How high may WTI Crude Oil go today on NYMEX

LONDON (Commodity Online): As WTI crude oil prices approach the upper Bollinger Band, sell orders could well be clustered around $89.38 a barrel today where the commodity may face stiff resistance as well. This is according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile crude oil prices have been trading near two-week's high as optimism regarding a solution to the fiscal cliff issue has been creeping in with the morning breeze as well as due to US crude supplies dropping by 4.1 million barrels in the seven days ending December 14. US is the world's biggest economy and the biggest consumer of crude oil.

US Congress' Republican Speaker John Boehner had proposed to extend the Bush tax cuts?the proposal has been called Paln B-- for those making up to $1 million which was rejected by the White House.

"Why not put on the floor something that's what most Americans think the president is talking about, which is protecting from tax increases everybody but truly millionaires and billionaires?," said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio to Reuters.

But nobody expects Plan B to emerge out of the Senate with victory.

When it dies in the Senate, he said, "that's not our problem. We can't be held responsible for what the Senate does." Reuters report added.

The Republicans apparently want the blame to be shifted to the shoulders of Democrats, a political game whose characteristics are as old as humanity. The US public, meanwhile thinks that it would be the Republicans who should be held responsible for the economy as and when it goes off the cliff.

But it has to be noted that fiscal cliff Plan B failure has not derailed Plan A.

Obama had made a 'brand new offer' to Republican Speaker John Boehner that would raise taxes by $1.2 trillion and cut $1.22 trillion in federal spending on Monday.

?Obama, whose definition has for months been taxpayers above the $250,000 threshold, traveled to $400,000 in his latest offer. Boehner was at $1 million, but could move down to $500,000.? CNBC.com said in a report.

WTI crude oil prices on the Nymex for delivery on February 13, 2013 is trading at $88.28 a barrel, a loss of 0.14% against the previous close of $88.40. Its European counterpart Brent crude oil for February for delivery on the same date was seen trading at $108.94 a barrel, a gain of 0.02%.

On India's MCX, crude oil for delivery on January 21, 2013 was seen trading at Rs.4867 a barrel, a loss of 0.47% as of 11.05 AM IST.

Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/how-high-may-wti-crude-oil-go-today-on-nymex-51869-3-51870.html

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Hating The Gun Monsters (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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Gun control after school shootings: Lessons from around the globe

Australia enacted tougher gun laws and saw a drop in school shootings to zero. After the 1998 hand gun ban, the United Kingdom saw a rise in gun-related crimes.? Do gun controls reduce gun-related crime?

By Ben McConville and Jill Lawless,?Associated Press / December 18, 2012

Fresh flowers were left recently for the victims for the 1996 Dunblane Primary School shooting in Dunblane cemetery, Scotland. Does the United Kingdom have lessons to teach the US about gun control?

REUTERS/David Moir

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If there's anywhere that understands the pain of Newtown, it's Dunblane, the town whose grief became a catalyst for changes to Britain's gun laws.

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In March 1996, a 43-year-old man named Thomas Hamilton walked into a primary school in this central Scotland town of 8,000 people and shot to death 16 kindergarten-age children and their teacher with four legally held handguns. In the weeks that followed, people in the town formed the Snowdrop campaign ? named for the first flower of spring ? to press for a ban on handguns. Within weeks, it had collected 750,000 signatures. By the next year, the ban had become law.

It is a familiar pattern around the world ? from Britain to Australia, grief at mass shootings has been followed by swift political action to tighten gun laws.

Many in the United States are calling for that to happen there, too, after the shooting of 20 children as young as six at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. Many other Americans are adamant the laws should not change.

In Dunblane, residents have been gathering at the town's massacre memorial to sign a book of condolence ? but are loath to advise grieving Americans what to do.

"It is not for us to tell the U.S. about gun control. That is for the people there," said Terence O'Brien, a member of the Dunblane community council. "What happened here was similar in many respects, but the wider culture is different."

When it comes to guns, the United States is exceptional. The U.S. has the highest civilian gun ownership rate in the world, with 89 guns per 100 people, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.

Gun advocates, including the powerful lobby group the National Rifle Association, have blocked attempts to toughen American gun laws in the wake of previous mass shootings. Gun supporters say that the right to bear arms, enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, makes firearms ownership a civil rights issue, rather than simply an issue of public safety.

Supporters of gun control often cite Australia's dramatic response to a 1996 shooting spree in the southern state of Tasmania that killed 35 people.

The slaughter sparked outrage across the country and within 12 days federal and state governments had agreed to impose strict new gun laws, including a ban on semi-automatic rifles like the Colt AR-15 used by the Tasmania killer. The Connecticut killer used a similar, rapid-firing weapon.

Gun ownership was restricted to people with genuine need or sporting shooters with gun club membership. Some 700,000 guns were bought back and destroyed by the federal government from owners who no longer qualified to possess them.

The changes were unpopular with politicians from rural areas with high numbers of hunters and farmers. But, as in Britain after Dunblane, the strength of public opinion swayed politicians from both government and opposition parties.

Gun laws also were strengthened in Canada after the 1989 slaying of 14 female engineering students in Montreal by a woman-hating gunman, and in Germany after a 19-year-old expelled student killed 16 people, including 12 teachers, in Erfurt in 2002.

Even gun-loving Finland ? with 45 firearms for every 100 people ? tightened its laws after two school shootings in 2007 and 2008, raising the minimum age for firearms ownership and giving police greater powers to make background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/P2gfRDl48Xw/Gun-control-after-school-shootings-Lessons-from-around-the-globe

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France confident it can bridge gap with U.S. on Mali

PARIS (Reuters) - France will address U.S. concerns about an international military mission to retake northern Mali from Islamist rebels, in time for a U.N. Security Council vote on the issue this week, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

U.S. diplomats have voiced skepticism over a French draft resolution to approve an African Union (AU) military force that would seek to oust al Qaeda-linked insurgents who seized vast swathes of the African country last March.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has cautiously recommended the Security Council approve the operation but Washington countered Paris's draft with its own proposal for a two-phase mission, focusing first on training the Malian army and pursuing a political process before then mandating a military intervention.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said Paris was confident of finding common ground with Washington before the vote.

"We are on course to meet our objective to get this resolution adopted by the week's end," he told reporters.

"We are discussing two points: the assurances the Americans are asking for to ensure the U.N. forces are able to carry out their mission, and financing the mission," Lalliot said.

U.N. Security Council diplomats in New York, however, cast doubt on the French optimism, telling Reuters on condition of anonymity that Washington and Paris were still far from a deal.

Once viewed as an example of democratic progress in Africa, Mali was plunged into chaos in March by a coup that toppled the president and left a power vacuum that was quickly exploited by rebels to seize the country's desert north.

Former colonial master France, which has several citizens held hostage in the Sahara by al Qaeda-linked groups, is pushing for a swift war. Washington, which spent years working with Mali's army, advocates a more cautious approach.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday that 14 of the Security Council's 15 members backed France's initiative, suggesting Washington was isolated.

The fall of Mali's north to Islamist groups, including al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM, has created a haven for militants and international organized crime groups in West Africa, stirring fears of attacks in Europe.

Washington, however, has said any military intervention should wait until after elections, to strengthen the civilian leadership in Bamako where the prime minister was forced to resign last week after being arrested by the army.

A key element of the French-U.S. disagreement, diplomats say, is Washington's belief that Malian troops and forces from the West African regional group ECOWAS are not up to the fight against battle-hardened AQIM militants.

The Americans believe non-ECOWAS countries with forces accustomed to desert fighting like Chad and Mauritania should lead the initial combat operations in northern Mali, where they would effectively be attempting to kill as many militants as possible.

Asked whether Washington and Paris would reach an agreement, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Pelletier said discussions were ongoing and voiced support for an election to be held as soon as possible.

"We really believe that a democratically elected government would have more credibility to negotiate and to lead the campaign to restore the territorial integrity of Mali," he told reporters on a conference call.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-confident-bridge-gap-u-mali-190035251.html

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Video: What are the chances of new gun control laws? (cbsnews)

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Mourning The Victims: Local Reaction to School Shooting | FOX8 ...

People all over Northeast Ohio are mourning the victims of Friday?s deadly school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is asking for prayers for the victims and their families.
Bishop Lennon says, ?In response to the horrific tragedy at the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school and the deaths of students and staff, I ask everyone to remember the victims, their families, and the wider community in your prayers. May those who died, experience God?s merciful love and eternal rest and peace.?

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge also released a statement on the shootings:

?Words fail to describe the sorrow and grief many of us feel following the tragedy in Connecticut that resulted in the loss of so many lives, including innocent children. I pray for the victims, their families and the first responders. I mourn for each and every child lost to senseless violence anywhere.

Mass shootings such as this underscore that we need to have a serious conversation as a nation on how to protect the rights of our citizens to safety and life itself as well as preserve the right to bear arms.? For now, the most important thing we must do is to keep the people of Connecticut, especially the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.?

Congressman Dennis Kucinich?s statement:

?Today?s shooting was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. Our hearts ache for the victims and their families. While we don?t know why this attack took place, it is an attack on education, on public safety and on our children.

For those of us outside the direct impact of this tragedy, our mourning turns into a search for ways to ensure that these shootings do not continue to happen.

There is an undercurrent of violence in our society that is becoming more powerful. Whenever it surfaces it brings great tragedy and we pray: never again. But ?never again? keeps happening. Malls, schools, movie theaters; these murders attack our sense of community.

It is long past time that we take an organized approach to addressing the violence in our society and that is exactly what the proposal for a cabinet level Department of Peace is all about. We must reject violence and take an organized approach to averting violence.

My thoughts are with the parents of the school children and the families of the adults who lost their lives.?

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released the following statement, that includes a response on the progress of Ohio schools in filing school safety plans:

?First and foremost, Fran and I are praying for the families affected by the horrible and unspeakable tragedy which occurred today in Connecticut.

After the shooting that occurred earlier this year in Chardon, and several times since, I urged schools around Ohio who had not yet filed school safety plans to do so. These plans are critical for first responders to respond to incidents at school facilities. I am pleased to report that in response to our most recent call for updated plans, over 1000 Ohio schools filed plans with our office. ?However, there are still 145 schools that have never filed plans with our office.

Our Crime Victim Services section has contacted the Connecticut Crime Victims Compensation program to provide any assistance they need at this time.?

A page has been created on Facebook to remember the victims, 20 of them children.

Click here to see it.

Source: http://fox8.com/2012/12/14/mourning-the-victims-local-reaction-to-school-shooting/

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Kazakhstan to introduce mayoral elections in 2013

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) ? Kazakhstan's president announced a raft of reforms for this energy-rich, authoritarian state Friday, ranging from having more direct local and regional elections to imposing the use of the Latin alphabet for the Kazakh language.

But 72-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev gave no indication that he would step down as president any time soon, despite two decades of heavy-handed power.

Under Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's government has faced sustained international criticism for cracking down on popular dissent, limiting media freedoms and being too slow to reform politically. Still, as speculation mounts over his plans for succession, Nazarbayev's administration has tried to forge a historic legacy to endure after his rule. Friday's wide-ranging address appeared to be part of that effort.

Nazarbayev said more than 2,500 local and regional postings ? such as village and town mayors, and heads of rural districts ? would be elected starting next year. That means more than 90 percent of mayors at all levels will be elected, he said. No local administration heads are currently elected.

The elections are part of a broader attempt to foster democratic standards in this vast Central Asian nation of 17 million, Nazarbayev said, even as he insisted the country would not be rushed into reforms before the economic conditions were right.

"Every step of our political reforms is closely tied to our level of economic development," he said.

The bulk of Friday's speech was aimed at cataloging achievements in the ex-Soviet nation during Nazarbayev's tenure. The president said Kazakhstan, which borders China and Russia, has to date attracted $160 billion in foreign investment. Much of that has gone toward developing the country's abundant energy and mineral resources.

As he laid out a strategy for the country up till 2050, the president called for improving the tax system, creating better conditions for business and urging support for the welfare system. But he also went beyond economics, delving into cultural and social issues.

In what may prove an especially controversial announcement, Nazarbayev said the Latin alphabet would be adopted for the Kazakh language by 2025 in place of the Russian-style Cyrillic alphabet currently in use.

"This will enable our children to better understand English, the Internet and it will reinforce our desire to modernize the Kazakh language," he said.

By the same year, 95 percent of Kazakhstan's citizens should have learned to speak in Kazakh, he said. Although Kazakh is the official state language, many people speak Russian instead.

The president warned against allowing ethnic tension to fester in a nation defined by its diversity. Kazakhstan's occupation by the Russian Empire and the Soviet policy of mass deportations turned the Kazakhs into a minority within their own territory.

Nazarbayev has strenuously resisted Kazakh nationalist strains, seeing them as a source of possible instability. "If we want to see our country as a strong and powerful state, we should not rock the boat that would destroy peace and order, which are fragile," he said in Friday's address.

The rise of hardline Islam also has created anxiety in Kazakhstan, not least due to a string of Islamist-inspired terrorist attacks over the past two years. Nazarbayev proposed adopting legislation to hinder religious radicalism.

"The secular nature of our state is an important condition of the successful development of Kazakhstan," he said.

That call, however, could concern advocates of religious freedom, who say already adopted Kazakh laws place undue restrictions on minority faiths.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kazakhstan-introduce-mayoral-elections-2013-114628745.html

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