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FXstreet.com (London) - AUD/USD has fallen against the dollar after shedding gains made overnight. The pair is currently trading at USD0.8948.

Reduced rate cut expectations

The Aussie dollar strengthened early in the session, despite further weak Chinese numbers which pushed down Asian markets.

The Australian dollar was given support by reduced bets that the Reserve Bank of Australia would move to cut its benchmark rate from an already record-low 2.5 percent.

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is expected to show that Australias trade deficit narrowed in November. Consensus expectations are for a drop from AUD529m to AUD300m.

Chinese misses

The HSBC/Markit Economics services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dropped to 50.9 in December, its lowest since August 2011, from 52.5 in November. New business expansion also dropped to its slowest pace in six months.

However, the Chinese services data was not as important to demand for Australian exports as last weeks manufacturing PMIs. After adjusting for seasonal factors, the HSBC PMIs posted at 50.5 in December, unchanged from the earlier flash reading, and down slightly from 50.8 in November. The print was a three-month low, but showed a rise in output for the fifth successive month.

AUD/USD sheds gains

AUD/USD has round resistance around USD0.8950 after falling from session highs at USD0.8982. The pair is currently trading at USD0.8948, undoing early session gains - down 0.9 percent.

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AUD/USD sheds early session gains

Summary: Monday Morning Opener: As CES 2014 kicks off Lenovo launches an Android all-in-one. Android desktops plus Chromebooks could give Microsoft's Windows 8 franchise a headache.

Lenovo on Sunday rolled out an Android all-in-one home computer designed to be a living room multimedia PC. Should Android-powered PCs do well it would further disrupt the PC market and splinter the operating system selection a bit more.

The company's first Android home computer, the Lenovo N308, has a price tag that may spur some interest. The N308 starts at $450 and has a 19.5 inch 1600x900 touchscreen desktop.

According to Lenovo, the general idea is to put the PC at the center of folks who already use Android for browsing, apps and entertainment on their smaller screen devices. The N308 runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and is powered by a Nvidia Tegra processor.

The N308 has up to 500 GB of storage, a Webcam, keyboard, mouse and integrated battery with 3 hours of life. The N308 can stand or lay flat should you want to use it as a big tablet.

Add it up and Lenovo's N308 is an inexpensive spin on its larger tabletop PC, the Horizon 2, which is 27-inches and runs Windows 8 and the PC maker's custom interface. Horizon 2, an interesting living room addition that starts at $1,499, is basically a big tabletop tablet, that's positioned more upmarket than the Android all-in-one PC.

The N308 was outlined as part of Lenovo's larger play for the digital home. Lenovo also announced a personal cloud storage unit dubbed Beacon starting at $199 to share content and media in a home as well as the A740 all-in-one desktop starting at $1,499.

What's interesting is that PC makers are pushing toward Android after seeing Chromebooks sell well. Why? Chromebooks remain the domain of Google. With Android PCs, hardware manufacturers can customize more, add security features and preserve the application ecosystem. Google has all the control with the Chrome OS.

Rumor has it that Google has been working with various PC vendors to launch Android product lines.

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Android desktops arrive as Lenovo eyes your living room

Published: Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 4:56 p.m. Last Modified: Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 4:56 p.m.

And although it stood for only 29 years, it has become an iconic symbol, a memory mill of all that was good about the good old days here.

As today, back in the 1930s Sarasota's financial well-being was closely linked to the annual migration of snowbirds. In 1936, the Chamber of Commerce Committee to Create Summer Business met to determine what could be done to give the community a boost during the slowest time of the year.

It was Roger Flory, real estate man and publisher of the Sarasota Visitors' Guide, who suggested that the city provide a municipal bathing beach. The next year, that idea was expanded to include a bathing facility.

Karl A. Bickel, former head of the United Press and a major civic leader, was appointed to chair a committee to take the matter up with the city council. And thus was sown the seed that would ultimately blossom into Sarasota's storied Lido Casino.

The site deemed the most desirable for the project was a 1,300-foot stretch of sugar-fine sand on Lido Beach owned by the estate of John Ringling, then under the control of Ringling's nephew and co-executor, John Ringling North.

Mayor Verman Kimbrough met with North and hammered out an agreement whereby the property would be deeded to the city in exchange for $35,000, which would immediately be paid back to the city for delinquent taxes.

Albert Moore Saxe drew up preliminary plans for a Hawaiian-style casino called Sarasands, but it was Ralph Twitchell, one of the founders of the Sarasota School of Architecture, who was given the assignment. His version of the Lido Casino became one of Sarasota's first modern buildings.

From its conception, progress on the Casino was front page news, where it often competed for space with ominous headlines about Europe sliding into World War II.

It was hoped that construction would be completed by the summer of 1939. A color rendering appeared on the cover of that year's edition of Flory's Visitors' Guide with the description: Whether it's fun and frolic...recreation or amusement...health and happiness... or just plain lazy contentment...The Sarasota Lido beckons all who seek what Florida has most to give.

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Only fond memories remain of Lido Casino

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Good Plumber Edmonton 780-851-1967 - Video

Pest Control How Do You Get Rid of Hobo Spiders
Pest Control How Do You Get Rid of Hobo Spiders: Prevention is the best remedy for keeping hobo spiders at bay. To keep hobo spiders out of your home, elimin...

By: ADVANTAGE PEST CONTROL Fl.

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Pest Control How Do You Get Rid of Hobo Spiders - Video

PHILADELPHIA Tempers flared this time last year between the Philadelphia Housing Authority and unions in the building trades.

A look at what happened to 24-year-old Abdul Mujahid helps explain why.

Mujahid signed up for the PHA training program to prepare himself for a job in construction. He spent weeks learning the basics of electrical work, plumbing, and carpentry.

After graduating in 2010, he passed union tests to become an apprentice and put his name on waiting lists.

"I knew it wasn't going to be overnight, that I had to be persistent," he said.

Years passed. Nothing happened. Mujahid gave up and went to work for a Peco subcontractor, shutting off meters of delinquent customers.

Last January, PHA decided to scrap the training program for residents and start anew, angering powerful unions in the building trades.

The housing authority was spending more than $2 million a year on the pre-apprenticeship program, employing union instructors at a state-of-the-art facility in South Philadelphia.

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Amid rancor, PHA construction training program is back

Landscape Lighting manufacturer, CAST Lighting, produceslandscape lighting fixtures, landscape lighting transformers, landscape lighting wire,low voltage bulbsand other outdoor lighting system components. CAST Landscape Lighting fixtures are the most durable and rugged in the industry. Composed of solid sand-cast bronze with stainless steel internal components, theselandscape lighting fixtures are designed to perform optimally for a lifetime of use in the most corrosive environments, especially in oceanside regions. CAST Lighting multi-tap low voltagetransformers are the landscape lightingindustry standard for reliability and flexibility with a host of exclusive features. CAST Lighting No-Ox landscape lighting wire is tin-coated marine-grade for the highest possible resistance to corrosion. CAST Lighting also provides a high level of one-on-one support and hosts the industry's highest rated hands-on landscape lighting seminars. This combination of high quality outdoor lighting products (priced reasonably) and unparalleled customer service make a winning combination that delivers exceptional value to distributors,installers, specifiersand homeowners. For professional, rugged and durable outdoor lighting, consider CAST Lighting.

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Landscape Lighting and Outdoor Lighting - Low Voltage Systems

No compromise on EIA: Masidi

Kota Kinabalu: State Culture, Tourism and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said there can be no compromise where companies undertaking development projects break the rules like going ahead with land clearing even before the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is approved.

"My stand is very clear. No company is above the law.

No one is exempted from requirement of EIA if it is expressly provided by law," Masidi said, in reference to a second compound of RM30,000 plus second Stop-work order issued in late December against a contractor who began clearing huge swathes of pristine estuarine mangrove forests for a 3,000-acre (originally 4,000 acres) aquaculture shrimp farm project around Sg Telaga in Pitas.

The EPD (Environment Protection Department) issued the first compound and Stop-work order on Sept. 23 but the company apparently ignored it for three months.

The Environment Protection (Prescribed Activities) Environmental Impact Assessment Order 2005, under the umbrella Sabah Environment Enactment 2002 provides in Paragraph 6 in Schedule 2 a list of Prescribed Activities that require EIA.

It cites Fisheries and Aquaculture in wetland forests as a prescribed activity which requires EIA, which reads: (i) Conversion of wetland forests into fisheries or aquaculture development covering an area 50 hectres or more, or (ii) Creation of lakes or ponds for fisheries or aquaculture development covering an area of 50 hectres of more.

EPD's definition of an EIA means a report or series of reports which provide a detailed assessment in quantitative terms wherever possible and qualitative term of the likely environmental impacts of a development activity and measures required to prevent, mitigate and abate any adverse impacts, or to protect the environment, in addition to a monitoring programme required to ensure compliance with the mitigation measures ad to monitor residual effects.

The law also empowers the Director of EPD to serve a Stop-work order on any developer who starts work without an approved EIA.

Meanwhile, Masidi said he would involve the Department of Wildlife to take charge of protection measures, including the preparation of the EIA which entails Detailed Assessment and Survey of all the Fauna, Flora and Social Aspects of the project.

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No compromise on EIA: Masidi

Speaking for the first time after the Maharashtra government tabled the judicial inquiry commission report on Adarsh scam in the State Assembly, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday said the land on which building stands always belonged to the State government.

The Adarsh societys land belonged to State government. The society was not meant for Kargil war heroes. There was nothing wrong in buying flats in Adarsh, he said. He was speaking at a function, organised by Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam, to unveil a statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar in Mumbai.

Those indicted by the Inquiry Commission for granting political patronage for the building project include, Mr. Shinde and former Chief Ministers Ashok Chavan, late Vilasrao Deshmukh and Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil. NCP Ministers Sunil Tatkare and Rajesh Tope have also been indicted.

The Commissions report questioned Mr. Shindes haste in clearing the land allotted to the building, ignoring the advice of the finance department.

Meanwhile, a week after demanding to cut power tariff in Mumbai on the same lines of Delhi state government, Congress MP and spokesperson Mr. Nirupam on Monday asked the central government to increase the number of subsidized gas cylinders from nine to 12.

We first increase the number from six to nine. The middle class and poor will benefit if the number is now taken to 12, he said.

Mr. Shinde who was present at the program said that he will convey the message to cabinet but cannot comment as the final decision is yet not taken.

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Adarsh land always belonged to State government: Shinde

What you should know

Fires tend to be more common in the winter when we spend a lot of time indoors trying to stay warm and cozy.

Winter fires often start with heating devices, cooking, smoking, candles, and matches. Cooking fires are the primary cause of home fires and fire injuries. The most common time for winter fires is 5 to 8 p.m. Holiday insurance claims are often tied to dry Christmas trees, turkey fryers, fireworks, and candles. Over one-third of candle fires start in bedrooms

The most common disaster response by the American Red Cross is for single-family house fires more than 52,000 U.S. home fires and helping 226,000 people. The Red Cross responds with shelter, food and emotional support.

Space heaters cause one-third of home heating fires and four out of five home heating fire deaths.

Winter electrical fires may start if circuits and receptacles become overloaded or there are shorts in cords or devices.

You could be at a high risk for fires, especially if you live in a home over 30 years old or with fuses. Todays lifestyles often require a large electrical supply all in one place. For example, your desk may have a heater, digital TV, cable box, lamp, and radio nearby. But you might also have a computer with screen, desk phone, printer, modem, mobile phone recharger, speakers, coffee warmer, phone, fax, scanner, and shredder. Many old homes were not build for such high demand in just one room. Some older homes have dangerous aluminum wiring as well.

Working smoke alarms are extremely important for helping you react and escape from a potential fire.

What you should do

Develop a fire escape plan. Practice your plan at least twice a year with everyone, including young children. Ask everyone to meet outside in a specific place in case of a fire. Everyone should know two ways to escape from each room.

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Healthy Memphis: Make home cozy without risk of winter fire