Syrian rebels shoot down military helicopter over Damascus

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels shot down a military helicopter flying over Damascus on Monday during heavy clashes with government forces, according to the rebel Free Syrian Army.

The fighting comes after an intense and bloody government operation in the areas surrounding the capital that has left hundreds dead in recent days. More than 320 people were killed Saturday in the suburb of Darayya alone, many of them shot in the head, in what opposition groups are calling the biggest massacre of the conflict so far.

Dramatic videos of the helicopter attack, which allegedly took place in the Qaboun area of northeastern Damascus, were posted online Monday. One video shows the helicopter smoking and circling horizontally before taking a dramatic vertical dip and plunging to the ground in a fiery ball. The sound of heavy machine gun fire can be heard on the video along with chants of “God is great.”

Col. Aref Hammoud, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, said there was no indication yet that any of the crew had survived the crash or had been captured by rebel forces.

“The regime is using helicopters and planes in their attack on cities and residential areas to take revenge on them because they are our supporters,” he said. “Recently when the air force starts attacking an area, it means they are preparing for a ground attack.”

The Shaam News Network, which supports the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, posted a bulletin on its Facebook page Monday noting that a helicopter had crashed in the Qaboun area of Damascus and blaming Israelis for the attack.

“This is not our first encounter with the Israelis inside of Syria,” the posting read. “But it’s the first step towards their end. Our trust in the army has no limits.”

Two weeks ago, rebel forces claimed to have shot down a jet in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour and captured the pilot. The Syrian government blamed a technical problem for that crash.

These incidents suggested that rebel forces may be acquiring heavier and more sophisticated weaponry, including surface-to-air missiles, and may be more proficient at using weapons already in their arsenal, analysts said. Rebel forces have posted recent videos of fighters posing with what appear to be surface-to-air missiles.

The military air campaign has taken a heavy toll on both rebel forces and civilians in Damascus, Aleppo and a number of smaller cities across the country.

Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande called in a speech on Monday for Syrian opposition groups to form a provisional government, which he said France would recognize, the Associated Press reported.

According to AP, Hollande said, “France asks the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government — inclusive and representative — that can become the legitimate representative of the new Syria.”

Great Migration (Afrcan American)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_%28African_American%29

ASYLUM FOR ASSANGE

Britain and Ecuador

Asylum for Assange

Aug 19th 2012, 10:46 by The Economist online | QUITO

ON AUGUST 17th Ecuador announced its decision to grant diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, the organisation which has published reams of classified documents to the consternation of governments around the world. Two months earlier Mr Assange had entered Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning for alleged sexual abuse.

Bespectacled and in his gravelly Guayaquil accent, Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, rallied the Americas against Britain’s display of “gross blackmail” in threatening to arrest Mr Assange on the premises of  the London embassy. Even diehard opponents of Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president, railed against Britain’s ham-handed invocation of a never-used, 1987 law to insinuate that it could, eventually, have the right to enter the embassy. Mr Patiño seized the opportunity to claim that Britain had already committed a “hostile and unfriendly act”.

The row has taken British-Ecuadorean relations to a new low. Britain appears to have delayed dispatching a new ambassador to the embassy flat in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, which it shares with Germany and which is already almost bereft of British staffers. But the Foreign Office may be right to question whether Ecuador’s actions adhere to the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. Having bonded with the Mr Correa during a recent interview for Russia Today, a Kremlin-backed television channel, Mr Assange’s request for asylum was preceded by lengthy talks with the populist regime. WikiLeaks staffers visited Quito to sound out the situation, and the embassy prepared a room in its London flat for his arrival. According to an official close to Mr Correa, the president gave his approval for Mr Assange’s asylum request on the condition that it would be a straightforward matter. But unbeknownst to his inexperienced crop of diplomats, says the official, European countries, unlike Latin American ones, mostly do not accept the concept of diplomatic asylum. After a private presidential tongue lashing, Mr Patiño was set to work to provide the legal dossier in favour of Mr Assange’s appeal. The question was not if, but how, Ecuador would grant him asylum.

Mr Patiño presented a lengthy paper invoking international law and human rights to defend Mr Assange, and demonstrate Ecuador’s willingness to negotiate with Sweden, Britain, and America. While the United States has not charged him with a crime, Mr Assange fears he could ultimately face the death penalty there for his role in publishing hundreds of thousands of classified American documents.

Yet the issue of how to extract him from Britain remains problematic. Britain’s refusal to provide safe passage to Ecuador, and Sweden’s refusal to question him on the embassy’s premises, could mean Mr Assange remains in the embassy for at least the duration of Ecuador’s upcoming election campaign. For Mr Correa, the Australian former hacker is proof that Ecuador is not, as foreign and private domestic media insist, a threat to its people’s freedom of expression. Still, since Mr Assange moved into the embassy, the government has seized the computers of the critical magazine Vanguardia on trumped-up charges for the second time, and opened individuals’ internet protocol (IP) addresses to government scrutiny. And, Alexander Barankov, a Belarusian former army captain, faces extradition to Belarus at that government’s request, despite Ecuador having previously awarded him refugee status.

But Ecuador will not want to host Mr Assange in its London embassy forever, says Michel Levi, professor of international relations at the Andina Simón Bolívar University in Quito. "I think he will end up in Sweden, with special conditions granted for his eventual trial," he says. On Sunday Mr Assange was due to make a statement from the embassy, in which sources close to him suggest that he may offer to cooperate with Sweden if guarantees are given that he would not face extradition to a third country.

UPDATE: Speaking from a balcony at the embassy on Sunday, Mr Assange thanked the government and people of Ecuador for granting him asylum in their country, and urged America to renounce its “witch-hunt” of WikiLeaks and “war on whistleblowers”. See his speech here

WRITING A REPORT

COMPOSITION WRITING    : REPORT 33rd  ANNIVERSARY When writing a report, what you are doing is  describing a situation and explaining  the reasons for the present state of things. You will also make suggestions  or changes to  improve  the existing  problems
MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE A HIGH LEVEL OF ENGLISH Introduction: Nowadays more and more students finish school with an unsatisfactory level of English. The main aim of this report is to explain why this is happening and what we could do to change the present state of things. Reasons for lack of success: There are obviously lots of reasons why our students fail to reach a good level of spoken English. As a matter of fact, researchers have found out that only 10% of students can speak English fluently. The other 90% has lots of difficulties  coping with sentence formation and vocabulary. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that teachers aren't placing  as much significance on speaking and listening, as they do on grammar. The fact is that students are really good at  grammar, but can't use it while speaking. Another aspect we should take into account is that students are complaining about  a  very old-fashioned approach to some exercises since teachers are asking for too many details, which are not so important for improving the general knowledge of English. Ideas for improvement: First of all, there should be an interactive way of learning. This includes using computers, listening to songs and watching films without subtitles According to some countries which have interactive classes, students are more interested in using the language  and, therefore, there are much better results.. Conclusion: Clearly, changes should be made in order to motivate students. The solutions to all problems is training teachers to use interactive learning in everyday classes.
USEFUL PHRASES AND EXPRESSIONS: 1) The aim of this report is to describe... 2) In this report, I will present... 3) This report provides a evaluation... 4) I spoke to several members of our sales staff... 5) I conducted a survey among college graduates... 6) According to... 7) The following reasons were given for... 8) I would recommend, therefore, ...

Taking flight: How to cope with fear of flying

Taking flight: How to cope with fear of flying

An estimated millions of Americans are afraid to fly, and the September 11 terrorist attacks, followed by the recent crash of American Airlines Flight 587, may make them even more jittery.

"Whenever there's a plane crash, it's hard for people to cope," said Dr. Page Anderson, whose Virtually Better clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, helps people overcome their fear of flying and other phobias through virtual-reality therapy. "Now, of course, it is more complicated in the wake of the terrorist attacks."

Fear of flying can begin in several ways, Anderson explained.

Having a traumatic experience on an airplane -- say an especially rough flight -- or sitting next to someone who is afraid can intensify people's own fears.

"A third way to develop fear is to actually hear information that's consistent with the fear," he added. "There's always intense media coverage of airplane crashes and that can really play into people's fears and skew their perceptions of how safe it is to fly."

But these fears can be conquered.

"In order to overcome a fear, you have to face a fear," Anderson said.

He recommends the following for coping with a fear of flying:

-- Develop a realistic perception about the fear. For instance, flying remains statistically safer than driving. According to the National Safety Council, in 1998, the odds of dying in an air accident were 1 in 390,532, but the odds of dying in a traffic accident were 1 in 6,212.

-- Challenge negative thinking or scary thoughts about flying.

-- Manage anxiety with breathing techniques or meditation.

-- Avoid alcohol on flights. While it may seem to be calming initially, it will prevent facing up to fears in the long run, Anderson said. Other experts advise that alcohol can heighten anxiety.

-- Get back on the plane. Avoiding flying may intensify the fear.

-- If you are still nervous and anxious long after others have come to terms with their fears, consider treatment.

"Treatment tends to be very brief and focused and effective," Anderson said. "Therapeutic exposure involves facing the fear in a controlled and gradual way so that you feel like you're mastering and can cope with your anxiety as you face it."

FEAR

From my understanding, there are 2 types of fears: psychological and instinctive. Psychological fear is the type that is borne out of our mental processes. Instinctive fears are those reactive emotions that are inherently linked to our physical survival.

When a psychological fear arises, should we fear it?

When we fear Fear, will we be still in fear? When we fear Fear are we avoiding something?

Here's my opinion on this matter: To me, fearing of Psychological Fear is still a fear.

Fear, to me, is the feeling of the unknown...and a strong desire of anticipation. It is an emotion of something (that is deep within us) that wishes to be 'discovered' and made conscious. So, perhaps, by relaxing deeper into the fear, we may eventually feel/remember its cause or a deeper feeling. The problem is that we hate feeling fear and will usually avoid it. There is nothing wrong with this. It is just that instead of finding the source; we tend to quickly brush it away from our conscious awareness. By doing so, we have reburied the feelings and potential causes back into the subconscious mind.

Psychological Fear in its various degrees, to me, is the potential for further understanding of something yet unknown. It is that when the something has not been discovered yet and the anticipation causes fear. So fear can be considered an indicator emotion. It indicates to us what we need to know about a situation or ourselves.

OK, here's the metaphysical part about the underlying dynamics of our consciousness (as I understand it).

Our consciousness includes 2 aspects: The personality and the subconscious mind. The personality is the conscious portion of us. It has active participation with the world. The subconscious mind is the aspect that we are not consciously aware of. It is the unknown aspect of us hidden from our active awareness.

The personality and the subconscious mind work in partnership. The personality is the conscious expressed aspect which receives impressions/thoughts from the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind becomes aware of the outcome (which is the personality) and throws back feedback (intuition/answers) into the personality/conscious mind. There is this constant 'back and forth' activity between personality and subconscious mind.

Applying this above-mentioned theory; we can see that psychological fears perhaps have their roots in our subconscious mind. And if we try to understand them and give them time to make themselves be understood, fears can actually tell us more about ourselves.

FACEBOOK and TWITTER FRIENDS OR FOES ?

How To Ruin Your Career Using Twitter And Facebook

 

In today's technologically savvy age, much of our affairs are handled online. Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter have taken the Internet by storm. These sites make it easier to connect with friends, family and colleagues, but there is a dark side to social networking that needs to be taken into consideration. Facebook and Twitter can act as a mouthpiece and, depending on how long your friend list is or how many followers you have, you could be speaking to a very large audience. While many people use social networking casually, it is important to take care with what you post on Facebook and other social networking websites, as it can adversely affect your employment status. Here is a look at some social media practices that can get you into hot water at work.

SEE: 4 Companies Behind The Social Media Curtain

Inappropriate PhotographsYou may want to scrutinize any photographs you post to a social networking site before presenting them to the public. Racy or inappropriate photographs could cost you the job that you are applying for if the hiring manager views your social networking activity. The practice of employers checking potential employee's Facebook page for inappropriate photographs has come under major scrutiny. Employers scrutinize photographs on social networking websites because it can give them a glimpse into potential job candidates that they wouldn't see otherwise. A candidate with an unsavory social networking presence is considered a major turn-off to hiring managers.

Sharing Protected InformationOne of the easiest ways to get into trouble at work due to your social networking activity is to share protected employer information with your list of friends or followers. Many people use social networking sites to vent, which often includes spouting off frustrations about their jobs. Unfortunately, if your complaint exposes protected company information, you can easily lose your job.

Inflammatory Social Networking PostsInflammatory posts on social networking sites that target your company, co-workers or your boss can be highly detrimental to your employment status. Slate.com recently released an article that highlights cases where employees were fired for criticizing a co-worker on a social networking website. In some cases, employers discovered the information on their own. In other cases, fellow co-workers brought the issue to the attention of a supervisor. This practice is called infringement against employee harassment regulations, and it can most certainly cost you your job.

The First Amendment Won't Save YouWhile the first amendment of the United States Bill of Rights prevents government officials and agencies from stripping you of your right to free speech, it does not apply to private employers. Unfortunately, the things you say on social networking websites can actually be detrimental to your job if you speak of your employer in an bad light, break privacy rules or even if you offend another co-worker with a derogatory post.

SEE: Job Applicant Privacy And Social Media

The Bottom LineAlthough social networking is supposed to be fun, we live in an age where we have to be conscientious of what we say at all times. This is especially true if you are friends with work colleagues on social networking websites. Although you are cordial or friendly with these individuals at work, it doesn't mean that he or she wouldn't report you to a member of upper management should one of your posts offend him or her. When it comes to job security, it is wise to consider keeping complaints about your job, company or co-workers offline and out of a public forum.

ADRIANA   C.P.E  Morning group
Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0712/Social-Media-Practices-That-Can-Get-You-In-Trouble-At-Work.aspx?utm_source=investopedia-professionals&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=PITM-7/31/2012#ixzz23AuwntqR