Claim: Afghan coalition forces kill 20 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Coalition forces crossed the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan early Wednesday and carried out a raid which killed at least 20 civilians, according to a local leader.


Security in the South Waziristan area of Pakistan has deteriorated in recent years.

Owais Ahmed Ghani, the governor of North West Frontier Province, said the "cowardly attack" in a village in South Waziristan was a "direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan" and would result in a "befitting reply."

Officials with the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said they were not aware of such an incident.

South Waziristan is a tribal border area where security has deteriorated in recent years. The Afghan government and U.S. forces consider the semi-autonomous Pakistani tribal areas a haven for Taliban and al Qaeda-linked fighters who have carried out attacks inside both countries.

Ghani, who is administrative head of FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) said three "Afghanistan-based coalition" helicopters and commandos attacked the village in the Birmal area of South Waziristan early Wednesday morning. The casualties included women and children, he said.

"This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan expect that the Armed Forces of Pakistan would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply to all such attacks," Ghani said in a statement.

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Pakistani Army spokesman Maj. Murad Khan confirmed that an attack had taken place and that it involved troops who crossed the border into Pakistan. He said the army was looking into whether the raid involved coalition troops.

Local media reports said the attack used both helicopters and ground troops, who came out of a chopper and opened fire on civilians.

If the accounts are true, it signals a shift in the approach of coalition troops as they combat militants.

Several times this year, pilotless U.S.-operated drone aircrafts have launched attacks inside Pakistan, killing dozens of militants. But ground troops have not crossed the border to go after insurgents.

Pakistan's new government is in the midst of a major offensive against militants. Security forces had suspended the operation for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began this month.

While Pakistanis have mixed feelings about the government offensive -- some preferring negotiations instead -- they are deeply resentful of foreign troops flushing out militants.

In June, a U.S. air strike near the border killed 11 Pakistani soldiers. The incident is under a joint investigation

俄罗斯称外国军舰进入黑海无助问题解决

俄罗斯称外国军舰进入黑海无助问题解决(图)
2008-09-02 09:23:52　来源: 新华网　网友评论 0 条 点击查看　　核心提示：俄建议对格实施武器禁运。同时，格鲁吉亚首都第比利斯数万人1日组成“人链”，抗议俄罗斯承认南奥塞梯和阿布哈兹独立，人群高呼“反对俄罗斯占领格鲁吉亚领土”的口号。




美国海军麦克福尔号驱逐舰驶入黑海

新华网9月2日电 俄罗斯外交部新闻发言人涅斯捷连科1日在新闻发布会上说，俄方认为外国军舰驶入黑海不是稳定局势的措施。

据俄媒体报道，有超过10艘北约军舰驶入黑海靠近格鲁吉亚海岸水域。涅斯捷连科说，在局势不稳定地区加强军事力量无助于解决问题。俄方认为外国军舰离开黑海才能缓和局势。

涅斯捷连科说，有证据表明，某些国家正在重新武装格鲁吉亚军队。在格收到的人道主义救援物资中有军事装备。俄建议对格实施武器禁运。

涅斯捷连科还说，俄方主张与欧盟发展建设性关系，在这种关系中不应有“制裁”字眼，“制裁”不会带来好结果。

另据第比利斯消息，格鲁吉亚首都第比利斯数万人1日组成“人链”，抗议俄罗斯承认南奥塞梯和阿布哈兹独立，人群高呼“反对俄罗斯占领格鲁吉亚领土”的口号。格鲁吉亚总统萨卡什维利偕同妻子和两个儿子参加了当天在“自由”广场上举行的“人链”抗议活动，他宣布9月1日为格鲁吉亚统一日。

阿布哈兹和南奥塞梯分别是格鲁吉亚的自治共和国和自治州，与俄罗斯接壤，两者都在苏联解体后宣布独立，并一直与格中央政府处于对抗状态，但都与俄罗斯保持密切关系。今年8月8日凌晨，格鲁吉亚军队进入南奥塞梯控制区，并对南奥塞梯首府茨欣瓦利市进行炮击，俄军部队随后开进南奥塞梯增援俄维和部队。26日，俄罗斯总统梅德韦杰夫宣布俄罗斯承认南奥塞梯和阿布哈兹独立。对此，美国、法国、德国等表示谴责。

McCain Needs to Widen Base

McCain Needs to Widen Base
September 2, 2008; Page A2

The good news for Republicans is that Gov. Sarah Palin seems to be exciting the previously, and famously, unexcited Republican Party base.

The bad news is that an excited base is necessary but insufficient for Republicans to win this year. To prevail, Sen. John McCain has to reach beyond the base vote that was sufficient to win the last two presidential races.

Thus, the fundamental gamble Sen. McCain took in picking Gov. Palin as his running mate is that she can both excite the base and reach well beyond it. If she can't, the gamble won't succeed.

The stakes in the Palin gamble grew even higher Monday, when the Alaska governor announced that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five-months pregnant. That raises unanticipated questions about how the social and religious conservatives, whose support for her has been taken for granted, will react.

The risk, of course, is that they might see the unplanned pregnancy as a sign of deficient family values. And if social conservatives recoil, one of the fundamental reasons for going the Palin route will wither.

Initially, though, the reaction on the right seems to be the opposite: a rallying around Gov. Palin and her daughter. "Her daughter is marrying the father, and under the circumstances doing the right thing, and this is how her supporters will view it," says Greg Mueller, a conservative Republican activist and consultant. "It is a nonissue, and if the Democrats and media come down too hard it will deepen enthusiasm and support for Gov. Palin."

But even if social conservatives remain enthused, that won't be enough. Put bluntly, Gov. Palin has to draw in more independents and soft Democrats, convincing them that she will help shake up Washington, than she puts off with her lack of experience.

In that sense, the Palin choice reflects in one nice, neat package the strategic quandary the McCain campaign faces as it works through the hurricane-plagued Republican convention here. Sen. McCain can't win without an energized party base of conservative activists who will show up in force at the polls and do the shoe-leather work needed to get others out as well.

But unlike when President George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004, it appears impossible this time to win a "turnout election" -- that is, an election in which Republicans can prevail simply by getting more of their team out to vote than the other side does. The GOP team has shrunk too much for that.

"If the Palin selection does nothing more than generate enthusiasm among the base, then it will have been a failure," says Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster who helps conduct the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. "Simply put, the GOP base is significantly smaller than it was four years ago, and a jack-up-the-base strategy cannot win this time around."

Here's the strategic problem Sen. McCain faces. In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey, 43% of those surveyed identified themselves as Democrats, while just 34% identify themselves as Republicans. By contrast, in August 2004, Republicans actually had a 39% to 38% edge in party identification.

Worse for Sen. McCain, that smaller base isn't very intense. When voters were asked whether they were excited about their presidential preference, just 12% of McCain voters said they were excited, while 46% of Sen. Barack Obama's voters said they were. That is a potentially fatal intensity gap.

Here's where Gov. Palin comes in. She is a virtual unknown to most Americans, but she has become a sweetheart to the conservatives at the party's base. Her antiabortion views, her anticountry-club image, even her crusades against the party establishment in her state all appeal to core conservatives.

"She brings to the table an energized conservative base that was lacking a bit," says Mr. Greg Mueller. And that conservative base, he adds, "is absolutely crucial in this campaign, given it is this base that knocks on doors, rings the phones and fliers the strip malls and the churches to get the vote out."

The harder question is the Palin reach beyond the base. On that front, the easy assumption has been that she would have a special ability to convert some of those women who supported Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and now are so upset that she didn't get it that they are willing to migrate toward the first woman on a Republican national ticket.

But how many of those Hillary women are really open to the Palin lure? The Journal/NBC News poll suggests that some certainly are. Among voters who backed Sen. Clinton in the primaries but now don't support Democratic nominee Barack Obama, six in 10 are women. They tend to be older, and fully 65% say their ideology is moderate or conservative. Half of them have a negative view of Sen. Obama.

So there would seem to be some Clinton women who might be open to voting Republican. But many others -- those who identify themselves as liberals, for example -- aren't likely to bite, so Gov. Palin's draw has to be broader than that.

Knowing that, Republicans are calculating that she also reinforces the McCain image as a maverick reformer who is willing to shake up the status quo. That, much more than her appeal to the party base or her appeal to women, is the standard by which the pick will be judged.

Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com

Why Me?

Why Me?
Alec Baldwin’s disappointment, undimmed by success.
by Ian Parker
September 8, 2008


Alec Baldwin, who stars in “30 Rock,” the NBC sitcom that has revived his career and done nothing to lift his spirits, has the unbending, straight-armed gait of someone trying to prevent clothes from rubbing against sunburned skin. He is fifty years old, divorced, and lives alone in an old white farmhouse in the Hamptons and an apartment on Central Park West—feeling thwarted, if not quite persecuted. In conversation, he lets out an occasional yelping laugh, but he is often wistful, in a way that is linked to professional and romantic regrets, and to a period of tabloid notoriety last year, when an angry voice mail that he left for his daughter, who was then eleven, became public. He is very conscious of what is lacking in his life—a spouse, for example, and a film career something like Jack Nicholson’s, and the governorship of New York—and his rhetoric can sometimes bring to mind a scene from “30 Rock” in which Baldwin, in his role as Jack Donaghy, a shameless but astute TV executive, stares at an equestrian painting by Stubbs and, in a growled whisper of longing, says, “I wish I were a horse—strong, free, my chestnut haunches glistening in the sun.” According to Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of “Saturday Night Live” and an executive producer of “30 Rock,” Baldwin “guards against enjoyment.” (Michaels is a friend of Baldwin’s and was a model for the Donaghy character.) “I’ll say, ‘Alec, you have one of the best writers in television’ ”—Tina Fey—“ ‘writing this part for you. It’s shot in New York, where you chose to live. You work three days a week, you get paid a lot of money, you’re getting awards. It’s a great time in your life. It’s an all-good thing. And, if you were capable of enjoying it, it would be even better.’ ” Or, as William Baldwin, one of Alec’s three younger brothers, said recently, “There’s always something for him to fucking whine about.”

On a Friday afternoon in April, at the end of a week making “30 Rock,” in a studio in Queens, Baldwin was on a quiet suburban driveway in northern New Jersey, moonlighting on a low-budget independent film being made by friends of his. The production did not have the funds to produce Hollywood bustle: the loudest sounds were birdsong and a distant wood-chipper. Baldwin was wearing hunting gear—a bright-orange vest and camouflage pants—and this disguised him; throughout his career, he has typically been seen in fitted suits that signal a menacing delight in the exercise of power—perhaps most famously in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which he made when he was thirty-three. (“Third prize is: You’re fired.”) Today, he was playing the owner of a suburban property business, a man in a troubled marriage. When I sat with him, he said, “I’m so fucking tired.” Besides performing in “30 Rock” and in this film, called “Lymelife,” Baldwin had just finished writing a book on divorce and the law—part memoir, part polemic about the legal barriers sometimes put between a divorced parent and his children—which drew on his bruising experience after separating from the actress Kim Basinger, eight years ago. He said that he had been falling asleep at night with a laptop on his chest.


from the issuecartoon banke-mail thisTiffany Nishimoto, Baldwin’s assistant and producing partner, handed him a phone, and he immediately began speaking into it: “It sounds to me like you want to . . .” Then he stopped and started again: “First of all, hello.” He has a fast, heavily stressed, highly enunciated speaking voice, punctuated by frequent throat clearings—this can give the impression that you’re hearing a warmup rather than the event itself. When he had finished, he asked about other messages. “What else?” he asked. She told him. And then: “What else?”

Turning back to me, he said of the film, which he was helping to produce, “This kind of stuff, it’s so hard”—the tiny budget, the tight schedule, no more than two or three takes. “It’s a domestic drama, and, as you might suppose, I’ve had my fill of that subject. This is the last time, in this movie, I assure you, you’re ever going to see me arguing with a spouse.” For a moment, he imagined life at the center of a big-budget drama, and remembered watching Leonardo DiCaprio at work in the lead role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” in which Baldwin had a supporting part. “To be Leo!” he cried out. (Baldwin can be quite earnest, even as he keeps an ironic eye on his earnestness.) “To have a huge role like that! To play the role that is the fizz in the drink, you know what I mean? You are the movie! I wish I could play the lead role in one movie, one great movie.” According to Baldwin, “The Insider” was the most recent “great opportunity” for an actor of his kind. “It was smart, it was relevant, it was topical,” and the part went to Russell Crowe.

He was called to work, and rather stiffly walked a few paces into the house, where he directly began playing a tense family scene with Jill Hennessy, in the role of his wife, and Rory Culkin, as their son. Baldwin then returned to the driveway, to sit near a full-sized stuffed deer that was part of the apparatus of the film. “Maybe one will lead to the other,” he said. “Success begets success. I’ve been offered a lot of movies now that ‘30 Rock’ has been successful.” In that show, Baldwin—carrying two hundred and twenty-five pounds, like an athlete in his sportscaster years—plays the corporate overseer of a fictional TV sketch-comedy show made at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the headquarters of NBC. Donaghy has the calm joy of someone who knows that nothing matters in life but ambition; Baldwin brings deadpan gravitas to a giddy parody of business egomania. (Explaining a tuxedo worn in the office: “It’s after six. What am I, a farmer?”) His performance has been widely recognized: last year, he won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and was nominated for an Emmy. This year, he received the same three nominations: he won the SAG Award, and on September 21st he will learn if he has won an Emmy. Although ratings for “30 Rock” have been modest, the show has been celebrated by critics. To all of this, Baldwin’s response has largely been: Where did everything go wrong? “On a television show, precise acting isn’t the order of the day,” he said to me. “It’s a sitcom. The idea is to hit certain beats, and we do it cleverly. But, you do a television show, you become a pastry chef. I’m a pastry chef now; I’m not the big chef at the big restaurant. I’m not Daniel”—a brief pause, then he jutted out his lips in a way that was familiar from his movies, and almost shouted the next word—“Boulud. You know?” He laughed.

国学与市场经济

国学与市场经济
2008年09月01日 09:48:42 　来源：光明日报

从表面上看,国学与市场经济似乎是不搭界的两回事。国学是以治经、史、子、集为主的传统学问,而市场经济则是以市场为主导来配置资源的经济制度。因此,有人认为,在当今市场经济体制下提倡国学意义不大。但是,当人们在市场经济体制下热烈讨论国学的复兴及其功用时,国学实际上已经或隐或显地与市场经济发生一定联系了。需要思考的问题是,国学通过什么方式对市场经济产生影响并发挥一定作用。回答这个问题有一自明前提,即一定的经济制度总是与一定的思想文化传统有着广泛的联系。
国学与市场经济的关系可以从隐性和显性两大层面来分析。就隐性层面而言,国学为认识中国市场经济发展的民族文化基础提供思想维度。这种思想维度可以分为两个侧面,一是比较宏观的社会理论方面。任何一个国家的市场经济的发展都植根于该国民族文化传统之中。大量学术文化史的研究证明,中国传统儒家思想中的经济伦理对中国市场经济发展的影响是十分深远的。不论是从反面否定儒家伦理难以产生近代资本主义精神(韦伯),还是从正面肯定儒家伦理有助于近代商人精神的形成(余英时),人们都不能不承认中国市场经济的发展受到儒家思想文化传统的一定影响。国学在研究儒家思想的过程中也必须深入研究这种影响,为中国的社会理论贡献新的思想成果。

二是比较微观的学科史方面。国学中大量存在经济方面的文献,为研究中国市场经济发展提供了经济史的参照。以先秦《管子》为代表的子书,对中国人的经济活动有深刻的论述。自《史记·货殖列传》之后,中国的史书有丰富的经济史文献。《清明上河图》所反映的宋代城市商业的繁荣也可视为某些今日城市商业繁荣的历史剪影。这些方方面面的有关经济历史的文献,对于研究今天中国市场经济发展的许多具体问题都会具有积极的意义。

如果说国学与市场经济的隐性联系更多地带有间接的学理性质,那么,国学与市场经济的显性联系则更多地带有直接的商业性质或产业性质。国学直接作用于市场经济的领域是文化产业。文化产业说到底是一种“内容产业”或“创意产业”。国学可以为文化产业提供“内容”,这些内容包括大量的文化符号(如象形文字、龙、红灯笼等)及文化素材(如经典文本、历史人物、故事情节等)。它们通过适当的创意转换就构成资源可再生的文化资本。有人提出,今天已进入内容生产的后制造时代,已经形成服饰文化制造业、饮食文化制造业、医药文化制造业、礼仪文化制造业等等。国学以其博大精神的内容完全可以(实际上已经)参与这些文化产业的产品生产。国内外已经有大量成功的文化产品取得了巨大的经济效益和社会效益,国外的如美国的动漫《花木兰》、韩国的电视剧《大长今》等,国内的收视率不断上升的央视《百家讲坛》及其配套的畅销书如易中天《品三国》、《于丹〈论语〉心得》等。

国学作用于市场经济的另外一个直接领域就是企业文化与管理以及市场营销。就前者而言,国学为企业文化建设和企业管理提供了深厚的文化资源。企业是市场经济的主体,企业要做强做大,要达到可持续发展,必须建构自己的企业文化,加强对员工的精神管理。很多华人企业都充分利用国学典籍作为企业文化的主干和企业精神的支柱,如有的企业要求员工人手一册《论语》,提出“先做人后做事”的文化理念;有的企业把《老子》的“上善若水”等格言作为企业管理的座右铭;有的企业还邀请大学里的国学教授去企业作企业文化和管理方面的讲座、培训或策划。近年来,有不少企业的老板或高管不惜高额学费,纷纷到高校去参加“国学”班的学习或“充电”。笔者从一些企业界的朋友了解到,他们认为参加“国学”班的学习大有收获。就更直接的市场经济意义而言,国学还为市场营销提供可资借鉴的销售策略。如很多商家运用《孙子兵法》或《三国演义》的思想来进行商品的销售战略的制定,取得了显著的效果。

总之,国学通过隐性和显性两种方式对市场经济产生影响并发挥一定作用,应该是不争的事实。未来国学与市场经济的关系究竟有多大的发展空间,这取决国学自身的活力。马克思说:“理论在一个国家实现的程度,取决于理论满足这个国家需要的程度。”借用这一表达,我们可以说,国学与市场经济的密切程度,取决于国学满足中国市场经济需要的程度。我们对此持积极乐观的态度。(作者单位:华中师范大学文学院、武汉大学哲学学院)

98.6%认为北京奥运会圆满成功 奥运后市民最关心环保

98.6%认为北京奥运会圆满成功 奥运后市民最关心环保
2008年08月30日 15:01:40 　来源：北京晚报



昨天（29日），北京市社情民意调查中心发布的调查数据显示：北京市高达98.6%的被访者表示，北京奥运会是一届成功的奥运会。而九成以上市民奥运后最关注的仍是环保问题。

20%以上的人认为绿色奥运

调查显示，99.8%的市民认为北京奥运口号对北京产生影响。但被问及“绿色”、“科技”、“人文”的具体影响，调查发现，55.7％的被访者认为三方面影响都大。对于只选择了单项的被访者中，绿色奥运明显更深入人心，20.6％的人选择了这一项目。相比之下，人文奥运和科技奥运的选择率只有15.5％和8%。

那么，践行“绿色奥运”又体现在哪些方面？42.6％被访者认为，通过“开展环境保护的宣传教育，提高了全民环保意识”；而鸟巢、水立方为代表的奥运会绿色建筑工程为25.6%；改造了城市生态环境，比例为23.1%；奥运工程减少了对环境和生态系统的负面影响，占8.3%。

奥运带来的好处呈多元化

奥运给北京留下了什么？在所有市民的眼中，奥运带来的好处受益匪浅，但在选择回答一个最受益的变化时，观点呈现多元化，例如，空气环保可以使人们生活得更健康（27.7%）；交通基础设施建设可以使我出行更加方便（27.4%）；国家经济增长带来的个人收入提高（14.6%）；体育场馆增加了健身的机会（9.5%）；人与人之间的亲和力、友善待人（7.9%）；城市环境卫生（7.7%）；增加了就业机会，社会安全状况改善……

九成以上市民奥运后关注环保

当北京奥运已经成为往事，人们关注的焦点仍是环保问题，比例高达91.9%；其次是物价问题，为84.8%；交通问题是第三，为83.2%；其后，依次是国民经济问题、收入问题、住房问题、就业问题等。

据悉，此次调查是对全市十八区县3032名居民进行的电话调查。（记者龙露）

Links for Business English

Business English Exercises and Quizzes

http://www.better-english.com/exerciselist.html
This site presents exercises with the business grammar, vocabulary and even a business word puzzles. It also provides British humor used in a business context.



English for the workplace

http://esl.about.com/od/englishforbusinesswork/English_for_Business_Work_and_other_Special_Purposes.htm
This site gives users a guide to English for the workplace. English for the workplace includes business, computer, medical, engineering, legal and scientific English and more. There are also guides for producing business documents and job interview English.



Business letter writing basics

http://esl.about.com/cs/onthejobenglish/a/a_basbletter.htm
This site guides you in how to write business letters in English. In addition, it provides you with useful phrases for running a business meeting and participating in a business meeting, too.



Engineering work English letters

http://piper.pe.kr/letter_index.htm
This site collects various formats of business letters depending on different situation such as changing and canceling orders apologies, and dispatching an engineer. It helps users in starting their own business letters in English and Korean.



Economics the A to Z list

http://economics.about.com/library/weekly/bl-a-to-z.htm
There are currently over 400 words in the Economic Glossary. The links beside each bullet point will take you to a resource on that topic. So "Money, Value of" will take you to an article detailing where money gets its value.