Former Guantanamo detainees in Uruguay

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Passwords! (audio)

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One Month Since Prosecutor's Death (audio)

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Leaked HSBC documents (audio)

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American regions stereotypes

A new map shows the stereotypes Americans have of certain regions in the United States.
While people in the western part of the country are seen as experimental and uninhibited, the Northeast is viewed rude, aggressive and impatient. Southerners are regarded as polite and easygoing and Midwesterners are considered self-reliant and conscientious.
People who took the nationwide survey conducted by YouGov were shown a list of 20 adjectives and asked to identify which four words they most associated with a particular region. For survey purposes, the country was broken down into four regions.
Here’s what the survey found:

Best Buds - 2015 Super Bowl Commercial

Here's the complete song:  I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) performed by Sleeping At Last

How about listening to the song and filling up the gaps?

When I ………………, well I know I'm gonna  ……………….
I'm gonna   …………….  the man who ……………. next to you.
And when I ……………., yeah I know I'm gonna   …………………….
I'm gonna   ……….  the man who …………….  along with you.

And when I ……….  home, yeah I know I'm gonna  ……………….
I'm gonna   …………  the man who  …………….  home to you.
And when I  ………., well I know I'm gonna  ……………….
I'm gonna  …………. about the time when I …………………with you.

But I …………………… 500 miles
And I  ………………. 500 more
Just to be the man who  ……………. 1000 miles
To fall down at your door

When I  …………., yeah I know I'm gonna ………………….
I'm gonna  …………… the man who  …………….  hard for you.
And when the money  ………. in for the work I do
I  ………………. along every cent of it to you.

And when I  ……. lonely, well I know I'm gonna  ………………….
I'm gonna   ……….  the man who  ……………. lonely without you.
And if I   …….  old, well I know I'm gonna  ………………….
I'm gonna   ……….  the man who  ………….  old with you.


But I …………………… 500 miles
And I  ………………. 500 more
Just to be the man who  ……………. 1000 miles
To fall down at your door

 
When I   …………., well I hope I'm gonna   …………….
I'm gonna  …………….  the man who  ……………. to you.
And when I  …………., well I know I'm gonna   ……………….
I'm gonna   …………. about the time I  ……………. with you

After a Spa Day, Looking Years Younger

Adult spas are adding separate menus of services for girls, usually ages 4 to 14. In most major cities, there are now dedicated day spas for children, offering a range of massages, facials and other treatments for girls (and sometimes boys) too young to have had their first pimple.

“I feel like the best princess in the world,” said Paige Ehresman, who celebrated her seventh birthday at Sweet and Sassy, a USA chain of spas that boasts that its cosmetologists are specially trained to work with children. After the beauty treatments, Paige and her guests walked down a red carpet and disappeared into a pink limousine, which took the children on a trip around the parking lot. One 6-year-old guest documented the ride in a series of selfies.

On the high end, the “kids treatments” menu at the Beverly Wilshire spa in Beverly Hills, Calif., charges $50 for a 15-minute “princess facial,” which includes “a facial cleanse and massage.” For the mass market, there is the $30 Orbeez Luxury Spa at Toys “R” Us, a toy that looks like a pedicure station in which girls can immerse their feet in tiny gel-filled balls.

At the party here in Aurora last month, Paige’s mother, Kari Ehresman, 33, said she paid about $400 for the party.

The International Spa Association said that 25 percent of the country’s approximately 20,000 spas now offer services specifically for the under-13 set — up from 15 percent just four years ago. And half of all spas offer services for teenagers, up from a third over the same time period.

Some are new businesses focused exclusively on children, while others have expanded into the child market, offering kid-friendly music, banana-scented facials and an age-appropriate vocabulary — customers are “princesses”, for instance

The spa association’s president, Lynne McNees, said it was good for girls to learn that beauty treatments can reduce stress and promote health. “It’s very similar to taking little kids to the dentist,” Ms. McNees said. “Let’s get them early, and get those really good habits.”

Most of the child-oriented spas make their money on birthday party packages. At one New York-area chain, Seriously Spoiled Salon and Spa,  parties cost $500 to $3,000, and options include a “bath-bakery” experience, with lotions that smell like edible treats.

Lisa Gadzinski, 48, and her sister opened Seriously Spoiled on Long Island in 2008. The business, based in Patchogue, N.Y., is expanding to two more locations. Several clients are single fathers, lost in the world of girl-care

“I feel reeeeeeeally relaxed,” said Peyton Ruddell, who had just turned 10. She sat on a soft couch with soapy water bubbling at her heels while a cosmetologist, LiShall Michel, 47, clipped her toenails.

Peyton’s mother, Love Ruddell, 37, is a mechanic at the Denver Zoo who wears boots and gloves to work, but also wears her fingernails long, manicured and painted  red. She said she tried to teach her daughter that “you can be beautiful and tough.”

“This is honoring the feminine,” Ms. Ruddell added.

       Madeline Levine, a child psychologist and author, calls the child spa “the worst idea ever.” 

              What do you think? 

Swedish corporate jet scandal

 

Sverker Martin-Löf is stepping down as chairman of Industrivärden. Photo: TT

 

 

The world of Swedish business was shaken on Thursday when a scandal over the use of private jets triggered one of the biggest corporate scandals in the country’s recent history.

Industivarden - the owner of controlling stakes in companies such as truck maker Volvo, telecom equipment maker Ericsson , engineering firm Sandvik, construction firm Skanska. as well as Sweden’s biggest bank Handelsbanken - and Industrivärden holding will both get new chairmen and chief executives under the shake-up.

The jet scandal erupted after it emerged that wives and children accompanied directors on business trips abroad as well as to a hunting lodge owned by SCA, a paper and forestry company in which Industrivärden owns a large stake.

Svenska Dagbladet, the newspaper which broke the story, reported that SCA used the company’s private jets to transport top managers on private trips to hunting lodges in northern Sweden, the Olympic Games in London and to a soccer championship in Kiev—sometimes with wives, children, grandchildren and even dogs in tow. One unnamed person even sent a jet from the north of Sweden to Stockholm just to pick up his wallet, which he had forgotten.

The affair has also shaken faith in the much-admired Swedish model of active ownership under which shareholders nominate board directors and help guide companies’ strategies.

Sverker Martin-Löf, the chairman of Industrivärden and SCA, is the big loser of the scandal since he will resign from all his board posts, including as vice-chairman of Handelsbanken and Ericsson and a director of Skanska.

He will be replaced as chairman of Industrivärden by Anders Nyrén, currently the holding company’s chief executive as well as the chairman of Handelsbanken. 

Mr Nyrén in turn will be replaced at Handelsbanken by Pär Boman, the bank’s well-respected chief executive who will also become chairman of SCA.

 Mr Boman, who led Handelsbanken successfully through the financial crisis to become one of the European banks with the highest capital ratio, will lead the clean up at SCA, and will change its company policy to ban family members from using private jets.

 

 edited from Financial Times