Postal Service to close another 2,000 locations

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The money-losing U.S. Postal Service is planning to shut down thousands of stations and branches to try and ward off its fiscal woes.

The Postal Service has set a goal of closing 2,000 stations and branches in 2011, said Postal Service spokeswoman Joanne Veto. That's in addition to the 491 closures that are already underway, she said.

The Postal Service is not planning to close any post offices, she said, noting that the law prevents the closure of post offices for solely economic reasons. She described stations and branches as being smaller than post offices, with no mail processing, and sometimes no mail carriers.

Mail volume, the main source of income for the Postal Service, has plunged in tandem with the recession. Not only is it competing with the Internet as a means of communication, but businesses have been spending less money to send out advertisements, a form of mail that is not-so-affectionately known as junk mail.

The Postal Service suffered a net loss of $8.5 billion in fiscal year 2010, which ended Sept. 30. That's compared to a loss of $3.8 billion the prior year. The Postal Service delivered about 171 billion pieces of mail in fiscal year 2010, compared to 177 billion the prior year, costing about $1 billion in lost revenue.

"We have post offices that have fewer than five transactions a day," said Veto.

CNN


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Silver Shortage this decade, silver will be worth more than gold

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President defends abortion as a right... as lawmakers get set to roll those rights back

Is not 53 million deaths is enough? 
May the Lord have mercy on the US.

President Barack Obama has labelled abortion a 'right', setting the grounds for a  new battle with lawmakers determined to roll those rights back. 

The President marked the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision on abortion by calling the procedure a constitutional right he's committed to protecting.

But he spoke against a rising tide of anti-abortion activists who sense the time is right for a new push to rein in the broad access to abortions established by the 1973 Roe v Wade decision. 

Buoyed by huge election gains for their allies, anti-abortion activists in America head into their annual March for Life rallies on Monday sensing a prime opportunity in many states.

Foes of abortion gained strength in Congress, among state governors and in many state legislatures, raising hopes among social conservatives for a broad surge of anti-abortion bills.

Mr Obama's comments today squared him off against them. 

He called on Americans to recommit themselves to ensuring that 'our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams'. 

The President said the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion affirmed what he called a 'fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters'.

Many others disagree.

'We are seeing a cultural shift toward protecting life and rolling back the tide of unrestricted abortions,' said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life.

In many states, prospects for passage of such measures are bright, although they may face court challenges. 

NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion-rights group, said there are now 29 anti-abortion governors out of 50.

That's up eight from the 21 anti-abortion governors in place before the mid-term elections - a blow to Mr Obama's side, as governors have often acted as a firewall for abortion legislation. 

Of the 29, there are 15 in states where abortion opponents also control both legislative chambers.

'In those states in particular, there are almost no pro-choice checks and balances,' said Donna Crane, NARAL's director of public policy.

While abortion-rights supporters traditionally hold commemorations of the court decision, the anniversary has become an even higher-profile date for the anti-abortion movement. 

Its major event, the March for Life in Washington, D.C., is scheduled this year to take place on Monday - not the anniversary itself - while other events are scheduled throughout the weekend nationwide.

On both sides of the debate, the mood contrasts sharply with 2009 and 2010.

Two years ago, the anniversary came two days after Mr Obama's inauguration - a time of enthusiasm among abortion-rights supporters, who tend to vote Democratic. 

A year ago, the anniversary coincided with the first day of testimony in the murder trial of Scott Roeder, who was later convicted of killing late-term abortion provider Dr George Tiller at his church in Wichita, Kansas.

Kansas is now one of the states where anti-abortion activists hope for dramatic legislative gains.

Its new governor, Republican Sam Brownback, is an ardent foe of abortion who has made clear he will sign restrictive measures that his Democratic predecessors vetoed. 

Anti-abortion activists hope to advance bills that would further restrict late-term procedures, increase reporting requirements for abortion providers, and make it harder for abortion clinics to be licensed.

In several other states, Democratic governors who generally supported abortion rights were replaced by Republicans opposed to abortion.

Gay lessons' in maths, geography and science

Children are to be taught about homosexuality in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a Government-backed drive to "celebrate the gay community".

Lesson plans have been drawn up for pupils as young as four, in a scheme funded with a £35,000 grant from an education quango, the Training and Development Agency for Schools.

The initiative will be officially launched next month at the start of "LGBT History Month" – an initiative to encourage teaching about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues.

The lesson plans, spread across the curriculum, will be offered to all schools, which can choose whether or not to make use of them.

But critics last night called the initiative a poor use of public money which could distract from the teaching of "core" subjects.

Among the suggestions are:

Maths – teaching statistics through census findings about the number of homosexuals in the population, and using gay characters in scenarios for maths problems;

Design and technology – encouraging pupils to make symbols linked to the gay rights movement;

Science – studying animal species where the male takes a leading role in raising young, such as emperor penguins and sea horses, and staging class discussions on different family structures, including same-sex parents;

Geography – examining the transformation of San Francisco's Castro district in the 1960s from a working-class Irish area to the world's first "gay neighbourhood", and considering why homosexuals move from the countryside to cities;

Languages – using gay characters in role play scenarios, and teaching "LGBT vocabulary".

The lesson plans, written by teachers and backed by the Department for Education, will be available for schools to download from the Schools Out website.

For younger children, the plans will suggest using images of same sex couples and also promoting books such as "And Tango Makes Three", which is about two male penguins raising a young chick, inspired by actual events at New York's Central Park Zoo.

The Schools Out organisation, which runs the month-long event, declares on its website that the aim is to "celebrate the lives and achievements of the LGBT community" and "encourage everyone to see diversity and cultural pluralism as positive forces".

The Telegraph

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Egypt protests: Three reported dead in 'day of revolt

From BBC Jon Leyne in Cairo says the anger of protesters took police by surprise (The mobile phone footage in this video was sent to the BBC by members of the public)

Continue reading the main story

Related stories

• In pictures: Egypt unrest
• Tunisia: Will there be a domino effect?
• Q&A: Tunisia crisis

At least three people have been killed during a day of rare anti-government protests in Egypt, reports say.

In Cairo, where the biggest rallies were held, state TV said a policeman had died in clashes. Two protesters died in Suez, doctors there said.

Thousands joined the protests after an internet campaign inspired by the uprising in Tunisia.

In Cairo, police used tear gas and water cannon in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

Activists had called for a "day of revolt" in a web message. Protests are uncommon in Egypt, which President Hosni Mubarak has ruled since 1981, tolerating little dissent.

Continue reading the main story

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her administration supported "the fundamental right of expression and assembly" and urged all parties "to exercise restraint".

She added that Washington believed the Egyptian government was "stable" and "looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people".

The events in Cairo were co-ordinated on aFacebook page - tens of thousands of supporters clicked on the page to say they would take part.

Reports said the social networking site Twitter had been blocked in Egypt and that mobile phone networks in the Cairo area were down.

The Swedish-based website Bambuser, which streams video from mobile phones, said it had been blocked in Egypt. On its blog, it accused Egyptian officials of trying to control the news agenda.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo said rallies had been held in several parts of the capital, and the turnout had been more than the organisers could have hoped.

Police were taken aback by the anger of the crowd and let protesters make their way to the parliament building, he says.

There police regrouped in full riot gear with tear gas and water cannon and temporarily drove the crowd back. However, protesters threw stones and stood their ground, pushing the police back until they were on the run.

Protests also broke out in other areas, including the eastern city of Ismailiya and the northern port city of Alexandria.

In Alexandria, witnesses said thousands joined the protests, some chanting: "Revolution, revolution, like a volcano, against Mubarak the coward."

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Protesters demand Jordan´s goverment step down

AMMAN— Thousands of Jordanians calling for their government to step down marched in several cities Friday in an outpouring of anger over economic hardship and a lack of democratic reforms in the constitutional monarchy.

Spurred on by the example of the popular uprising in Tunisia, Jordanians have staged growing protests in the past week. The opposition movements that organized Friday's demonstrations vowed to keep up the pressure until Prime Minister Samir Rifai and his government resign.


Wary of the outcry, particularly over rising prices, Jordan's government has taken some steps to try to defuse the situation, including by announcing $125 million in subsidies on basic goods and fuel. The prime minister also announced a surprise pay increase for civil servants.

The Jerusalem Post



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Is the world's largest super-volcano set to erupt for the first time in 600,000 years, wiping out two-thirds of the U.S.?

• The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004
• 
  

It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980.

Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.

Two-thirds of the U.S. could become uninhabitable as toxic air sweeps through it, grounding thousands of flights and forcing millions to leave their homes.

This is the nightmare that scientists are predicting could happen if the world’s largest super-volcano erupts for the first time in 600,000 years, as it could do in the near future.

Yellowstone National Park’s caldera has erupted three times in the last 2.1million years and researchers monitoring it say we could be in for another eruption.

They said that the super-volcano underneath the Wyoming park has been rising at a record rate since 2004 - its floor has gone up three inches per year for the last three years alone, the fastest rate since records began in 1923.

But hampered by a lack of data they have stopped short of an all-out warning and they are unable to put a date on when the next disaster might take place.

When the eruption finally happens it will dwarf the effect of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which erupted in April last year, causing travel chaos around the world.

The University of Utah's Bob Smith, an expert in Yellowstone's volcanism told National Geographic: ‘It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high.

‘At the beginning we were concerned it could be leading up to an eruption.’

But he added: ‘Once we saw the magma was at a depth of ten kilometres, we weren't so concerned.

‘If it had been at depths of two or three kilometre we'd have been a lot more concerned.’

Robert B. Smith, professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, who has led a recent study into the volcano, added: ‘Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock.

‘But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again’.

The Yellowstone Caldera is one of nature’s most awesome creations and sits atop North America’s largest volcanic field.

Its name means ‘cooking pot’ or ‘cauldron’ and it is formed when land collapses following a volcanic explosion.

In Yellowstone, some 400 miles beneath the Earth’s surface is a magma ‘hotspot’ which rises to 30 miles underground before spreading out over an area of 300 miles across.

Atop this, but still beneath the surface, sits the slumbering volcano.

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