Showing posts with label rejects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rejects. Show all posts
25 September 2011 Last updated at 23:08 GMT Scottish Parliament building Ken Macintosh wants to lead Labour in Scotland Scottish Labour leadership contender Ken Macintosh has said he would lead the party as a "devolutionist", not a "unionist".

As the party begins a six-week process to choose a successor to Iain Gray, Mr Macintosh outlined his views on the supporters' blog "Labour Hame".

Mr Gray is preparing to use his address to the Labour conference to criticise the SNP's record on the economy.

The nationalists have dismissed Mr Gray's comments as "nonsense".

In his address to party members, Mr Macintosh said: "Scottish Labour's review and the forthcoming leadership election provide Scotland's Labour party with the opportunity to renew and refresh our relationship with the Scottish people.

"I want to keep Britain together - I don't describe myself as a unionist.

"I consider myself to be a devolutionist and I believe devolution has given Scotland the opportunity not only to get the simple things right, but to be the shining light for others."

Scotland's record

Iain Gray is expected to use his speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool to attack directly the Scottish government's record.

Speaking ahead of his appearance on the platform, he said: "I know you will have seen Alex Salmond on the Six o'clock News talking about his Plan MacB.

"Well I am telling you Plan MacB is nothing but MacBull."

His arguments have been rejected by the SNP business convener Derek MacKay.

He said: "Iain Gray is talking nonsense on tax, nonsense on the economy and utter rubbish when he talks down Scotland's record on health, safety and education."


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The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will endorse to administration economic managers the Japanese ISDB-T technology as the country’s standard for digital terrestrial television (DTT), as the majority of broadcast firms’ stakeholders prefer it to the European standard because of cheaper set-top boxes.Jose Carlo Martinez, NTC deputy commissioner, said the technical working group chose ISDB-T after the Kapisanan ng mga Broadcaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) and major television networks ABS-CBN and TV5 supported the Japanese standard.GMA Network Inc. and Broadcast Enterprises & Affiliated Media Inc. expressed preference for the European standard."The implementing rules and regulations on DTT will be release as soon as we receive the go signal," Martinez said.He is targeting the issuance this year.The guidelines for the DTT were supposed to have been issued last June, but the Office of the President directed the NTC to do another evaluation between the Japanese and European standards.Although the European standard was found technically superior, the Japanese set-top box was found much cheaper at $20 against its rival’s $40.A paper submitted by the KBP said that although the DVB-T2 system is technically superior to ISDB-T, these advantages have been irrelevant to the most important stakeholder in the project as consumers need a cheaper set-top box for migration to DTT."The cost of the (box) is the key to harmonizing the opposing interests. The low cost lowers the entry or migration barrier for the consumer and hastens the analog shut off," KBP said.

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WASHINGTON — The United States rejected on Monday Iran's accusation that Washington was behind the killing of an Iranian scientist and urged Tehran not to use the case to distract attention from its nuclear dispute.

Darioush Rezaie, 35, a university lecturer, was killed by gunmen in eastern Tehran on Saturday. Some media reports said Rezaie was a nuclear scientist but Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratlou said this was not true.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, in a speech broadcast live on Iranian state television, blamed the United States and Israel for the killing.

"We were not involved," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, expressing U.S. sympathy to Rezaie's family and noting that Tehran frequently blames the West for such events.

Story: Iranian nuclear scientist killed by assassin on motorcycle

"We hope that Tehran is not planning to use this incident to distract attention from what it needs to do, which is to come back into compliance with international obligations."

Several nuclear scientists have been assassinated in Iran in the last few years amid Tehran's intensifying showdown with the international community over its suspected nuclear arms ambitions.

Iran, a major oil producer, says its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes and so far has refused to halt its sensitive uranium enrichment activities, as demanded by the U.N. Security Council.

The refusal has led to the imposition of sanctions by the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.


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