August 1, 2014 nº 1,525 - Vol. 12
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
Herman Melville
In today's Law Firm Marketing, The 2 most critical elements in a marketing relationship
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House votes to OK lawsuit against Obama
The House voted Wednesday to authorize a lawsuit against President Obama, claiming that he has overstepped the limits of his executive authority. The vote to allow Speaker John Boehner to sue Obama was 225 to 201. Five Republicans voted no, while no Democrats voted in favor of pursuing the lawsuit. Republicans say that Obama exceeded his constitutional authority by unilaterally deciding to delay the employer mandate for insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Boehner said that Obama shouldn't be able to pick and choose which laws he will faithfully execute. "By circumventing Congress, the president's actions have marginalized the role that the American people play in creating the laws that govern them," said Texas Republican Pete Sessions, who chairs the House Rules Committee. "Specifically, the president has waived work requirements for welfare recipients, unilaterally changed immigration laws, released the Gitmo Five without properly notifying Congress — which is the law — and ignored the statutory requirements of the Affordable Care Act." Democrats decried the GOP's move. The lawsuits may serve to energize constituents of both major parties — or at least be useful for fundraising appeals. Boehner denied his caucus has any plans to impeach the president. Obama, as he has for weeks, dismissed the vote as a "political stunt. (Click here)
In Obama's foreign policy, some see patience; some see passivity
A new poll shows fewer than half of Americans approve of the way President Obama is handling international affairs. But the president's grade on foreign policy has actually improved slightly since the beginning of summer, even as crises around the globe have multiplied. And Obama says he's confident in his strategic approach, even as he cautions that there are no quick fixes. For Obama, Tuesday's announcement of tough economic sanctions against Russia for its interference in Ukraine — the culmination of a month’s long diplomatic push — finally put the US and Europe on the same page. But critics scoff at that position, noting the international coalition against Russia coalesced only after the downing of the Malaysian jetliner. They also point to polls showing foreign policy, once a strong suit for Obama, now a drag on his overall approval rating.
Argentina is in default, and also maybe in denial
In New York, representatives from Argentina and some of its creditors emerged from negotiations to announce that they had failed. This meant that the country had fallen into default for a second time in more than 12 years. The repercussions of the default are unpredictable, but it could mean that the country is shut out of the international debt markets, perhaps pushing interest rates and inflation higher. Argentina has blamed the US for its debt default, calling the mediator in failed talks "incompetent". Argentina is now considering opening proceedings at international tribunals in The Hague after it was declared to be in technical default.
Argentina is in default. What does that actually mean?
The financial markets in Argentina are expected to endure some battering today after the country fell into default for the second time in more than 12 years. Why did the whole thing fell apart? Essentially, Argentina was able to reach agreement with most of the bondholders from that default, so they ended up paying less. But there were a few holdouts. They took Argentina to court. A US federal judge sided with the hold-outs and said Argentina couldn't pay some of its bondholders without also paying the holdouts. For a while yesterday it looked like the dispute would be resolved. There were talks in New York. The two sides actually met face-to-face for the first time this week. But then, late yesterday afternoon, the talks collapsed. Argentina officials left the meeting and went back to Argentina. What does it mean for Argentina to be in this kind of fairly exotic form of default - partial default? It opens the country up to legal actions by some of its bondholders. If enough of them get together, they can now step forward and demand to be paid back everything they're owed. But that's only one of the problems it faces as a result of the default. This really spells some big trouble for the Argentine economy; the impact of a default is not predictable, but it is certainly not positive. Argentina is going to be frozen out of the debt markets for years. It has already been unable to borrow. It is going to affect the value of Argentina's currency. It will make imports more expensive. It will raise interest rates. It will cause even higher inflation. Now it is going to be worse and the country is going to be struggling more. Argentina blamed the crisis on the creditors, these holdout hedge funds that own the debt, calling them vultures.
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1 - Banker bonuses can be clawed back for up to seven years - Bank of England - click here.
2 - Teen charged in teacher killing challenges law - click here.
3 - Judges Block Abortion Curb in Mississippi - click here.
4 - Fourth Circuit Calls Virginia's Gay Marriage Ban "Segregation" Strikes It Down - click here.
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Vale sees iron rebound as expansion slowdown eases glut
Vale SA , the world's biggest iron-ore producer, sees prices rebounding in the coming months as supply growth slows and higher cost mines close at a time of strengthening Chinese demand. "The market will be better in the second half for the simple fact that there will be a lower supply growth," CEO Jose Carlos Martins said. "There will be a better supply-demand balance and this will imply some price adjustment."
Alibaba is investing huge sums in an array of US Tech companies
Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet retailer, is coming to America with its checkbook wide open. In March, Alibaba made a $215 million investment in Tango, a messaging app. It recently contacted Snapchat, another messaging app that this year turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook, about making a big investment that would value the young company at $10 billion. There's more: Alibaba participated in a $170 million round for Fanatics, an online sports memorabilia retailer. And on Thursday, Kabam, a video game start-up, announced that it has received a $120 million investment from Alibaba. The new round gives Alibaba a board seat and what is likely a significant stake in Kabam, which said it is now worth more than $1 billion.
The 2 most critical elements in a marketing relationship
by Tom Trush
How you're perceived when marketing to your prospects comes down to two factors.
Neither one has anything to do with experience ... schooling ... years in business ... location ... skill level ... budget ... or technical knowledge.
Instead, the two most critical elements in a marketing relationship are the frequency of your interaction and the value of your communication.
Simply put, you must contact your prospects often and give them information they view as valuable.
Think of the courtship process in marketing as being similar to your relationship with your spouse or significant other. It's safe to assume the connection you have now isn't the same as when you met for the first time.
Your relationship took time to develop, right?
In the case of a marketing campaign, the common mistake is trying to rush the relationship by initiating contact only when you have something to sell.
Can you imagine the relationship you'd have with your spouse or significant other if the only time you talked to him/her was when you sought out personal gain? You don't have to be Dr. Phil to realize your "relationship" would sour quickly.
The reality is people are more likely to buy from you after you've gained their trust and established a relationship -- outcomes that require time and frequent contact.
Make sense?
The bottom line is you must prove to your prospects you care about their needs before you'll have any success pitching your product or service.
When I tell people how often I e-mail my list, I often get surprised responses. Many find it shocking that I put my marketing message in front of the same prospects and customers at least once or twice a week.
The questions usually sound something like ..
"Don't your subscribers get upset?"
"Aren't you worried about people ignoring you?"
"Do you get a lot of people unsubscribing from your list?"
The foundation of any personal relationship is figuring out what the other person wants -- and then helping them achieve that outcome. In the case of my e-mails, my primary goal is to give you information you can immediately use in your business.
As a result, rarely do prospects unsubscribe or get upset when they see my e-mails.
Of course, I'll occasionally offer opportunities to buy something. But that happens only after I've spent time developing relationships and delivering value.
Tom Trush’s website is at https://www.writewaysolutions.com.
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© Trey Ryder
FREE LAWYER MARKETING ALERT: If you'd like to receive Trey Ryder's weekly Lawyer Marketing Alert, send an e-mail to [email protected]. Write "Subscribe LMA" in the subject line and write your name and e-mail address in the body of the message.
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Telecomunicaciones
La Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicaciones de Brasil aprobó con condiciones la unificación de las operaciones de Claro, Embratel y Net, empresas que pertenecen al grupo América Móvil, del magnate mexicano Carlos Slim. La principal exigencia del regulador brasileño del sector prevé que Claro, que va a incorporar a las otras compañías del grupo, se registre como compañía pública con el regulador bursátil doméstico, la CMV.
Default argentino
Dos empresas extranjeras analizaban cómo afectará un default a sus operaciones. El presidente mundial de Carrefour, Georges Plassat, aseguró que la cadena seguirá trabajando en Argentina "pese a la inflación galopante" pero anunció que pensaba "desacelerar el plan de inversiones". Em tanto, el consejero delegado del Banco Santander, Javier Marín, aseguró que a la entidad no le afectaría un default porque el 70% de sus activos son cuentas y comisiones y sólo un 30% son créditos. Y sobre el posible default, se mostró prudente: "La novela no está acabada".
Cobre
Perú enviará a más tardar el lunes la aprobación del plan ambiental de un proyecto clave de Southern Copper de US$ 1.400 mlls., luego de que la empresa despejó dudas del Gobierno y las comunidades. (Presione aqui)
Israeli Iron Dome firms 'infiltrated by Chinese hackers'
Hackers stole several secret military documents from two government-owned Israeli companies that developed the Iron Dome missile defense system. Yet, the companies denied their classified networks had been infiltrated. However, the analysts that discovered the incidents has given access to an intelligence report, which indicates hundreds of files were indeed copied. The data collected makes strong indications that the actors behind this attack originated from China. Iron Dome is a complex anti-missile defence system, which can intercept and destroy rockets and shells. The technology has been widely credited with preventing the deaths of many Israeli civilians during the ongoing conflict with militants from Gaza.
Gaza 72-hour humanitarian truce by Israel and Hamas begins
Israel and Hamas have begun an unconditional 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The truce came into effect at 08:00 (05:00 GMT) on Friday. Talks on a more permanent truce are to start in Cairo. Israel says it will continue to destroy tunnels built by Hamas into its territory. Israel says it aims to stop rocket attacks by Palestinian militants in Gaza and remove the threat of being attacked from the tunnels. Hamas wants a blockade of Gaza, maintained by both Israel and Egypt, to be lifted.
Rebels ambush troops in east Ukraine
Separatist rebels in east Ukraine have ambushed a government troop column, killing at least 10 soldiers, close to the site where flight MH17 crashed. The rebels say they destroyed more than 30 vehicles while unverified video shows a scene of carnage on a road. Dutch and Australian forensic experts visited the crash site on Thursday for the first time since the 17 July crash.
Rousseff, allies mobilize against opponents of economic policies
With a drumbeat of negative economic news weighing on Dilma Rousseff's chances at a second term, her administration is testing a new strategy: shoot the messenger. In recent days, pressure from the ruling party has resulted in the firing of a bank analyst and a court injunction against a financial research firm; both had warned clients of possible stock market declines if Rousseff is re-elected in October. Such views are widely shared by economists, who've repeatedly downgraded Brazil's growth prospects in recent months. Rousseff's rivals have stepped up their attacks on her economic policies. Now, with just over two months until the election, Rousseff's administration and the ruling Workers' Party have gone on the offensive, accusing some in the financial sector of piling on the president to benefit the opposition, which is viewed as friendlier to business. The head of the Workers' Party last week criticized as "electoral terrorism" one bank's research report predicting a market selloff. Rousseff told reporters early this week that she would complain personally to the president of the bank, the Brazilian unit of Spain's Banco Santander. Meanwhile, her political mentor, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called on the institution to fire the author of that report, who was eventually sacked.
WTO members fail to agree global trade deal
The World Trade Organization says its 160 members have failed to agree a global customs pact drawn up in meetings in Bali last December. The Trade Facilitation Agreement would have streamlined global customs procedures, and should have been finalized by Thursday. But it was blocked over a number of rifts, including India's demands for concessions on the stockpiling of food. The failure to agree a deal had "put this institution on very uncertain new ground". India had said last year that the planned deal could endanger domestic policies designed to help feed its poor.
Airline advocacy groups challenge increased fees by TSA
Airlines for America (A4A) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) have filed a petition in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, asking the court to review an Interim Final Rule promulgated by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). The petition alleges that in the rule, the TSA unlawfully collects higher security taxes by imposing fees exceeding the per-passenger limit established by Congress and collecting additional taxes for trips that originate overseas. The purpose of the security fees is to offset the costs of providing aviation security services, and passengers have paid security fees since the TSA's inception in 2001, with a cap at USD $10 per round-rip. Under the TSA's new rule, the cap would be raised to approximately USD $11.20 per round trip.
Democratic plan to respond to the immigrant influx from Central America failed
A $2.7 billion Democratic plan to respond to the immigrant influx from Central America failed in a Senate procedural vote .The Senate vote follows House GOP leaders' earlier decision to postpone the start of their August break to see if they could get support for their own border bill. The Senate has no plans to stay, meaning Congress would go on recess for five weeks without sending the President legislation to address what both parties say is a humanitarian crisis.
Police should carry drugs antidote
US Attorney General Eric Holder has urged federal law enforcement agencies to equip some of their officers with the heroin overdose antidote naloxone. Holder called the increase in overdose deaths "nothing less than a public health crisis". Some state and local law enforcement groups, including the New York Police Department, already require officers to carry the drug while on patrol. Naloxone works by reversing the effects of opioid drugs for about 30 minutes. The delay gives emergency medical workers enough time to reach an overdose victim.
Russia enacts 'draconian' law for bloggers and online media
A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia. It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets. Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users' information. It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users. The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.
Bank of America to pay $1.27 billion for mortgage fraud
A federal judge on Wednesday imposed a $1.27 billion penalty on Bank of America after a jury found them liable for mortgage fraud. Judge Jed Rakoff for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled after a jury found that Bank of America, the second largest bank in the US, had defrauded government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, by selling them defective mortgages through their subsidiary Countrywide Financial Corp. One Countrywide executive, Rebecca Mairone, was also charged and ordered to pay $1 million for her "leading role" in the fraud. Bank of America is expected to appeal the judgment.
Overseas Turks in presidential vote
Expatriate Turks begin voting for Turkey's first directly-elected president, the first time they are eligible to participate in a ballot from abroad.
Italy in Europe-wide mafia crackdown
Italian police have secured the arrest of several members of a mafia clan across Europe. The agents had been working from information given to them by a woman who had at one time been held as a virtual prisoner by the clan. Sixteen clan members were held in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, accused of smuggling cocaine across Europe.
Microsoft fails to block US warrant for Ireland e-mail
Microsoft Corp. lost its challenge to a US government search warrant ordering the software giant to produce e-mails of an unidentified customer stored in a data center in Ireland. US District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan today upheld a federal magistrate's decision requiring the company to turn over e-mails in a drug investigation. Preska delayed the effect of her ruling to give Microsoft time to appeal. Preska rejected Microsoft's argument that the warrant, which requires the company to provide investigators with the contents of the customer's MSN.com Web-based e-mail, calls for an illegal search and seizure outside the US The nation in which the customer lives wasn't disclosed. The judge delivered her ruling from the bench after a two-hour hearing, endorsing an April decision by US Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV. Today's ruling sets up an appeal that may help dictate how courts apply legal protections to electronic data, particularly information stored by Internet service providers outside the US "Congress intended in this statute for ISPs to produce information under their control, albeit stored abroad, to law enforcement in the United States," Preska said. "As Judge Francis found, it is a question of control, not a question of the location of that information."
Arrests in Europe amid Gaza tensions and anti-Semitism
Dutch police have arrested two men suspected of chanting "Death to the Jews" during a Gaza solidarity rally. The arrests came in connection with a pro-Palestinian demonstration in The Hague on 24 July, where some participants waved black flags associated with Islamist militants. The two men held are both aged 32 and suspected of inciting racial violence. Israel's shelling of Gaza - a response to Hamas rocket attacks - has fuelled alarm about anti-Semitism and Middle East violence spreading to Europe. The French government is considering disbanding a radical Jewish group - the Jewish Defence League (LDJ) - on public security grounds. German police have arrested a suspect over an arson attack on a synagogue.
Stock market ends july in dive, but analysts are upbeat
The stock market ended July with the sharpest decline in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index since April, while the Dow Jones industrial index lost all of its gains for the year.
Inversions may be the least of us corporate tax issues
Politicians are indignant over firms that move overseas — even when home-grown tax loopholes, like real estate investment trusts and master limited partnerships, are costlier.
To find America's nuclear missiles, try Google maps
Where's The Bunker? If you wanted to know where America's land-based nuclear missiles are located, just run a search on Google Maps! One diagram in particular may raise your eyebrows: It shows the location of a Missile Alert Facility, along with the silos for 10 nuclear weapons. In truth, the location of these weapons is no secret. The missiles and their command bunkers have been in the same place "for decades," Air Force Capt. Edith Sakura of the 90th Missile Wing Office of Public Affairs wrote in an email. "They are near county and state roads that are public access to people. You need security clearances to access the sites; however, it would be hard to 'hide' such facilities." Moreover, as other commenters noted, the sites are already visited by foreign militaries. Russian officers regularly inspect US missile silos to make sure America is adhering to international arms-control treaties. (And the US sends its own observers to Russia.)
On proportionality in the international law of targeting
The tendency to make judgments about the rights and wrongs of the current Israel-Hamas conflict on the basis of which side has had more civilians killed is hard to resist. There's a lot of talk about "disproportionate" killing or attacks, and the underlying assumption is often that assessing proportionality in the law of armed conflict is essentially judged by looking at the effects afterwards and, in sum, asking if a lot more of one side's civilians got killed than the other side's. It's an easy assumption to make, but altogether wrong as a matter of the actual law of armed conflict. A new measured, careful discussion by Emory Law School professor Laurie Blank, describing what proportionality means in the law of targeting (which is a major part of the law of armed conflict). It appeared on July 29 on the DC political website, The Hill, where Professor Blank is an op-ed contributor, under the (apt) title "Asymmetries and Proportionalities." Professor Blank is a prominent and prolific scholar of the law of armed conflict who runs a law clinic at Emory University covering this field. I strongly recommend this brief article to journalists who are writing on these topics and a global public that reads them; from brevity and politeness, let me just say that far too much of what is said on the topic is deeply misinformed. Some highlights:
The conflict in Gaza is replete with asymmetries: the number of civilian casualties on either side, the amount of destruction, the types of weapons used and technological capabilities of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas, or the resources poured into shelter and defense of civilians from attacks. But asymmetric is not synonymous with disproportionate. When we talk of asymmetries, we compare facts to measure the effects or capabilities of the two sides — the IDF has precision-guided munitions whereas Hamas has rockets that cannot be aimed with any discrimination or precision; hundreds of Palestinian civilians and militants have died while a few Israeli civilians and 40-plus Israeli soldiers have died. Proportionality, however, is a legal term with a specific legal meaning. It is one of a set of fundamental legal obligations that helps to minimize suffering during wartime. The principle of proportionality forbids attacks in which the expected civilian casualties from the attack will be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage gained.
That final sentence captures the legal rule–and as you can see, it is not about counting civilians on each side, and it is not even about effects assessed afterwards. As Blank goes on to note (listing various ways in which this definition means things not commonly understood in current public discussions) the rule is one of "reasonableness" on the part of the commander and it is prospective–as denoted by the key term "anticipated." It is not a rule of strict liability after the fact for any or all-civilian deaths. Nor is it what we might call a rule of "functional" strict liability after the fact, in which the general rule is correctly stated but somehow, in nearly every application, a rule of reasonableness becomes post-hoc strict liability. Thus, Blank continues, proportionality is a prospective analysis, as the wording of key treaty provisions highlights: "expected" civilian casualties; "anticipated" military advantage gained; and "in the circumstances ruling at the time." Commanders must assess whether the risk of civilian harm is excessive given the anticipated military advantage based on information about the target, about civilians in the area and their patterns of movement, about the weapons being deployed and their known or anticipated blast radii or other consequences, and a host of other considerations. The lawfulness of attacks then depends on whether those assessments were objectively reasonable based on the information available at the time of the attack. Hindsight has no role here.
She goes on to point out key reasons why the legal rule is protective of civilians in circumstances of war. Consider, she says, the perverse results generated by an effects-based, post-hoc rule of liability, rather than the actual legal rule of proportionality as it exists in the law of armed conflict.
First, an effects-based rule does not give commanders planning an attack a way to know in advance if their conduct will turn out, measured in retrospect, to have been lawful. An effects-based rule, making them liable or functionally so even after they have taken due care, for any civilian casualties that still occur might draw many commanders simply to "disregard the law entirely as no longer relevant — an invitation to unrestricted warfare and much greater harm to civilians." If you're liable as a commander no matter what you did to try and take reasonable care, you might easily conclude that this is a legal game you cannot win–so if winning the war is important, you might as well ditch the law altogether and any reasonable efforts at civilian protection with it.
Second, focusing on the effects on civilians measured afterwards "incentivizes the enemy to simply surround itself with civilians in every conceivable location and circumstance, effectively guaranteeing greater civilian casualties and increased civilian suffering." And of course, this is exactly what Hamas has done. Indeed, the essence of Hamas' means and methods of warfare of combat consists of hiding among and behind the civilian population, and sacrificing them to the gods of global public opinion by raining down rockets on other civilians on the other side so to provoke a response. Reward behavior and you'll get more of it; reward co-location among non-combatants and you'll get more of it. And so we have.
The US and Israel care about the law of armed conflict and they care about civilian harms, but the only real way they have found to respond to the pressures on them by an international community demanding that they internalize all the costs of the violations of the law of war by the other side is … technology. Precision technology has served as a kind of ‘deus ex machina’ by which the US or Israel has been able to satisfy military necessities while absorbing the increasing costs of an enemy that defines its method as putting its civilians at risk, not incidentally but as the core of its strategy.
Frankly, this cycle can go on forever, with each new behavioral deficit by Hamas or some similar adversary matched by a technological fix that invites some new form of exploiting civilian status. Maybe there's a kind of special Moore's Law for military technology that says that precision and discrimination technologies will double every few years or something, and stay ahead of the adversary's behavioral violations–but it is doubtful. The result of the current dynamic is that the conduct of major non-state armed actors, such as Hamas or Hizbollah or AQAP or Boko Haram or ISIS or the Taliban, grow increasingly violative of the laws of war, and they are incentivized to these behaviors in no small part by the structure of the laws of war as the world seems to want them to be understood.
It's an arms race: one side plays in civilians of both sides and the other plays in technology. But, as I've said many times on blogs since 2001, it's generally much easier and faster for an adversary to find new ways behaviorally to violate the rules of war to its advantage than it is for a military to come up with new technologies by which it can simultaneously fight the enemy and still protect the civilians that the enemy deliberately exploits.
Sooner or later, the formal recitation that the rules of war apply equally to both sides, while in actual fact pressing one side to internalize all the costs of protecting civilians, risks breakdown in the rules themselves. The legitimacy of this system of law rests not upon the claim of humanitarianism and the need to put civilians ahead of everything else; it is, rather, that the system is accepted as reciprocal obligations by each side. Each side is independently obliged to follow the rules of war regardless of the other side's behavior, but believing that over the long run "independent" legal obligations will prevail when the "reciprocity" of legal obligations fails is unlikely to remain stable over the long run.
Obligation without reciprocity risks breakdown even faster where one side is pressed to protect the civilians of both sides put at risk because that's how the other side deliberately wages war, not merely from indifference to them. A system of formal reciprocity in the rules of war (each side has the same formal obligations), but also independence of obligation to the rules of war (each side's obligation is independent of what the other side does, including if the other side violates the rules) over time is likely either to rupture in crisis or else simply have less and less purchase as universal rules. Different kinds of conflicts will de facto have different kinds of rules, transitory and transactional, but no longer universal.
It remains true, Blank says, that Hamas' use of the civilian population as a shield — a blatant violation of the law of war — does not in any way absolve Israel of its obligations to comply with the law's fundamental obligations to protect civilians, including the principle of proportionality. But the effects-based analysis, or numbers game, not only minimizes Hamas's legal responsibility for such civilian harm, but actually rewards it for exploiting the law's protections for civilians by suggesting — wrongly — that every civilian death in Gaza is an Israeli war crime.
Quite so. Numbers of civilian casualties on each side are an easy vehicle for time-pressed journalists, and metrics easily comprehended by the public. Easy–but, as a way of reaching conclusions about law and liability in armed conflict, and about proportionality in the law of war, quite wrong.
Source: washingtonpost.com
Uganda court to rule on legality of anti-gay law
A Ugandan court is expected to rule Friday on a petition by activists who say the East African country's new anti-gay measure is invalid because it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked quorum. If the panel of judges on Uganda's Constitutional Court agrees, the whole law could be jettisoned. If no, then the judges will continue to hear the activists' argument that the law is unconstitutional. The anti-gay measure provides for jail terms of up to life for those convicted of engaging in gay sex. It also allows lengthy jails terms for those convicted of the offenses of "attempted homosexuality" as well as "promotion of homosexuality."
Syrian defector's photos could trigger war-crimes charges
The Obama administration is fashioning a new strategy to prosecute Syrian war crimes based on a trove of photos smuggled out of the country by the defector code-named Caesar, US officials said. Because Russia, the primary patron of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has blocked an international prosecution, the US and its allies are focusing on possible crimes where individual countries already have jurisdiction—those involving their own nationals or dual citizens who may have been victims or perpetrators in Syria. The 50,000 photographs that catalog Syria's grim civil war make that possible because many of the victims can be named, officials said.
Three-day ceasefire begins in Gaza Strip
Al Jazeera, Doha, Qatar
British PM: Two-state solution beginning to look impossible
Haaretz, Liberal daily, Tel Aviv, Israel
Six Canadian MPs join Jerusalem solidarity rally
JPost, Conservative, Jerusalem, Israel
Israel and Hamas truce under way
BBC News, Centrist newscaster, London, England
'Big Bang Theory' stalls
CNN International, London, England
Amy Willerton proudly flashes some side boob in patterned vest top and white shorts as she leads celebrity arrivals at TV launch party
Daily Mail, Conservative daily, London, England
Israel and Hamas begin 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire as Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas tunnel network
Daily Mail, Conservative daily, London, England
Ceasefire in Gaza underway
EuroNews, International news, Ecully Cedex, France
Israel and Hamas 72-hour ceasefire begins
France 24, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
Ayval?k 'garbage ladies' reaping what they sew
Hurriyet Daily News, (Liberal, English-language), Istanbul, Turkey
Three Britons killed in Croatia car crash
Independent The, London, England
Major Ukrainian TV provider drops Russian channels
Moscow News The, Independent, Moscow, Russia
You Keep Me Hanging On: Alexander Rusinov, the Russian hangman
Telegraph The, Conservative daily, London, England
Marianne Faithfull blasts Chiltern Firehouse 'chicks'
Telegraph The, Celebrity news, London, England
Israel, Hamas agree 72-hour ceasefire from Friday
China Post, English-language daily, Taipei, Taiwan
Hyundai Chairwoman to Visit Mt. Kumgang
Chosun Ilbo, Conservative daily, Seoul, South Korea
Sierra Leone declares emergency as Ebola death toll hits 729
Hindustan Times, New Delhi, India
Teacher facing jail, runaway girls return home
India Times, Conservative daily, New Delhi, India
Dow has worst drop since February: What happened?
New Zealand Herald, Conservative daily, Auckland, New Zealand
Ukraine President cancels trip over protests in eastern Ukraine
Straits Times, Pro-government, Singapore
Gammy takes turn for worse
Sydney Morning Herald, Centrist daily, Sydney, Australia
Dow has worst drop since February: What happened?
Taiwan News, English-language daily, Taipei, Taiwan
ArcelorMittal South Africa narrows first-half loss
The Economic Times, Business, Mumbai, India
American aid worker with Ebola to be brought to U.S. for treatment
Canadian Broadcasting Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Israel, Palestinian militant groups begin three-day Gaza truce
Globe and Mail The, Centrist daily, Toronto, Canada
Liberty Reserve Brought Down By 'Joe Bogus': How The Feds Arrested Arthur Budovsky
International Business Times, Business news organization, New York, U.S
Bill to Fight Discrimination Against HIV-Positive Venezuelans
IPS Latin America, International cooperative of journalists, Rome, Italy
Disappointment, uncertainty after India blocks WTO trade deal
Reuters, Business News, New York, U.S
Disappointment, uncertainty after India blocks WTO trade deal
Reuters, World News, New York, U.S
Conservative pollster has Tory ahead in Toronto mayoral race, Ford back in third
Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario
Sudan 'apostasy' woman arrives in US
BBC News, Centrist newscaster, London, England
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