Iran, North Korea, Syria cause trouble for U.N. arms treaty

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday objected to the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, complaining that it fails to ban weapons sales to rebel groups.

Peter Woolcott of Australia, the president of the U.N. Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, adjourned the final session of the 10-day meeting to hold last-minute consultations with the dissenting delegates in an attempt to persuade them to join the consensus needed to approve the draft treaty.

U.N. diplomats said there was still a chance Woolcott could salvage the process and secure the required unanimity to adopt the treaty on Thursday. If the conference fails to adopt it, it can be put to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Syria and North Korea voiced serious concerns about the draft treaty, though they did not formally block its adoption. Iran was the only one of the 193 U.N. members to formally block approval of the draft, diplomats at the conference said.

Earlier, Woolcott told the conference that North Korea and Iran had formally blocked adoption, but diplomats said he later revised his statement, saying it was only the Iranians.

United Nations member states began meeting last week in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

Arms control activists and human rights groups say a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

Delegates to the treaty-drafting conference said on Wednesday they were close to a deal to approve the treaty, but cautioned that Iran and other countries might attempt to block it.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iran's Press TV that Tehran supports the arms trade treaty. But Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told the conference that he could not accept the treaty in its current form.

"The achievement of such a treaty has been rendered out of reach due to many legal flaws and loopholes," he said. "It is a matter of deep regret that genuine efforts of many countries for a robust, balanced and non-discriminatory treaty were ignored."

One of those flaws was its failure to ban sales of weapons to groups that commit "acts of aggression," ostensibly referring to rebel groups, he said. The current draft does not ban transfers to armed groups but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari echoed the Iranian objections, saying he also objected to the fact that it does not prohibit weapons transfers to rebel groups.

"Therefore it can't be accepted by my country," he said.

A North Korean delegate voiced similar complaints, suggesting it was a discriminatory treaty.

Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats said. Syria is in a two-year-old civil war and hopes Russian and Iranian arms keep flowing in, they added.

The United States and other major arms producers like Russia and China - all three of which had prevented its adoption last July - along with Germany, France and Britain appear to support the draft treaty, U.N. diplomats said.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-north-korea-cause-trouble-u-n-arms-214054470.html

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An Extra Hand - Mosaic Home Care | clubmom

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jane Teasdale from Mosaic Home Care. I always feel privileged when I engage with accomplished women who have let their passion lead them.

In my role at clubmom, I speak to a lot of women ? clubmom cardholders and business owners ? at different stages in their lives. Some are starting families, others have kids at home, while some are sending teenagers off to university and dealing with elderly parents.

As women, mothers, sisters, daughters or wives, we?ve all reached a point where we may need a little extra help.

Where does Mosaic Home Care fit in to this?

Well, some of us may need to hire a caregiver for ourselves, our children or our parents ? short-term or longer-term. Mosaic Home Care helps people in all age groups, from new moms with a newborn, to families needing childcare, to aging grandparents.

Mosaic Home Care is a gathering place for the community and they are focused on providing services that people truly need in their homes.

Here?s how Mosaic can help:

1. Medical and non-medical services allow a loved one the ability to live in their own home or community. This can be for a child, young adult, parent or grandparent.
2. Relief for family caregivers, new and expectant mothers and anyone needing short-term care who might not be able to look after themselves.
3. Home making services to to assist individuals with the tasks of daily living ? grocery shopping, light housekeeping, meal planning and preparation.
4. Community Resource Centre ? Information at your fingertips in their comprehensive library of informational materials.
5. Gathering place ? Drop in environment for seniors such as knitting groups. Mosaic also hosts the First Link Memory Cafe for early stages of Alzheimer?s and Dementia organized by the Alzheimer Society of York Region.

It was truly a pleasure speaking with Jane and I would feel very confident using her services.

Categories: family, wellness Tags: community resource centre, elder care, home care, mosaic home care, seniors

Source: http://clubmom.ca/an-extra-hand-mosaic-home-care/

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Gun control backers struggle to win some Democrats

WASHINGTON (AP) ? It would seem a lobbyist's dream: rounding up votes for a proposal backed by more than 8 in 10 people in polls. Yet, gun control supporters are struggling to win over moderate Democrats in their drive to push expanded background checks for firearms purchasers through the Senate next month.

Backed by a $12 million TV advertising campaign financed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, gun control groups scheduled rallies around the country Thursday aimed at pressuring senators to back the effort. President Barack Obama was meeting at the White House with gun violence victims.

Moderate Senate Democrats like Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota are shunning Bloomberg as a meddling outsider while stressing their allegiance to their own voters' views and to gun rights. While saying they're keeping an open mind and support keeping guns from criminals and people with mental disorders, many Democrats are avoiding specific commitments they might regret later.

"I do not need someone from New York City to tell me how to handle crime in our state. I know that we can go after and prosecute criminals without the need to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding North Dakotans," Heitkamp said this week, citing the constitutional right to bear arms.

Heitkamp does not face re-election next year, but Pryor and five other Senate Democrats from Republican-leaning or closely divided states do. All six, from Southern and Western states, will face voters whose deep attachment to guns is unshakeable ? not to mention opposition from the still potent National Rifle Association should they vote for restrictions the NRA opposes.

"We have a politically savvy and a loyal voting bloc, and the politicians know that," said Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the NRA, which claims nearly 5 million paying members.

The heart of the Senate gun bill will be expanded requirements for federal background checks for gun buyers, the remaining primary proposal pushed by Obama and many Democrats since 20 first-graders and six women were shot to death in December at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada already has given up any hope of winning majority support for reimposing a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines for ammunition.

Today, the background checks apply only to sales by the nation's roughly 55,000 federally licensed gun dealers. Not covered are private transactions like those at gun shows and online. The Senate measure is still evolving as Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., use Congress' two-week recess to negotiate for additional support in both parties.

Expanding background checks to include gun show sales got 84 percent support in an Associated Press-GfK poll earlier this year. Near universal background checks have received similar or stronger support in other national polls.

Polls in some Southern states have been comparable. March surveys by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found more than 9 in 10 people in Florida and Virginia backing expanded background checks, the same margin found by an Elon University Poll in North Carolina in February.

Analysts say people support more background checks because they consider it an extension of the existing system. That doesn't translate to unvarnished support from lawmakers, in part because the small but vocal minorities who oppose broader background checks and other gun restrictions tend to be driven voters that politicians are reluctant to alienate.

"It's probably true that intense, single-issue gun voters have been more likely to turn out than folks who want common-sense gun laws," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group that Bloomberg helps lead. Glaze, however, said he believes that has changed somewhat since Newtown and other recent mass shootings.

Several moderate Democrats are holding back as they assess the political landscape. They're also waiting to see exactly what the Senate will consider.

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said Wednesday his state's voters tell him, "Don't take away our rights, our individual rights, our guns." Begich said he opposes a strict proposal requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales but will wait to see whether there is a bipartisan compromise he can support.

The problems faced by gun control supporters go beyond the challenge of winning moderate Democrats. GOP opponents are sure to force Democrats to get 60 of the Senate's 100 votes to win, and there are only 53 Democrats plus two independents who generally support them.

Also targeted by Bloomberg's ads are 10 Republicans, including Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, home of ex-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely wounded in a mass shooting; the retiring Saxby Chambliss of Georgia; and moderate Susan Collins of Maine.

In another indicator of hurdles facing gun control forces, the Senate voted 50-49 last week to require 60 votes for any legislation narrowing gun rights. The proposal lost because 60 votes in favor were required, but six Democrats voted for the proposal, offered by conservative Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

"It confirms there's no such thing as an easy gun vote," said Jim Kessler, a senior vice president of the centrist Democratic group Third Way.

Underscoring the uncertainty about moderate Democrats:

?Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is "still holding conversations with Virginia stakeholders and sorting through issues on background checks" and proposals to ban assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines, spokesman Kevin Hal said.

?Pryor said of Bloomberg's ads: "I don't take gun advice from the mayor of New York City. I listen to Arkansans." Spokesman Michael Teague said Pryor opposes universal background checks but could favor expanding the requirement to gun show sales.

?Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., told the Greensboro News & Record she favors expanded background checks, but said her vote would depend on the measure's details. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., answered, "Yes," when the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette asked whether he supports gun show background checks.

The gun bill also increases penalties for illegal gun sales and slightly boosts aid for school safety.

More abrupt changes like an assault weapons ban generally get slight majorities in polls. Democratic leaders decided to omit it from the Senate bill because such a provision lacks enough votes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gun-control-backers-struggle-win-democrats-065637861--politics.html

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New album, NBC's "The Voice" make for awesome times for Blake Shelton

By Vernell Hackett

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Country music singer Blake Shelton has never been one to shy away from his feelings, so when it came to recording his new album he sought out songs that reflected his current state of mind.

Life, he says, is "pretty awesome."

"It's all where I am in my life right now. I'm very content with my life. I'll be happy if it stays like this for a long time," Shelton, 36, told Reuters of his new album "Based on a True Story..."

After some 10 years in country music, Shelton's popularity has surged in his two years as a judge on NBC's "The Voice" singing contest, which is seen by about 13 million U.S. viewers a week.

The new album's first single, "Sure Be Cool If You Did," released in January, has already topped the U.S. country chart. "Based on a True Story...," released to coincide with the return of "The Voice" this week, is expected to debut near the top of next week's album chart.

"I didn't want to do any sad songs, damn it, but this is a country album so you have to do a couple," said Shelton.

"I had those years where I made those kinds of records and something will happen one of these days and it will be a part of my music again. But right now everything is pretty awesome," he added.

Shelton, 36, is the latest country star to break into the mainstream. His 2011 album "Red River Blue," reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, buoyed in part by the singer's laid-back, fun-loving role on the TV show.

On the new album, Shelton, who forms a country music power couple with singer-wife Miranda Lambert, sings about tried-and-true country themes, including good ol' boys, picking up girls, being in love, losing the love of his life and bad jobs.

"The album is the story of my life from start to finish and I thought 'That's what we should call it because it is based on a true story,'" Shelton said.

The singer, who won the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year in 2012, said he wants people to get to know his personality through his music and "The Voice."

"I guess if doing what I did got me that award, I better keep being that guy," said Shelton, whose biggest hits include 2009's "Hillbilly Bone" and 2004's "Some Beach."

Shelton has emerged as the face of the country music industry on "The Voice," in which he and three other judges compete with each other to mentor rising singers and help them win a record deal.

"I've always felt a responsibility to make sure that every step along the way is a good one for our industry," he said. "I'm proud to be that person on 'The Voice' that represents country music."

Shelton will be back in the country music spotlight on April 7 as host for the third consecutive year of the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas.

(Reporting by Vernell Hackett, editing by Eric Kelsey, Jill Serjeant and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/album-nbcs-voice-awesome-times-blake-shelton-163427960--finance.html

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Multiple moves found harmful to poor young children

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Poor children who move three or more times before they turn 5 have more behavior problems than their peers, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University and the National Employment Law Project. The study is published in the journal Child Development.

Moving is a fairly common experience for American families; in 2002, 6.5 percent of all children had been living in their current home for less than six months. Among low-income children, that number rose to 10 percent. In addition, in 2002, 13 percent of families above poverty moved once, but 24 percent of families below poverty moved. Research has shown that frequent moves are related to a range of behavioral, emotional, and school problems for adolescents.

Using national data on 2,810 children from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal, representative study of children born in 20 large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000, researchers sought to determine how frequent moves relate to children's readiness for school. Parents were interviewed shortly after the birth of their children, then again by phone when the children were 1, 3, and 5; in-home assessments were done when the children were 3 and 5. The study also looked at the children's language and literacy outcomes, as well as behavior problems reported by mothers.

The study found that 23 percent of the children had never moved, 48 percent had moved once or twice, and 29 percent had moved three or more times. Among children who moved three or more times before age 5, nearly half (44 percent) were poor; poverty was defined based on the official federal threshold. Moving three or more times was not related to the children's language and literacy outcomes.

But children who moved three or more times had more attention problems, anxiousness or depression, and aggressiveness or hyperactivity at age 5 than those who had never moved or those who had moved once or twice. These increases in behavior problems occurred only among poor children, the study found, suggesting that frequent moves early in life are most disruptive for the most disadvantaged children.

"The United States is still recovering from the great recession, which has taken a major toll on the housing market," notes Kathleen Ziol-Guest, postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, who led the study. "As housing markets have collapsed across communities, highly mobile low-income families have moved in search of work and less expensive housing.

"The findings in this study suggest that the housing crisis and its accompanying increase in mobility likely will have negative effects on young children, especially poor children."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Society for Research in Child Development, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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. Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, Claire C. McKenna. Early Childhood Housing Instability and School Readiness. Child Development, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12105

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Y4-8E5yDj7Y/130328080229.htm

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Obama: 'Shame on us' if Congress forgets Newtown

President Barack Obama listens as Katerina Rodgaard, a Maryland dance instructor who knew one of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 28, 2013, where the president spoke about measures to protect children from gun violence. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama listens as Katerina Rodgaard, a Maryland dance instructor who knew one of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 28, 2013, where the president spoke about measures to protect children from gun violence. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Katerina Rodgaard, center, a Maryland dance instructor who knew one of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, accompanied by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and others, who according to the White House, law enforcement officials, victims of gun violence, and others, speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 28, 2013, where Obama urged Congress to take action on measures to protect children from gun violence. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

A guard stands watch behind cones and concrete barrier at the entrance to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Thursday, March 28, 2013. Search warrants released Thursday, March 28, 2013, revealed that an arsenal of weapons including guns, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, a bayonet and several swords was seized at Adam Lanza's home. Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza in their home before he forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn, killing 26 people. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

FILE - In this May 19, 2011 file photo, Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., speaks during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance on cell phone privacy on Capitol Hill in Washington. Despite a proposal backed by over 8 in 10 people in polls, gun control supporters are struggling to win over moderate Democrats like Pryor in their drive to push expanded background checks of firearms purchasers through the Senate next month. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, Sen.-elect Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., address her supporters in Bismarck, N.D. Despite a proposal backed by over 8 in 10 people in polls, gun control supporters are struggling to win over moderate Democrats like Heitkamp in their drive to push expanded background checks of firearms purchasers through the Senate next month. (AP Photo/Will Kincaid, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Thursday not to forget the heartbreak of the Newtown elementary school massacre and "get squishy" on tightened gun laws, though some lawmakers in his own Democratic Party remain a tough sell on an approaching Senate vote to expand purchasers' background checks.

"Shame on us if we've forgotten," Obama said at the White House, standing amid 21 mothers who have lost children to shootings. "I haven't forgotten those kids."

More than three months after 20 first-graders and six staffers were killed in Newtown, Conn., Obama urged the nation to pressure lawmakers to back what he called the best chance in over a decade to tame firearms violence.

At the same time, gun control groups were staging a "Day to Demand Action" with more than 100 rallies and other events planned from Connecticut to California. This was on top of a $12 million TV ad campaign financed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that has been pressuring senators in 13 states to tighten background-check rules.

But if political momentum was building after the nightmarish December shootings, it has flagged as the Senate prepares to debate gun restrictions next month. Thanks to widespread Republican resistance and a wariness by moderate Democrats from Southern and Western states ? including six who are facing re-election next year ? a proposed assault weapons ban seems doomed and efforts to broaden background checks and bar high capacity ammunition magazines are in question.

In one statement that typifies moderate Democrats' caution, spokesman Kevin Hall said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner is "still holding conversations with Virginia stakeholders and sorting through issues on background checks" and proposals on assault weapons and magazines.

In stronger language this week, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota said, "I do not need someone from New York City to tell me how to handle crime in our state. I know that we can go after and prosecute criminals without the need to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding North Dakotans."

Expanding federal background checks to private sales at gun shows and online is the gun-control effort's centerpiece and was the focus of Obama's remarks. The system, designed to block criminals and the mentally disturbed from getting firearms, currently applies only to transactions by licensed gun dealers.

The National Rifle Association opposes the expansion, citing a threat that it could bring federal registries of gun owners, which would be illegal. The NRA says what is needed is better enforcement of the existing system, which it says criminals too easily circumvent.

Democratic sponsors are sure to need 60 votes to prevail ? a daunting hurdle since the party has just 53 of the Senate's 100 seats, plus two Democratic-leaning independents. In a sign of potential trouble ahead, six Democrats backed a failed GOP proposal last week that would have required 60 votes for all future bills restricting guns.

"The week after Newtown, we thought it would be a tough road to 60 votes but we'd get there," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group that Bloomberg helps lead. "Three months after Newtown, it looks like a tough slog but we'll get there."

Exactly how they can achieve that has yet to be demonstrated, with Obama's turn Thursday as arm-twister-in-chief underscoring the political pressure that proponents feel is needed 104 days after the Newtown killings.

"Now's the time to turn that heartbreak into something real," said Obama. While not naming the NRA, he chided opponents for trying to "make all our progress collapse under the weight of fear and frustration, or their assumption is that people will just forget about it."

NRA officials are unyielding in their opposition, with spokesman Andrew Arulanandam saying, "We have a politically savvy and a loyal voting bloc, and the politicians know that."

Obama and his backers find themselves in an unusual position ? struggling to line up votes for a proposal that polls show the public overwhelmingly supports.

An Associated Press-GfK poll in January found 84 percent support for expanding background checks to include gun show sales. Near-universal checks have received similar or stronger support in other national surveys.

Polls in some Southern states have been comparable. March surveys by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found more than 9 in 10 people in Florida and Virginia backing expanded background checks, the same margin found in February by an Elon University Poll in North Carolina.

Analysts say politicians are loath to alienate the people who oppose broader background checks and other gun restrictions because they tend to be dedicated, single-issue voters.

The polling also points to a broader context that politicians are watching: The same Quinnipiac polls that show one-sided support for gun restrictions show people closely divided over whether Obama or the NRA better represents their views on guns.

"They can be for a specific kind of gun control, but they may be suspicious of efforts of other kinds that they think might come down the pike," said Peter Brown, the Quinnipiac poll's assistant director.

Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., have spent weeks negotiating with GOP senators, hoping to find a formula that could win the needed bipartisan support.

"I'll wait and see the outcome of that," Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said of those talks, adding that the message his constituents give him is, "Don't take away our rights, our individual rights, our guns."

Other moderate Democratic senators who could be tough for supporters of broader background checks to persuade include Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Max Baucus of Montana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Also targeted by Bloomberg's ads are 10 Republican senators, including Jeff Flake of Arizona, home of ex-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely wounded in a mass shooting, the retiring Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and moderate Susan Collins of Maine.

The Senate gun bill also would increase penalties for illegal gun sales and slightly boost aid for school safety.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will travel to Denver Wednesday to talk to local leaders about Colorado's efforts to reduce gun violence.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-28-US-Gun-Control/id-7273e689f6fa4542940c845b5cec61a2

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Guess The Celebrity Abs! (Photos)

Guess The Celebrity Abs! (Photos)

There are many celebrities with hot bodies that work hard on their physique. How well do you know your favorite stars. Do you think you can guess who they are by viewing their toned stomachs? Let’s play a little game called Guess the Celebrity Abs! Can you guess these celebrities by just viewing their abs? ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/03/guess-the-celebrity-abs-photos/

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