WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama has won over more than half of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former supporters, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll that finds party loyalty trumping hard feelings less than three weeks after their bruising Democratic presidential contest ended.

The poll suggests time is beginning to heal some rifts from the primary campaign and that the New York senator’s endorsement of Obama carried weight. The poll was taken in the days after Clinton suspended her campaign and said she was supporting her rival.

Obama’s progress with Clinton supporters is marked, yet far from complete. More than one in five who had backed the New York senator now plan to support Republican John McCain in the fall, a boost for McCain if those opinions hold.

“We still have work to do,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters in a strategy briefing. “Democrats are consolidating behind the nominee as the choice in the election is more clear and as the contest fades. Time is our friend here.”

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written by Andrew

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Bombers on Thursday killed at least 20 people west of Baghdad and at least 18 people in northern Iraq.

A suicide bomber attacked a meeting of tribal sheikhs in Karma, a town west of Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding 20 others, an Interior Ministry official said.

Coalition forces were among the casualties in the attack, which authorities believe was carried out by al Qaeda in Iraq.

The bomber detonated an explosives belt inside the Karma municipal council headquarters in Anbar province, according to police and an Awakening Council leader.

The official said Karma’s administrative director, three police officers, and three sheikhs were among those killed.

Karma is just northeast of Falluja, in Anbar province.

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 18 people were killed and more than 80 others wounded in two bombings in the area of a busy market in central Mosul, authorities said.

Gov. Duraid Kashmoula told CNN that two Katyusha rockets landed near the provincial building in the crowded market area.

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written by Andrew

Preţurile gazelor vor creşte de la 1 iulie în medie cu 12,5%, în timp ce tarifele percepute pentru energia electrică vor fi majorate în medie cu 5,3%, potrivit Autorităţii Naţionale pentru Reglementare în Domeniul Energiei.

Preţurile gazelor vor creşte de la 1 iulie în medie cu 12,5%, ca urmare a majorării costurilor cu achiziţia gazelor naturale în ianuarie - iunie 2008, precum şi pentru recuperarea parţială a diferenţelor de preţ înregistrate în aceeaşi perioadă.

Astfel, noile preţuri reglementate pentru furnizarea gazelor naturale către consumatorii casnici vor fi de 104,41 lei/MWh în cazul E.ON GAZ România (în creştere cu 11,6% faţă de cele curente) şi de 104,70 lei/MWh în cazul Distrigaz Sud Bucureşti (în creştere cu 12,5% faţă de cele curente), potrivit unui comunicat al Autorităţii Naţionale de Reglementare în Domeniul Energiei (ANRE).

Citeste toata stirea pe mediafax.ro

written by Andrew

JERUSALEM - Gaza militants fired two rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, further straining a shaky, week-old truce as Israel kept vital Gaza border crossings closed in response.

The rocket attack, the second since the cease-fire took effect, led to a call for retaliation by Israel’s Foreign Minister while Palestinians charged that the continued closure of crossings violated terms of the cease-fire.

Despite the breach, Israel dispatched an envoy to Egypt in hopes of negotiating a prisoner swap with Gaza’s ruling Islamic Hamas.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets Thursday. One exploded harmlessly in a field, the military said, refusing to disclose where the other landed. A statement from the militant group demanded that Israel halt its military operations in the West Bank.

The truce, hammered out by Egypt over months of separate talks with Israel and Hamas, does not include the West Bank. On Tuesday, Islamic Jihad fired three rockets at Israel, wounding two people, linking the attack to an Israeli raid in the West Bank.

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SEATTLE - It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off when he ends his full-time tenure Friday as Microsoft’s leader.

But as Gates bones up on epidemiology at his charitable foundation, the software company he built with a mix of visionary manifestos and extreme hands-on management must still wake up Monday to face hard problems even he could not solve. Among them: beating Google Inc. on the Web while fending off its attacks on desktop computing.

When Microsoft Corp. announced in 2006 that Gates planned to go part-time as board chairman, so he could spend more time on his global health charity, it named two senior executives to guide the company’s overall technical direction.

Gates’ recent remarks, however, indicate Microsoft is looking to a much larger group of employees for big-picture guidance and long-term planning. But it’s not yet clear whether the company can replicate his thinking with more traditional corporate processes — or whether it should even be trying.

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written by Andrew

YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) – Rolling your eyes to turn up the volume of a portable music player and tapping your fingers to turn on a DVD player are among technologies Japan’s top mobile carrier is testing for “wearable” gadgets.

In one version, sensors and chips inside headphones detect electrical current produced by movements of the wearer’s eyeballs, says Masaaki Fukumoto, executive research engineer at NTT DoCoMo.

“We are working on a cell phone of the future,” he said at a suburban Tokyo research center.

NTT DoCoMo believes wearable control technology will be adapted for mobile devices that download music, play video games and allow users to shop online and keep up with their e-mail.

In a demonstration Tuesday for the Associated Press, researcher Hiroyuki Manabe wore a giant headset covered with wires to show how computer graphic lines in a monitor connected to the headset darted wildly whenever his eyes moved.

He turned up the volume on a digital music player by rolling his eyes, and he jerked his eyes twice to the right to fast forward.

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written by Andrew

(CNN) — Roberto Donadoni has lost his job as coach of the Italian national team following their quarterfinal exit from Euro 2008.

The decision by the Italian football federation came after a meeting between Donadoni and its president Giancarlo Abete on Thursday, four days after Italy went out of tournament in the quarterfinals to Spain after a penalty shootout.

Donadoni had signed a two-year extension before Euro 2008, but the deal included an escape clause on both sides that could be put into effect within 10 days of any loss by Italy.

The 44-year-old had a patchy record since taking over from Marcello Lippi after Italy’s 2006 World Cup triumph.

He guided Italy to 13 wins, five draws and five losses, but his fate was sealed by an unimpressive European Championship campaign.

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written by Andrew

(CNN) — Romanian authorities plan to decide Friday whether to allow an 11-year-old girl to have an abortion after she was raped by her teenage uncle, the Romanian Ministry of Health said Thursday.

The girl is now 20 weeks pregnant — too far along to have an abortion in Romania — and her parents have said they’ll take her to Britain for an abortion if the Romanian authorities deny her one at home, a spokeswoman at the health ministry said.

It is illegal to have an abortion in Romania after 14 weeks unless the pregnancy poses problems for the mother’s health, said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named. Abortions are legal in Britain up to 24 weeks.

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written by Andrew

Fructele ajuta corpul sa nu se deshidrateze

Ceaiurile, fructele dulci si alimentele nesarate ajuta organismul sa reziste in fata temperaturilor ridicate

Pentru a functiona la parametri normali pe timp de canicula, organismul are nevoie de minimum trei litri de lichide pe zi si de doua mese principale cu supe si ciorbe.

Caldura mare, aerul uscat, razele puternice ale soarelui accentueaza tendinta de deshidratare a corpului. Transpiram foarte mult si, odata cu lichidele eliminate prin piele, pierdem si saruri minerale importante pentru metabolism. 

Fitonutritionistul Eugen Giurgiu ne sfatuieste cum sa contracaram efectele negative ale caniculei.

Prima masura este aceea a hidratarii corecte. Teoretic, stim ca trebuie sa bem doi litri de apa pe zi. Pe timpul verii, aceasta cantitate trebuie sa depaseasca trei litri pentru ca organismul sa functionize in parametri normali.

Acum trebuie sa consumam apa, sucuri, compoturi de fructe cu lamaie, ceaiuri (soc, busuioc, menta, ceai verde) otet de mere in amestec cu miere (cate o lingurita din fiecare, la o cana de apa plata) si lapte.

Dieta trebuie completata cu supe si ciorbe bogate din dovlevcei, rosii, morcovi, conopida, varza si ceapa.

Citeste tot articolul pe infoportal.ro

written by Andrew

La un credit de 20.000 de lei pe trei ani, diferenţa dintre costul total al variantei cu dobândă fixă şi cel cu dobândă variabilă ajunge la 2.000 de lei în favoarea primului caz. Pentru euro, situaţia este inversată.

Pentru un credit de nevoi personale, varianta cu dobândă fixă este mai bună la lei, în timp ce un împrumut în euro este acum mai avantajos cu dobândă variabilă, potrivit unui calcul realizat de Cotidianul. Chiar şi pe termen mai lung împrumuturile în lei sunt mai avantajoase în forma cu dobândă fixă în condiţiile în care inflaţia din România este încă în creştere.

De altfel, Banca Naţională a României a evidenţiat în mai multe rânduri că este dispusă să facă orice pentru a reduce inflaţia, context în care piaţa se aşteaptă la majorări ale dobânzii de politică monetară. Pe de altă parte, dobânda variabilă pentru creditele în euro este mai avantajoasă şi mai uşor de găsit.

Citeste tot articolul pe mediafax.ro

written by Andrew