Chinas former deputy planning chief brokered deals and helped approve projects in return for cars, furniture and a phantom job for his son, prosecutors said at a corruption trial yesterday that detailed a culture of back-room dealings in the worlds second-largest economy.

Liu Tienan, the former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, confessed to taking advantage of his position to seek benefits, according to a running transcript posted to the official microblog of the Langfang City Intermediate Peoples Court, south of Beijing, where the trial took place. Liu, 59, and his son Liu Decheng took 35.6 million yuan ($5.8 million) worth of bribes including cash, homes and cars in the decade to 2012, the microblog transcript said.

Prosecutors said that, among other crimes, Liu allegedly took bribes to help set up a dealership for a Chinese carmakers joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp.; used his relationship with the president of Chinas biggest aluminum producer to secure a deal for a company that was paying him; and helped win approval for a chemical plant in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo, according to the microblog transcript. While Liu confessed to receiving bribes, his defense lawyer disputed some facts and amounts, the microblog said.

Liu Tienan, former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission. Close

Liu Tienan, former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

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Liu Tienan, former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Liu is one of the highest level officials to go on trial since he was netted in President Xi Jinpings anti-corruption campaign that targets Communist Party cadres from the top to bottom ranks and in all the countrys provinces. Last year, former Politburo member Bo Xilai was convicted of bribery and abuse of power and sentenced to life behind bars, while a graft probe was announced against the countrys former security chief, Zhou Yongkang, in July.

What we are seeing here is a typical Chinese procedure, where there is a media trial, where they say that hes a bad guy, his son is a bad guy, that he took this bribe and that car, said Bo Zhiyue, senior research fellow at the National University of Singapores East Asian Institute. You dont see anything in his defense coming out.

The account of the proceedings was released throughout the day on the courts Weibo microblog, a service similar to Twitter. The court will announce its verdict and sentencing at a later date. There was no mention of proceedings against Lius son or any of the executives referred to in the accusations.

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China Trial of Economic Planner Sheds Light on Bribery

MILAN Melindo could earn another world title shot sooner than later in his return to the 108-pound division.

Following a failed world title bid at flyweight, Melindo dropped to the light flyweight division and could be fighting for an International Boxing Federation (IBF) light flyweight title eliminator on Nov. 15 in Pinoy Pride 28History in the Making at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino.

It may be for an eliminator for the IBF No. 1, ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu. We just got notice from the IBF (for an eliminator) yesterday so we are looking at the possibility to do it on Nov. 15. It will depend on the negotiations.

The 26-year-old Melindo got his biggest break last year and fought for the World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight crowns of Juan Francisco Estrada.

Outclassed

Melindo, however, got outclassed by Estrada and lost by a one-sided unanimous verdict.

Melindo fought two more at flyweight and beat Mexicans Jose Alfredo Rodriguez and Martin Tecuapetla. He then decided to move back down to 108, a division in which he last fought at in 2009.

One of the opponents that are being mentioned by Aldeguer is Saul Juarez, who was one of the frontrunners as WBO light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes.

Nietes is defending his title in the main event of Pinoy Pride 28 against Mexican Carlos Velarde, who is rated No. 10 in the WBO.

We are still waiting for the contract. Hopefully this week or early next week, said Aldeguer, who has already sent contracts to both Velarde and Juarez.

More here:
Melindo sheds weight to get IBF title break

Bear expert sheds light on suspected attack
Kelcey Burgess, a black bear project leader and principal biologist for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife explains bear behavior and possible causes of the suspected attack in West...

By: tvjersey

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Bear expert sheds light on suspected attack - Video

Canterbury shearing contractor Barry Pullen says the New Zealand wool industry needs to show the world shearing here is done humanely, following an undercover video by animals rights pressure group Peta that shows sheep being mistreated in US and Australian sheds.

Peta has mounted an international campaign to turn consumers off wool and is seeking signatures for an online petition to "leading sellers of wool" J Crew and Ralph Lauren asking them to drop wool in favour of "animal-friendly materials".

The video shows sheep being beaten, stomped on and generally abused and pleads with consumers to "read the label first. If it says wool, leave it on the shelf".

"You sort of look at it and think, 'OK, was this the worst of the worst of the worst that was taken out over a number of sheds?' The shearers were idiots, absolute idiots. They shouldn't be in a gang, they shouldn't even be near anything, and that's frustrating," said Pullen.

"The problem that we have, because people have seen that and they connect that behaviour with wool ... they think that everybody does that."

Pullen said his shearers sign employment contracts stating they don't mistreat stock and anyone who did wouldn't be welcome in one of his gangs. The behaviour in the video wouldn't happen in 99.9 per cent of New Zealand shearing sheds, he said.

"We're using very sharp gear, at times there will be an incident of a sheep getting cut, the same as we get guys cut, so how do you realistically handle that? We need to be clear that we stop work, isolate the animal, treat the animal, notify the owner and work out what's best for the sheep and what's best for the owner.

"But you don't want a requirement that's so out of it that every single cut needs a vet to attend - it's got to be a rational approach."

ShearNZ and New Zealand Merino are working on a code of conduct for shearers to be included in a ZQ quality assurance programme, Pullen said. It was also important the message that New Zealand shearing sheds were not houses of horror got through to consumers, he said.

NZ Merino global partnerships manager Dave Maslen recently told growers they needed to be above reproach and that Peta's video had to be taken seriously.

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Shoddy sheep handling 'not happening' in NZ

School Study Under Sheds - AM Show (22-9-14)
Pupils of Tupaa basic school study under sheds.

By: MyJoyOnline

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School Study Under Sheds - AM Show (22-9-14) - Video

Ponderay, ID (PRWEB) September 23, 2014

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Storage Sheds Outlet Now Offers Plastic Storage Building Sheds

Last Updated Sep 22, 2014 4:30 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- Investigators found more than 800 rounds of ammunition in the car of the man accused of scaling the White House fence and sprinting inside the building, a federal prosecutor said Monday. A machete and two hatchets also were found.

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The Secret Service says it has increased security in and around the White House while it investigates Friday's historic security breach. Family ...

The accused intruder, former soldier Omar J. Gonzalez, had been arrested earlier in the summer in Virginia with a carful of weapons, authorities said, and the federal prosecutor said Monday in court that Gonzalez had had a map with the White House and the Masonic Temple in Alexandria circled.

CBS News' Paula Reid reports that Gonzalez entered the courtroom in an orange jumpsuit and was unrestrained, but escorted by two guards.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Mudd declared that Gonzalez was a "danger to the president." Gonzalez, who was carrying a knife, was arrested just inside the White House front door.

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While concerned about an armed fence jumper who managed to make it across the White House lawn and through the door, the president has "complete ...

President Barack Obama and his family had left the White House for Camp David Friday evening when the incident occurred. Obama's spokesman said Monday that the president was "obviously concerned" about what happened.

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Prosecutor sheds light on alleged White House intruder's past

The pop diva put aside her wacky image to sing sweet harmonies with Tony Bennett, the elder statesman of cool.

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, bridging a 60-year age gap to form one of musics unlikeliest pairs, launched a jazz album on Monday that lets the pop diva put aside her wacky image to sing sweet harmonies with the elder statesman of cool.

Cheek to Cheek, on sale on Tuesday after a launch concert in the ornate Renaissance setting of the Grand-Place in Brussels, features jazz standards by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and others a distant world away from Lady Gagas 21st century.

When I began writing music for the music industry, I became known as the quirky girl from downtown New York, she told a news conference at the 15th-century city hall.

So I tailored my music to be that way, to get noticed, to be able to travel more and play more shows, said the 28-year-old artist known to many as much for startling costumes like a robe made of meat as for her innovative music and stage shows.

But swathed in blue velvet with a 2-metre (6-foot) train, Lady Gaga this week was more 1950s Hollywood star than queen of MTV in 2014 although still easily young enough to be Bennetts grand-daughter.

I feel liberated, she said, holding the hand of her fellow Italian-American New Yorker and musing on the challenges of old-style jazz. Its been over eight years and Ive not been singing out. But Tony will not accept any less than all of me.

The two first met in 2011 at a charity concert in New York and a short time afterwards, recorded a version of The Lady is a Tramp for Bennetts album Duets II.

I was overjoyed that he had heard that Id been singing jazz for so long, perhaps I was even afraid that I had lost that part of me, Lady Gaga said.

Bennett, who shot to fame with Because of You in 1951, said he enjoyed the simplicity of a jazz setting.

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Lady Gaga sheds quirky image for jazz album

With the 2016 presidential election just two years away, and presumptive candidates locked in a continuous will-they, won't-they dance with the media, campaign fodder is slowly beginning to trickle out.

For Hillary Clinton, that means returning to a perennial favorite, particularly with right-wing media: her college thesis on left-wing activist Saul Alinsky and her 1971 stint as a law clerk for the radical law firm Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein, based in Oakland, Calif.

A correspondence between the former Secretary of State, when she was still Hillary Rodham, and Mr. Alinsky, obtained by the conservative-leaning Washington Free Beacon, sheds further light on her politics at the time.

Though the letters, of course, are not new; they come from the archives of the Industrial Areas Foundation. They show a young Hillary Rodham, living in Berkeley for the summer during her time as a student at Yale Law School, communicating with the famed activist in a casual, friendly manner. She asks about his forthcoming book, "Rules for Radicals." She suggests they should meet the next time he's in California. She closes the letter by writing, "I hope you are still well and fighting ... Hopefully we can have a good argument sometime in the future."

Alinsky, active in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, worked mainly to improve the lives of the poor in communities across the US.

While he has become associated with radical left-wing politics in current political thought, it's an association that's largely misplaced, says Mark Santow, associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the author of a forthcoming book on Alinsky.

Professor Santow says Alinsky's philosophy did not have a political persuasion. Rather, he was "relentlessly non-ideological." In fact, Santow says parts of Alinsky's thinking could be found in elements of today's Democrat and Republican Parties.

"He basically believed that American society was increasingly dominated by large institutions, governments, corporations," he says. "He thought that ordinary Americans had lost citizenship."

He adds: "He bears some resemblance to libertarians like William Buckley ... but he also bears resemblance togreen, new left politics on the other side as well."

Since leaving law school, Clinton, who was raised a Goldwater Republican and interned with Rep. Gerald R. Ford during college before switching to the Democratic Party, has led a political life characterized mainly by pragmatism. Unlike Alinsky, she elected not to go into community organizing, believing change was best achieved from within the political system, not outside of it, Santow notes.

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Do Hillary Clinton's 'radical letters' actually reveal her inner pragmatist?

VIEW GALLERY

Take a look through our gallery at some of the strangest, most inventive and most comfortable sheds in the North East.

In national shed week we discovered highly decorated bars, cosy lounges and a converted digger shed .. and you can still send us photos of your own amazing sheds.

It all goes to show thatyou should expect more than a lawnmower behind that unassuming wooden door. Or maybe it's not unassuming at all! Apart from that digger... the winner of the last Shed of the Year title created his haven from an upturned boat.

Many pictures in our gallery come from the website readersheds.co.uk which includes creations from throughout the United Kingdom and far beyond.

The 2014 Shed of the Year was selected by Sunderland-born TV architect George Clarke and a panel of judges for a Channel 4 programme.

The judges included the founder of readersheds, Andrew Wilcox, who said: "National shed week is a time to celebrate your garden shed, be inspired and get creative."

The competition is sponsored by Cuprinol who have come up with the Shed'onomic report:

Shedonomics-infographic.jpg

If you have an outstanding shed you think should be in our gallery then please email photographs to us at community@ncjmedia.co.uk with your name and the area you live in.

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20 surprising sheds: Send us photos if you have an unusual shed