UK man who failed to overturn euthanasia law dies

LONDON (AP) ? Tony Nicklinson, paralyzed and unable to speak, found life so unbearable he wanted to die. On Wednesday, the 58-year-old Briton got his wish.

His family said he died of pneumonia at home.

In January, Nicklinson asked the High Court to declare that any doctor who killed him with his consent would not be charged with murder. Last week, the court rejected his request, a decision that Nicklinson said had left him "devastated and heartbroken."

Nicklinson was a former corporate manager and rugby player who suffered a stroke in 2005 that left him with locked-in syndrome. He was unable to speak or move below his neck and required constant care. Nicklinson communicated mostly by blinking, although his mind had remained unaffected and his condition was not terminal.

Nicklinson had argued that British law violated his right to "private and family life" as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, on the ground that being able to choose how to die is a matter of personal autonomy. He had previously described his life as "a living nightmare."

One of his daughters said on Twitter that before he died, Nicklinson had asked them to tweet "Goodbye world the time has come, I had some fun."

Police said they would not be investigating Nicklinson's death. "We can confirm he passed away," a police spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. "His death certificate has been signed by a doctor, so it is not a matter for Wiltshire Police or the coroner."

Saimo Chahal, Nicklinson's lawyer, said his health had deteriorated over the week-end after he caught pneumonia. Nicklinson had legal documents drawn up in 2004 to refuse any life-saving treatment. He had also been refusing food since last week.

Nicklinson had said that even if he were granted the right to die, he would not want to be killed immediately, but just wanted to know that the option existed.

Experts weren't sure what impact, if any, his death might have on the ongoing euthanasia debate in Britain.

Penney Lewis, a law professor at King's College London, said previous deaths of euthanasia advocates didn't have any effect on changing laws to allow the practice.

"The evidence seems to be that parliaments are not galvanized into action by the deaths of those who have been fighting for (euthanasia) legalization," she said in an email. Nicklinson "was so distressed by the High Court decision, it is sad to think he died while still absorbing that."

In Europe, only Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands allow euthanasia. Switzerland allows assisted suicide and is the only country that helps foreigners die at a clinic near Zurich.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-man-failed-overturn-euthanasia-law-dies-110708288.html

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Dental patient customer service | Dental Practice & Business ...

Recently I visited a grocery store in town to load up on ?stuff? that my wife wanted me to get for a weekend visit with our kids. This store advertises their ?distinctive customer service.? Have you ever witnessed this kind of FALSE advertising? It feels like it?s everywhere and rampant. I was standing in line to check out while the two ?baggers? and the two cashiers engaged in customer-unfriendly loud conversation about who is the meanest manager in the store. Never once looking up to say ?Hello wonderful patron who I?m delighted to serve and thank you for choosing to shop with us? or help the semi-deaf, elderly lady in the adjacent line asking for assistance with the use of the debit machine.

Don?t you get fed up with this kind of ?customer care? lip service?

I?m noticing this happens more and more and in more and more industries. I visited the manager and shared my experience with his employees and voiced my concern. Here was his reply:

?Thank you mister for bringing this to my attention, BUT you know how the younger generation is.? My reply: ?This has happened more than once to me, and with your attitude about ?distinctive customer service,? this will be my last time in your store.?

Have you personally experienced a ?service disappointment? in the past 3 months? Share your story with me.

Source: http://www.drarndt.com/distinctive-customer-service/

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India's opposition to block parliament until PM resigns

India's opposition vowed on Wednesday to block parliamentary proceedings until the prime minister resigned over a coal scandal, raising the prospect of more legislative deadlock and stalled reforms.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was implicated by the national auditor in a report published last Friday which suggested the government had lost out on billions of dollars of revenue by gifting away coal mining rights.

Singh, who has seen his reputation as "Mr Clean" damaged by a string of scandals in his second term in government, served as acting coal minister from 2004-2009.

Senior opposition leader Arun Jaitley said his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would obstruct parliamentary proceedings until the 79-year-old Singh took personal responsibility and stepped down.

"Parliamentary obstructionism is normally to be avoided, but in rare cases parties do adopt it," Jaitley told the Times Now television channel in an interview as both houses of parliament were adjourned for the second day in row.

"The way forward is that the prime minister must accept his culpability. The reason is very obvious. For five out of the eight years (analysed by the auditor)... he himself was the coal minister," Jaitley added.

The disruption in parliament comes as India's economy is badly faltering, with investors and business leaders looking for decisive action from the under-fire government to restore confidence and spur expansion.

Quarterly economic growth slumped to its lowest level in nine years in the first three months of the year and more bad GDP data are expected at the end of this month.

In 2010, the BJP and opposition allies blocked an entire session of parliament, forcing adjournments for 22 business days in a row which meant no legislation was passed.

"BJP goes for broke, wants PM to quit," headlined The Times of India on its front page on Wednesday, underlining how the opposition had staked its credibility on removing Singh.

President of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, is expected to stand steadfastly by her choice as premier, who has weathered repeated calls from the opposition to resign previously.

The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said private companies had made windfall gains of about $33.4 billion since 2004 after being given mining rights via a process that "lacked transparency and objectivity".

The government had known of the huge profits for private operators, but had failed to introduce an open bidding process that would have brought in revenue for the national exchequer, the CAG said.

The report did not contain any allegations of corruption or criminal practices and the government accused the CAG, an independent constitutional body, of publishing spurious figures.

"I think as and when this case is investigated more glaring facts will come out," Jaitley claimed.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters the government was ready for a discussion about the CAG report in parliament and accused the BJP of running away from an open debate.

"Why are they even opposing a discussion? They are scared about the fact that when this discussion takes place, skeletons will come out," he said.

The government has said its efforts to introduce open bidding for coal resources were held up by opposition from some state governments, notably ones run by the BJP.

The "coalgate" scandal centres on the opaque system of gifting away valuable coal resources to companies, with little known about why politicians and bureaucrats favoured some operators over others.

In 2010, Singh's government was hit by a huge scandal over the murky sale of mobile phone spectrum, which led to the arrest of a minister accused of taking kickbacks in return for favours.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indian-opposition-block-parliament-until-pm-resigns-073017024.html

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Has Curiosity Captured UFO Images On Mars? (You Get One Guess) [Video]

Ufologists are running amok after 'discovering flying saucers' in the last images from Mars Curiosity. It hasn't been the first time and it will not be the last—the guys with the tinfoil hats are scrutinizing every single image uploaded by the rover. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/8ObxYnH2bO4/has-curiosity-captured-ufo-images-on-mars-you-get-one-guess

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NASA's Curiosity rover prepares to fire laser beam at Martian surface

Before embarking on its maiden drive on the Red Planet, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will fire its rock-vaporizing laser beam. A chemical sensor will sniff the vaporized bits to determine their composition.

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / August 17, 2012

This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Enlarge

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is slated to fire its rock-vaporizing laser for the first time in the next few days, shortly before the 1-ton robot's maiden drive on the Red Planet.

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Scientists plan to blast a Martian rock called N165 with Curiosity's laser, which is part of the rover's remote-sampling ChemCam instrument. The 3-inch-wide (7.6 centimeters) stone sits just 9 feet (2.7 meters) from Curiosity, well within ChemCam's 25-foot (7.6 m) range, scientists said.

"Our team has waited eight long years to get to this date, and we're happy that everything is looking good so far," ChemCam principal investigator Roger Wiens, of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, told reporters today (Aug. 17). "Hopefully we'll be back early next week and be able to talk about how Curiosity's first laser shots went."

Curiosity, which landed in Mars' huge Gale Crater on Aug. 5, is also gearing up to move its six wheels for the first time. The rover's handlers have said a short test drive could take place around Sol 15 ? mission lingo for Curiosity's 15th full day on the Red Planet ? which corresponds to Monday or Tuesday (Aug. 20 or 21) Earth time.

Also today, scientists announced the target destination for Curiosity's first big trek ? a spot 1,300 feet (400 m) or so east of the rover's landing site that the mission team has dubbed Glenelg. Researchers chose it because Glenelg harbors three different geological units for Curiosity to study. [Photos: Glenelg on Mars - Latest Curiosity Rover Views]

"This was a natural target to pick up," said Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger, a geologist at Caltech in Pasadena. "It looks really obvious."

Firing up the laser

ChemCam, which is short for Chemistry and Camera, fires a laser at Mars rocks and then determines their chemical makeup by analyzing the vaporized bits. It's one of 10 instruments designed to help Curiosity determine if Mars has ever been capable of supporting microbial life.

While researchers haven't turned the laser on yet, ChemCam seems to be in fine working shape, Wiens said.

"We have basically done everything with this instrument except for turn the laser on," Wiens said. "Everything checks out well so far, so we're really optimistic."

Over the next few days, the team will perform some more calibration work with ChemCam, he added. Scientists will also photograph N165 before finally shooting the rock with the laser.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/AgW1Ddtb0oY/NASA-s-Curiosity-rover-prepares-to-fire-laser-beam-at-Martian-surface

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Sabal Financial Group Announces Acquisition of $96 Million ...

NEWPORT BEACH, CA ? (Marketwire) ? 08/21/12 ? Sabal Financial Group, L.P., a diversified financial services company, announced the recent purchase of a $96 million loan portfolio from The Bank of the West. The portfolio is a combination of non-performing and performing loans and is secured by commercial real estate and land in California, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Iowa.

?The Bank of the West portfolio was appealing to us because of its land holdings. There are barriers to entry and a general lack of development space, resulting in a constrained land supply, which will have higher values as the real estate market continues to recover,? said Pat Jackson, CEO of Sabal Financial Group. ?We have the luxury of being patient in working out these assets.?

Sabal specializes in the acquisition and valuation of portfolios of real estate loans with a concentration on commercial real estate loans and commercial and residential acquisition, development and construction (ADC) loans.

Sabal has been acquiring loan portfolios since 2009 and has amassed nearly $4 billion in assets under management.

?2012 has been an important year for us,? said Jackson. ?Our goal is to continue leveraging our platform to expand our growth.?

While continuing to increase its assets under management, Sabal Financial Group has also been expanding its bank consulting practice, providing a broad spectrum of valuation, underwriting and asset management services to community and investment banks.

In addition, in June 2012, Sabal established a residential builder-lending platform to provide non-recourse acquisition and development loans to homebuilders in California, Seattle, and Portland metro areas.

About Sabal Financial Group
Sabal Financial Group, L.P. is a nationwide diversified financial services firm specializing in the acquisition, valuation, management and servicing of commercial real estate and acquisition, development and construction (ADC) loans and mortgages. Sabal Financial Group provides credit advisory services and loan portfolio management and performance assessments for investment and commercial banks, including capital assessment based upon portfolio and ALLL analysis. Sabal also provides construction and A&D loans to established middle-market residential builders in California, Washington and Oregon. Sabal Financial Group is a privately held company that has approximately $3.5 billion under management and is led by a senior management team with extensive banking and real estate expertise in both the governmental and private sector. Sabal Financial Group is headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, with offices in Pasadena, CA, Miami, Washington, DC, Greenville, SC and New York City. www.sabalfin.com

Contact:
Julie Fornaro / Jamie Rudolph
IDEA HALL
562-587-3957 / 714-263-8748
juliemfornaro@me.com / Jamie@ideahall.com

Source: http://www.nearshorejournal.com/2012/08/sabal-financial-group-announces-acquisition-of-96-million-portfolio-of-performing-and-non-performing-loans-from-bank-of-the-west/

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London stocks steady at open

GOYANG, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea's ruling conservatives picked Park Geun-hye, the daughter of the country's slain strongman, on Monday as their candidate for December's presidential polls, putting her on track to become the country's first woman leader. Park, the daughter of Park Chung-hee who ruled the country??

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/london-stocks-steady-open-072751445.html

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