Microtecture

Washroom Accessories

In the United States, bathrooms are generally categorized as a "full bathroom" (or "full bath"), containing four plumbing fixtures: bathtub, shower, toilet, and sink; "half (1/2) bath" (or "powder room") containing just a toilet and sink; and "3/4 bath" containing toilet, sink, and shower, although the terms vary from market to market. In some U.S. markets, a toilet, sink, and shower are considered a "full bath". This lack of a single, universal definition commonly results in discrepancies between advertised and actual number of baths in real estate listings. An additional complication is that there are currently two ways of notating the number of bathrooms in a dwelling. One method is to count a half bathroom as ".5" and then add this to the number of full bathrooms (e.g., "2.5" baths would mean 2 full baths and 1 half bath). The other, newer method is to put the number of full bathrooms to the left side of the decimal point and to put the number of half bathrooms to the right of the decimal point (e.g., "2.1" would mean 2 full baths and 1 half bath; "3.2" would mean 3 full baths and 2 half baths).

Nearly all of the hundreds of houses excavated had their own bathing rooms. Generally located on the ground floor, the bath was made of brick, sometimes with a surrounding curb to sit on. The water drained away through a hole in the floor, down chutes or pottery pipes in the walls, into the municipal drainage system. Even the fastidious Egyptians rarely had special bathrooms.

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
The US Senate on Tuesday defeated a measure seen as hampering US President Barack Obama's administration plans to try suspected terrorists in civilian courts in New York.

Republican Senator James Inhofe's amendment, which was defeated in a 57-43 vote, aimed to prevent the transfer of detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay facility for suspected terrorists to US soil.

Inhofe's measure would have blocked any monies in a military construction and veterans' affairs bill from going to build or modify any US facilities to hold Guantanamo Bay detainees on a temporary or permanent basis.

Republicans have assailed the Obama administration's plans to try five alleged plotters in the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes in civilian court in New York.

CINCINNATI – Running back Larry Johnson has agreed to terms with the Cincinnati Bengals to be one of their backups, giving the AFC North leaders depth at the position, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
Johnson reached the contract agreement Tuesday, according to the person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team had not made an announcement. The Bengals have to make a roster move to clear a spot for Johnson, who will be fourth on the depth chart at the outset.
The move came eight days after the Kansas City Chiefs let him go as he was set to return from his second suspension in the last 12 months. The Bengals have one of the NFL's leading rushers this season in Cedric Benson.

ZURICH – Swiss bank UBS AG, which has been plagued by losses and customer withdrawals, said Tuesday it aims to make an annual pretax profit of 15 billion Swiss francs ($14.9 billion) in three to five years.
The bank set out a series of medium-term goals aimed at returning the one-time financial powerhouse to profit even as it indicated there will be no quick turnaround.
"We have made tremendous progress in increasing our capital and positioning the group for renewed growth, but work remains to be done," Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel said in a note to investors.
"The transformation we are undertaking is a fundamental one and it will not happen quickly," he said. "I am determined, however, that we build a firm for sustainable profit and not one to focus only on short-term expectations."
UBS is targeting a cost-to-income ratio of 65-70 percent and a return on equity of 15-20 percent by 2015.
The bank posted a third-quarter net loss of 564 million Swiss francs earlier this month, the second under Gruebel, who was hired in March to turn UBS around after a record 21-billion-franc annual loss last year.
In a reference to the bank's past practice of helping rich foreigners evade taxes that resulted in a high-profile legal dispute with the U.S. government, Gruebel said he was building "a new UBS: one that performs to the highest standards and behaves with integrity and honesty."
Tax amnesties offered by some countries, such as Italy, would have a lesser impact than external observers predicted, the bank said.
UBS believes much of the money withdrawn from Switzerland will be reinvested with the bank's foreign branches, while those customers who leave for good will be balanced out by new clients in emerging markets.
Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank welcomed the new targets.
"As predicted, UBS has announced very ambitious goals that are significantly beyond our current estimates," the analysts said.
"Shares should react positively today, even though there is a long way to go before the strategy is implemented."
UBS shares were up 0.6 percent at 17.59 francs ($17.41) on the Zurich exchange.

BEIJING (AFP) –
Police in China's restive Xinjiang region have launched a fresh manhunt aimed at capturing fugitives wanted in connection with deadly ethnic violence in July this year, state media said Tuesday.

The regional public security bureau's "strike hard and rectify" campaign, which began on Sunday, will run until the end of the year, the Xinjiang Daily reported.

"We must expand the scope of our work on capturing fugitives, do better to gather, analyse and research all intelligence and focus on cases and clues related to violent acts of terrorism," said the report, citing Xinjiang police.

"We must strictly prevent violent acts of terrorism and ensure stability."

Violence between mainly Muslim Uighurs and members of China's dominant Han ethnic group erupted on July 5 in the regional capital Urumqi, leaving nearly 200 people dead, according to the official toll.

Last month, 21 people were convicted for their roles in the unrest, with 12 sentenced to death. Those sentences were upheld in appeal hearings last week.

According to the US-based Uighur American Association, a court in Yili prefecture, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) west of Urumqi, last week jailed 19 people for state security crimes, some linked to the July unrest.

Authorities have blamed the Xinjiang unrest on "ethnic separatists", without providing any evidence.

But Uighurs say the violence was triggered when police cracked down on peaceful protests over a brawl in late June at a factory in southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead.

Human Rights Watch said last month that they had documented at least 43 Uighurs, including children, who remain unaccounted for after earlier round-ups by security forces following the clashes.

The real number could be much higher, the New York-based group said.

China's roughly eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities, and tensions have simmered in Xinjiang for years.

China says it faces a serious terrorist threat from Muslim separatists in the region, but rights groups have accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat in order to justify its tight controls.

The new security crackdown comes one month after the 60th anniversary of the founding of communist China on October 1, during which security forces maintained calm in Xinjiang, the newspaper said.

MEXICO CITY – Horrified by the excesses of dictatorship, Latin Americans discarded the strongman model at the end of the 20th century and limited politicians' time in power.
Now a new wave of populist presidents is trying to do away with those limits, arguing they impede real change. As leaders in country after country move to extend their rule, opponents fearing a return to the "caudillo" era of authoritarian power have done everything to stop them — from throwing eggs to staging coups.
"It's a new political model of what I call low-intensity dictatorships," said Manuel Orozco, a Central America analyst at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.
Term limits were the backdrop for a June coup in Honduras, where proponents said they were trying to prevent an illegal attempt by President Manuel Zelaya to extend his time in office. Zelaya denies any such intention.
Nicaragua joined the fray with a Supreme Court ruling giving President Daniel Ortega the right to seek re-election as many times as he wants. Opponents calling it an illegal power grab threw eggs at the judge in charge.
Similar scenarios have played out in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, where leaders have made noticeable progress on entrenched issues such as poverty or violence, but are accused of quashing dissent.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spent his country's oil wealth liberally on education, health care and food subsidies for the poor. He also has closed critical media outlets and used a majority in Congress to vastly diminish the powers of opposition mayors and governors.
Chavez was overwhelmingly elected president six years later. In December, Venezuelans voted to allow "el Comandante" to seek indefinite re-election.
Chavez first gained prominence for staging a failed coup in 1992. Far from being appalled at the assault on a 30-year-old democracy, many poor Venezuelans considered the young army lieutenant colonel a hero for trying to overthrow a president accused of stealing millions in public funds.
In decades past, Latin Americans once feared strongmen who emerged from military coups and curtailed human rights and crushed all dissent. Many were from the right. But some leftists also managed to amass great power or ruled for decades, such as Cuba's Fidel Castro, Peru's Gen. Juan Velasco and Argentina's populist Gen. Juan Peron.
After years of peaceful, democratic transfers of power in most countries, some of that fear has faded. Instead, there is anger over the corruption scandals and ineffectiveness that have marred many fledgling democracies.
Bolivia's Evo Morales and Ecuador's Rafael Correa — like Chavez, leftists popular for their efforts to redistribute wealth and give a voice to the poor — have won referendums to change their constitutions to allow them to seek second terms.
In Colombia, Alvaro Uribe's supporters don't want to let go of the conservative president, who is hugely popular for reducing murder and kidnapping rates and crippling leftist rebels. Uribe won a constitutional change to secure his second term, and now lawmakers have called a referendum asking voters to let him seek a third.
The rise of the "new caudillos" is testament to the failure of some countries to establish strong branches of government that can check executive power, despite decades of democratic rule, Orozco said.
Ortega, who doesn't have support to overturn term limits in the Nicaraguan Congress, took the issue to the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court, where the majority of judges are from his ruling Sandinista party.
While the opposition Liberal Party complained, Orozco noted it was the Liberals who made a pact with the Sandinistas to split influence over such institutions so they could freeze out other political parties.
Ortega himself played a central role in Nicaragua's long struggle to shake off autocratic rule, first coming to power after Sandinista rebels toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. He ruled in a guerrilla-dominated junta before winning a presidential election in 1984 and fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels for a decade until losing his bid for a second term.
By the time Ortega won 2006 elections, Nicaragua had banned presidents from seeking consecutive presidential terms.

"Daniel Ortega has come full circle, pulling stunts that Anastasio Somoza used to do, to stay in power," said Robert Pastor, a professor of international relations at American University. "In his case, Ortega stacks the Supreme Court, which then obliges him by interpreting the constitution to say the opposite of what it actually says about re-election."

Meanwhile, the region's stronger democracies have avoided such turmoil.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has overseen economic prosperity and secured South America's first Olympic Games, has served the maximum two terms and will step down after next year's election even though he is wildly popular.

In Mexico, the single-term presidency has been the third rail of politics since it was implemented after the 1910 revolution overthrew dictator Porfirio Diaz.

Chile's Michelle Bachelet, a popular successor to a popular president, will leave office next year after one term in a country with one of Latin America's lowest poverty rates.

Uribe hasn't said whether he wants to run for a third term. But even some supporters are urging him not to, worried he could end up lumped with Chavez and discredited in the United States, Colombia's top ally.

President Barack Obama might have been thinking the same in June, when shortly before a meeting with Uribe he publicly lauded Silva as an example for other countries, "where the democratic tradition is not as deeply embedded as we'd like it to be."

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Associated Press Writer Filadelfo Aleman in Managua, Nicaragua, contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama greeted Hamid Karzai's election victory with as much admonishment as praise on Monday, pointedly advising America's partner in war he must make more serious efforts to end corruption in Afghanistan's government and prepare his nation to ultimately defend itself.
"I emphasized that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter," Obama said in describing his phone call to the Afghan president. When Karzai offered back assurances, Obama said he told him that "the proof is not going to be in words. It's going to be in deeds."
Obama's message of stern solidarity came as he considers sending tens of thousands more U.S. troops into the war zone in Karzai's country.
Karzai won a second term Monday when competitor Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the Nov. 7 runoff, suggesting it would be doomed by fraud just as the first voting in August was. The handling of the first election cost Karzai in international credibility.
Yet the White House put its weight behind the legitimacy of the final outcome after helping to broker a runoff that never happened. Obama called the process "messy" but said Karzai won in accordance with Afghan law. The White House repeatedly said Abdullah had pulled out for his own political and personal reasons.
The collapse of the planned run-off increases pressure on the Obama administration to quickly end its lengthy deliberations about whether to commit more U.S. forces to a worsening war. Obama may announce his revamped war strategy, including a decision on sending more troops, early next week before a planned overseas trip.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged that Karzai's win by default is a factor in the coming decision about troops but did not say the timetable for an announcement has changed. The administration continues to say it will happen in the "coming weeks."
In recounting his call to Karzai, Obama spent most of his time saying what he expects from his fellow president: more diligent efforts to end corruption, cooperation in accelerating the training of Afghan security forces, tangible benefits in the lives of the Afghan people.
Those aren't just Obama's standards. He is under pressure to show Congress and the public that the U.S. is dealing with a trustworthy partner, particularly if it is going to send more troops there. Many Americans have grown weary of the war and are questioning its worth.
About 68,000 U.S. troops are already in Afghanistan, where October was the deadliest month for U.S. forces. Several thousands NATO troops from various countries are also committed to a war that has stretched into its ninth year and is focused on combatting insurgents and dismantling al-Qaida terrorists.
Obama said Karzai needs to "take advantage of the international community's interest in his country."
Indeed, the White House made clear that the election gave Karzai legal legitimacy but not necessarily any new boost of credibility.
"Nobody has ever made the accusation that credibility was going to be had simply out of one election," Gibbs said.
Relieved U.S. officials said the outcome accomplished two main objectives that have been part of weeks of strategy discussion in Washington: The results yielded finality to a messy process and came only after Karzai acknowledged the illegitimacy of the original balloting.
Knowledge that Karzai would continue at the helm of the Afghan government changed little in the administration's calculus, at least in terms of pushing for reform and anti-corruption and counter-narcotics efforts, said officials who have been involved in strategy discussions. The U.S. government feels the outcome gives it continued leverage to push for reform in Karzai's political house, the officials said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not announced his decision on strategy and troops.
Karzai has led Afghanistan since U.S. forces invaded to oust the Taliban in 2001. He won election in 2004, and his latest victory will give him another five-year mandate.
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Associated Press writers Anne Gearan and Matthew Lee contributed to this story.

KIEV, Ukraine – Urging its citizens not to panic, Ukraine on Monday closed the nation's schools for a week to avoid the spread of swine flu and suggested that nightclubs, cinemas and food markets in the west also shut down.
The World Health Organization said Monday there was no evidence that Ukraine had a bad outbreak of swine flu but at the government's request it had sent a health team there to help the country cope.
"But this is not an indication that the situation is severe," said WHO spokeswoman Liuba Negru. "The information we have gotten (from the government), we have to double-check it and make sure it is real, evidence-based information."
Ukraine's Health Ministry said Monday that 70 people in the nation of 40 million have died of flu, but did not say how many of those deaths were related to swine flu. Worldwide, outbreaks of regular seasonal flu claim 50,000 lives each year.
Nevertheless, all schools have been closed for a week across Ukraine, even in the capital, Kiev, where there have been no confirmed cases of swine flu.
In western Ukraine, local authorities advised people to travel only when necessary, a Health Ministry spokeswoman said.
All outdoor markets have been closed in the western region of Lviv, where the governor also urged cinemas, cafes, nightclubs and theaters to shut down until further notice.
Some observers, including the speaker of the parliament, Vladimir Litvin, suggested that these measures are the result of political wrangling ahead of the country's presidential election in January. The pivotal vote could overturn the 2004 Orange Revolution that swept a pro-Western government to power.
"We are seeing a political competition to see who will be the first to lead this process (of fighting swine flu)," Litvin said, according to the UNIAN news agency.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko met a Swiss shipment of anti-viral drugs at the Kiev airport on Monday.
"The government has declared the situation an epidemic, but there is absolutely no need to panic," she declared on national television.
Her main rival, President Viktor Yushchenko, said thousands of people were infected and called for assistance from NATO, the European Commission, the United States, Russia and other countries.
Konstantin Bondarenko, director of the Gorshenin Institute, a political consultancy, said that Tymoshenko has the most to lose from public sentiment over the outbreak, as state health officials answer to her.
"Right now all the candidates are weighing their political options, looking around for a theme, and this is a very hot topic right now. The panic is there, and they are acting on it," Bondarenko said.
After receiving the shipment of 300,000 doses of Tamiflu at Kiev's Borispol airport, Tymoshenko said her government plans to increase its hoard of the drug by another 300,000 to 950,000 doses.
"This is the supply that will reliably protect Ukraine," Tymoshenko said, ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Viktor Yanukovych, the Regions' Party candidate for the presidency, has not commented on the swine flu uproar. Yanukovych, who was beaten in 2005 by Yushchenko, is leading in the polls with a platform that emphasizes closer ties with Russia.
During the past five years of Yushchenko's presidency, relations with Moscow reached historic lows. Yushchenko's approval ratings at home have fallen to single digits in the wake of the economic crisis, which hit Ukraine hard, and years of political gridlock with Tymoshenko.

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Associated Press writer Simon Shuster reported from Moscow.

Commercial LED Lighting

Lighting is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting (through windows, skylights, etc.) is often used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings given its low cost. Artificial lighting represents a major component of energy consumption, accounting for a significant part of all energy consumed worldwide.

Artificial lighting is most commonly provided today by electric lights, but gas lighting, candles, or oil lamps were used in the past, and still are used in certain situations. Proper lighting can enhance task performance or aesthetics, while there can be energy wastage and adverse health effects of lighting. Indoor lighting is a form of fixture or furnishing, and a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be an intrinsic component of landscaping.

In the United States, the earliest settlers claimed land by simply fencing it in. Later, as the American government formed, unsettled land became technically owned by the government and programs to register land ownership developed, usually making raw land available for low prices or for free, if the owner improved the property, including the construction of fences.

On private land in the United Kingdom, it is the landowner's responsibility to fence their livestock in. Conversely, for common land, it is the surrounding landowners' responsibility to fence the common's livestock out.

Wrought Iron Gates

President Barack Obama will know by Friday whether he got the deal on Iranian nuclear material on which he has staked his engagement strategy. A third day of talks in Vienna ended inconclusively Wednesday, with the Iranian delegation requiring consultations with their government back in Tehran before signing off on a detailed plan to ship three-quarters of its current stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia for conversion into harmless reactor fuel. The parties to the deal have been given until Friday to report back, although reports from Vienna suggested that Tehran was pushing back against some of the terms being set for the deal by the U.S. and its partners - specifically over the timetable and scale of Iran's uranium delivery to Russia.
The points of contention not only highlight the differing objectives of the two sides in making a deal. They also serve as a reminder that as significant a confidence-building mechanism as the Vienna deal may be, it doesn't actually begin to address the deadlock between Iran and the West over whether the Islamic Republic will continue to enrich uranium. (See pictures of the world's worst nuclear disasters.)
The deal under discussion in Vienna was hatched when Iran approached the IAEA earlier this year for help in acquiring fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran, which is not suspected of being part of any covert weapons program. U.S. officials took the opportunity to address "ticking clock" concerns that Iran had already amassed enough low-enriched uranium (LEU) that - if it expelled inspectors and reprocessed the material to weapons grade - could be fashioned into a single atomic bomb. So Washington proposed that Iran use its own stockpile of LEU as the basis for the reactor fuel, which would require shipping it to Russia and France for further enrichment and conversion into fuel rods that would be extremely difficult for Iran to weaponize. The deal obviously appealed to the West as a way to limit Iran's ability to potentially create a bomb; but the Iranians aren't viewing it as a concession. They see the deal as a tacit recognition that uranium-enrichment in Iran is an intractable reality, despite Western hopes of coaxing and cajoling Iran into abandoning it altogether in exchange for a package of political and economic incentives. (After all, the uranium that Russia and France would reprocess for Iran under the proposed deal was enriched in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.)
There's nothing unusual about a diplomatic solution containing elements that both sides can claim as a victory, but the competing agendas of Iran and its Western interlocutors may explain the disagreements currently clouding the talks. The West, eager to buy time for negotiations without Iran moving steadily closer to the capacity to make a weapon, wants the Iranian uranium that will be turned into reactor fuel under the deal to be delivered in a single shipment, and by the end of this year. But as much as Iran sees the agreement as an opportunity to build Western confidence in its intentions, and also acquire much-needed reactor fuel, it remains suspicious of foreign powers. Tehran sought this week to exclude France from participating in the deal on the grounds that it could not be trusted by Iran - and, indeed, President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken the hardest line among Western leaders on forcing a halt to Iran's uranium enrichment. But even Russia has been frequently accused by Tehran of dragging its feet over the construction of Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr. (See a graphic of the nuclear armed world.)
Iran plainly doesn't share the sense of urgency of the U.S. and its allies, and rejects the idea that its uranium stockpile represents a security threat. Its relatively low-level delegation in Vienna was not authorized to conclude an agreement. And reports from the talks suggest that the country was hoping to stagger its shipments into smaller parcels, and over a longer time frame. Western diplomats, however, are mindful of the fact that Iran will keep on enriching uranium - and fear that if its keeps its centrifuges running while shipping out smaller portions, it can maintain close to enough for a single bomb in its own stockpile.
Not surprisingly Friday's verdict remains uncertain. IAEA chief Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei says his "fingers are crossed" that the deal will be green-lighted, while U.S. officials warn that the offer is a key test of Iran's intentions. An Iranian rejection would pour cold water on the cautious optimism from the White House over the prospects for engagement. But even if Tehran agrees to the deal, it doesn't address the Western objective of ending uranium enrichment in Iran. The negotiations in Vienna, and on Oct. 1 in Geneva, have essentially sidestepped the issue of Iran's compliance with Security Council resolutions requiring that it suspend enrichment in order to strengthen safeguards against its nuclear material being used for military purposes.
Until now, the U.S. and its allies have insisted that Iran can't be allowed to possess enrichment capability even for peaceful purposes, because that gives it a "breakout" capacity to relatively quickly build nuclear weapons should it choose that option. Iran continues to insist that it has no intention of abandoning enrichment. But if Tehran combines its refusal to end enrichment with a more accommodating position on measures to safeguard against weaponization, it could put the West in a diplomatic bind - forced to choose between making progress on the basis of diminished goals, or facing an uphill battle to muster sufficient pressure to force Iran into retreat.
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View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com:At Vienna Nuclear-Fuel Talks, Iran Snubs France, Sarkozy How Obama's Secret Iran Talks Set the Stage for a Nuclear Deal Iran's Geneva Offer on Nukes: Progress for All The Pentagon's Message on Iran: Don't Panic Why Iran Won't Budge on Nukes

Natural Baby Products

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, it became a teen fashion trend to wear pacifiers as accessories. This was associated with techno music and the use of the drug MDMA (used due to oral dystonia and the urge to grind or nash teeth while on the drug), leading to a ban on this trend in many places.

Newborns can feel all different sensations, but respond most enthusiastically to soft stroking, cuddling and caressing. Gentle rocking back and forth often calms a crying infant, as do massages and warm baths. Newborns may comfort themselves by sucking their thumb, or a pacifier. The need to suckle is instinctive (see suction in biology) and allows newborns to feed.

Racing Schools

With auto construction and racing dominated by France, the French automobile club ACF staged a number of major international races, usually from or to Paris, connecting with another major city in Europe or France.

British Stock car racing is a form of Short Oval Racing. This takes place on shale or tarmac tracks in either clockwise or anti-clockwise direction depending on the class, some of which allow contact. Races are organized by local promoters and all drivers are registered with BRISCA and have their own race number. What classes exist depends on the promoter, so events in Scotland at Cowdenbeath can be very different from an event at Wimbledon Stadium in London.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Ethiopia said Thursday it needs emergency food aid for 6.2 million people, an appeal that comes 25 years after a devastating famine compounded by communist policies killed 1 million and prompted one of the largest charity campaigns in history.
The crisis stems from a prolonged drought that has hit much of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Somalia.
Drought is especially disastrous in Ethiopia because more than 80 percent of people live off the land. Agriculture drives the economy, accounting for half of all domestic production and most exports.
Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia's state minister for agriculture and rural development, appealed to donors Thursday for more than $121 million. In January, he had said that 4.9 million of Ethiopia's 85 million people needed emergency food aid.
Ethiopia has long struggled with cyclical droughts, which are compounded by the country's dependence on rain-fed agriculture and archaic farming practices.
In 1984, Ethiopia's famine drew international attention as news reports showed emaciated children and adults with limbs as thin as sticks. The crisis launched one of the biggest global charity campaigns in history, including the concert Live Aid.
This year's drought appears to be slightly less severe than the one last year, which was exacerbated by high food prices. A year ago, Mitiku appealed for aid to feed 6.4 million people affected by drought. Many humanitarian groups have said in recent years that they believe the number of people affected by hunger is higher than government estimates.
Because of Ethiopia's large size and poor infrastructure, independent observers have difficulty collecting data. The worst-affected areas in the country's east are the site of a fierce insurgency and are off-limits to journalists. Aid groups say their movements in these areas are limited by military restrictions.
Nick Martlew, an official with the aid group Oxfam in Ethiopia, said the country's east should be green and healthy now, but that crops are wilting in the sun and won't produce a sufficient amount of food.
"Really until June next year there is going to be insufficient food around," he said. "Where we are in eastern Ethiopia you can look out and it's completely barren as far as the eye can see."
Drought and water shortages are also increasing in Ethiopia's south because of a changing climate, Martlew said. Oxfam is helping villages collect rain water for long-term use.
In a report marking 25 years since Ethiopia's famine, Oxfam said countries must focus on preparing communities to prevent and deal with drought and other disasters before they strike, rather than relying on importing aid.
According to the U.N., nearly two-thirds of Africa's agricultural land has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where bad farming practices have led to massive erosion, 85 percent of land is damaged.
"The current humanitarian situation underlines our belief that while food aid — much of it donated by foreign donors — is important and can save lives, we need greater funding for longer-term solutions, which can begin to tackle the underlying causes that make people so vulnerable to disasters," said Oxfam's Ethiopia country director, Waleed Rauf.
In eastern Ethiopia's Hararge zone, the scene of some of the worst hunger and drought-related suffering last year, health official Aliye Youya said few infants had come in to the main feeding center for treatment. A new initiative by the Ethiopian government to put health workers in every neighborhood has helped, he said.
But he said he was still concerned about the lack of rain in some areas.
"(A month ago) there was no rain, especially in the lowland areas," he said. "But nowadays there is some rain. The drought is affecting the lowland areas."
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Associated Press writer Anita Powell in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

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An open park bench in al-Mahdi Park, Tehran. the bench seat is a traditional seat installed in automobiles, featuring a continuous pad running the full width of the cabin. a punishment bench is used to have a punishee lie (and often be tied) down on for the administration of a corporal punishment, after which it may be specifically named, e.g. caning bench.

Various types of benches are specifically designed for and/or named after specific uses, such as a Bench (weight training) is used for fitness exercises, such as the bench press which is named after its use of a bench a Communion bench is not used as a seat Piano benches offer usually one person seating and are height adjustable. a spanking bench, such as a caning bench, is specifically designed for a spankee to lie upon, possibly strapped down, while submitting to paining of the posterior Swing seats are independently movable, suspended benches, used for play or as a relaxing porch swing. a courting bench (or kissing bench, or tête-à-tête): a two-seater with the seats pointing in opposite directions, thus almost facing each other. A friendship bench in a school playground is where a child can go when they want someone to talk to. The bench in a courtroom, behind which the judge is seated.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Former President George H.W. Bush doesn't like the "ugliness" President Barack Obama has faced since taking office, but he thinks it's no worse than his son experienced and is not about Obama being black.
Bush, who was hosting Obama at a volunteerism forum here Friday, said the tone of the criticism "crosses the line of civility."
"To the degree it turns off one student or young person from serving, that's bad," Bush said in an interview with CBS News Radio at his presidential library. "It should not happen."
But Bush stressed that conservatives aren't the only ones to blame. Liberal pundits heaped similar scorn on his son, former President George W. Bush.
"They just hammered him mercilessly — and I think obscenely — a lot of the time," he said.
Former President Jimmy Carter recently asserted that much of the bitterness aimed at Obama stemmed from his being the nation's first black president.
Obama disagreed.
The elder Bush said, "You might find some racists out there but I don't think the attacks per se have to do that he's an African-American."
Bush, who turned 85 in June, said presidents throughout history have suffered at the hands of critics.
"I'm reluctant to say it's a whole new thing in politics — this ugliness," he said. "I mean you go back to Grover Cleveland ... It was terrible the things that people said."

The dog (Canis lupus familiaris, pronounced /ˈkeɪ.nis ˈluːpəs fʌˈmɪliɛəris/) is a domesticated subspecies of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history. The domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. The dog quickly became ubiquitous across culture in all parts of the world, and was extremely valuable to early human settlements. For instance, it is believed that the successful emigration across the Bering Strait might not have been possible without sled dogs. As a result of the domestication process, the dog developed a sophisticated intelligence that includes unparalleled social cognition and a simple theory of mind[citation needed] that is important to their interaction with humans. These social skills have helped the dog to perform in myriad roles, such as hunting, herding, protection, and, more recently, assisting handicapped individuals. Currently, there are estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world.

Over the 15,000 year span that the dog had been domesticated, it diverged into only a handful of landraces, groups of similar animals whose morphology and behavior have been shaped by environmental factors and functional roles. As the modern understanding of genetics developed, humans began to intentionally breed dogs for a wide range of specific traits. Through this process, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal. For example, height measured to the withers ranges from a few inches in the Chihuahua to a few feet in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called "blue'") to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark ("red" or "chocolate") in a wide variation of patterns; coats can be short or long, coarse-haired to wool-like, straight, curly, or smooth. It is common for most breeds to shed this coat, but non-shedding breeds are also popular.

Dog Supplements

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch was released from a Massachusetts jail early Friday after completing a federal sentence for evading taxes on the $1 million he won during the CBS reality show's first season.
Hatch was freed shortly before 6 a.m. from Barnstable County jail in Bourne, Mass., sheriff spokesman Roy Lyons said. He was driven home to Newport, R.I., by sheriff's deputies and arrived there around 7:30 a.m., Lyons said.
A message left at his home Friday morning was not immediately returned.
Hatch, 48, now faces three years of supervised release. He won't be able to leave Rhode Island without permission and must check in with his probation officer regularly, said Barry Weiner, chief U.S. probation officer for Rhode Island. Hatch doesn't have a job yet, but he will have to find one, Weiner said. He must also complete a mental health program.
Hatch's husband is from Argentina, and he has asked the court unsuccessfully in the past to grant him permission to live there and to go overseas to participate in a "Survivor" reunion show. Weiner said those on supervised release are typically only allowed to leave the country under special circumstances, but he wouldn't speak specifically about Hatch's case.
Hatch remains one of reality TV's most famous villains, the man viewers loved to hate. He first captured their attention for shedding his clothes on "Survivor," prompting David Letterman to nickname him "the fat naked guy."
But he made the biggest impression — and won the show — by scheming his way to the top. He reveled as squabbles among his fellow contestants thinned their ranks, connived with teammates to stick together, then pitted his allies against each other.
In 2006, he was convicted of tax evasion for not paying taxes on his "Survivor" winnings, as well as on $327,000 he earned as co-host of a Boston radio show and $28,000 in income from rental property. The judge tacked on extra prison time to his sentence after finding he had lied on the stand, giving him a 51-month prison term.
Under the terms of Hatch's supervised release, he must refile his 2000 and 2001 tax returns and pay all his back taxes, Weiner said.
After serving several years behind bars, Hatch was released to home confinement earlier this year and was supposed to complete his sentence at his sister's home in Newport. But in August he got into trouble with the Bureau of Prisons when he granted three television interviews to NBC's "Today" show," local NBC affiliate WJAR-TV and the NBC-owned "Access Hollywood."
The Bureau of Prisons said he was only authorized to give the "Today" interview and ordered him taken to jail for violating the rules. Hatch's lawyer said they thought all three were allowed, and Hatch said he was being punished for comments he made during the interviews, when he criticized the judge and prosecutor in his case and said he was discriminated against because he is gay.
A federal judge last month found that Hatch broke the rules and allowed the Bureau of Prisons to add nine days to Hatch's time behind bars as punishment.

HELSINKI (AFP) –
Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said Friday it had appointed a new financial officer a day after reporting its first loss in a decade.

The company said Timo Ihamuotila would replace Rick Simonson, taking up his post on November 1. Simonson will become head of Nokia's Mobile Phones division and both men will continue as members of the group executive board.

The Finnish company shocked markets on Thursday with its reported loss, which came in the face of rising competition in the smartphone market and problems with its Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture.

Nokia's July-September net loss was 559 million euros (834 million dollars).

Nokia said Ihamuotila joined the company in 1993 and has worked as corporate treasurer and at many senior posts, including portfolio manger of global sales of devices and services.

"In addition to his background in finance, Timo Ihamuotila's expertise from leading a diverse range of business areas will be a tremendous asset in his position as chief financial officer," Nokia's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a statement.

SAO PAULO – Rubens Barrichello arrives at the Brazilian Grand Prix with more on the line than just the Formula One title.
He has a chance to end a 17-year winless streak at his home track.
"I feel so great to be here," the Brawn GP driver said. "I put my hands into the sky to thank for the car I have and for the wins that I have and for the chance I have to win in Brazil, something that I have been dreaming of for a long, long time."
The 37-year-old Barrichello has come agonizingly close to victory at Interlagos but never finished better than third, which happened in 2004 with Ferrari. A year earlier, he was leading the race with eight laps to go before a fuel problem in his Ferrari caused his retirement when he had victory within his grasp.
This year he has one of his best chances to finally come through. He has had a remarkable season with Brawn GP and still has a shot at the drivers' title.
Barrichello trails teammate and series leader Jenson Button by 14 points, and to extend the championship into the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 1 he needs to win on Sunday and hope Button is fourth or worse.
"Hopefully here I can just put everything out and go for the win because I need it and because I want it so badly," Barrichello said.
The Brazilian needs all the help he can get and this time he will have the undivided support of the nearly 70,000 fans expected to pack Interlagos on Sunday.
He will be the only Brazilian in the race after Nelson Piquet Jr. was fired from Renault in midseason, and Ferrari's Felipe Massa was sidelined after a serious accident at the Hungarian GP in July.
"It has been a long road coming to Brazil and at the beginning, feeling the pressure but learning, more than anything, how to deal with it and changing to get that positive energy and just using that to your advantage," Barrichello said.
He struggled at the start of the season and was constantly outperformed by Button, but he turned things around at the European GP in August, when he earned the first of his two victories in the last five races.
Barrichello finished second in the drivers' standings in 2002 and 2004 with Ferrari, but never had a shot at the title then as teammate Michael Schumacher dominated.
"I feel that particularly it's my very first chance ... to go for the title and win myself," Barrichello said.
F1's most experienced driver with 286 races, Barrichello has yet to close a deal for next season despite his strong driving with Brawn GP, but he said he was still negotiating with the British team and also with Williams.
He said he was not worried about whether he will get a ride in 2010, adding he will have a choice.
"It was a distraction last year when I got here and I had no jobs," he said. "That was a distraction because it was tough going in not knowing if I could come back. So to be able to talk to teams and just to see myself in a competitive car next year is all I wish."
Barrichello and Button were driving for Honda last year when the team announced it was folding its F1 operations.
Barrichello this week said that he even talked to Penske's Indy Racing League team last year in case he didn't find a ride in F1.

LONDON (AFP) –
London stocks inched lower in early trading on Wednesday as investor confidence in economic recovery waned despite positive economic data from around the world.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell 0.37 percent to 4,801.90 points.

Adult Costumes

Isadora Duncan made a great impact on dance costume today. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries she “throws off the corset, bares her limbs, and dances barefoot” (Penrod 13). Duncan began a new look, inspired by the Greeks, of tunics and scarves. This simple costume inspired a new form of dance costume and new ways of moving (Penrod 13). This imitation of the Greek clothing freed the naturally beautiful lines of the human body and movement. This change in costume extended the dancer’s space, and caused the costume to be made to conform to the curves and shapes of the body as much as possible (Art of Production 57).

The eyes are the most expressive part of the face. To enhance their features dancers should draw attention to and make their eyes appear larger. However, to maintain unity, the intensity of the eyes must be balanced with color and shape of the lips. The color of the lips needs to be complimentary to the skin color and costume (Art of Production 123).

GLASGOW (AFP) –
Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith wants UEFA to punish Arsenal striker Eduardo for diving in the Champions League play-off round second leg against Celtic.

Eduardo won a crucial penalty in Arsenal's 3-1 win at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday after tumbling theatrically to the turf as Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc came out to make a save.

Celtic midfielder Massimo Donati called for Eduardo to be banned in the aftermath of the match and Smith wants UEFA, European football's governing body, to act retrospectively to punish the Croatia international in the same way they dealt with Lithuania striker Saulius Mikoliunas, who cheated to earn a spot-kick against Scotland at Hampden Park in September 2007.

Video evidence was used to sanction Mikoliunas, who was banned for two matches.

Smith said: "Eduardo is a terrific player who has battled back from a serious injury to resume playing at the highest level.

"However, on Wednesday he showed disrespect to the game by his actions in winning a penalty against Celtic.

"Since I came into this post, I have raised the issue of simulation time and time again - both here in Scotland and with FIFA and UEFA.

"I don't think that I have received enough support in my efforts to eradicate what I believe to be one of the most serious threats to the integrity of football. Last night showed exactly why we must take this issue seriously.

"We have shown the courage to use retrospective punishment when it comes to simulation and I would urge UEFA to do so in this instance. Everything that can be done to stamp it out must be done - starting right now.

"We need a serious debate on these issues. Everyone in football has a responsibility to set the right example to our youngsters.

"We can talk all we want about Fair Play campaigns, but taking action would be a much more powerful deterrent and would send the right message to players everywhere."

Even Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted it was not a penalty and Donati, who scored Celtic's goal in stoppage time, added: "If it is clear on TV then UEFA must act against Eduardo and ban him.

"I think he should get a two-match ban because it wasn't a penalty. I told him that and everyone in the Celtic team told him that."

Celtic defender Glenn Loovens was also in no doubt Eduardo had dived.

"I don't think he even speaks English so there was no point talking to him," Loovens added.

"It is very disappointing but that is football. It's sad it happened to us.

"I don't think it is really fair. But it helped his team take the lead. There is a referee and a linesman to see those kind of things."

Sometimes a gift basket will have themes, such as Christmas, baby shower, housewarming and Valentine's Day. Often a basket will be made to suit the recipients' needs, such as diabetic, vegan/vegetarian, gluten intolerance. Gift Baskets do not need to include food and drink, although it is the most standard practice.

Archaeological sites in the Middle East show that weaving techniques were used to make mats and possibly also baskets, circa 8 000 BC. Baskets made with several interwoven techniques were common at 3 000 BC.

Wine Gift Baskets

TEHRAN (Reuters) –
Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday he did not believe the leaders of opposition protests that erupted after the country's June presidential vote were agents of foreigners.

Iranian officials have previously portrayed the protests as a foreign-backed bid to topple the clerical establishment. They have accused Western powers, particularly the United States and Britain of fomenting the unrest, a charge denied by Washington and London.

"I do not accuse the leaders of recent events as being the agents of foreigners, including America and Britain because it has not been proven to me," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by state television.

"But there is no doubt that this movement, whether its leaders know or not, was planned in advance," Khamenei said in a meeting with university students.

Some hardliners have repeatedly called for the arrest of opposition leaders who say the vote was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Former President Mohammad Khatami said trial confessions by moderates accused of fomenting the post-election unrest were made under "extraordinary conditions" and were invalid, an Iranian news agency reported.

At Tuesday's trial, the fourth since the June polls, senior reformer and Khatami ally Saeed Hajjarian was reported as saying he had "made major mistakes during the election by presenting incorrect analyses."

"I apologize to the Iranian nation for those mistakes."

A prosecutor demanded maximum punishment for Hajjarian who is accused of acting against national security, a crime which can carry the death sentence.

"These confessions are invalid and have been obtained under extraordinary conditions ... such claims are sheer lies and false," Khatami, who backed the main moderate candidate in the election, was quoted as saying by the ILNA news agency.

Also in the dock on Tuesday were several other moderate figures, including former Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh and former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Aminzadeh -- both of whom held their positions under Khatami.

All were charged with fomenting huge street protests that followed the June presidential election that returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some confessed to "mistakes."

Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh was also accused of acting against national security and espionage at Tuesday's trial, charges likely to anger Washington.

Tajbakhsh told the court that Khatami had met billionaire financier George Soros in New York, Iranian media reported, but Khatami said this was also a "lie."

The June 12 vote has plunged Iran into its most serious internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and has exposed deep divisions in the establishment's ruling elite.

"NO MASS BURIAL"

Analysts see the mass trials as an attempt to uproot the moderate opposition and put an end to opposition protests.

Rights groups say hundreds of people, including senior pro-reform politicians, journalists and activists, have been detained since the election. Many are still in jail.

Moderate politicians and influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of Ahmadinejad, have called for the detainees' immediate release.

One of those in the dock in Tuesday's trial accused Rafsanjani's son of encouraging moderates to allege that the poll was rigged. Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani denied the claims.

In a televised debate before the election, Ahmadinejad accused Rafsanjani's family of corruption. The official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday Rafsanjani's family had issued a complaint to the judiciary against Ahmadinejad, but it did not give details.

Mehdi Karoubi, one of the defeated candidates, has also angered hardliners by claiming some imprisoned protesters were raped and abused in jail, a charge government officials have rejected as "baseless."

But a parliamentary committee set up to investigate the cases of detainees said it would be ready to consider any evidence submitted by the pro-reform cleric.

Karoubi was quoted as saying this week that four people who say they were sexually abused in jail were ready to provide testimony to parliament, but that they did not feel secure.

Committee member Farhad Tajari said the judiciary chief and the speaker of parliament had "given the necessary security guarantees to those who are ready to testify about sexual abuse in prison" but that he did not see the claims as reliable.

The reformist website Norooz said last week "tens" of people were buried in unnamed graves in the largest cemetery in Tehran on July 12 and 15 -- about a month after the election, suggesting those buried had been protestors.

But a former head of the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery said no "mass burial" had ever taken place there. A politician said on Tuesday a parliamentary committee was looking into a rumor of burials at the site.

The losing candidates say 69 people were killed in the unrest but the authorities put the death toll at 26.

The heart of a vertebrate is composed of cardiac muscle, an involuntary striated muscle tissue which is found only within this organ. The average human heart, beating at 72 beats per minute, will beat approximately 2.5 billion times during a lifetime (about 66 years). It weighs on average 250 g to 300 g in females and 300 g to 350 g in males.

The structure of the heart varies among the different branches of the animal kingdom. (See Circulatory system.) Cephalopods have two "gill hearts" and one "systemic heart". Fish have a two-chambered heart that pumps the blood to the gills and from there it goes on to the rest of the body. In amphibians and most reptiles, a double circulatory system is used, but the heart is not always completely separated into two pumps. Amphibians have a three-chambered heart.

http://www.jakenmedical.com/Cardiology-Equipment/

Cholesterol is a lipidic, waxy alcohol found in the cell membranes and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. It is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes where it is required to establish proper membrane permeability and fluidity. Cholesterol is the principal sterol synthesized by animals, but small quantities are synthesized in other eukaryotes, such as plants and fungi. It is almost completely absent among prokaryotes, which include bacteria. Cholesterol is classified as a sterol (a portmanteau of steroid and alcohol).

The name cholesterol originates from the Greek chole- (bile) and stereos (solid), and the chemical suffix -ol for an alcohol, as François Poulletier de la Salle first identified cholesterol in solid form in gallstones, in 1769. However, it was only in 1815 that chemist Eugène Chevreul named the compound "cholesterine".

Lower Cholesterol

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) –
Million Dollar Billy Bob? Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in "Pound for Pound," a boxing drama based on a novel by F.X. Toole, the author of the book that was the source for "Million Dollar Baby."

Ron Shelton will write and direct the indie film.

The project centers on the parallel lives of a retired, widowed boxer who's beset by depression after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways.

Toole was the pen name for the late boxing cutman Jerry Boyd. Two years after he died, the stories in his collection "Rope Burns" became the basis for the Clint Eastwood/Paul Haggis drama "Million Dollar Baby." The 2004 movie earned $207 million worldwide, was nominated for seven Oscars and won four, including best picture.

"Pound' was published two years later, the manuscript shaped by Toole's agent, Nat Sobel, and a freelance editor.

Among Thornton's upcoming projects is the baseball drama "Three Nights in August," which he will produce and star in.

Shelton also plans to direct "Q School," a golf comedy he wrote that Tim Allen and Dennis Quaid are eyeing for starring roles. The movie takes the director, known for a range of sports-themed movies such as "Bull Durham" and "White Men Can't Jump," back into the ring for the first time since "Play It to the Bone," a Las Vegas-set boxing picture he wrote and directed which starred Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson.

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)

KABUL (AFP) –
The head of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's re-election campaign said Friday the incumbent was decisively leading the count and there would be no need for a second round run-off.

"From what we have obtained so far, we can claim that there is no need for a run-off and we can claim that we're in the lead," campaign chief Din Mohammmad told AFP.

"We have got this figure from our observers at the (voting) sites," he added.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
U.S. President Barack Obama stood by proposals to create a government-run health insurance program on Thursday while insisting the move was merely one element of a wider plan to reform the industry.

A debate over the so-called public option has overshadowed Obama's plan to expand health coverage to tens of millions of Americans while reducing costs and making the health insurance sector more competitive.

On Sunday Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the public option was "not the essential element" of the overhaul, sparking furor among supporters and forcing the White House to clarify its message about Obama's chief legislative priority.

"She really didn't misspeak. The surprising thing is she'd been saying this all along," Obama told a radio program on Thursday, referring to Sebelius.

He said he believed the public option was important.

"What we've said is we think that's a good idea, but we haven't said that that's the only aspect of health insurance," Obama said.

"What she essentially said was...all these other insurance reforms are just as important as the public option."

A opinion poll published in The Washington Post on Friday showed a drop in public confidence in the way Obama is handling healthcare.

According to the Washington Post-ABC News poll, disapproval of Obama's handling of healthcare reached 50 percent -- the highest of his presidency -- this month. Forty two percent of those surveyed say they now "strongly disapprove" of the way he is dealing with his top domestic priority, the Post said.

Obama's healthcare plan have been hit from both sides, with liberal members of his own Democratic party pushing for major changes while Republicans and conservative Democrats fret about cost and government involvement.

Critics have seized on the public option idea, saying it would be too expensive in an age of soaring deficits and could amount to a government "take-over" of U.S. healthcare while driving private insurers out of business.

Democratic Party activists meanwhile have been upset by any sign the White House is dropping its support for the public plan, which Obama says could help keep private insurers in check and bring prices down.

TICKED OFF

"I'm getting a little ticked off that it feels like the knees are buckling a little bit," said one caller on the radio program.

"You have an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate, and you own the whole shooting match. And...it's very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with a lot of these people who aren't willing to," he said.

Obama, who has pinned considerable political capital on the reform drive, responded by saying: "We are going to get healthcare reform done."

House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said the final bill would not survive in the House without a public option -- reflecting views of liberal Democrats who have mustered vocal support for the public plan idea.

"There is no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option," she told reporters in California.

She said the president was not backing off the public option either. "No he isn't. He isn't at all," she said.

Several versions of healthcare reform bills are encountering difficulties in the Democratic-controlled Congress. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the White House and Senate Democratic leaders were mulling breaking healthcare legislation into two parts and passing the most expensive portions without Republican support.

"I think we have to be very careful about splitting it off," Pelosi said, acknowledging, however, that procedural reasons could lead to such a move.

She said whether the legislation ended up as one or two bills, it would have to lower costs and improve care.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles)