China calls on Japan, US, EU to avoid devaluation

BEIJING -- China's commerce minister appealed Friday to other major governments to avoid suppressing the value of their currencies to boost exports, warning that could hurt global growth.

Chen Deming was responding to a question at a news conference about the Japanese yen's weakness but said his appeal also was directed at the United States and Europe.

The yen has fallen by about 20 percent against the dollar since the middle of last year, prompting concern other governments might respond by driving down their currencies to keep exports competitive.

"I'm worried that 'competitive devaluation' will lead to oversupply of money and it will have a negative effect on global economic growth," Chen said.

The new Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has called publicly for a weaker yen to help exporters compete. His government has not directly intervened in currency markets but its policies have convinced traders it will create new money, eroding the Japanese currency's value.

Several developing economies also have criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve's program of bond-buying, dubbed quantitative easing, for pushing up the value of their currencies relative to the dollar.

Finance officials of the 20 biggest industrialized and developing countries issued a joint pledge Feb. 17 in Moscow to "refrain from competitive devaluation." They promised to "resist all forms of protectionism and keep our markets open."

Chen appealed to other governments to stick to their anti-devaluation pledge.

"If there were a huge devaluation of those major currencies, it would deliver a huge shock to developing countries by depressing our exports," he said.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/08/3273544/china-calls-on-japan-us-eu-to.html

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How birds of different feathers flock together

Mar. 7, 2013 ? When different species of birds flock together, their flight formations are determined by social dynamics both between and within species.

New research from the Universities of Cambridge and Exeter reveals for the first time that, contrary to current models used to explain the movement of flocks, the differences between bird species and social relationships between individuals play a critical role in determining the dynamics of mixed-species flocks.

The unified behaviour of bird flocks has puzzled scientists for hundreds of years. One naturalist from the turn of the century even suggested telepathy may be involved. There have since been more logical explanations, including mathematical models that show that repeated interactions among individuals following simple rules can generate coordinated group movements. However, these models usually rely on the assumption that individuals within groups are identical and interact independently, which may not reflect reality.

Jolle Jolles, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology and author of the paper, said: "Spectacular collective behaviour can be found in a large range of animal species, and we now know that often these complex coordinated group movements may be the result of individuals following simple rules. However, rarely are the individual characteristics and social relationships within them taken into account. Our research highlights that these striking displays of group behaviour are much more complex."

By analysing high-resolution photographs of mixed flocks of rooks and jackdaws (both from the corvid family), the researchers found that rather than individuals interacting in a consistent fashion throughout the flock, interactions depended on social dynamics between the different species as well as relationships within a species.

The researchers discovered that birds prefer to fly close to members of their own species, and that the larger and more dominant rooks take the lead by flying near the front of flocks. Additionally, the lifelong, monogamous pair bonds that are characteristic of both species seem to be reflected in flight, as birds often fly particularly close to a single, same-species partner.

Dr Alex Thornton, principal investigator of the Cambridge Jackdaw Project, now at the University of Exeter and author of the paper, said: "Together, our findings demonstrate that to understand the structure of groups -- such as bird flocks -- we need to consider the characteristics and relationships of the individuals within them."

The research, which was funded by the British Ecological Society and the BBSRC, was published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cambridge. The original article is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jolle W. Jolles, Andrew J. King, Andrea Manica, Alex Thornton. Heterogeneous structure in mixed-species corvid flocks in flight. Animal Behaviour, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.01.015

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/~3/UhH_-gv5QZY/130307092340.htm

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Long Island man faces jail for laughing too loudly in own home

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man from Long Island, New York, is facing up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine after a neighbor complained to police he was laughing too loudly, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Police issued Robert Schiavelli, 41, two tickets for disturbing the peace for laughing out the window of his home in Rockville Centre on Long Island at about 6 p.m. on February 12 and February 13, his lawyer said.

Schiavelli said the neighbor regularly mocks his disability, and the best response to those taunts is laughter.

"He just ridicules me all the time and the only thing I can come up with is laughing," Schiavelli said in a telephone interview.

His lawyer, Andrew Campanelli, said his client has frequent seizures as a result of neurological impairments but denied his laugh is loud or boisterous.

"He's like a big teddy bear, he's got a low laugh," Campanelli said.

Schiavelli lives with his mother, Suzanne Schiavelli, who said in an interview on Wednesday that he had a "fairly loud" laugh.

"I think it's infectious. It's cute," she said. "When my husband died, we said to ourselves, ?We're going to make sure to laugh every day and make the most of life.'"

Daniel O'Hanion, the neighbor who made the complaint, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

O'Hanion and Schiavelli live in adjacent private homes about 20 feet apart, separated by two driveways.

The Rockville Centre Police Department said they issued the summonses after receiving complaints about an ongoing pattern of noisemaking.

"On two occasions, police actually observed this individual creating a disturbance directed at neighbors and in violation of local law," police said in a statement.

Schiavelli's mother said O'Hanion often calls her son a "retard," parodies his speech and mocks his walk. Relations worsened when they had builders in to renovate their house over O'Hanion's objections, she said.

Campanelli said that a judge declined a motion to dismiss the case at a village court hearing on Tuesday.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/long-island-man-faces-jail-laughing-too-loudly-223209409.html

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Joan Bertin: Don't Shake Down Kids Over the 'Harlem Shake'

In case you blinked and missed it, videos of groups of people doing a dance called the Harlem Shake have been sweeping the Internet. The first video was posted at the end of January, and by the first week in February it had gone viral. Since then, tens of thousands of versions have been posted and millions of people have watched them on YouTube and beyond. Everyone appears to have jumped on the wagon: firefighters, people in offices, Division I sports teams, the Dallas Mavericks, the Norwegian army, Pepsi -- even the cast of the Today show. Not surprisingly, high school and college students have joined in on the fun.

To their surprise and dismay, in some cases. While most people consider this craze amusing and harmless, many school officials do not. As a result, students are being punished for participating in what is a worldwide phenomenon. Dozens, if not hundreds, have been suspended from school or expelled from extra-curricular activities for planning, creating or participating in a short dance video. Most recently, 13 high school students in Brownsville, Pa., were kicked out of school for two days over a 30-second video of what one student described as "normal teenage dancing." Twenty students got snagged in Michigan, 10 in Florida, and that's only the widely reported cases. One New York student was suspended for talking about making a video that was never even filmed.

It's difficult to understand why school administrators are coming down so hard on these kids for this kind of high-spirited and non-disruptive expressive behavior. Even the parents of some suspended students have expressed confusion and consternation, saying that school officials are over-reacting. For their part, many school or district leaders have provided almost no explanation for these suspensions; others have accused students of "disorderly conduct" or "obscene behavior." The answer in Brownsville, at least, may be easy. This is a district that has recently been the subject of multiple claims for violating the constitutional rights of students and faculty.

The dances in these Harlem Shake videos may be considered raunchy by some, but they are hardly "obscene." They are harmless, filmed in good fun and either participate in or comment on a global, if passing, Internet trend. Some videos seem to be as much cultural commentary as dance. Administrators seeking to punish students for making Harlem Shake videos appear clueless about the attitudes and behavior of students in their own school and nationwide. Worse, they seem more interested in enforcing their idea of propriety than in promoting students' education.

Aren't educators supposed to do what they can to keep kids in school, not kick them out? Suspension is serious discipline that is ordinarily used only for serious infractions like cheating, or when a student's behavior is disruptive. Some of the suspended students are high academic achievers, school leaders, or star athletes, respected by their peers and teachers; the suspensions will leave a mark on their permanent records, potentially affecting college and job applications. To what end?

What's more, these punitive actions infringe on students' free speech rights to express themselves and add their voice -- or dance in this case -- to those of thousands of others online. The message to students: sit still and keep quiet.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-bertin/dont-shake-down-kids-over_b_2822383.html

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Devastated, mourning Chavez supporters pour onto streets

CARACAS (Reuters) - Grieving and stunned supporters of deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took to the streets on Tuesday weeping, chanting slogans and vowing to continue their hero's revolution.

Gathering in streets and squares across the South American nation of 29 million people, backers of the socialist leader shouted: "Chavez lives forever!" and "The fight continues!"

"We have to show that what he did was not in vain," said Jamila Rivas, 49, crying outside the military hospital where Chavez died. Hundreds of supporters flocked there.

Venezuelans have been tracking the ups-and-downs of Chavez's two-year battle against cancer, but some supporters felt a sense of disbelief that the flamboyant leader was gone.

"He was our father. 'Chavismo' will not end. We are his people. We will continue to fight!" said Nancy Jotiya, 56, in Caracas' downtown Bolivar Square, named for Venezuela's independence hero and Chavez's idol, Simon Bolivar.

"I admired him. He was a great man," said housewife Aleida Rodriguez, 50, who heard the news as she emerged from Caracas' underground transport system.

Venezuela's opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, offered condolences and called for unity.

Some opponents could not hide their happiness at the end to a rule they viewed as a cruel dictatorship.

"At last!" shouted some women, coming out of their homes in one upscale neighborhood.

Hatred for Chavez ran deep among the wealthier members of Venezuela's population.

Some openly celebrated his death on Twitter.

There were reports of isolated incidents of looting and violence, including the burning of tents belonging to students who had been protesting in a Caracas street for the last week against secrecy over Chavez's condition.

Around Latin America and the Caribbean, where Chavez's oil-fueled largesse was a source of support for various leftist governments, tributes and condolences poured in.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close personal friend, wept as he spoke of Chavez.

Brazil's Congress held a minute of silence.

"President Chavez has always been a friend of Brazil, regardless of his political position," said Renan Calheiros, president of the Brazilian Senate.

Colombia, whose pro-U.S. conservative governments have clashed fiercely with Chavez in the past, also paid homage.

"I think in the last two years ... our relations with Venezuela advanced really well, and he was also a very important support for the current peace process," Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said, referring to her government's rapprochement with Chavez and ongoing peace talks with leftist rebels.

"Hopefully he'll find peace."

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told CBC television he met Chavez several times, was quite fond of him, and acted as a facilitator between Chavez and former U.S. President George W. Bush at a 2001 Summit of the Americas.

"He was a great baseball fan and player and he always told me that if I were to visit him in Venezuela we would go to a baseball field and he would throw balls to me for me to hit them," he said. "And we never had the occasion to do that."

(Additional reporting by Latin American bureaux, Louise Egan in Ottawa; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/devastated-mourning-chavez-supporters-pour-onto-streets-022545476.html

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Garcetti, Greuel in command in LA mayoral contest

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Two City Hall veterans took command Tuesday in the contest to replace outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, setting up a likely runoff to determine who will lead a city troubled by double-digit unemployment and a looming budget gap.

"The creativity and the genius that is Los Angeles, we will bring back. And that's what I'm going to do as the next mayor of Los Angeles," promised city Councilman Eric Garcetti, 42, a Democrat who led the field with 34 percent of the vote.

With mail-in ballots and about 40 percent of precincts reporting, no candidate was in position to clear the majority needed to win outright. The top two finishers will go to a May 21 runoff, and Garcetti was followed closely by city Controller Wendy Greuel, 51, another Democrat who notched 29 percent of the vote.

Democratic Councilwoman Jan Perry was parked in third place, with 17 percent.

The election capped a lackluster primary campaign that was snubbed by most of the city's 1.8 million voters. Turnout was scant.

The next mayor of the nation's second largest city inherits a raft of problems: Crime is relatively low but City Hall is nearly broke, the airport is an embarrassment, freeways remain clogged and potholes, cracked sidewalks and untended trees infest many neighborhoods. Rising pension and health care costs for workers threaten dollars needed for libraries, street repairs and other services.

"The city's ability to provide services that improve the quality of life of city residents has diminished," city Administrative Officer Miguel Santana wrote in a report last month.

The five leading candidates in the nonpartisan contest made last-minute appeals during stops around the city, while unionized workers and other campaign volunteers tried to get voters to shake off indifference and go to the polls.

"I need you to vote, and then go encourage your friends and family to vote, too," Greuel told supporters in an email Tuesday. She hopes to become the city's first woman mayor.

The sluggish turnout presented a possible opening for Perry, 57, or former prosecutor Kevin James, 49, a Republican, to slip into the two-person runoff. But James also lagged off the pace in the heavily Democratic city, with 14 percent of the vote, according to preliminary returns.

Los Angeles County Democratic Chair Eric Bauman attributed the light turnout to voter fatigue after the 2012 presidential race, along with a campaign that failed to produce a star candidate.

Angelenos are known to give local politics a collective shrug, and turnout failed to reach 30 percent in Villaraigosa's hotly contested primary in 2005, when he was trying to become the first Hispanic mayor in more than a century. He was re-elected in 2009 with a meager 152,000 votes, in a city of nearly 4 million people.

"I honestly think voters are worn out," Bauman said. "There isn't anything that is driving up turnout."

The city appears headed for another first at City Hall. Greuel would become the first woman mayor, and Garcetti could become the first Jew elected to the post (but not the first to hold it in a temporary capacity). The two candidates also have roots in the city's San Fernando Valley.

The leading candidates dueled mostly over pocketbook issues and City Hall insider politics ? a looming deficit, 10.2 percent unemployment, the grip of municipal unions.

"The campaign itself hasn't really gotten people's blood going," said longtime Democratic strategist Garry South. "It's been small-bore stuff for the most part, and the average voter is saying, 'What's this got to do with me?'"

The Los Angeles mayor presides over a budget that exceeds $7 billion, but it is a comparatively weak office hemmed in by a powerful City Council. Unlike other big cities such as New York, the Los Angeles mayor cannot directly appoint the head of schools or police.

Voters also were picking a city attorney, city controller and about half the 15 members of the City Council, and deciding whether to increase the city's sales tax a half-cent to 9.5 percent.

Though Garcetti often plays up his Hispanic roots, he has a far different history than the charismatic Villaraigosa, who grew up on the rough streets east of downtown and once sported a "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo. Garcetti is the son of a former district attorney, an Ivy Leaguer and Rhodes Scholar from the Valley's tony Encino enclave.

"Our work isn't over" Garcetti said in a fundraising appeal sent out after the polls closed. "We need to keep our foot on the gas."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/garcetti-greuel-command-la-mayoral-contest-090555575.html

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