flowerpot metronomic: April 2013

Monday, April 8, 2013

Schumer sees deal this week on immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A raucous public debate over the nation's flawed immigration system is set to begin in earnest this week as senators finalize a bipartisan bill to secure the border, allow tens of thousands of foreign workers into the country and grant eventual citizenship to the estimated 11 million people living here illegally.

Already negotiators are cautioning of struggles ahead for an issue that's defied resolution for years. An immigration deal came close on the Senate floor in 2007 but collapsed amid interest group bickering and an angry public backlash.

"There will be a great deal of unhappiness about this proposal because everybody didn't get what they wanted," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leader of the eight senators negotiating the legislation, said Sunday. "There are entrenched positions on both sides of this issue."

"There's a long road," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., appearing alongside McCain on CBS' "Face the Nation." ''There are people on both sides who are against this bill, and they will be able to shoot at it."

Schumer, McCain and their "Gang of Eight" already missed a self-imposed deadline to have their bill ready in March, but Schumer said he hopes that this week, it will happen.

"All of us have said that there will be no agreement until the eight of us agree to a big, specific bill, but hopefully we can get that done by the end of the week," said Schumer.

Schumer, McCain and other negotiators are trying to avoid mistakes of the past.

A painstaking deal reached a week ago knit together traditional enemies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, in an accord over a new low-skilled worker program. The proposal would allow up to 200,000 workers a year into the county to fill jobs in construction, hospitality, nursing homes and other areas where employers say they have a difficult time hiring Americans.

The negotiators also have pledged to move the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee and onto the floor according to what's known in Senate jargon as "regular order," trying to head off complaints from conservatives that the legislation is being rammed through.

A deal on immigration is a top second-term priority for President Barack Obama, and his senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday that the bill being developed in the Senate is consistent with Obama's approach ? even though the Senate plan would tie border security to a path to citizenship in a manner Obama administration officials have criticized.

Pfeiffer didn't answer directly when asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether Obama would sign legislation making a path to citizenship contingent on first securing the border. But he suggested Obama was supportive of the Senate plan.

"What has been talked about in the Gang of Eight proposal is 100 percent consistent with what the president is doing so we feel very good about it," Pfeiffer said. "And they are looking at it in the right way."

Sticking points remain. There's still disagreement over plans for a new program to bring in agriculture workers, who weren't included in the deal struck between the chamber and AFL-CIO. The agriculture industry is at odds with United Farm Workers over wages.

But overall, all involved are optimistic that the time is ripe to make the biggest changes to the nation's immigration laws in more than a quarter-century. For many Republicans, their loss in the November presidential election, when Latino and Asians voters backed Obama in big numbers, resonates as evidence that they must confront the immigration issue.

"The politics of self-deportation are behind us," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., referring to GOP candidate Mitt Romney's suggestion in the presidential campaign. "It was an impractical solution. Quite frankly it's offensive. Every corner of the Republican Party, from libertarians to the (Republican National Committee), House Republicans and the rank-and-file Republican Party member, is now understanding there has to be an earned pathway to citizenship."

Graham and McCain also had praise for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the negotiating team who's acted as a bridge to conservatives but also has kept advocates and other lawmakers guessing about whether he'll ultimately support the bill.

"Marco Rubio has been a game changer in my party. He will be there only if the Democrats will embrace a guest worker program and a merit-based immigration system to replace the broken one," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

After consideration by the Judiciary Committee, floor action could start in the Senate in May, Schumer said.

Meanwhile two lawmakers involved in writing a bipartisan immigration bill in the House, Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., sounded optimistic that they, too, would have a deal soon that could be reconciled with the Senate agreement.

"I am very, very optimistic that the House of Representatives is going to have a plan that is going to be able to go to a conference with the Senate in which we're going to be able to resolve this," Gutierrez said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union".

___

Follow Erica Werner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericawerner

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-07-Immigration/id-528dac88d3de461f997733e56ee6fc0e

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China asks N. Korea to keep diplomats safe

By Ben Blanchard and Jane Chung

BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - China deplored rising tension on the Korean peninsula on Sunday, but said its embassy was operating normally in the North Korean capital and asked authorities there to ensure its diplomats and other citizens were kept safe.

North Korea, angry at new sanctions imposed on it for testing nuclear weapons, has made increasingly strident warnings of an imminent war with South Korea and the United States.

It told diplomats on Friday to consider leaving Pyongyang because of rising tension, but diplomatic missions appeared to view the appeal as more rhetoric and stayed put.

The United States, keen to avoid actions which could provoke the North, on Saturday postponed a long-scheduled missile test in California.

China is North Korea's sole major diplomatic and financial backer, but official statements have reflected a degree of impatience at the actions of authorities under 30-year-old leader Kim Jong-un.

"At present tensions on the Korean peninsula are rising unceasingly, and China expresses grave concern about this," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

"The Chinese government has already asked the North Korea side to earnestly ensure the safety of Chinese diplomats in North Korea, in accordance with the Vienna Convention and international laws and norms."

The Chinese embassy, it said, was "understood" to be operating normally in Pyongyang. China would "protect the legal rights and safety of Chinese citizens and Chinese-invested organizations in North Korea".

A ministry statement late on Saturday quoting Foreign Minister Wang Yi, said Beijing would "not allow troublemaking on China's doorstep".

Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing a forum on Sunday, appeared to refer further to boosted tensions when he said no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain".

"Stability in Asia now faces new challenges, as hot spot issues keep emerging and both traditional and non-traditional security threats exist," he said on the southern island of Hainan.

"LOGICAL, PRUDENT, RESPONSIBLE"

In Washington, a defense official said a test of the Minuteman III intercontinental missile, scheduled for next week at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, would now be postponed.

"This is the logical, prudent and responsible course of action to take," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said the test had been unconnected to "anything related to North Korea" and added that another test launch could be expected next month. The United States remained fully prepared to respond to any North Korean threat, the official said.

North Korean anger over the sanctions following its third nuclear weapons test in February has been compounded by joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on March 1.

North Korea has always condemned the exercises held by U.S. forces and their South Korean allies. But its comments have been especially vitriolic this year as the United States dispatched B-2 bombers from its home bases to stage mock runs.

China's Xinhua news agency, reporting on the North's suggestion to diplomats to evacuate, quoted the North's Foreign Ministry at the weekend as saying the issue was no longer whether but when a war would break out.

North Korean television provided little evidence of tension in the reclusive state on Sunday, with newscasts showing old footage of Kim visiting military units and other items concerning the country's leaders.

Nor was there any trace of tension in the South Korean capital, Seoul, with residents ignoring an early spring chill to stroll in the city centre.

South Korean media on Friday said the North had moved two medium-range missiles to the country's east coast, but there has been no confirmation of such a move. That prompted the White House to say that Washington would "not be surprised" if the North staged another missile test.

Kim Jong-un 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.

Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency, in a dispatch from London, quoted British diplomatic sources as saying North Korea believed the situation could be stabilized if U.S. President Barack Obama personally called Kim.

"North Korea is waiting for that call from Washington," Tass quoted the source as saying.

North Korea has not shut down a symbol of joint cooperation with the South, the Kaesong industrial zone just inside its border. But last week it prevented South Koreans from entering the complex and about 100 of them who remained were due to return home on Saturday, leaving a further 500 there.

On Sunday, a South Korean who had fallen ill was taken out of the industrial zone by car.

(Writing by Ron Popeski; Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing in HAINNAN and Phil Stewart in WASHINGTON)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/embassies-staying-put-north-korea-despite-tension-001315898--business.html

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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Kerry mourns 1st diplomat killed since Benghazi

ISTANBUL (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry mourned on Sunday the first death of an American diplomat on the job since last year's Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya.

Speaking to U.S. consulate workers on a visit to Istanbul, Kerry called the death of Anne Smedinghoff a "grim reminder" of the danger facing American foreign service workers serving overseas. The Illinois native was one of six Americans killed in an attack Saturday in Afghanistan. She was on a mission to donate books to students in the south of the country.

"It's a grim reminder to all of us... of how important, but also how risky, carrying the future is," Kerry told employees in the Turkish commercial capital.

"Folks who want to kill people, and that's all they want to do, are scared of knowledge. They want to shut the doors and they don't want people to make their choices about the future. For them, it's you do things our way, or we throw acid in your face or we put a bullet in your face," he said.

Kerry described Smedinghoff as "vivacious, smart, capable, chosen often by the ambassador there to be the lead person because of her capacity."

She aided Kerry when he visited the country two weeks ago, serving as his control officer, an honor often bestowed on up-and-coming members of the U.S. foreign service.

"There are no words for anyone to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction for a young 25-year-old woman, with all of her future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy to improve people's lives, making a difference, having an impact" to be killed, Kerry said.

Smedinghoff previously served in Venezuela.

"The world lost a truly beautiful soul today," her parents, Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff, said in a family statement emailed to The Washington Post.

"Working as a public diplomacy officer, she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war," they said. "We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world."

Kerry declared the protection of American diplomats a top priority on his first day as secretary of state.

The issue has been extremely sensitive since Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi almost seven months ago. No one has yet been brought to justice.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-mourns-1st-diplomat-killed-since-benghazi-074326741--politics.html

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Friday, April 5, 2013

'Deadline in Disaster' Documentary Chronicles Impact of Joplin Tornado

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- As we approach the 2-year anniversary of the Joplin tornado, students in the Ozarks are getting a sneak peek at a new document about the disaster.

Drury?University hosted a screening of the movie "Deadline in Disaster" at Clara Thompson Hall. It tells the story about the Joplin Globe staff trying to put out a paper after the tornado killed dozens and destroyed wide swaths of the city.

More than 160 people were killed and 8,500 homes, schools, and businesses were destroyed.

Carol Stark, editor of the Joplin Globe, says she hopes the documentary will help future journalists understand how to cover big stories in a time of devastation.

"We feel like we helped set the tone. We informed our readers. We also gave them hope that things were going to get better, that help was on the way and that we were going to survive this."

The documentary, put together by filmmakers Beth Pike and Steve Hudnell, will air on PBS stations throughout the state on May 22, the anniversary of the tornado.

Dr. Jennifer Silva Brown, Drury assistant professor of behavioral science, also presented her research on the Joplin survivor project. In 2011 and 2012, Silva Brown and her undergraduate behavioral science students conducted research on coping and resilience with survivors of the Joplin tornado.

"The most interesting thing we found overall is that the Joplin community has a whole is really resilient," she said. "Of course, with any disaster we have individuals that struggle and are not rebounding as well, but as a whole the community bounced back really well and it's a testament to the community of Joplin."

Eighty-seven lower income residents were studied on how they coped and bounced back. Research from Joplin will be used to help the community but also to help future survivors of disasters.

"We will have another storm somewhere in the country or across the world and what we've learned from our survivors will teach us for many years to come it will actually help and predict the survivors of the next storm."

Source: http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=789242

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Karen Fratti: 'The Americans' Recap: Ecstatic Oblivion In 'Safe House'

Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen Season 1, Episode 9 of "The Americans," titled "Safe House."

Is it just me or was "Safe House" a bit like "Modern Family" this week? If everyone just slowed down and spoke up, there would be no confusion -- everyone could get the information they needed without needlessly battling each other, and solve all their problems. But that would be boring.

The joke's on me for speculating about what was going to happen with Amador and Martha and Nina last episode. The writers just took care of it. That's all well and good in terms of moving the plot along for the season finale wind-up, but this episode just didn't make sense on so many levels.

For example:

Amador was a weird dude. I know he claimed he was just a guy looking for one night stands at the Crab Shack, but first, when did he and Stan become close enough buds to get in a framed picture together? What's the timeline here? Do I just not understand male friendships?

Secondly, it's not like Chris had been doing secret recon on the Jennings. He was really going to take Philip 'down to station,' or an undisclosed location, to beat him up for staying over at Martha's? I'm not going to buy that he recognized 'Clark' from the Beeman's party. He was too busy talking shop the whole time to meet Philip and hardly checked out Elizabeth. Even when he almost recognized her on his death bed, he didn't. He was kidnapped and murdered for no good reason.

Except that then, because of all of the misunderstandings, Stan went all-in with the rogue mission his FBI friends were planning to capture Arkady, and Beeman got to unleash his pent up male rage on his first in command, Vlad. The worst punishment for a KGB agent during the Cold War is maybe dying by a bullet to the head while you're chewing bad American fast food.

Now the FBI is riled up over losing one more of their own in a botched mission that wasn't even a mission. And the KGB will probably be riled up by Beeman's cryptic phone call to Arkady just before offing Vlad. I'm no diplomat or historian, but doesn't that seem to sum up the Cold War? Veiled threats and called bluffs and a lot of fuss over nothing more than nationalist ideals and ego. So now we have to assume that the Jennings might be in trouble for messing up yet again. I thought the fun of this show was that they were going to start to be figured out by the FBI, but that hope is squashed.

Another thing that doesn't make sense is Martha's love for Clark. She's just so pathetic. Her and Chris would have made a good team. No, Martha, your relationship is not real, no matter how many breakfasts in bed you make for the man. Especially if you serve grapefruit.

And of course, the separation. If anyone can handle divorce, it's Elizabeth. But we all know it's not going to go that far. If there's one thing we can expect from this show, it's a quick, almost unexplainable solution to every issue that wasn't an issue the episode before. I'm guessing Philip will be back in the house for happily ever after by the time Elizabeth finishes the stir fry.

One last item of note: if anyone knows where I can my hands on the three owl lamp from the Jennings' foyer, please advise.

"The Americans" airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX.

Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings, Matthew Rhys as Phillip Jennings
Stills from "The Americans"
Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings
Stills from "The Americans"
Matthew Rhys as Phillip Jennings
Stills from "The Americans"

Follow Karen Fratti on Twitter: www.twitter.com/karenfratti

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-fratti/the-americans-recap-safe-house_b_3011385.html

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Google Says Facebook Home Demonstrates Android's Openness, Framing Apple As Restrictive

Google’s statement on Facebook’s introduction of “Home” was short and sweet, but very telling, so let’s dissect it a little bit. As we noted earlier, Facebook went with Android first because of its flexibility. Basically it’s easy to customize. Other platforms, not so much. Zuckerberg even mentioned that Windows Phone might be a bit easier to work with, calling it out as “somewhere in the middle” of Android and iOS. Here’s what Google said to us a little while ago: The Android platform has spurred the development of hundreds of different types of devices. This latest device demonstrates the openness and flexibility that has made Android so popular. You’ll notice that the first thing that the company says is that there are “hundreds” of different types of devices running its mobile operating system. In the past, that’s been seen as a bad thing, due to fragmentation. Here, Google is clearly positioning this as an advantage, that is has more choices for consumers than say, Apple has. Secondly, “this latest device,” being the HTC First, which is pre-installed with Facebook Home, demonstrates flexibility. There’s that word again. Clearly, Google is firing a rocket at its competitor Apple, which is notoriously very stiff when it comes to customization. In Apple’s mind, its users don’t know what they want to see until it shows it to them. By letting a company like Facebook take over the first experience users have when they wake up their phone, they are giving away pretty much everything. Again, Google points this out as a competitive advantage. In an extended version of the statement to VentureBeat, Google made sure to pump up its own products at the same time: And it?s a win for users who want a customized Facebook experience from Google Play ? the heart of the Android ecosystem ? along with their favorite Google services like Gmail, Search, and Google Maps. In this added bit, Google makes sure to bring the attention back to its baked-in Android services, like search, email and maps. Is that Google getting a little bit jealous of all of the fuss over Facebook? Not at all. These companies are competitive in the sense that they’re both after eyeballs, but when it comes to social interactions, they couldn’t be more different. Forget the Google+ argument here; it wasn’t built to be a competitor to Facebook. Google owns search and email for

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yNcSrDQvL3M/

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

$700 million in Katrina relief vanished

Power Players

Where did all the money go?

?Your guess is as good as mine,? David Montoya, the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, says of $700 million in missing taxpayer money that Louisiana homeowners were given in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to elevate and protect their homes from future storms.

A new report released from the inspector general?s office shows that more than 24,000 homeowners who received grants of up to $30,000 to elevate their homes either misspent or pocketed the money.

?The fact of the matter is that the money they received was for a specific purpose and the specific purpose was to elevate these homes to avoid future catastrophes,? Montoya tells Power Players.

He rates the home elevation program as little more than a complete failure.

?Considering there was just under $1 billion earmarked for this particular program and there's $700 million that wasn't used for that, I?d give it a very low D,? he says.

But the lessons learned from the failed home elevation project provides a useful roadmap as Congress moves to offer recovery funds to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

?Clearly, to give money out on the front end right after a disaster, when many of these people lost everything, with a promise to do something down the road, I think is counterproductive to what the program was designed to do,? says Montoya.

Montoya says his office will recommend that, for future disaster relief programs, funds are disbursed to individuals only after the project has been completed.

To hear more of the interview with the inspector general, including his explanation of why the government likely will never get the money back, check out this episode of Power Players.

ABC's Avery Miller, Robin Gradison, Eric Wray, Alexandra Dukakis, Hank Disselkamp, and John Knott contributed to this episode.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/where-did-money-700-million-katrina-relief-money-112137424.html

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

N. Korea bars S. Koreans from joint factory

PAJU, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North in the latest sign that Pyongyang's warlike stance toward South Korea and the United States is moving from words to action.

The Kaesong move came a day after the North announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and a uranium enrichment plant, both of which could produce fuel for nuclear weapons that Pyongyang is developing and has threatened to hurl at the U.S. but which experts don't think it will be able to accomplish for years.

The North's rising rhetoric over recent weeks has been met by a display of U.S. military strength, including flights of nuclear-capable bombers and stealth jets at the annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that the allies call routine but that North Korea claims are invasion preparations.

The Kaesong industrial park started producing goods in 2004 and has been an unusual point of cooperation in an otherwise hostile relationship between the Koreas, whose three-year war ended in 1953 with an armistice. Its continued operation even through past episodes of high tension has reassured foreign multinationals that another Korean War is unlikely and their investments in prosperous dynamic South Korea are safe.

"The Kaesong factory park has been the last stronghold of detente between the Koreas," said Hong Soon-jik, a North Korea researcher at the Seoul-based Hyundai Research Institute.

He said tension between the Koreas could escalate further over Kaesong because Seoul may react with its own punitive response and Pyongyang will then hit back with another move.

It is unclear how long North Korea will prevent South Koreans from entering the industrial park, which is located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong and provides jobs for more than 50,000 North Koreans. The last major disruption at the park amid tensions over U.S.-South Korean military drills in 2009 lasted just three days.

Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said Pyongyang was allowing South Koreans to return home from Kaesong. Some 33 workers of about 860 South Koreans at Kaesong returned Wednesday. But Kim said about 480 South Koreans who had planned to travel to the park Wednesday were being refused entry.

Trucks streamed back into South Korea through its Paju border checkpoint in the morning, just minutes after heading through it, after being refused entry into the North.

Pyongyang threatened last week to shut down the park, which is run with North Korean labor and South Korean know-how. It expressed anger over South Korean media reports that said North Korea hadn't yet shut the park because it is a source of crucial hard currency for the impoverished country.

About 120 South Korean companies operate factories in Kaesong which produced $470 million of goods such as clocks, clothing and shoes last year that are trucked back to the South for export to other countries. The industrial park is crucial for the small businesses that operate there to take advantage of North Korea's low wages but not important for the South Korean economy overall.

It has more significance to cash-strapped North Korea since, according to the South Korean government, wages for North Korean workers totaled some $81 million last year. That has underlined the risks that North Korea's brinkmanship will result in a miscalculation that results in an even more dangerous polarization of the Korean peninsula.

Barring entry to South Koreas is a "slap in the face" after the South Korean government recently extended medical aid to the North, said Lee Choon-kun, a North Korea researcher at the Korea Economic Research Institute, a Seoul-based think tank. "I see this as a start for more provocative actions," he said.

"The North has made too many threats not to stop short of any real action."

Kaesong, initially conceived as a test case for reunification and reconciliation, also provides an irksome reminder for Pyongyang that what it lacks, the South has in abundance ? material prosperity. An enormous gap emerged between the two Koreas in the decades after the Korean War as the South embraced a form of state-directed capitalism while the North adhered to communist central planning.

Every morning, North Korean workers commute to the complex on the edge of Kaesong on South Korean-made Hyundai buses. Once inside the gates of the complex, it's a world apart. The paved streets and sidewalks are marked with South Korean traffic signals and signs and the parking lots are filled with the Hyundai, Samsung and KIA cars driven by South Korean managers.

Inside several factories visited by The Associated Press last year, the posters on the walls are not party slogans but safety warnings. "Beware of fires," read one; "Wash your hands" read another. While most factories in North Korea are drafty, and few have running water, the facilities in Kaesong are equipped with hot water, flush toilets and air conditioners.

In the rest of the Korean Peninsula, it is illegal for Koreans from North and South to interact without government permission. But inside Kaesong, North Korean workers work side by side with South Korean managers, discussing orders and mapping out production.

However, they tend not to socialize with one another. At most factories, North Korean workers take their meals in cafeterias that serve basic stews and rice while the South Koreans dine separately.

Park Yun-kyu, who heads a men's apparel maker that employs 700 North Korean workers in Kaesong, said he was worried he couldn't send fresh food to his eight South Korean workers in Kaesong.

"They were working normally when I called them in the morning," said Park who returned to Seoul after being refused entry into Kaesong. "The problem is food. I hope North Korea would at least let us send food. We have to send food and some materials for production every day."

On Tuesday, a senior South Korean government official said Seoul has a contingency plan for its citizens in Kaesong. But he said the government hoped the tension would not lead to a shutdown of the complex. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak publicly to the media.

___

Associated Press writers Foster Klug, Hyung-jin Kim, Jean H. Lee, Sam Kim and Youkyung Lee in Seoul contributed to this report.

___

Follow Klug at twitter.com/APKlug, Sam Kim at twitter.com/samkim_ap, Youkyung Lee at twitter.com/YKLeeAP and Jean Lee at twitter.com/newsjean.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-refuses-let-skoreans-enter-joint-factory-042751499--finance.html

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Refiner shares fall on proposed EPA rules

The shares of a number of refinery companies sank Tuesday on the costs they could pay to comply with proposed changes to gasoline standards.

The Obama administration wants to reduce the amount of sulfur in gasoline and tighten auto emission standards to reduce pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the proposal would raise gasoline prices by less than a penny a gallon and add about $130 to the price of new vehicles, beginning in 2025.

Valero Energy Corp. spokesman Bill Day said Tuesday that the company expects to spend $300 million to $400 million building new equipment and expanding existing facilities to meet the new standards. Valero also expects spend more each year on operations to support these new processes, but exact costs have yet to be determined.

Day said that Valero does not plan to bear the costs alone and will pass them along to drivers at the pump.

Day's comments were first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

The EPA predicts $7 in health benefits for every dollar spent to implement the new rules.

The proposal has been praised by environmentalists and health advocates, as well as automakers, who say it will help the U.S. catch up with the cleaner fuels used in other nations. Opponents say gasoline prices are stubbornly high already and Americans shouldn't have to pay more. The oil industry, Republicans and some Democrats had urged the EPA to hold off on proposing the tighter regulations.

The EPA must hold public hearings before finalizing the rules, which it plans to take effect in 2017.

In afternoon trading Valero fell $2.56, or 5.7 percent, to $42.41. CVR Energy fell $2.70, or 5.2 percent, to $49.18. Marathon Petroleum Corp. dropped $4.40, or 4.9 percent, to $85.43. Tesoro Corp. fell $1.82, or 3.2 percent, to $55.03. Western Refining Inc. lost $2.49, or 7.1 percent, to $32.50.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/refiner-shares-fall-proposed-epa-200532566.html

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