Pentagon plans to cut up to 50,000 jobs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is looking to reduce the size of its nearly 800,000 civilian workforce by 40,000 to 50,000 employees over the next five years, mainly through attrition as it closes bases and consolidates healthcare facilities, the department's comptroller said on Wednesday.

"I would hope that given the time to prepare, we could do this through attrition, but we aren't far enough along to really know for sure as to how we do it," said Undersecretary of Defense Robert Hale, the Pentagon's comptroller.

Hale said the employee reductions were tied to Pentagon plans to close excess bases and consolidate healthcare facilities, which were proposed on Wednesday and would have to be accepted by Congress before going into effect.

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(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-looks-cut-40-000-50-000-civilians-182131065.html

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I hate to dress her in pink and I don't know why I have to," the actress tells PEOPLE. "Even Chris is [saying] all the time, 'They think she's a boy! Can't you put her in something more girly?'"

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/Xl1D7BKbqt4/

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RBC takes heat for Ottawa's flawed outsourcing policy - Financial Post

Royal Bank of Canada has landed in the middle of a public relations fiasco following reports over the weekend that it is in the process of contracting out jobs of Canadian staffers to lower paid foreign workers.

In this case we?re talking about just 45 positions at RBC Investor Services in Toronto that according to the CBC will be transferred abroad through a deal with iGate Corp., a leading global provider of outsourcing services with significant operations in India.

But it?s not simply the fact that jobs are being lost that?s causing the ruckus ? after all, outsourcing is a trend that?s has been going on for years ? but rather the way it?s happening.

iGate is reportedly bringing foreign workers into the country to be trained by the RBC workers whose jobs they?ll ultimately be taking. At the end of the process the iGate employees will return return home, which in at least some cases is India, where they will take up their new responsibilities.

It?s all legal under the federal government?s controversial temporary foreign worker program (TFP) which enables companies to bring people into the country on a temporary basis. Not only is it legal, but it?s happening at plenty of other companies as well.

Critics say the real question is whether the TFP makes any sense for Canada.

?Canadian banks, like every other major institution, have been looking for ways to manage work effectively and there?s nothing wrong with outsourcing,? said Finn Poschmann, vice president of research at the C.D. Howe Institute, an economic policy think tank based in Toronto. ?But some of us have always had questions around the TFP.?

According to Mr. Poschmann, Canadian immigration policy is designed to encourage skilled workers to come here on a permanent basis, to raise their families and generally strengthen the quality of the workforce.

But that?s not what the TFP does.

?The problem with the TFP is it?s not aligned with established government strategy? and the public is starting to recognize that, he said.

In other words, outsourcing is a fact of life but moving people from other lower-cost jurisdictions to this country in order for Canadian companies to cut costs is not in the interests of the country.

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/08/rbc-takes-heat-for-ottawas-flawed-outsourcing-policy-cd-howe-expert/

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AOptix Stratus lets iPhone users check ID through eyes, faces, fingers and voices

The many attempts at weaving biometric identification into mobile devices have usually focused on only one aspect at a time, whether it's fingerprints or voices, and often for access to just the device itself. AOptix isn't quite so narrowly focused. Its new Stratus system combines an app with a custom iPhone 4 / 4S case (the Stratus MX) to verify faces, irises, fingerprints and voices for grander purposes, whether it's office workers checking in or entire national ID programs. The bundle should be more portable than most such alternatives, as well as more intuitive through its familiar interface. Odds are that you won't be buying a Stratus kit to scan friends and family at home, though. Apart from the bundle's lack of support for the iPhone 5 or any non-iOS platform, the Stratus software in the App Store isn't an impulse purchase at $199 -- and an emphasis on quotation-based case sales likely means you'll be the scanner's target, not its owner.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile, Apple

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Source: AOptix

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Bq18WkqRd1I/

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NKorea urges foreigners to vacate South Korea

A North Korean soldier stands beneath roadside propaganda which reads "Let's Uphold the Military First Revolutionary Leadership of the Great Comrade Kim Jong Un With Loyalty" in Pyongyang on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

A North Korean soldier stands beneath roadside propaganda which reads "Let's Uphold the Military First Revolutionary Leadership of the Great Comrade Kim Jong Un With Loyalty" in Pyongyang on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

A North Korean flag hangs on a light pole as a pedestrian passes by along a Pyongyang street on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

U.S. Army soldiers drive armored vehicles during annual military drills in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Tuesday, April 9, 2013. North Korea has unleashed a flurry of war threats and provocations over U.N. sanctions for its last nuclear test, and over the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the allies say are routine but Pyongyang says is a preparation for a northward invasion. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A U.S. Army soldier stands on an armored vehicle during annual military drills in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Tuesday, April 9, 2013. North Korea has unleashed a flurry of war threats and provocations over U.N. sanctions for its last nuclear test, and over the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the allies say are routine but Pyongyang says is a preparation for a northward invasion. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

U.S. Army soldiers prepare for an exercise during their annual military drills with South Korea in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Tuesday, April 9, 2013. North Korea has unleashed a flurry of war threats and provocations over U.N. sanctions for its last nuclear test, and over the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the allies say are routine but Pyongyang says is a preparation for a northward invasion. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea on Tuesday urged all foreign companies and tourists in South Korea to evacuate, saying the two countries are on the verge of nuclear war. The new threat appeared to be an attempt to keep the region on tenterhooks over its intentions.

Analysts see a direct attack on Seoul as extremely unlikely, and there are no overt signs that North Korea's 1.2 million-man army is readying for war, let alone a nuclear one. South Korea's military has reported missile movements on North Korea's east coast but nothing pointed toward South Korea.

Still, North Korea's earlier warning that it won't be able to guarantee the safety of foreign diplomats after April 10 has raised fears that it will conduct a missile or nuclear test on Wednesday, resulting in U.S. retaliation.

The United States and South Korea have raised their defense postures, and so has Japan, which deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors in key locations around Tokyo on Tuesday as a precaution against possible North Korean ballistic missile tests.

"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermonuclear war due to the evermore undisguised hostile actions of the United States and the south Korean puppet warmongers and their moves for a war against" the North, said a statement by the North Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, an organization that deals with regional matters.

The statement is similar to past threats that analysts call an attempt to raise anxiety in foreign capitals. Observers say a torrent of North Korean prophecies of doom and efforts to raise war hysteria are partly to boost the image of young and relatively untested leader Kim Jong Un at home, and to show him as a decisive military leader.

Another reason could be to use threats of war to win Pyongyang-friendly policy changes in Seoul and Washington. Last week, North Korea told foreign diplomats in Pyongyang that it will not be able to guarantee their safety as of Wednesday. It is not clear what the significance of that date is.

Tourists continued to arrive in Pyongyang despite the war hysteria.

Mark Fahey of Sydney, Australia, said he was not concerned about a possible war.

"I knew that when I arrived here it would probably be very different to the way it was being reported in the media," he told The Associated Press at Pyongyang airport. He said his family trusts him to make the right judgment but "my colleagues at work think I am crazy."

Chu Kang Jin, a Pyongyang resident, said everything is calm in the city.

"Everyone, including me, is determined to turn out as one to fight for national reunification ... if the enemies spark a war," he said, in a typically nationalist rhetoric that most North Koreans use while speaking to the media.

In Seoul, Presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing told reporters that the North Korean warning amounted to "psychological warfare."

"We know that foreigners residing in South Korea as well as our nationals are unfazed," she said.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who has sought to re-engage North Korea with dialogue and aid since taking office in February, expressed exasperation Tuesday with what she called the "endless vicious cycle" of Seoul answering Pyongyang's hostile behavior with compromise, only to get more hostility.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday described the tensions as "very dangerous," and said that any small incident caused by miscalculation may "create an uncontrollable situation."

Also Tuesday, North Korea said it was suspending work at the Kaesong industrial park near its border, which is combines South Korean technology and know-how with North Korea's cheap labor. North Korea pulled out more than 50,000 workers from the complex, the only remaining product of economic cooperation between the two countries that started about a decade ago when relations were much warmer.

Other projects from previous eras of cooperation such as reunions of families separated by war and tours to a scenic North Korean mountain stopped in recent years.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-09-Koreas-Tension/id-1225476e92934495815cadab24bb838b

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lern2play Resources and Information. This website is for sale!

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North Korea asks embassies to consider moving diplomats out

By Guy Faulconbridge and Ronald Popeski

LONDON/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea warned on Friday it could not guarantee the safety of diplomats after next Wednesday and asked embassies to consider moving staff out of the country, European diplomats said, amid high tension on the Korean peninsula.

The requests came on the heels of declarations by the government of the secretive communist state that real conflict was inevitable, because of what it termed "hostile" U.S. troop exercises with South Korea and U.N. sanctions imposed over North Korea's nuclear weapons testing.

"The current question was not whether, but when a war would break out on the peninsula," because of the "increasing threat from the United States", China's state news agency, Xinhua, quoted the North's Foreign Ministry as saying.

It added that diplomatic missions should consider evacuation. North Korea would provide safe locations for diplomats in accordance with international conventions, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a notification to embassies.

Britain said its embassy in Pyongyang had been told by the North Korean government it "would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organizations in the country in the event of conflict from April 10th".

"We believe they have taken this step as part of their continuing rhetoric that the U.S. poses a threat to them," Britain's Foreign Office said.

It said it had "no immediate plans" to evacuate its embassy and accused the North Korean government of raising tensions "through a series of public statements and other provocations."

This still from a CNN broadcast shows North Korea's Unha-3 rocket, as the country officials prepared for an attempted satellite launch in April 2012.

A Polish spokesman said Warsaw saw the latest statements by Pyongyang as "an inappropriate element of building up the pressure and we obviously think that there is no risk from outside on North Korea." He added that the Polish Embassy saw no need to move staff out.

"This question has been directed to all embassies that are on the ground in Pyongyang," a Swedish Foreign Office official said.

The United States, which does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea and is served by Sweden as a "protecting power" in Pyongyang, echoed the British and the Poles.

"This is just an escalating series of rhetorical statements, and the question is, to what end?" said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Asked if the United States had received any instructions from the Swedes on the small number of U.S. aid workers or tourists who could be in North Korea, she said there was no indication Sweden would heed Pyongyang's warning.

'DEEPLY CONCERNED'

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "remains deeply concerned about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula," but U.N. humanitarian workers remain active across North Korea for the time being, a spokesman said on Friday.

"U.N. staff in the DPRK (North Korea) remain engaged in their humanitarian and developmental work throughout the country," said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky. The United Nations has 36 international staff and 21 locally recruited personnel working in North Korea, the world body said.

Under the Vienna Convention that governs diplomatic missions, host governments are required to help get embassy staff out of the country in the event of conflict.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said North Korea had "proposed that the Russian side consider the evacuation of employees in the increasingly tense situation", according to a spokesman for its embassy in Pyongyang.

Moscow said it was "seriously studying" the request. A statement from its Foreign Ministry said Russia hoped all parties would show restraint and considered "whipping up military hysteria to be categorically unacceptable."

In a fusillade of statements over the past month, North Korea has threatened to stage a nuclear strike on the United States, something it lacks the capacity to do, according to most experts, and has declared war on South Korea.

Military analysts say North Korea might be able to hit some part of the United States, but not the mainland and not with a nuclear weapon.

The threats against the United States by North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong-un, are "probably all bluster", said Gary Samore, until recently the top nuclear proliferation expert on President Barack Obama's national security staff.

The North Koreans "are not suicidal. They know that any kind of direct attack (on the United States) would be end of their country," he added.

On Friday, South Korean media reported that North Korea had placed two of its intermediate-range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or U.S. Pacific bases.

The report could not be confirmed, but White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that based on past behavior, "we would not be surprised" to see North Korea conduct another missile test.

Speculation centered on two kinds of missiles, neither of which is known to have been tested.

One is the so-called Musudan missile, which South Korea's Defense Ministry estimates has a range of up to 3,000 km (1,865 miles). The other is the KN-08, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea has always aggressively condemned the regular military exercises held by U.S. forces and their South Korean allies, but its reaction to this year's has reached a blistering pitch.

"The rhetoric is off the charts," said Victor Cha, former director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council.

CASTRO WARNS AGAINST WAR

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in an essay in Cuban state media, warned ally North Korea against war, describing the situation on the Korean Peninsula as "incredible and absurd" and "one of the gravest risks of nuclear war since the Crisis of October (Cuban Missile Crisis), 50 years ago.

The verbal assaults from Pyongyang have set financial markets in South Korea, Asia's fourth largest economy, on edge.

South Korean shares slid on Friday, with foreign investors selling their biggest daily volume in nearly 20 months, hurt after aggressive easing from the Bank of Japan sent the yen reeling, as well as by the tension over North Korea.

"In the past, (markets) recovered quickly from the impact from any North Korea-related event, but recent threats from North Korea are stronger and the impact may therefore not disappear quickly," Vice Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho said.

Kim Jong-un, 30, is the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, who staged confrontations with South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.

Some fear the young leader of the isolated communist state may view the risk of conflict as one worth taking.

"We don't understand this new guy at all. And if the North Koreans move to provoke the South, the South is going to retaliate in a way we haven't seen before," Cha said.

(Additional reporting by Lim Seung-gyu, Hyunjoo Jin, Somang Yang, Peter Apps, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Paul Eckert and Roberta Rampton in Washington, and Jeff Franks in Havana; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-moves-missiles-south-korean-markets-roiled-090218130--business.html

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