Hong Kong.?

?

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Getting In Shape: Quick And Effective Methods - Health and Fitness ...

by fit4life on May 27, 2012

A stronger core carries many health benefits for your body. Core strength is vital for many exercises. Crunches and sit-ups provide a great workout while helping to strengthen your core. Sit-ups also provide you with a wider range of motion. This will cause your abs to work longer and harder.

Rest your body when it feels necessary. It?s common to be told that you can only rest at certain points in the exercise. Only you know what is best for your body. Do not hesitate to pause when needed. If you don?t, you may get injured.

Walking your dog can be part of your fitness regime. Your furry companion loves to go for walks and he will not easily get tired of daily walking trips. Start easy. Start by walking a block, and gradually increase the distance. This is just one of many ways to enjoy your K-9 companion and get exercise at the same time.

Remember to drink eight glasses of water daily. Exercising can make your body lose water quite quickly due to friction caused by muscle fibers. Your body uses sweat to cool the body and then it needs rehydrated.

As you begin your exercise program, look for creative ways to get fit. There are a number of different fitness activities that don?t involve a gym membership or running until your feet hurt. Participating in physical activities that you enjoy will help to keep you motivated to reach your fitness goals.

Fitness is a complicated subject full of conflicting opinions and ideas. When you dig through the pile of opinions, you?ll find a few items that hold true time after time. Some are things you should incorporate into your program, and some are things to be avoided at all costs. Follow the advice in this article, and see how it can help you find a more fit and happier you.

Check out additonal fitness tips and recipies! Good luck with your fitness goals!

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Open Research Online - Perspectives from the European Language ...

K?hn , B?rbel and Perez Cavana, Maria eds. (2012). Perspectives from the European Language Portfolio. Learner Autonomy and Self-assessment. Oxford: Routledge.

Using constructivist principles and autonomous learning techniques the ELP has pioneered innovative and cutting edge approaches to learning languages that can be applied to learning across the spectrum. Although articles on the success of the ELP project have appeared in some academic journals, Perspectives from the European Language Portfolio is the first book to report on and contextualise the project?s innovative techniques for a wider educational research audience.
During the last ten years the ELP has increasingly become a reference tool for language learning and teaching in primary, secondary and tertiary educational settings all around Europe. The editors of this volume believe that there is a need to reflect on the significant contribution that the ELP has delivered for language learning and teaching, and to critically evaluate its achievements.

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Dashlane 1.1

If I had to describe the new Dashlane 1.1 (free) password manager in a single word, I'd call it elegant. Dashlane handles the same essential tasks as other password managers, but with a better appearance and a minimum of user effort. It also boasts features you just won't find in the competition. At present it only supports Firefox and Chrome; Internet Explorer support is coming in "a few weeks."

Good Start
Right from the start, Dashlane makes an impression. Other password managers order you to create a strong master password for data encryption. Some of them will rate your password's strength. Dashlane offers a wizard that helps you devise a memorable but unguessable password. It uses a technique similar to one I wrote about recently, combining a memorable sentence with a memorable number.

During the install process you can import any passwords you may have stored in Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. Dashlane can also import passwords from LastPass 1.72 (free, 5 stars) and RoboForm Desktop 7 ($29.95 direct, 4 stars), as well as 1Password, Keepass, and Password Wallet.

At present, LastPass handles some unusual login configurations that Dashlane doesn't, so when I imported my over-200 LastPass passwords some of them didn't come through. Those that did worked perfectly.

After installation Dashlane invites the user to enter contact, address, and credit card information. RoboForm, LastPass, Kaspersky Password Manager 4 ($24.95 direct, 4 stars) and others also store credit card data, but Dashlane does it with style. For each card you can specify the bank name and card color. When you're filling in credit card data on a Web form, you'll easily pick the right card by its color and bank logo.

Almost all password managers include the option to automatically log out after the computer is idle for a specified time, but often this feature isn't obvious. Dashlane makes it easy. By default it logs out after 30 minutes of inactivity. The first time it does so, it pops up and asks whether you want to keep that setting, change the timeout, or turn off automatic logout.

To Sync or Not To Sync?
Dashlane can operate as a standalone application on one single computer, or it can sync through your online account to make your data available on multiple Windows or Mac computers. The choice is yours, and you change your mind later if desired. In standalone mode it's similar to RoboForm Desktop 7; with syncing enabled Dashlane more closely resembles RoboForm Everywhere 7 ($19.95 direct, 4.5 stars).

Keeping all your sensitive data on your own PC seems intrinsically more secure than syncing through the cloud, but Dashlane goes to great lengths to ensure your synced data's safety. As with LastPass, it doesn't store your master password anywhere. If you forget the master password, you just have to start over.

When syncing with the cloud, Dashlane uses 256-bit AES encryption end to end. It derives an encryption key in part from the master password and in part from a device-specific key that's generated when you initially authorize Dashlane to run on that device. No unencrypted data leaves your system.

If you wish, you can limit what Dashlane syncs between computers. By default it syncs login credentials, personal data, and purchase history but doesn't sync credit card numbers and security codes.

A malicious or hacked website could conceivably host code that would simulate mouse clicks to trigger Dashlane's password or form filling abilities. According to a Dashlane whitepaper, the programmers headed off this kind of attack by using only C++ code in user-facing interactions, no Javascript at all. The paper concludes that a "large scale brute force attack" is impossible by either external hackers or a rogue employee.

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Ellen DeGeneres wins top US humor prize in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Ellen DeGeneres, who broke ground in 1997 as the first lead character on prime-time TV to reveal she was gay, is winning the nation's top humor prize.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Tuesday that DeGeneres will receive the 15th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. She will be honored Oct. 22 with a lineup of star performers in a tribute show that will be recorded for broadcast at a later date.

In a written statement, DeGeneres said receiving the same award as past honorees Bill Cosby, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell makes her wonder, "why didn't I get this sooner?"

It was 15 years ago ? just before the humor prize was created ? when DeGeneres came out on Time magazine's cover and as her character on the sitcom "Ellen" to a record 46 million viewers. The popular show began losing viewers, though, and was canceled a year later. DeGeneres said at the time that ABC caved in to fear and abandoned the show. She faced tough questions over whether the sitcom was "too gay" and if she had torpedoed her career by pushing a "gay agenda."

"When I'm accused of becoming political, I'm showing love," DeGeneres told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a 1998 interview. "How is that political to teach love and acceptance?"

The rejection was enough to send DeGeneres into a deep depression.

"Ellen" paved the way, though, for future shows to also break the taboo of showing gay characters. "Will and Grace" would follow, along with "Glee," ''Modern Family" and others.

DeGeneres bounced back with movie roles, including as the voice of a lead character in the animated film "Finding Nemo." She also has a hit talk show now in its ninth season, best-selling books and had a stint as the fourth judge on "American Idol."

Cappy McGarr, an executive producer for the Mark Twain Prize show and a Kennedy Center board member, said DeGeneres has a special style of observational humor in the tradition of Twain. She also makes people laugh across political lines.

"She's not just a comedian," he said. "She's really a miracle worker. She got the president to dance, the first lady to do pushups and (Republican) Tom Delay to laugh."

The New Orleans native got her start as an emcee at a local comedy club in her hometown. In 1982, a videotape of her club performance won DeGeneres Showtime's "Funniest Person in America." By 1986, she appeared on "The Tonight Show" and became the first female comedian summoned to Johnny Carson's desk to chat about her performance.

The Mark Twain prize honors people who have an impact on society in the tradition of Samuel Clemens, better known as Twain, as a social commentator and satirist.

McGarr said the Kennedy Center, which awards the prize, is not making a political statement by selecting the trailblazing DeGeneres.

"This has nothing to do with any political issue," he said. "But she's brilliantly shined a light on society, and that's what Mark Twain did."

___

Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

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Rebekah Brooks to Be Charged in Hacking Scandal; Police Allege Conspiracy, Obstruction of Justice

UK Prosecutors will charge Rebekah Brooks, the former News Corp chief, with conspiring to obstruct justice in the media group's infamous hacking scandal.

The decision marks the first charges filed in a wide-ranging criminal investigation into wrongdoing at the U.S. media company's British tabloids.

Brooks, who served as editor of the News of the World and the Sun tabloids before running all of News Corp.'s newspapers in the U.K., is due to be charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with perverting the course of justice.

Prosecutors also plan to charge her husband, Charles Brooks; her former assistant; her chauffeur; and two men who provided security for Brooks.

The obstruction charges relate to the continuing police investigation into phone hacking and the alleged corruption of public officials by News Corp. titles.

Brooks has also been previously arrested on suspicion of corruption and conspiring to intercept communications, but she wasn't charged Tuesday in relation to either of the previous allegations. She remains on bail for those.

The planned charges spelled out by prosecutors date to July 6-19 of last year.

The phone-hacking scandal - the subject of a police probe since Jan. 2011 - boiled over following a July 5 article in the Guardian alleging that the News of the World hacked the phone of a missing teenage girl, who was later found dead.

Days later, News Corp. shut down the News of the World after 168 years.

Rebekah Brooks, a longtime protégé of News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, faces three charges in the sensational case.

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Council promises new communications strategy as ... - Highland Radio

The Head of Information Services with Donegal County Council says the council is to embark on a new Communications and PR strategy which will bring the council closer to the people.

Brian Boyle was speaking today at the launch of the new Donegal Library website in Letterkenny today.

The new library website is easier to navigate than the previous one, and provides clear and easily accessible information to users.

Brian Boyle says that?s something he wants to replicate across the council?s other services??..

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Search on for shooter of Calif. biker club leader (Providence Journal)

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Service As A SKU

The biggest ecommerce opportunity today involves taking offline services and offering them for sale online (O2O commerce). The first generation of O2O commerce was driven by discounting, push-based engagements, and artificial scarcity. The still-unfulfilled opportunity in O2O today is tantamount to tacking barcodes onto un-warehousable services by standardizing and normalizing the units being sold, something I call "Service as a SKU." Just as Amazon figured out how to build the best warehouses and technology in the world for delivering boxes, somebody will do this for "unboxed" services, with customers driven not by discounts or scarcity, but rather by the Internet?s hallmarks of customer experience and convenience. And unlike how "ship stuff in a box" ecommerce seems to be gravitating towards a few winners, Service as a SKU is still a wide open playing field.

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Enterprise, Video Led The $25.1B In M&A Deals Last Quarter, Ernst & Young Says

Instagram, Schminstagram. While flashy consumer deals keep getting all the headlines, it was actually cloud computing, enterprise and video that fueled the biggest deals of last quarter's $25.1 billion in mergers and acquisitions,?according to top-tier accounting firm Ernst & Young. The total value of all deals fell by 12 percent from the year before while the number of deals was about the same. While that's not too huge a drop, the firm attributes it to "ongoing economic uncertainty." (Thanks Greece.)?Quarterly deal volume has apparently reached a?plateau after two years of growth and is being restrained by concerns about the macroeconomic climate. If you're curious what the biggest deals of last quarter were, here are they below.

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The Chart to Accompany All 'Jobs, Jobs, Jobs' Discussions (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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NVIDIA confirms no 'Project Grey' until 2013, Tegra 3 LTE later this year

While earnings calls are rarely the veritable dial-in party, sometimes they do toss up a juicy gambit or disappointing revelation. While NVIDIA was dishing out projections for Q1 2013, it pretty much quashed any hopes of seeing an in-house LTE Tegra chip in 2012. While we were assured that Tegra 3 LTE phones would come this year -- based on those partnerships announced back in February -- it was also stated that the thoroughbred Tegra LTE chip wouldn't be a reality until 2013. So, this pretty much ties in with what we had heard, but this time, from the horse's mouth.

NVIDIA confirms no 'Project Grey' until 2013, Tegra 3 LTE later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 May 2012 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Biden Rolls into Buckeye Territory (TIME)

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PSA: Dropbox Dropquest begins right now!

Big Dropbox fan are you? Got plans for the weekend? Cancel 'em. Dropquest 2012 begins right now. If you're unfamiliar -- it's the storage company's internet scavenger hunt that involves a series of puzzles, challenges and, erm, origami. If you complete the game, you'll get 1GB of extra space for free, but if you come in first place, you'll get 100GB free for your entire life, while 10 second-placers get 20GB for life and so on. You're not allowed to ask for help on the company's support forum (you'll get disqualified) and you're competing against at least half a million other fans of the service, but if that hasn't daunted you then head on down to the source link and get puzzling!

PSA: Dropbox Dropquest begins right now! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 May 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Walker says Republicans should focus on his race (The Arizona Republic)

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Panasonic sends 100,000 LEDs down Tokyo river, mates tech with tradition (updated with video!)

If you'd been by the shore of the Sumida River in central Tokyo this past weekend, you would have noticed that it was glowing a distinct shade of blue. That's because Panasonic decided to kick off the first-ever Tokyo Hotaru (fireflies) festival by sending 100,000 EVERLED light bulbs down the river, both to mimic fireflies as well as to pay homage to a Japanese tradition of floating candles on the water. Before you cringe too much at the thought of the environmental impact, rest assured that Panasonic minimized the footprint of its aquatic LED parade. All the bulbs ran on solar power (presumably, charged during the day) that kept Evolta batteries fed inside, and the entire lot was scooped up in a large net afterwards. We love the exhibition as a large-scale demo of sustainable lighting -- you may just want to avoid fishing along the Sumida's shoreline for awhile in case you catch a straggler.

Update: We've found a video of this spectacular event -- check it out right after the break.

Continue reading Panasonic sends 100,000 LEDs down Tokyo river, mates tech with tradition (updated with video!)

Panasonic sends 100,000 LEDs down Tokyo river, mates tech with tradition (updated with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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