Orders to U.S. factories have fallen for a second straight month. The worse-than-expected performance is further evidence that a prolonged slowdown in housing and a severe credit crunch are raising risks of a recession.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that factory orders dropped by 1.3 percent in …
WASHINGTON--Iraq's weapons declaration bears out U.S. skepticismthat President Saddam Hussein would come clean, Secretary of StateColin Powell said Monday, adding that using force to disarm Saddamremains an option.
Powell withheld a detailed assessment of the declaration untilchief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix reports to the UN SecurityCouncil on Thursday, but said the declaration appears suspect.
A senior White House official said the administration would have areaction to the documents by the end of the week, but that nodecision has been made on whether President Bush would …
LAST YEAR AT PASSOVER, JUST WEEKS before Israel Independence Day, Jews around the world sat down at their seders, shocked and horrified by the news that a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up guests at a seder at a hotel in Netanya, ultimately killing 29 and wounding some 150 people.
For good measure, the Hamas Palestinian terrorist was prepared to use a bottle of cyanide to "enhance" his mass attack, but failed to do so due to a technicality.
Then, by last Israel Independence Day Jews began demonstrating on behalf of Israel in an outpouring of solidarity and support.
THREE IMPORTANT RESULTS FOLLOWED the Netanya bombing, which was the most muderous attack in Israel in a …
Scoreboard at tea Friday on the second day of the first cricket test between Australia and India at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Australia, 1st Innings
(Overnight: 254 for four)
Matthew Hayden c Dhoni b Khan 0
Simon Katich c Dhoni b Sharma 66
Ricky Ponting lbw Harbhajan 123
Michael Hussey not out 135
Michael Clarke lbw Khan 11
Shane Watson b Sharma 2
Brad Haddin c Laxman b Sharma 33
Cameron White c Harbhajan b Sharma 6
Brett Lee not out 26
Extras: (10lb, …
Gordon was injured in the second quarter but completed the 121-118 double-overtime victory over the Celtics that tied the best-of-seven series. He finished with 22 points, including the three-pointer that forced the second overtime.
Gordon is listed as day-to-day for Game 5 tonight in Boston, but he sounded Sunday as if he would play as long as the MRI didn't reveal serious damage.
''I'll do what I need to do to play,'' he said. ''We've played pretty well against them there the first two games. We just have to play with the same edge and see what …
NEW YORK U.S. stocks rose for the first time in four days after aFederal Reserve report indicated the economy is expanding with littleinflation. Computer-related shares led the gains, lifted by higher-than-expected sales at Cisco Systems Inc.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 132.65, or 1.2 percent, toclose at 10,787.80. The gains followed through on a rebound thatbegan Tuesday afternoon, when the Dow and other indicators struggledback from steep losses to end modestly lower.
Broader stock indicators were also higher today, with the Standard& Poor's 500 index gaining 1.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite indexgaining a healthy 3 percent.
Traders said the …
SYDNEY (AP) — John Daly walked off the course at the Australian Open on Thursday after hitting seven balls into the water on the 11th hole at The Lakes.
Infuriated Australasian tour officials, calling Daly's actions unprofessional, responded immediately by banning the controversial American from playing in the Australian PGA in two weeks.
It started on the short par-4 10th when Daly tried to drive the green. He thought his ball was in the front bunker, but after blasting out to about 4 feet, he realized he had hit a practice ball from the adjacent range. That's when he was told his ball was in the back bunker, and with a penalty shot and a three-putt, he wound up with a triple …
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says 2.5 percent of coffeehouse owners and 3.5 percent of their customers have quit smoking since Turkey extended a ban on indoor public smoking to bars, restaurants and coffeehouses a year ago.
Erdogan says 33 percent of the owners and 25 percent of the customers also have reported lighting up less frequently since the ban was introduced …
Boys and girls in Roxbury now have an expanded and renovated club for after-school activities. The Boys & Girls Club has completed an $8 million renovation that provides accommodations for 30 percent more than the 2,600 youths it currently serves. The newly designed facility includes a teen education center, a conference room, a fitness center, a computer room, an auditorium and a number of other amenities.
In any bricks and mortar project undertaken by a nonprofit organization, the most difficult donation to land is for the naming rights, which will usually cover one-third or more of the cost. The Roxbury Boys & Girls Club project was made possible because of a $3 million …
UPCOMING COVERAGE FOR SUNDAY, JAN. 6:
VATICAN-POPE
VATICAN CITY _ Pope presides over Epiphany service. 0900 GMT.
UPCOMING COVERAGE FOR MONDAY, JAN. 7:
WAR CRIMES-TAYLOR
THE HAGUE, Netherlands _ Resumption of war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, more than six months after its chaotic adjournment.
BRITAIN-DIANA
LONDON _ Resumption of inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed. 0900 GMT.
CHINA IN AFRICA
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa _ Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi begins a tour of Africa that also will take him to Congo, Burundi and …
The typical person who buys a $200,000 home or refinances that amount starting on Jan. 1 would have to pay roughly $17 more a month for their mortgage, thanks to a fee increase included in the payroll tax cut bill that the Senate passed Saturday. The White House said the fee increases would be phased in gradually.
The legislation provides a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits that would otherwise expire on Jan. 1. It would …
Bill Ward
Executive Director of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County
Woody Allen once joked, "I'm not afraid to die ... I just don't want to be there when it happens."
The quote has been borrowed and bastardized in countless ways over the years, mostly by people addressing the subjects of death and dying.
Bill Ward, executive director of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, has put it to a different use.
He summons it when he talks with people about confronting business and societal matters that maybe they don't want to confront, but must- It takes a definite lack of fear - and generous amounts of determination - to prevail in such …
A sprawling crackdown on the violent underworld in one of China's biggest cities that riveted the country with tales of gangland corruption has been a success, the city's mayor said Tuesday.
The crackdown in the southwestern city of Chongqing exposed deep links between government officials and police officers who provided cover for crime syndicates. The trail led as high as the former director of the city's judicial department, who was executed after convictions on a number of corruption charges.
The campaign in the city of 32 million began last year and has led to thousands of arrests and trials that have captivated the public with lurid testimony about sex, corruption and gangland violence.
"We strictly enforced the law, and we achieved great success," Mayor Huang Qifan told reporters Tuesday. The campaign "effectively improved the stability and safety in Chongqing."
Huang said about 530 people were prosecuted and 370 sentenced, while more than 500 murder cases were investigated. He said more than 100 government officials were investigated, including police, prosecutors and members of the court.
The focus on officials had "effectively punished the protective umbrellas, or shields for gangsters," he said.
In late July, authorities announced the arrest of a former deputy of Chongqing's legislative body, Wang Neng, on charges of assault, possession of guns, extortion and organizing a gang. More than 20 alleged members of his gang also were arrested or detained.
Earlier this month, the former director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, Wen Qiang, was executed after conviction on charges involving bribery, rape, extortion and gang-related activities.
Wen was also accused of protecting the gang operations masterminded by his sister-in-law, Xie Caiping, known as the "godmother" of the Chongqing underworld. Xie was sentenced to 18 years in prison in November for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials.
Despite the progress made in busting gangsters, Huang said there is still work to be done.
"There will be new cases emerging in the future, so there is no way to say that our efforts are over," he said.
Terry Twist's latest and most serious run-in with the law ended indisappointment Thursday, as the 26-year-old left federal courtshaking his head and carrying a 28-month prison term for hooking upwith a batch of teens in a botched bank heist.
The affable Aurora man, whose nine other convictions ofteninvolved excessive boozing, has already been in jail for about 13months and hoped his sentence Thursday would come close to equalingtime served.
But U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer refused to give Twisttwo significant sentencing breaks Thursday.
"I'm on your side," Pallmeyer assured Twist after imposing thesentence. "There's nobody in here who doesn't want to see you comeout of this in a positive way."
Twist_whose other convictions include possessing drugs at aGrateful Dead concert, driving under the influence and under-agedrinking_pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit banklarceny. While working as a bank supervisor in 1999, Twist helpedstage a nearly $90,000 heist at the TCF branch where he worked insidea Naperville grocery store. Several area teens also were recruitedinto the scheme.
Twist was once accused as the mastermind, but two othersupervisors are now charged as ringleaders. Twist helped authoritiesbuild charges against the two women. Both have pleaded not guilty.
"He's obviously disappointed," Twist's lawyer, Jim Tunick, saidafter Twist was taken back to the Metropolitan Correctional Center."He learned his lesson . . . and he doesn't want to spend any moretime in prison."
The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi at Guantanamo who was alleged to have been the so-called "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attacks, his U.S. military defense lawyer said Monday.
Mohammed al-Qahtani was one of six men charged by the military in February with murder and war crimes for their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks. Authorities say al-Qahtani missed out on taking part in the attacks because he was denied entry to the U.S. by an immigration agent.
But in reviewing the case, the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford, decided to dismiss the charges against al-Qahtani and proceed with the arraignment for the other five, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, the Saudi's military lawyer.
Crawford dismissed the charges Friday without prejudice, meaning they can be filed again later, but the defense only learned about it Monday, Broyles told The Associated Press.
The attorney said he could not comment on the reasons for the dismissal until discussing the case with lawyers for the other five defendants. Officials previously said al-Qahtani had been subjected to a harsh interrogation authorized by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, confirmed the case was proceeding against the five defendants and that their arraignment will be within 30 days of the charges being served at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Gordon declined further comment since the Office of Military Commissions had not yet released the formal announcement about the legal developments.
The five defendants include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the terrorist attacks in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people, and Ramzi Binalshibh, who is said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and al-Qaida leaders. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for all of them.
Their trial is the first capital case thus far before the military tribunals at Guantanamo, where the U.S. holds about 270 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. The military has said it plans to prosecute about 80 prisoners in the first U.S. military war crimes tribunals since World War II.
Authorities have said they plan to broadcast the trials to military bases in the United States so relatives of the victims of the attacks can see the proceedings.
Critics of the tribunals have faulted a rule that allows judges to decide whether to allow evidence that may have been obtained with "coercion." U.S. authorities have acknowledged that Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding by CIA interrogators and that al-Qahtani was treated harshly at Guantanamo.
Al-Qahtani in October 2006 recanted a confession he said he made after he was tortured and humiliated at Guantanamo.
The alleged torture, which he detailed in a written statement, included being beaten, restrained for long periods in uncomfortable positions, threatened with dogs, exposed to loud music and freezing temperatures and stripped nude in front of female personnel.
The U.S. has alleged that al-Qahtani, who military records show is about 28, barely missed becoming the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11, 2001. The Saudi was denied entry into the country by immigration agents at the airport in Orlando, Florida.
At the time, he had more than US$2,400 in cash, no return plane ticket and lead hijacker Mohamed Atta was waiting for him, the military has said.
Separately Monday, Gordon said the Pentagon has not decided whether to appeal a ruling that ousted a top legal official from a detainee case scheduled to become the first to go to trial at Guantanamo Bay.
In a ruling last week, a military judge at Guantanamo found that Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the legal adviser for the tribunals, lacks neutrality and should not participate in the case against a Yemeni who is a former driver for Osama bin Laden. His trial is set for June 2.
____
Associated Press writer Michael Melia contributed to this report.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — U.S. investigators will soon examine the flight data recorders from a Caribbean Airlines jet that skidded off a rain-slicked runway in Guyana and split apart, officials said Monday. No one died in the weekend accident.
Kelly A. Nantel, a spokeswoman with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, said the recorders from the cracked Boeing 737-800 were expected to arrive at an agency lab on Monday evening.
The U.S. agency has a team in Guyana assisting the South American country's civil aviation authority with their crash investigation.
Caribbean Airlines spokeswoman Laura Asbjornsen said the pilot and crew remain in Guyana to work with investigators.
"We have no other information at this time about the incident," said Asbjornsen, adding the Trinidad-based carrier has set up a counseling center for passengers and their families.
The plane, carrying 162 people, slid off the end of the runway early Saturday.
Authorities have been upgrading systems at the airport that help pilots to land, but not all of the new systems were operating at the time of the crash, according to Guyana's Civil Aviation Director Zulfikar Mohamed.
Officials and aviation experts have cautioned it was far too early to say if the lack of the systems was a factor in the crash.
Mohamed has said there was light rain, but visibility was 5 miles (8 kilometers) at the time the plane landed early Saturday.
NEW ORLEANS - Breakfasting on beignets in the French Quarter on a Sunday morning, Dorothy Washington was a tourism official's dream - she saw none of the scars that still mark most of New Orleans 11 months after Hurricane Katrina and she had heard nothing about six weekend shooting deaths.
"Really, I haven't seen any sign of the hurricane or crime. The French Quarter's a whole other world to itself," said Washington, 26, of Philadelphia.
However, city leaders and people who make a living in the tourism industry fear that New Orleans is building a national reputation that could harm its fragile recovery.
That reputation was fostered by the June deaths of five teenagers gunned down while sitting in a sport utility vehicle, the subsequent assignment of state police and National Guard troops to help keep the peace in the city, and then this weekend's six gunshot killings in 24 hours.
"It dampens the progress we are making since the hurricane," said City Councilwoman Shelley Midura. "This is not what most people in New Orleans encounter. Most people in New Orleans do not experience any type of violence. But this is the image that is being formed of the city and it will hurt us if it continues."
This weekend's spate of violence began Friday night when three brothers and a friend were killed several blocks away from the French Quarter in the Treme neighborhood. They were sitting on a porch when two men walked by, turned around and fired, police Superintendent Warren Riley said.
Two other people were gunned down in separate incidents hours later in other neighborhoods, one close to busy St. Charles Avenue, between a daiquiri shop and a restaurant that both had customers at the time.
No arrests had been made in the latest killings as of Sunday afternoon.
"On top of everything else, this is just what we need," said Archie Casbarian, owner of Arnaud's restaurant in the French Quarter. "So far I don't think it's hurting tourism. I haven't heard any tourist expressing concern. But there's no question I'm concerned."
Police and City Council members expressed frustration at their inability to stop the bloodshed, but are eager to spread the word that the violence is usually drug related or retaliatory and rarely touches tourists.
"It bothers me tremendously because there are so many things that are great about New Orleans," Midura said. "But this is what people will be reading about."
Murder and other crimes plummeted in the first months after Katrina hit New Orleans on Aug. 29 and flooded 80 percent of the city, forcing thousands of people to move out.
The population is estimated to be about half of the pre-storm total of about 455,000. But the body count is mounting with 78 homicides so far, 21 of them in July. In the first six months of last year, before the Katrina exodus, 134 people were killed.
"Our population is increasing, and our Police Department numbers are decreasing," Riley said. "We have to get this department back up to a minimum of 1,600 police officers." It currently is about 200 short of that goal.
On June 20, Gov. Kathleen Blanco sent 300 National Guardsmen and 60 state police troopers to assist the city. State police officers are patrolling the French Quarter and the Guard is covering the still thinly populated areas of the city.
The reinforcements freed city police to patrol more violent areas. Arrests were up and the murder rate appeared to be slowing.
However, the weekend's killings showed that putting more people on the street is not the complete answer, Riley said. He blamed the city's long-criticized school system, illiteracy, unemployment and "just basically ignorance" for contributing to the crimes.
"Unfortunately, the city of New Orleans is the victim of 40 or 50 years of neglect as it relates to the education system, as it relates to literacy," Riley said at a news conference Saturday. "Obviously, there has been something that is feeding the mentality of our criminals that allows them to be brazen and vicious, and allows them to kill four and five people at a time."
A roadside bomb critically wounded a military commander of the Fatah movement Tuesday, setting off gunbattles at a Palestinian refugee camp that has been torn by factional fighting, Lebanese and Palestinian security officials said.
Talal Sleim was hit while heading to his office in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. A bodyguard was also lightly wounded, they said.
After news of the explosion spread, Fatah guerrillas exchanged machine-gun fire with Palestinian gunmen of the Jund al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of al-Qaida.
Dozens of families fled to safer areas outside the shantytown in fear that fighting would escalate between the two factions, witnesses said.
The bombing came 10 days after three Jund al-Sham militants were killed in clashes with Fatah guerrillas in the camp, leading the extremist group to vow revenge.
Among those killed was a Jund al-Sham military commander, Shehadeh Jawhar, who fought American troops in Iraq and was wanted by Lebanese authorities for numerous acts of violence.
Jund al-Sham _ Arabic for Soldiers of al-Sham, an old word for the region of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan _ has repeatedly clashed with Fatah guerrillas and Lebanese troops deployed around Ein el-Hilweh. It has been blamed or claimed responsibility for a number of bombings and gunbattles in Lebanon and Syria.
Ein el-Hilweh, with a population of 70,000, is the largest of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps. A hotbed of Islamic extremists, it is notorious for lawlessness and sees frequent gunfights between its various factions.
Baby talk: Chitchat's better than cooing for jogging your baby'sbrain, since the first 12 months are crucial to building lifelongprocessing and reasoning abilities.
According to August's Parenting magazine, infants who werespoken to often - in a tone that engaged their attention - had higherintelligence by ages 3 and 9.
Parenting offers a guide for talking through baby's first year:One- to 3-week-olds are sensitive to overstimulation, so don't worryabout chatting.At 1 to 3 months, babies are taking more in but can't process much.So turn off background noise (TV, radio) when you're talking.Three- to 6-month-olds benefit from a running play-by-play of whatyou're both doing. While they won't understand the words, they'llstore the sounds for later.By 6 to 9 months, babies understand tone of voice. "No!" won'tmean much, but babies catch the tone's urgency.Nine- to 12-month-olds start to assign meaning to the words theyhear. Use gestures to help connect sound and meaning.Gannett News ServiceTick time: Since kids are prone to ticks and the Lyme diseasethey carry, August's Parents magazine urges moms and dads to doroutine tick checks. Lyme disease's symptoms - rash, muscle andjoint aches, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes - can appear two to 40days after the bite.Parents should pay special attention to the back of the neck,armpits, behind the knees and ears, and the groin. Look forsomething that resembles a pin head or a sesame seed. Usingtweezers, grab the tick close to the skin and pull gently. To killticks on clothing, wash in hot water.Gannett News ServiceBetter remedies: Over-the-counter remedies often can do moreharm than good, according to Family Circle magazine. Instead ofself-medicating, take a look at what's causing the problem. Dry andred eyes may not need eye drops, but moist air and less consumptionof alcohol. Multisymptom cold remedies aren't right for every cold.Tea with a bit of honey is usually better for coughs than acough suppressant. And chicken soup really can help a stuffy nose.For minor cuts, wash with soap and water and disinfect with peroxide.Ointments can seal off the wound, trapping dirt and causinginfection.Gannett News ServiceClarification: A photo of churchgoers published on the July 27Family page was taken at Broadview Baptist Church in south suburbanBroadview.
Police say eight people were wounded in a burst of gunfire in downtown Indianapolis during the Indiana Black Expo and two more in separate shootings that followed.
Police spokesman Lt. Jeff Duhamell said early Sunday that authorities made no immediate arrests directly tied to the shootings and were seeking those responsible. He says none of the injuries was life-threatening.
Police say the victims were males ages 10 to 18. Duhamell says hundreds in a crowd scattered when shots first erupted about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, adding a man was wounded nearby in another shooting minutes later and the last man in a shooting about 11:30 p.m.
Duhamell says investigators were trying to determine if the shootings were gang-related. None occurred at the event's venues.
New Zealand's Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world's largest dairy exporter, raised its payout to farmers to its highest level ever Friday on the back of record dairy prices, an official said.
The dairy giant will pay 7.30 New Zealand dollars (US$5.80; euro3.70) for each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of milk solids for the fiscal year ending May 31.
That is 5.8 percent above the level the cooperative set in mid-December and 14 percent above the NZ$6.40 (US$5.11; euro3.24) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of milk solids Fonterra forecast in August.
Fonterra is a cooperative grouping of about 11,000 dairy farmers. The price paid to farmers is set by returns the group gets from selling its products on domestic and world markets.
Chairman Henry van der Heyden said the farmers' payout is rising because commodity prices are holding up, partly due to a summer drought that has cut New Zealand's production.
"It's ironic that the dry conditions, which are hitting many farmers so hard, have driven up prices," he said.
While the increase will be welcome, "many farmers will just be clawing back the dollars they have lost from reduced milk production and increased costs for feed, fuel and fertilizer," he added.
Benefits from the record payout will depend largely on how national milk production has been affected by the drought. The dry spell is projected to cut NZ$894 million (US$713 million; euro452 million) from expected dairy earnings _ an average of NZ$79,400 (US$63,322; euro40,174) for each dairy farm.
Dairy exports represent over 20 percent of New Zealand's total export income. The sector employs more than 35,000 people on farms alone; thousands more are employed in related service sectors and in dairy factories.
Fonterra sells 95 percent of its production abroad and accounts for seven percent of the New Zealand economy's annual gross domestic production.
BACK IN THE '60S TOM STALLKAMP faced one of his toughest challenges - how to make more money on the soda pop machine at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house at Miami University of Ohio. As the fiat's treasurer he was responsible for ordering the pop, but the company made him take grape and orange soda along with the Coke and 7-Up.
None of his frat brothers bought the grape or orange - it didn't mix well with whiskey or vodka. So those bottles piled up. Undaunted, Stallkamp bought a sixpack of beer and plugged the bottles into the vending machine, separating each one by five or six bottles of grape and orange. The pop disappeared in record time. That eliminated waste and made money.
As the new president of Chrysler, Stallkamp, 51, faces the same land of challenge today, but on a grander scale. His mission is to cut waste out of the company's process of building and selling vehicles. He says about a third of the cost is waste and that adds up to thousands of dollars per vehicle. But that's only one challenge. He must also improve quality and sandwich more car sales - Chrysler's orange and grape pop problem - between the more popular trucks. The bulk of Chrysler's profits currently come from trucks.
Following are Stallkamp's thoughts on these challenges, his new job and the industy
Q: How will you improve quality?
A: Quality problems are rarely with one part of the corporation. The problem is usually the process. We must get design, engineering, procurement, sales and manufacturing working together to solve the problem.
Q: How will you change the process?
A: We will identify more with real-life customers. We'll accelerate the response time when we have a problem. We also meet with all the executive vice presidents once a week for several hours, to make sure we are all on the same team and are working on common goals. (Vice Chairman Robert) Lutz sits in on many of those meetings. He's a good coach and advisor.
The secret to developing new vehicles is integrating design and engineering into one process. We're going to make the team operation even better than it has been.
Q:How did you get the president's job?
A: I wasn't aiming for this. It is a recognition of what we do as a teas I was selected from a large group of very capable people. If I had an agenda, I shouldn't have been picked.
Q: When you were head of purchasing, a lot of design and engineering work moved to the suppliers. Will there be more of that now that you're president?
A: I don't see expanding a lot on the supplier side. We put a good strategy in place. Suppliers must realize, however, that the OEMs are asking a lot of them. Not all suppliers have figured out they have more responsibility. They are responsible for R&D, customer focus, product development and running a global business. They must step up to that.
Q: Francois Castaing (executive vice president, international operations) is only 52, but he has chosen to retire. How does that affect you?
A: His leaving is a personal disappointment. He is a close friend.
Q: What kind of new technologies or niches do you see?
A: We will look at unrelated businesses such as semiconductors. I hope our suppliers seek out technologies in other businesses. We will not only look at our suppliers but at those in other industries.
Q: As president you have some say over Chrysler's charitable contributions. Where would you like to see more money go?
A: I'd like to see the Chrysler Foundation support more reading programs. That will show in the face of the community as well as the nation.
Q: You didn't get a seat on the board of directors or the title of chief operating officer. Why?
A: The way we run this place, the question is, who needs the COO title? The functional lines are blurred at Chrysler. We work well together in a small close-knit group. We'll try and be even less functional. I hope I was selected for my managerial skills rather than any functional ability.
As far as the board goes, there is a trend in modern U.S. companies to have fewer insiders. Only (Chairman) Bob Eaton and Lutz are on our board. It doesn't bother me.
Q: What is your most important goal at Chrysler?
A: Our reputation is very important to us. Chrysler is a business and you can bring the same ethics into business as you have in your personal life.
Greece's statistics agency says inflation in the debt-ridden country stood at 5.4 percent on the year in May, a sharp increase as the government implements austerity measures that include higher taxes on consumer goods.
The rise accelerated from a 4.8 percent yearly gain in April.
The statistics agency's figures released Tuesday show inflation was fueled by spikes in prices on alcohol and tobacco products, which jumped by 16.9 percent compared to May 2009, and a 20.3 percent increase in transportation costs.
The government sharply raised taxes on alcohol, tobacco and fuel this year, as part of a package of austerity measures that released euro110 billion ($130 billion) in loans from the International Monetary Fund and other European Union countries that use the euro.
The U.S. government said Tuesday that a half-dozen foreign nations are engaging in illegal or unregulated fishing.
Officials said they plan consultations with France, Italy, Libya, Panama, China and Tunisia in hopes of getting those countries to take corrective action.
"Illegal fishing is a global problem that is depleting fish stocks and hurting the economies of nations and the livelihoods of people who depend on sustainable fishing," said Dr. Jim Balsiger, acting assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service.
It is the first time NOAA has reported specific countries as engaged in such fishing. After consultations, the agency will either certify that a country has taken corrective action, or list it as still engaging in illegal, unregulated or unreported fishing, in which case that nation's vessels may be denied entry into U.S. ports and the president may prohibit imports of certain fish products from that nation.
According to NOAA's report, in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, fishing vessels of identified nations were using illegal fishing gear, fishing during a closed season or not complying with reporting requirements. In the Pacific Ocean, it said, vessels violated an international rule requiring any ship fishing for tuna in the eastern Pacific be listed by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, which manages tuna stocks in that area.
___
On the Net:
NOAA Fisheries report: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/msa2007/intlprovisions.html
Like many a Bridgeport guy, Michael A. Tadin started out peddlinghot dogs at Sox Park and driving a truck.
Three decades later, the 52-year-old trucking king lives in a GoldCoast mansion down the street from the cardinal.
Tadin has grown rich, in part, by leasing trucks, equipment andland to Chicago taxpayers for 25 years. But the deals that broughthim wealth have also, at times, tainted him with scandal and broughthim attention he hates.
For years, Tadin managed to stay out of the newspapers, quietlyoperating Marina Cartage and a dozen other companies. All thatchanged seven years ago, when he began making headlines in scandalafter scandal.
A $1.25 million loan to an alderman. The licenses-for-bribesscheme. The Hired Truck Program scandal that erupted this year aftera Chicago Sun-Times expose.
Tadin says the FBI has investigated him. But he has never beencharged.
For years, Tadin typically would talk with reporters only if itwas off the record. But now he has decided to speak out.
"You win. I quit," Tadin bellowed in his gravelly voice, in one ofa series of lengthy interviews with the Sun-Times.
Tadin said he's through working for City Hall come June. That'swhen Mayor Daley plans to overhaul the Hired Truck Program, throughwhich, the Sun-Times has reported, the city often paid companies forlittle or no work.
"What would be the benefit of me staying working for the city?"Tadin asked. "So I can get more publicity? And take a chance oflosing my good customers? My Fortune 500 customers? Because I'malways in the newspaper over something over nothing."
Tadin insisted his trucks always did the job the city hired themto do. If the city hired trucks it didn't need, Tadin said, don'tblame the companies.
Under Daley, Tadin was the Hired Truck king, making more moneythan any other company in the program. When a 1997 scandal promptedthe mayor to spread the truck business around to more companies,Tadin still came out on top.
Tadin said his city work has steadily fallen, though, since 1997:His trucks and heavy equipment bring in $40 million a year, but only$5 million of that from city jobs.
Tadin said all he's ever done is work hard and offer services thatcompetitors couldn't or wouldn't, a lesson he wants to teach his twochildren.
"You ever write anything good about anything that anybody did?" heasked reporters. "Ever write about, in 2000, when it was snowing out,and the city was in trouble, that we sent 55 trucks into the Loop, toclean it out?"
Tadin and his friends say he is driven, a hard worker molded byhis Croatian father, who is a retired truck driver, and his Italianmother, who waited tables at Schaller's Pump, a Bridgeport landmark,until she had a stroke.
For three generations, Tadin's family has lived in Bridgeport,Chicago's most political neighborhood, an enclave that has producedmore mayors than any other.
When Tadin grew up, everyone knew everyone. It's pretty much thesame today.
As an adult, Tadin lived down the street from Richard Daley whileDaley was Cook County state's attorney.
Tadin and Daley both have moved out of the neighborhood, but theyremain loyal to Bridgeport's institutions, like the Louis L.Valentine Boys & Girls Club. Tadin and Daley are board members.
Tadin also is on the board of De La Salle Institute, the highschool he and Daley attended.
Tadin said few of his friends are politicians. But the connectionshe has are good ones:
*When Tadin needed a divorce lawyer, he hired Michael Daley, themayor's brother.
*When he needs business insurance, he calls another Daley brother,Cook County Commissioner John Daley.
*As a boy, Tadin said, he was too poor to get into games atComiskey Park. Now, he's partners with former Ald. Pat Huels in acompany, SDI Security Inc., which guards Sox park, among other majorbusinesses. SDI's board members have included Ald. Ed Burke (14th).
*Tadin's contacts reach deep into government. His sister, brotherand other relatives have city jobs. He has friends in other agencies.It helps him know when reporters call the county treasurer for copiesof his property tax bills.
"I know a lot where you go?" Tadin fumed. "Absolutely, I know alot. That's how I stay in business."
Tadin is imposing at 5 feet 11 and 260 pounds. He can go fromcharm to outrage in a moment.
Tadin's not interested in revealing too many details about hislife. Who are his best friends? He won't say. Ask about his movingout of Bridgeport and into a $4.5 million mansion, and he seethes:"What I own -- is that a crime, or something?"
He also pays property taxes on two condominiums on the Gold Coastand a $2.1 million house in Jupiter, Fla., with a boat dock. He alsoowns other property.
"Maybe you should print that I pay $500,000 a year in propertytax," Tadin said.
From interviews with those who know him and a review of publicdocuments, a profile emerges of a canny businessman, with politicalclout, who has prospered under every mayor since Jane Byrne. In acity where contractors fall out of favor each time a new mayor takesover, Tadin has always been on top. Since 1995, he has donated atleast $160,000 to politicians, including Daley.
"I got an argument with the press because you guys keep portrayingme as this big, bad guy, that I got successful because of politics,"Tadin said. "And that's a lie."
Tadin's Marina Cartage wasn't always successful, and it wasn'talways called Marina. It started out in the 1950s as BertucciTrucking. It was run by his mother's brother, Anthony Bertucci. Theychanged the name in the 1960s to Marina, after Marina City andbecause they hauled marine freight.
Tadin started working there in the early 1970s, after graduatingfrom De La Salle Institute and attending what's now called HaroldWashington College for one year.
Tadin's uncle died in 1977, and Tadin bought Marina two yearslater -- the year Byrne was elected mayor. The company had just 20trucks then and a little warehouse. Today, Tadin said, he has morethan 300 trucks, but it's still a family business, employing his twobrothers, a sister-in-law and an aunt.
Being from Bridgeport offered no advantage to Tadin with Byrne orher successor, Mayor Harold Washington.
Both were elected as reformers, promising to take power from theDaley Machine.
"Growing up in Bridgeport, Jane Byrne and Harold Washingtonweren't two popular people in Bridgeport," Tadin said. "And theycertainly weren't willing to help people. You were never gonna get noextra help coming from where I grew up at with them, with thempeople."
Still, he made inroads, leasing trucks to the city. Tadinattributed his early success to hard work and the round-the-clockservice his firm provided to the city.
Byrne reached out to Bridgeport, too, to form her own alliances.
And Tadin had friends. He'd grown up with Anthony Fratto, who wasByrne's comptroller. And Tadin became friends with Fratto's pal, AlBoumenot, Byrne's budget director. Tadin is still close with bothmen. Boumenot is an investor in one of Tadin's real estate ventures.
In 1983, Washington replaced Byrne, ousting her cronies from CityHall. But Tadin said his business flourished under Washington.
He said he got a message early on from a Washington administrationofficial: "I wouldn't live on your street in Bridgeport, and youwouldn't live in Hyde Park. But, if you do the job, you'll haveopportunity."
"And what more could you ask for?" Tadin said.
In fact, Tadin said his company did more business under Washingtonthan under Daley. But business hasn't been bad since Daley becamemayor in 1989.
Tadin has taken in tens of millions of dollars by renting trucksand heavy equipment to the city, as well as land, whether it's for anauto pound, a spot to store road salt or offices for the sewerdepartment. In the property deals, Tadin teamed with another truckingczar, Fred Barbara, a nephew of the late Ald. Fred Roti. Roti hasbeen identified as a made member of the mob. Tadin said he no longerleases land to the city.
Tadin often found a spot to make money. Take his role in two ofDaley's programs. Tadin was a subcontractor to Waste Management onthe blue-bag recycling program and still works for the company today,even though it no longer has the city recycling deal.
And Tadin was a key player in a program to strip asphalt from citystreets, heat it and put it back down, a cheaper way to pave.
It was under Daley that scandal first tainted Tadin. In 1997, theSun-Times reported that Tadin loaned $1.25 million to a security firmco-owned by Huels after the then-11th Ward alderman helped Tadin geta $1.1 million city subsidy to build his $4.5 million headquarters inthe ward. Huels resigned and went bankrupt. But Tadin said the loanwas repaid.
Today, Tadin is a partner in Huels' security firm, SDI SecurityInc. They remain friends, Tadin said.
It was the first of several scandals involving Tadin.
An alderman later claimed Tadin was double-billing the city fortrucks, but it was never proved.
Three years later, Tadin was back in the headlines, during afederal trial that, at first glance, had nothing to do with him. Itwas a case involving the licenses-for-bribes scandal under GeorgeRyan when Ryan was secretary of state. A key witness in theinvestigation testified at the trial of a driving school instructorthat she sold political fund-raising tickets for Ryan to a number ofunnamed trucking firm owners whose employees needed truckinglicenses. The witness, Mary Ann Mastrodomenico, during a blisteringcross-examination by defense attorney Thomas Durkin, didn't nameTadin. But he was one of the owners she was talking about.
In an interview with federal investigators, Mastrodomenico saidher husband helped sell tickets to Tadin in the late 1990s, sourcessaid. Tadin eventually gave her six checks for $500, according toMastrodomenico's account. Tadin was never charged with wrongdoing.
Over the years, some Tadin employees, including his brother Tom,have come under fire for working for Tadin and the city of Chicago atthe same time.
"I don't think anybody's records have been subpoenaed and beenmore reviewed than this guy's has been," said Tadin's attorney,Thomas Breen, who noted nothing has come of it. "His success has beenslow and through multiple mayoral administrations."
Tadin was back in the headlines this year, when the Sun-Timesreported waste and corruption in the Hired Truck Program, which coststaxpayers $40 million a year. The city acknowledged hiring trucks itended up not using. Tadin's businesses have not been accused ofwrongdoing.
Still, Tadin's two businesses were sidelined from the Hired TruckProgram earlier this month over a tax dispute with the city.
Tadin moaned that he's been unfairly tarred by the Hired Truckscandal. He said the Sun-Times stories "hurt a lot of innocentpeople" by linking them to organized crime.
Tadin criticized linking some owners to the mob while not exposingthose with ties to street gangs.
"You don't write nothing about connections with the Latin Kingsand the El Rukns," Tadin said.
But, when asked to connect those dots, Tadin, still a Bridgeportguy at heart, would not.
"My mother didn't raise no punk," he said.
Daleys among trucking magnate's inner circle
Michael Tadin has a very powerful circle of friends. Here are afew:
Mayor Daley
Once neighbors while Daley was Cook County state's attorney, Tadinand the mayor have long been labeled childhood friends. Which drivesTadin crazy because, as he points out, Daley is 10 years older.Still, Tadin has given thousands of dollars to Daley's campaign fundover the years, even as he prospered by leasing trucks, heavymachinery and land to the city. Both also serve on the board of theLouis L. Valentine Boys & Girls Club, a Bridgeport institution.
John Daley
The mayor's brother is an insurance broker for Tadin, arelationship that goes back many years. John Daley won't talk aboutit, though. John Daley, a Cook County Board member who also runs the11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, has also gotten campaigndonations from Tadin. John Daley also serves on the board of theBridgeport boys club.
Michael Daley
Another brother of the mayor, Michael Daley is the name partner inthe Daley & George law firm. He was Tadin's divorce lawyer. MichaelDaley also defended Tadin in a lawsuit last year over a polluted plotof land he sold for $2 million to the United NeighborhoodOrganization, a Hispanic group. UNO backed out after deciding theland -- tainted with arsenic and other toxins, according to an UNOlawsuit -- wasn't fit for a planned school.
Anthony Fratto
A boyhood friend of Tadin, Fratto was city comptroller under MayorJane Byrne, who usually shunned people from Bridgeport, the Daleyfamily's turf. Fratto was an exception. So was Tadin. Fratto now is asenior vice president at George K. Baum & Co., a public finance housethat sold bonds for the renovation of Soldier Field, as well as forMillennium Park.
Albert Boumenot
A close friend of Fratto, Boumenot was Byrne's budget director.He's now a partner in one of Tadin's businesses. Boumenot's nameoften is stamped on Tadin's government contracts as a notary public.Boumenot also works for George K. Baum & Co.
Patrick Harbour
A longtime friend of the Daley family, Harbour's firms have longheld exclusive construction contracts at O'Hare Airport. Harbour isalso close to Tadin. They created Arsenal Materials along with PeterFerro to develop a railroad yard on the site of the former JolietArsenal in southwestern Will County.
Patrick Huels
Daley's handpicked alderman was forced to resign in 1997 after theChicago Sun-Times disclosed that his security firm got a $1.25million loan from Tadin. The loan came after Huels helped Tadin win acity subsidy to build his trucking headquarters in the 11th Ward.Tadin owns part of SDI, the company that provides security at Soxpark and at Tadin's trucking headquarters.
Fred Barbara
Barbara is a nephew of the late Chicago Ald. Fred Roti, whomfederal authorities say was a made member of the mob. Like Tadin,Barbara also had a big trucking business that did work for the city.The Bridgeport sons created T & B Ltd., buying land across the cityand leasing some of it to City Hall. They're no longer partners.Tadin still runs T & B, but it no longer has deals with the city.
ZURICH
Manon
HELMHAUS
The title of this show, "Manon-A Person," suggested that the artist's first retrospective was not meant simply to gather works but that instead, through works and documents, a woman, a whole human being, was being presented-and indeed, this was the only way to do justice to a personality who has been as much a myth as a real person since her first appearances in Zurich in the early 1970s. "Manon," a pseudonym, has a tone somewhere between the familiarity of a first name and the distance of a diva, ruler of her own desires as well as of those she awakens. Early on, the artist linked art to fashion and subculture, performative and photographic self-staging, geometrically rigorous and baroque overflowing installations.
"The girl with the salmon-colored tie"-as she called herself in the artist's book Manonomanie, 1975-first appeared on the artistic scene in 1974 with the installation Das lachsfarbene Boudoir (The SalmonColored Boudoir): "La philosophie est entr�e dans le boudoir, il est temps que le boudoir entre dans la philosophie"-philosophy has entered the boudoir, it is time for the boudoir to enter philosophy, according to Manon's sketchbook. Whereas Louise Bourgeois's cells urge us to explore nightmares and compulsions, Manon's mirrored tent in Das lachsfarbene Boudoir encompasses a multitude of obsessions in an overabundance of fetishes and symbols. Observers remain physically excluded from her work, however, as if, in the intimacy of the boudoir, we are to let only our thoughts and fantasies wander. One year later, Manon presented herself in performance as a masked wild animal behind massive bars, exhibited and chained in a luminous cage, dominant and yet herself dominated by a voyeurism that both sides have to endure: Das Ende der Lola Montez (The End of Lola Montez), 1975/2006, evokes the lover of Ludwig I of Bavaria, a woman who gained great political influence, then was ostracized, and finally was reduced to displaying herself as a "femme fatale" in a circus.
Again and again, photography is used like a display case whose gleaming surface simultaneously excludes and seduces observers. In multiple series she stages the shifting roles of her femininity: "La dame au cr�ne ras�" (Lady with Shaved Skull), 1977-78; "Ball der Einsamkeiten" (Ball of Solitudes), 1980; "Das Doppelzimmer" (The Double Room), 1982; "K�nstler Eingang" (Artist Entrance), 1990; "Einst war sie Miss Rimini" (She Was Once Miss Rimini), 2003; "Borderline," 2007. Bare skin, reflections, plays of light, disguises, accessories, and interiors reveal Manon in dialogue with herself, with men, or with fantastical figures, and the boundaries between dream and travesty disappear. "Elektrokardiogramm 304/303," 1978, is a series of black-and-white photos that show Manon trying to break out of a narrow space painted in a chessboard pattern.
Manon anticipates a Utopian state in which gender discourse will have conceived two free genders capable of being united in one person. The strictly choreographed presentation of the show did not attempt to generate an enveloping atmosphere but rather, through clear distinctions between the individual spaces, let the fragility and the pride of the "person" in the works speak for itself. The exhibition opened individual chapters of a life as it is sketched by Manon's "Diaries," 2004-, in juxtapositions, almost as if forming a Surrealist collage, of flashy, colorfully illuminated people and things.
-Hans Rudolf Reust
Translated from German by Diana Reese.
Use this graphical technique to choose a reactor configuration based on optimizing residence time.
The use of gas-phase continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) for chemical reactions today appears to be confined mainly to the laboratory, while the predominant reactor type in industrial usage is a plug flow reactor (PFR) or a modified PFR such as an inert porous membrane reactor (IMR). Under certain circumstances, the use of a CSTR in industry can be justified, specifically in terms of the required residence time In some instances, a PFR and a CSTR in series will require a shorter total residence time than a single PFR.
A previous article (1) presented a graphical method for assessing the performance characteristics of a PFR. This article extends that technique to derive the performance of a CSTR for the same feed and operating conditions, and to determine which reactor type is the best choice, in terms of residence time, for a particular reaction.
Prepare the graphical representation
Obtaining the information required to choose between a CSTR and a PFR involves the following seven steps.
The effective rate constant, k^sub i^, and the reaction rate, r^sub i^, for each species at the reactor's mass- and heat-transfer conditions are known. The reaction is such that at equilibrium, all of species A has been consumed, as has species C.
Plot the yield of C as a function of the concentration of A, as shown in Figure 1. The scale of the y-axis in this figure is arbitrary, as is the shape of the profile for the general case.
2. Vary the initial concentration of A. Repeat step 1 for different initial molar values of A to get the plot in Figure 2.
3. Identify the concentration locus for species C and A in a CSTR. In Figure 2, draw tangents from the feed concentration of A corresponding to unity molar concentration, [1,0], to each of the other profiles, to create Figure 3. The points where the tangents touch the profiles define the concentration locus for a CSTR with a molar feed concentration of unity for species A and operating under the same flowrate, temperature and pressure conditions as in the PFR.
The concentration locus for the family of CSTRs is A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T. The derivation of this locus is based on the fact that it lies upon those boundary regions of a PFR profile where the rate vector lies on the tangent from the feed point to each PFR profile in the two-dimensional space. A and C (2, 3).
For a PFR, this is equivalent to dividing the conversion by the reaction-path-averaged reaction rate, which is aptly named the average rate.
6. Plot the residence times. Plot the CSTR and PFR residence times as functions of species A and of species C concentrations.
7. Plot the residence time ratios. For a specific concentration of species A, plot the ratio of the corresponding PFR residence time to that of the corresponding CSTR residence time. This is the residence time ratio (RTR). Repeat for values of species C.
Where the RTR is greater than unity, the CSTR residence time for a specific concentration of species i is less than that for the equivalent PFR. Where the RTR is less than unity, the PFR residence time for a specific concentration of species i is less than that for the equivalent CSTR.
Practical application of this technique
Previous papers (4, 5) on the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of n-butane, butene and butadiene in an IMR reported that the yield of the desired hydrocarbon was enhanced by maintaining the partial pressure of oxygen at a low constant value. The oxygen partial pressure was judged to be an important operating parameter.
The graphical technique described in this article was applied to the same reaction system to determine the CSTR concentration locus for the ODH of butene to butadiene, to calculate the respective reactor residence times, and to derive and analyze the resulting RTR profiles.
The reaction network for the ODH of butene was postulated (6, 7) as depicted in Figure 4. The reactor configuration, which employed a V/MgO catalyst, is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 6 presents the CSTR locus for the ODH of butene to butadiene for an initial (and constant) oxygen partial pressure of 65 kPa. The maximum butadiene yield in a CSTR is approximately 0.26 moles, which corresponds to 0.44 moles of butene. For the IMR. the maximum butadiene yield is 0.38 at a butene concentration of 0.29.
The residence times for butene in a CSTR and IMR are shown in Figure 7. At butene concentrations greater than 0.07. residence times in an IMR are less than those for a CSTR. At a butene concentration of 0.07, the curves cross, and below this value the residence times for an IMR are greater than those for a CSTR.
The significance of the point of intersection is that it defines the operational parameters (in terms of butene) at which it becomes advantageous to switch from a CSTR to an IMR (and vice versa) from the perspective of residence time.
Figure 8 shows the respective residence times for a CSTR and an IMR in terms of moles of butadiene. For all butadiene concentrations, IMR residence times are less than those for a CSTR. This means that it always will be more advantageous to deploy an IMR, with a residence time less than 9 s, for any desired yield of butadiene.
Butadiene yields greater than 0.26 cannot be obtained from a CSTR operating at a constant oxygen partial pressure of 65 kPa.
Figure 9 illustrates the ratio of IMR and CSTR residence times as a function of butene concentration (which were derived from Figure 7). The horizontal line demarcates the CSTR and IMR regions. The CSTR region is that area within which a CSTR requires a shorter residence time than does an IMR for the same selectivity. Similarly, in the IMR region, an IMR requires less residence time than a CSTR.
Figure 9 indicates that for butene concentrations greater than 0.07, an IMR reactor has a smaller residence time than a CSTR. Once the butene concentration falls below 0.07, a CSTR requires a shorter residence time than an IMR.
Figure 10 shows the ratio of IMR and CSTR residence times as a function of butadiene concentration. All values of the RTR are less than unity. That is, an IMR has a smaller residence time than a CSTR as the butadiene concentration increases from zero to its maximum of 0.26. This condition holds as the butadiene concentration wanes (through its oxidation to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water).
However, this is not necessarily always the case. There may be instances involving different reactants over another catalyst where the RTR for one of the products transverses a value of unity and, in so doing, demarcates PFR and IMR (PFR) regions.
[Reference]
Literature Cited
1. Milne, D., et al., "Graphically Assess a Reactor's Characteristics," Chem. Eng. Progress, 102 (3), pp. 46-52 (Mar. 2006).
2. Classer, D., et al.. "Reactor and Process Synthesis." Computers ami Chemical Engineering. 21 (Supplement) pp. 5775-5783 (1997).
3. Classer, D., et al., "A Geometric Approach to Steady Row Reactors: The Attainable Region and Optimisation in Concentration Space." InJ. Eng. Chem. Res., 26, pp. 1803-1810. (1987).
4. Milne, D., et al., "Application of the Attainable Region Concept to the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of 1-Butene in Inert Porous Membrane Reactors." Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 43, pp. 1827-1831 (2004).
5. Milne, D., et al., "The Oxidative Dehydrogenation of nButane in a Fixed Bed Reactor and in an Inert Porous Membrane Reactor - Maximizing the Production of Butenes and Butadiene." accepted for publication in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research.
6. T�llez, C., et al., "Kinetic Study of the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Butane on V/MgO Catalysts," J. Catal., 183, pp. 210-221 (1999).
7. T�llez, C. et al., "Simulation of an IMR for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Butane." Chem. Eng. Sci., 54, pp. 2917-2925 (1999).
[Author Affiliation]
DAVID MILNE
DAVID CLASSER
DIANE HILDEBRANDT
BRENDON HAUSBERGER
CENTRE OF MATERIAL AND PROCESS SYNTHESIS, UNIV. OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG
[Author Affiliation]
DAVID MILNE is currently conducting chemical engineering research and working toward a PhD degree at the Univ. of the Witwatersrand, Centre of Material and Process Synthesis (COMPS, School of Process and Materials Engineering, Univ. of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, South Africa; Phone: +27 (11) 394 7683; Cell: +27 (82) 903 3632; E-mail: admilne@mweb.co.za). He holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in chemical engineering from Univ. College Dublin. He emigrated to South Africa in 1969, and for the last 30 years has been active in project management affairs there. He is a Fellow of the Cost Engineering Association of Southern Africa, a member of the Project Management Institute of South Africa, and a registered professional engineer. He retired in 1998.
DIANE HILDEBRANDT is the Unilever Professor of Reactor Engineering and Director for the Centre of Materials and Process Synthesis at the Univ. of the Witwatersrand (Phone: +27 (11) 717 7557; Cell: +27 (83) 395 2921; E-mail: diane.hildebrandt@comps.wits.ac.za). She is also a part-time professor of process integration at the Univ. of Twente, The Netherlands. She has received numerous awards, and was the first engineer to be awarded the Meiring Naude Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa and the first academic to be awarded the Bill Neale-May Gold Medal by The South African Institute of Chemical Engineers (SAIChE) in 2000. She earned her BSc, MSc and PhD in chemical engineering from the Univ. of the Witwatersrand.
DAVID CLASSER is a professor of chemical engineering and Director for the Centre of Materials and Process Synthesis at the Univ. of the Witwatersrand (Tel: +27 (11) 717 7557; Cell: +27 (83) 395 2925; E-mail: david.glasser@comps.wits.ac.za). He is an Ai-rated scientist of the National Research Foundation of South Africa. He was the first academic to be awarded the Bill Neale-May Gold Medal by the South African Institution of Chemical Engineers (SAIChE) in 2000 and the first recipient of the Harry Oppenheimer Memorial Fellowship and Gold Medal in 2002. He has published over 100 papers and has given many invited talks all over the world. He holds a BSc in chemical engineering fromthe Univ. of Cape Town and PhD from Imperial College of Science and Technology (London).
BRENDON HAUSBERGER is the research manager at the Centre of Materials and Process Synthesis at the Univ. of the Witwatersrand (Tel: +27 (11) 717 7563; Cell: +27 (82) 903 5540; E-mail : brendon.hausberger@comps.wits.ac.za). He earned his PhD in the field of process synthesis in 2001, and completed postdoctoral studies at Carnegie Mellon Univ. He has over 13 publications in the field and has presented more that 40 papers in the area at various conferences.
Racing Santander and Almeria both climbed away from the Spanish league's relegation zone Sunday with badly needed wins.
Santander beat Tenerife 2-0 with second-half goals from Gonzalo Colsa and Francisco "Xisco" Jimenez, lifting the team two places to 14th on 16 points.
Almeria beat bottom-placed Xerez 1-0 with an 89th minute winner from Jose Ortiz Bernal in Juan Manuel Lillo's first game in charge following the departure of Hugo Sanchez.
The result leaves Almeria in 15th place on 16 points.
Another struggling team, Malaga, appeared to have risen out of the bottom three, twice going ahead against Sporting Gijon with goals from Sergio "Duda" Barbosa and Weligton before the hosts equalized through Gregory Arnolin and a long-range shot by Roberto Canella.
Malaga remains 18th with 13 points.
In other games it was: Getafe 1, Valladolid 0; and Zaragoza 0, Deportivo La Coruna 0.
Later Sunday, Real Madrid will go level on points with league leader Barcelona if it beats Osasuna. Also, Mallorca hosts Athletic Bilbao.
On Saturday, Villarreal held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw, Valencia beat Espanyol 1-0 and Atletico Madrid beat Sevilla 2-1.
Barcelona leads the standings with 40 points. Real Madrid is next with 37, Valencia has 32 points and Sevilla 30.
If time allows, enjoy some of the museum's other offerings afterward. Peruse a few of its …
"A total of 273 Escherichia coli isolates from raw and treated municipal wastewaters were investigated to evaluate the frequency and persistence of antibiotic resistance and to detect the occurrence of conjugative R plasmids and integrons. The highest resistance rates were against ampicillin (22.71%), tetracycline (19.41%), sulfamethoxazole (16.84%) and streptomycin (14.28%)," scientists writing in the Journal of Water and Health report.
"Multiple antibiotic resistance was present in 24.17% of the isolates. Several multiple antibiotic-resistant isolates proved to be able to transfer en bloc their resistance patterns by conjugative R plasmids with different molecular …
Troy The City of Troy has been awarded two SARA (State Archives and Records Administration) grants totaling $46,363, Mayor Mark Pattison announced Wednesday. One award, to the Bureau of Vital Statistics/Records Management for $31,363, will go toward developing a comprehensive inactive records management program.
The funds will be used to survey and organize inactive records currently in storage; create a database to organize, identify and locate record series and create policies and procedures for the inactive records program.
The other $15,000 grant goes to the Bureau of Information Services to hire a consultant to conduct a GIS (geographic information …
Universal Music in August fired executive Jorge Avila after he said that the company earmarked 2 to 4 million pesos monthly as "payola."
"Pay-for-play" occurs when record labels offer radio stations money to play certain artists. The more they are played, the more the station gets paid. The practice, which has long been a part of the promoters' handbook, is illegal in Mexico.
Universal is currently experiencing financial troubles, despite a stable of artists that includes Paulina Rubio and Enrique Iglesias, right. Avila said the high-powered label would have to cut back on certain expenditures--payola being one of them.
Humberto Calderon, the …
Our dialysis program provides care for patients, all of whom have a chronic illness. Some patients have multiple comorbid conditions in addition to the primary chronic illness. Many times, patients reach a point where they are unable to make direct care decisions and family members are placed in situations where they must make decisions on behalf of their loved one. Frequently, family members are unsure what decisions patients would make if they were competent. The use of an advanced directive gives family members confidence in knowing that they are guiding care decisions in the manner determined by their loved one. Helping patients to discuss treatment decisions and wishes with family …
B. 1945 in the United Kingdom. Ed. In U.K., Singapore and Cypress. Five children. Political Career: Provincial: First elected to the B.C. Leg. g.e. 2001. Mem: Treasury Bd. Deputy Chair of the Legislative Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives. Municipal: Councillor, Municipality of Saanich for five yrs. Former Regional Dir., Capital Regional Dist. Bd. Party: B.C. Lib. Address: Leg. Office: Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C., V8V 1X4, (250)387-6598, Fax: (250)387-9087 Riding Office: 815 Bay St., Victoria, B.C., V8T 1R3, (250)952-4262, Fax: (250)952-4488; Email: s.orr@leg.bc.ca.
ORR, SHEILA …
HONG KONG -- As this issue of ATI Magazine goes to press, the financial crisis is in full swing--and forecasts for the coming year are likely to be even more wayward than usual. The financial turmoil will have died down by the end of 2008, if only because official interventions and nationalisations in almost all the major, and many of the minor, economies have become so extensive that there will be little left that still has the potential to need saving.
The story for 2009 is the depth of the financial fall-out on the real economy of the world. Already, the IMF has forecast a steep decline in world growth to 3.0 per cent, but within that estimate, China is still at 9 per cent, India at 6.9 per cent and the US and Europe merely flat, so the estimates still look very rosy.
For Asia, the first question is how far domestic demand can substitute for the …
Byline: Gary Sheffer Staff writer
A noted pathologist said Wednesday that Wyley Gates' alleged confession to police "uniquely" matches evidence at the scene of the 1986 quadruple murder for which Gates was acquitted.
Dr. Michael Baden, director of the New York State Police Forensic Science Unit and former chief medical examiner of New York City, also said the murderer would not have had to be an expert marksman, as another pathologist, Dr. Jack N.P. Davies, testified at Gates' trial last year.
Baden was retained by Special Prosecutor Nancy Snyder for the recent trial of Damian Rossney but was not called as a witness.
Rossney, 18, was …
Byline: JAY JOCHNOWITZ Staff writer
ALBANY -- When it takes two months for anyone to notice you've just taken over an entire political party, you know you've got an uphill battle.
As the city's newest GOP chairman, Bernie Hillengas understands he has his work cut out for him.
``It seems daunting,'' Hillengas said Friday as he took stock of his situation: no war chest, almost no committeemen, few apparent candidates and that pesky 13-to-1 Democratic enrollment edge.
Hillengas, 35, an assistant counsel with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, was appointed in June by Albany County Republican Chairman George Scaringe to take …
UVSolutions has introduced its patented catheter site disinfection system, also patented for wound care, is a safe, effective, painless, low-cost disinfection solution. Catheter site infections are among the most common and serious nosocomial infections.
Hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infection affects 1 in 20 patients and kills more people than car accidents and homicides combined. The CDC estimated that in the U.S. in 1995, nosocomial infections cost $4.5 billion and contributed to more than 88,000 deaths -- one death every 6 minutes.
Catheters routinely provide hospitalized patients with medication, nutrition, hydration etc. The largest single cause of …
Iraqi archaeologists working in a city south of Baghdad unearthed more than 1,000 antiquities and delivered them Monday to the National Museum, which has struggled to rebuild its collection since it was looted in the U.S.-led invasion.
The museum has been closed to the public since 2003, but curators have been trying to recover some of the 15,000 stolen relics and piece together a collection.
Qais Hussein, who directs Iraqi archaeological digs, said the antiquities presented Monday …
