Obama praises bipartisan leadership on tax deal (AP)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - President Barack Obama is praising congressional leaders of both parties for negotiating a 10-month extension of a payroll tax cut and is calling on lawmakers to support the agreement.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120217/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_payroll_tax_obama

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Contagion fears back on Greek bailout uncertainty

(AP) ? Mounting confusion over whether Greece will get vital bailout cash to avoid defaulting next month is rekindling fears that Europe's debt crisis will spread to bigger countries like Italy.

As stocks and the euro fell sharply on Thursday, borrowing rates rose for Italy and Spain, an indication of renewed investor concerns that they will eventually be dragged back into the crisis that had shown some signs of easing over the past couple of months.

The pressure on the two countries had eased substantially in recent weeks, primarily because the European Central Bank offered super-cheap long-term loans to banks.

But new jitters were creeping into markets as worries grew about a default in Greece next month. The country has yet to clinch deals for a bailout worth ?130 billion ($170 billion) and an accompanying ?100 billion ($131 billion) debt writedown by private bondholders.

Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads eurozone finance meetings, promised more clarity on Monday, when he said decisions will be made.

Over the past few days, doubts grew that the bailout deal may be unravelling and on Wednesday relations between Greece and its partners in the eurozone hit a new low.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizolos said there were some in the eurozone who wanted Greece out of the euro while his counterpart in Germany Wolfgang Schaeuble even urged the postponement of elections in Greece, which are due in April.

"Yesterday's back and forth between Greek politicians and EU policymakers had all the hallmarks of an unedifying playground spat, with accusations and insults flying thick and fast," said Michael Hewson, markets analyst at CMC Markets.

"Unfortunately there will be no winners or losers in this particular little saga as Europe gives the impression of gearing up to cut Greece loose, unless they subjugate to demands for new measures to sate various new concerns."

As uncertainty lingers, investors are gradually reassessing their assumption that Greece will get the money, prompting big market movements Thursday. The Stoxx 50 index of leading European shares was down 0.5 percent while the euro slipped by the same rate to below $1.30.

Meanwhile, the yield on Italy's ten-year bond has risen by 0.20 percentage points to 5.84 percent while Spain's rate has risen another 0.16 percentage points to 5.55 percent. Though both are still down from the 7 percent mark that is considered unsustainable in the long-run, the increases are the biggest daily movements in weeks.

Greece was asked last week to meet three demands so it could get the bailout cash which it needs to avoid defaulting on its debts on March 20, when a big bond redemption is due. As well as insisting that Parliament agrees another batch of austerity measures, the eurozone wanted clarity on a further ?325 million ($425 million) in savings by Greece and the written agreement by the leaders of the Greek coalition government to the measures after the elections.

Even though all three conditions appear to have cleared, the eurozone is balking at finalizing the bailout, with some suggestions that money should not be handed over until after the elections.

On Wednesday evening, after a three-and-a-half-hour conference call between the 17 eurozone finance ministers, it looked like more hurdles have been put in front of Greece.

Though Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the eurozone group of finance ministers, said Greece had made "substantial further progress," he added that "further considerations are necessary regarding the specific mechanisms to strengthen the surveillance of programme implementation and to ensure that priority is given to debt servicing."

His statement suggests that Greece's eurozone creditors may be insisting on a recent proposal by France and Germany to set up an account, separate from Greece's general budget, that would be dedicated to paying off Greece's massive debt. It was unclear whether this account would only manage the bailout money or whether government revenue could also be funneled into it.

Such an account would give the eurozone more control over what Greece does with its money, after the country has repeatedly missed budget, reform and privatization targets over the past two years. However, it could also be seen as an unprecedented interference into the fiscal affairs of a sovereign state.

The European Commission, which is in charge of economic surveillance in the European Union, is now working on a specific proposal for such an escrow account, which will be present to the ministers at a meeting on Monday.

In Athens, Venizelos said a combination of the country's written pledges, Parliament's passage of the austerity measures with a two-thirds majority and labor reform legislation were "a credible response to all those in Europe who doubt our ability to implement the program and to continue its implementation after the coming elections."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-02-16-EU-Europe-Financial-Crisis/id-0003df8172fc48ae892a7516c3514b6a

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Lava formations in Western U.S. linked to rip in giant slab of Earth

ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2012) ? Like a stream of air shooting out of an airplane's broken window to relieve cabin pressure, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego say lava formations in eastern Oregon are the result of an outpouring of magma forced out of a breach in a massive slab of Earth. Their new mechanism explaining how such a large volume of magma was generated is published in the Feb. 16 issue of the journal Nature.

For years scientists who study the processes underlying the planet's shifting tectonic plates and how they shape the planet have debated the origins of sudden, massive eruptions of lava at the planet's surface. In several locations around the world, such "flood basalts" are marked by immense formations of volcanic rock. A famous example is India's Deccan flood basalt, a formation widely viewed as related to the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Such eruptions are thought to typically occur when the head of a mantle plume, a mushroom-shaped upwelling of hot rock rising from deep within Earth's interior, reaches the surface. Now Scripps postdoctoral researcher Lijun Liu and geophysics professor Dave Stegman have proposed an alternative origin for the volcanic activity of Oregon's Columbia River flood basalt.

Liu and Stegman argue that around 17 million years ago the tectonic plate that was subducting underneath the western United States began ripping apart, leading to massive outpourings of magma. Their proposed model describes a dynamic rupture lasting two million years -- a quick eruption in geological terms -- across the so-called Farallon slab, where the rupture spread across 900 kilometers (559 miles) along eastern Oregon and northern Nevada.

"Only with a break of this scale inside the down-going slab can we reach the present day geometry of mantle we see in the area," said Liu, "and geochemical evidence from the Columbia River lavas can also be explained by our model."

"When the slab is first opened there's a little tear, but because of the high pressure underneath, the material is able to force its way through the hole. It's like in the movies when a window breaks in an airplane that is at high altitude -- since the cabin is at higher pressure, everything gets sucked out the window," said Stegman, an assistant professor with Scripps' Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

Liu and Stegman came upon their new mechanism by attempting to describe how the complicated structure of Earth's mantle under the western U.S. developed during the past 40 million years. The final state of their model's time-evolution matches the present day structure as imaged by the USArray, the National Science Foundation's transportable seismic network of 400 sensor stations leapfrogging across the United States.

The John Miles Fellowship, the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation funded the study.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Lijun Liu, Dave R. Stegman. Origin of Columbia River flood basalt controlled by propagating rupture of the Farallon slab. Nature, 2012; 482 (7385): 386 DOI: 10.1038/nature10749

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120215142814.htm

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Keen On? Bram Cohen: Has BitTorrent Killed The Music Industry? (TCTV)

Screen Shot 2012-02-14 at 11.05.22 PMI've been waiting for this one. Bram Cohen is the Chief Scientist and co-founder of the P2P file sharing service BitTorrent. And he may also be one of the guys most responsible for the decline in the music industry. So I asked Bram, when we sat down together earlier this week at SFMusicTech, whether he did indeed have any responsibility for killing the music business.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rGTkoxUyR8U/

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The Third International workshop on Ad Hoc, Sensor & Ubiquitous ...

In conjunction with WiMoN-2012
http://coneco2009.com/asuc2012/index.html

Venue: The Park Hotels, July 13 ~ 15, 2012, Chennai, India.

Call for Papers

???The Third International workshop on Ad hoc, sensor & Ubiquitous Computing (ASUC-2012) will provide an excellent international forum for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Ad Hoc & Ubiquitous computing. Current information age is witnessing a dramatic use of digital and electronic devices in the workplace and beyond. Ubiquitous Computing presents a rather arduous requirement of robustness, reliability and availability to the end user. Ad hoc, Sensor ?& Ubiquitous computing has received a significant and sustained research interest in terms of designing and deploying large scale and high performance computational applications in real life.

Topic of Interest

??? Authors are solicited to contribute to this workshop by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in the following areas, but are not limited to

Ad Hoc Computing

  • Ad Hoc Networks of Autonomous Intelligent Systems
  • Addressing and location management
  • Architectures, protocols, and algorithms
  • Data management issues
  • Distributed technology
  • Mobile ad hoc learning
  • Mobile and wireless ad hoc networks
  • Mobile agents for ad hoc networking
  • Network design and planning
  • Novel Architectures for Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks
  • Performance Analysis and Simulation of Protocols
  • Power-aware and energy-efficient designs
  • Quality of service
  • Resource allocation
  • Security and privacy
  • Self-configuring and self-healing schemes
  • Services and applications
  • Wireless & Mobile network Security
  • Wireless sensor network

Sensor Networks

  • Architectures, protocols and algorithms
  • Data allocation and information
  • Deployments and implementations
  • Embedded, network-oriented operating systems
  • Energy optimization
  • Hardware aspects of sensor design
  • Location management and placement
  • MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks Middleware and software tools
  • Modeling and Performance evaluation?
  • Radio Issues with other wireless/mobile systems
  • Resource allocation, services, QoS and fault tolerance
  • Scalability of wireless sensor networks
  • Security and dependability issues
  • Sensor circuits and devices
  • Software, applications and programming
  • Under water sensors and systems
  • Visualization of sensor data
  • Work models

Ubiquitous Computing

  • Architectural structure, design decisions and philosophies
  • Autonomic management of ubiquitous systems
  • Context and location awareness, context based and implicit computing
  • Distributed Computing
  • Ubicomp Human-computer Interaction for devices
  • Intelligent devices and environments
  • Internet Computing and Applications
  • Interoperability and large scale deployment
  • Middleware services and agent technologies
  • Personalized & special field applications
  • Security Issues and Applications
  • Service discovery mechanisms and protocols
  • Software infrastructures
  • System support infrastructures and services
  • Ubiquitous systems and trust
  • User interfaces and interaction models
  • Virtualization over networks of devices
  • Wearable computers and technologies
  • Wireless networking and mobile, pervasive and ubiquitous computing
  • Wireless/mobile service management and delivery
  • Mobile Computing
  • Network Protocols & Wireless Communication

Paper Submission

Submit your papers through cmt.research.microsoft.com submission system at Track : ASUC 2012?

Authors are invited to submit papers for the?conference through submission system (Easy chair)?by February 25, 2012.Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication while being evaluated for this conference. The proceedings of the conference will be published by Springer (Confirmed). Selected papers from ASUC ? 2012, after further revisions, will be published in the International Journals (confirmed).

Important dates

Paper Submission Deadline : February 25, 2012
Paper Status Notification ???: April 20, 2012
Camera-ready Due ???????????: May 01, 2012

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Source: http://cfptech.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/the-third-international-workshop-on-ad-hoc-sensor-ubiquitous-computing-asuc-2012-5/

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Manageable and Thrifty Plans for Home Improvement | Radio Caldas

Do not feel alone if you are experiencing doubts and feeling like your new business endeavor is way too much for you. Anyone with experience in kitchen remodeling austin will understand what we mean and maybe even have a chuckle about it. Historically, taking advantage of third party independent workers provides for increased time on higher priority activities. We understand if you are not quite at that point, though, but there is much available that is very low cost or no cost. There is nothing more frustrating than learning the hard way, and we are talking about getting educated about any new marketing or business method, first. When you take this approach of planning and executing with good information, then that will help you to eliminate the possibility of some mistakes.

People tend to believe that home improvement projects will cost a fortune, causing many to put off what must be done. This doesn?t have to be the case, as if you focus on many smaller issues, you can often get results that are quite impressive. This article will provide several examples of home-improvement projects that you can do to make your home look the way you have always imagined it to be.

One of the better ideas to enhance the display of a room is to bring in the addition of fresh treatments for your windows. It is time to ponder some advancements in this arena if the shades or curtains in your room are basically dowdy and add no color or if they are worn out or torn. Choices abound regarding the hues, designs and styles. Additionally, one has to pick either blinds or drapes. Shades produced from bamboo and wood grain are popular and give a healthy natural appearance. You should give a bit of review to what every room would look superior in as you can acquire curtains in numerous types of colors and fabrics. Without a doubt window treatments can enhance your home greatly, yet you do not have to spend a lot of money.

Every single door in your house can also be a small home improvement project. Your goal should be to replace any doors that do not look presentable. If your doors need painting, you should do this to make them look brand-new; you could also replace old doors. It is important to replace the doors that are rotting which will make your house look that much better. To make the outside of your house look better, and also protect your interior from the elements, replace your front door if necessary. There are other doors that you should replace if they are bad including attic, closet, and basement doors. New doors are relatively inexpensive, and they can make your home look a lot nicer and also make it more energy efficient.

You can take any one of these methods and really go all out in your business because they will open up new venues for you, to be sure. Yes, it does take a certain amount of psychological risk to consider something you make thing just does not work. Most likely you are familiar with gold dealer birmingham or at least aspects of it. Each of us has to do some kind of sanity check anytime we read about anything that is totally foreign to us.

Basically, this is all about buyer beware, and you have the responsibility to take care of your self. If you are not careful about what you do, then you can easily start method-hopping and getting nowhere. But as we have said, this is usually the domain of those who have not been around for long. Chances are you will know about the most common marketing methods, but there are some that are not as well-known yet they are effective, too. This all goes along with the thought of an ounce of prevention, and it is an ounce well spent, possibly. The scent your home has is more than likely not something you are thinking about when home decorating and improvement projects enter your mind however it is a vital thing go think about This plays a tremendous role in the environment of your home, whether you are planning to stay or planning to go, this is an important matter. Lots of different things can play a role in stale odors, ranging from pet odors to mold and mildew. Aside from the odor, mold can be a really somber issue therefore you should get rid of it right away. Other smells, though, can be reined in by cleaning regularly, air purifiers and essential oils. If you ascertain information about aromatherapy, you can provide your home with scents that make people happier.

As you can see, you can improve quality of your home in many different ways that will not cost lots of money. There are many ways that you can tap into low-cost solutions that will allow you to upgrade your home quickly and easily. By doing the projects recommended in this article, and finding additional ones to do with a little research, your home will look better than it ever has before.

One thing we think you will find is the range of what lakeway soccer can do for your marketing and advertising efforts is considerable.

But do keep in mind that how you execute what you learn will have more of an impact one way or the other. Any time you place any kind of ad, it is still part of your overall marketing and business strategy. Prior to getting heavily involved with anything that you have not done before, just slow down and use your business head. Ask your self if running a small test campaign would be in your best interest. Whether or not you take things slow until you have a better sense about them or not is your call. As you progress along your way with business on the net, that one thing will prove its value many times over if you use it.

Source: http://www.radiocaldas.com/?p=1073

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Scientists Debate How To Conduct Bird Flu Research

Scientists working with bird flu recently called a 60-day halt on some controversial experiments, and the unusual move has been compared to a famous moratorium on genetic engineering in the 1970s.

But key scientists involved in that event disagree on whether history is repeating itself.

"I see an amazing similarity," says Nobel Prize winner Paul Berg, of Stanford University.

To him, it's almost eerie to watch events unfold just like they did back then: There's been a startling scientific discovery, concerns raised by an expert committee, then a voluntary moratorium and calls for an international discussion to figure out how to move forward in a way that protects the public.

?

This time around, fears revolve around experiments on the bird flu virus H5N1. Scientists tweaked its genes and made it more transmissible between ferrets, which are the laboratory stand-in for people.

Some experts fear that if this virus ever escaped or fell into the wrong hands, it could cause a devastating pandemic. On Jan. 20, flu virologists said they'd temporarily halt this line of research. And a small group of experts will meet at the World Health Organization in Geneva on Thursday and Friday to discuss what to do next.

In the 1970s, the concerns centered on the first steps towards what's now known as genetic engineering. Berg had figured out how to splice together DNA from different organisms. This was new, and some people were disturbed by the experiments Berg wanted to do that involved viruses and bacteria.

"People said, 'Hey, you're doing this crazy experiment, you're potentially spreading cancer genes, etc., etc,' " recalls Berg. "I said, 'Nonsense!' "

But as he talked to people, he began to realize that he couldn't say there was zero risk. And the tools he had pioneered were advancing rapidly. More and more people were doing this kind of work. So Berg and some colleagues took an unusual step.

They asked scientists around the world to hold off on certain experiments until there was a consensus on how to do them safely. In February of 1975, about 150 researchers gathered at the Asilomar conference center in Pacific Grove, Calif.

"They developed guidelines and policy for how to do that research, and we still live with many of those guidelines and policies today," says Paul Keim, a microbiologist at Northern Arizona University who chairs a government advisory committee that recently reviewed the bird flu research.

It recommended keeping some details of the bird flu experiments under wraps, so as not to provide terrorists with a recipe for a new biological weapon. And Keim and the other committee members recently issued a statement that calls the bird flu situation "another Asilomar-type moment."

"The parallels are that, you know, there is so much uncertainty here. The potential for grave harm is obvious, to most of us," says Keim. "So the thought is, why not pause here, think about what we're doing."

Society's 'Implied Trust' In Scientists

But others say today's controversy over bird flu and the events leading up to Asilomar don't really match up at all.

"There's a whole bunch of differences, actually, that make the situation that we faced in '73 and '75 really quite different from this," says Maxine Singer, a prominent molecular biologist who also was one of the organizers of Asilomar.

The Asilomar conference was forward-looking and focused on the potential risks of hypothetical experiments that scientists hadn't yet done, says Singer. This time around, worrisome bird flu viruses have already been made.

"Now we're talking about locking the barn door after the horses have gone," Singer says. "So that's one big difference."

And a big part of today's debate is whether to try to limit who gets to see key details of those experiments. Singer says that discussions about bird flu research seem to be happening in closed-door meetings convened by government-level agencies. But Asilomar was open to reporters, and was organized by the scientists themselves.

Today's moratorium also feels very different to Stanley Falkow, a prominent microbiologist who was at Asilomar.

This time, scientists agreed to a pause in their work only after a public outcry. "My view is that they're doing it grudgingly," Falkow says.

Society supports scientists and gives them tremendous freedom in their pursuit of knowledge, notes Falkow, "and there's an implied trust. And I think in part what's happened has shaken the trust of many people."

In his view, it's not enough for scientists to think that what they're doing is fine ? one of the lessons of Asilomar is to make sure the public will think that, too.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/02/15/146949603/scientists-debate-how-to-conduct-bird-flu-research?ft=1&f=1007

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Hypnotherapy, hypnosis ? Beat Bedwetting | New Health and Fitness

New Health And Fitness.Org - Health Information You Can Use

The word hypnosis comes from the Greek word hypnos meaning ?sleep?. Hypnotherapy aims change your consciousness by providing care to you while you are under hypnosis. When someone is under a deep relaxation, he/she is oddly respondent to an image or idea. But this doesn?t make a hypnotist a controller of someone else?s mind; rather, a hypnotist can coach folks to conquer their own state of awareness. By doing this, folks can master their fears and phobias, and control the functions of their bodies as well as their psychological responses.

Our mind has its own specific way of recalling things when something happens to us. We keep it in our unconscious, and learn a certain behavior, which results from our reaction to the event. Then when something similar occurs in the future, our emotional and physical responses that were attached to the memory are restated.

Once you undertake hypnosis, you will learn to relax your body and control your thoughts. You?ll feel at ease physically and you will be psychologically awake and may make a response to proposals right away. Hypnosis can be employed by the consultant to help to stop unhealthy habits like smoking obsession, compulsive eating, fingernail biting, alcohol dependency, gambling, and drug dependency. Hypnotherapist can alter your actions by instructing you to behave in a brand spanking new way. While you are under hypnosis, you react better and faster, thus absorbing the info more easily.

Hypnotherapy can ease agony and feelings of anxiety, improve anger management, increase self-esteem, optimism, and promise. Other illnesses or problems that hypnotherapy can assist with includes insomnia, bedwetting, clinical depression, obsessive anxiety, obsessive fears, and social anxiety.

Hypnotherapy actually produces results, but it's not some variety of an incredible hocus-pocus that can satisfy every desire. It?s a serious systematic tool which should assist you in achieving nearly anything, and can also increase the likelihood of recuperation from illnesses and other health problems.

To find local hypnosis test your Australian internet business directory

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Source: http://newhealthandfitness.org/2012/02/15/hypnotherapy-hypnosis-beat-bedwetting/

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Baby Boomers: A Dozen Amazing Facts | BabyBoomerDaily.com

?The boomers? biggest impact will be on eliminating the term ?retirement? and inventing a new stage of life? the new career arc.?? ~Rosabeth Kanter, business professor

?While you might be feeling a bit depressed that you are no longer young, you?re ecstatic that you?re no longer clueless.? ~Marianne Read, writer

? ? Breaking up is easy to do. Baby boomers comprise 60% of divorced people in the U.S.

? Wired into pop culture. 2/3 of Americans 50-64 use the Internet.

? Don?t call me a boomer! Those born late in the generation (1960s) often think of themselves as Gen X. They say 71 is old. Boomers born earlier say 78 is old.

? Almost equal. The male to female ratio for the generation (1946-1964) is 1.05 boys to 1 girls.

? Talk about youth culture! Today, baby boomers are 28% of the population. In 1964, they were a whopping 40%.

? Baby boomers were the first generation where the majority had some form of higher education.

? The average income of midlife Americans is $71,000. Net worth is $236,000. Still healthy, priceless.

? Those born between 1946 and 1955 have 2.1 children and 2.6 grandchildren.

? This happens if you live long enough. 76% of baby boomers don?t have a living parent.

? One of seven provide primary care to a parent or other older family member.

? Boomers still dig it. Gardening is the #1 hobby for adults over 50.

? One in four owns a second home.

Related Post? Baby Boomers By The Numbers


Source: http://www.babyboomerdaily.com/2012/02/16/baby-boomers-a-dozen-amazing-facts/

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Another Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in China (AP)

BEIJING ? A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in western China and was beaten by security forces as they put out the flames, a rights group said, marking the latest in a series of dramatic protests against China's handling of its vast Tibetan areas.

Lobsang Gyatso, a 19-year-old monk from the Kirti monastery in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture, set himself ablaze on Aba's main street Monday afternoon, the London-based International Campaign for Tibet said.

Security forces beat Gyatso while extinguishing the flames, then took him away, the group said in an online statement posted late Monday. It was not immediately clear whether he survived.

Two Tibetans who tried to help Gyatso were severely beaten by police, ICT's statement said.

The official Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday also reported the immolation, identifying the monk as 18-year-old Losang Gyatso. It said "police rushed to put out the fire and sent him to a local hospital," citing a spokesman for the county government whose name was not provided. It gave no information about his condition.

Aba prefecture has been the scene of numerous protests over the past several years against the Chinese government. Most are led by monks who are fiercely loyal to Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled the Himalayan region in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule and is reviled by Beijing.

According to ICT, 20 Tibetan monks, nuns and laypeople have set themselves on fire in China over the past year, with at least 13 dying from their injuries. The self-immolations have occurred with increasing frequency in recent weeks, and most have taken place in Sichuan's remote and mountainous Tibetan areas.

An official with the local Communist Party's propaganda department in Aba said he was unaware of the latest case. He referred media to China's official Xinhua News Agency or the Foreign Ministry for reports about self-immolations, saying that only they were authorized to release such news.

Like many Chinese bureaucrats, the official would give only his surname, Bai.

A duty officer with the Foreign Ministry said she would look into it but had no immediate information to share.

Western reporters trying to visit that part of Sichuan have been turned away by security forces.

Activist groups say the self-immolations are a protest against China's policies and a call for the return of the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese government has condemned the self-immolations and says an upsurge in violence in Tibetan areas, including some deadly clashes between Tibetan protesters and security forces, are being instigated by forces outside the country wanting to separate Tibet from China.

China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the region was virtually independent for centuries and that Beijing's control is draining Tibetan culture.

Another overseas rights group, Free Tibet, said in a statement late Monday that around 200 Tibetans protested in a public square in neighboring Qinghai province's Yushu prefecture on Saturday and were surrounded by security forces, with some protesters reportedly detained. A second protest followed on Sunday, and Free Tibet quoted locals it did not identify as saying the situation in the town was very tense.

U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia said Tuesday that a 21-year-old Tibetan, Tashi Palden, was detained in Sichuan's Ganzi prefecture on Saturday after a poster appeared on the wall of a local police station warning that three Tibetans were preparing to self-immolate. It didn't say if Palden was suspected of putting up the poster. RFA said he was detained while shouting slogans in the town center calling for Tibetan independence.

The broadcaster cited local sources in Ganzi who spoke on condition of anonymity.

RFA also said an advocate of Tibetan songs and other traditional culture who worked as a civil servant in Tibet's Naqu prefecture was detained by police last week, citing a source inside Tibet who spoke on condition of anonymity. The broadcaster said Dawa Dorje was detained upon return to Tibet from Sichuan, where he urged a conference of singers to promote Tibetan language and culture through their music.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120214/ap_on_re_as/as_china_tibet

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