chairman of Sharjah-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare

Indian expatriates can now carry five times more gold without paying any tax when they visit their home country.

The Indian government revised the clauses for duty-free gold that can be carried by passengers to India in the 2013 budget on Thursday.

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram amended a 1967 customs rule that had fixed the value of gold that can be carried by male and female passengers at Rs.10, 000 and Rs.The American Airlines personalized luggage tag can help you identify your bags.20, 000 respectively.

Citing complaints from non-Resident Indians, he raised the value of gold exempted from taxes to Rs50,000 and Rs100,000 for men and women, respectively.

Indian expatriates in the UAE, many of whom had vehemently campaigned for revoking the 1967 rule, voiced mixed responses to the new rule.

While some heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed the government’s move, a large number of Indians were upset that the government did not fix the limit as per the weight of the gold, but its value, considering the ever-changing and generally skyrocketing gold rates.

K V Shamsudheen,Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. chairman of Sharjah-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust that had launched a campaign demanding a hike in the limit for carrying gold freely to India, appreciated the minister for increasing the present value to its five times. “In the budget, it is the only advantage for NRIs.”

However,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring. he said it was not adequate for Indians, particularly women, who are known to wear a lot of gold jewellery, especially for functions.

“But under the current value (of gold),High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. the value of their wedding ring and mangalyasootra itself would be much more than the new allocation which is not adequate,” he said.

Thousands of people had signed an online petition launched by Shamsudheen who had requested the Indian Prime Minister and Finance Minister to allow 100g gold to be carried by male passengers and 200gm of gold by female passengers without paying tax.

Sunny Chittilappilly, chairman of Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group, said that it was a welcome move by the government to amend the age-old law. “Something is better than nothing. But, considering the current gold rate, the women can hardly take 36gm of gold. It would have been ideal had the government not repeated the mistake of tagging the limit to the value, not the weight.”

Citing the Indians’ obsession with gold and the spiralling rates, he said it would be reasonable for the government to allow male and female passengers to carry 50gm and 100gm of gold without paying tax. “It is a reasonable quantity and there won’t be demands for amendments in future.”

Dhilna Dinesh, a dance teacher from Dubai, said the new rule was likely to create problems for women like her. “If customs officials will start strictly imposing this rule, it will be difficult for women like me to wear gold ornaments of our choice for functions in India. This can lead to people trying to carry ornaments by hiding them somehow and it can also pave the way for opportunistic customs officials to demand bribe.The Athenian ownfigurine is an artefact and one of the relics in Tomb Raider Anniversary.”

The organizations that will be expected to step

If nothing else,High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. the sudden closing last week of the Kitsilano coast guard station was consistent with the decision to shut it down. It was done without notice or consultation with the people who will be affected or the local agencies that will be expected to pick up the slack.

For Vancouver residents already persuaded that the power brokers in Ottawa can't see past the Ontario border, it was another example of misplaced priorities and disregard for local concerns and the realities of life on the West Coast.

The continued insistence by coast guard officials that shutting down a year-round, 24/7 rescue station staffed by professionals and replacing it with a seasonal, student-based operation will not affect safety is patent nonsense.

Conservative MPs who parrot the response serve only to undermine their personal credibility.

The organizations that will be expected to step into the void, especially in the winter months when the nearest coast guard resources will be at best a half an hour away,some specific cause with the help of customized School Spirit silicone bracelet bearing the school logo, have all raised their voices in protest.

They know that half an hour may be 20 minutes more than someone struggling in cold water can survive.

So local politicians, including Mayor Gregor Robertson and Premier Christy Clark, are right to protest vigorously both the decision to close it down and the arrogant manner in which the decision was taken and the base locked up without notice.

The annual savings for the federal government is estimated to be $700,000. That's a pittance to the federal government, but also a relatively small amount for the province or even the city. That raises the question for the local politicians protesting the closing of whether they should fund it if they really feel it's that important.

It's true that lives are at stake. But politicians at all levels make decisions that affect public health and safety, whether it's the installation of traffic lights, funding for police or ensuring the provision of clean water.

There is always something that can be done that will reduce the risk of accidents or enhance the probability that someone, somewhere will live a longer, healthier and happier life.

Governments also are under constant pressure to keep taxes down.

They don't have unlimited budgets so they turn down spending requests every day for potentially useful initiatives.

In this case Ottawa, as part of an across-government cost-cutting program,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring. has decided the increased risk to public safety in Vancouver is less problematic than some other cut they could have made elsewhere.

We don't agree. Neither does the premier or the mayor. But protesting a decision made in Ottawa is the easy part. To take on responsibility for operating the Kitsilano station, another level of government will have to make choices of its own.

Is there some provincial program that can give up $700,000 a year? Some city program? Are city or provincial taxpayers willing to swallow a tax increase to cover the costs?

We don't detect any appetite by taxpayers at any level to pay more.The Athenian ownfigurine is an artefact and one of the relics in Tomb Raider Anniversary.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. That leaves only the option of the city or the province finding room in existing budgets, either to operate the station or to enhance the Vancouver marine patrol to provide an increased presence on the water.

The city and the province have their own areas of responsibility and are naturally reluctant to take on one that has been covered by the federal government.

which was an interesting experience

Some artists are best known for specialising in one medium, whether it be painting, sculpture, installations, print- making, film-making, jewellery, craft, collage, soundscapes, performance or music. But for Chicks on Speed, it's all of the above.A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.

Chicks on Speed are Australian Alex Murray-Leslie and American Melissa Logan who founded the artistic collective in 1997 after meeting as students at Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Murray- Leslie was studying jewellery and Logan painting. While the two remain the drivers, Chicks on Speed's work often involves collaborating with other artists.

For their show Touch Me Baby I'm Bodycentric, A Multimodalplosion! opening in Wellington's City Gallery tomorrow, they have joined forces with Wellington-based jeweller Lisa Walker. Walker met Murray-Leslie and Logan while also a student at the academy and has worked with them several times.

Chicks on Speed are as adroit at producing music as they are in combining it with the variety of art they create that's been exhibited in galleries, including the Tate Britain in London and New York's Museum of Modern Art.

It has put them in the rare position of being artists well known not only within art circles but among music fans for their albums and gigs. It's also attracted the interest of big names.

Murray-Leslie says their next album Scream, due for release in June, will include collaborations with Yoko Ono and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in Ecuador's embassy in London since June last year after the British government said it would extradite him to Sweden.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry.

"He made the song with us in the embassy, which was an interesting experience," says Murray-Leslie. "We have a friend named Angela Richter, who we've known for 15 years, and she's a theatre director.Customized bobblehead made from your own photos, She had done a series of interviews with Julian over two years for her play Assassinate Assange.

"We said 'we'd really like to work with him'. It went from there and we developed the song and we went to visit him."

Murray-Leslie won't say whether Assange literally sings on the song until the album is released. "You will have to wait and see."

Ono, another visual artist to work with music, became involved because she's familiar with Chicks on Speed's work.some specific cause with the help of customized School Spirit silicone bracelet bearing the school logo,

"We're making a music video called Utopia. John Lennon and Yoko Ono developed the idea of a utopia in 1973, forming their own country with their own passports.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. We were somehow very inspired by that notion of your own land, where artists create their perfect world and that influences society."

Performance plays a strong part in Chicks on Speed's art. There's a live performance tonight in the gallery that will be recorded and played throughout the exhibition's run, so it can be viewed alongside the variety of artworks and installations by the duo and Walker. Chicks on Speed will also perform at Wellington venue Puppies tonight.

Murray-Leslie says one of the reasons Chicks on Speed have performed outside of galleries is that early on they wanted to create art that would reach a wide audience. "When we started it was more about ideas of distribution. I worked in a nightclub and I saw that music reached more people than art does. In an art gallery like this," she says, standing in City Gallery's North Gallery, "you can only fit 200 people in here".

What goes into choosing the best footwear for an athlete?

It's all about the footwear when it comes to GC sports. Whether Nike, Adidas, or some brand unheard of, their shoes might be one of the most important aspects of their performance and for very different reasons.A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.

The baseball, cross country and soccer teams all wear Nike and have diverse opinions about their shoes.Customized bobblehead made from your own photos,

“I feel better wearing Nike because I am a fan and I don’t care for other brands, so I feel our performance, especially my own is best with this type of shoe,” said baseball player Jake Sandlin.

Rebekah Autry feels another way about the soccer team’s performance with footwear.

“I would say to an extent it affects our performance if the shoe is too tight,” said Autry.

Cross country runner Allison Lones has similar opinions to Autry.

“The shoe needs to be light,” said Lones. “A lot of running shoes are heavy and ours require good cushioning.some specific cause with the help of customized School Spirit silicone bracelet bearing the school logo, The shoes can’t be too small. I even like to order mine half a size bigger.”

Tennis player Wictor AnderFind all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry.sson has his own outlook on the necessities of a good tennis shoe.

“The men’s tennis team wears the Adidas Barricade Version 2 shoe because they last longer than other tennis shoes,” Andersson said.

What goes into choosing the best footwear for an athlete?

“Typically our coach will order our shoes in bulk but sometimes we may want a different style or color,” Lones replied.

“We have to wear the same running shoes but we get to choose our own cleats. I believe comfort is the most important over everything but I like bright colors too,” Autry said with a laugh.

“For me, what is popular with the pros at that level at the time goes into choosing what I want to wear on the field,” Sandlin said. “It is always fun to wear what your favorite athlete wears.”

“The team has the same shoe because the coach decides what we wear, but we are allowed to make suggestions,” Andersson said.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. “Comfort is a top priority when it comes to choosing this, and I like a light comfortable shoe with durability.”

The South Australian has reached a respected

AS TIFFANY CROMWELL celebrated her victory in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad one-day classic through the fields of Flanders in Belgium last Saturday, few would have guessed that when she took up cycling 11 years ago she did not ''enjoy it very much''.

But it was no matter to her teammates on the Australian Orica-AIS team. Cromwell's win in bone-chilling conditions showed them that the ''super domestique'' - or ''helper delux'', who occasionally gets the chance to win - is a rider they can truly bank on to win when needed or asked to do so.

''It has given the team added confidence that they can rely on me to perform towards the end of the race and takes that bit of added pressure off being a protected rider at times,'' Cromwell, 24, said.

The South Australian has reached a respected stature on the women's professional circuit - and the journey there has been a long and varied one.A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.

It began in basketball, which Cromwell played for eight years, but as she conceded, ''my height always let me down''.

After basketball, she tried running, ballet and triathlon before the South Australian Sports Institute talent scouts spotted her at age 13 and saw her potential as a cyclist.

She began cycling on the track before turning to road cycling and forging a career that led to her first international wins in 2009 - in stage three of the Tour Feminin en Limousin and La Route de France time trial.

But as Cromwell, an aspiring fashion designer who has her own label, Tiffany Jane, revealed: ''To be honest, when I started cycling I actually didn't enjoy it very much. I had gone from [being in] big, baggy basketball uniforms to this tight lycra business and on the track I was terrible. I was tiny when I started at 13 with no power whatsoever, and I still loved basketball.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color.

''Eventually,Customized bobblehead made from your own photos, as we got onto the road, I discovered I was a bit better, getting a bronze medal in my first-ever state road championships.

''From there, I began enjoying cycling more and basketball less. Finally I gave away basketball and focused just on cycling.''

Cromwell's best result in cycling before last Saturday's victory in Belgium was in stage five of last year's Giro d'Italia Femminile. But this latest win was her first in a women's one-day classic, and the timing gave it added importance.

''It certainly is one of the biggest wins of my career,'' she said. ''It is my first big one-day classic win and to open the European season this way gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season. With the first big race of the year you never know exactly how you are going to be among the rest of the peloton.

''You know how your form is personally, but how that is compared to the other girls it is always difficult to judge until you are out there racing.''

Cromwell's win also reinforced the stature of the Orica-AIS team. In the 16-rider break before her winning move with American Megan Guarnier (Rabo), whom she beat, Orica-AIS had four riders with her, Australian Gracie Elvin, Dutchwoman Loes Gunnewijk and Swede Emma Johansson.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry.

How her win impacts her season remains to be seen.

Cromwell says it could lead to more opportunity: ''I don't think it will change a huge amount.There are several Home electricity monitor on the market, I may be given more leadership roles throughout the season, particularly in hillier races - which is exciting and something I'm really looking forward to.''

I prefer to support the local market

Small businesses have been sprouting up all around Cairo during the past two years. Every hip neighbourhood in the city has seen its share of new bakeries, restaurants and cafes. As exciting as it is to have new places to go to on the weekend, sometimes it all seems a bit much.

Luckily, some Egyptians are taking a different approach to business, and the country has witnessed a growth of Internet-based small businesses. An online business ensures that the running costs are significantly low, hours are flexible and that the owner is easily available for inquiries or requests.

One of those online businesses worth checking out is Lily Joolz, an online jewellery store operated by Amanda Badawy.

Badawy created Lily Joolz in 2012 and offers a creative collection of jewellery inspired mostly by Egyptian heritage. Badawy’s obsession with jewellery began early: “As a child I used to sneak into my mother’s bedroom, try on her jewellery and play in front of the mirror.” On her Facebook page, Badawy describes her products as: “Jewellery created with semi precious and not so precious stones with real silver,The Athenian ownfigurine is an artefact and one of the relics in Tomb Raider Anniversary. or accessories according to the client’s budget.”

Badawy made her passion for jewellery making a reality when she took some courses while living in the United Kingdom. She is very specific about the materials she uses in her creations: “I use top quality silver which I get from a supplier in Cairo. I also use semi-precious stones such as jade, quartz and onyx for their healing properties.” She stressed that she obtains all her materials from Cairo-based manufacturers: “I prefer to support the local market.”

For her inspiration, Badawy depends on jewellery of the past: “I research different periods of history and study the jewellery of the time.” However, her design process does not end there. After extracting inspiration from the jewellery of yesteryear,some specific cause with the help of customized School Spirit silicone bracelet bearing the school logo, she depends on her own vision to complete the designs. “I doodle and draw different designs until I create something I feel I would like to make,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.” she explained.

She also involves other people in her design process: “I sit with my silver supplier and work on designs with his input.” She admitted to being adamant on getting input from people around her: “I generally harass my husband and mother.”

Badawy also depends on the customers to tell her what they would like to wear. When asked whether she would design something specifically for customers, she replied: “Yes, of course, this is what I mainly do.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry.”

Her most successful design to date is “the two finger silver ring of the palm and eye,High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. with Italian enamel paint,” she said.

McLemore and younger brother Kevin would disperse

With the discerning eye of a jeweler, Larry Brown made the same observation every time he watched Kansas practice last season: Of all the talented Jayhawks that led them to the national title game, the brightest gem was a freshman academically ineligible to play in games.

One year later Self knows exactly what he has in Ben McLemore: the most talented young player, by far, that he says he has ever coached. Though the foundation of Kansas' team is four senior starters, the difference maker is a 6-5 redshirt freshman, McLemore.

No Kansas freshman has ever averaged more points than the St. Louis native who figures to be one of the most prominent faces of next month's NCAA tournament. And no player in the tournament will have as good a chance as McLemore to follow in the footsteps of former Kentucky All-American Anthony Davis, who won a national championship last season and was selected first in the NBA draft.

But McLemore, 20, is not a natural fit for the large stage. He is a reluctant star who continues to hear that he defers far too much and lacks a killer instinct. Even his role model, 26-year-old brother Keith Scott, calls him from a maximum-security prison in Mineral Point, Mo., to implore McLemore to be more assertive, to carry his team like everyone knows he can.

Unlike many of today's top players, McLemore was not showered with adulation or anointed a future star from the time he was an adolescent. Rather than obsess over national player rankings, phenom camp invitations or third-party handlers, McLemore focused on more fundamental concerns amid one of the poorest urban communities in Missouri: finding food.

The smallest home on Wellston Avenue is where McLemore, the second youngest of Sonya Reid's six children, calls home. On a mid-February afternoon, children step off a yellow school bus in front of a abandoned building.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. So many stray dogs roam the neighborhood that a teenager asks a visitor if he is from the animal control department.

McLemore says on any given night as many as 10 relatives, including siblings, nieces and a nephew, would sleep inside his home,some specific cause with the help of customized School Spirit silicone bracelet bearing the school logo, which is smaller than 600 square feet. The home's only bed had three legs, with the other corner supported by a pile of books.

His home, McLemore says, was filled with love but little else. He remembers his mother working nights for a cleaning staff near downtown Busch Stadium.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. He remembers older brother Keith cycling through odd jobs fixing bikes, trying to make money to support the family.

But it wasn't enough. He won't forget the feeling of waking up knowing there was no food or beverage in the refrigerator, and none on the way those days.The Athenian ownfigurine is an artefact and one of the relics in Tomb Raider Anniversary.A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring. He says at times he would go one or two days with no food.

"It's a hard feeling - just starve," McLemore says. "Dang, what are we going to do? Dang, how are we going to eat? How are we going to put food on the table?"

McLemore and younger brother Kevin would disperse throughout the neighborhood to cut grass, move trash, clean cars, fix motor scooters and bikes, anything that would yield a few dollars for hot dogs or Hot Pockets.

"You get those hunger pains," McLemore said. "I am so hungry. We don't have any food. What are we going to eat? Your stomach hurts. Then you get so upset and mad, like, no food. You start having tantrums and don't want to do anything. You get mad at everybody because you don't have any food. That's what happens when you don't eat. You are so sluggish. It's just bad, man."

McLemore says the only meals he sometimes had were the free ones at school. His mother, he recalled, sometimes made the difficult decision to sell food stamps in order to pay bills.

"Sometimes we would not have food so we could keep our lights on and have hot water," he says. "She had to sacrifice for that."

When the family did not have hot water, McLemore remembers one nightly routine: Fill the bathtub with cold water. Heat up bowls of water in the microwave, then run them to the bathtub to make the tub water lukewarm for baths. The warmth never lasted, he says.

McLemore says the family relied on candles when the electricity was turned off. They turned on the stove and hauled a kerosene heater to the middle of the room to stay warm. McLemore says family members would huddle in the room, covered in layers of clothing and blankets, sometimes able to see their own breath in the chilled winter air. Only when their bodies warmed, and their noses no longer felt icy, could they fall asleep.

cycling to work at three in the morning

IT was a brief but touching answer to a question from a fan. When Sir Paul McCartney was asked on his website this week what he would do if he had a time machine, he had one heartfelt response: “Go back and spend time with my mum.”

The former Beatle’s mother Mary died in 1956 when McCartney was just 14, long before Sir Paul,Full custom bobbleheads head dolls handmade and sculpted into your likeness. now 70, became one of the greatest musical icons of the age.

She died at 47 from an embolism following an operation for breast cancer but the young Sir Paul, who has described her death as the “big shock” of his teenage years, only learned of her illness later, saying: “I didn’t know then why she had died.”
For her part his mother had taken precautions before going into hospital. She had cleaned their terrace home at 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool and laid out her two sons’ school clothes ready for the next day, telling her sister-in-law: “Now everything’s ready for them in case I don’t come back.”

While her sons – Paul and his younger brother Mike – didn’t even know she was having an operation, her death had a lasting impact on Paul, later helping him forge a strong bond with his Beatles’ bandmate John Lennon, who lost his own mother at a young age. It also inspired one of the Beatles’ most famous hits, Let It Be. Mary, an Irish Catholic, was a nurse and midwife who married Jim McCartney at 31 after the couple met during an air raid on Liverpool in 1940. Jim, a British protestant, worked as a cotton salesman as well as being a self-taught pianist but Mary, unusually, was the breadwinner and her earnings helped the family move to better, if still modest, areas of Liverpool.

“She was very hardworking, my mum,” Sir Paul recalled in an interview a few years ago. “She wanted the best for us.some specific cause with the help of customized School Spirit silicone bracelet bearing the school logo, We weren’t a well-off family – we didn’t have a car, we just about had a television – so both my parents went out to work. At night when mum came home she would cook so we didn’t have a lot of time with each other but she was just a very comforting presence in my life.”

AS A midwife Mary was on call day or night and one of Sir Paul’s earliest memories is of watching his mother cycling to work at three in the morning when the streets were “thick with snow”. He has also confided how Call The Midwife, the BBC’s Fifties-set drama, reminds him of his mother. One of the most difficult aspects of her death, he has confided, was the reaction of his father who simply fell apart with grief.

“That was the worst thing for me,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring. hearing my dad cry. You grow up real quick, because you never expect to hear your parents crying. It shakes your faith in everything. But I was determined not to let it affect me. I carried on. I learnt to put a shell around me.”For McCartney it was music that “saved” him from his grief and he has also acknowledged that his loss connected him to John Lennon. Julia, Lennon’s mother, died when he was 17 the year after the two musicians first met and their shared loss was, according to Sir Paul,High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. a “big bond” between them.

“We both had this emotional turmoil which we had to deal with and being teenagers we had to deal with it very quickly,” he has said.

Bill Harry, founder of Sixties music newspaper Mersey Beat, knew the teenage Lennon and McCartney and says Paul was “very private about his mother. He really didn’t speak about her, unlike John, who was almost obsessed by his own mum’s death. But it was a big factor bringing the two of them together because it gave them an understanding of each other”.

Sir Paul has admitted that “young people don’t show grief – they’d rather not” but that occasionally the pain would set in and he and Lennon would “be sitting around and we’d have a cry together”.

Sir Paul has also spoken movingly of how his mother inspired the song Let It Be. When McCartney wrote the piece in 1968 the Fab Four had experienced unprecedented success but were by then divided by bitter arguments and the band was close to breaking up. But during this period of stress McCartney had something of a breakthrough.

HE once explained: “One night, somewhere between deep sleep and insomnia, I had the most comforting dream about my mother. There was her face, completely clear, particularly her eyes, and she said to me very gently, very reassuringly: ‘Let it be.’ It was lovely. I woke up with a great feeling. It was really like she had visited me at this very difficult point and gave me this message: Be gentle, don’t ? ght things, just try to go with the flow and it will all work out.

“So being a musician I went to the piano and started writing a song: ‘When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry.’”

The inspiration for making the pilgrimage

Imagine traveling from Martin,some specific cause with the help of customized School Spirit silicone bracelet bearing the school logo, South Dakota, to Kansas City, Missouri.Full custom bobbleheads head dolls handmade and sculpted into your likeness. Now imagine that trip by foot, with a 40-pound backpack. Now imagine that you don’t speak the language and are dependent on the hospitality of strangers.

Anthony Kathol, of Martin, made such a journey, in his 565 mile pilgrimage across Spain. The El Camino de Santiago, the way of St. James,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring. is a religious pilgrimage which dates back to the time of the Middle Ages.

His journey started at St.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. Jean de Pied-Port, France, at the foot of the Pyrannes Mountains, and continued to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, ending at the Cathedral of Santiago.

The inspiration for making the pilgrimage came from watching a movie, “The Way,” which is the story of another man’s walk of the pilgrimage.

“I had recently retired from my job and this movie inspired me to get away from the distractions of the world in order for me to seek out a new sense of purpose and direction in my life,” he explained. “It was a spiritual pilgrimage that I will never forget.”

Along the way Kathol stayed at many private, municipal, and parochial hostels. Some of the challenges faced along the way included “Not being sure if I was going to make it within the allotted time due to physical limitations. I had one major blister on my right heel which impaired me for two to three days and I had to walk in my sandals to not aggravate it. Many more pilgrims had worse blisters. Blisters are part of the walk and you accept them with grace. Someone said that the number of blisters you have on your feet is equivalent to the number of sins you have. Well, I had one major blister and one minor blister on my right foot, none on my left foot the entire trip.”

Other physical obstacles included having knees swell like grapefruits about a week out from Santiago as a result of all the weight in my backpack carrying over the mountains and the steep decline and pounding that my legs took when going downhill.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. I believe it was God’s way of getting me to slow down to hear his message.

Having a map helped, but Kathol reported that it was important to pay attention to where you are going! “When hiking in the big cities, one had to really pay close attention where the yellow arrow ‘way marks’ were posted, as the marks were in competition with all the street and advertising signs along the way. For example, a yellow arrow would be painted on the back of a stop sign or a light pole. If you weren’t paying attention, you’d get lost quickly. This happened on occasion, but many locals informed me right away that I was not going the right way and got me back on the path. That was comforting as the locals are used to the pilgrims walking in their communities and welcome them.”

Forty-two days after taking the first step, Kathol arrived at his destination. Since his shoes were not completely worn out yet, he continued three more days to walk to Finisterre, Spain, to reach the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. This is the place where people thought that ships fell off the edge of the earth, when it was believed the world was flat.

At the completion of the walk at both Santiago and Finisterre, Kathol received a compostela, which is a certification of the completion of the pilgrimage. His name is also included in the Church registry for his accomplishment.

Prior to starting his journey, Kathol visited the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception where the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France. Kathol finished his experience by giving thanks to the Blessed Mother in Fatima, Portugal.

The response has been really encouraging

Victor, a migrant worker from KwaZulu-Natal, searches a patron at a Jeppestown tavern. The security guard lives at the Jeppe men’s hostel with some of the revellers. Others come from the surrounding low-cost apartment buildings. Victor checks the patron for knives or guns then asks, “What about this Agang? This woman will change everything.”

Across Johannesburg, on a Sunday afternoon taxi from Diepsloot to town,Full custom bobbleheads head dolls handmade and sculpted into your likeness. two middle-aged men,High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. wearing the overalls of labourers, speak in Sotho about wanting an alternative to the African National Congress (ANC), which they feel has let them down. “We will shift to Agang,” chuckles one.

When Mamphela Ramphele, 65, launched her “political party platform” Agang, meaning “to build” in Sesotho, critics painted her as an elite known only to the middle and upper classes. But a week after facing media at Constitutional Hill, the press generated from Agang’s launch is already generating broader interest.

Ramphele’s face graced the covers of a number of newspapers and her name was plastered through the streets on the papers’ headline placards. The ANC did its part by accusing her of representing foreign interests. Even the critics who spoke on television and radio about her aloofness promoted the Ramphele brand simply by discussing it.Our Home power monitor and wireless electricity monitors help reduce energy use in your home. If it weren’t for Oscar Pistorius, Agang would have been the story of the week.

Speaking to media on Wednesday, Ramphele said on the day of the launch 1,500 people wanting to volunteer registered on Agang’s website and the number has grown to almost 5,000 in a week. She has received offers to speak across the country. “The response has been really encouraging, but to be able to get back to all those people we need to have a credible machine,” she said in an interview on Wednesday.

Agang will launch as a political party in mid-2013 but for now it remains a coterie of just six. Ramphele is joined by Zohra Dawood, a former executive director at the Open Society Foundation, Canadian-South African Tim Knapp, former journalist John Allen, Professor Mills Soko,Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. with additional help in social media. Agang has a website, Facebook page, Twitter handle, and an email address for media inquiries.

What it doesn’t have is a Jackson Mthembu (ANC spokesperson), Mmusi Maimane (DA) or Malesela Maleka (SACP). Trying to get a comment on its first week of activity, I eventually found the phone number I used to called Ramphele when her Freedom Under Law group challenged former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli’s reinstatement. Her assistant passed me onto Mark Peach, a senior vice president at FTI Consulting who is handling Agang’s communications.

The next morning I found myself sitting opposite Ramphele at a boardroom table in Sandton’s Maslow Hotel as she met journalists and editors. In black shoes, stockings, a blue skirt and matching blazer with black and gold buttons, she entered the plush hotel with two bodyguards. The outfit was stylish and her makeup subtle, but less striking than the traditional attire she wore for the Agang launch. She was polite but hardly charismatic when I introduced myself in the lobby.

Ramphele had just flown in from her Cape Town home and when we sat down she chatted freely. Agang is setting up offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town and in the next week hopes to double the size of the team. “We also have a huge number of volunteers that we will sift through so we can start having provincial organisers who in each of the key provinces will want to be active, managing and leading teams of volunteers in very interesting areas. We’ve got housewives, retired business people, retired teachers, retired clerks willing to volunteer to mobilise people in their neighbourhoods and that’s really going to be one important thing, building that machinery,” she told a radio journalist, looking directly at the interviewer while using her hands to illustrate points.

“The second thing is to build a social media platform so that we can meet the length and breadth of this country without necessarily having to visit every corner and that is going to be a very important one because we shouldn’t only have a media platform that people with access to the Internet can reach, but also people with cellphones, and South Africa fortunately has a got a cellphone in every home almost.”

Agang remains a “political party platform”, Ramphele stressed. The group will meet this week to set monthly goals ahead of the mid-year party launch. A plan to spend a week in each of its key target areas across the country is currently being devised. We’ll see Ramphele in rural and poor communities soon, she promised.

Yet it’s the other smaller parties that might still hold the key to Agang’s success. Apart from questions relating to her following among “the masses” and criticism on the lack of detail related to “Rekindling the South African dream” (the title of Ramphele’s Agang launch speech), media has relentlessly asked whether she planned to join the Democratic Alliance and what scope there is for coordinating with minority parties.

“We want to leverage what exists,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.” she said on Wednesday, acknowledging that talks with other parties are ongoing. “We want to be a value adder. We don’t want to go over ground that others have already covered.” Agang’s use of social media will help spread its message where other parties have struggled, Ramphele claimed.

The stylist highlighted that fashion plays a bridge role

Chinese couture designer Wang Peiyi made his debut at Milan Fall/Winter 2013-14 Fashion Week on Tuesday.

The Beijing-based stylist offered a collection inspired by Aurora Borealis in its beauty and unpredictable temperament to draw a mysterious and sensuous woman.

He adopted mainly black tones throughout the show, subtly complimented with hints of purple, with a sprinkling of white and bold use of high-end leather working techniques.

Wang took his new collection to the prestigious Italian fashion capital as the winner of the 2nd Mercedes-Benz China Young Fashion Award, standing out in 2012 among the many excellent designers participating in the Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week.

"It was absolutely great that I could present my design on an international stage," Wang told Xinhua.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. It was a good start to present more connections and maybe consider opening a boutique of his own in Europe, he added.Your Premier personalized bobbleheads Head Company!

The stylist highlighted that fashion plays a bridge role between cultures. "Western people know me as a Chinese designer. If they like me and like my design, I hope that they will know how good Chinese design can be," he said.A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.

Wang has always favored the use of elegant fabrics and abundant decorations with beads, embroidery and other fine customized handwork, using a variety of luxurious materials.

He began his career in fashion after graduating from China's Central Academy of Fine Arts, and worked as a designer in several large apparel companies before starting his own label in 2005.

His creations, consisting of a wide range of evening gowns, cocktail and other couture dresses,High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. were worn by high profile celebrities including Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi,Online shopping for jewelry findings from a great selection of Arts, Fan Bingbing and Cindy Crawford.

He received abundant recognitions both within and outside the fashion industry, being named in 2011 as one of the 25 Most Influential Chinese designers in Global Fashion by Forbes.

The show of a young Chinese designer indicated Milan Fashion Week's will to embrace the enormous emerging market of China, said Mario Boselli, the head of National Chamber for Italian Fashion, which sponsored the event in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz.

Scouting and support of new international talents as well as research and investment in creative minds and markets must be core values of the fashion system, he said.

The daughter of a Chicago city pump operator and a secretary

“If I had the first lady’s ear, I’d say talk more about the kind of education that women and girls — girls of color, in particular — will need to make it in a global economy,” said Avis Jones-DeWeever, executive director of the National Council of Negro Women.

E. Faye Williams, chairwoman of the National Congress of Black Women,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring. said: “I’d like to see her promote the important work being done by women in this country, talk more about how she overcame her own difficulties and encourage girls not to back away from goals that may seem out of reach.”

Williams and Jones-DeWeever are among Michelle Obama’s most ardent admirers — and defenders. Their comments were not offered as critiques but as responses to my question: What else would they like to see her do? The first lady is reportedly looking for an expanded role in her husband’s second term, and I, for one, hope she finds it. Soon.

Enough with the broccoli and Brussels sprouts — to say nothing about all the attention paid to her arms, hair, derriere and designer clothes. Where is that intellectually gifted Princeton graduate, the Harvard-educated lawyer and mentor to the man who would become the first African American president of the United States?

Surely that was not her bumping hips and doing hand-jive dancing with Jimmy Fallon in drag on his late-night TV talk show.

On Wednesday, the president and first lady are scheduled to attend the unveiling of a statue of civil-rights icon Rosa Parks at the U.S. Capitol. Michelle Obama might want to hang back afterward and ponder: If a seamstress from Alabama could help move a people to the front of a bus, what might she do to help move them to the head of the class?

Let’s not forget who Michelle Obama is.

The daughter of a Chicago city pump operator and a secretary, she was raised in a one- bedroom apartment on the rough and tumble South Side. She and her brother slept in the living room. And yet, by sixth grade, she was speaking French and taking advanced courses at a magnet school. At Princeton, she majored in sociology and developed a profound understanding of African American history. After earning the law degree from Harvard, she went to work for a law firm specializing in intellectual property and then became a Chicago city administrator and community outreach worker.

She ought to be under consideration for a seat on the Supreme Court, not recruited as a presenter in some Hollywood movie contest.

Last year, in one of the most important initiatives of his administration, President Obama announced a partnership between the United States and 12 other countries to “break down economic and political barriers that stand in the way of women and girls.”

The initiative, the Equal Futures Partnership, has been spearheaded by Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and,Your Premier personalized bobbleheads Head Company!Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. until her departure earlier this year, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton. The effort cries out for Michelle Obama to fill Clinton’s shoes.

Back in 2011, the first lady even gave a speech to the National Science Foundation about keeping girls interested in science, technology, engineering and math, the “STEM” disciplines. These days, however, we’re more likely to hear her talk about stems in a White House vegetable garden than about girls excelling in science and math.

Williams and Jones-DeWeever part ways with me on such an assessment. Both believe that the first lady’s “Let’s Move” exercise and nutrition campaign has been effective in reducing childhood obesity. And they applaud her partnership with Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, to help military families.

As for my view that booty shaking with Fallon and participating in the Academy Awards were frivolities unbecoming to both Michelle Obama and her position as first lady, Williams replied: “Is there ever a time when a black woman can get away from the heavy lifting of the day?”

How would Parks have answered that? Or Sojourner Truth? In 2009, Michelle Obama helped unveil a statue of Truth at the U.Online shopping for jewelry findings from a great selection of Arts,S. Capitol.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. The great abolitionist was the first black woman to be so honored; Parks is the second.

“One can only imagine what Sojourner Truth, an outspoken, tell-it-like-it-is kind of woman would have to say about this incredible gathering,” the first lady said. “Just looking down on this day, and thinking about the legacy she has left all of us, because we are all here because, as my husband says time and time again, we stand on the shoulders of giants like Sojourner Truth.”

I would send all the animals to a sanctuary

Before the raid, I had visited the zoo which was charging RM8 per adult per entry.

Though the entrance fee was pricey to me, I still frequented the place as I had grown fond of two tiger cubs in the zoo.

I never met the owner of the zoo, but had on numerous occasion interviewed the caretaker who called himself the Tiger Man.

There were several animals in small cages and, in fact, during one of my trips to the zoo in 2006, I had blogged about how a sun bear shared an adjoining cage with a smelly and dirty wild boar.

To me, it was not right. It is a big no-no to exhibit a sun bear next to a wild boar.

I am not Dr Dolittle (a fictitious character who can talk to animals in a series of children's books written by Hugh Lofting) but in my observations, the sun bear seemed troubled and under stress, while the boar seems quite content to roll in its own faeces and mud, to cool itself in the humid afternoon.

The zoo smelled bad and most of the animals were suffering from skin disease.

I know that animals pace when they are under stress and most of the animals in the zoo were pacing in their small and filthy cages.

They also looked sickly. Although many of the animals in the zoo were tame, especially the orang utans, tigers, monkeys, and deer, among others, but they appeared unhappy.

During the raid in 2011, I was told that the enforcement officers from the department had conducted several raids before as it was believed that the owner of the zoo had obtained the animals illegally.

It was also caught exhibiting more than the permitted number of protected animals a private zoo was allowed by law.

This, I was told, encouraged poachers and unlicensed hunters to capture animals in the wild to sell to private zoos for a huge profit.

Some of the animals, such as the tigers, were trained to do tricks like cycling and it in learnt that the zoo had also rented out their animals to small petting zoos and fun-fair operators.

In past raids, carcasses,The Athenian ownfigurine is an artefact and one of the relics in Tomb Raider Anniversary. including the remains of protected animals, were found in the freezer of the zoo's premises.

That raid in 2011 followed allegations that the zoo's management had attempted to mate a tiger and a panther, hoping to produce a new breed,Online shopping for jewelry findings from a great selection of Arts, and if I am not mistaken, to be called "Tipther".

I am not too sure of the details but one of the two animals which was forced to mate was badly injured.

I had mixed feelings during the raid which started in the wee hours of the morning and was not over even after I left,Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. sometime past 6pm.

I felt sorry for the zoo's owner, yet the deplorable living conditions in which the animals were kept were also a huge concern.

If I had my way, I would send all the animals to a sanctuary where they can roam freely.

The animals seized were sent to other zoos in the country.

Recently, a private zoo operator was alleged to have poisoned several animals in a zoo in Malacca.

It broke my heart to read about it.

I feel sorry for this man and I can only imagine how he must have suffered to think that he could only get even by killing the animals.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color.A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.

I wonder who it was that he wanted to get even with in the first place.

He must have lost his soul, and I can only imagine how terrible it must be for him, living a life full of grudges.

Nicholas McFadden denies stealing the drugs

A "corrupt" detective stole massive amounts of seized drugs and conspired to sell them with his brother in a plot that generated at least ￡600,000 for the pair, a court has heard.

West Yorkshire police detective constable Nicholas McFadden, 38, helped himself to heroin, cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis – worth tens of thousands of pounds – by exploiting "slack" procedures at secret evidence stores, Leeds crown court was told on Tuesday.

McFadden, who was in charge of looking after evidence when he worked for a special organised crime group, and his brother Simon, 41, a debt collector,Online shopping for jewelry findings from a great selection of Arts, then conspired to sell the illegal drugs, making at least ￡600,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring.000 from the venture, it is alleged.

The brothers "spent heavily but made so much money they didn't know what to do with it", jurors heard. They splashed out on exotic holidays, designer clothing, expensive jewellery, and home improvements.

When police raided the younger brother's family home in Castleford, West Yorkshire, they found almost ￡160,000 in cash stuffed into sacks in his garage and ￡20,000 hidden around his house. They also discovered ￡6,000 in his high-performance car.

Nicholas McFadden denies stealing the drugs and conspiring to supply them but has pleaded guilty to money laundering, claiming he stole the cash from a drug dealer and made money selling illegal steroids. Simon McFadden, of Harehills, Leeds, denies conspiracy to supply.

"The plot of the McFadden brothers was successful and it generated huge sums of cash," Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, said. "The prosecution case is that Nicholas McFadden exploited [his] trusted position to steal drugs in very substantial quantities.

"Once theFind all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. drugs had been stolen, Nicholas McFadden and his elder brother Simon McFadden conspired together and with others to supply those drugs for a profit. So, in other words, drugs which the police had succeeded in removing from the streets were put back by the accused men, who did so for the sole purpose of making money for themselves.

"Nicholas McFadden does not dispute that he suddenly came into a very large sum of money and he has given various explanations for how that came about."

When McFadden's police colleagues became suspicious of his new-found wealth, he told them his wife had received an insurance payout after getting cancer, which was a lie, the court heard.

McFadden also later told his wife, Clair, a headteacher, that he had made lots of money on overtime and his police pension was kicking in.

The court heard that during the marriage he a "strong friendship" with his former partner – a police officer called Tanya Strangeway – and gave her more than ￡13,000 in cash and bought her an Audi car,High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. claiming he had a windfall after selling his house.

The detective was caught after regularly depositing cash in paying-in machines, which triggered a bank's security alert and police were informed, said Greaney.The Athenian ownfigurine is an artefact and one of the relics in Tomb Raider Anniversary.

When he was arrested, McFadden told police he found bags of cash in a ditch by the M62 motorway.

"As Nicholas McFadden was to explain to the officers, he thought all his birthdays had come at once," said Greaney.

When the Savile pedophilia scandal erupted last year

Following the success of his son Kevin's jewellery business in Milan, Ian Rosenberg has begun preparations to start serving the Indian market. Having seen his son's designs take off in Italy, Rosenberg feels the time is right to expand his business into foreign territories.

A host of top Bollywood stars have already signed on as brand ambassadors and Rosenberg's Indian-inspired designs were recently seen at several red carpet events.Find all the manufacturers of laser cutting machine and contact them directly on Directindustry. Indian fashion magazines are also desperate to use Rosenberg jewellery in their shoots, to create an authentic English feel with an Indian twist.

Lan Rosenberg said: "I am delighted to have this opportunity to work in India. The Indian economy is enjoying a real boom at the moment and with that comes a demand for high quality luxury jewellery.

"The designs themselves are in homage to the opulence of the Indian Empire, celebrating the rich and diverse relationship of these two great nations."

"There is a lot of local talent in Mumbai so, rather than making jewellery elsewhere and importing it, we are making use of local techniques. We are training local designers and jewellers to create a hybrid of styles which is really quite unique."

Ian Rosenberg Jeweller are already planning to set up shops in Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, depending on the success of the Mumbai store.

Ian Rosenberg Jewellery has been designing, making and selling luxury jewellery for 35 years. Specialising in British inspired designs, Ian Rosenberg started out selling cutlery door to door in London's West End.

Now, with stores nationwide and a growing online business, Rosenberg spends the majority of his time researching foreign markets and looking for new opportunities for the company.

Britain's top Catholic cardinal, Keith O'Brien is pictured giving a thumbs-up, grinning alongside pedophile Jimmy Savile at a fund-raising event in Edinburgh six years ago.

O'Brien - who resigned as head of the Church in Scotland following claims that he made sexual advances towards priests - met the former DJ and charity fundraiser in the 1970s when O’Brien was a priest in rural Scotland,The Athenian ownfigurine is an artefact and one of the relics in Tomb Raider Anniversary. and worked with a friend of Savile's mother.

They were pictured together in Scotland in 2007 as the pair unveiled a vehicle for the disabled.

When the Savile pedophilia scandal erupted last year, O'Brien called for him to be stripped of his papal knighthood, awarded in 1990.

There is no suggestion that Cardinal O’Brien had any part in the Savile abuse scandal.

O’Brien apologised as he announced he will not take part in the Vatican connclave to elect the next Pope.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color.

In a statement the Cardinal, 74, said: "Looking back over my years of ministry: for any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologise to all whom I have offended."

O'Brien denies the allegations, which date back to the 1980s, but apologised to anyone offended by "failures'' during his ministry.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the former archbishop of Westminster, said he was "saddened'' by O'Brien's resignation - which leaves Britain without a vote in the conclave which shall elect the next Pope - and insisted that the Vatican had not put pressure on him to step down.

"That was his decision to do so. He wasn't forced to do so, he wasn't asked to do so,'' Murphy-O'Connor said, adding that O'Brien was "a very honest man'' who denies the allegations.

"Those matters will be investigated,Our home Power monitor and energy saving devices help reduce energy use in your home and save money on your electricity bill.'' he told journalists,A patient presents with a tungsten ring on their injured finger and is unable to remove the ring. adding that the scandal is "very damaging'' for the Catholic Church in Scotland.

Campaigners are also calling for several cardinals linked to the pedophile priest scandals that dominated Benedict's reign to give up their votes in the conclave.

The climate of intrigue has been further stoked by rumours that Benedict's resignation could have been linked to an explosive report on the "Vatileaks'' scandal, which exposed corruption and conflicts in the Church.

what many experts say is the largest

Despite a growing international demand for ivory that has seen the poaching of elephants in Africa rise astronomically in recent years, Singapore and a number of wildlife organizations say the small Southeast Asian city-state is bucking the trend and is witnessing a massive decline in the purchasing and stocking of the illegal ivory.

Singapore laws state that it is legal to sell ivory obtained only before 1990 when elephants became listed as an endangered species under an international agreement.

Elephants are facing an increasing threat of extinction and conservationist groups have called on Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries to boost their efforts to crackdown on smugglers throughout the region to reduce the desire to poach the majestic animal in Africa.

Their fears come on the heels of what many experts say is the largest ever cache of ivory that Malaysian customs officials uncovered last year.

But environmental officials have told that if longer jail terms and more deterrence are not implemented, the fate of Africa’s elephants remains teetering toward extinction.

Customs Director Azis Yaacub late last year that the entire amount of ivory seized in the discovery was around 24 tons that had been packed inside mahogany containers in an attempt to hide the illegal ivory.

“We found a number of secret compartments in the wood containers that were filled with tusks,” Yaacub said.

Malaysia is a leading transit destination for the illegal ivory trade and in recent months, the government has said it was looking to crackdown on smuggling resulting from poaching animals for their tusks in Africa.

This scale of illegal ivory trade was demonstrated early in 2012, when a gang of heavily armed foreign poachers entered Cameroon and killed hundreds of elephants in Bouba N’Djida National Park. This event,Original personalized bobbleheads Head made to look like your photo. and others like it,From black tungsten wedding rings for men to diamond tungsten ring. constitutes an invasion and a threat not only to wildlife but people, territorial integrity and stability.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines.

Poor governance and weak law enforcement efforts have been identified as the primary drivers of elephant poaching and ivory trade in Africa, according to the report that will be considered by governments later this month at a key CITES meeting. China and Thailand are identified in the findings as the two biggest raw ivory consuming countries in the world. Data indicates that poaching trends can be correlated with increasing affluence in China, and that raw ivory prices doubled there between 2004 and 2010.

“In the last two years we have seen open flouting of China’s internal ivory trade laws,” said Dr Colman O’Criodain, WWF’s wildlife trade policy analyst. “Many visitors,You must not use the laser cutter without being trained. including foreign government representatives attending CITES-related meetings in China, have reported seeing ivory openly on sale without the required certification cards that prove legality of origin.”

The Chinese market remains the most prominent destination for illicit ivory, and a serious slackening of enforcement of country’s strict internal trade controls is a major cause for concern. In Thailand, legislative loopholes mean that there is no effective regulation at all.

“In Thailand there is no regulation of ivory trade. Visitors can see ivory openly on sale,High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. the vast bulk of it apparently of African origin,” O’Criodain says. “It is a crime to bring ivory home from another country, even if shopkeepers tell you otherwise.”

“It is imperative that CITES member states take remedial actions to shut down unregulated or poorly regulated domestic ivory markets, especially the world’s largest markets in China and Thailand,” said O’Criodain.

One hopeful sign in the fight to save elephants is the recent adoption by Central African countries of an action plan to combat wildlife crimes including elephant poaching and illegal ivory.

“We commend Central African governments for taking action to safeguard their natural heritage through developing this plan. We call on government leaders to implement the plan as a matter of urgency and encourage the international community to provide financial support to this end,” Sebogo said.

The jewellery statistics undoubtedly point to fewer

The hallmarking figures for 2012 make gloomy reading, with volumes down for the ninth year in a row, falling from their peak in 2003 of 35.2 million hallmarked items to only 9.3 million items in 2012, a 15% decline against 2011.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. Gold represents the biggest drop in volume, down from 24.2 million hallmarked items in 2003 to 4.1 million items in 2012.

However, as I have been highlighting for the past few years, the retail precious metal jewellery industry is not all about volume. Analysis of the value of the bullion in hallmarked articles shows that, despite all our economic woes, the total value of the metal has crept up to an all-time high of just over ￡525.3m in 2010. A slight drop to ￡500.1m in 2012 is in fact due to a decline in silver rather than gold, which has remained steady.

These figures are corroborated by the Mintel Report from September 2012, which gives an overall retail value for the UK jewellery and watch market of ￡4.2bn. This figure has remained fairly static for the past five years and is forecast to continue to be so for the next five years. Meanwhile, other sectors in the personal adornment category are flourishing, with the value of fashion accessories - which includes costume jewellery - up 50% and footwear up 20% in the same period.

The jewellery statistics undoubtedly point to fewer people buying fewer, but more expensive, articles. When these figures are put alongside Mintel’s findings, it becomes apparent that the sector of the UK population that claims to have bought gold or platinum jewellery in the past 12 months is only a tiny percentage of it - 1.7% of adults, which equates to around 900,000 people.From black tungsten wedding rings for men to diamond tungsten ring. The hallmarking figures report 4.7 million articles marked in the same period. Even allowing for the fact that some articles are exported and some may have two hallmarks (a pair of earrings), this suggests there’s a small niche of consumers who frequently buy jewellery. The successful retailer needs to know who these people are and be able to communicate with them.You must not use the laser cutter without being trained.

Communication is one of the fastest-changing activities in retailing. Our industry has embraced the internet, the benefits of social media and the importance of online browsing. Many high street names now offer a click and collect service, where an item may be researched and purchased online and then physically collected from the store.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines. This route is being successfully used by many jewellers.

However, the advent of mobile shopping via tablets and increasingly sophisticated smart phones has had a significant impact on consumer buying behaviour and it is now essential that websites are mobile-friendly or supported by apps. Shoppers are now surfing from the sofa, the pub, the office, or wherever, at all times of the day and night. The jewellery and watch industry needs to fight hard to make its voice heard and to remain accessible via this new and rapidly growing media.

Analysis of retailers’ performance over Christmas confirms what we all already know: if your product is not right, it doesn’t matter how good your sales channels are. Asos and Aldi were two stars of Christmas 2012, with like-for-like sales up 34% and 30.1% respectively. Asos is online only, while Aldi has no transactional website, although it uses the internet heavily to connect with its customers.Original personalized bobbleheads Head made to look like your photo. Likewise, Primark was up 9%, selling value clothes but not online, while Goldsmiths’ high-end watch sales, supported by a good website but mainly generated in-store, were up 9%, driving an overall like-for-like increase of 8%.

Which now bankrolls films and helped to put President

At the beginning of this month Mr Harris was homeless, spending his nights beneath a bridge and his days in a square in Kansas City, asking passers-by for change.

Then a young woman accidentally dropped a diamond engagement ring into his coffee cup.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color.

Mr Harris returned the ring to its distraught owner when she came back the following day, and shortly thereafter became the beneficiary of a campaign that has raised more than $A141,000 from donors all over the world.

Online fundraising, which now bankrolls films and helped to put President Obama in the White House, has given Mr Harris enough money to buy a three-bedroom house in Kansas City.

The gifts kept coming yesterday, from donors in Asia, Europe and America. "Hoping that your future is brighter that your past, and that your best memories in life are yet to come," wrote a donor called Gerry from Britain, who gave $20, one of several thousand donations.

It is thought that Mr Harris may try to find a home in Texas; he has family there but had previously feared being a burden to them.

"We talked about what he plans to do," said Bill Krejci, in a statement on the fundraising site Give Forward. "He has a very solid plan and a very solid way of making it happen."

It was Mr Krejci's fiance, Sarah Darling, who inadvertently dropped her engagement ring into the homeless man's collecting cup. She had a rash on her finger and had been keeping the ring in her purse.

"I had that little devil on my shoulder saying, 'Keep the money'," Mr Harris told a local television station. But he resisted the urge to pawn it.

"My grandfather was a reverend. He raised me from the time I was six months old and, thank the good Lord, it's a blessing, but I do still have some character.You must not use the laser cutter without being trained."

When Ms Darling returned to the square and said: "I don't know if you remember me, but I think I gave you something that's very precious," Mr Harris asked, "Was it a ring?", and then said, "Yeah, I have it, I kept it for you",Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines. and drew it from his pocket.Full custom bobbleheads head dolls handmade and sculpted into your likeness.

It was not the first piece of lost jewellery that Mr Harris has found in the square. He recalled an instance, years earlier, when a retired football player with a visiting team had lost a Super Bowl ring - perhaps the greatest prize in American football. He said that he had taken it to the Intercontinental,From black tungsten wedding rings for men to diamond tungsten ring. where the team was known to be staying. By way of thanks he was given a three-night stay in one of the city's best hotels.

To thank him for returning the engagement ring, Ms Darling and her fiance set up a fundraising page, hoping to fetch $1,000. They have now raised more than a hundred times that.

"He is currently staying with a fellow he helps run the sound for in a band," Mr Krejci wrote, following a recent meeting with Mr Harris. "This is great to hear, especially with the giant snow/ice storm that's about to hit Kansas City."

Mr Harris told the local station KCTV. "I don't deserve it. What I actually feel is, 'What is the world coming to when a person returns something that doesn't belong to him and all this happens?'"

Local charities who organise shelter and programmes for the city's 3,000 homeless people are equally bewildered. "The sad thing is $140,000 could do so (much) more with an agency," said Suzanne Wright, of the charity ReStart, said. "But people feel connected to him."

Starting on a mountain peak in Otago and ending on a beach

If adventurer Tom de Dorlodot had a day job in New Zealand, his office would be hanging beneath a paraglider, thousands of metres in the air above the Southern Alps.

"It's the ultimate freedom. It's a beautiful way to travel, because you're not disturbing anything.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. Even the birds come and fly with."

The Belgian man and his Dutch friend Ferdinand van Schelven are professional paragliders who have landed in Nelson after a month-long adventure through the Southern Alps.

Their sport is vol-bivouac, literally "fly-camping" in French, which is riding a current of popularity overseas and could, according to the Red Bull-sponsored pilots, take off big in New Zealand.

Starting on a mountain peak in Otago and ending on a beach near Nelson, the pair have paraglided and walked nearly the length of the South Island, carrying with them just a parachute, some camping gear, and a pair of quickly worn-out walking boots.

"Either you walk, and you have to carry your paraglider; or you fly, and your paraglider carries you,From black tungsten wedding rings for men to diamond tungsten ring." de Dorlodot said, describing their 800km trip up the island.

Carrying less than 20kg of gear, de Dorlodot and van Schelven took 27 days to traverse the backbone of the South Island, from Te Anau to Nelson. Along the way they fished for trout in tranquil back country streams, drank glacier water fresh from the source, and soared with the birds above Aoraki/Mt Cook.

It was "a beautiful idea" coming to New Zealand,Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines. de Dorlodot said. Every morning the pair would wake, climb 2000-odd metres up a mountain, and jump off with their paragliders.

Once airborne their trick was to traverse the alps from above, flying as far as they could on thermal currents and friendly breezes. Eventually they would land, sleep in a hut or wrapped in the warmth of their 'chutes, then repeat the process.

"On a good day, if you don't have wind coming into the face and you can fly fast, you can cover up to 100 kilometres," de Dorlodot said. "Some days we fly 40 kilometres over two mountain passes that would have been four days of walking,Full custom bobbleheads head dolls handmade and sculpted into your likeness. and we do it in hours.

"When you know you have 100km to walk if you land, it's quite good motivation for flying and pushing yourself a little bit."

Unable to glide into Air Nelson airspace, they walked the final 75km north from St Arnaud.

"We said the stop was the sea. When we came in between Richmond and Nelson we arrived at the beach and said that's it," de Dorlodot said.

"That's a pretty good feeling, knowing you have crossed the whole thing with just a pair of shoes and a paraglider."

De Dorlodot and van Schelven are training for the "vol-biv" world championship - the RedBull X-Alps mountain race between Saltzburg, Austria and Monaco - in July. Competitors travel by air or by foot through 800km of hostile European alpine terrain.

New Zealand had been sweet for finding unique take-off locations, de Dorlodot said, as nearly every peak they jumped off was a world-first. He said Nelson, with its surrounding mountains and prevalent sea-breezes, could become a centre for the growing sport, which is primarily based out of Europe and throughout the sub-Asian ranges.
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Van Schelven had flown in Nelson five years ago, when he dominated a competition, winning five-out-of-six "vol-biv" events.

When de Dorlodot isn't flying he is thinking about it. His RedBull sponsored Search project sends him around the world for a living, looking for the best places to vol-biv.You must not use the laser cutter without being trained. Last year he crossed the length of Africa, soaring over the pyramids and Victoria Falls. His proudest achievement was gliding at 7200m to within 1km of the K2 summit in Pakistan.

"I think maybe it would have been possible to soar up. But, I didn't dare to. It has never been done. I was alone there, even a little scared, so I kept a respectful distance."

who just strolled into the office that weekend

The jiyalas,We wholesale tibetan silver China beads, who are said to be devoted and sincere with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership and even faced the worst kind of crisis during dictatorships, issued the warning after being fed up with what they called “bad governance” and continued ignorance from the leadership.

The warning came after a high-profile meeting of local PPP leaders that included the district presidents of the PPP, People’s Student Federation and the People’s Doctor Forum, held the other day at an undisclosed location.

The coordinator to slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto for student affairs, Dr Mohammad Ali Thalho, presided over the meeting that was attended among others by Munir Jalbani, Moazzam Qureshi, Zulfikar Lashari, Aijaz Abro, Zulfiqar Shahani, Abdul Sami Gaad and Hussain Jhatial

In the meeting, it was decided that Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq and Law Minister Ayaz Soomro would be given a reception of hurling shoes after the dissolution of the assemblies. However, the future course of action would be announced before the assemblies were dissolved.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines.

“Yes, the CM, and few ministers, including Pir Mazhar and Ayaz Soomro,Full custom bobbleheads head dolls handmade and sculpted into your likeness. will face the same situation as happened with former chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim in the Sindh Assembly. The people of Sindh will remember multiple shoes hurled by jiyalas on their leaders, who have no time for workers,” Dr Mohammad Ali, who worked as a coordinator for Benazir Bhutto, told Pakistan Today.

Dele Adeyemi started work in a well known media house shortly after he left the university. He started in the newsroom as a cub reporter and with diligence he was able to advance the ladder quite speedily. From being just a reporter, he moved on to become an editor in one of the titles in the stable of the company he was working for. On the job, he applied for Reuters’ fellowship and he won; so he had to travel for seven weeks to the United Kingdom for a training on financial reporting in Reuters office. More good things continued to happen to him. Shortly after his return from the UK, he got other opportunities to travel, mostly sponsored, to many countries. Within the country he also gained recognition. Eventually he was promoted the CEO of that unit of the company business.Discover the best Women's Prescription Eyeglasses frame in Best Sellers.

But as Dele would soon discover, there are certain things in life we cannot determine how they would turn. While in the office one day, a visitor who had followed his work got close to Dele and they started to exchange views on many things. In one of their meetings, Dele’s friend, who had resided in a European country for some time, suggested that they start a business by the side so that he (his new friend) would manage it on behalf of the two of them. Dele obliged but without discussing with his wife. And things were working out well. They were making more money from their joint business which in a way was in the same line of business with Dele’s official job. After two years of running this business , Dele discovered that he had to really spend some more time on his side business. His attention to his official business started to wane.

One day a letter was brought to the office addressed to Dele on a project relating to Dele’s side business. Unfortunately for Dele, his Chairman, who just strolled into the office that weekend was the one that received the unsealed letter. He just casually read it only to discover that Dele had another company beside the one that provided his monthly salary. The chairman was enraged and put a call to Dele to ask him a few questions. Dele sensed trouble. He called the writer of the letter who later explained that he did not know there was a difference between Dele’s side business and the one in the correspondence.

Not willing to face the embarrassment the scenario would bring especially as the chairman had taken him to be a trustworthy fellow, Dele simply wrote his resignation letter and sent it by courier the following Monday. He never resumed in that office again. He had spent seven years working with the company before he left without any entitlement.

When he explained what happened to his partner, he (the partner) encouraged him to resume and run their business fully. He discussed this with his wife who insisted on knowing his friend.High quality stainless steel necklace chain with durable color. Dele’s wife eventually met his friend and her remarks when Dele was back was that: “I sense in my spirit that this guy is not right for you, why don’t you pray about it?” Dele ignored his wife and ultimately, he resumed to run the joint business with his friend. But a month after he resumed in the office, Dele, a born-again, tongue-talking, spirit filled Christian, discovered a more devastating shocker: his partner is a member of seven occultic societies and he had always conducted some sacrifices in the office in the night, alone in the office. Dele at the moment is devastated. He has lost the job he loves and the carpet has been pulled off his feet even on the fallback business.

Thousands of people flowed through Waimea town

It was rude and wibbly, shiny and wipe-clean. Sex was present in every carnation from Torture Garden-style fetishgear to the more harmlessly bouncy stuff of Seventies Confessions... films.

Let’s face it,Source Italian women shoes factory Factory Products at Women's Dress Shoes, black vinyl isn’t for everyone – even when cut into familiar and practical peacoats at Meadham Kirchhoff, or verging-on-the-girlish circle skirts at Topshop Unique.We buy overstock Wholesale beads and factory closeouts. There’s something singularly moist about it, and there’s a severity to it that makes everyone wearing it look like a pervert even when they’re not. You might think you’re channelling Catwoman but you’re more likely to be wiping condensation out from inside your sleeves.

No,Discover the best Women's Prescription Eyeglasses frame in Best Sellers. far more accessible – though no less fruity – was the sort of sex that was sold more simply. The sort of sex that relates to the sex people actually have. Soft and delicate curvatures on dress and skirts that fell to billowing and fluid A-lines and dirndls and created a softly feminine silhouette at the likes of House of Holland, and skirts slit to the thigh at Preen. Sheer transparent layers of silk and shimmering mirror beads cast over naked bodies at Marios Schwab, but more romantic than raunchy. Jersey dresses with cut-outs at Vivienne Westwood’s Red Label, where one model even carried a secretarially sexy clipboard.

At Richard Nicoll, sex was understated but still there in menswear elements rubbing up against baby pink silken dresses. This collection was, as Nicoll later explained, how he would want to dress if he were a woman. Saucy – and perfect for next season.

Much was made too of Jonathan Saunders’ decision to cast models with plenty up-front in his collection of full-skirts, corsets and bustier dresses. He told me afterwards that it had caused a little awkwardness initially at fittings,We judge ourselves not according to the smile on our ownfigurine. but by the time the show rolled round, he and his team of dressers were cramming in boobs all over the shop and having a whale of a time.

Thousands of people flowed through Waimea town, enjoying the many different aspects of the Waimea Town Celebration Friday and Saturday.

Presented by the West Kaua‘i Professional and Business Association,specializes in ladies shoes wholesale Most popularly known for our brand, the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, Kikiaola Construction, with support from the County of Kaua‘i and numerous community organizations, the 36th Annual Waimea Town Celebration kicked off last Feb. 16 with the Kilohana Canoe Club Long Distance Race centering around the Waimea Pier, and wrapped up this weekend in the shadow of the former sugar mill.

This year’s theme was “Celebrating 36 years of commUNITY tradition.”

The event is dedicated to providing nonprofit organizations and clubs with the opportunity for necessary fundraising while promoting community unity and economic development.

Sherri Patrick of Leadership Kaua‘i said in a recent FM97 radio interview one of the new facets of this year’s celebration was the running of the one-man canoe races, featuring a long course starting from Port Allen Small Boat Harbor and a short course starting from the Salt Pond Beach Park. All crafts landed at Waimea Pier Saturday afternoon.

Another new appearance was the white canopy, and according to longtime event coordinator Chris Faye, was put up in response to people’s concern over the lack of protection from the daytime Waimea heat and sun.

A benefit of the canopy was the bank of overhead lamps, which aided the live streaming video overseen by Waimea High School media instructor Joyce Evens.

which are easier on shoes than asphalt

Ryan Hall, one of the world’s best distance runners, used to pride himself on wearing his running shoes into nubs. No more. Now he assiduously replaces his shoes after running about 200 miles in them. He goes through two pairs a month.

“I know that my shoes could probably handle a couple of hundred more miles before they are worn out, but my health is so important to me that I like to always make sure my equipment is fresh,” he said.

Of course Hall, sponsored by Asics, does not have to pay for his shoes. Most of the rest of us do, and at around $100 a pair they aren’t cheap. Yet we are warned constantly to replace them often, because running in threadbare shoes may lead to injuries that can take months to heal.

So here’s a simple question: How do you know when your shoes are ready for those discard bins in gyms? And if you do get injured, is it fair to blame your shoes?

My friend Jen Davis runs more than 100 miles a week, like Hall, but has a different set of criteria for getting rid of shoes. One is that if they smell bad even after she washes them in her washing machine, it’s time for a new pair. She estimates she puts 500 miles on each pair of shoes.

Henry Klugh, a running coach and manager of The Inside Track, a running store in Harrisburg, Pa., says he goes as far as 2,000 miles in some shoes. He often runs on dirt roads, he said, which are easier on shoes than asphalt is and do not compress and beat up the midsole as much.

According to Rodger Kram, a biomechanics researcher at the University of Colorado, the theory is that you must change shoes before the ethylene vinyl acetate, or EVA, that lines most running shoe insoles breaks down.

“Think of a piece of Wonder Bread, kind of fluffy out of the bag,” he said. “But smoosh it down with the heel of your palm, and it is flat with no rebound.”

A moderate amount of cushioning improves running efficiency, he has found. But as to whether cushioning prevents injuries, he said, “I doubt that there are good data.”

Dr.Discover the best Women's Prescription Eyeglasses frame in Best Sellers. Jacob Schelde, of Odense University Hospital in Denmark, has looked for clinical trials that address the cushioning and injury question — and has found none. He’s applying for funds to do one himself, a 15-month study with 600 runners.

Schelde did find a study on injury rates among runners, published in 2003, that had some relevant data even though it was not a randomized clinical trial and shoe age was not its main focus. The study was large and regularly tested runners in a 13-week training program. The researchers failed to find any clear relationship between how long running shoes were worn and a runner’s risk of injury.

It also is difficult to find goWe judge ourselves not according to the smile on our ownfigurine.od data on how long EVA insoles last. But one exhaustive study, led by Ewald Max Hennig of the biomechanics laboratory at University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, involved 18 years of shoe testing from 1991 to 2009. The researchers measured the performance of 156 shoe models worn by runners. Hennig and his colleagues wrote that the sort of mechanical testing that shoe manufacturers do to evaluate cushioning materials does not reflect what happens when people actually run.

In Europe, the researchers reported, people typically wear shoes for about 600 miles. But their studies indicated that shoes could last much longer.

Most shoemakers, of course, would prefer to see us trade in sooner. Kira Harrison, a spokeswoman for Brooks, said shoes should last for 400 to 500 miles.High capacity and low price suit to initiate laser engraving machine. The very light models last about 300 miles, she said.

But Golden Harper, developer of Altra running shoes and founder of the company, said any advice on mileage was “a lot of malarkey.” Harper,I assumed that all eight of you knew how to make the fabric flowers. a distance runner, said most runners could feel when their shoes need to be replaced. “You get a sense for it,” he said.We buy overstock Wholesale beads and factory closeouts. “Nothing hurts, but it is going to soon.”