Gotye, Fun., Carly Rae Jepsen and Kelly Clarkson rule the top mid-year digital sales chart.
By Gil Kaufman
Adele's 21
Photo: Columbia Records
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1689175/album-charts-soundscan-top-sales.jhtml
For almost a year, India's central bank has spent billions of dollars to support the beleaguered rupee. And yet the currency is Asia's worst-performing against the U.S. dollar over the past year.
The fruitless efforts by the Reserve Bank of India shows how central banks, especially in emerging markets, often are powerless to manage pressures on their currencies if international market forces are ranged against them.
The rupee has been declining partly because of flight of capital from emerging markets, but also because of concerns over India's deteriorating financial health. The country's current-account deficit recently hit its highest level ever, ...
For almost a year, India's central bank has spent billions of dollars to support the beleaguered rupee. And yet the currency is Asia's worst-performing against the U.S. dollar over the past year.
The fruitless efforts by the Reserve Bank of India shows how central banks, especially in emerging markets, often are powerless to manage pressures on their currencies if international market forces are ranged against them.
The rupee has been declining partly because of flight of capital from emerging markets, but also because of concerns over India's deteriorating financial health. The country's current-account deficit recently hit its highest level ever, ...
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303933404577504792500177750.html?mod=rss_world_markets
The Florida lifeguard who was fired for helping save a swimmer's life outside of his patrol zone, turns down an offer to get his old job back. WTVJ's Ari Odzer reports.
By NBC News and msnbc.com staff
A Florida lifeguard who was fired for leaving his patrol zone to rescue a man drowning was offered his job back Thursday, NBCMiami.com reported.?
But lifeguard Tomas Lopez told NBCMiami.com that he would not be accepting the offer.
The company that fired Lopez, Jeff Ellis Management, was hired by the city of Hallandale to provide lifeguards for the city's beach and pools, the Sun Sentinel reported.?
See more on the story at NBCMiami.com
Lopez, who became a lifeguard four months ago, was fired when he violated company policy Monday, NBCMiami.com reported. Lopez went into waters outside the lifeguard zone the company is paid to patrol after a?beachgoer?told him someone was?drowning.?
A sign separating the zones warns everyone to swim at their own risk.
Company?officials?told the?Sentinel that beachgoers in Lopez's zone were put in?jeopardy?when he left the area.
"I was on stand, and guests came up to me and told me there was someone drowning, that people were screaming and so I started running in the direction," Lopez told NBCMiami.?
NBCMiami.com reported that a manager told Lopez to call 911 instead.?Lopez said he couldn't just sit back and do nothing while the man was in trouble.?
By the time he arrived, the man had been pulled out the water by other beachgoers, but he assisted in treating the victim.?
Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com
After filing an incident report, Lopez was fired, the Sentinel reported.?
"They didn't tell me in a bad way. It was more like they were sorry, but rules are rules," Lopez said. "I couldn't believe what was happening."
Several coworkers said they quit in protest.
"On radio I heard Tommy saying, 'I'm going for a rescue but it?s out of our zone,' said Kalok Geng, a coworker who quit.
Company president Jeff Ellis said that one employee was fired and three had resigned.?
Ellis told the station previously that an investigation would be conducted.?
"If he was well-intentioned and tried to do what he believed was the right thing, even if he deviated from policy, I'm not sure termination was the right thing to do," Ellis said in a statement.
Watch US News videos on msnbc.com
City officials felt the situation called for Lopez to go and help the man in trouble.?
"The city's position is if there's an actual emergency, the lifeguard should assist instead of waiting for a perceived emergency," Hallandale Beach spokesman Peter Dobens told NBCMiami.com.
Louis Casiano of msnbc.com contributed to this report from NBCMiami.com's Gilma Avalos and Ari Odzer.
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Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch commissioned a Syrian artist to produce sketches based on statements received from former detainees and security force defectors. They depict some of the most commonly used torture methods in detention centers across Syria. They are not representations of any specific individuals.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Syrian intelligence agencies are running torture centers where detainees are beaten with batons and cables, burned with acid, sexually assaulted and their fingernails torn out, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.
The New York-based rights group identified 27 detention centers across the country that it says intelligence agencies have been using since President Bashar Assad's government began a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in March 2011.
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"Then they started squeezing my fingers with pliers. They put staples in my fingers, chest and ears. I was only allowed to take them out if I spoke. The staples in the ears were the most painful," the man told Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch
Detainees described being beaten on the soles of their feet with sticks and whips to the point that their skin was raw, their feet swollen and bleeding, making it impossible to walk.
"They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks. They used electric stun-guns on my genitals twice. I thought I would never see my family again. They tortured me like this three times over three days," he said.
Another man, named ?Elias? in the report, described how he was tortured by Syrian intelligence officers in Damascus.
?The guards hung me by my wrists from the ceiling for eight days. After a few days of hanging, being denied sleep, it felt like my brain stopped working. I was imagining things,? he said.
?My feet got swollen on the third day. I felt pain that I have never felt in my entire life. It was excruciating. I screamed that I needed to go to a hospital, but the guards just laughed at me,? he added.
Women, children, elderly people
The report found that tens of thousands of people had been detained by the Department of Military Intelligence, the Political Security Directorate, the General Intelligence Directorate, and the Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
So many people have been arrested that the authorities had used sports stadiums, schools and hospitals as detention centers, the report said.
From the front line in what looks ever more like a fight for Syria's capital Damascus, members of the Free Syrian Army appear to be closing in on President Assad's stronghold, at a terrible cost to both sides. NBC's Bill Neely reports.
The report said while most of the torture victims who spoke to the group were men aged 18 to 35, they also spoke to a number of women, children and elderly people who had been tortured.
?Interrogators, guards, and officers used a broad range of torture methods, including prolonged beatings, often with objects such as batons and wires, holding the detainees in painful stress positions for prolonged periods of time, often with the use of specially devised equipment, the use of electricity, burning with car battery acid, sexual assault and humiliation, the pulling of fingernails, and mock execution,? the report said.
It added that several former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they witnessed people dying as a result of torture.
'Mildest form of torture'
A former Syrian intelligence officer told the campaign group that the ?mildest form of torture is hitting people with batons? on their arms and legs and ?not giving them anything to eat or drink.?
?They used ? and electroshock machine ? it is a small machine with two wires with clips that they attack to nipples and a knob that regulates the currents,? he said. ?In addition, they put people in coffins and threatened to kill them and close the coffin.?
Syrian helicopters strike Damascus suburb
The group called for the U.N. Security Council to refer the issue of Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to adopt targeted sanctions against officials carrying out abuse.
"The reach and inhumanity of this network of torture centers are truly horrific," Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch said. "Russia should not be holding its protective hand over the people who are responsible for this."
PhotoBlog: On the road with Syria's rebel motorcycle army
Russia -- an ally of Syria -- and China have already vetoed two council resolutions that condemned Damascus and threatened it with sanctions and French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters on Monday that reaching a Security Council consensus to refer Syria to the ICC would be difficult.
"As France is concerned it's very clear we are very much in favor of referring Syria to the ICC," Araud said.
"The problem is it will have to be part ... of a global understanding of the council and I do think that for the moment we have not yet reached this point," he said.
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay on Monday reiterated her position that the issue of Syria's conflict should be referred to the ICC in The Hague because crimes against humanity and other war crimes may have been committed.
She said both sides appear to have committed war crimes.
The United Nations has said more than 10,000 people have been killed during the 16-month Syria conflict.?
Reuters contributed to this report.
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'Expect somethin' that you never heard before,' Mack Maine tells MTV News of Weezy's upcoming I Am Not a Human Being II.
By Rob Markman
Lil Wayne
Photo: Daniel Boczarski/ Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1688952/lil-wayne-album-birdman.jhtml
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Netflix says its subscribers watched more than 1 billion hours of online video last month as the advent of high-speed Internet connections and high-powered mobile devices change people's viewing patterns.
The milestone announced Tuesday is the latest sign that the Internet video service may be starting to reduce the amount of time its 26.5 million streaming subscribers spend watching advertising-supported entertainment bundled in more expensive cable-television packages. Netflix Inc. sells the service for $8 per month.
The rising usage of Netflix also indicates that the company's recent efforts to expand its Internet video library are paying off.
The 1 billion hours of collective viewing during June works out to a monthly average of 38 hours per streaming subscriber. That's up from an estimated 28 hours per customer in December.
Associated Presskourtney kardashian pregnant again kourtney kardashian pregnant again apple juice apple juice
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-league-seeks-clean-slate-leader-162244472.html
