New evidence frees man 42 years after deadly hotel fire

By Brad Poole

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - An Arizona man was set free on Tuesday after serving four decades for murder in connection with a 1970 hotel fire that killed 29 people, after new evidence emerged throwing his conviction into question.

"It's good to feel Mother Earth under my feet again," Louis Taylor, 58, told reporters seconds after leaving the prison grounds in a car with members of his legal defense team.

Taylor was freed after a Pima County Superior Court judge agreed there was sufficient evidence to grant a new trial.

During the same hearing, Taylor pleaded "no contest" to each of 28 counts of murder and accepted a plea agreement in which he would not admit guilt.

He was immediately sentenced to time served and agreed to seek no compensation for his time behind bars. He will not be required to pay restitution.

Paul D'Hedouville II, whose father, Paul D'Hedouville, died in the fire, read a statement to the court. He listed a few life moments his father - a 31-year-old attorney in 1970 - missed over the years. There were Christmases, anniversaries and weddings, soccer games, trips to the beach and camping trips, D'Hedouville said, at times choking back tears.

"He was never able to go to Ireland to meet my future bride," he said.

D'Hedouville, who flew in from Washington, D.C. for the hearing, harbors no ill will toward Taylor and observed that the man convicted of his father's murder can now do as he wants.

"Do as you choose, Mr. Taylor, but choose wisely. Do not waste your new beginning," he told Taylor, who was listening from his defense table wearing orange prison garb and shackles.

Taylor was 16 when the Pioneer Hotel fire broke out just after midnight on December 20, 1970. His accounts of why he went to the Tucson hotel vary, but he eventually admitted to putting on a bus-boy's smock to try to steal drinks from a Hughes Aircraft company Christmas party.

DOUBTS AROSE QUICKLY

Hundreds of people were gathered for the party, and the hotel was packed with visitors from Mexico in town for Christmas shopping. The fire started on the third floor of the 14-story building and quickly spread upward through a stairwell, trapping people above the blaze. Some victims jumped to their deaths from the building to escape flames.

Twenty-eight people died that night from burns or smoke inhalation, and one died months later from injuries sustained in the fire.

Taylor was arrested within hours of the fire and lied to investigators about seeing others starting the fire. He gave conflicting accounts of what he saw, and he admitted to investigators that he had a history of starting fires.

Taylor was eventually convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison.

Doubts arose quickly about the conviction, with some observers saying the all-white jury made a racist decision about Taylor, who is black. In recent years, lawyers for the Arizona Justice Project took up the cause, calling for a new trial.

A Tucson Fire Department examination of the evidence earlier this year concluded that the origin of the fire would be deemed "undetermined" using current technology and techniques. That report was key to the request for a new trial. Judge Richard S. Fields on Tuesday agreed a new trial was warranted.

Taylor planned to spend his first night of freedom with Kristina Beckman-Britco, a volunteer for the ADP who became his friend while he was in prison. He has requested only bacon and ice cream, she said through tears as she watched Taylor get into a car to ride to freedom.

"I want to make sure he wakes up to the smell of bacon," she said.

(This story corrects name of Arizona Justice Project, paragraph 15 in April 2 story)

(Reporting by Brad Poole; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/evidence-frees-man-42-years-deadly-hotel-fire-174210266.html

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Iran, North Korea, Syria block U.N. arms trade treaty

By Louis Charbonneau

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

To get around the blockade, British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant sent the draft treaty to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him on behalf of Mexico, Australia and a number of others to put it to a swift vote in the General Assembly.

U.N. diplomats said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote as early as Tuesday.

"A good, strong treaty has been blocked," said Britain's chief delegate, Joanne Adamson. "Most people in the world want regulation and those are the voices that need to be heard."

"This is success deferred," she added.

The head of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman, told a group of reporters, "We look forward to this treaty being adopted very soon by the United Nations General Assembly." He declined to predict the result of a vote but said it would be a "substantial majority" in favor.

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

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

Delegates to the treaty-drafting conference said on Wednesday they were close to a deal to approve the treaty, but cautioned that Iran and other countries might attempt to block it. Iran, Syria and North Korea did just that, blocking the required consensus for it to pass.

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

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

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

'HELD HOSTAGE'

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

"Unfortunately our national concerns were not taken into consideration," he said. "It can't be accepted by my country."

North Korea's delegate voiced similar complaints, suggesting it was a discriminatory treaty: "This (treaty) is not balanced."

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

North Korea is also under a U.N. arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Russia and China made clear they would not have blocked it but voiced serious reservations about the text and its failure to get consensus. A Russian delegate told the conference that Moscow would have to think hard about signing it if it were approved. India, Pakistan and others complained that the treaty favors exporters and creates disadvantages for arms importers.

If adopted by the General Assembly, the pact will need to be signed and ratified by at least 50 states to enter into force.

Several diplomats and human rights groups that have lobbied hard in favor of the treaty complained that the requirement of consensus for the pact to pass was something that the United States insisted on years ago. That rule gave every U.N. member state the ability to veto the draft treaty.

"The world has been held hostage by three states," said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam. "We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and today we see it is actually dysfunctional."

"Countries such as Iran, Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated," she added.

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

The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.

Washington demanded that the conference be run on the basis of consensus because it wanted to be able to block any treaty that undermined the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms, a sensitive political issue in the United States. Countryman said the draft treaty did not undermine U.S. rights.

The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-north-korea-syria-block-u-n-arms-002525001.html

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Coventry City: Jobs For Two Candidates

All the latest news about CCFC brought to you right here as it happens

• This week (to Today):
• Mon 18 Feb Best Makes Rovers Return
• Mon 18 Feb Di Canio Quits Swindon
• Mon 18 Feb City Duo At SBITC
• Mon 18 Feb Jobs For Two Candidates
• Mon 18 Feb No Pressure On Us - Carsley
• Mon 18 Feb I've Been Told To Be Sharper - Clarke
• Mon 18 Feb More Bookies Quoting Pemberton As Favourite
• Mon 18 Feb Respect What Robins Has Done - Cameron
• Mon 18 Feb Losing Robins Isn't Worth Losing Any Sleep Ov
• Mon 18 Feb And Another Game Against Villa For City Ladie
• Mon 18 Feb With The Fans Behind Us - Cameron
• Mon 18 Feb Sport Stars Memorabilia
• Sun 17 Feb Robins Starts With A Heavy Defeat
• Sun 17 Feb City Ladies Reserves Beat Blackburn
• Sun 17 Feb Win At Bury Was Another City First
• Sun 17 Feb Great Win For City Supporters
• Sun 17 Feb A Real Team Effort - Carsley
• Sun 17 Feb I'll Give 110% - Dickinson
• Sun 17 Feb Win Was Down To The Players - Carsley
• Sun 17 Feb We Won't Come Up Against Quality Like That Ev
• Sun 17 Feb Pemberton Odds On With Sky Bet For City Job
• Sun 17 Feb City Legends Day
• Sat 16 Feb Players Did Themselves Justice -Carsley
• Sat 16 Feb First O'Donovan Goal For Northampton
• Sat 16 Feb Support Again Was Brilliant - Christie
• Sat 16 Feb City Remain In Eighth
• Sat 16 Feb Sphinx Suffer Home Defeat
• Sat 16 Feb Compass Group Named In Horse DNA Food Scandal
• Sat 16 Feb Dickinson Is Settling In Well - Carsley
• Sat 16 Feb SISU Have Two Choices - Mutton
• Sat 16 Feb Knatchbull-Hugessen Rubbishes Fisher Claims
• Sat 16 Feb Fans Agree That It's Time For SISU To Go
• Sat 16 Feb Higgs Trust And Council View On Ricoh Rent Ro
• Sat 16 Feb Sky Blues In The Community Half Term Activiti
• Sat 16 Feb Sphinx Set Banbury Date
• Sat 16 Feb Carsley The Bookies Favourite
• Sat 16 Feb Dickinson To Debut?
• Sat 16 Feb Sphinx Sports & Social Game Off
• Fri 15 Feb City Issue Ricoh Rent Statement
• Fri 15 Feb Lifetime Achievement Award For Joe Elliott
• Fri 15 Feb City Have Their Bank Accounts Frozen
• Fri 15 Feb Bring In The Mediators - Fisher
• Fri 15 Feb Bury Take Former City Youngster
• Fri 15 Feb Debt Order Served Against Coventry City FC
• Fri 15 Feb Two Due In Court
• Fri 15 Feb Four To Five Weeks Out For Adams
• Fri 15 Feb Home Game For Sphinx
• Fri 15 Feb Is It Time For Sisu To Sell Up And Get Out Of
• Fri 15 Feb Players Could Be Chipped
• Thu 14 Feb Necessary To Take Some Temporary Pain - Foste

Source: http://www.coventrycity-mad.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=784090

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Bluffton mayor stepping down

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Source: http://www.thecourier.com/articleredirector.asp?d=021913_story5&c=n

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Earth-like planets next door? Prospect could point to 9.6 billion more

A new study calculates that the nearest Earth-like planet may be only 13 light-years away ? and argues there may be more habitable planets out there than we thought.?

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / February 6, 2013

This artist's conception provided by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows a hypothetical planet with two moons orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. Earth-like worlds may be closer and more plentiful than anyone imagined. Astronomers reported Wednesday.

David A. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics/AP

Enlarge

The nearest potentially habitable, Earth-like planet may be a scant 13 light-years away ? close enough that any hypothetical, tech-savvy inhabitants there could start enjoying the second season of "The Sopranos" right about now.

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Indeed, there should be at least three Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zones of stars within 33 light-years of Earth, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's Kepler mission.

That would put detailed studies of such planets ? and the hunt for signatures of life on them ? well within the reach of a new generation of space telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope, currently slated for launch in October 2018.

Launched in March 2009, Kepler is monitoring some 158,000 stars across the constellations Cygnus and Lyra?for signs of planets. The ultimate goal is to detect Earth-like planets orbiting sun-like stars.

Along the way, however, the mission has also been gathering statistics on the size and type of planets orbiting different stars.?Based on those data, the team conducting the new study concludes that some 6 percent of the smallest, coolest types of stars in the galaxy ? red dwarfs ? host planets with a mass similar to Earth's that are also in habitable zones.?

Up to 80 percent of the stars in the galaxy are thought to be red dwarfs. If 6 percent have an Earth-like planet, that means?the galaxy could host between 9.6 billion and 19.2 billion potentially-habitable Earths?around these stars alone.?

The results reinforce a growing recognition that our solar system, with its larger, hotter star, "is quite rare," says John Johnson, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena who studies extrasolar planets. "It's quite remarkable that the vast majority of habitable planets throughout the galaxy are likely around these red dwarfs."?

The results also "highlight just how quickly the field of extrasolar planets is blooming," he adds.

In 2000, astronomers had only detected 33 planets, all gas giants the size of Saturn or larger. They have now found 3,300, when Kepler's planet candidates are included.?

The new study, conducted by Harvard University graduate student Courtney Dressing and astronomer David Charbonneau at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., casts a new eye on the red dwarfs previously cataloged by the Kepler team.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/rgLo33ZT_h0/Earth-like-planets-next-door-Prospect-could-point-to-9.6-billion-more

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Low-Skill Jobs with the Highest Concentration of College Graduates

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity released a study last week confirming what many recent college graduates have known for a long time: a large proportion of grads are working in jobs that don't require a college degree. What we didn't know was the situation may have been worse than we realized.

According to the study, nearly half of college graduates are working jobs that require less than a four-year degree.So what low-skill job are you likely to find should you call the wrong side of the coin?

Retail Sales/Clerk. Either handling cash became more complicated over the last forty years, or a large portion of the retail labor force is over-educated. Nearly 25 percent of shelf stockers, cash register jockeys, and clothing folders hold a four-year degree. (In 1970, the concentration was more like 5 percent.)

Firefighters. Your average fireman is not only a hero but also a scholar. A full 17.5 percent of firefighters report having a bachelor's degree. That's a dramatic increase from the 2 percent reported 40 years ago.

Taxi Drivers. This might not have been what you had in mind when you considered a job that required a lot of time on the road. When you hail a cab on the street, there's a 15 percent chance your driver holds a four-year degree. Back in 1970, only 1 percent of drivers had this level of education.

Bank Tellers. Maybe there is something to the complexity of handling cash after all? Slightly less than 15 percent of bank tellers are college graduates. Once upon a time, less than 3 percent of graduates held this type of position at the bank.

Why are So Many Graduates Stuck in Low-Skill Jobs? Low-skilled laborers didn't used to be so well-educated. Forty years ago, these occupations didn't have even a quarter of the educational attainment they do today. This shift towards greater levels of education is a direct result of skill polarization in the workforce.

Imagine there are three levels of skill needed for a job. You have low-skill jobs that require simple manual tasks like stocking shelves. Then there are middle-skill jobs that require training and education, but are more routine and repetitive. Jobs that require a great deal of creativity and analytical effort would be considered high-skill jobs. Over the last decade, jobs in the United States have polarized towards low- and high-skill labor, while middle-skill labor has steadily declined.

The reason for this is twofold. The low cost of computer technology is one of these factors. Since most middle-skill jobs have a great deal of routine, rule-based activities, employers have turned to technology to replace human workers. This is especially true in manufacturing operations.

The rise of the global middle class is another factor. Since a greater share of the world's population has a college education, American middle-skill laborers are now in direct competition with graduates from across the world who are willing to work for less pay. Naturally, jobs have left for newer boards--leaving a glut of graduates looking for a small amount of potential jobs.

At this point, it's hard to say if middle-skill jobs with ever return. What is notable is that high-skilled jobs have been increasing even as middle-skill jobs decrease. So if you are aiming to avoid a nine-to-five at the check-out register, you might want to take a good look at finance, health sciences, and engineering degrees.

JP is a writer for the money blog 20's Finances. He is an MBA and the financial officer for a nonprofit organization.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/low-skill-jobs-highest-concentration-college-graduates-143852038.html

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Timbuktu Chronicles: SoftCenter - Business Management Software ...

VC4Africa speaks with D?sir? Nshimirimana founder of SoftCenter,Burundi:

?At Soft Center we develop, sell and implement business management software. The company employs 30 people. In the past years we have developed our own management software package called ?QuickSoft Applications?, the first really integrated management system for SMEs. It is the first system that integrates functions like account management, book keeping, stock management, payroll, HRM etc. This makes it unique. It can be regarded as a ?mini-SAP?, or to be precise: Africa?s own mini-SAP.

Our product has proven to be successful in the market for medium sized enterprises in our home country Burundi. Our market share is well over 50%. For achieving growth in the smaller enterprises segment we have developed special applications per industry, like wholesale, retail, hospitality, education, manufacturing and processing, healthcare etc. And to accompany our core business we also do dedicated software development, supply hardware, provide trainings, do hardware and software maintenance and provide other related services.?

More here

Source: http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/2013/02/softcenter-business-management-software.html

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