Rights group says Iraq becoming 'police state' (AP)

BAGHDAD ? Iraq's Shiite-led government cracked down harshly on dissent during the past year of Arab Spring uprisings, turning the country into a "budding police state" as autocratic regimes crumbled elsewhere in the region, an international rights groups said Sunday.

Security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, torture detainees and intimidate activists, Human Rights Watch said in the Iraq chapter of its annual report.

"Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the New York-based group. "Despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy (in Iraq), the reality is that it left behind a budding police state," she said.

Protests against Iraq's U.S.-backed and democratically elected government erupted around the country in February 2011, alongside other demonstrations in the Arab world.

While protests in other countries demanded the downfall of autocratic regimes, most of the demonstrations in Iraq pushed for improved services like reliable electricity and water, and an end to corruption.

The government clamped down, sometimes sparking bloody clashes ? as when 14 were killed in confrontations between security forces and civilians across the country during the Feb. 25 protests billed as the "Day of Rage."

A year later, with U.S. troops withdrawn and Iraq's government mired in a political crisis, the protest movement has all but died out. Demonstrators who gather in Baghdad's central Tahrir Square are usually outnumbered by the security forces watching over them.

"Iraqis are quickly losing ground on the most basic of rights, including the right to free speech and assembly," said Samer Muscati, an Iraq researcher for the group. "Nowadays, every time someone attends a peaceful protest, they put themselves at risk of attack and abuse by security forces or their proxies," he said.

Prison brutality, including torture in detention facilities, was a major problem throughout the year, the group's annual report said.

In February 2011 Human Rights Watch uncovered a secret detention center, controlled by elite forces who report to the prime minister's military office.

The group claimed authorities transferred more than 280 detainees to the facility since the beginning of 2010 and charged detainees were tortured there with impunity. Government officials denied the facility's existence and alleged abuses.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

tyche tyche jejune jejune who won the glee project who won the glee project full tilt poker

Urban US Chinatowns wane as Asians head to suburbs (AP)

WASHINGTON ? America's historic Chinatowns, home for a century to immigrants seeking social support and refuge from racism, are fading as rising living costs, jobs elsewhere and a desire for wider spaces lure Asian-Americans more than ever to the suburbs.

As the Lunar New Year begins Monday, annual festivities in Washington, D.C.'s shriveled Chinatown are, for the first time, being promoted by a large marketing firm. New York's Chinatown, one of the nation's oldest, has lost its status as home to the city's largest Chinese population, based on the 2010 census.

Shifts also are under way in Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Seattle, where shiny new "satellite Chinatowns" in the suburbs and outer city limits rival if not overshadow the originals.

"The traditional Chinatown is changing, and in most cities it is no longer the residential, political and cultural center of Asian-American life that it once was," said Wei Li, an Arizona State University professor who chairs the Census Bureau's advisory committee on the Asian population.

She explained that urban Chinatowns continue to serve a role for newly arrived immigrants with less education or lower skills who seek entry-level work, as well as for elderly residents with poor English skills who can't drive. But middle-class families are almost nowhere to be found, and in many cities, rising downtown property costs and urban gentrification threaten their traditional existence.

"Some have become functional as tourist attractions," Li said.

Signs of Chinatown decline can be seen in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, home to the nation's largest Asian-American population at 1.9 million. There, Monterey Park, deemed part of an "ethnoburb" outside Los Angeles after it became majority Asian-American in the 1990s, has long been a first stopping point for newly arrived Chinese seeking bigger houses away from downtown Los Angeles.

Due to fast growth, the Asian-American suburban population has spread to other areas of California's San Gabriel Valley and more recently to Irvine, where their share of the population jumped from 30 to 39 percent over the last decade.

"Irvine is one of the new wave of Asian communities, but it is not overtly Chinatown," said Ralph Lee, 28, of Irvine. Lee, whose immigrant parents reared him in the affluent seaside community of Newport Beach, Calif., has never been to the Los Angeles Chinatown.

Nationwide, about 62 percent of Asian-Americans in the nation's large metropolitan areas live in the suburbs, up from 54 percent in 1990 and the highest ever. Tied with Hispanics as the fastest-growing group, the nation's 4.4 million Asians are more likely than other minorities to live in the suburbs; only whites, at 78 percent, are higher.

Since 2000, nearly three-fourths of Asian population growth in the U.S. occurred in suburbs, many of them in the South.

"While the general image of Asians is associated with Chinatowns, Koreatowns or urban neighborhoods with Indian restaurants, the majority of all major Asian groups now live in the suburbs," said William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institution, who reviewed the census data. "Suburban living is still the American dream for most minorities in the U.S. and a sign of `making it,' and better schools are also a draw."

It wasn't always that way.

The first neighborhoods known as Chinatowns emerged in the 1800s during the Gold Rush and the building of railroads. After the work was done, a shortage of jobs led Congress to pass a law in 1882 banning the entry of new Chinese laborers. Seeking refuge, many Chinese in the U.S. avoided jobs that directly competed with white labor and opened laundries and restaurants in urban Chinatowns.

The neighborhoods prospered for much of the 20th century after the ban was lifted, before a loosening of federal immigration laws in 1965. That spurred waves of Asian immigrants in subsequent decades who filled existing Chinatowns and pushed new growth of communities elsewhere.

Today, lower-income immigrant families are now more apt to move to outer city areas in Flushing, Queens, or Sunset Park, Brooklyn, than New York's Chinatown, drawn by affordability and wider spaces. More immigrants, especially those who are affluent or hold college degrees, are heading straight to suburbs in the South including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Texas, where high-tech or manufacturing jobs are in greater supply.

The shifting migration is spurring development of new mini-Chinatowns in the suburbs and South, typically large shopping malls where residents living in subdivisions miles away can get a day of cultural community at the hair salon, Dim Sum restaurant or Asian supermarket.

"The movement from big-city ethnic enclaves suggests that discrimination and other barriers to upward mobility have declined," said Daniel Lichter, a Cornell University sociology professor who is president of the nonprofit Population Association of America. Still, traditional Chinatowns aren't necessarily going away, he says, comparing them to pockets of "Little Italy" where Americans of all backgrounds now shop and eat.

"Chinatown may change from being strictly safe havens for new Asian immigrants to serving America's never-ending appetite for new cultural experiences," Lichter said.

In the Washington, D.C., metro area, which has a population of one-half million Asian-Americans, fewer than 500 Asians live in Chinatown, down from around 3,000 in 1970. Once a close-knit community of modest shops and rowhouses, it now has become known more for a sports arena, high-rise luxury apartments and national chains including Starbucks, Bed Bath & Beyond and Hooters.

The Chinese residents have scattered to large Asian communities in suburban Montgomery County, Md., and Fairfax County, Va. Many who remain are elderly and live in federally subsidized housing, taking vans several times a week to Great Wall, a Chinese supermarket in suburban Falls Church, Va., so they can buy groceries.

"I'm not going to deny that Chinatown is shrinking," said Soohyun "Julie" Koo, director of the district's Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, who lives blocks away and is advising the planners of next week's Chinese New Year parade. Parade organizers recently told a local paper they had decided in the Year of the Dragon ? a symbol of power ? that it was time to think big to attract sponsors and promote the neighborhood's heritage.

Shirley Woo, 62, a district native who now lives in Fairfax, Va., has been visiting Chinatown since childhood. Her Chinese immigrant parents owned a laundromat in the city and would socialize with friends and dine there. But outside Chinatown, their options were limited, and she remembers taking trips to New York to stock up on groceries and other staples.

Now, she said, her mother lives in Silver Spring, Md., and has several nearby options that serve authentic Cantonese cuisine.

"Most people don't go down there to eat anyway," Woo said. "You don't think of Chinatown as having the best Chinese food."

___

Associated Press writer Amy Taxin in Irvine, Calif., contributed to this report.

___

Online: http://www.census.gov

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_go_ot/us_census_changing_chinatowns

national championship beezow doo doo zopittybop bop bop cordova lsu game lsu game truffles truffles

95% Pina

All Critics (56) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (3) | DVD (1)

Whether you're familiar with Pina Bausch's work or not, the new film "Pina" is a knockout.

So this is what 3-D is capable of when used for art rather than the commerce of hiking ticket prices and repurposing cartoons!

Pina is, in every way, a moving experience.

It should appeal to dance mavens, and to folks who have no idea what a pas de deux is.

The power and intelligence of Bausch's approach, which at times seems more cerebral than sensual, is communicated.

An intimate and ravishingly filmed tribute to German dancer Pina Bausch.

An exhilarating experience, both in its celebration of Bausch's groundbreaking work and in the thrilling way that Wenders captures it on camera.

It's not an overview of Bausch's career or a statement on her art, but a celebration of her work and the dancers who bring it to life.

This is a stunning film, a glorious homage to modern dance and one of its premier authors and the best justification of 3D technology to date.

With a breakout use of 3D for artistic rather than solely commercial blockbuster purposes, German director Wim Wenders gives extraordinary life to the work of choreographer Pina Bausch.

From the hauntingly beautiful to the scary, Pina Bausch's post-modern dance sparkles in 3D.

It's an enchanting film, one that makes you feel you are missing something dear if you don't dance or appreciate it as an art form.

An often exhilarating, lively, magical and breathtaking experience of Pina Bausch's art.

A welcome departure from the by-the-numbers fossilization in today's documentary deluge.

Thanks to 3D technology it's dance film quite unlike any other, which was filmmaker Wim Wenders' intention, and it's a transporting experience for the uninitiated and the cognoscenti alike.

...filmmaking as glorious music.

An amazing and appealing 3D documentary by the inimitable Wim Wenders on the innovative dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch.

A movie that does more than demolish the invisible wall between film and dance; it breaks the barrier that intervenes, even at a live performance, between seat and stage.

More Critic Reviews

No quotes approved yet for Pina. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pina_3d/

peter king tough love tough love patriots jets patriots jets the music man the music man

Board Post, January 19 2012 (slacktivist)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/188774675?client_source=feed&format=rss

dart progeria watch free movies online watch free movies online montreal canadiens montreal canadiens jason aldean

New Bruce Springsteen album out March 6

[unable to retrieve full-text content]NEW YORK (AP) ? Bruce Springsteen's new album, "Wrecking Ball," will be out March 6, and he's just released a new single, "We Take Care of Our Own."

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-19-People-Bruce%20Springsteen/id-9d414a5efc6d45e3b0195e415fb72994

dilbert alex jones drop dead diva crossfit droid bionic droid bionic nia

Is Azza al Garf Egypt?s Michele Bachmann?

Al Banna?s attitudes toward women, not advertised on the poster, are equally detailed and abstemious, include segregating the sexes, encouraging marriage and procreation ?by all possible means,? and closing "morally undesirable ballrooms and dance halls.? Al Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s, and it has become a model around the world for Islamic parties seeking to combine secular power and theological precepts.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=97e1ff2ac51075c31ad248b408686e89

snow day snow day neti pot iron chef bath and body works coupons jeff probst jeff probst

Recession slows growth in public prekindergarten (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The expansion in public prekindergarten programs has slowed and even been reversed in some states as school districts cope with shrinking budgets. As a result, many 3- and 4-year-olds aren't going to preschool.

Kids from low-income families who start kindergarten without first attending a quality education program enter school an estimated 18 months behind their peers. Many never catch up, and research shows they are more likely to need special education services and to drop out. Kids in families with higher incomes also can benefit from early education, research shows.

Yet, roughly a quarter of the nation's 4-year-olds and more than half of 3-year-olds attend no preschool, either public or private. Families who earn about $40,000 to $50,000 annually face the greatest difficulties because they make too much to quality for many publicly funded programs, but can't afford private ones, said Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.

And as more students qualify for free or reduced lunch ? often a qualifier to get into a state-funded prekindergarten program ? many families are finding that slots simply aren't available, he said.

In Arizona, a block grant that funded prekindergarten for a small percentage of kids was cut altogether, although a separate public fund still supports some programs. In Georgia, a drop in state lottery dollars meant shaving 20 days off the prekindergarten school year. Proposed cuts in such programs have led to litigation in North Carolina and legislative battles in places like Iowa.

But even in states like New York, where state funding available for prekindergarten has remained relatively steady in recent years, fewer children have access to the programs because inflation has made them more expensive or districts can't come up with the required matching dollars, said Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education in Albany, N.Y.

Today's climate contrasts with that of 2007, when then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer promised universal, public prekindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Other governors made similar commitments when the economy was stronger.

Far from meeting Spitzer's goal, just 40 percent of 4-year-olds attend a state-funded prekindergarten program in about two-thirds of the state's school districts, according to the advocacy group Winning Beginning NY.

"I think it's a moment in time when we have to really push harder," Easton said. "Pre-K is proven to be the most effective education strategy that we can invest in. What it means is that because we failed to live up to our commitment so far to our youngest children, more of them will end up out of work or they will make less money than they would've otherwise and more of them will end up in prison."

Barnett's institute has estimated it would cost about $70 billion annually to provide full-day prekindergarten to every 3- and 4-year old in America, including before- and after-care services.

About 40 states fund prekindergarten programs, typically either in public schools or via funds paid to private grantees, for at least some children. That's in addition to the federal Head Start program, which is designed to serve extremely poor children and offers a broader range of social services. In some places, state-funded prekindergarten and Head Start programs are combined.

Typically, state-funded prekindergarten programs have a narrower focus on education and cognitive development and serve a broader population than the federal Head Start program, which serves nearly 1 million kids.

In Wisconsin, school districts that offer prekindergarten to 4-year-olds must offer it universally, and roughly 90 percent of districts do. But budget cuts mean districts are forced to make other changes like increasing the size of pre-K classes.

"Unfortunately, as the awareness and the need (for early learning) becomes more and more evident, our money gets tighter and tighter and tighter and more programs are not instituted in those areas," said Miles Turner, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.

Three states offer prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds, according to Pre-K Now, a decade-long project of the Pew Center on the States.

The District of Columbia goes a step further, with universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. The program is viewed by many as not just a way to help low-income children in the historically low-performing district, but also as a driver to keep middle- and upper-class families in the city and the school system.

At D.C.'s Powell Elementary School, 3- and 4-year-olds sit cross-legged with whiteboards and black markers in hand as teacher Laura Amling belts out, "Up, down, up, down" over classical music. The tots scribble marks similar to an "M" at her command.

This program is not child care. The schedule is filled with Spanish and other lessons, including "buddy reading," with kids describing books to one another.

The kids eat breakfast and lunch family style, so they learn proper etiquette. Songs are sung as the children move to activities to help curb behavior problems. Teachers teach children coping skills and make home visits to bond with parents and children.

While it's too early to know the long-term impact, Principal Janeece Docal says kindergarteners with a pre-K background are writing sentences and discussing books with 3rd-grade level content.

"They trust their teachers. They love their friends," Docal said. "They are invested in their education and you can see that they own that classroom."

Over the past decade, state dollars for prekindergarten more than doubled nationally to $5.1 billion, while at the same time access increased from a little more than 700,000 children to more than 1 million, according to Pre-K Now.

But cuts in state-funded programs began showing up in the 2009-10 school year, according to Barnett's group. He said he's concerned not just that fewer children will be served, but that the quality of the programs will also be affected.

Still, early childhood learning advocates say they are encouraged, in part, because of a recent federal emphasis on improving early childhood programs.

Nine states were awarded a collective $500 million in grants last month to improve access to and the quality of early childhood programs for kids from birth to age 5. A month earlier, President Barack Obama announced new rules under which lower-performing Head Start programs will have to compete for funding.

Not everyone is convinced it's worth the cost.

Chester E. Finn Jr., president of Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, said the government should tightly target its resources on families who really need the prekindergarten programs and otherwise aren't going to get them.

Finn, who has written a book about preschool policy, said Obama's effort on Head Start is a beginning, but more needs to be done. Finn also questioned whether the government was capable of funding universal prekindergarten at a quality level.

"What the universal programs do is they provide an unnecessary windfall for a lot of families that are otherwise doing this on their own just fine, or pretty well, and not enough for kids who really need it," Finn said.

Richard M. Clifford, senior scientist at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said other developed countries ? including much of Europe ? provide prekindergarten programs.

"Kids come into the regular school better prepared to succeed in school," Clifford said. "In the long term, eventually, I think you'll see all 4-year-olds be eligible for pre-K in this country, but it will take a long time."

___

Online:

Alliance for Quality Education: http://www.aqeny.org

FPG Child Development Institute: http://www.fpg.unc.edu

Head Start: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs

National Institute for Early Education Research: http://nieer.org

Pre-K Now: http://www.preknow.org

Thomas B. Fordham Institute: http://www.edexcellence.net

___

Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_go_ot/us_prekindergarten_cuts

nextdoor premier fitness dan uggla kryptos student loan forgiveness amy winehouse cause of death amy winehouse cause of death