Land battles surface in Myanmar as reforms unfold

In this photo taken on Sept. 15, 2012, Nay Myo Wai, center, chairman of Peace and Diversity party, talks with landless farmers in Yangon, Myanmar. The landscape of Mingaladon township, northern outskirts of Yangon, tells a story of economic upheaval. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized illegally by the Zaykabar Company, one of Myanmar?s most powerful companies. Human rights groups say land battles could intensify because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy. Nay Myo Wai is leading the farmers in their fight against the company. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

In this photo taken on Sept. 15, 2012, Nay Myo Wai, center, chairman of Peace and Diversity party, talks with landless farmers in Yangon, Myanmar. The landscape of Mingaladon township, northern outskirts of Yangon, tells a story of economic upheaval. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized illegally by the Zaykabar Company, one of Myanmar?s most powerful companies. Human rights groups say land battles could intensify because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy. Nay Myo Wai is leading the farmers in their fight against the company. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

In this photo taken on Sept. 15, 2012, Myanmar landless farmers gather outside the home of Nay Myo Wai, an activist and politician who is leading the farmers in their fight against the Zaykabar Company to sign and thumbprint petitions asking the company for more money, in Yangon, Myanmar. The landscape of Mingaladon township, northern outskirts of Yangon, tells a story of economic upheaval. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized illegally by the Zaykabar Company, one of Myanmar?s most powerful companies. Human rights groups say land battles could intensify because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

In this photo taken on Sept. 15, 2012, Hnin Nandar stands along with her cow near her farmland at Mingaladon township, northern outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar. The landscape of Mingaladon township tells a story of economic upheaval. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized illegally by the Zaykabar Company, one of Myanmar?s most powerful companies. Human rights groups say land battles could intensify because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

In this photo taken on Sept. 16, 2012, Zay Thiha, vice chairman of the Zaykabar Company, talks during an interview in Yangon, Myanmar. Zay Thiha predicts, ambitiously, that the 2,500 acre industrial zone alone could create 1.5 million stable jobs in Southeast Asia's poorest country, but few farmers see a place for themselves or their children in that bright, industrial future. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized by Zaykabar, one of Myanmar's most powerful companies. Human rights groups say land battles could intensify because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

In this photo taken on Sept. 15, 2012, Nay Myo Wai, chairman of Peace and Diversity party and a land rights activist, talks during an interview in Yangon, Myanmar. The landscape of Mingaladon township, northern outskirts of Yangon, tells a story of economic upheaval. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized illegally by the Zaykabar Company, one of Myanmar?s most powerful companies. Human rights groups say land battles could intensify because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy. Nay Myo Wai is leading the farmers in their fight against the company. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

MINGALADON, Myanmar (AP) ? The landscape of Mingaladon township on the northern outskirts of Myanmar's main city tells a story of economic upheaval. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized by one of Myanmar's most powerful companies.

The fight over land in Mingaladon is one of many such battles in Myanmar. Human rights groups say land battles are intensifying because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy. Not only that. The political change sweeping through Myanmar means farmers and others are challenging land confiscations in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago.

One Sunday in July, some 200 farmers took to the streets of Yangon, the main city, to protest the Mingaladon land acquisition by the Zaykabar Company. It was the first legal protest to be held in Myanmar since a 1988 uprising against military rule was crushed and came just days after parliament passed a new law allowing peaceful demonstrations. In the past, protesters have been arrested or shot.

Two months after the July protest, dozens of farmers crowded into the shabby, two-story home of a protest leader to sign and thumbprint petitions asking Zaykabar for more money.

"The farmers know their rights and dare to demand their rights," said Htet Htet Oo Wai, a former political prisoner who has joined the fight over Mingaladon. "They didn't dare do that kind of thing two years ago," she said.

One of those farmers, Myint Thein, 56, pointed to a metal shed going up on the 15 acres his family used to tend. He said he got no money for the land back in 1997 when the Zaykabar Company began work on a 5,000-acre township, with a large industrial zone, office towers, a mall, some 4,000 residential bungalows and a 21-hole golf course.

Farmers such as Myint Thein couldn't fight back then. They weren't only ranged against Zaykabar. The company had the backing of the state and was developing the area through a joint venture with the government. Zaykabar paid the government around 14 billion kyat for the land ? about $50 million then ? and farmers say they saw none of it.

"At the time, you couldn't say anything," Myint Thein said. "We'd been farming for our whole life," he said. "It was like our hands were broken."

Before Myanmar's political reforms began, its military junta exercised unfettered power and in the state-dominated economy the ruling generals had the last word on who owned what. The new government still owns all farmland and while it has made efforts to clarify land use rights it might also have reinforced avenues for small landholders to be dispossessed by the well-connected and powerful.

Myanmar passed two new land laws this year, which have been sharply criticized by human rights groups for the broad power they grant the government to requisition land in the national interest. The Asian Human Rights Commission told the United Nations that Myanmar was at risk of a "land-grabbing epidemic" if the laws aren't changed.

Other countries in Southeast Asia also grapple with land disputes. Cambodia and Vietnam have been plagued by a land-grabbing scourge linked to the powerful. In Vietnam, land seizures are the most common source of conflict between the ruling Communist Party and the Vietnamese people.

Zaykabar got more land for its Mingaladon project in 2010 from farmers who said the acquisition was illegal because the government hadn't authorized it and that they were coerced into accepting too little money for their fields. The company said the allegations aren't true. A Ministry of Construction official backed part of the farmers' account, saying a contract to develop the area has yet to be signed, but the government has given no indication it intends to intervene.

Some 86 farmers who handed over their land in 2010 have joined forces with over 150 of those who say they lost their land in 1997 to fight Zaykabar, in street marches and the media, through petitions to a new land dispute committee, and in court, if necessary.

For now, only a few buildings break Mingaladon's green fields. Boys fish in muddy ditches as workers lay the bricks of high new walls. But Myanmar's rising-star status with international investors has given Zaykabar's slow-burning project new urgency.

The U.S and Europe have lifted most sanctions against Myanmar in response to reformist President Thein Sein's drive to transform the country from a vilified dictatorship to a free-market democracy. Political prisoners have been released and media censorship eased. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to Parliament, and the government is appealing to foreign investors for capital and expertise.

All that makes the land in Mingaladon more attractive to investors. Zaykabar, a subsidiary of the National Development Company Group, said after upgrading the industrial zone with electricity, water and roads, it has been selling the land for 20 million to 40 million kyat ($23,500 to $47,000) per acre. The highest prices it fetched are more than 130 times the payments that farmers got for an acre of land in 2010.

Zaykabar and its chairman, Khin Shwe, who is also a member of Parliament for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, are both still subject to individual U.S. sanctions for alleged links to the old military junta. U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with them.

Zaykabar has filed a defamation lawsuit against the self-appointed leader of the farmers, Nay Myo Wai, a round-faced 40-year-old who made his living as an engineer and kerosene smuggler before refashioning himself a politician. His right forearm bears a tattoo of a dragon, etched in ink laced with snake venom when he was a child in the belief it would render him immune to snake bites.

"Whether you sign or not, they will take the land," Nay Myo Wai said. "Farmers felt they couldn't say no."

Zay Thiha, who is Khin Shwe's son and serves as Zaykabar's vice chairman, said the company paid the Ministry of Construction's Department of Human Settlements and Housing Development 3.5 million kyat per acre for land acquired in 1997 and agreed to pay 4.4 million kyat per acre for land acquired in 2010.

An official at the Department of Human Settlements, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with the media, said the department had not yet taken any money for the 2010 land nor signed a contract for the acquisition.

"The company hasn't got the permission to transform farming land," he said.

The official confirmed that Zaykabar paid the government 3.5 million kyat per acre in 1997.

He declined to say whether the government had paid farmers for their land in 1997. Under the country's old land laws, farmers were entitled to little or no compensation for their land, all of which belonged to the government, he said.

Zay Thiha said the government has agreed in principle to the 2010 arrangement and that it is the department's responsibility ? not the company's ? to get final approval for using the farmland for the industrial zone.

He said his father Khin Shwe, wise to the shifting political winds in Myanmar, went out of this way to help the farmers in 2010, in the run-up to Myanmar's first parliamentary elections in 20 years.

"He was competing in the election, so he didn't want to get a bad name," Zay Thiha said.

Khin Shwe met with around 60 farmers in May 2010, which was six months before the election and Khin Shwe's first bid for public office, and agreed to give them money. Because Zaykabar cannot legally acquire land directly from the farmers, according to Zay Thiha, the company made a "donation" of 300,000 kyat per acre, according to Zay Thiha. He said some farmers were given an additional 300,000 kyat per acre for the rice crop in their fields.

"He didn't want to see farmers lose their land without getting any money, so that's why he gave these charity fees," said Zay Thiha. He said the compensation was above market rates at the time and provided ample capital to buy other farmland.

As evidence that no one was coerced he gave the example of 12 people who he said still haven't agreed to hand over around 100 acres. "We say 'Please' and are very gentle," he said.

Zay Thiha predicts, ambitiously, that the 2,500-acre industrial zone alone could create 1.5 million stable jobs in Southeast Asia's poorest country, but few farmers see a place for themselves or their children in that bright, industrial future.

Kyaw Sein, 62, is the son of farmers and his sons are farmers.

"We can't do anything except farm," he said. He said he agreed to accept 300,000 kyat per acre from Zaykabar in 2010 because he saw what happened to his neighbors in 1997.

"They lost their farms totally and didn't get anything," he said. "Anything is better than nothing."

___

Associated Press writer Yadana Htun in Yangon contributed to this report.

___

Follow Erika Kinetz on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ekinetz

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-22-Myanmar-Land/id-78fd12015c6d443f96f3354d4e245bc5

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Looking for 1x1 or small group Superhero RPG

RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, and support from people like you. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/TxTd_YnQeTw/viewtopic.php

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Workout warrior Chris Wong fighting cancer with help of new drug

Chris Wong is a workout warrior.

So when he developed pain in his lower back and left leg early in 2009 he assumed he?d pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve. But the pain kept getting worse.

?I was moaning with pain in the evenings and had great difficulty just getting around,? Wong, now 46, wrote in an account of his battle with what turned out to be anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a very aggressive form of cancer. He got that diagnosis after he finally went to the Baptist Medical Center emergency room on Memorial Day 2009.

By then, the cancer, which had progressed over the course of three months to stage-4, had begun to eat into his skeletal structure. His left femur had deteriorated so severely that he had to undergo surgery to have a titanium rod inserted into the bone.

While Wong was recovering from the surgery, he was visited by oncologist Augusto Villegas who told Wong his cancer was treatable but had a high degree of recurrence.

?It was crushing news,? Wong wrote.

In the next two years, Villegas would treat Wong with two rounds of chemotherapy. The first round of chemotherapy put the cancer in remission in October 2009. Wong then underwent a transplant of some of his own stem cells, which had been harvested and stored, at Shands at the University of Florida.

But in February 2011, following the surgical removal of bumps on his head that Wong had initially thought was acne, a biopsy revealed the lymphoma had returned.

?To have the cancer on my skin caught me completely by surprise,? Wong wrote. ?I was pretty shook-up by this devastating news, but received comfort from my family and friends.?

That was treated with radiation. But after Wong continued to lose weight and suffer chest pain, Villegas ordered a bone scan in early June.

The scan found that the cancer had begun to eat into Wong?s rib and pelvis bones. Starting in mid-June, he checked into Baptist Medical Center every four weeks for five days of inpatient chemotherapy treatments.

A PET scan in late July seemed to indicate the cancer was again in remission.

But Villegas was concerned that the lymphoma might return again. ?Typically, it?s harder to cure non-Hodgkins lymphoma after relapse,? he said. ?Chris is a young guy, healthy as a horse. We needed to do something.?

That something, Villegas thought, might be a new drug just approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Adcetris, unlike most other forms of chemotherapy, targets only the cancer cells while leaving the healthy cells unharmed, Villegas said.

Villegas, who practices with Cancer Specialists of North Florida, called Adcetris ?a smarter way to treat cancer? and said it was designed specifically to be used on patients with anaplastic lymphoma after they have relapsed.

?This drug has a very, very specific niche,? he said.

?I was so relieved to have an alternate treatment approach,? Wong wrote. ?This was much better than dosing my whole body with chemo treatments for 4-5 days.?

In early October of last year, Wong began going to Villegas?s office every three or four weeks for an infusion of Adcetris. Last Nov. 19, a PET-CT scan showed him cancer free.

Then in December, he went to Shands at the University of Florida where he received a stem cell transplant from a donor.

He was allowed to resume his work as an IT coordinator for a health care company in May, working from home. Then in July, he was allowed to return to his office. On his last scan, in August, Wong remained cancer-free.

?I?m enjoying life,? the father of four said during an interview. ?It?s a lot to go through. But it gives you a better appreciation of life.?

And he?s still a workout warrior.

Charlie Patton: (904) 359-4413

Source: http://jacksonville.com/news/health-and-fitness/2012-10-20/story/workout-warrior-chris-wong-fighting-cancer-help-new-drug

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Online Reputation Management: How To ... - Business 2 Community

As companies, professionals, brands and personal brands, our name and our reputation is of the utmost importance. We strive, with integrity and hard work to achieve a strong brand name and an excellent reputation ? both online and offline.

But what if someone ? whether an unhappy client, a competitor or anyone else ? attempts to threaten your reputation by working hard at spreading damaging online rumors and loads of negative blog posts, articles and videos about your brand? Worse, what if they succeed? What if those damaging rumors and online negativity actually begin to work their way up in the search engines, becoming the first results that clients and prospective clients alike, find when they google your name?

It?s a worst-nightmare situation for many of us. But for one Sri Lankan/American Hip Hop artist, DeLon, it?s not just a nightmare, it?s an unfortunate reality.

DeLon?s story

In 2008, when his country was under terrorist attack by the LTTE, DeLon released a music video calling out hip hop musician and fellow Sri Lankan, M.I.A., for what he and others perceived as her implied support of the terrorist group. (You can watch DeLon?s video here)

Knowing his political stance would cause some negative press by both supporters of LTTE and M.I.A, DeLon expected the death threats and negative press that followed. However, what he didn?t expect was the vicious internet smear campaign that was created to ruin his reputation ? nor did he expect that four years later, it would still be actively doing so.

Even after his attempts to discredit the rumors and rebuild his reputation, both online and off ? including publishing an official letter from the Consul General of Sri Lanka, Dr. Hector Weerasinghe, stating that all accusations are indeed false ? four years later, DeLon has been forced to step down from his first U.S. tour, where he was to be the opening act for America?s Got Talent artist, Lindsey Stirling, in order to attempt to pick up and reassemble the pieces of his damaged reputation.

It?s a worst-case scenario come to endless life for this innocent young rapper.

This is many of our worst nightmares. What if it actually happens to you?

DeLon?s first mistake was one that I see made many times over. Back in 2008, when the rumors and smear campaigns started, he accepted them as the repercussions for becoming a political activist, and thought that no one would actually believe the wild accusations.

Rule #1 of a social media crisis (and yes, damaging online rumors count as a social media crisis) is that a social media crisis does NOT go away on its own. In fact, it will continue to spiral out of control until it is resolved by the brand ? or until the rumors win and destroy the entire foundation on which the brand was built.

As Katrina Younce, of PRO Sports Communications, says:

?[It?s important to] Understand the long tail effect of the internet, even false reports can hurt you. If a potentially damaging report or post does surface, deal with it right away. Don?t ignore it, no matter how ridiculous you think it is.?

Responding to damaging online rumors

As I?ve said, damaging online rumors should not be ignored. They need to be addressed within hours of their online development and your company?s social media crisis communications plan needs to be set into motion. Better yet, include a ?damaging online rumors procedures plan? within your social media crisis communications plan.

Your best attempt in this type of situation is to drown out the rumors and posts, articles and videos populating and, potentially, dominating the search engines. The following are some ways to help you do that:

1- Create video responses
YouTube is the second most popular search engine AND popular YouTube videos show up within Google?s search results. So does creating a video response and publishing it to YouTube sound like a strategic plan? I think so! DeLon has actually done a really great job at this. Check out DeLon?s video message to his fans, and then check out my additional tips below.

Additional tips for your YouTube response video:

• Use targeted keywords and phrases within your video?s content
• Title the video response the same name as the attack, adding ?brand name responds? to the title
• Publish the video to youtube AND to your corporate website and/or blog with good, keyword-rich text to support it
• Share it as much as possible on social media
• Ask your fans and followers to share it as well

2- Write guest posts and do interviews for news blogs that have:

1. a big interest in covering the story
2. are known as thought leaders on the web and, as a result, have powerful search engine rankings
3. Link from these interviews and posts to your corporate website and/or blog

3- Publish content to your own blog and corporate website, including:

• Targeted blog posts and press releases
• FAQ?s ? address and answer the public?s biggest questions
• Back all of these up with facts

4- Don?t stop
SEO is a long-term strategy and the more relevant content you publish and link back to your corporate website/blog, the better you will do for the long-term.

5- Do yourself a favour and prepare in advance
Focus on your corporate website and blog?s search engine rankings BEFORE you find yourself in this type of nightmare. Read more about how to do this here.

6- Focus on developing real, human relationships with your fans, followers and clients
The more of a relationship you share with your clients and fans online before a crisis, the more they will fight and be your voice in a crisis.

What to take away

The internet is a powerful and scary place. All the hard work you?ve spent developing a solid and credible reputation can easily be destroyed? unless you prepare your brand and your team in advance. The above tips are an excellent place to start, but in order for them to work, you have to get cracking!

Tomorrow I?m going to be publishing an interview with DeLon himself, where he will share with you the biggest lessons he?s learned throughout this nightmare, as well as some additional tips and insight he wants you to know.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/online-reputation-management-how-to-overcome-damaging-online-rumors-0307915

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Democratic donors energize "Super PACs" as election nears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic donors gave unprecedented amounts of money in September to their party's three main "Super PACs," federal disclosures revealed on Friday, a reflection of how wealthy Democrats' reluctance to give to such groups has faded in the weeks before the November 6 election.

A fundraising laggard for much of the campaign, the political action committee (PAC) backing President Barack Obama raised more than a rival group backing Republican Mitt Romney, the second consecutive month the Democratic group had done so.

The pro-Obama group Priorities USA Action said it raised $15.2 million in September, compared with $14.8 million for the pro-Romney group Restore Our Future, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Restore Our Future, a formidable advertising force whose attack ads on Romney's Republican rivals helped him secure the party's presidential nomination, began the crucial month of October with $16.6 million in cash on hand. On Saturday, Priorities' filings are due to reveal its cash on hand and donors for September.

Early this year, many Democratic donors were reluctant to donate to PACs supporting their party's candidates because they disliked the idea of contributing to attack ads and other negative advertising - a staple of spending by groups known as "Super PACs" because they have no limits on how much they can raise and spend.

In recent months, fundraising for Democratic PACs has accelerated to counter the waves of anti-Obama and anti-Democratic ads from Republican groups.

Meanwhile, the Democratic PACs seeking to help candidates win House of Representatives and Senate seats also saw donations rise in September.

Majority PAC, the group helping Democratic candidates for the Senate, announced on Friday its biggest cash haul since its creation in 2010: $10.4 million in September, and another $9.7 million during the first week of October.

Its sister group, House Majority PAC, also had its best month in September and is on track to double that in October, an aide to the group said.

CONTROL OF CONGRESS

Democrats need a net gain of 25 seats to become the majority party in the 435-seat House, an outcome that most pollsters see as unlikely. Republicans need a net gain of four seats to take control of the Senate. Most pollsters also see that as unlikely.

Scores of Republican PACs and tax-exempt groups have been formed to support Republican House and Senate candidates. Tax-exempt groups do not disclose their finances; disclosures of the most influential Super PAC, American Crossroads, are due later on Saturday.

Restore Our Future, the PAC that supports Romney, reported on Friday that its largest donors included Texas home builder Bob Perry and billionaire Harold Simmons. Perry gave $2 million in September and leads all donors with $10 million contributed to Restore Our Future during this election cycle. Simmons gave $500,000 for the month, increasing his total to the group to $1.3 million.

Republicans showed greater fundraising strength at the party level in September.

The Republican National Committee raised $48.4 million and ended September with $82.6 million in cash on hand. Its Democratic counterpart took out a large loan.

The Democratic National Committee, which has focused on races for the Senate and House, raised $20.3 million in September and borrowed $10.5 million. It ended September $20.5 million in debt, according to its filing with the FEC.

A DNC representative declined to comment on the reason for the debt and how it might affect Democratic candidates in the final two weeks before the election. The party had $4.6 million in cash on hand heading into October.

The RNC reported $9.9 million in debt at the end of September, with its $82.6 million in cash on hand.

Unlike the DNC, the Republican Party has been working closely with its presidential candidate, Romney, who heavily relies on its grassroots operation. On the Democratic side, Obama's campaign has a huge grassroots organization itself and does not need such help from its party.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Cohen; Editing by David Lindsey and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/democratic-donors-energize-super-pacs-election-nears-052048391.html

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Are you able to Produce Money with a MLM Home based business ...

Each week over 100, 000 folks get were only available in their own MLM home based business.

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What you want to comprehend about Beginning an MLM Home-based business.

If you?d like to understand the hard facts regarding MLM, or multi level marketing, you should know that there are a lot of points to consider.

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Be aware that you will find less than 30 MLM companies that have been around for over 10 years.

There?s little wrong using the business model, just that all individuals corporations that failed simply didn?t set things up right.

The two most important explanations why those other MLM businesses failed; one is typically the product, it was either inferior or too expensive, and secondly the compensatory strategy was possibly inferior as well.

MLM Home Based Business you have to do your Due Diligence

The best way to construct a Home Network marketing business

Thanks largely to the web and other developments within technology, many people are hungrier than ever to get going building their own home home business. And there?s always the issue of job insecurity because of the economy, layoffs and a younger employees willing to work for half as much as what you may be worth.

Unemployment is at an in history high with no end in site. Many jobs are becoming farmed offshore and corporate America is tightening their own belts and laying away many management and professional positions. No one is secure. And the concept of a company loyalty is something which went out mmediately following the commercial age. Bottom line? Profits. It is all about profits.

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Each week it is guessed over 100, 000 folks around the planet get started in home network marketing. Unfortunately, likely just as many people ?fail? to make any real money. Not as the organization isn?t feasible and not because there is not a need for the service. The most typical reason behind failing to build a moneymaking business is the inability to treat it just like a genuine business and give it time, energy and respect this deserves.

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Then roll up your own sleeves and let?s begin. There?s a great deal to complete. But the good news is the majority of the money make in a home network marketing business all comes down in order to doing two things exceptionately nicely. Reveal people to your own products, services and business opportunity. Then teach your team to do the same. Take consistent action performing these two things and you?ll literally be in a position to write your own solution.

Wish to have a short cut to success? Find someone in your home network marketing company who?s producing the results and living the way of life you need. Connect to them. Discover what they are doing and how. Then simply copy their proven model for achievement. Learn what they do and do the same. Seriously. And while you may have a learning process ahead of you? This is the greatest shortcut to success.

Understand nobody makes any kind of cash till somebody buys something. So you need to pay attention to sales and marketing. To drag this off you will need to put 80 to 90% of your time towards getting your produce services and business opportunity in front of new folks on a consistent and regular basis. Focus on lead generation and the wizardry just happens. Here is a great online home network marketing system we recommned Duplicate and paste into your own browser.

Remember if your aim for the stars and property on the moon you?ve still got a business that is from this world.

MLM World

Source: http://cannabismrsacure.letstalkaboutpot.com/are-you-able-to-produce-money-with-a-mlm-home-based-business/

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Al-Qaida in Afghanistan is attempting a comeback

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A diminished but resilient al-Qaida, whose 9/11 attacks drew America into its longest war, is attempting a comeback in the country's mountainous east even as U.S. and allied forces wind down their combat mission and concede a small but steady toehold to the terrorist group.

That concerns U.S. commanders, who have intensified strikes against al-Qaida cells in recent months. It also undercuts an Obama administration narrative portraying al-Qaida as battered to the point of being a nonissue in Afghanistan as Western troops start leaving.

When he visited Afghanistan in May to mark the one-year anniversary of the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama said his administration had turned the tide of war. "The goal that I set ? to defeat al-Qaida, and deny it a chance to rebuild ? is within reach," he said.

As things stand, however, an unquestionably weakened al-Qaida appears to have preserved at least limited means of regenerating inside Afghanistan as U.S. influence in the country wanes. The last U.S. combat troops are scheduled to be gone by Dec. 31, 2014, and security matters turned over to the Afghan government.

"They are trying to increase their numbers and take advantage of the Americans leaving," the police chief of Paktika province, Gen. Dawlat Khan Zadran, said through a translator in an interview this month in the governor's compound. He mentioned no numbers, but said al-Qaida has moved more weapons across the border from Pakistan.

For years the main target of U.S.-led forces has been the Taliban, rulers of Afghanistan and protectors of al-Qaida before the U.S. invasion 11 years ago. But the strategic goal is to prevent al-Qaida from again finding haven in Afghanistan from which to launch attacks on the U.S.

Al-Qaida's leadership fled in late 2001 to neighboring Pakistan, where it remains.

The group remains active inside Afghanistan, fighting U.S. troops, spreading extremist messages, raising money, recruiting young Afghans and providing military expertise to the Taliban and other radical groups.

U.S. Gen. John Allen, the top commander of international forces in Afghanistan, has said al-Qaida has re-emerged, and although its numbers are small, he says the group doesn't need a large presence to be influential.

U.S. officials say they are committed, even after the combat mission ends in 2014, to doing whatever it takes to prevent a major resurgence. The Americans intend, for example, to have special operation forces at the ready to keep a long-term lid on al-Qaida inside Afghanistan.

A more immediate worry is the threat posed by the growing presence of al-Qaida and affiliated groups in Yemen, Somalia and across a broad swath of North Africa, where it is believed al-Qaida-linked militants may have been responsible for the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

U.S. and Afghan officials say al-Qaida also has been building ties with like-minded Islamic militant groups present in Afghanistan, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the November 2008 rampage in Mumbai, India, that killed 166 people, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is present in the north.

Ahmadullah Mowahed, a member of the Afghan parliament from the eastern province of Nuristan, along the Pakistan border, said he fears the departure of American combat forces will open the way for the Taliban and al-Qaida to overwhelm the provincial government.

"As soon as they leave, the eyes of al-Qaida will quickly focus on Nuristan," he said.

U.S. analysts say there is reason for concern that al-Qaida is down, but not out.

"They've been hit hard in a few cases, but they definitely are involved in the fight ? absolutely," said Seth G. Jones, a senior political scientist at RAND Corp.

Jones, a former adviser to the commander of U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan, recently returned from a trip to eastern Afghanistan where he learned that al-Qaida's support network has expanded and its relations with groups such as the Pakistani-based Haqqani network are strong.

"That's a very serious concern because that kind of environment would allow al-Qaida to continue to operate, at least at a small level, because it's a workable environment for them, he said.

Richard Barrett, head of a U.N. group that monitors the threat posed by al-Qaida and the Taliban, said al-Qaida fears the Taliban will strike a deal with the Afghan government that would make the group all but irrelevant.

"So they will be doing whatever they can to assert their influence, to assert their presence" in Afghanistan, he said.

At least for now, al-Qaida in Afghanistan has no capability to launch attacks on the U.S., although commanders are taking no chances.

Little-noticed fragmentary U.S. military accounts of raids and strikes against al-Qaida in the northeastern provinces of Kunar and Nuristan show the group retains a command structure inside Afghanistan. On May 27 the U.S. killed the No. 2 commander in Afghanistan, Saudi national Sakhr al-Taifi, in Kunar, but it has yet to catch up to the top al-Qaida commander in the country, identified by U.S. officials as Farouk al-Qahtani, who resides in Nuristan.

In early September the international military coalition announced the death of an al-Qaida operative, Abu Saif, described as an associate of an al-Qaida leader killed along with several of his fighters July 1 in Kunar. Saif was called a conduit between senior al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan, passing messages between them. In the most recent strike, officials said Sept. 27 they killed al-Qaida "facilitator" Abdul Rauf in Kunar. He was a Pakistani coordinator of foreign fighters' movements into Afghanistan and a builder of improvised explosive devices for attacks on coalition troops.

Interviews with Afghan officials suggest that al-Qaida also is present in other parts of the country, including the northwestern province of Faryab as well as Logar province, just south of Kabul.

Logar's provincial chief of police, Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Roogh Lawanay, said it is difficult to know how many militants are directly affiliated with al-Qaida, but he estimated their numbers in Logar at 100 to 150.

"Al-Qaida is very active. It is like fish. When one fish dies, another comes," he said in a recent interview. "The determination of these Arab fighters is high."

In interviews in Kabul and Washington, U.S. officials said they are satisfied that al-Qaida is so small inside Afghanistan ? they put the number at between 50 and 100 fighters ? that they can be contained indefinitely if the Afghan government allows U.S. counterterrorism forces to monitor and hunt the remnants. U.S. and Afghan officials are working to craft talks on a bilateral security agreement that could include such an arrangement.

Al-Qaida's numbers, however, don't tell the whole story.

Allen has said al-Qaida has learned to leverage its presence in Afghanistan to give the impression of having withstood U.S. military might and to burnish its image as a global force.

U.S. commanders say they will keep up pressure on al-Qaida to frustrate its goals, but few believe al-Qaida will be gone before U.S. troops leave.

"I see no evidence to suggest that it will be eliminated by 2014," said Jones, the RAND analyst.

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Associated Press writer Amir Shah contributed to this report.

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Robert Burns can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaida-afghanistan-attempting-comeback-144002075.html

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