LABOUR PARTY HIT BY LOBBYING CLAIMS

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A new article taken from TODAYOnline.com, Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010

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LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party was at the centre of lobbying allegations on Sunday just weeks before an election, after some of its lawmakers were caught in an undercover sting.

Senior Labour members of parliament (MPs) were filmed by The Sunday Times newspaper and Channel Four television, apparently offering to use their connections with government in return for money - although they all subsequently denied wrongdoing.

They included former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers, who boasted he was a "cab for hire" and asked for up to £5,000 ($10,550) a day for his services.

He suggested to an undercover reporter that he would be able to use his friendship with Business Secretary Peter Mandelson to help his clients' interests.

Mr Byers said  yesterday he had asked the parliamentary commissioner for standards to investigate the allegations and believed he would be cleared of any wrongdoing.

The Labour Party responded by promising tighter regulation on lobbying activities if Mr Brown's government is re-elected in the vote expected on May 6.

But just a few weeks from what is set to be a close ballot and with the public still angered over revelations that lawmakers abused the parliamentary expenses system, the main opposition Conservatives went on the attack.

"These are shocking allegations. I have been warning for some time that lobbying would be the next scandal to hit politics," said party leader David Cameron.

"The House of Commons (lower house of parliament) needs to conduct a thorough investigation into these (former) Labour ministers," he demanded. AGENCIES
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STEPPING UP REGIONAL COOPERATION TO COMBAT DRUG TRADE

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Sample news article to test the new template behaviour.
This is taken from TODAYOnline.com, Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010

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Countries in the region must step up cooperation to curb the transnational drug trade, said Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee, at the start of the Integrated Narcotics Programme which celebrates 10 years of collaboration between the Australian Federal Police and Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau.

The problem of amphetamine-type stimulants is of growing concern, and there is a growing number of big clandestine drug laboratories in the region that can produce more than one tonne of drugs in each cycle, said Associate Professor Ho. Such activities can derail the drive to create a drug-free Asean by 2015.

During the course, trainers will share their expertise in combating the drug menace.
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WORKPLACE FATALITIES ROSE 4.5% LAST YEAR

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Another news article to test the blog post handling of the template.
Article from TODAYOnline.com, Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010

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SINGAPORE - They saw zero fatalities in 2008, but last year, these few sectors accounted for 10 out of the 70 workplace deaths.

There were two deaths in the hotels and restaurants sector: An electrocution incident, and a slip-and-trip case that reflected the sometimes poor housekeeping in the sector which makes for wet kitchen floors.

The other deaths after a fatality-free year were in landscape care and maintenance, administrative and support services, and architectural and engineering activities - which had the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH)

Council issuing a reminder that attention must also be paid to safety in industries not known to be high-risk.

According to the latest WSH report, the number of workplace fatalities last year rose by 4.5 per cent, the first increase since 2005.

Overall, the construction and marine sectors accounted for the bulk (63 per cent) of deaths last year. In construction, this had accompanied a surge in employment due to the building boom.

In all, 664,000 man-days were lost last year due to serious accidents, up from 643,000 the previous year.
Falls from height was the top incident type. Twenty-four people lost their lives last year as a result, up from 19 the year before.

The second most common type of accident was being struck by falling objects, which cost 21 lives. Crane-related mishaps accounted for 10 deaths last year, double that of the year before.

On the brighter side, the number of work injuries declined by 2.1 per cent, while 2009 saw the lowest number of occupational diseases confirmed since 2004. The latter fell by 45 per cent, which the WSH Council and

Manpower Ministry attributed to the drop in noise-induced deafness cases.

To address workplace safety lapses, the ministry will step up enforcement on especial areas of concern, such as falls from heights.

The WSH Council said Singapore was on track to reduce the workplace fatality rate to below 1.8 per 100,000 workers by 2018. Saifulbahri Ismail
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SANDSTORM BLANKETS BEIJING, FUELS RECORD POLLUTION IN HK, TAIWAN

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Sample news article to post for this blog:
From TODAYOnline.com; Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010

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HONG KONG - Air pollution in Hong Kong and Taiwan soared to record levels yesterday - fuelled by a massive sandstorm over Beijing - and officials have warned the public to stay indoors.

Pollution levels have been elevated in Hong Kong for days, casting a gray pall over the harbour and obscuring views of the city's skyline.

By yesterday afternoon, the Air Pollution Index (API) readings soared even further, to well above 400 points at several measurement stations across the city, according to the Environmental Protection Department's website. Readings over 200 are considered "severe". The previous record was 202 in July 2008.

People with heart or respiratory problems are advised to stay indoors at an API reading of more than 100, a "very high" level. The public is advised to stay indoors or avoid prolonged exposure to heavy traffic areas at more than 200.

"Even though the dust storms have created record levels of particulate emissions, we must not lose sight of the fact that roadside pollution remains the single biggest threat to public health in Hong Kong," said Mr Mike Kilburn, environmental program manager at Civic Exchange, a public policy research institution.

In Taiwan, most of the pollution monitoring stations found that each cubic metre of air contained 1,000 micrograms of pollutants per hour. A level of 150 micrograms per cubic metre per hour is enough for the air quality to be described as "poor".

"This was the first time ever in Taiwan that air pollution was measured to be at such serious levels over such a wide geographic area," said Mr Chang Shun-ching, an official at the Environmental Protection Administration.

Doctors at two Taipei-area hospitals contacted by AFP said the number of outpatients complaining of respiratory difficulties and eye allergies had surged by 30 per cent above normal rates.

In the mainland, a huge swathe of the country's north was blanketed in fine yellow dust and a mustard-yellow haze, but the authorities said the sandstorm was weakening.

Winds blowing from the northwest have been sweeping sand across the country since Saturday, affecting Xinjiang in the far west all the way to Beijing in the east.

Sandstorms are an annual occurrence in arid northern China in the spring. Scientists blame a combination of deforestation and prolonged drought for the encroachment of desert into more of northern China.

The sandstorm was expected to hit South Korea today, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.Agencies
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Semagic needs a second thought...?

OK, so this is working now. Or at least it does, albeit there are some problems encountered.

There is an error msg like '%need to log in%', or something to that essence, when "Post entry" button is clicked. However, click the same button once the error msg comes out and is cleared, then the post goes through.

This is a minor issue, to me, that is.

This desktop editor handles all the links and fonts, colors, etc., basic functionalities that I need to do my posts in my blog.

So I'll be using Semagic, or to be precise, I'll be using Semagic as one of my desktop blog editors.

Ciao!

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Something is not behaving correctly

I am posting a number of short articles, actually just posts without substances - to see how the new template will behave.

this is one of those shell-only posts.

short...

no substance...

just a shell...

How will the template behave...?

till next post...

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Test Post from Semagic

This was working before, so why not now?

Anyway, this is another test post from Semagic desktop post editor.

Hope it works this time.

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And I don't get the errors anymore.
it could be a long time already since I used this software...

Time really flies!

(Has the Italian minister been tried yet in a court...?)

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Zemanta

Image via CrunchBase

So it really worked! this is not a fancy software, and it doesn't have a lot of complicated (and daunting) buttons, but w.bloggar really works!

I think I have tested it before, but since it is just a very simple test editor, or that from work I can't make use of some picture attachment using this editor (due to the firewall settings), I dropped the use of it.

But I am using it now - again.

I now have zemanta working on the browser, which can be activated anywhere, and Amazon pugins to top that.

Hopefully, this helps me do my posting with ease, at least, the text is what is killing me.

No, WLW doesn't work in the office, so this is the easier apps to replace live writer...

Till then.

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OK the. so I am able to set-up a blog post desktop editor - successfully, that is!

I'm now testing if this editor can send to my blog straight from my desktop.

Here goes. I should see it... if not...

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