Soccer Expo in Florida brings soccer fans and families together for a weekend of celebration and excitement
Miami, FL. The organizers of Florida Soccer Expo announced the first event of its kind in Florida bringing together over 8,000 fans at the Sun Life Stadium on September 14th & 15th, 2013. This celebration of ?the beautiful game? will host the soccer community including soccer clubs, associations, tournament organizers, coaches, trainers, referees, soccer families and players from all over the world.
The event is divided in three sections, hosting a trade show, an indoor soccer tournament and interactive areas where the soccer public could participate in numerous soccer-related activities organized by Florida Soccer Expo partners, sponsors and other exhibitors. This highly expected show will include coaching clinics, referee seminars and nutritional & health
Several key soccer associations have been invited and are joining the efforts as Institutional Partners and will contribute with the promotion and success of this event, these include:
? ? ? ? ? Concacaf
? ? ? ? ? AYSO. American Youth Soccer Organization
? ? ? ? ? WPSL. Women Premier Soccer League
? ? ? ? ? Miami Dade Soccer League
? ? ? ? ? Miami Dade Sports Commission
? ? ? ? ? Florida State Referees
? ? ? ? ? Florida State Soccer Association
? ? ? ? ? SunLife Stadium. Miami Dolphins
The expo includes six (6) indoor soccer fields. For those interested in soccer shopping, the event features over 80 exhibitor booths available at the event, including a wide variety of soccer and sports-related products, gear and equipment, food and drinks sampling, and other consumer goods and services. Exhibitors interesting in this event should contact the organization via email at exhibitors@floridasoccerexpo.com, or send a message in our website at www.floridasoccerexpo.com
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Paying tribute to his personal hero, President Barack Obama met privately Saturday with Nelson Mandela's family as the world anxiously awaited news on the condition of the ailing 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader.
Obama, who has spoken movingly about Mandela throughout his trip to Africa, praised the former South African president's "moral courage" during remarks from the grand Union Buildings where Mandela was inaugurated as his nation's first black president.
The U.S. president also called on the continent's leaders, including in neighboring Zimbabwe, to take stock of Mandela's willingness to put country before self and step down after one term despite his immense popularity.
"We as leaders occupy these spaces temporarily and we don't get so deluded that we think the fate of our country doesn't depend on how long we stay in office," Obama said during a news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma.
Obama's stop in South Africa marked the midway point of a weeklong trip to Africa, his most significant engagement with the continent since taking office in 2009.
His lack of personal attention on the region has frustrated some Africans who had high expectations for the first black American president and son of a Kenyan man.
Even with Mandela's health casting a shadow over his visit, Obama tried to keep focus on an agenda that includes deeper U.S. economic ties with Africa. The president dismissed suggestions that he was only investing personal capital on Africa's economy now as a response to the increased focus on the continent by China, India, Brazil and others.
"I want everybody playing in Africa," he said. "The more, the merrier."
But the president pointedly called on Africans to make sure that countries seeking an economic foothold on the continent are making a "good deal for Africa."
"If somebody says they want to come build something here, are they hiring African workers?" Obama said. "If somebody says that they want to help you develop your natural resources, how much of the money is staying in Africa? If they say that they're very interested in a certain industry, is the manufacturing and value-added done in Africa? "
The president did not specifically single out China, but some African leaders have criticized Beijing for such behaviors.
Obama's focus on trade and business appeared to be well received in Africa, home to six of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies. The majority of the questions he received from the South African press and later at a town hall meeting with young African leaders focused on U.S. economic interests in the region.
Between his two events, Obama spent about 30 minutes meeting privately with two of Mandela's daughters and several of his grandchildren at the former leader's foundation offices in Johannesburg. He also spoke by phone with Mandela's wife, Gra?a Machel, who remained by her husband's side at the Pretoria hospital where he has battled a lung infection for three weeks.
In a statement following the call, Machel said she drew strength from the Obama and his "touch of personal warmth."
Obama, who has met Mandela in person only once before, did not visit the former leader in the hospital out of respect for his family's wishes, the White House said. Ahead of his arrival in South Africa, the president had told reporters that he did not need "a photo-op" and didn't want to be obtrusive.
Obama ascent to the White House has drawn inevitable comparisons to Mandela. Both are their nations' first black presidents, symbols of racial barrier breaking and winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Zuma said Obama and Mandela "both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa and in the diaspora who were previously oppressed." Zuma said Mandela's condition remained the same as it had in recent days ? critical yet stable ? though he expressed hope that Mandela soon would leave the hospital.
Obama, Zuma and other dignitaries held a moment of silence for Mandela during a dinner Saturday night.
Also Saturday, Obama held a town hall with young people in Soweto, an area of Johannesburg that was a center of the youth-driven movement to fight against South Africa's apartheid government. At least 176 young people were killed there 27 years ago this month during a youth protest against the white government's ban against teaching local Bantu languages. The Soweto Uprising catalyzed international support against apartheid, and June is now recognized as Youth Month in South Africa.
Outside the event, protesters under police watch demonstrated outside the university against Obama's record on surveillance and foreign policy. Protesters from a range of trade unions and civil society groups chanted, "Away with intelligence, away," holding posters depicting Obama with an Adolf Hitler moustache.
In Africa, where some governments struggle with corruption, Obama has made it a priority to promote civic activism among young people and invest in their development. He hosted young leaders from more than 40 African countries at the White House in 2010 and announced plans during the event to expand the program.
About 600 youth leaders from South Africa attended the town hall, with other young people participating via video conference from Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland.
Kenya's current political environment made it impossible for Obama to visit the country where many of his relatives live. The International Criminal Court is prosecuting Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for crimes against humanity, including murder, deportation, rape, persecution and inhumane acts allegedly committed by his supporters in the aftermath of Kenya's 2007 elections.
"The timing was not right for me as the president of the United States to be visiting Kenya when those issues are still being worked on, and hopefully at some point resolved," said Obama, though he added that he planned to make many more trips to the East African nation.
The president planned to stop in Cape Town on Sunday and visit Robben Island, the prison where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in jail. Obama will close his trip with a visit to Tanzania.
___
Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler and AP Video Journalist Bram Janssen contributed to this report.
China's state-run media today blamed around 100 people it branded as "terrorists" for sparking 'riots' in the ethnically-divided region of Xinjiang, where clashes killed 35 days earlier.
The riot took place in the prefecture of Hotan yesterday, where the group "(attacked) a number of people with weapons after gathering at local religious venues," the state-run Global Times said today.
The latest incident followed clashes on Wednesday that were the deadliest to hit the western desert region -- home to around 10 million members of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority -- since 2009, when riots killed around 200 people.
It also quoted a source as saying police opened fire on Uighurs as they left a local mosque.
"Young Uighurs on motorcycles were leaving the mosque, they were shouting religious slogans...The police were frightened and started shooting at them ... At least two died and one was injured," the report said.
A state-run news website, Tianshan Web, said that no members of the public had been killed or injured, without stating whether police or government staff had died.
China's President Xi Jinping said following the attacks that "(the incidents) must be handled quickly to guarantee the general stability of the society," Tianshan Web reported today.
China often labels outbreaks of sporadic unrest in the region as terrorism -- claims denied by Uighur rights groups who blame unrest on economic inequality and religious repression.
It was not possible to verify details of Wednesday's clash independently as reporters were barred from entering the town detained and later followed by local police. The Uyghur American Association, run by exiled members of the minority, said a "blackout of news" on attacks in the region cast doubt on Chinese government claims in a statement released today.
"The state then uses its propaganda apparatus to label the incident 'terrorism' without presenting any evidence that can be independently proved," the group said. The recent unrest occurred shortly before the anniversary of the 2009 riots, and ahead of celebrations for the Muslim Ramadan festival -- which Uighurs have said are repressed by local authorities.
Divorce early in childhood affects parental relationships in adulthoodPublic release date: 28-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa M.P. Munoz spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com 703-951-3195 Society for Personality and Social Psychology
June 28, 2013 - Divorce has a bigger impact on child-parent relationships if it occurs in the first few years of the child's life, according to new research. Those who experience parental divorce early in their childhood tend to have more insecure relationships with their parents as adults than those who experience divorce later, researchers say.
"By studying variation in parental divorce, we are hoping to learn more about how early experiences predict the quality of people's close relationships later in life," says R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Psychologists are especially interested in childhood experiences, as their impact can extend into adulthood, but studying such early experiences is challenging, as people's memories of particular events vary widely. Parental divorce is a good event to study, he says, as people can accurately report if and when their parents divorced, even if they do not have perfect recollection of the details.
In two studies published today in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Fraley and graduate student Marie Heffernan examined the timing and effects of divorce on both parental and romantic relationships, as well as differences in how divorce affects relationships with mothers versus fathers. In the first study, they analyzed data from 7,735 people who participated in a survey about personality and close relationships through yourpersonality.net. More than one-third of the survey participants' parents divorced and the average age of divorce was about 9 years old.
The researchers found that individuals from divorced families were less likely to view their current relationships with their parents as secure. And people who experienced parental divorce between birth and 3 to 5 years of age were more insecure in their current relationships with their parents compared to those whose parents divorced later in childhood.
"A person who has a secure relationship with a parent is more likely than someone who is insecure to feel that they can trust the parent," Fraley says. "Such a person is more comfortable depending on the parent and is confident that the parent will be psychologically available when needed."
Although there was a tendency for people to experience more anxiety about romantic relationships if they were from divorced families, the link between parental divorce and insecurity in romantic relationships was relatively weak. This finding was important, the researchers say, as it shows that divorce does not have a blanket effect on all close relationships in adulthood but rather is selective affecting some relationships more than others. They also found that parental divorce tends to predict greater insecurity in people's relationships with their fathers than with their mothers.
To help explain why divorce influences maternal relationships more than paternal ones, and to replicate the first study's findings, Fraley and Heffernan repeated their analysis with a new set of 7,500 survey participants. Unlike in the first study, however, they asked the participants to indicate which of their parents had been awarded primary custody following their divorce. The researchers speculated that paternal relationships were more insecure following divorce because mothers are more likely than fathers to be awarded custody.
The majority of participants 74 percent indicated that they had lived with their mothers following divorce or separation, while 11 percent indicated living with their fathers; the remainder lived with grandparents or other caretakers. The researchers found that people were more likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with their mother and, conversely, were less likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with him. The results were similar with respect to mothers.
While it is premature to speculate on the implications of this work for decision-making regarding child custody, the work is valuable as it suggests that "something as basic as the amount of time that one spends with a parent or one's living arrangements" can shape the quality of child-parent relationships, write Fraley and Heffernan.
"People's relationships with their parents and romantic partners play important roles in their lives," Fraley says. "This research brings us one step closer to understanding why it is that some people have relatively secure relationships with close others whereas others have more difficulty opening up to and depending on important people in their lives."
###
The study, "Attachment and Parental Divorce: A Test of the Diffusion and Sensitive Period Hypotheses," R. Chris Fraley and Marie E. Heffernan, was published online on June 28, 2013, and is forthcoming in print in September 2013 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
SPSP promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. The Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world. Follow us on Twitter: @SPSPnews
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Divorce early in childhood affects parental relationships in adulthoodPublic release date: 28-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa M.P. Munoz spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com 703-951-3195 Society for Personality and Social Psychology
June 28, 2013 - Divorce has a bigger impact on child-parent relationships if it occurs in the first few years of the child's life, according to new research. Those who experience parental divorce early in their childhood tend to have more insecure relationships with their parents as adults than those who experience divorce later, researchers say.
"By studying variation in parental divorce, we are hoping to learn more about how early experiences predict the quality of people's close relationships later in life," says R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Psychologists are especially interested in childhood experiences, as their impact can extend into adulthood, but studying such early experiences is challenging, as people's memories of particular events vary widely. Parental divorce is a good event to study, he says, as people can accurately report if and when their parents divorced, even if they do not have perfect recollection of the details.
In two studies published today in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Fraley and graduate student Marie Heffernan examined the timing and effects of divorce on both parental and romantic relationships, as well as differences in how divorce affects relationships with mothers versus fathers. In the first study, they analyzed data from 7,735 people who participated in a survey about personality and close relationships through yourpersonality.net. More than one-third of the survey participants' parents divorced and the average age of divorce was about 9 years old.
The researchers found that individuals from divorced families were less likely to view their current relationships with their parents as secure. And people who experienced parental divorce between birth and 3 to 5 years of age were more insecure in their current relationships with their parents compared to those whose parents divorced later in childhood.
"A person who has a secure relationship with a parent is more likely than someone who is insecure to feel that they can trust the parent," Fraley says. "Such a person is more comfortable depending on the parent and is confident that the parent will be psychologically available when needed."
Although there was a tendency for people to experience more anxiety about romantic relationships if they were from divorced families, the link between parental divorce and insecurity in romantic relationships was relatively weak. This finding was important, the researchers say, as it shows that divorce does not have a blanket effect on all close relationships in adulthood but rather is selective affecting some relationships more than others. They also found that parental divorce tends to predict greater insecurity in people's relationships with their fathers than with their mothers.
To help explain why divorce influences maternal relationships more than paternal ones, and to replicate the first study's findings, Fraley and Heffernan repeated their analysis with a new set of 7,500 survey participants. Unlike in the first study, however, they asked the participants to indicate which of their parents had been awarded primary custody following their divorce. The researchers speculated that paternal relationships were more insecure following divorce because mothers are more likely than fathers to be awarded custody.
The majority of participants 74 percent indicated that they had lived with their mothers following divorce or separation, while 11 percent indicated living with their fathers; the remainder lived with grandparents or other caretakers. The researchers found that people were more likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with their mother and, conversely, were less likely to have an insecure relationship with their father if they lived with him. The results were similar with respect to mothers.
While it is premature to speculate on the implications of this work for decision-making regarding child custody, the work is valuable as it suggests that "something as basic as the amount of time that one spends with a parent or one's living arrangements" can shape the quality of child-parent relationships, write Fraley and Heffernan.
"People's relationships with their parents and romantic partners play important roles in their lives," Fraley says. "This research brings us one step closer to understanding why it is that some people have relatively secure relationships with close others whereas others have more difficulty opening up to and depending on important people in their lives."
###
The study, "Attachment and Parental Divorce: A Test of the Diffusion and Sensitive Period Hypotheses," R. Chris Fraley and Marie E. Heffernan, was published online on June 28, 2013, and is forthcoming in print in September 2013 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
SPSP promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. The Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world. Follow us on Twitter: @SPSPnews
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2010 file photo, Paula Deen speaks in Pasadena, Calif. Sears Holdings Corp. announced Friday, June 28, 2013, that it is cutting ties with Southern celebrity chef Deen, adding to the list of companies severing their relationship following revelations that Deen used racial slurs in the past. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2010 file photo, Paula Deen speaks in Pasadena, Calif. Sears Holdings Corp. announced Friday, June 28, 2013, that it is cutting ties with Southern celebrity chef Deen, adding to the list of companies severing their relationship following revelations that Deen used racial slurs in the past. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Paula Deen just lost another business partner.
Sears Holdings Corp. announced Friday that it is cutting ties with the Southern celebrity chef, adding to the list of companies severing their relationship following revelations that Deen used racial slurs in the past.
The company, based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., said Friday that it decided to phase out all products tied to the brand after "careful consideration of all available information."
"We will continue to evaluate the situation," said Amy Diamond, a spokeswoman at the parent company of Sears and Kmart stores.
Both Sears and Kmart sold Paula Deen products.
Sears joins Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Home Depot as retailers that plan to stop selling cookware and other items with Deen's brand.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Novo Nordisk said it and Deen have "mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now." Deen, who specializes in Southern comfort food, had been promoting the company's drug Victoza since last year, when she announced she had Type 2 diabetes
On Monday, pork producer Smithfield Foods dropped her as a spokeswoman.
Caesars Entertainment also announced that Paula Deen's name is being stripped from four buffet restaurants owned by the company. Caesars said that its decision to rebrand its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind., was a mutual one with Deen.
Last week, the Food Network said that it would not renew her contract.
The stakes are high for Deen, who Forbes magazine ranked as the fourth highest-earning celebrity chef last year, bringing in $17 million. She's behind Gordon Ramsay, Rachael Ray and Wolfgang Puck, according to Forbes.
Deen's empire, which spans from TV shows to furniture and cookware, generates total annual revenue of nearly $100 million, estimates Burt Flickinger III, president of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.
But Flickinger says that the controversy has cost her as much as half of that business. He also estimates that she could lose up to 80 percent by next year as suppliers extricate themselves from their agreements.
Still, book-buyers are so far standing by Deen. As of Friday morning, "Paula Deen's New Testament: 250 Recipes, All Lightened Up," remained No. 1 on Amazon.com. The book is scheduled for October. Another Deen book, "Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible," is No. 2. Several other Deen books were out of stock.
___
Follow Anne D'Innocenzio on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio
WASHINGTON (AP) ? With a solemnity reserved for momentous occasions, the Senate passed historic legislation Thursday offering the priceless hope of citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in America's shadows. The bill also promises a military-style effort to secure the long-porous border with Mexico.
The bipartisan vote was 68-32 on a measure that sits atop President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda. Even so, the bill's prospects are highly uncertain in the Republican-controlled House, where conservatives generally oppose citizenship for immigrants living in the country unlawfully.
Spectators in galleries that overlook the Senate floor watched expectantly as senators voted one by one from their desks. Some onlookers erupted in chants of "Yes, we can" after Vice President Joe Biden announced the bill's passage.
After three weeks of debate, there was no doubt about the outcome. Fourteen Republicans joined all 52 Democrats and two independents to support the bill.
In a written statement, Obama coupled praise for the Senate's action with a plea for resolve by supporters as the House works on the issue. "Now is the time when opponents will try their hardest to pull this bipartisan effort apart so they can stop commonsense reform from becoming a reality. We cannot let that happen," said the president, who was traveling in Africa.
In the final hours of debate, members of the so-called Gang of 8, the group that drafted the measure, frequently spoke in personal terms while extolling the bill's virtues, rebutting its critics ? and appealing to the House members who turn comes next.
"Do the right thing for America and for your party," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who said his mother emigrated to the United States from Cuba. "Find common ground. Lean away from the extremes. Opt for reason and govern with us."
Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said those seeking legal status after living in the United States illegally must "pass a background check, make good on any tax liability and pay a fee and a fine." There are other requirements before citizenship can be obtained, he noted.
He, too, spoke from personal experience, recalling time he spent as a youth working alongside family members and "undocumented migrant labor, largely from Mexico, who worked harder than we did under conditions much more difficult than we endured."
Since then, he said, "I have harbored a feeling of admiration and respect for those who have come to risk life and limb and sacrifice so much to provide a better life for themselves and their families."
The bill's opponents were unrelenting, if outnumbered.
"We will admit dramatically more people than we ever have in our country's history at a time when unemployment is high and the Congressional Budget Office has told us that average wages will go down for 12 years, that gross national product per capita will decline for 25-plus years, that unemployment will go up," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
"The amnesty will occur, but the enforcement is not going to occur, and the policies for future immigration are not serving the national interest."
In the Senate, at least, the developments marked an end to years of gridlock on immigration. The shift began taking shape quickly after the 2012 presidential election, when numerous Republican leaders concluded the party must show a more welcoming face to Hispanic voters who had given Obama more than 70 percent of their support.
Even so, division among Republicans was evident as potential 2016 presidential contenders split. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was one of the Gang of 8, while Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas were opposed to the bill.
The legislation's chief provisions includes numerous steps to prevent future illegal immigration ? some added in a late compromise that swelled Republican support for the bill ? and to check on the legal status of job applicants already living in the United States. At the same time, it offers a 13-year path to citizenship to as many as 11 million immigrants now living in the country unlawfully.
Under the deal brokered last week by Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee and the Gang of 8, the measure requires 20,000 new Border Patrol agents, the completion of 700 miles of fencing and deployment of an array of high-tech devices along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Those living in the country illegally could gain legal status while the border security plan was being implemented, but would not be granted permanent resident green cards or citizenship.
A plan requiring businesses to check on the legal status of prospective employees would be phased in over four years.
Other provisions would expand the number of visas available for highly skilled workers relied upon by the technology industry. A separate program would be established for lower-skilled workers, and farm workers would be admitted under a temporary program. In addition, the system of legal immigration that has been in effect for decades would be changed, making family ties less of a factor and elevating the importance of education, job skills and relative youth.
With the details of the Senate bill well-known, House Speaker John Boehner said at a news conference the separate legislation the House considers will have majority support among Republicans. He also said he hopes the bill will be bipartisan, and he encouraged a group of four Democrats and three Republicans trying to forge a compromise to continue their efforts.
He offered no details on how a House bill could be both bipartisan and supported by more than half of his own rank and file, given that most of the bills that have moved through the House Judiciary Committee recently did so on party line votes over the protests of Democrats. None envisions legal status for immigrants now in the country illegally.
Boehner declined to say if there were circumstances under which he could support a pathway to citizenship, but he made clear that securing the border was a priority.
"People have to have confidence that the border is secure before anything else is really going to work. Otherwise, we repeat the mistakes of 1986," he said, referring to the last time Congress overhauled the immigration system.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, also said he favors a bipartisan approach. At the same time, she noted that Democratic principles for immigration include "secure our borders, protect our workers, unite families, a path to legalization and now citizenship for those" without legal status.
While the outcome of the Senate vote was not in doubt, supporters scrambled to maximize the vote and fell short of 70, a level they had talked of reaching. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., spoke with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday night as he lobbied ? successfully ? for the vote of the state's Republican Sen. Jeff Chiesa, whom the governor appointed to his seat.
___
Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Osborne: "Local communities should get, for example, at least ?100,000 for every fracking well that is created"
UK shale gas resources may be far greater than previously thought, a report for the government says.
The British Geological Survey estimates there may be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas present in the north of England - double previous estimates.
Meanwhile the government has announced measures to enable shale gas drilling as part of its infrastructure plans.
Energy Minister Michael Fallon described shale gas as "an exciting new energy resource".
The BGS said its estimate for shale gas resources in the Bowland Basin region, which stretches from Cheshire to Yorkshire, represented potential resources, but "not the gas that might be possible to extract".
"Shale gas clearly has potential in Britain but it will require geological and engineering expertise, investment and protection of the environment," it said.
Drilling companies have previously estimated that they may be able to extract around 10% of this gas - equivalent to around 130 trillion cubic feet.
'Early days'
If the estimates are proved correct, that would still suggest recoverable reserves of shale gas far in excess of the three trillion cubic feet of gas currently consumed in the UK each year.
Shale gas is extracted through "fracking" - the controversial process of freeing trapped gas by pumping in a mixture of water, sand and chemicals.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
The truly massive shale gas resource of the north of England may bring tax revenues and possibly - not definitely - lead to lower bills, but it won't help the environment.
This week the government's climate change advisers warned that the UK was failing to keep pace with legally binding cuts in the CO2 emissions that are disrupting the climate.
The Environment Agency warns that if we want to keep burning gas we will have to rely on unproven technology to capture the carbon emissions in order to meet climate change targets.
It also warns that gas escaping from fractured wells may increase climatic disruption.
Meanwhile the International Energy Agency warns that the world can only burn a third of its existing fossil fuel reserves without a serious risk of de-stabilising the climate.
Shale gas plans will meet local environmental opposition too.
The process has helped boost the domestic energy industry in the US in recent years, where oil production has risen and gas prices have plummeted.
In a statement, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "Though it is early days for shale in the UK, it has the potential to contribute to the UK's energy security, increase inward investment and growth."
The government has unveiled a package of reforms to encourage development in the industry.
They include new planning guidelines to make the process of approving new drilling sites more streamlined, and a consultation on tax incentives to encourage exploration.
Communities affected by shale gas drilling are also expected to receive ?100,000 in "community benefits" and 1% of production revenues, should sites start producing gas.
"Shale gas represents an exciting new potential energy resource for the UK, and could play an important part in our energy mix," said Energy Minister Michael Fallon
"Development must be done in partnership with local people. We welcome the commitments from industry on community benefits.
"This will provide a welcome boost for communities who will host shale exploration and production as well as offering strong assurances that operators will engage with them and work to the highest health, safety and environmental standards."
He said communities hosting shale gas drilling could benefit from cheaper bills, regeneration schemes and new community facilities like playgrounds and sports halls.
The incentives are designed to overcome significant scepticism surrounding the process of fracking, which has generated environmental concerns.
Critics argue that it can cause earth tremors and pollute water supplies, and that shale gas wells could blight the countryside and affect house prices.
They also want investment in green energy sources, rather than fossil fuels.
Labour's shadow energy minister, Tom Greatrex, conceded that gas would remain "an important part of our energy mix in the future".
But he dismissed the announcement of incentives as "a desperate attempt to draw attention away from the government's cuts to infrastructure investment... and its abject failure to get the economy growing".
Power warning
Currently the UK's shale industry remains in its infancy, with relatively small energy companies such as IGas and Cuadrilla until recently the only firms with licences to explore share gas resources.
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, announced its intention to buy a stake in one licence in the Bowland Basin owned by Cuadrilla earlier this month.
The report for the government comes as energy regulator Ofgem warned that the risks of power blackouts has increased because excess capacity in the power industry has fallen in the UK.
The watchdog has twice warned in recent months that the amount of spare power is shrinking, partly due to some gas generators being taken out of service.
Centrica has already withdrawn two of its gas plants from operation. In April, SSE confirmed that it too would mothball gas plants and put off investments in new ones.
Adam Scorer, of the lobby group Consumer Futures, said: "Projections of ever-tighter capacity margins understandably raise fears of higher electricity prices.
"Government and regulator need to agree on the most realistic capacity scenarios, the least-cost ways of reducing demand and, where necessary, of incentivising new generation capacity."
Announcing further details of the government's spending review to parliament, Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander said the government had agreed "strike prices" in an effort to boost investment in renewable forms of energy.
The prices mean the government will guarantee to pay a certain price for energy generated through on-shore and off-shore wind, tidal, wave, bio-mass and solar power.
This week on the podcast we?re talking about all the new stuff in Windows 8.1, the imminent death of Google Reader, and gaming consoles from the past and future. We?re also answer your questions about home servers, wirelessly mirroring your computer screen, and syncing your music with Android.
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What the Next Generation of Consoles Means for Your Home Theater: Video game consoles aren?t just for gaming. They also make great set-top boxes that stream video and music into our living rooms, and the upcoming Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are no different. Each console brings a little something different to the table, so let's take a look at how those new consoles will bring entertainment other than video games to your living room.
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Gmail and If This Then That are already two of our favorite services. When you combine the two together they become seriously powerful. Here are a? Read?
Mailbox, the popular third-party Gmail experience for iOS, has been updated with a couple of cool new features. Following the recent addition of portrait view for the iPad, there's now access to a landscape view on the iPhone so you can read your messages in the wider view. Also, with support for alias accounts now added, Gmail's "send as" feature opens up in Mailbox.
Aliases can be added by heading into settings, and looking for the "Gmail Aliases" menu item. Once added and verified, you should see an option to choose these accounts when composing an email. The omission of alias accounts from the outset is something that prevented me from adopting Mailbox as a daily driver, so now it's there I might have to go and take another look. Anyone else been holding out for this?
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Tuesday the U.N. Security Council's failure to take action to stop the conflict in Syria is "a moral and strategic disgrace that history will judge harshly."
She told reporters at her final news conference Tuesday before starting her new job as U.S. national security adviser on July 1 that the paralysis of the U.N.'s most important body is "a stain" on the council that she will regret forever ? even though she maintained that the U.S. and its allies were not responsible.
Rice blamed three double vetoes by Russia and China of resolutions aimed at pressuring Syria's President Bashar Assad to end the violence, even though they didn't contain sanctions.
She expressed hope that the Syrian people will ultimately be able to chart their own future "and certainly the United States is committed to supporting them in those efforts and we will remain so."
"I think we've seen in this region of the world and many other parts of the world that these struggles can be long and costly but rarely can I think of an instance in recent history where at the end of the day ... the unified aspirations of a people for freedom and to chart their own future are ultimately suppressed," Rice said.
She wouldn't comment the refusal of China or Russia to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, and dismissed criticism of human rights in the United States by those countries and Ecuador, where Snowden has sought asylum, saying: "I think the records of other countries speak for themselves."
Rice called the U.S. relationship with Russia "complex and multifaceted," explaining that during her 4 1/2 years at the U.N. there have been disagreements with Moscow but the vast majority of accomplishments by the Security Council "have been accomplishment in partnership and with the support of the majority of the council including the veto-wielding members and that includes Russia."
In the future, she said, there will undoubtedly be important issues of divergence and disagreement.
But Rice stressed: "I'm not prepared to predict that that is inevitable, and certainly not across the board, where on issues as important as Iran and North Korea and many others we have been able to find common ground."
She listed the council's imposition of very tough sanctions on Iran and North Korea among the major accomplishments during her years as ambassador along with the council's authorization of military action to protect civilians in Libya, the birth of the new country of South Sudan, the political transformation in Yemen, the advance of women's equality and the U.N.'s "remarkable shift" on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.
Yet, she said, "conflict, abuse, atrocities, poverty and suffering persist in too many places," particularly Syria.
Listen to Lexicon Valley Episode No. 29: 30 Million By Four
In 1995, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley published the results of a nearly decade-long study of early childhood language and vocabulary development. The Journal of Early Intervention said that Hart and Risley?s book, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, ?may very well change our thinking about how we arrange early experiences for our children, if not revolutionize our approach to childhood.? But for reasons both political and economic, that revolution never occurred. Now, 20 years later, one American mayor wants to put Hart and Risley?s research to a real-world test. Listen to Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss why talking may be the single most important activity you can do with your child.
When it comes to funding a small business, there are two basic options: debt or equity financing.
Each has its advantages and drawbacks, so it?s important to know a bit about both so you can make the best decision for financing your business.
Debt Financing
Debt financing involves borrowing money, typically in the form of a loan from a bank or other financial institution or from commercial finance companies, to fund your business.
Getting a business loan generally requires good credit and solid financials, as well as collateral for larger loans.
Many small business owners are afraid to take on debt because they fear they may not have the cash flow to repay the debt (plus interest) in a timely fashion.
Others may be concerned that they don?t have the credit-worthiness to get a bank loan, and so don?t want to even bother applying.
But debt financing has some definite advantages that make it an option worth considering for any small business owner.
First and foremost, unlike with equity financing, debt financing allows you to retain control of your business, as ownership stays fully in your hands.
You may have to back up a loan with collateral, so if you default you may lose certain tangible assets, but you won?t lose creative and strategic control of your business.
In addition, taking on debt can build your business credit, which is good for future borrowing and for insurance rates.
It?s also worth bearing in mind that interest paid on loans is tax deductible, softening the blow of repayment somewhat.
Equity Financing
Equity financing involves bringing in investors or partners who provide capital in exchange for a share of ownership of the business.
These investors or partners generally invest because they expect to make a profit when the business becomes successful.
Unlike a loan, if you don?t make a profit, you usually aren?t required to pay them back. The absence of monthly loan payments can free up significant working capital for the business.
Many small business owners also are drawn to equity financing because, while investors or partners will only provide equity if they have faith in the earning power of your business, you don?t necessarily need the pristine financial history that is required for a loan.
This can be a crucial point for many small business owners, especially for those just starting a business without the two or three years of financials most banks look at.
The cost of these benefits is that you no longer retain sole control of your business.
This means that not only will your investors be entitled to a share of profits, but they also have a say in the running of your business and the direction it?s headed.
This may not seem like a problem at the beginning when you need cash, but can sometimes lead to conflict further down the road.
On the other hand, a strong, smart partner may be an asset to your business; especially if you find someone who is a good compliment to yourself.
If you?re the creative, visionary type, you may benefit from the balancing influence of a partner who is grounded and pennywise.
The Bottom Line
Because each type of financing has its own appeal, businesses often take advantage of both debt and equity financing, utilizing each to its best advantage.
Look at the benefits of each to see which may most help your business, and compare typical debt-to-equity ratios for other businesses in your industry when deciding what type of financing to seek.
Ked Harley is a writer and researcher for Biz2CreditBusiness Loans, a leading credit marketplace connecting small- and medium-sized businesses with small business loans, service providers, and complementary business tools.?She is also a self-confessed coffee addict working out of New York City. Her interests include business and finance, world news, food, and travel, and she enjoys yoga and running in the park. Follow Biz2Credit on Twitter for small business news and updates.
VALENCIA (Reuters) - Small-time investors who lost money after the euro zone bailed out Spain's Bankia last year booed the lender's leaders on Tuesday, rejecting assurances at a shareholders' meeting that the worst was over.
Bankia had to be rescued barely a year after a stock market listing campaign that had targeted ordinary Spaniards.
Investors who hired buses to the meeting in Valencia, eastern Spain, waved placards outside the venue reading "No to financial fraud!" and chanted "Hands up! Bankia is a robbery!"
Inside the venue, a grand steel and glass conference centre whose auditoria can hold over 2,000 people, elderly savers booed Chairman Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri as he reiterated the bank's aim to post a 800 million euro (680 million pounds) profit for 2013 after an extensive balance sheet clean-up.
The government had pitched Bankia's public offering as the solution to Spain's banking ills when it was listed in 2011.
But hundreds of thousands of small investors lost their money when near-collapse forced Spain to seek European funds to rescue its banking system. Bankia received 18 billion euros ($24 billion) of the 42 billion euros in May.
Another 300,000 people are still trying to calculate their losses after buying complex products that many say were sold to them as a form of high-interest savings account.
The hybrid debt and preference shares they bought from former savings banks that were later merged to form Bankia were swapped last month for ordinary shares at an average discount of 38 percent in an attempt to help them recoup some of their losses.
But these new shares have since tumbled by more than 50 percent and some analysts believe they could fall another 25 percent from the 0.58 euros per share they were trading at on Tuesday.
BIG LOSSES FOR SMALL SAVERS
Many investors are suspicious of an arbitration process that the government set up to help some of them get money back if they can prove the bank did not properly explain the risk.
"I'm not going to take part in the arbitration process because it's a fiddle," said 69-year-old pensioner Francisco Dominguez. He said he lost 38,000 euros in preference shares and would seek justice through the courts.
Another 67-year-old pensioner protesting outside the meeting, Primitivo Arias-Fernandez, said he had lost most of the 24,000 euros he had invested in preference shares.
"Suddenly I'm a forced shareholder because they've converted those into ordinary shares," he said. His local bank branch had told him these shares were now worth just 400 euros, he said.
While Bankia has sold assets, closed branches and returned to profit in the first quarter, Spain's banks are still struggling in an economy weighed down by debts from a long-bust housing boom and by government cost-cutting.
Bankia may also have to set aside more money to cover potential risks on its refinanced and restructured loans after the Bank of Spain published new, tougher rules on how banks should account for these portfolios in April.
However, Chairman Goirigolzarri said the bank's review of those loans would show no need for additional capital after booking a core capital ratio - a key measure of a bank's solvency - of 10 percent at the end of the first quarter, up from 9.5 percent at the end of December.
"This is key because it allows us to affirm that we have no additional capital needs at Bankia," he said.
(Writing by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Julien Toyer/Ruth Pitchford)
On the 63rd anniversary of the Korean War that divided the peninsula, hackers hit systems in both North and South Korea.
By Whitney Eulich,?Staff writer / June 25, 2013
A man walks by a gate at Cyber Terror Response Center of National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25. South Korea said multiple government and private sector websites were hacked on Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and Seoul issued a cyberattack alert warning officials and citizens to take security measures.
Lee Jin-man/AP
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? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
Skip to next paragraph Whitney Eulich
Latin America Editor
Whitney Eulich is the Monitor's Latin America editor, overseeing regional coverage for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She also curates the Latin America Monitor Blog.
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As the Korean Peninsula awoke to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War today, major government and media websites in both North and South Korea appeared to be under electronic attack.
Seoul said it was investigating cyber attacks on the websites for the presidential Blue House, prime minister?s office, and a handful of major media organizations. The South Korean intelligence service is also looking into whether or not the shutdown of some North Korean sites was due to being hacked, reports The Associated Press.
According to South Korea's Arirang News, a message referring to North Korean president appeared on screens in Seoul?s presidential office this morning: ?Hurrahs to Kim Jong-un, the president of a unified Korea!?
It is unclear who is responsible for these attacks and if they are linked. The hacker group ?Anonymous? has warned that it would target North Korea due to its strict controls over Internet access, specifically citing today?s date, reports The New York Times.
Less than 1 percent of North Koreans have access to the Internet.
There are reports of Twitter users claiming responsibility for the attacks in the South today, ?demanding that the Seoul government stop censoring Internet content and that its intelligence agency apologize for a recent political scandal in which government intelligence agents were accused of engaging in an online campaign to attack opposition candidates ahead of the Dec. 19, presidential election,? reports the Times.
Earlier this year a much more serious breach of Internet security in South Korea took down an estimated 48,000 computers and servers at banks and media institutions. Some banks were hamstrung for up to five days. North Korea was accused of being behind the cyber attack, the seventh such accusation from the South since 2008.
?Cyber attacks are much easier weapons for North Korea as they cost far less than missiles or nuclear tests, but they can send more people into a real panic,? Park Choon Sik, a Seoul Women?s University professor of cyber security, told Bloomberg at the time.
This last attack, in March, came just weeks after the United Nations slapped North Korea with renewed sanctions for conducting nuclear tests. Tensions heightened on the peninsula as a military hotline connecting the two countries was cut off, threats were made to close an important shared industrial complex, and North Korea warned of severing the Korean War armistice. The rhetoric of war went so far as to implicate a potential nuclear attack on various US cities.
According to The Christian Science Monitor?s correspondent in Seoul:
For all its bombast, North Korea may actually be?reluctant to enter into a military conflict with the South and its US allies because of the alliance?s superior military strength. But cyberattacks can be harmful, create a climate of fear, and avoid any direct consequences.???
This type of attack suits North Korea.
?Cyberwar is right up their street. It?s cheap and deniable,? says Aidan Foster Carter, a Korea expert at the University of Leeds.
South Korea may also have ?more to lose? than North Korea if ?the inter-Korean conflict were to move into cyberspace,? reports a separate AP story. There are more Internet connections than there are people in South Korea, according to 2012 OECD data.
?Many daily tasks [in South Korea] are performed online, from banking and the purchasing of movie or train tickets to social interactions. As such, South Koreans have a lot to lose from a malicious attack on the country?s IT infrastructure,? according to the Monitor.?
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Kim Il-sung Square in North Korea?s capital to commemorate the start of the three-year-long Korean War and protest the United States today, according to AP. Thousands gathered in South Korea to mark the date, with military drills taking place near the demilitarized zone between the two countries, as well.?
CAIRO (Reuters) - Yields at an Egyptian auction of dollar-denominated one-year treasury bill rose on Monday, data from the central bank showed. Egypt's central bank said it sold $608.5 million of the bills at an average yield of 3.882 percent, up from 3.844 percent at its last auction on May 13, when the bank sold $1.25 billion of dollar-denominated debt. The central bank received bids worth $940.5 million, with yields on the accepted bids ranging from 3.770 to 3.900 percent. The bills will roll over $526 million in similar one-year bills that mature on June 18. ...
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Public release date: 28-Jun-2013
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