Chris Brown opens up about Rihanna assault

By Josh Grossberg, E! Online

Chris Brown wants to say goodbye to the past. Stopping by "On Air With Ryan Seacrest," ?the "Look At Me Now" crooner talked candidly about the current status of his relationship with Rihanna, whether they've been able to move on after he assaulted her four years ago, and his own view of his bad behavior.

When asked by Ryan Seacrest whether he ever thought Ri-Ri would forgive him the way that she did, the 23-year-old Brown admitted he "didn't know," but he's been making amends for the incident ever since.

"I just tried my best to be the best man I could be over the years and just show her how remorseful and sorry I was for the incident and that time was probably the worst part of my life and being that she has and she's a wonderful person I'm eternally grateful and thankful," the entertainer told the American Idol host on his radio show.?

Jennifer Lopez and Chris Brown get together in the studio

As for how they're getting on now, Breezy added: "It's still like we're kids. I try not to be too grown and be like, 'Lets have candlelight dinner every night.' I try to make sure everything is fun. It has to be fun and it has to be genuine."

The singer also acknowledged the challenge he continues to face in winning fans back that abandoned him after his domestic violence rap.

"People are entitled to their opinions. I can't go around blaming. It's all about my responsibility and me growing up as a man," he said. "So I think now that I'm becoming older, and trying to mature in this life under the public eye at all times, I have to focus on doing the right thing and being more of a humble individual."

When Ryan wondered what lesson he learned from that tough time, Brown replied, "that you can lose it all."

Watch Chris Brown's lawyer addresses probation hearing

"And I'm not just saying fame or stardom because that's not what it's about. I'm talking about dignity (and) integrity. You know, you lose yourself in a way."

While he admitted he learned -- and is still learning -- from his mistakes, the R&B star was quick not to blame the beatdown on his relative youth (he was still a teenager at the time it happened).

"I think for me that at age 18, 19, I was capable of writing and producing songs, so I'm also capable of making the right choices," noted Brown. "Being at that young age, I can tell you I was arrogant and definitely hotheaded. Everybody has a temper, but for me it was not knowing how to control it when I thought I had the world in my hands."

Chris Brown's valet fight: Insider the dispute over $10 parking fee

The "F.A.M.E." artist also elaborated on the altercation he got into with a valet the other day over a $10 parking fee, saying that he had given the valet a $100 and the man came back and demanded more money.

Chris said next time: "I've got to just shut up and be like, 'Security go get the keys!' I'll be by the car."

On the business side of things, Brown -- who appeared on the show to promote his new single, "Fine China," which drops in April -- also revealed he's currently working on a collaboration with Jennifer Lopez, whom he hopes to feature on his new album.

To hear the singer's full interview with Seacrest, click here.

Rihanna & Chris Brown: Relationship rewind

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 hits the FCC in MetroPCS and Sprint forms

Get ready for a small deluge of Galaxy S 4 filings at the FCC in the near future. Just a couple of weeks after Samsung's flagship hit the US agency in its international guise, we're now seeing the first US editions of the smartphone receive approval, starting with both MetroPCS (SCH-R970) and Sprint (SPH-L720) examples. Either has CDMA, EV-DO and LTE, although there's variances you'll want to watch for if you're free to choose between carriers: the Sprint version has HSPA 3G for world roaming, while the MetroPCS model drops HSPA but has a broad four bands of LTE meant mostly to support other mid-size American networks, like US Cellular. We still have AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to go among the bigger US providers supporting the GS4, although it's just a matter of time before their models make FCC appearances.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Sprint

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/samsung-galaxy-s-4-hits-the-fcc-in-metropcs-and-sprint-forms/

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EBay targets $110 billion of marketplace volume in 2015

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc aims to handle $110 billion of sales volume on its marketplace in 2015 by expanding globally, getting more local inventory online and using mobile technology to engage more with shoppers, executives said on Thursday.

The new forecast, made by Devin Wenig, president of eBay's Marketplaces business in North America, compares with Gross Merchandise Volume, or GMV, of $75 billion in 2012.

GMV is a closely watched measure of eBay's performance. Doug Anmuth, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, was expecting 2015 GMV of $101 billion.

After bleeding market share to Amazon.com Inc for years, Chief Executive John Donahoe began a turnaround effort in 2009 that set the Internet commerce company back on track by borrowing from its larger rival's playbook.

He took what was then a muddled auctions website and made it easier for shoppers to buy new items at fixed prices and get more free shipping and returns - essentially mimicking the Amazon experience. He also embraced mobile technology, creating shopping apps for smartphones and tablets that brought in new customers.

But eBay's online marketplace is still growing less than Amazon's and some analysts are concerned its growth may struggle to keep up with the overall expansion of the online retail sector.

On Thursday, Wenig told analysts and investors that the Marketplaces business will deliver "at least" market rates of growth.

"They are saying they have fixed the core marketplace, and they are now positioned to drive incremental growth from local, mobile and global initiatives," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.

CEO Donahoe said that the company would enable $300 billion of commerce in 2015, up 71 percent from $175 billion in 2012.

That forecast includes sales on eBay's online marketplace, payments processed by PayPal and other transactions touched by the company's various businesses, such as GSI Commerce.

"That's one of the ways we will measure our success," Donahoe said during eBay's investor day at its headquarters in Silicon Valley.

To get this done, eBay is focusing on three main sources of potential growth - global expansion, local commerce and mobile applications that it hopes will encourage consumers to shop more on its marketplace and use PayPal more to pay for those purchases.

EBay is aiming to increase sales in emerging markets and BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China, by four times current levels in three years, Wendy Jones, an executive overseeing the global push, said.

By the end of 2015, as much as 25 percent of eBay active users and over 12 percent of global sales will come from BRIC countries and emerging markets, she added.

EBay's top executives will give other, new three-year financial forecasts later on Thursday.

Expectations run high on Wall Street. Anmuth of J.P. Morgan, is expecting revenue of $21.16 billion in 2015 and earnings of $3.98 per share that year, versus $14 billion and $2.36 a share in 2012.

The analyst is also calling for 2015 PayPal transaction volume of $246.9 billion that year.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Tim Dobbyn, and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ebay-ceo-says-company-enable-300-billion-commerce-154139664--sector.html

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Stocks lower as Italy adds to European fears

JeeYeon Park , CNBC ? ? ? 8 hrs.

Stocks recovered most of their earlier losses to close narrowly mixed Wednesday, with the S&P 500 finishing slightly below its closing high, as ongoing economic and political concerns over Europe kept a lid on gains.

(Read More: It's Back! Dark Clouds From Europe Stall US Bull Run)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shaved most of its early losses. JPMorgan led the blue-chip laggards, while Intel gained. The Dow was down as much as 120 points earlier before recovering.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq erased most of their losses to close narrowly mixed. The S&P has zigzagged between gains and losses for the last seven sessions.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near.

Major averages ended near their best ever levels on Tuesday, with the Dow posting a new high and S&P 500 finishing less than 2 points from its closing peak.

(Read More:Bulls Revved Up to Take Out Next Stocks Milestone)

Among key S&P sectors, telecoms were lower, while health care rose.

On the economic front, pending home sales slid 0.4 percent in February, according to the National Association of Realtors. Economists polled by Reuters expected a 0.2 percent decline, compared with a 4.5 percent rise in the prior month.

(Read More: Housing Headwinds Still Exist: Shiller)

In Europe, political deadlock continued in Italy as the country's main leadership candidate Pier Luigi's Bersani reportedly said that only an "insane person" would want to govern the nation now, adding that Italy is "in a mess and faces a difficult year ahead."

Bersani made the remark after the anti-establishment "Five Star Movement" party headed by comedian Beppe Grillo again refused to form a coalition government with Bersani, thwarting his latest attempts to form a governing alliance.

(Read More: Hey Euro Zone, You Overrate Yourself: Moody's)

A political stalemate since its inconclusive elections in late February has spiked concerns over how the country will handle its growing debt problems. Italy paid more to borrow over five years than it has since October at its latest auction, indicating worries over its financial situation.

The euro extended its losses below $1.28 against the U.S. greenback, its lowest level since late November.

Elsewhere in Europe, Cyprus is finalizing financial control measures to prevent a run on its banks, which have been shut for a week since the country agreed to a conditional 10 billion euro ($12.8 billion) bailout from international lenders. Cypriots have been lining up to withdraw cash from ATMs, with limits at 100 euros a day for some banks.

"Banks will open on Thursday ... We will look at the best way to limit the possibility of large sums of money leaving, and not imposing punitive conditions on the economy, businesses and individuals," Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris said in an interview on Cypriot television.

"Cyprus is a reason to remind investors that Europe is a source of risk, but I'm not sure Cyprus itself is going to be enough [for a market pullback from the recent run-up]," said Thomas Lee, chief U.S. equity strategist at JPMorgan. "The big picture still points to a major secular bull market being underway, with at least another four years left, led by durable goods."

Trading is likely to be thin ahead of the three-day Easter weekend. U.S. markets will be closed Friday for Good Friday.

Comcast edged higher after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the cable company in an antitrust case over how much the company charged subscribers. (Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal.)

Wal-Mart declined after the world's largest retailer said that probes into alleged foreign bribery at its stores are likely to result in a financial loss. Separately, the company said it would start using stores to get Internet orders to shoppers faster, amid growing competition from online rivals such as Amazon.com.

Boeing edged lower as its 787 Dreamliners face a temporary ban on some of the transocean flights, which would be a costly new challenge for the company.

Cliffs Natural Resources plunged to lead the S&P 500 laggards after Morgan Stanley downgraded the iron ore and metallurgical coal producer to "underweight" from "equal-weight." Rivals Alpha Natural Resources and Peabody Energy also traded lower.

Mattress Firm soared more than 10 percent after the mattress maker provided solid guidance for fiscal 2013. In addition, Raymond James upgraded the company to "outperform" from "market perform." Other mattress companies bounced higher, including Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort.

Weekly mortgage applications rebounded last week as interest rates pulled back for the first time in three weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Paychex and Red Hat are among notable companies scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell.

Earlier, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren supported the central bank's asset purchase program, saying it is having the desired impact of speeding up the pace of the recovery and should be continued through the end of the year. Meanwhile, Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto said the Federal Reserve should consider tapering off the pace of its bond-buying stimulus plan if the U.S. economy continues to show signs of improvement.

And Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said the Fed should ease monetary policy further to bring the unemployment rate down at a faster rate. Kocherlakota expects the jobless rate to be close to 7 percent by the end of 2014, and forecasts growth around 2.5 percent this year and 3 percent next year.

Treasury prices held their gains after the government auctioned $35 billion in 5-year notes at a high yield of 0.760 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.73.

(Read More: Global 'Triple-A Ratings Club' Shrinks 60 Percent)

?By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Obama signs measure to avoid government shutdown (Washington Bureau)

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Simulations uncover obstacle to harnessing laser-driven fusion: Under realistic conditions, hollow cones fail to guide energetic electrons to fuel

Mar. 26, 2013 ? A once-promising approach for using next-generation, ultra-intense lasers to help deliver commercially viable fusion energy has been brought into serious question by new experimental results and first-of-a-kind simulations of laser-plasma interaction.

Researchers at The Ohio State University are evaluating a two-stage process in which a pellet of fusion fuel is first crushed by lasers on all sides, shrinking the pellet to dozens of times its original size, followed by an ultra-intense burst of laser light to ignite a chain reaction. This two-stage approach is called Fast Ignition, and there are a few variants on the theme.

In a recent paper, the Ohio State research group considered the long-discussed possibility of using a hollow cone to maintain a channel for the ultra-intense "ignitor pulse" to focus laser energy on the compressed pellet core. Drawing on both experimental results from studies at the Titan Laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and massively-parallel computer simulations of the laser-target interaction performed at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) in Columbus, Ohio, the research team found compelling evidence that the cone-guided approach to Fast Ignition has a serious flaw.

"In the history of fusion research, two-steps-forward and one-step-back stories are a common theme," said Chris Orban, Ph.D., a researcher of the High Energy Density Physics research group at Ohio State and the lead theorist on the project. "But sometimes progress is about seeing what's not going to work, just as much as it is looking forward to the next big idea."

Since the ultra-intense pulse delivers energy to the fuel through relativistic electrons accelerated by the laser interaction, the Ohio State study focused on the coupling of the laser light to electrons and the propagation of those electrons through the cone target. Rather than investigating how the interaction would work on a high-demand, high-cost facility like the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is also based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the largest scientific operations in the world, the researchers considered experiments just across from NIF at the Titan laser, which is much smaller and easily accessible.

These images from their simulations highlight the trajectories of randomly-selected electrons for a thin cone (left) and thick cone (right), each attached to a copper wire. Background colors show the strength of the electric fields pointing away from the cone and wire. For thin cones, the electric fields act to guide energetic electrons forward into the wire while for thick cones -- a more realistic case -- these fields are too distant to be effective. An animation of the simulation is available online at: http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~orban/cone_wire_final5mJ_4_5ps.avi.

Despite its size and despite having lower total energy, for a brief moment the Titan laser is many thousands of times more intense than NIF, which makes it a decent stand-in as a second-stage ignitor pulse. The OSU-led experimental team focused the Titan pulse on hollow cone targets attached at the tip to copper wires and observed the burst of X-ray photons coming from the copper as a measure of the laser energy to relativistic electron conversion efficiency.

The X-ray signal was much lower from the hollow cones with thicker cone walls. "This was strong evidence to the experimental team that the typical approach to cone-guided Fast Ignition wouldn't work, since thicker cones should be more realistic than thin cones," said Orban. "This is because electrons are free to move around in a dense plasma, much like they do in a normal metal, so the thicker cone target is like a thin cone embedded in a dense plasma."

These intuitions were tested in simulations performed at OSC. Whereas earlier efforts to simulate the laser-target interaction were forced to simplify or shrink the target size in order to make the calculations more feasible, Orban used the LSP code to perform the first-ever, full-scale 2D Particle-In-Cell simulations of the entire laser-target interaction using fully realistic laser fields.

These simulations also included a sophisticated model for the pre-heating of the target from stray laser light ahead of the ultra-intense pulse developed by collaborators at the Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago.

"We were delighted to help Chris use the FLASH code to provide realistic initial conditions for his Particle-In-Cell simulations," said Don Lamb, director of the Flash Center. "This is an outstanding example of how two groups can collaborate to achieve a scientific result that neither could have achieved alone."

To conduct the simulations, the Ohio State researchers accessed OSC's flagship Oakley Cluster supercomputer system. The HP-built system features 8,300+ Intel Xeon cores and 128 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Oakley can achieve 88 teraflops, tech-speak for performing 88 trillion calculations per second, or, with acceleration from the NVIDIA GPUs, a total peak performance of 154 teraflops.

"The simulations pointed to the electric fields building up on the edge of the cone as the key to everything," said Orban. "The thicker the cone is, the further away the cone edge is from the laser, and as a result fewer energetic electrons are deflected forward, which is the crucial issue in making cone-guided Fast Ignition a viable approach."

With both the experiment and the simulations telling the same story, the evidence is compelling that the cone-guided route to Fast Ignition is an unlikely one. While other studies have come to similar conclusions, the group was the first to identify the plasma surrounding the cone as a severe hindrance. Thankfully, there are still many other ideas for successfully igniting the fusion pellet with current or soon-to-be-constructed laser facilities. Any future efforts to spark fusion reactions with these lasers using a two-stage fast-ignition approach must be mindful to consider the neutralizing effect of the free electrons in the dense plasma.

"We could not have completed this project without the Oakley Cluster," Orban noted. "It was the perfect combination of speed and RAM and availability for us. And thanks to the profiling I was able to do, the compute time for our production runs went from two weeks in November 2011 to three or four days as of February 2012."

"Energy and the environment is one of the primary focus areas of the center, and this research fits perfectly into that domain," said Brian Guilfoos, the client and technology support manager for OSC. "Many of our systems were designed and software packages selected to best support the type of computing required by investigators working in fields related to our focus areas."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio Supercomputer Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. K. U. Akli, C. Orban, D. Schumacher, M. Storm, M. Fatenejad, D. Lamb, R. R. Freeman. Coupling of high-intensity laser light to fast electrons in cone-guided fast ignition. Physical Review E, 2012; 86 (6) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.065402

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/2LmJkrdgNbo/130326162340.htm

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In Russia, teen complains of adoptive US parents

In this photo taken on Saturday, March 20, 2013, Alexander Abnosov shows his American passport to journalists in the Volga river city of Cheboksary, Russia. His 72 -years old grandmother is in the background. Abnosov was adopted by an American couple at age 12 has returned to Russia claiming that his parents treated him badly, according to reports from Russian media with close ties to the Kremlin. (AP Photo/Nikolay Alexandrov)

In this photo taken on Saturday, March 20, 2013, Alexander Abnosov shows his American passport to journalists in the Volga river city of Cheboksary, Russia. His 72 -years old grandmother is in the background. Abnosov was adopted by an American couple at age 12 has returned to Russia claiming that his parents treated him badly, according to reports from Russian media with close ties to the Kremlin. (AP Photo/Nikolay Alexandrov)

MOSCOW (AP) ? A teenager adopted by an American couple has returned to Russia after five years claiming that his adoptive family treated him badly and that he lived on the streets of Philadelphia and stole just to survive, according to Russian state media reports.

The allegations by Alexander Abnosov, now 18, will likely fuel outrage here over the fate of Russian children adopted by Americans. It's an anger that the Kremlin has carefully stoked to justify its controversial ban on U.S. adoptions.

Russia's Channel 1 and Rossiya television ? which are both state controlled ? reported Tuesday that Abnosov returned from a Philadelphia suburb to the Volga river city of Cheboksary, where his 72-year-old grandmother lives.

Russian media identified the teen as Alexander Abnosov, but also show him displaying a U.S. passport that gives his name as Joshua Alexander Salotti.

Abnosov, who spoke in a soft voice and appeared somewhat restrained, complained to Rossiya that his adoptive mother was "nagging at small things."

"She would make any small problem big," he said on Channel 1. He also told Channel 1 that he fled home because of the conflicts with his adoptive mother, staying on the streets for about three months and stealing.

"I was stealing stuff and sold them to get some food," he said with a shy smile.

According to the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, Abnosov says that his parents visited him while he stayed in a shelter in Philadelphia, but that they didn't ask him to come home as he'd expected. Channel 1 said his adoptive father gave him $500 to buy a ticket to Russia, though it wasn't clear when he arrived here.

The newspaper said it reached Abnosov's adoptive mother, who denied driving him away. She was quoted as saying he was asked to come home, but said he wanted to return to Russia where he has relatives to care for.

The teen's adoptive parents ? identified in the media reports as Steve and Jackie Salotti ? could not immediately be reached Tuesday. A woman who identified herself as a relative at the couple's home in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, said the parents weren't there and did not want to discuss the case.

Abnosov's story was top news on Russian state television, which tried to cast it as an example of the alleged misfortunes that befall Russian children adopted by U.S. parents.

The Russian government in December banned all American adoptions of Russian children in retaliation for a new U.S. law targeting alleged Russian human-rights violators.

Some 60,000 children have been adopted by Americans in the past two decades, and many Russians disagree with the ban, seeing it as a politically driven move depriving children of a chance to have a family.

To help justify it, the ban has been accompanied by extensive state media coverage of what is described as numerous cases of parental cruelty to adopted Russian children in the United States. The Kremlin also has accused U.S. authorities of turning a blind eye to such cases.

Most recently, Russian officials pointed to the Jan. 21 death of 3-year-old Max Shatto, born Maxim Kuzmin, whose mother found him unresponsive outside their home in Gardendale, Texas.

Russian officials claimed the boy was the victim of "inhuman treatment," and expressed disbelief with an American grand jury decided earlier this month not to charge Max's adoptive parents in his death after a prosecutor concluded his fatal injuries were accidental.

Abnosov's grandmother told Rossiya that she was refused custody of her grandson after his alcoholic father died five years ago.

"I've been asking them to give me the boy," she said, referring to child welfare officials. "But I was very ill then, and they told me I was too old and ill to raise him."

Abnosov indicated he plans to stay in Russia, and state media reported that he is going through the legal process needed to establish at what level he would fit in the Russian education system.

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Maryclaire Dale in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-26-Russia-US-Adoption/id-6b3ee462aa8b49ac87b49d6b9c18d62e

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Monday Brief: An interview with Thorsten Heins, HTC One review, and more!

Mobile Nations Podcast Feed Mobile Nations on iTunes Mobile Nations YouTube Debug 10: Tammy Coron of Nickelfish and the iMore app Iterate 42: Marcus Adolfsson, David Lunblad and CrackBerry 10	HTC One Review Eric Schmidt: Chrome and Android to remain separate Note taking app Google Keep now available in Google Play and on the web
CrackBerry video interview with BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins! The first ten things to do with your new BlackBerry Z10 BlackBerry Travel now available for BlackBerry 10	Switching to iPhone? Here's how to make it more like webOS Infinite card cycling with LunaCE
Swinging for the stars: On Apple's hiring of Kevin Lynch How to enable two-step verification for your Apple ID WTF does Eric Schmidt want us to "ask Apple" about Google Now for iOS? iMore show 341: Boring, still a phone (with Clayton Morris of Fox News)	Pandora for Windows Phone 8 is now available and we go hands on Upcoming AT&T Nokia Lumia 920 firmware update shows up on Navifirm, preparing for launch Sprint launches Windows Phone 8 landing page, signs of what's yet to come

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/tyeK6EZUsNE/story01.htm

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Live donkey helps church observe Palm Sunday

FAIRFIELD -- The children sat cross-legged in the front of the First Presbyterian Church Sunday morning holding palm branches close to their chests.

"Are these palms real?" asked one little boy, just minutes before the children headed to Sunday school to learn about Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and was welcomed by people waving palm branches.

Indeed, the palms were real. But it wasn't until the children were seated in class that they learned about the day's big surprise -- a live donkey would soon arrive on the church's front lawn.

After that, "it was so hard to keep their attention through the whole class," said teacher Kim Louise Spinosa, laughing.

As soon as the children were led outside, the palms were given to parents so Jessie, a 20-year-old donkey from JC's Pony Parties in Seymour, wouldn't confuse them for food.

"I feel like the donkey is going to chase me," said one middle-schooler, as Jessie lazily swung its head his way.

"I like it," declared kindergartner Audrey Anderson, who needed little prompting to remember who rode the donkey in the day's gospel readings.

"Jesus," she said, beaming.

Peti Deer, 14, said he didn't expect to be chosen to dress up as one of the disciples sent by Jesus to get the donkey he would later ride into Jerusalem.

"It was a good surprise," Peti said. "You have a real sense of what it was like."

Parishioner Jen Richard's eyes grew wide as Beth Brooks, Jessie's handler, informed the group that donkeys have dark hair on their backs shaped like a cross.

"I think it's fabulous," said Richard, a Fairfield resident. "It just strikes me that the donkey is so meek and mild. I didn't know there was a cross on the back of every one. It makes it seem more real."

Her son, James, who finished reading the Old Testament in his children's Bible recently, was excited to touch and take pictures with Jessie, "especially on Palm Sunday because that's when Jesus rode to town on a donkey."

The 10-year-old's younger siblings, meanwhile, preferred to stay inside the church.

"They want nothing to do with the donkey," said their father, Jeff Richard.

The Rev. Edward Duffy said the church has brought donkeys to Palm Sunday services in the past and would like to make it an annual tradition.

"We've been trying to do it every year, but it's not the easiest thing to find a donkey," Duffy said, noting that it took several tries to find a local farm with a donkey.

"Can you picture Jesus riding on one of these?" Carol Fraser, of Fairfield, asked those gathered around Jessie.

"They are so sturdy and so strong," Brooks said. "I absolutely could."

ktorres@ctpost.com, 203-330-6321, http://facebook.com/ktorresbpt or http://twitter.com/ktorresbpt

Source: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Live-donkey-helps-church-observe-Palm-Sunday-4380596.php

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Kathmandu Interim Profit Boosted By Strong Sales | Stuff.co.nz

Outdoor gear retailer Kathmandu has posted net profit of $10.3 million for the six months to January 31, a 72 per cent leap compared to the same period last year.

The figure was at the upper end of the earnings forecast the company provided in February when it said it expected net profit between $9.5m to $10.5m.

The surge in net profit was helped by the fact that this time last year the company faced one-off costs as it bedded in new systems, particularly in warehouse management, which did not recur this year.

Sales surged 13.1 per cent, or $19.2m to $165.9m and earnings before interest and tax were 24.4 per cent higher at $15.8 million.

A fully imputed interim dividend of 3 cents a share will be paid.

Kathmandu chief executive Peter Halkett said strong sales growth over the period had been underpinned by successful new store openings and a "solid" increase in same-store sales, despite a challenging market overall.

Australian same-store sales growth surged 9.6 per cent, outperforming New Zealand stores.

Online sales growth of more than 50 per cent on the same period last year was an important part of the 3.7 per cent increase in same-store sales growth but still represented less than 5 per cent of total sales.

The company opened nine new stores in Australia during the six months, and relocated three stores.

The new stores had met or exceeded sales expectations, Halkett said.

Gross profit margin had held steady with the same period last year within the 62-64 per cent target range.

The company plans to open 15 new stores this financial year with five to open before July 31, four of them in Australia.

Overall earnings growth for the full year would rely largely on continued growth in Australia, Halkett said.

The stock last traded at $2.45 a share?

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/financial-results/8473307/Strong-sales-boost-Kathmandu-profit

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EU suspends most Zimbabwe sanctions after referendum

By Adrian Croft

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union suspended most sanctions on Zimbabwe on Monday after the country's voters approved a new constitution limiting presidential powers and paving the way for an election.

The move is the most far-reaching step so far in the European Union's strategy of easing sanctions to encourage political and economic reform in the southern African country.

Zimbabwe has been governed by an uneasy coalition since President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were forced into a power-sharing deal after a disputed 2008 vote.

"The EU ... has today agreed to immediately suspend the application of measures against 81 individuals and eight entities," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

Ten people, including Mugabe, and two companies, including state-run diamond mining company the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), remain on the sanctions list, restricted by asset freezes and travel bans, an EU source said.

A number of "key decision makers" would remain under EU sanctions until peaceful, transparent and credible elections had been held, Ashton said.

Zimbabwe is expected to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in the second half of the year in what will be seen as a showdown between political rivals Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Britain, the former colonial power which has regularly clashed with Mugabe, said EU sanctions remained in place on a small core of people around the president.

"That small group includes those who we believe ultimately carry the most responsibility for ensuring elections are free of violence and intimidation," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.

The European Union first imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2002, in protest against human rights abuses and violations of democracy under Mugabe's rule.

Rugare Gumbo, a spokesman for Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, said it was "completely unacceptable" for the European Union to only partially lift sanctions.

"We want them unconditionally removed. There is no reason why some should be removed from the list while some remain. There is nothing we have done to deserve these illegal sanctions anyway," he said in Harare.

INTIMIDATION

In a referendum on March 16, nearly 95 percent of voters approved a new constitution that limits presidential terms and strengthens the powers of the cabinet and parliament.

Ashton said the peaceful vote was a significant step towards implementing the 2008 power-sharing agreement.

She said however that the European Union was concerned about recent reports of harassment of political activists.

EU foreign ministers last month removed 21 people and one company from the sanctions list. They also hammered out a compromise under which ZMDC, which operates five diamond mines in Zimbabwe's rich Marange fields, would be freed from sanctions within a month of peaceful and credible elections being held.

The new limits on presidential terms do not apply retroactively, so Mugabe, 89, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, could still theoretically rule for the next decade.

The referendum passed without incident and turnout was high. But Mugabe detractors seized on the arrest of four staff members from Tsvangirai's party and a leading human rights lawyer as evidence that ZANU-PF is bent on intimidating rivals before the election.

(Additional reporting by Nelson Banya in Harare and Mohammed Abbas in London; Editing by Rex Merrifield and Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-suspends-sanctions-most-zimbabwean-firms-people-132647182.html

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Android Advanced: USB OTG on the Nexus 4

Owners of previous Nexus devices have enjoyed the ability to directly connect to USB flash drives and other peripherals using USB OTG (On The Go). The online help manual for the Nexus 4 originally said it would also have this feature, until Google removed it, instead suggesting the use of Bluetooth accessories. Many speculated about why this happened, and wondered if this was a hardware limitation or simply something missing from the software.

Thanks to the proof of concept by CaptainMuon and the subsequent work of ziddey at XDA Developers, we now have a clearer picture of exactly what went wrong with the Nexus 4's OTG capabilities, as well a working solution for those still wanting connectivity to things like thumb drives, mice, and keyboards.

This is no simple app install - root is required, as well as modifying your phone's software. No hardware modifications to the phone itself are needed, but you will need a special cable, which can be purchased or built at home. Ready to jump in? Hit the break for the complete guide.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/9BQIoz1xfAA/story01.htm

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Kerry warns Iraq on Iran flights to Syria

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 24, 2013. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and will urge Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make sure Iranian flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria, a U.S. official said. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 24, 2013. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and will urge Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make sure Iranian flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria, a U.S. official said. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, second right, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 24, 2013. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and will urge Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make sure Iranian flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria, a U.S. official said. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 24, 2013. Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and will urge al-Maliki to make sure Iranian flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria, a U.S. official said. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, right, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 24, 2013. Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and will urge al-Maliki to make sure Iranian flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria, a U.S. official said. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, arrives to meet with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, not pictured, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 24, 2013. Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and will urge al-Maliki to make sure Iranian flights over Iraq do not carry arms and fighters to Syria, a U.S. official said. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

BAGHDAD (AP) ? The U.S. has made clear to Iraq that it shouldn't allow Iran to use its airspace to ship weapons and fighters to Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters Sunday during an unannounced trip to Baghdad.

Kerry's comments come as U.S. lawmakers are calling for President Barack Obama to do more to stop the bloodshed in Syria, including possible airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad's aircraft fleet. U.S. officials say ongoing efforts to aid opposition groups in Syria have been undermined by Iran, which is using Iraqi airspace without objections by Iraq.

On Sunday, Kerry said Iraq's tacit approval of Iranian overflights left the American people "wondering how it is a partner."

"I made it very clear that for those of us who are engaged in an effort to see President Assad step down ... anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry said following a private discussion with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, on Sunday called for a greater U.S. presence in the Syrian conflict to prevent chemical and conventional weapons from falling into the wrong hands. He said the U.S. should create a "safe zone" in northern Syria that would give the U.S. more leverage with opposition forces.

"This doesn't mean the 101st Airborne Division and ships" are deployed, Rogers told CBS' "Face the Nation." ''It means small groups with special capabilities reengaging the opposition so we can vet them, train them, equip them so they can be an effective fighting force."

Rogers' comments reflect an increasingly frustrated Congress that sees unrest in Syria as dangerous to U.S. interests. Last week, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., asked Obama in a letter to step up U.S. military efforts in the region, including destroying Assad's aircraft using precision airstrikes.

The overflights in Iraq have long been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq

U.S. officials say that in the absence of a complete ban on flights, the U.S. would at least like the planes to land and be inspected in Iraq to ensure that they are carrying humanitarian supplies. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton secured a pledge from Iraq to inspect the flights last year, but since then only two aircraft have been checked by Iraqi authorities, according to U.S. officials.

One senior U.S. official said the sheer number of overflights, which occur "close to daily," along with shipments trucked to Syria from Iran through Iraq, was inconsistent with claims they are only carrying humanitarian supplies. The official said it was in Iraq's interest to prevent the situation in Syria from deteriorating further, particularly as there are fears that al-Qaida-linked extremists may gain a foothold in the country as the Assad regime falters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly, said there are clear links between al-Qaida linked extremists operating in Syria and militants who are also carrying out terrorist attacks in Iraqi territory with increasing regularity.

In addition to al-Maliki, Kerry saw Iraqi parliament speaker parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, whose faction is at odds with Maliki's Shiia. Kerry also spoke by phone with Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Regional Government based in Irbil to encourage the Kurds not go ahead with unilateral actions - especially involving oil, like a pipeline deal with Turkey.

Kerry's arrival came just three days after the anniversary of the U.S.-led war that began on March 20, 2003, with an airstrike on Dora Farms in southern Baghdad in a failed attempt to kill Hussein.

The invasion and toppling of Hussein sparked years of bloodshed as Sunni and Shiite militants battled U.S. forces and each other, leaving nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis dead.

Violence has ebbed sharply since the peak of Sunni-Shiite fighting that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007. But insurgents are still able to stage high-profile attacks, and sectarian and ethnic rivalries remain threats to the country's long-term stability.

Earlier this week, an al-Qaida in Iraq front group claimed responsibility nearly 20 attacks that killed 65 people across the country on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Islamic State of Iraq said it unleashed the car bombs and other explosions to avenge the executions and "massacres" of convicted Sunni inmates held in Iraqi prisons. Its claim came on the 10th anniversary of the start of the war, although it made no reference to the significance of the date.

Kerry arrived in Baghdad from Amman, where he had been accompanying President Barack Obama on his tour of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. His visit to Iraq is the first by a U.S. secretary of state since Clinton went in April 2009. During Obama's first term, the Iraq portfolio was largely delegated to Vice President Joe Biden.

Since Clinton's trip, the American diplomatic presence in Iraq has shrunk dramatically, most significantly since U.S. ended military operations in late 2011, according to officials. A year ago, there were 16,000 State Department employees and contractors in the country. As of Kerry's visit, that number had declined to 10,500 and it will drop to 5,100 by the end of 2013, officials said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-24-Mideast-Kerry/id-70709c58b88c4c76acb031e2c6cc22b3

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Video: Senate Budget Vote-o-Rama

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/51297488/

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Lawyer: No charges for Lohan in NYC assault case

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2012 file photo, Lindsay Lohan attends the Mr. Pink Ginseng launch party at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. An attorney for Lindsay Lohan says New York City prosecutors will not charge her for an alleged fight at a Manhattan nightclub last November. Attorney Marc Heller says the actress faces no formal charges after prosecutors were unable to gather sufficient evidence to prove the case. Lohan was arrested Nov. 29 on a charge of misdemeanor assault after an incident with Tiffany Mitchell at the club Avenue in the city's trendy Meat Packing district. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2012 file photo, Lindsay Lohan attends the Mr. Pink Ginseng launch party at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. An attorney for Lindsay Lohan says New York City prosecutors will not charge her for an alleged fight at a Manhattan nightclub last November. Attorney Marc Heller says the actress faces no formal charges after prosecutors were unable to gather sufficient evidence to prove the case. Lohan was arrested Nov. 29 on a charge of misdemeanor assault after an incident with Tiffany Mitchell at the club Avenue in the city's trendy Meat Packing district. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? New York City prosecutors will not charge Lindsay Lohan in an alleged fight at a Manhattan nightclub in November, an attorney for the actress said Friday.

Attorney Marc Heller said the Lohan faces no formal charges after prosecutors were unable to gather sufficient evidence to prove the case.

"She's totally clear and exonerated," Heller said. "She has nothing but smooth sailing ahead."

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to comment.

Lohan was arrested Nov. 29 on a charge of misdemeanor assault after an encounter with a woman at the club Avenue in the city's trendy Meatpacking District.

Lohan's accuser, Tiffany Mitchell, was "disappointed" that the district attorney's office decided not to prosecute, said her attorney, Gloria Allred.

"Ms. Mitchell is considering all of her legal options in the civil justice system because of what she suffered that night," said Allred.

The district attorney's decision was welcomed news for "Liz and Dick" star, who accepted a plea deal Monday in a misdemeanor car crash case in California.

The troubled 26-year-old actress was sentenced to spend five days in jail, but that time will be served in a locked-down rehabilitation facility. The plea deal also includes 90 days in rehab, 30 days of community labor, 18 months of psychological counseling, a fine and restitution.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-22-US-People-Lindsay-Lohan/id-66ce374347a94a2cb46b82b82e63bfe6

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Obama withdraws appeals court pick

FILE - This April 27, 2005 file photo shows Caitlin J. Halligan, in the Court of Appeals in Albany, N.Y. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked the confirmation of federal appeals court nominee Caitlin Halligan for the second time, denying President Barack Obama a key judicial appointment. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight)

FILE - This April 27, 2005 file photo shows Caitlin J. Halligan, in the Court of Appeals in Albany, N.Y. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked the confirmation of federal appeals court nominee Caitlin Halligan for the second time, denying President Barack Obama a key judicial appointment. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama withdrew his nomination of Caitlin Halligan to a federal appeals court Friday, handing a victory to Republicans in the Senate who twice blocked his pick for the key judicial post.

Calling the obstruction by Republicans unjustified and unacceptable, Obama said he agreed to Halligan's request to be pulled from consideration even though she would have served with distinction on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

"I am deeply disappointed that even after nearly two and a half years, a minority of senators continued to block a simple up-or-down vote on her nomination," Obama said in a statement the White House issued while he was traveling in Jordan.

Senate Republicans blocked Halligan's confirmation for a second time in early March, arguing that Halligan is too liberal and citing her work on lawsuits against gun manufacturers and on behalf of illegal immigrants. The National Rifle Association also staunchly opposed her confirmation.

The D.C. appeals court and its makeup are of critical importance to the president, with oversight of many of the actions his administration takes. The court handles challenges to most federal rulemaking and oversees federal agencies based in Washington. Obama noted it's also often considered the second-highest court in the U.S.

It's also something of a pipeline to the Supreme Court. Four of the nine Supreme Court justices served on the D.C. Circuit before being confirmed to the higher court. Halligan herself was nominated to fill the position that John Roberts vacated when he became chief justice.

There are four vacancies on the court, with judges nominated by Republican presidents holding a 4-3 majority.

Halligan's nomination has been a flash point for Obama and Republicans since 2010, when Obama first tapped her and Republicans first intervened, using a procedural maneuver to prevent a vote on her confirmation. Obama re-nominated her at the start of 2013, but her confirmation again fell victim to GOP opposition in early March. Although a majority of senators, 51, supported Halligan's nomination, Democrats needed 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to get it past Republican objections.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Halligan is among the most qualified nominees he's ever seen a president nominate and that she would certainly have been confirmed had Republicans permitted a regular vote, where only a simple majority would be required.

"It is a shame that narrow, special interests hold such influence," he said.

In a letter Friday to Obama, Halligan said it had been a "tremendous honor" to be nominated, but she made no reference to the clash with Republicans that stymied her confirmation.

"After much reflection, I believe that the time has come for me to respectfully to withdraw my pending nomination from further consideration," wrote Halligan, general counsel for the New York County District Attorney's Office.

The skirmish over Halligan's nomination has also become entangled in a larger partisan fight over Republican efforts to hinder Obama's agenda and the use of Senate procedures to prevent the president from getting his judicial picks.

"Nominations to this court are beginning to be treated like Supreme Court nominees, with very close scrutiny," said Carl Tobias, who teaches law at the University of Richmond. "Senators could be emboldened to filibuster more appeals court nominees ? especially for the D.C. Circuit."

Democrats have accused the GOP of foiling Halligan's nomination as part of a plot to maintain a conservative majority on the key appellate court. Republicans have insisted that's not true, arguing that they objected specifically to Halligan, not Democratic nominees in general.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Halligan's former work as solicitor general for the state of New York "a textbook example of judicial activism." In one case he cited, Halligan filed a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the National Labor Relations Board should have the legal authority to grant back pay to illegal aliens. In another, Halligan argued that gun manufacturers contributed to a public nuisance of illegal handguns in the state.

The White House said it has 18 judicial nominees awaiting confirmation. Among them is U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz, who has been waiting more than a year for her confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia.

Obama's judicial nominees ? not counting the Supreme Court ? have waited an average of 117 days for final confirmation after being approved in committee, the White House said. That's compared to 34 days for President George W. Bush and 16 days for President Bill Clinton at the equivalent point in their presidencies.

The White House has not said whom Obama will nominate in place of Halligan, nor what the timeline will be for making that decision.

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-22-US-Obama-Appeals-Court/id-30863114edda4316bd0035ce0d616e1d

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Cyber-attack on South Korea may not have come from China after all: regulator

SEOUL (Reuters) - This week's cyber-attack on South Korean broadcasters and banks may not have originated in China after all as the IP address has been traced to one of the victim banks, the communications regulator said on Friday.

But it couldn't rule anything out, it added.

Hackers on Wednesday brought down the networks of three broadcasters and two banks, initially seen as the work of North Korea using its vast army of "cyber-warriors" to cripple computer servers.

Officials in Seoul originally said they had traced the breach to a server in China, a country that has been used by North Korean hackers in the past.

North Korea has threatened to attack both South Korea and the United States after it was hit with further U.N. sanctions for its nuclear test in February.

But the Korea Communications Commission said closer investigation into the attack on NongHyup Bank showed the IP address was a virtual IP address used within the bank for internal purposes.

The IP address by coincidence matched an address registered in China, it said.

The regulator said it could not rule anything out. There were signs the malicious code used came through an overseas route and a single entity was likely responsible for the attack on all six targets.

Wednesday's attack hit the network servers of television broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS, Shinhan Bank and NongHyup. South Korea's military raised its alert levels in response.

About 32,000 computers were hit, according to the South's state-run Korea Internet Security Agency, adding it would take up to five days to fully restore functions.

It took the banks hours to restore banking services. Damage to the servers of the TV networks was believed to be more severe, although broadcasts were not affected.

North Korea has in the past targeted South Korea's conservative newspapers, banks and government institutions.

The biggest hacking effort attributed to Pyongyang was a 10-day denial of service attack in 2011 that antivirus firm McAfee, part of Intel Corp, dubbed "Ten Days of Rain". It said that attack was a bid to probe the South's computer defenses in the event of a real conflict.

South Korean authorities said Woori Bank was also attacked on Wednesday but was not infected.

North Korea last week complained that its own websites had been hacked, blaming the United States.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyber-attack-south-korea-may-not-come-china-081326731.html

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Aiming for 50 percent women in workplace: 'A tough goal'

Photo courtesy of Alcoa

Janne Sigurdsson, managing director of the Fjardaal smelter in Iceland, says that women need to be encouraged to apply for promotions, because they often don't believe they are qualified.

By Amy Langfield, TODAY contributor

NEW YORK ? Many companies pay lip service to workplace diversity, but few go as far as Coca Cola, which aims to reach gender parity across all levels of its business by 2020.

?It makes pure, good business sense,? Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said Tuesday when discussing his initiative, launched in 2008.

Coca-Cola Co., Alcoa Inc. and Unilever on Tuesday were presented Catalyst Awards for their global diversity strategies. The awards event, held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, focused on how other companies can get there too.

?This is hard work. It doesn?t just happen because you want it to,? Kent said. Under Coke?s Global Women?s Initiative, senior-level positions held by women have increased to nearly 30 percent globally from 23 percent, according to the company?s records. Coke?s initiative extends beyond its doors to empower and train women in their communities.

The Coca-Cola plan was triggered by company research that indicated that, globally, women make more than 70 percent of purchasing decisions related to its products.

Implementing the plan, the company set milestones, benchmarks and accountability for the managers. One way to provide clarity for managers, Kent said, is to make it a core goal that impacts pay. ?You start shaping your compensation around success in this program,? Kent said. ?When you talk about it in those terms, it really resonates.?

?We also made sure everybody understood the business case for it,? said Kathy Waller, Coca-Cola vice president, controller and chair of the company?s Women?s Leadership Council.?

Alcoa, the world?s leading aluminum producer, between 2008 and 2012 increased its female representation to 19 percent from 16 percent among executives, and to 25 percent from 22 percent for professional and plant manager roles. Those percentages increased even as the company cut its global workforce by 30 percent.

?It?s an obvious business imperative if you want to outperform your competition, you have to bring in women,? said Glen Morrison, president of Alcoa Building and Construction Systems.

Alcoa officials said they use outreach efforts and 10-percent bonuses, among other measures, for managers who meet diversity requirements to encourage women to join and stay at the company.

Morrison said it?s critical for companies to create an environment where women can return after having children. ?Otherwise you?re grooming this great talent and you?re letting it out of the workplace,? Morrison said.

Janne Sigurdsson is an Alcoa success story. Hired seven years ago as the IT manager for a smelting plant in Iceland, she?s now running the smelter, which is Alcoa?s lowest-cost and most efficient.0

At her remote Iceland plant, 33 percent of the managers are women; overall, 22 percent of the workers are women. The goal for the plant is 50 percent. ?It?s a tough goal,? Sigurdsson said.

?You need to do something extra,? she said when asked how to hire and retain women.

Sometimes it means sending promising employees back to school, or, as was her case, ?doling out encouragement to apply for a promotion.

?I?m not sure I would have applied,? Sigurdsson said of one of her five job changes at the plant. ?I was not sure I was ready.?

While she?s not always on the smelter floor, even office staff is trained to do dirty work when the power goes out at the plant, which operates 24/7. ?I can change the anodes. I can do pot-tending. I can do that when we have a crisis,? Sigurdsson said.

The Catalyst Awards were launched 1987 by the non-profit Catalyst group, which seeks to expand opportunities for women and business.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/29d3fe43/l/0Llifeinc0Btoday0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C210C173894570Eaiming0Efor0E50A0Epercent0Ewomen0Ein0Eworkplace0Ea0Etough0Egoal0Dlite/story01.htm

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