Pakistani, US generals in border talks

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The Personal and Professional in the sphere of Foreign Policy and ...

By Salma Yusuf

A fact accorded scant credence in our times is that the personal and professional can be inextricably linked in the sphere of international and foreign relations.

This was the perception distilled from an event held last week to mark the second death anniversary of veteran Sri Lankan diplomat Vernon L.B. Mendis.

The personal memoir rendered by retired civil servant M.D.D Pieris in memory of his colleague was heart-warming, to say the least. What came through very strongly is the foundation of personal goodwill, trust and affection between two of Sri Lanka?s distinguished public servants, which undoubtedly played a key role in the conduct of their official functions.

Pieris noted instances where mutual trust that was cultivated in their personal relationship became a key driver of efficiency and effectiveness when carrying out national duties: he reflected on instances where matters of state importance were discussed over a telephone call, the individual minute-taking at either end would suffice for documentation and decision ? making purposes, with no further need for exchange of notes or letters of confirmation.

This and the keynote address delivered by Ambassador Nihal Rodrigo, one time Foreign Secretary, and Secretary General of SAARC, were resonant with a key message for the public at large: foreign policy and international relations is as much about actors, personalities and relationships as it is about substantive policy and protocol.

The seventies was a time fraught with complexity for Sri Lanka?s external relations. Yet, a lesson to be learnt is that it is indeed possible to maintain productive and beneficial relations with somewhat opposing and polarized forces and ideologies: Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike was known for her close personal relationships with leaders from India, Pakistan and China which greatly contributed to Sri Lanka?s strong regional positioning.

The dividends of such close personal relationships with leaders such as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto are felt even today through the warm hospitality received when an ordinary Sri Lankan citizen visits Pakistan. At the international level, we had excellent relationships with the Middle East, the Western World, South Asia and China. Despite India, Pakistan and China having divergent foreign policy orientations, Sri Lanka managed its relationships with all three countries commendably.

The potential role played by actors in the context of international relations, in relation to Sri Lanka specifically, could be illustrated even today: Shiv Shankar Menon and Nirupama Rao, both former Indian High Commissioners to Sri Lanka and having served in China, are currently occupying positions that can have a significant bearing on Sri Lanka?s international and regional compasses. Shiv Shanker Menon is currently India?s National Security Advisor and Nirupama Roa is India?s Ambassador to the United States.

The ability of actors who have been associated with Sri Lanka in the height of conflict accords the ability to provide a graphical and realistic representation of the intricacies, nuances and complexities in situational contextual analyses. India as our immediate neighbour, and hence crucial both geographically and strategically for Sri Lanka?s international relations, coupled with India?s growing position in international affairs needs to be considered seriously.

Furthermore, living in times where the India ? China relationship is set to emerge as the most important relationship in Asia and the parallel emergence of the phenomenon of ?The Asian century? makes it imperative that we begin to acknowledge the role that actors and personalities can play in shaping international and foreign policy.

The two meetings between Shiv Shankar Menon set for later this week with President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he visits Sri Lanka will once again provide an opportunity to clear misconceptions, outline challenges and note progress while reinforcing commitments : the fact that the only meetings scheduled for the visit are with the President underscores the important role that can be played by actors in the foreign policy discourse.

As my previous article in these pages highlighting Sri Lanka?s foreign policy challenges notes, most of the Sri Lanka?s current bilateral and multilateral engagements, both regional and international, are haunted by a spectre of reconciliation and human rights concerns. A related though somewhat distinct challenge that has been highlighted is the lack of direct contact with the international human rights community and groups.

There was a time, not so long ago, for instance in the eighties, when international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and the government of the day would, through informal channels, clarify matters especially in relation to facts and figures that would be quoted in human rights reports, and which were in turn used to draw analyses and conclusions and used for purposes of advocacy

The benefit of such direct contact and engagement is mutually beneficial for both parties ? on one hand, maintaining credibility in respect of the findings of reports of the international organizations; and giving the state party an opportunity to clear the flawed or erroneous perceptions that are usually the cause of hostile relationships.

The damage caused after misconceptions and misperceptions reach the public domain cannot adequately be rebutted through a reactionary right of reply. The need for proactive engagement on issues of genuine national interest and concern will contribute greatly to improve foreign positioning.

Furthermore, a relationship of hostility and non ? engagement between the government of the day and the international human rights community will only lead to further mistrust and will jeopardize the ultimate goal of achieving human rights protection and promotion. In this regard, the role of the diaspora in maintaining relationships with the international human rights community must also be accorded serious consideration, given the ability it has to influence the perceptions of the international human rights community in its analyses and conclusions.

A final example for consideration is the upcoming conference that is being planned by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in India for holding the Tamil Eelam Supporters? Conference (TESO) in Villupuram on August 5 2012. The Hindu reported this week the DMK President M. Karunanidhi, who is also the Chairman of TESO, saying that the venue was being prepared for the meet. The reception committee headed by DMK?s treasurer M.K. Stalin comprises five secretaries ? former DMK minister K. Ponmudi, Dravidar Kazhagam general secretary Kali Poonguntran, Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi general secretary Ravikumar and DMK functionaries K.S. Radhakrishnan and advocate H.M. Jinnah. ?We want to hold the conference on the lines of the one held in Madurai last time in 1986. Besides inviting national leaders, we are planning to bring human rights activists from across the world and international leaders who are supporting the Tamil Eelam cause,? said one of the secretaries, as reported in the news item.

The role of actors, once again, becomes important at such events which will be well within the cynosure of international attention. Relationships with international human rights organisations and leaders who are specifically mentioned as invitees will have a further bearing on the presentations and projections tabled. Moreover, the personalities that represent the country?s standing on matters of national importance and interest such as reconciliation and human rights protection will be critical to the outcome at such exchanges.

Ultimately what Sri Lanka requires is a robust foreign policy grounded in strong interest ? driven national positions: the effectiveness of the policy will in turn largely depend on the actors involved in its implementation.

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Huawei Activa 4G (MetroPCS)

The Huawei Activa 4G ($149) for MetroPCS is Huawei's first 4G LTE-capable smartphone. While 4G LTE isn't as fast on MetroPCS as it is on AT&T or Verizon, you still get plenty of speed for your buck, which is sweetened by the carrier's inexpensive monthly plans. Unfortunately, that alone isn't enough to save this phone. The Huawei Activa is buggy, built with low-end parts, and has a poor camera. You're better off paying an extra $100 for a far more capable LTE device.

Design, Call Quality, and Data Plans
The Huawei Activa measures 4.8 by 2.4 by .4 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.9 ounces. Despite the low depth figure on paper, the Activa looks and feels especially thick, like it's two phones that have been pressed into one. The back is made of black plastic with a light pattern design, while a dark silver band surrounds the face of the phone. It's a decent size to hold and use, but it has a bit of a cheap, chintzy feel.

The 3.5-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive touch LCD is bright enough, but the low resolution often makes text appear jagged. The on-screen keyboard is small and somewhat difficult to type on. Below the display is a mammoth chin, nearly an inch of space filled only by four capacitive touch function buttons. It feels like a waste of space, and it doesn't look particularly good, either.

The Activa works on MetroPCS's LTE network where it can find it, and on the much slower 2G CDMA network where it can't. The phone also uses 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and connected to my WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network without a problem.

Reception is weak, and call quality isn't much better. Voices sound clear but extremely thin in the phone's earpiece. Calls made with the phone are also clear, but background noise cancellation is practically nonexistent. The speakerphone is far too quiet to use outside, though it worked well indoors. Calls sounded fine through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars), and voice dialing worked well over Bluetooth without training. Battery life was a bit short at 5 hours, 16 minutes of talk time.

4G LTE on MetroPCS is very different than it is on AT&T and Verizon. As we discovered in our?Fastest Mobile Networks?testing, rather than offering spectacular speeds, MetroPCS is going for decent speeds at very low prices. The carrier's average 4G speeds are more like a very good 3G network. This Activa pulled in average download speeds of 4.2Mbps and uploads of 2.3Mbps, which is consistent with the other LTE phones we've tested.

MetroPCS recently changed up its 4G LTE plans, but they still remain very affordable. For $70 per month you can get unlimited talk, text, and data, along with unlimited music from Rhapsody and video on demand from MetroStudio. $60 gets you unlimited talk and text, 5GB of 4G data, and unlimited music through Rhapsody. $50 is good for unlimited talk and text, along with 2.5GB of 4G data, and $40 gets you 250MB of 4G data. You should probably skip the $40 plan, but the $50 provides plenty of high-speed data for most people.

Apps, Multimedia, Camera and Conclusions
The Activa runs Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread). There's no word on an update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but it probably isn't happening.?As far as the OS is concerned, this is basically stock Android, with almost no interference from Huawei. There are five customizable home screens you can swipe between, which come preloaded with some standard apps and widgets. There's a good amount of bloatware installed, but luckily you can delete most of it. The phone also comes preloaded with a copy of Kung Fu Panda 2, though it eats up lots of valuable space on your (Kung Fu Panda-branded) microSD card.

The Activa is powered by an 800MHz?Qualcomm MSM7627T?processor. Performance was slow across the board, and the phone turned in benchmark scores that were actually closer to phones powered by a 600MHz processor. The Activa should be compatible with most of the 400,000+ apps in the Google Play store, though graphics-intensive games may not run smoothly. I also encountered a lot of bugs. Sometimes apps wouldn't install after downloading them from Google Play. Other times, while listening to music, songs would randomly stop or only play for the first few seconds. There were error messages that a particular type of file couldn't be played, only for it to work a few tries later. And the notifications bar at the top of the screen is frustratingly unresponsive, often requiring several swipes to drag down.

Multimedia support is mediocre. There's 151MB of free internal storage, along with a preloaded 4GB microSD card; my 32 and 64GB SandDisk cards worked fine as well. The phone was able to play AAC, MP3, OGG, and WMA music files, but not FLAC or WMA. Aside from the bugs I mentioned above, music sounded fine over both wired 3.5mm headphones as well as?Altec Lansing BackBeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). For video, the Activa was only able to play H.264 and MPEG4 test files, at resolutions up to 800-by-480. Audio over Bluetooth was slightly out of sync.

The Activa's 5-megapixel camera has an LED flash but lacks autofocus. Shutter delay is too long, at 1.6 seconds. Photos snapped have average color, but sorely lack fine detail. The video camera is worse. Videos max out at a tiny, blurry 352-by-288-pixel resolution, and play back at an unusable 12 frames per second indoors, and a slightly better 20 frames per second outside. There's also a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats.

The Huawei Activa 4G will hook you into MetroPCS' 4G LTE network for less than $150, but once you get there, you're stuck. Between the bugs, low-end specs, poor camera and middling call quality, you'd be much better off spending an extra $100 on the LG Connect 4G?($249, 4 stars). You'll get a larger, brighter, much more beautiful display, along with a fast 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a better camera. That's your best bet as far as 4G devices are concerned, as the Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G?($299, 3.5 stars) and LG Esteem?($379, 4 stars) are both significantly more costly, and neither are as fast as the Connect 4G. If you're more interested in playing games and making calls than in fast data speeds, the LG Optimus M+?($149, 3.5 stars) is a good starter phone, though it runs on a much slower 2G network.

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 5 hours 16 minutes

More Cell Phone Reviews:
??? Huawei Activa 4G (MetroPCS)
??? Sony Xperia Ion (AT&T)
??? SpareOne Emergency Phone (Unlocked)
??? Samsung Galaxy S III (T-Mobile)
??? Samsung Galaxy S III (Sprint)
?? more

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Easy up-selling and solution selling for small business sales - Mimiran

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies. (In previous posts, I?ve discussed how we often start discounting before we even know if the buyer thinks we are too expensive.) Today, I want to talk about making sure your buyers know about what you have to sell, especially if you really want to sell it to them.

?Bob? (name changed to protect the guilty) runs a fairly successful consulting company. Like many such people, Bob wanted to smooth out his revenue and make it easier to plan for his team. He wanted to move as much revenue as possible from transactional projects to long term relationship retainers. How many of his customers had he offered retainers? Just one. It just wasn?t part of the sales process.

Now there?s an easy way to remember what to offer, whether you are selling yourself or making your sales team more effective. With Mimiran, you can easily create rules to require or suggest that certain products get sold together.

Let?s check out a couple of examples. In the first case, we want to Suggest that whenever we quote an offering whose Category is Generators, we should Include something from the Services Category.

We could also tie the suggestion to a specific product? for example, if the product name is GenWatt 10K, require Industrial Installation.

It?s simple to set up and understand, and while less powerful than a full-blown configurator, it?s much easier (and more cost effective) to implement and maintain.

You can also define bundles of products to sell together that you can add with one click.

This saves sales time, since you can just add a whole solution at once. In Bob?s case, the idea was to always at least suggest something from the Retainer category.

Of course, your sales process may be simple enough that you don?t need to automate it, but if you?ve been looking for a way to do basic configuration and up -selling without installing a full configurator, check out Mimiran. Not only can you put together a quote, you can turn that quote into a killer online proposal.

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Taliban storm lakeside hotel in Kabul, eight dead

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NICT's Daedalus creates beautiful 3D visuals to map out nasty cyber attacks (video)

NICT's Daedalus creates beautiful 3D visuals to map out nasty cyber attacks video

There's nothing pretty about a cyber attack taking over an organization -- or, there wasn't, until NICT crafted this thing. Daedalus, christened as a "cyber attack alert system," is a 3D visualization system that currently monitors some 190,000 IP addresses across Japan. Rather than forcing a human to comb through a punishing amount of data, the visualizer turns into an organized stream of lines that can be viewed and zoomed in on from any angle. You can see networks and subnets, as well as patches of used and unused IP addresses; taking it a step further, the system lights up when an attack is sensed (for example, an IP pinging an unused IP as a virus spreads with reckless abandon). DigInfo reports that the system could find a home in educational and enterprise applications, but there's no word on how much it'll cost to deploy en masse. Per usual, the video demonstration awaits you after the break.

Continue reading NICT's Daedalus creates beautiful 3D visuals to map out nasty cyber attacks (video)

NICT's Daedalus creates beautiful 3D visuals to map out nasty cyber attacks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox Surface: Is this Microsoft's new tablet?

7 hrs.

Posting from Hollywood: New details have emerged about an Xbox-branded Microsoft tablet in advance of a mystery news conference planned by the company for this afternoon.

Microsoft news blog LiveSide.net has details on a Microsoft tablet called Xbox Surface, some of them via?the site Shifted2U.com. They come in the form of?a very legitimate-looking spec sheet ? revealing a 7-inch screen?with a 1280 x 720 resolution, SD card support, and a speedy 3.1 GHz processor, which sounds like it would be more of a battery hog than the chips used in existing tablet computers.

Mary Jo Foley notes that Xbox Surface could be linked to the Xbox SmartGlass project, unveiled at E3, a plan by Microsoft to connect Xbox Live to apps on Android, iPhone and Windows Phone. As we reported in the past, the trademark filing for SmartGlass referred to both hardware and software.

Whether this is the tablet that Microsoft is revealing this afternoon isn?t clear.?At this point we don?t know officially if Microsoft is actually revealing a new tablet today.?But we won?t have to wait long now to find out.

After traveling from Seattle this morning, I hitched a ride from the airport?with Wilson Rothman of msnbc.com and we?ve made our way?L.A. to the site of Microsoft?s mystery event in Hollywood this afternoon, at Milk Studios.

An initial?drive-by of the location didn?t reveal?any?secrets. Crews are busy loading audio and staging equipment through the rear entrance.

Stay tuned for live coverage from the event this afternoon. The doors open at 3:30 p.m., but no word yet on when the event actually gets going.

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Suu Kyi to give Nobel Peace speech 21 years later

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi briefs the media after a meeting with Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the Norway government guest house in Oslo, Friday, June 15, 2012. Suu Kyi formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday June 16, 2012, in the Norwegian capital, that originally thrust her into the global limelight two decades ago. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi briefs the media after a meeting with Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the Norway government guest house in Oslo, Friday, June 15, 2012. Suu Kyi formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday June 16, 2012, in the Norwegian capital, that originally thrust her into the global limelight two decades ago. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi briefs the media after a meeting with Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the Norway government guest house in Oslo, Friday, June 15, 2012. Suu Kyi formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday June 16, 2012, in the Norwegian capital, that originally thrust her into the global limelight two decades ago. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a press conference with Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg in Oslo, Friday, June 15, 2012. Suu Kyi formally accepts the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday June 16, 2012, in the Norwegian capital. (AP Photo / Vegard Groett / NTB scanpix) NORWAY OUT

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi admires a bed of roses during a sightseeing tour through the city of Bern, Switzerland, Friday, June 15, 2012. Suu Kyi resumed her European tour Friday, after a brief bout of illness prompted by exhaustion forced her to cancel a gala dinner the night before. (AP Photo/Lukas Lehmann, Pool)

(AP) ? It's been 21 years, and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is about to give her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

The 66-year-old champion of democracy is being feted this month in European capitals after spending most of the past two decades kept under house arrest by Myanmar's military-backed dictatorship.

Norwegian government leaders said they have eagerly awaited Saturday's speech at Oslo City Hall since Suu Kyi won the world's highest diplomatic honor in 1991. But Suu Kyi said she never doubted that she would travel one day to Oslo to give her honorific lecture.

"Yes of course, I always believed that. That's why I have always said that the first time I traveled abroad I would come to Norway," she said in answer to a reporter's question. "I never doubted that. Did you?"

Despite being under house arrest at the time, Suu Kyi did receive the actual prize in 1991 and used its cash reward to create scholarship programs for Burmese youth. Her two British-based teenage sons accepted the prize on her behalf in Oslo that year.

She arrived Friday in Norway from Switzerland, her first stop on a planned two-week tour of Europe also taking in Ireland, Britain and France. The journey is her first in Europe since 1988, the year she left her husband and two young sons in England to visit her ill mother back home ? and became the focal point for the country's nascent democracy movement.

"You have dedicated your life to the struggle for democracy in your country, and you are an inspiration for all of us," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Suu Kyi during a joint press conference Friday. "The new political reality in Myanmar is remarkable. We have witnessed great changes in less than a year. Your presence here in Oslo is proof that your long fight for democracy and justice for your people is really paying off."

Suu Kyi made it to Oslo despite falling ill Thursday at a press conference. Her aides said she was suffering from exhaustion due to overwork and jet lag. She appeared tired at Friday's Oslo events, including a nighttime castle dinner with Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja, but made no comment on it.

After Saturday's Nobel speech, Suu Kyi is scheduled to tour an elaborate display at the fjord-side Nobel Peace Center chronicling her life's key moments of despair, determination and triumph, then address an outdoor rally at Oslo City Hall.

"(Her visit) means a lot to the Norwegian people because we admire her so much and we have longed to see her coming here and give her Nobel speech," said the executive director of the Nobel center, Bente Erichsen.

Suu Kyi is scheduled to spend three days in Oslo and the Norwegian city of Bergen, then travel to the Irish capital, Dublin, on Monday for a celebrity-studded concert in her honor with U2 frontman Bono. After that, it's back to Oxford University, where she studied before her 1980s blossoming into the leading voice for democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Bono was expected to join her at an Oslo press conference Monday and then fly with her to Dublin, where he's to present her with another award postponed by her long home imprisonment ? Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience. Bono unveiled that award at a Dublin U2 concert in 2009.

When asked if her euphoric European reception this week as Myanmar's rightful leader might upset the military junta back home and lead to renewed repression, Suu Kyi dismissed the prospect.

"I cannot see any good reason why either President Thein Sein and his government or the military should object to this," she said. "Certainly I don't think they have anything to fear in the interest that other countries show in my party and myself, because we want to work for national reconciliation. And we will not do anything to harm that."

Suu Kyi comes from one of Burma's iconic political families. Her father Aung San was an army general and a founding father of independent Burma, previously a British colony, following World War II but he was assassinated by rivals in 1947. Her mother Khin Kyi served in Burmese governments and as ambassador to India in the 1960s, giving Suu Kyi the opportunity to study and work abroad in India, England and the United States.

Myanmar's military rulers first jailed Suu Kyi in 1989, the year before her National League for Democracy triumphed in Myanmar's first open elections. The junta quashed that result, refused to surrender power, and did not hold new elections until 2010. U.N. and U.S. officials branded that vote fraudulent, partly because Suu Kyi was barred from running as a candidate.

Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November 2010 shortly after the election. In April 2012 she won a seat in the country's national assembly, her first opportunity to run for office.

Associated Press

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The Karl Post Home Improvement ? Blog Archive ? Troubleshooting ...

One thing you can expect when summer arrives is that your page will appear to grow faster than you can remain cut off. There is nothing more frustrating than when the electrical equipment such as mower does not work when needed. Here are some tips on mowers check to see if they work properly.

  • Determine the status of the mower working. How well does the mower? Does the engine start easily? It has to do with the right knife? Is the accelerator runs smoothly? Check these things before you go will help you determine what repairs may need to be done.
  • If the engine fails to start, the first step is to check the fuel tank to make sure you have plenty of gas in it. Then make sure that someone had accidentally put the wrong fuel in the tank.
  • Check points common problem in the lawn mower up like spark plugs and batteries. Look at the spark plug. Do they need to be replaced? Then check the battery. If there is a buildup of corrosion on terminals for cleaning so that good contact is returned to the electrical system? Check the battery date. Is it still in the span of life? You may find that it is time to replace the spark plugs, batteries, or both. Finally, make sure the connection to the sensor that prevents the mower from the beginning if not to sit in the seat is installed correctly.
  • If the engine starts, but the leaves do not engage, check belt cover to make sure they are tight. You may need to contact a repair company if the belt is in poor condition and need to be adjusted or replaced. The band can be a bit difficult to repair.
  • Check the gas. If the throttle is not working properly, check the throttle cable. May be disconnected or may get stuck and need lubrication.
  • Check the tires of your mower. Like a car, riding mower might get a shot from time to time. To find a leak, remove the tires, fill it with air, and pour the solution of water and dish detergent in it. Wherever air leaks in the tires, you will see bubbles. Once the leak is, use the repair kit to fix.

Its tire problem may be caused by a leak of air from the valve stem. These bars are easy to replace, you can buy at any auto repair shop. Be sure to apply a little oil in the trunk before entering and check for leaks after inflating the tire. There are several popular brands of mowers. They were taken by retailers across the country so if you need parts for your lawnmower, which are easy to find. A better brand of mower will come with a user manual and is the place to look when you need to learn to take care of the cutters or solve the problem. The guidelines also have advice for homeowners. Manual cutting one of the most popular to remind the owner to make sure the brake is activated and the knife is in neutral or drive mower will not start. Manual and full of useful information.

Buying a lawn mower of the highest quality you can afford, and you will be rewarded with many years of trouble free operation. If you find a lawn mower in which they are interested in reviewing products online to find out what people are saying about the lawn mower. If you are working on a riding mower that makes you frustrated and confused, do not be shy to contact the helpdesk. You will find that some of the troubleshooting process can be very simple to do, but some improvement can be a bit difficult. Often, even small improvements and require special equipment or tools, a lot of the average homeowner does not have.

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UK treasurer: Euro crisis is killing our recovery

(AP) ? Britain's Treasury chief says that uncertainty over the future of Europe's single currency is threatening to keep Britain from returning to economic growth.

In an article published in the Sunday Telegraph George Osborne warned that Britain's attempt to pull itself out of recession "is being killed off by the crisis on our doorstep."

Although Osborne spoke optimistically about "our recovery," his Conservative-led government is struggling to pull the country out of its second recession since 2009.

Osborne singled out high energy prices and the debts racked up by the previous government as obstacles to growth, but said that turmoil in the eurozone was the biggest threat of all.

The 17-nation single currency bloc is Britain's single largest export market.

Associated Press

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