Power Rankings: June 9, 2012

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UK minister: Can't rule out intervention in Syria

This image made from video released by UNSMIS, the UN observer mission in Syria and accessed Saturday, June 9, 2012, purports to show UN observers touring after overnight fighting in Damascus, Syria. In Damascus, residents spoke about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence Syria's capital has seen since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began 15 months ago.(AP Photo/UNSMIS via AP video)

This image made from video released by UNSMIS, the UN observer mission in Syria and accessed Saturday, June 9, 2012, purports to show UN observers touring after overnight fighting in Damascus, Syria. In Damascus, residents spoke about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence Syria's capital has seen since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began 15 months ago.(AP Photo/UNSMIS via AP video)

LONDON (AP) ? British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday that he couldn't rule out a military intervention in Syria, saying the situation there was beginning to resemble the violence that gripped Bosnia in the 1990s.

Hague told Sky News television that time was now "clearly running short" to implement international envoy Kofi Annan's ceasefire plan in Syria, and that Britain was already turning its eye toward what it would do if the plan failed.

Asked if his government had ruled out the use of force, Hague said Sunday that the country was "on the edge of collapse or of a sectarian civil war so I don't think we can rule anything out."

"It is looking more like Bosnia in the 1990s, being on the edge of a sectarian conflict in which neighboring villages are attacking and killing each other," he added.

The Bosnia conflict broke out in 1992, claiming tens of thousands of lives and embroiling the Balkans in years of vicious ethnic warfare. Eventually, ineffectual international action was followed by NATO air strikes, and a peace accord put an end to the fighting in 1995.

Hague told the broadcaster that Britain's preference remained for a diplomatic pressure "behind an actual plan of action for transition in Syria."

"Every other solution to the Syrian crisis involves a lot more death," he noted.

Associated Press

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Poet-historian of the South named US poet in chief

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2007, file photo, Pulitzer Prize winning author Natasha Trethewey recalls her young years in Mississippi, during a break in her speaking schedule at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss. Trethewey will be named the Library of Congress' 19th poet laureate Thursday, June 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2007, file photo, Pulitzer Prize winning author Natasha Trethewey recalls her young years in Mississippi, during a break in her speaking schedule at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss. Trethewey will be named the Library of Congress' 19th poet laureate Thursday, June 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A poet-historian representing a younger generation of writers will soon take office on Capitol Hill, overlooking the politicians, in a lesser-known post enshrined in federal law.

The Library of Congress named Natasha Trethewey on Thursday to be its 19th U.S. poet laureate with a mission to share the art of poetry with a wider audience. The 46-year-old English and creative writing professor at Atlanta's Emory University distinguished herself early, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2007.

Trethewey will be the first poet in chief to take up residence in Washington to work at the library's Poetry Room for part of her term in 2013. As one of the youngest poet laureates ever selected, she also brings fresh perspective to an office more recently held by poets in their 80s.

Part of her work has focused on restoring history that has been erased or forgotten from the official record and the nation's shared memory. She has researched in the library's Civil War archive to inform some of her writings.

Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her collection of poems, "Native Guard." She wrote of the Louisiana Native Guard, a black Civil War regiment assigned to guard white Confederate soldiers held on Ship Island off Mississippi's Gulf Coast.

The Confederate prisoners were later memorialized on the island, but not the black Union soldiers.

A stanza reads:

"Some names shall deck the page of history

"as it is written on stone. Some will not."

Librarian of Congress James Billington, who chose Trethewey after hearing her read at the National Book Festival in Washington, said her work explores many tragedies of the Civil War.

"She's taking us into history that was never written," he told The Associated Press. "She takes the greatest human tragedy in American history ? the Civil War, 650,000 people killed, the most destructive war of human life for a century ? and she takes us inside without preaching."

It's a "happy coincidence," he said, that Trethewey was chosen during the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States. He was also impressed with her skill in translating a visual image into words and moving from rhyme to free verse ? but always keeping her poems accessible.

Trethewey began writing poems after a personal tragedy. While she was a college freshman, her mother was killed by a stepfather Trethewey had long feared.

"I started writing poems as a response to that great loss, much the way that people responded, for example, after 9/11," she told the AP. "People who never had written poems or turned much to poetry turned to it at that moment because it seems like the only thing that can speak the unspeakable."

She is the nation's first poet laureate to hail from the South since the first federal poet ? Robert Penn Warren ? was named by the Library of Congress in 1986. She is also Mississippi's top poet and will be the first person to serve simultaneously as a state and U.S. laureate.

Her term, beginning in September, also coincides with the 75th anniversary of the poetry center and a dedicated poet-consultant position at the world's largest library.

Trethewey said she hopes to promote national activity around poetry and to engage with the library and people who visit the nation's capital.

Past poet laureates have included W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Rita Dove and Warren ? the Southern native who was an inspiration for Trethewey. Their agendas as the nation's chief poets have included readings across the country, newspaper syndication of poems and poetry readings over high school public address systems.

Poetry lives in the Trethewey family. Her father, Eric Trethewey, is a poet and college professor. But when she went to graduate school, she was more interested in telling stories and studied fiction writing.

"On a dare that first semester, a poet friend of mine got me to write a poem. I did it because I thought I would prove that I couldn't do it," she said. "It was at that moment that something really clicked."

Her Pulitzer-winning poems also included her personal history as the daughter of interracial parents ? and the story of her mother, who died at the age of 40.

In "Miscegenation," a poem in "Native Guard," she wrote about her parents' journey to Ohio in 1965 for a marriage that was illegal at home in Mississippi.

"They crossed the river into Cincinnati, a city whose name

"begins with a sound like sin, the sound of wrong ? mis in Mississippi."

Trethewey's next collection of poems, "Thrall," will be published this year. It explores her relationship with her white father and shared and divergent memory within families, along with poems about paintings and the history of knowledge from the Enlightenment.

___

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/

___

Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Associated Press

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No Triple, no super buzz at Belmont

A suicide bomber dressed in a burqa blew himself up near a French patrol in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing four soldiers and wounding five, one of the deadliest attacks on the French contingent in months, as the Taliban step up a spring offensive. The attack occurred in the mountainous Kapisa province in the east of the??

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Fix Your HR Function By Blowing It Up | Aligns, Inc. Consulting

For many CEO?s, their company?s HR function is a source of ongoing frustration. Why?

There are many reasons, yet at the high level, the work of HR is extremely diverse. It ranges from tedious benefit design and administration to the strategic development of next generation leaders. Unless your business has nailed the details of benefit and compensation administration (the paycheck stuff), little else can occur. Unfortunately, HR leaders in companies that lack sophisticated infrastructure are so busy fixing transactions they don?t have the time or business credibility to contribute in ways that are more proactive and value adding. Finally, many CEO?s don?t (and shouldn?t!) expect more until the basics are in place. I realize this is an oversimplification, but frankly I would rather get to a solution that spends more energy defining and inviting debate about the problem.

Think about what needs to occur to ensure alignment of your company?s brand with its culture. At the end of the day, it really is all about how your customers experience interactions with all levels of employees. This requires the integration of thought leadership regarding business and organizational development. Focused leadership around this agenda is lacking in many businesses. HR, Strategy, and Business Development Executives are often not on the same page, with the former feeling like the dog trying to catch the bus. So why not place the development of HR strategy, policies, as well as organizational and people development programs under a senior executive responsible for strategy and development, and take all the administrative HR tasks under a leader with operational or other transactional responsibilities?

This change (assuming you place the right leader in this new role) will immediately focus the accountability for your strategy and development team on producing more integrated business strategies and/or M&A options that effectively integrate considerations for people and culture. This sets the foundation for integrated and systemic business metrics and the development of talent, rewards and people development programs that reduce the risk of implementation failure of important business initiatives.
So what do you do with the rest, consider outsourcing, or better still, if your business has a service center capability, why not have that service capability also be directed at your employees? Service centers get transactions right, delight customers, all at the lowest possible unit cost. They leverage technology to provide increasing levels of service, while improving cost. They outsource where appropriate. This is very different DNA from that which exists in most traditional HR departments. And, isn?t this a very important focal point for aligning brand and behavior?

Color outside the lines in design of your organization. Ground the design of structure in criteria that best ensure implementation of strategies while leveraging talent and existing capabilities in new ways.

How might you think differently about other business support functions with the goal of improving the real value of output? By the way, if is better, if will often times also me more cost effective.

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No. 1 with a title? Sharapova makes French final

Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates scorring a point in her semi final match against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday June 7, 2012. Sharapova won in two sets 6-3, 6-3. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates scorring a point in her semi final match against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday June 7, 2012. Sharapova won in two sets 6-3, 6-3. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Russia's Maria Sharapova reacts as she defeats Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova during their semifinal match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday, June 7, 2012. Sharapova won 6-3, 6-3. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Sara Errani of Italy celebrates winning her semi final match against Samantha Stosur of Australia at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday June 7, 2012. Errani won in three sets 7-6, 1-6, 6-3. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Italy's Sara Errani reacts as she plays Australia's Samantha Stosur during their semifinal match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday, June 7, 2012. Errani won 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Australia's Samantha Stosur reacts as she plays Italy's Sara Errani during their semifinal match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday, June 7, 2012. Errani won 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

PARIS (AP) ? One victory Thursday finished Maria Sharapova's climb back to the top of the tennis rankings.

With one more on Saturday, she'll be the French Open champion and complete a career Grand Slam.

Not a bad way to spend springtime in Paris.

Sharapova defeated Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-3 in the windblown semifinals at Roland Garros. The second-seeded Russian needs a victory over 21st-seeded Sara Errani, a 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 winner over No. 6 Samantha Stosur, to become the 10th woman to win all four major tournaments.

"I always dreamed of being on the final stage here and I finally have that opportunity," Sharapova said. "And I'm more than excited."

When she won match point on a second-serve ace, Sharapova raised her palms to the sky, looked up and smiled ? one of the sport's biggest stars letting the fans and photographers share a special moment.

Sharapova has long been the headliner at almost any tournament she enters, though this latest win will officially put her on the top line of the women's rankings when the new list comes out Monday.

It's a perch that may have felt unreachable three years ago, when the Russian was recovering from shoulder surgery and dropped as low as 126th.

But from that point, she has made a steady climb back. This year, she has won two tournaments and finished runner-up in three more, including the Australian Open. That, plus the performance at Roland Garros, has helped push her back to No. 1, the spot she first captured in 2005 and held for 17 non-consecutive weeks, the last on June 8, 2008.

"It's pretty special," Sharapova said. "A few years ago after my shoulder surgery, I don't know if I had a ranking, but it was over 100. And I thought 'Well, I did it one time. So maybe again, I can try to do it.'"

Her match against fourth-seeded Kvitova, who defeated Sharapova in the Wimbledon final last year, wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but Kvitova struggled with the blustery wind more than her opponent did. And she couldn't get a handle on Sharapova's serve. The Russian placed 78 percent of her first serves in.

"It's tough to return her," Kvitova said. "She plays very fast. It's a different game compared to matches before."

Trailing 4-3 and 40-30 in the second set, Kvitova hit an aggressive return that the chair umpire ruled missed the baseline. A short argument ensued and after the changeover, Kvitova kept glancing at the spot where she thought the ball hit. She went from 30-love in that game to losing the last four points, and Sharapova's last service game was academic ? and punctuated with that ace on her second serve.

Next up is Errani, who played a terrible second set against Stosur but took advantage when the U.S. Open champion got a case of the nerves and started hitting balls five and 10 feet out in the final set.

"It's a semifinal of a slam," Stosur said. "Of course you're going to be nervous."

When her win was complete, Errani toppled to her back and onto the soft, red clay, then looked up to the players guest box, where there was an elated mix of smiles and tears.

"It's incredible for me," Errani said. "I didn't expect it, and I'm here. So, I don't know what to say."

Stosur committed 48 unforced errors, including 21 in the final set, while Errani simply chased and got the ball back, making only 21 unforced errors over the entire match.

Many of Errani's serves spun in at the 70-80 mph range. She finished the match with no aces, compared to 11 for Stosur, and set aside the thought, at least for one day, that power players with power games are the only ones who win big matches at Grand Slam tournaments. The debate will be resumed Saturday when she plays Sharapova. Given the way the past two weeks have gone, there's no counting out the Italian.

Entering Roland Garros, Errani was 0-28 against opponents in the top 10.

Now, she has back-to-back wins against No. 10 Angelique Kerber and No. 6 Stosur, along with victories over past French Open champions Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Which means that on the same day Sharapova officially vaults to No. 1, Errani will reach the top 10 for the first time.

"Maybe my problem always was that I couldn't believe too much to win with the strong players," she said. "But now I beat three in a row. I'm in the final in a Grand Slam. So I have to maybe try to think a bit different."

Associated Press

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The second batch of travel tax relief Models Catalog release ...

• Written by admin
• Posted June 8, 2012 at 1:05 am

June 6th,Ministry of Finance, stateThe State Administration of Taxation,The Ministry of industry and information technologyJoint publication of the energy conservation, the use of new energy vehicle travel tax relief Models Catalog (the second batch) and does not belong to the tax range of pure electric, fuel cell passenger car models catalog (the second batch).It is reported, in order to promote energy conservation, the use of new energy carIndustryDevelopment, since January 1, 2012, the energy saving vehicle travel tax, levied; on the use of new energy vehicles, vehicle tax exemption. See from the directory, energy-saving type passenger cars on,The Great Wall automobile(601633,Shares), Changan FordMazda, ShanghaiPublic,SAIC(600104,Shares), Shanghai GM Dongyue, SAIC-GM-Wuling, FAWToyota,FAW Xiali(000927,SharesFAW Volkswagen), the number of models selected; in the new energy vehicles, Beijing Hualin special loading limited, Changchun Cup car manufacturing company limited. ?Do not belong to the tax range of pure electric, fuel cell passenger car models catalog (the second batch)? show, Beijing, the Great Wall car car,CheryCar three pure electric cars in the directory, no new fuel cell vehicle. It is reported, according to ?people?s Republic of China tax? the relevant provisions, pure electric, fuel cell car does not belong to the scope of tax.

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