June deadliest month for troops in Afghanistan in 9 months

KABUL -- In a dark reminder that the fighting in Afghanistan is still raging, despite the multinational military coalition?s pronouncements that the war is winding down, June has become the deadliest month for international troops in the country in nearly a year.

Already in June, at least 27 foreign troops have died, including 17 Americans, the most deaths in a month since September 2012, according to iCasualties.org, a website that tracks troop deaths. Twenty-five of the deaths were termed ?hostile,? or battle-related.

A large part of the higher casualty rate in June is likely due to violence traditionally rising in the warmer months, as insurgents stream back into Afghanistan from their winter redoubts in Pakistan.

Afghan troops have been dying at a much higher rate as they have taken on more responsibility for day-to-day security while facing a still-entrenched insurgency. Almost as many Afghan troops were killed in 2012 alone than the number of U.S. troops killed in the entire nearly 12-year war.

Overall casualties for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have been falling since the height of the military surge in 2010. Already this year, though, 95 foreign troops have died, with much of the summer -- traditionally the deadliest time of year for troops -- still ahead.

Though the U.S. and Afghan governments have made faltering steps toward peace talks with the Taliban, who recently opened a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar, no one has called a ceasefire and the insurgency has shown no sign of scaling back on attacks. In the past three weeks, several high-profile attacks rocked Kabul, perhaps a sign by the Taliban trying to show strength ahead of talks.

International troops have scaled back patrols in recent months as their Afghan counterparts take the lead, but they still must travel by road, where they are vulnerable to bomb attacks; still the biggest killer of servicemembers in Afghanistan.

So far there have been at least 3,345 international troops killed in connection with Operation Enduring Freedom, as the nearly 12-year-old war in Afghanistan is known, 2,245 of them Americans, according to iCasualties.org.

A spokesman for the international military coalition in Afghanistan declined to comment for this report.

druzin.heath@stripes.com
Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes

Source: http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/june-deadliest-month-for-troops-in-afghanistan-in-9-months-1.228286

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Japan business mood seen turning positive: BOJ tankan

By Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese manufacturers' sentiment turned positive in the three months to June for the first time in nearly two years, a closely-watched central bank survey is likely to show on Monday in a sign recent market turbulence has yet to hurt the feel-good mood created by the government's reflationary policies.

The Bank of Japan's "tankan" survey will likely show the headline index for big manufacturers' sentiment improved 11 points from three months ago to plus 3, according to a Reuters poll.

That would be the second straight quarter of improvement and the first positive reading - which means optimists outnumbered pessimists - since the survey of September 2011, and vindication of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policy of aggressive monetary stimulus and fiscal spending.

Service-sector sentiment also likely brightened as consumers spent more, with the index for big non-manufacturing companies likely to have risen 5 points to plus 11, the Reuters poll showed.

A positive reading will bode well for the central bank, keen to end grinding deflation that has haunted Japan for 15 years and achieve its 2 percent inflation target in roughly two years through aggressive monetary stimulus.

"You cannot deny that the economy is improving, and that domestic demand is leading the way," said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo.

"Government stimulus spending is contributing to growth and the services sector is gaining strength. The BOJ's monetary easing is becoming more effective, so there's no need for additional measures."

The upbeat survey was compiled amid the market turmoil that drove up bond yields and wiped out gains in Tokyo shares made on hopes for Abe's stimulus plans. It should reinforce views the world's third-largest economy is steadily recovering, analysts say.

Big manufacturers and non-manufacturers both expect business conditions to improve further three months ahead, a sign they see the negative effect of the recent market turbulence on the economy as limited at least for now, the poll showed.

Positive market sentiment turned around in late May when the BOJ's huge asset purchases disrupted the bond market and drove up yields which, coupled with expectations of the U.S. Federal Reserve's tapering of monetary stimulus, hit global stocks and triggered a rebound in the safe-haven yen.

Still, the tankan report, a key touchstone for BOJ policymakers, will likely reinforce the view that Japan's economy remains on track for a steady recovery backed by a pickup in exports and private consumption.

The tankan's sentiment indexes are derived by subtracting the percentage of respondents who say conditions are poor from those who say they are good.

Big firms are likely to increase capital expenditure by 2.9 percent in the current business year from April, the Reuters poll showed, a sign the positive mood may be prompting them to expand business operations.

(Additional reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Eric Meijer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-business-mood-seen-turning-positive-boj-tankan-034414128.html

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WACO, Texas (AP) - The Texas Rangers are investigating mileage reimbursement for...

WACO, Texas (AP) - The Texas Rangers are investigating mileage reimbursement forms submitted by a McLennan County justice of the peace.

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna told the Waco Tribune-Herald (http://bit.ly/19DThD7 ) that he asked the Rangers to investigate Justice of the Peace Jean Laster-Boone after a county auditor turned over evidence of irregularities.

Laster-Boone declined comment. A spokesman for the Texas Rangers confirmed the investigation Friday.

Her mileage forms were reviewed after three former employees said they had falsified forms at her instruction.

McLennan County Auditor Stan Chambers said that the most the judge can receive for mileage is $360 per month and that her reports always reach the maximum.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/newswest9/posts/10151535247520017

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Swarm Releases New POS Add-Ons For Retailers

By Emma Ouimette
Fri, Jun 28 2013 12:12 pm | Comments

Retail Pro And Other Leading POS Providers Get Enhanced Analytics from Swarm

Press Release:

San Francisco, CA:?After months of testing at independent bike, surf, skate and snow shops in the US and Canada Swarm has released new point of sale (POS) add-ons compatible with Retail Pro, MerchantOS, Microsoft Dynamics, and several additional leading POS providers.

Shops using Swarm will now be able to measure customer foot traffic, conversion rates, dwell time, as well as view dashboards for all of their transactional data ? gross/net revenue, top-selling categories and more. The data is accessible from anywhere and can be viewed on any device.

Chain stores can get a birds eye view across all stores through a global dashboard. Swarm is already in use by hundreds of core shops nationwide and has expanded into mid-size chains including all O?Neill flagship stores and outlets.

?We?ve been chasing the idea of conversion rates and a realistic count of shoppers for years.? said Charlie McCormick, owner of City Bikes in Washington DC. ?There is nothing out there in the market for retailers that is effective like this.?

?Having all my store data right there at my fingertips makes running the business easier? said Sam Radkovich, owner of Lakeside Bicycles in Lake Oswego, Oregon ?I don?t have to run nine different reports every day to see how we did.?

In the coming months Swarm is releasing additional tools to help brick and mortar retailers better understand their customers and operations.

?We?re passionate about providing tools to help great retailers exceed their potential.? said Ryan Denehy, co-founder and EVP, Business Development at Swarm ?This is just the beginning. We?re psyched to work with so many great shop owners and look forward to significant growth throughout the balance of the year.?

Shops can try the solution free for the next 30 days by visiting this link: http://swarm-mobile.com/getstarted

For more information please contact:

Ryan Denehy
EVP, Sales and Business Development
Swarm
www.swarm-mobile.com

CATEGORIZED: News, Retail News
TAGS: action sports retailers, MerchantOS, Microsoft Dynamics, oneill, point of sale, POS, retail news, Retail Pro, Ryan Denehy, swarm, swarm mobile

Source: http://business.transworld.net/134499/news/swarm-releases-new-pos-add-ons-for-retailers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=swarm-releases-new-pos-add-ons-for-retailers

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Low self-control promotes selfless behavior in close relationships

June 27, 2013 ? When faced with the choice of sacrificing time and energy for a loved one or taking the self-centered route, people's first impulse is to think of others, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"For decades psychologists have assumed that the first impulse is selfish and that it takes self-control to behave in a pro-social manner," says lead researcher Francesca Righetti of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. "We did not believe that this was true in every context, and especially not in close relationships."

Righetti and colleagues sought to examine whether impulsivity, in close relationships, might actually benefit others.

They found that participants whose self-control was taxed (and were thus more impulsive) were more willing to sacrifice time and energy for their romantic partner or best friend than participants whose self-control wasn't taxed.

In one study, to find out whether they would sacrifice in actual practice, the researchers told couples they would have to talk to 12 strangers and ask them embarrassing questions. The participants didn't know that they wouldn't actually have to follow through with the task.

Participants with high self-control opted to split the burden right down the middle -- assigning six strangers to themselves and six strangers to their partner. But participants with low self-control opted to take on more of the burden, sacrificing their own comfort to spare their partners.

A final experiment revealed that married individuals low in trait self-control sacrificed more for their partners, yet were also less forgiving of their transgressions -- presumably because self-control is required to override the focus on the wrongdoing and think instead about the relationship as a whole.

While sacrificing for a partner may help to build the relationship on a day-to-day basis, Righetti and colleagues note that it could backfire over the long-term, compromising individuals' ability to maintain a balance between personal and relationship-related concerns.

This balance is a perennial issue for anyone in a close relationship:

"Whether it's about which activities to engage in during free time, whose friends to go out with, or which city to live in, relationship partners often face a divergence of interests -- what is most preferred by one partner is not preferred by the other," notes Righetti.

The field of research is relatively new, so the jury is still out on what effects sacrifice has on relationship well-being, but Righetti is hopeful that research over the next few years will shed more light on the link.

Co-authors on this research include Catrin Finkenauer, also of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Eli Finkel of Northwestern University.

This research was supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/vEB9BGp7PWA/130627142553.htm

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Gandolfini: A big man and everyman is eulogized

NEW YORK (AP) ? The funeral of James Gandolfini took place in one of the largest churches in the world and didn't stint on ceremony.

Still, the estimated 1,500 mourners who gathered Thursday in New York's Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine seemed part of an intimate affair. They came to pay their respects to a plain but complex man whose sudden death eight days before had left all of them feeling a loss.

During the service, Gandolfini was remembered by the creator of "The Sopranos" as an actor who had brought a key element to mob boss Tony Soprano: Tony's inner child-like quality.

For a man who, in so many ways, was an unrepentant brute, that underlying purity was what gave viewers permission to love him.

"You brought ALL of that to it," said David Chase in remarks he delivered as if an open letter to his fallen friend and "Sopranos" star.

Even though Gandolfini was indisputably a formidable man both on and off the screen, Chase also saw him as a boy ? "sad, amazed, confused and loving," he summed up, addressing his subject: "You could see it in your eyes. And that's why you are a great actor."

Susan Aston, who for decades was Gandolfini's dialogue coach and collaborator, spoke of how he wrestled to find truth in his performances.

"He worked hard," she said. "He was disciplined. He studied his roles and did his homework." But then, when the cameras rolled, his performance took over and, "through an act of faith, he allowed himself to go to an uncharted place. ... He remained vulnerable, and kept his heart open in his life and in his work."

The 51-year-old actor died of a heart attack last week while vacationing with his 13-year-old son in Italy. It was cruel end to a holiday meant to be part of a summer that Gandolfini was devoting to his family ? including his son and his 9-month-old daughter ? by even turning down a movie role, according to Aston, citing what she said was her final conversation with him.

Aston said he told her "I don't want to lose any of the time I have with Michael and Lily this summer."

The actor's widow, Deborah Lin Gandolfini, also spoke at the ceremony, as did longtime friend Thomas Richardson, who affectionately described Gandolfini as a man "who hugged too tight and held too long." But now facing a world without hugs from Gandolfini, Richardson invited the congregation to stand and share hugs with their neighbors.

"It is in hugging that we are hugged," he declared.

A private family wake was held for the actor Wednesday in New Jersey.

Broadway theaters paid tribute by dimming their lights briefly Wednesday night. Gandolfini was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as an actor in "God of Carnage."

For Thursday's service, celebrities and fellow actors helped make up the capacity audience.

Those from "The Sopranos" included Edie Falco, Joe Pantoliano, Dominic Chianese, Steve Schirripa, Aida Turturro, Vincent Curatola, Tony Sirico, Lorraine Bracco, Steve Buscemi and Michael Imperioli.

Others from the entertainment community included Julianna Margulies, Alec Baldwin, Chris Noth, Marcia Gay Harden, Dick Cavett and Steve Carell.

NBC News' Brian Williams was in attendance. So was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

So was Saul Stein, 60, a resident of Harlem.

"I came to pay my respects today because he's a character I identify with, a family man," Stein said as he waited in line outside the church.

New Jersey accents were easy to hear among those hoping for a chance to get in. A few people spoke in Italian.

Of course, both New Jersey and Italian-Americans played a big part of "The Sopranos," which originally ran on HBO from 1999 to 2007.

Chase recalled a hot Jersey day early in the show's production that bonded him with Gandolfini ? with whom he shared Italian-American working-class roots ? for all times.

Waiting to shoot the next scene, Gandolfini was seated in an aluminum lawn chair with his slacks rolled up, black socks and black shoes exposed, and a damp cloth on his head in an effort to find some relief from the heat.

"I hadn't seen that done since my father used to do it, and my Italian uncle, and my grandfather," said Chase. "They were laborers in the hot sun of New Jersey."

"I was filled with love," Chase said, struggling to keep his composure, as he described the sight of Gandolfini in the broiling sun.

"I always felt we are brothers," he said, "based on that day."

___

Associated Press correspondent Bethan McKernan and Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gandolfini-big-man-everyman-eulogized-205655387.html

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Asia stocks gain on hopes Fed stimulus to stay

HONG KONG (AP) ? Stock markets from Sydney to Shanghai extended gains for a second day Thursday after the U.S. said quarterly growth may be weaker than expected, raising investors' hopes that the Federal Reserve would delay plans to wind down its stimulus program.

Further signs of easing in China's money markets also helped lift stocks.

Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4 percent to 13,142.50 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.3 percent to 20,607.27. South Korea's Kospi surged 3 percent to 1,837.45.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.8 percent to 4,818.80. Benchmarks in New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan also rose.

The U.S. government cut its estimate for second-quarter economic growth to 1.8 percent, down sharply from 2.4 percent because of lower than predicted consumer spending.

While news of the weakness in the world's biggest economy was disappointing, it was also positive for investors, who were rattled last week after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank would slow its bond-buying program if the U.S. economy continues to strengthen. That program has kept interest rates low and made stocks more attractive.

"This doesn't put a new spin on the outlook but it certainly makes one wonder all the more about the Fed's 'new and improved' outlook for 2014," economists at DBS Bank wrote in a commentary.

Mainland Chinese benchmarks opened sharply higher after a report that Chinese industrial profits grew strongly in May, though they pared their gains by midday. The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.4 percent to 1,959.25 and the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.3 percent to 913.87.

Markets were also buoyed as interbank lending rates in China continue to ease after a pledge earlier in the week by authorities to shore up banks facing cash shortfalls.

"We expect the interbank rates will come down further in the coming weeks," J.P. Morgan analysts Haibin Zhu, Grace Ng and Lu Jiang said in a research report. But they said that they didn't expect the rates to fall to the level they were at previously.

The central bank had allowed rates that banks pay to borrow from each other to soar last week, part of an attempt by Beijing to clamp down on massive credit in the informal lending industry.

Fears of a credit crisis in the world's second-biggest economy had contributed to a rout in global markets that ended when policymakers in China softened their stance with the promise to provide "liquidity support" if needed.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was up 39 cents to $95.89 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 18 cents to end at $95.50 a barrel on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3031 from $1.3012 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 97.76 yen from 97.74 yen.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-gain-hopes-fed-stimulus-stay-033130732.html

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