Nike outletIn a thundering blow to Muammar Gaddafi's standing and the morale of his regime, Libya's Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, defected to London on Wednesday night, in the regime's most high-profile break since the Western bombing campaign began nearly two weeks ago if not, indeed, the most momentous split in the Libyan government in years. Koussa, who had long been one of Gaddafi's most trusted aides, landed at London's Farnborough Airport at about 9 p.m., after slipping across Libya's border into Tunisia earlier this week. He was flown on a British military jet, and immediately requested political asylum. "Koussa is not happy about how the government has handled the conflict," said his friend Noman Benotman, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was aligned with al-Qaeda until 2008, speaking to TIME late Wednesday night. Nike outlet storeBenotman said Koussa revealed earlier this month that he was distressed that Gaddafi had once again turned Libya into a pariah state, after years of Koussa's careful work in restoring its standing in the U.S. and Europe. "He was the key figure to rehabilitate Libya with the international community," Benotman said by phone. "Now it is all gone." (See pictures of Muammar Gaddafi's Tripoli.) Koussa's defection comes just one day after Western and Arab leaders met in London for a key coalition meeting to decide the next steps in their campaign against Gaddafi. There, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other leaders warned Gaddafi that his time in power was quickly running out and invited those around him to ditch the regime before it was too late. Koussa appears to have been the first to flee but Benotman says he is unlikely to be the last. Nike Dunk SB Low"I'm aware of dozens of people in Tripoli who are not happy," said Benotman, who was in Tripoli when the revolt erupted in mid-February, and who has close contacts with high-level Libyan officials. "The message being delivered is that they have to make a decision now." Koussa is more than just a familiar face to Western leaders. He fled Libya carrying a wealth of information that could prove extremely valuable to the coalition as it tries to assess how to end the military conflict and get Gaddafi to step down after nearly 42 years in power. As one of Gaddafi's closest aides, Koussa presumably would be informed about Gaddafi's war plans and state of mind after 11 days of aerial bombing by the coalition, as well as whether Gaddafi is open to negotiating a deal regarding exile for himself and his family. (See "Libya's Ragtag Rebels: Why They Fight.") In addition, Koussa was the long-standing chief of Libya's intelligence service before he was appointed Foreign Minister in 2009. That means he likely holds critical information that could ultimately lead to international indictments against Gaddafi and his family, including data on whether the Libyan leader ordered the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland in 1989, an attack that killed 270 people. Nike Dunk High Koussa might also be able to provide insight and information about more recent events, including the Libyan military's decision to shoot unarmed protesters in Benghazi and other towns in eastern Libya in mid-February. Those actions are believed to be the most likely basis for a possible indictment of crimes against humanity, which could be handed down by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday that his government would not give Koussa immunity from prosecution.
Concert Review: LCD Soundsystem Kicks Off Final Shows in New York
Cheap Nike outletDon't feel bad if you hadn't heard of LCD Soundsystem before they announced that they were breaking up. Despite a highly acclaimed third album that made music critics' top albums of 2010's lists, the dance punk group only made headlines when they sold out their final show at Madison Square Garden in 15 seconds. Then, fans grabbed up all the tickets for the additional four final shows at Terminal 5 that were added due to demand in less than 15 minutes. (More on TIME.com: See the top 10 albums of 2010) Whether you agree with lead singer James Murphy that LCD Soundsystem's ticket debacle was a scalper conspiracy or that the final show hype was some backroom deal made between the band and Terminal 5, the fervor to see LCD Soundsystem live one last time showed how ravenous people were for the underground group. (Okay, maybe you should feel a little guilty for not discovering them in time.) Nike Dunk shoes storeYou can always count on sold-out shows to be jammed packed with die-hard fans because no one in their right mind would wait for hours or pay exorbitant amounts of money to see just any band live. LCD Soundsystem knew that and catered directly to those needs. On the opening night of their last five final shows, the band played an epic three-hour concert. From the opening song Dance Yrself Clean, it was clear that people came to do one thing: dance the night away. Even though I had seen the band before, I knew I had to get tickets to one of their final shows. One thing that I enjoyed about LCD Soundsystem is that Murphy's producer sensibilities shone through their music. Whether you saw them live or listened to their albums, you got high-quality music from a group of rehearsed musicians who clearly loved what they did.Kids Dunk Low At Terminal 5, you could hear every ironically melancholy lyric that emanated from Murphy, and it wasn't drowned out by the crisp sound of the steady drumbeats or reverberating synthesizer notes. After the end of show's first hour, Murphy alerted the crowd that the band would return to the stage for not one, not two, but three encores. Each set seemed to represent the different musical styles that the band encapsulated in their brief, yet expansive career from rock to funk to pop to their own brand of dance floor tunes that appealed to this generation's rhythmless hipsters. By the time they closed the show with "New York I Love You, but You're Bringing Me Down," it was obvious that it was LCD Soundsystem that those in attendance were in love with, and they were depressed that the band was calling it quits. The expressions from the constantly swaying and pogoing crowd showed this night had been a religious experience for them. Nike Dunk SB Low Or, they experienced the concert on another level, thanks to some substances that weren't legally sold at the venue.
Cheap Nike outlet(TOKYO) Workers discovered new pools of radioactive water leaking from Japan's crippled nuclear
complex, officials said Monday, as emergency crews struggled to pump out hundreds of tons of contaminated water and bring the plant back under control.
Officials believe the contaminated water has sent radioactivity levels soaring at the coastal complex, and caused more radiation to seep into soil and
seawater.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, was crippled March 11 when a tsunami spawned by a powerful earthquake
slammed into Japan's northeastern coast. Nike Dunk shoes store The huge wave engulfed much of the complex, and destroyed the crucial power systems needed to cool the complex's nuclear fuel rods.
Since then, three of the complex's six units are believed to have partially melted down, and emergency crews have struggled with everything from
malfunctioning pumps to dangerous spikes in radiation that have forced temporary evacuations.
Confusion at the plant has intensified fears that the nuclear crisis will last weeks, months or years amid alarms over radiation making its way into produce,
raw milk and even tap water as far away as Tokyo. (See problems with Japan's tap water.)
Nike Dunk LowThe troubles at the Fukushima complex have eclipsed Pennsylvania's 1979 crisis at
Three Mile Island, when a partial meltdown raised fears of widespread radiation release, but is still well short of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed
at least 31 people with radiation sickness, raised long-term cancer rates, and spewed radiation for hundreds of miles (kilometers).
While parts of the Japanese plant has been reconnected to the power grid, the contaminated water which has now been found in numerous places around the
complex, including the basements of several buildings must be pumped out before electricity can be restored to the cooling system.
Cheap Nike outletTPM's Brian Beutler reports that House Republicans are prepared to reject a White House offer to cut more than $30 billion from the federal budget over the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year. The sticking point, Beutler writes, is a dispute over whether some of the money should come from mandatory spending programs: Democrats are pushing for such cuts, which include the big entitlement programs, though the specific cuts they're proposing remain unclear. In an ironic twist, Republicans oppose those cuts and want to limit the negotiations to non-defense discretionary spending, a smaller subset of the federal budget. (The irony, of course, is that the GOP has pledged to include provisions to reform entitlement programs in its own 2012 budget, slated for a roll-out early next month.) With the prospect of averting a shutdown darkening by the hour, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blamed the impasse on the GOP's Tea Party wing. cheap Nike Dunk shoes "The biggest negotiation isn't between Republicans and Democrats, it's between Republicans and Republicans," the Nevada Democrat said. "The infighting between the Tea Party and the rest of the Republican Party, including the Republican leadership in Congress, is keeping our negotiating partner [from] the negotiating table." Reid certainly has cause for frustration. House Republican leaders have used the specter of a Tea Party revolt to pull off a coup: they're poised to get everything they originally wanted, plus additional concessions should they cajole their conference into accepting them. Less than two months ago, House Budget Chair Paul Ryan unveiled the party's target figure for 2011 spending reductions: $32 billion. It's roughly the same sum House Republicans are now balking at. For all the predictions that the Tea Party would box John Boehner into a corner, Republican leaders have so far wielded their rank-and-file hard -liners as a negotiating weapon.Kids Dunk High Of course, it's hard to say how much control Boehner actually exerts over the Tea Party caucus. By raising the stakes of the spending debate ever higher, they could just as easily be setting the Speaker up for a bruising fall.
iOS 5 Likely Pushed To The Fall After A Cloud Unveiling At WWDC
Women Nike Dunk SB LowMany people (including myself) were a bit disappointed that Apple didnt devote any time during the iPad 2 unveiling to talking about iOS 5, the next major revamp of the software. But there may be a very good reason for that: its not coming anytime soon. In fact, the plan right now is to wait to launch iOS 5 until the fall, weve heard from two solid sources. If our sources are right, this would break the pattern of Apple unveiling the latest iOS iteration in the early spring, leading up to a summer launch alongside new iPhone hardware. The spring timetable usually reserved for an iOS roadmap event is why some were hoping Apple may just rope the details into the iPad 2 event. When that didnt happen, rumors quickly spread that there may be another event in April to talk iOS 5 (and MobileMe). Women Nike Dunk SB LowBut its looking like that will not be the case this year. But its not all bad news. Heres what were hearing right now: ■iOS 5 will launch in the fall and will be a major revamp of the OS. ■It could well be previewed at WWDC, it just wont be released then. ■The iOS 5 launch is also likely to coincide with the release of a new type of iPad, which we previously reported on. ■The new iOS will be heavily built around the cloud, and we could see several new services launch from Apple that take advantage of this. ■Yes, one of those is very likely a music locker service. There is also a fall launch aim for this, during Apples annual music-themed event. ■But much of the cloud stuff will first be talked about at WWDC, Apples developer event which will take place in June. ■One of the new cloud service elements is likely a location service that focuses on finding friends and family members. ■As we said yesterday, OS X Lion is still on pace for a summer release some of the new cloud components are likely to be baked into it as well. So the next obvious question is where does this leave the iPhone 5? Again, the standard model for Apple has been to release a new iPhone alongside the new iOS version. Women Nike Dunk LowWe havent heard anything specifically about the iPhone with this news, but I would guess that its still on track for a WWDC unveiling and release shortly thereafter. If thats the case, it will just be released with a version of iOS 4.X.
