'World Population Day 2012'

On 11^th July 1987 the birth of Matej Gashpar of Zagreb in Croatia is said to have tipped the world's population over the five billion mark and as a result the United Nations World Population Fund (UNPF) decided to recognise this milestone. From henceforth 11^thJuly has been designated as World Population Day.

From the beginning of time it took until 1804 for the world's population to reach the one billion mark, but only a further 123 years to reach two billion in 1927. Population rise during the 20^th century really took off. By 1960, three billion had been reached, but within 14 years, in 1974, the total had reached four billion.

Only 13 years elapsed before Matej Gashpar's birth of brought the total to five billion and 12 years later, the UNPF designated 12^th October 1999 as the Day of Six Billion. And so it continues. 31^st November 2011 was declared the Day of Seven Billion and by now United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) was beginning to show serious concern.

A programme was introduced that would seek to build global awareness around the opportunities and challenges associated with a world of seven billion people and inspire individuals and organisations to take action.

Current predictions for the future consider that there will be a continued increase in population, but a general steady decline in the population growth rate. The United States Census Bureau (USCB) estimates that by 2027 eight billion people will live on the planet, with the nine billionth mark being reached in 2046.

These future projections are obviously highly speculative, with estimates for 2050 ranging from a low of 7.4 billion to a high of 10.6 billion. Longer-range predictions vary even more. One view is that by 2150 world population will have declined to 3.2 billion, while another view is that it will have increased to 24.8 billion. An extreme prediction is that world population will have risen to 256 billion by this time.

Unfortunately the resources of the world are finite and with no more arable land or fresh water to spare, it is becoming increasingly impossible for food production to keep pace with these rises in population. To make matter worse, the world's stocks of natural resources that support human life-food such as fresh water, quality soil, energy and biodiversity are all being polluted, degraded or otherwise depleted.

In the 1960s when world population was a mere three billion, approximately 0.5 hectares of cropland per capita was available, but within 40 years this had dropped to 0.23 hectares. Soil worldwide has become seriously degraded and current erosion rates are higher than ever, with estimates of 10 million hectares of cropland being abandoned each year.

Another 10 million hectares is lost each year as a result of salinisation, due chiefly to inappropriate irrigation or drainage methods. In many cases the only way for land to be at all productive is by the use of large quantities of fossil fuel-based fertiliser.

These problems are most serious in the developing world. China and India together have about a third of the world's population. In China, for instance, the population currently stands at some 1.35 billion and is growing at an annual rate of about 0.6%. With its predominately young population this is expected to increase for another 50 years. India has around 1.2 billion people, with an annual growth rate of about 1.7%. If this trend continues, by around 2050 the population of India will have doubled.

Africa has of course been hit by an AIDS epidemic, but in spite of this the populations of most countries continue to rise. The populations of both Chad and Ethiopia are expected to double before the mid-2030s.

Even in the so-called developed world the population-growth problem is still significant. The US population now stands at some 300 million. It has doubled in the past 60 years and estimates are that it will have reached 600 million by the 2070s.

Even the estimated figure of nine billion for the world's population in 2050 is said to be questionable, since a large share falls within the 15-40 age group, where reproduction rates are high.

This brings us to a contentious area of what seems to be an intractable problem. If the world's population continues to grow and it becomes increasingly difficult to feed this number of people, should something be done to limit its number?

With thoughts of overpopulation in mind, people began to put forward arguments to justify some form of population control. However, many people would have serious moral objections to the use of any plans to use contraception in order to control population.

The United Nations 1968 International Conference on Human Rights makes it clear that parents have a basic right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.

It is argued that if rich countries were to stop consuming more than their fair share of the world's resources the problems of a rising population would diminish and there would be no need for population controls to be imposed upon poor nations.

The obvious answer is for a united policy to link the major players in the world, but unfortunately the major players seem unable to reach agreement. Awareness-raising events associated with World Population Day can help, but meanwhile the world just seems to bumble along and hope for the best.

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Al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq has claimed responsibility

(Reuters) - Al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq has claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings and assassinations targeting Shi'ite Muslims that rocked cities and towns across the country in June.

BAGHDAD-June was one of the bloodiest months in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew at the end of last year, with at least 237 people killed and 603 wounded mainly in bomb attacks, according to a tally by Reuters.

Tensions simmer between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite communities, yet they share an increasingly widespread despair. Al-Qaida-style attacks are on the rise, faith in the government's ability to keep people safe is on the wane and a fatalistic acceptance of a life of fear is perniciously settling in.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) said a statement posted on radical Islamist websites that it was behind more than 73 attacks that mainly targeted Shi'ite pilgrims and security officials.

The group had previously said it was responsible for the June 13 attacks in which more than 70 people were killed in bombings targeting Shi'ite pilgrims across the country.

The ISI often hits Shi'ite targets to try to stir up the type of sectarian violence that drove Iraq to the edge of civil war and killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-7.

Although weakened by a long war with U.S. and Iraqi security forces, the group remains capable of coordinating lethal attacks and has typically carried out a major bombing about once a month this year.

Overall violence has dropped in Iraq since the peak of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-7 but bombings and killings still occur daily and a political crisis between the country's main Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions has raised fears of a return to widespread sectarian fighting

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After Russian Floods-'170+ Dead, Grief, Rage and Deep Mistrust'

KRYMSK, Russia — Forty-six new graves were cut on Tuesday in a field outside this city, where catastrophic flooding has left behind a slime of mud and anger.

Everyone here had a story of the pitch-black hours of Saturday morning, of being trapped inside homes as water rose to 6 and then to 8 and 10 feet, listening to the screams of neighbors and fear-maddened animals.

So it came as a shock, and then as the focus of anger, when officials acknowledged that they had been aware of a threat to Krymsk at 10 the previous night, but had not taken measures to rouse its sleeping residents.

The flood in this city of 57,000 in southern Russia is the first disaster to hit the country since Vladimir V. Putin returned to the presidency, amid uncertain public support for his government. Its aftermath has riveted national attention as a measure of the state’s effectiveness, including visits from celebrities and volunteer efforts backed by pro-government and opposition political parties.

Mr. Putin has been damaged in the past by appearing indifferent to disasters — most acutely in 2000, when he failed to immediately return from a vacation to handle the sinking of a nuclear-powered submarine, the Kursk. Russia declined initial rescue offers from other countries, and all 118 sailors trapped onboard died.

The official death count in the floods had risen to 172 by Tuesday. Inside a ruined pastry shop, which had the sickly smell of something rotting, Sergei Viktorovich, 45, described waking in the darkness to the sensation of moisture in his bed, then reaching for his phone on a bedside table to find that it was already lost in the water.

“If they knew at 11, why didn’t they warn us? What are we, hunks of meat? Are we not people?” he said, offering his patronymic, not his surname, because he said he feared retribution from the police. “We are the young people, so we swam, but what about our grandmothers? How many grandmothers drowned?”

He said those emotions were barely restrained when the region’s governor, Aleksandr Tkachev, met with residents on Sunday. “If there weren’t so many police around,” he said, “they would have thrown rocks at him.”

Whatever the ultimate repercussions — firings, compensation, criminal charges — a visit to Krymsk offers a view of the gap that has opened between Russians and their government. Rumors have taken on such force that, on Monday, word of a second wave of water sent many people running.

“Even if Tkachev was saying the same things as the people standing in line for humanitarian aid, they still wouldn’t believe him,” said the journalist Oleg Kashin in a commentary on Kommersant FM radio. “Because this is not about the fact that the official story is different from the victims’ story, but that people don’t trust the authorities, on any subject — on natural disasters, or elections, or soccer.”

Mr. Putin has made clear efforts to avoid repeating earlier mistakes — as well as unscripted scenes like one during the 2010 forest fires, when he visited a burned village to offer monetary compensation and a woman began yelling angrily: “We asked for help! We trusted you!”

He reviewed damage from the air on Saturday, and has demanded a full investigation by the end of this week.

The federal authorities have since acknowledged that failing to warn residents was a major mistake, and the head of the region, Vasily Krutko, was dismissed on Monday. They have sent teams of psychologists, and donations of food and clothing have poured in.

That has not appeased many people in Krymsk, who spent Tuesday scraping mud from their floors and walls, and lining the roads with fetid piles of ruined belongings. Lyudmila Dmitriyevna, 64, said she awoke early Saturday to the sound of voices, stepping onto her third-floor balcony and peering into the gloom.

“It was as if I were looking at a stream of clay,” she said. “It was so loud, there were people screaming in the water, and metal barrels, and animals. It boiled and boiled, it covered the streets and the yards, it was all you could see.”

Like many residents interviewed, she said she suspected that the raging flow was a result of an official decision to release some water from a swollen reservoir in the hills above the city — a theory rebutted by scientists from Russia’s environmental monitoring service, who said Friday’s rains swelled nearby rivers with the equivalent of six months’ average precipitation.

But those explanations, like the overtures of officials, have done little to win back Ms. Dmitriyevna’s trust. “Putin came, Tkachev came, the mayor came,” she said. “They deny everything. They are protecting their own interests. Why would they protect ordinary people?”

Her husband then took her by the hand and pulled her away from a reporter, saying that if she gave her full name, “they’ll take you out and shoot you.”

At a cemetery on the edge of town, a small procession of mourners, some in flip-flops and housedresses, were gathered around the last of the day’s 46 burials. Many were for multiple family members who had drowned together, like the mother and child whose deaths caused a flash of pain and exhaustion to pass over the face of the Rev. Valery Chernenko, from the nearby town of Ilsky.

Mr. Chernenko said he thought there would be far more burials on Wednesday, maybe 100. He said many residents were struggling with their religious faith; as for their faith in the government, he said, they never had much to begin with.

“People stopped believing in the authorities a long time ago,” he said. “They are starting to shape their relationship to the authorities in a different way.”

As she stood over the grave of her godmother, a former collective-farm worker, a woman named Yelena could not keep from fuming. She had been searching for her godmother with increasing frustration since Saturday, interviewing enough neighbors to know that the woman and her husband had lighted candles and were moving around in their home as the waters rose.

Asked about the role of the authorities, Yelena grimaced, and declined to be quoted by her full name. “We have been furious since the seventh,” the night of the flood, she said. “People are still in shock now. I don’t know what will happen after they are no longer in shock.
”

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Romney To Obama: "I Know You Are, But What Am I?"

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Clashing over the economy, President Barack Obama challenged Mitt Romney to join him in allowing tax hikes for rich Americans like them, needling his Republican rival on Tuesday to "compromise to help the middle class."

Romney dismissed the idea and returned fire on a sensitive topic, calling Obama the real "outsourcer-in-chief."

From Iowa and Colorado, two of the contested states drawing intense campaign attention, Obama and Romney fought for any advantage. While Obama was back in feel-good Iowa territory to talk taxes, Romney redirected charges that he had sent jobs overseas when he worked in private equity.

"He's run some interesting attack ads on me on that topic," Romney said of the president. "It is interesting that when it comes to outsourcing that this president has been outsourcing a good deal of American jobs himself, by putting money into energy companies that end up making their products outside the United States."

The former Bain Capital executive has been under heat from within his own party over his response to relentless attacks that he shipped jobs overseas. His campaign staff made sure to distribute a newspaper story critical of Obama's own outsourcing record, loading up every press seat on the campaign plane with it.

"If there's an outsourcer-in-chief, it's the president of the United States, not the guy who's running to replace him," Romney said in Grand Junction, Colo.

To back up that claim, the Romney camp cited a Washington Post story that describes an ongoing trend of American jobs shifting to low-wage countries, including during Obama's presidency. The story offers a critical look at the president's progress in halting the pattern.

The rhetorical standoff on taxes and jobs did little to change the underlying narrative of a stalled economy, deadlocked Washington and tight election. Obama, running for re-election under the weight of high unemployment, has shifted to pinning blame on Romney and congressional Republicans over looming tax increases.

Obama wants a one-year extension of tax cuts for households earning less than $250,000, which would cover most taxpayers in the country. Romney supports extending the federal tax cuts, first signed by George W. Bush, for all income earners. Congress is under deadline to act by year's end or everyone's taxes go up.

"Doesn't it make sense for us to agree to keep taxes low for 98 percent of Americans who are working hard and can't afford a tax hike right now?" Obama said. "What do you normally do if you agree on 98 percent and disagree on 2 percent? Why don't you compromise to help the middle class?"

Romney saw no such agreement.

"They very idea of raising taxes on small businesses and job creators at the very time we need more jobs is the sort of thing only an extreme liberal can come up with," Romney said. He said Obama's brand of "old-style liberalism of bigger and bigger government and bigger and bigger taxes has got to end."

The economic debate played out as the Obama campaign sought to undermine Romney on a separate front, accusing him of untrustworthy secrecy.

Vice President Joe Biden launched a blistering attack on Romney's refusal to release more than one year of his personal tax returns. Romney has released his 2010 tax return and an estimate for 2011. Biden said Romney made a lie of "like father, like son" by not meeting the standards his father, George Romney, set when he released 12 years of tax returns during his 1968 presidential bid.

The candidates, meanwhile, reveled in the comfort of friendly environs.

For Obama, it was Iowa, home to the people he said "gave me a chance when nobody else would." Iowa catapulted his successful presidential bid in 2008. Yet polls in Iowa have shown Obama locked in a tight race for the state's six electoral votes, a potential warning sign.

In a private chat with a family at their house, then in remarks to supporters at a community college, and finally at an ice cream shop where he ordered up some mint chocolate chip, Obama sought to show he was like the voters who made him president – and, by contrast, the ultra-rich Romney was not.

With all the power of incumbency, Obama still casts himself as the underdog.

Fresh from Romney and Republicans collecting $106 million in June, the second straight month that Obama's campaign has been outraised, Obama said returning to Iowa reminded him of his fledgling presidential bid four years ago, "when the national press was writing us off."

"We have been outspent before. We've been counted out before," Obama said. "But through every one of my campaigns, what has always given me hope is you."

Romney, at a wide-ranging town hall event, fielded questions on a litany of issues unrelated to the economy, including gay rights and abortion, the media, gun control and prison sentences. Many of the questioners showed support for Romney and disdain for the president's policies and the media.

Yet one questioner asked why Romney didn't believe in applying principles of personal liberty to areas of private life, like the rights of gays and women; Romney responded by emphasizing that these were "tender" issues, but that he was particularly committed to protecting the life of the unborn.

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The Question You Should Never Ask A Woman

My biological clock is ticking like crazy. At least, that's what nearly every person I meet tells me.

Now that I'm 30 and married, I seem to be popping up on everyone's baby radar, attracting unsolicited questions and advice about my sex life and fertility. Some of my favorites are:

"Gotta beat that clock!"

"When are you two gonna get started?"

"Want one yet?" (always accompanied by a stupid grin)

and

"You may want to think about getting that third bedroom because you never know ...."

Heck, I've even had a five year old pat my stomach and ask me if I have a baby growing in there yet (which certainly made me rethink the delicious cupcake on my plate).

The baby inquisition isn't spearheaded by close family and friends. (In fact, they rarely participate.) Nope, the baby-dar more often emboldens acquaintances and even complete strangers to ask (pry) about my plans for a future family. Dental assistants, concierges, coworkers, athletic trainers, spouses of distant relatives, friends of friends, even people at the vet's office: I've gotten 20 Questions: Fertility Edition from just about everyone.

I smile, laugh and try to change the subject as quickly as possible -- not because I haven't thought about babies or have no interest in ever starting a family, but because whether or not my husband and I decide to bring a life into this world is a very personal conversation and is completely inappropriate as casual chit chat. Not to mention, the longevity of my eggs isn't exactly my favorite ice breaker.

I don't even tiptoe near the question, even with my closest friends (unless they bring it up) because I understand that trying to conceive is an emotional, unpredictable journey, starting from the moment you even consider heading to the preggo-zone.

While some gals hit the pregnancy jackpot right away, many aren't as lucky and struggle for months or even years to get pregnant, sometimes to no avail. As a type-A perfectionist, the thought of trying month in and out for something I can't really control is stressful enough -- I don't need you reminding me of it while I'm out doing my daily errands or relaxing at a cocktail party. What if a woman physically can't have children, is undergoing fertility treatments, had a miscarriage, has been trying with no luck, or is on a wait list to adopt? You don't know people's situations, and asking them such a personal question can cause far more stress than you may realize.

There is also the reality that having a child will change everything: career, finances, housing, social life, sleep, body, partner dynamics and who knows what else. Not to mention, some people have no interest in having kids and may not feel like discussing -- and possibly defending -- that life choice to you. Tell me, complete stranger inquiring into my baby-making plans, do you want to hear my deepest fears and concerns about bringing a little one into my life? Even if you did, do you really think I'd want to tell you?

Here's some advice: Back away from the biological clock conversations. We women are well aware of our reproductive expiration dates. If we want to talk baby, we'll give you a rattle.

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Katie Holmes Is 'Very Happy' With Divorce Settlement

The details surrounding Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise's divorce settlement will remain private, but sources say Holmes is "very happy" with the agreement.

Multiple sources confirmed to US Weekly that the 33-year-old actress got everything she wanted -- including primary legal custody of their 6-year-old daughter, Suri.

"She won and is happy. Very happy," said a source close to the soon-to-be ex-Mrs. Cruise. "She can move on and finally live her life."

Holmes filed a divorce from her husband of five years on June 29, and though a recent interview with Elle magazine suggests that Holmes had been planning to divorce Cruise for some time, sources told Us Weekly that her decision to end her marriage wasn't easy, and she "did this only for her daughter."

Holmes and Cruise came to a settlement in record time, and according to TMZ ,it was all because of Hollywood's best-dressed 6-year-old that things moved so quickly and with such civility.

Sources tell the website that it was a series of conversations about how Suri would be "irreparably damaged by parental warfare" that kept things between the superstar couple at bay, and allowed their lawyers to strike a deal.

As previously stated, details into the settlement have not been released and are likely to remain private. However, sources told Us Weekly the terms of the agreement will bring exciting changes for Holmes.

"She has her career back and her daughter. She will be a huge star now. . . This was all played so well. Katie is very happy with how it all came out," said the source.

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Sofia Vergara Engaged To Nick Loeb

Sofia Vergara is engaged!

According To Multiple reports, the "Modern Family" star said "yes" to on-and-off-again boyfriend Nick Loeb while vacationing at the posh Rosewood Mayakoba resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico, for Vergara's birthday (she turns 40 today). Loeb is said to have proposed to Vergara on Monday, while the pair were exploring the nearby archaeological ruins of Chichen Itza. The pair then celebrated their engagement news with her sitcom cast mates Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Julie Bowen and Sarah Hyland, who were in Mexico for the occasion.

Hyland alluded to the news via her Twitter page yesterday when she called Vergara "the most wonderful, generous, beautiful woman in the world," while sportscaster Fernando Fiore tweeted a photo that appears to capture Vergara with a new diamond sparkler on her left hand.

Vergara and Loeb, 36, have been dating since 2010, after meeting at a Golden Globes party. Loeb is the son of John Loeb Jr., who served President Reagan as ambassador to Denmark. The couple briefly split in May but were rumored to have reconciled shortly thereafter.

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Mitt Romney: "I Don't Even Know Where My Offshore Investments Are"

Facing renewed criticism from the Obama campaign and new questions about his offshore investments in recent reports, Mitt Romney said on Monday that his offshore investments were managed by a blind trust and he had no knowledge of their whereabouts.

"I don’t manage them," he said in an interview with Radio Iowa's O.Kay Henderson. "I don’t even know where they are. That trustee follows all U.S. laws. All the taxes are paid, as appropriate. All of them have been reported to the government. There’s nothing hidden there. If, for instance, you own shares in Renault or Fiat, you still have to disclose that in the United States."

Added Romney: "So, you know, I understand the president’s going to try to do anything he can to divert attention from the fact that his jobs record is weak and he has no plan to make things better."

The assets in Romney's financial disclosures are kept either in blind trusts, with lawyer Bradford Malt serving as a trustee, or retirement accounts, according to recent Vanity Fair article. The trusts, however, have some investments in firms with ties to the Romneys. The article also investigated Romney's now closed Swiss Bank account and as much as $30 million held in the Cayman Islands, from which the Romney campaign says he derives no tax advantage.

The Associated Press reported last week on Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., a Bermuda investment company that Romney owned and transferred to his wife's trust the day before he was sworn in as Massachusetts governor.

The Obama campaign and its surrogates have jumped on the reports. "The relevance is this -- that Governor Romney can’t claim that his state actually was great at creating jobs when he was governor, so he’s fallen back and said, 'Look, vote for me. I was a businessman. I created jobs,'" Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "You want to talk about going the way of Europe -- what went the way of Europe were the Swiss bank accounts and the American dollars that Mitt Romney stuffed in that offshore Swiss bank account."

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"Nature Runs Wild In Europe And America"

* 2011 was among 15 warmest years globally - U.S. agency

* Extreme weather events show influence of climate change

* Greenhouse gas levels in atmosphere reaches new high

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - Climate change increased the odds for the kind of extreme weather that prevailed in 2011, a year that saw severe drought in Texas, unusual heat in England and was one of the 15 warmest years on record, scientists reported on Tuesday.

Overall, 2011 was a year of extreme events - from historic droughts in East Africa, northern Mexico and the southern United States to an above-average cyclone season in the North Atlantic and the end of Australia's wettest two-year period ever, scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United Kingdom's Met Office said.

In the 22nd annual "State of the Climate" report, experts also found the Arctic was warming about twice as fast as the rest of the planet, on average, with Arctic sea ice shrinking to its second-smallest recorded size.

Heat-trapping greenhouse gas concentrations - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide among others - continued to rise last year, and the global average atmospheric concentration for carbon dioxide went over 390 parts per million for the first time, an increase of 2.1 ppm in 2010.

"Every weather event that happens now takes place in the context of a changing global environment," Deputy NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan said in a statement. "This annual report provides scientists and citizens alike with an analysis of what has happened so we can all prepare for what is to come."

Beyond measuring what happened in 2011, the international team of scientists aimed to start answering a question weather-watchers have been asking for years: can climate change be shown to be responsible for specific weather events?

RAISING THE ODDS

The climate experts acknowledged that event attribution science, as it is called, is in its early stages.

"Currently, attribution of single extreme events to anthropogenic climate change remains challenging," Peterson, Stott and other scientists wrote in a study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Attribution is possible, they said, as long as it is framed in terms of probability, rather than certainty. So instead of saying climate change caused a heat wave, researchers could gauge how much more or less likely the heat wave was in a world where the climate is changing.

For example, both Texas and England felt the warming effects of the La Nina weather-making pattern but climate change pushed these influences to extremes, Stott said.

La Nina, a recurring patch of cool water in the equatorial Pacific that alternates with the warm-water phenomenon El Nino, would typically bring heat to Texas, the researchers said in an online briefing.

Adding climate change to La Nina makes a Texas heat wave 20 times more likely than it would have been 50 years ago, said Peter Stott of the Met Office. By some measures, 2011 was the warmest, driest growing season in the Texas record, Stott said.

In Britain, November 2011 was the second-warmest in the central England temperature record dating back to 1659, and climate change made that extreme high temperature average 60 times more likely than it would have been in 1960, the researchers found.

By contrast, deadly floods in Thailand last year cannot be blamed on climate change, the scientific team said.

Tuesday's report came one day after NOAA announced statistics for the continental United States, showing that the past 12 months were the hottest such period on record and the first six month of 2012 were the hottest such period on record, with more than 170 all-time heat records matched or broken.

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Captain Of Shipwrecked Cruise Liner Makes Shocking Revelations

ROME — The captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he was distracted by a phone conversation shortly before the cruise liner crashed into a reef off an Italian island and capsized, killing 32 people.

Francesco Schettino described the collision to private Italian TV channel Canale 5 as a "banal accident" in which "destiny" played a role.

An Italian judge last week lifted Schettino's house arrest order, but said he must remain in his hometown near Naples during a criminal investigation in which he is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the liner while many passengers and crew were still aboard.

Prosecutors have alleged that the Concordia cruised too close to the island in a publicity stunt, and shortly before it rammed the reef Schettino was on the phone with a retired sea captain on Giglio.

`'I blame myself for being distracted," Schettino said when asked about the phone call.

Schettino on Tuesday appeared to want to lessen his role, insisting that another official, and not he, was at the helm of the ship at the moment it rammed the reef.

`'At that moment, I went up to the bridge. I ordered the navigation to be manual, and I didn't have the command. The navigation was being directed by a (lower) official," Schettino said

`'This is a banal accident in which destiny found space right in the interaction among human beings," Schettino added, apparently referring to the various officials on the bridge involved in the maneuver.

He said that for a captain of a ship, `'there is no measure of sorrow" for losing a vessel. However, he said `'it's much less" painful than losing a child – a reference to a young Italian girl who was among the dead.

A court hearing later this month in Tuscany on evidence in the case, including information from the ship's `'black box" data recorder, could shed light on what went wrong and on who or what is to blame, and likely will figure in a judge's decision on whether Schettino should be ordered to stand trial.

Schettino called the events in the accident `'complex," saying `'everyone has his own truth," about what happened.

In the interview, Schettino again insisted that by guiding the stricken ship to shallower waters near Giglio's port instead of immediately ordering an evacuation he potentially saved lives.

Passengers described a confused and delayed evacuation, with many of the life boats unable to be lowered after the boat listed to one side. Some of the 4,200 aboard jumped into the Mediterranean and swam to the island, while others had to be plucked from the vessel by rescue helicopters hours after the collision.

Some passengers said they were shocked to see that the captain was already ashore when they were being evacuated. Schettino claims he helped direct the evacuation from the island after leaving the ship.

Work has begun to remove the tons of rocky reef embedded into the Concordia's hull, a first step in plans to eventually tow the wreck away from the island.

The whole removal process could take as long as a year.

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Steve King:"People Out Of Work Aren't Doing Their Fair Share"

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's plan to let Bush-era tax cuts expire on earnings above $250,000 is part of a "class envy" plan to make people who aren't working feel okay about not contributing to the nation's economy, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said on Tuesday.

"There are more and more people that are looking at others saying they shouldn't be making that much money because I'm not. And they don't feel as much guilt about the 72 different means tested welfare programs that we have," King said on CNN's "Starting Point."

"Today it's almost a government guarantee of a middle-income standard of living from all these [government safety net] programs we have. I like an America where people feel some guilt about that and they want to step up and help and carry their fair share of the work."

Plenty of unemployed workers do feel guilty and ashamed that they aren't working. In fact, the stigma of unemployment is so intense that the Congressional Budget Office says it actually might increase the national unemployment rate, because long-unemployed workers' skills and confidence erode while at the same time employers become less willing to hire them.

But King had a broader group of people in mind than just the 12.7 million that the Bureau of Labor Statistics officially counted as unemployed in June.

"There's a number approaching 100 million Americans of working age that are simply not in the workforce, and that includes the 13 million that are unemployed," King said. "Some can't do anything about that, some aren't willing to do anything about that. When you add that all up, roughly a third of Americans of working age are not contributing to the gross domestic product of the United States."

"They should do their fair share," he added.

King's "approaching 100 million" figure is a tad imprecise. According to the most recent (seasonally unadjusted) BLS data, of the 243 million Americans who are part of the civilian noninstitutional population -- meaning they are older than 16 and not in prison, nursing homes, or the armed forces -- 86 million are not in the labor force. Exclude workers nearing the retirement age of 65 and up, and 52 million are not in the workforce.

The Labor Department says many people who are not counted in the workforce are in school, helping out with family responsibilities or retired. Unemployed people arecounted as part of the labor force, as are the 8.2 million working part-time because they can't find full-time jobs. But the 2.5 million "marginally attached" -- people who want jobs but haven't looked in the last month because they believe no work is available -- are not part of the labor force.

Economists attribute some of the decline in labor force participation over the past 10 years to scads of baby boomers reaching retirement age.

Pressed by a CNN anchor if the unemployed are to blame for being unemployed, King suggested that they just might be.

"One of the things is, people are told they don't need to create opportunities," he said. "It's up to somebody else to offer them a job."

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Geithner Repeatedly Met With LIBOR Offenders

As president of the New York Federal Reserve before and during the financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met repeatedly with Barclays officials, according to documents released by the bank and the New York Fed.

Though the subject of those discussions is unknown, they came at a time when Barclays was also talking to New York Fed officials about problems with an interest rate known as Libor, some five years before the bank agreed to pay $450 million to settle charges that it manipulated that interest rate.

The meetings raise questions about just how much Geithner, now the U.S. Treasury secretary, knew about the alleged manipulation of Libor, a critical interest rate that affects borrowing costs throughout the economy -- questions he'll have to answer at a Senate hearing later this month. They could also renew criticisms of Geithner as being too chummy with the banking sector he was charged with regulating in his role at the Fed.

According to The Huffington Post's review of Geithner's calender  during his time at the New York Fed, originally obtained by The New York Times, Geithner repeatedly spoke from April 2007 to October 2008 with senior executives at Barclays, including at an Oct. 10, 2008, morning meeting with Bob Diamond, the former Barclays CEO, who stepped down last week amid the ballooning Libor controversy.

Atimeline of events released by Barclays ahead of Diamond’s testimony before British Parliament last week also indicates that an Oct. 10, 2008, meeting took place between bank officials and unnamed Fed representatives. According to Barclays, the meeting that day was part of a series of discussions between the bank and the New York Fed during the financial crisis about the process of determining Libor.

Libor is set every day by a group of banks, including Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. It is based on the interest these banks say they have to pay to borrow money for short periods of time. Regulators are investigating charges that several banks, in addition to Barclays, misreported their borrowing costs to manipulate Libor higher or lower, depending on their needs, possibly affecting the borrowing costs for millions of individuals and businesses. During the crisis, the banks might have reported lower borrowing costs in order to avoid the appearance that they were suffering financial hardship.

The details of what was discussed during Geithner's October 2008 meeting with Diamond are not listed on Geithner’s calendar nor are the topics of his other discussions with Barclays officials. Some meetings likely concerned the bank's September 2008 takeover of Lehman Brothers at the height of the financial crisis. But the meetings raise further questions about how much Geithner and other U.S. financial regulators knew about alleged manipulation of Libor by Barclays and other banks years before Barclays admitted to wrongdoing in a $450 million settlement with British authorities and the Justice Department last month.

A Barclays spokesman, Chris Semple, said the bank could not confirm whether the Oct. 10 meeting noted on Barclays’ timeline was the same as the one listed on Geithner’s calendar. In its pre-testimony materials, Barclays wrote that the chronology “shows clearly that our people repeatedly raised with regulators concerns arising from ... Libor settings over an extended period.”

On its timeline, Barclays lists a total of 12 meetings with Federal Reserve officials from August 2007 to October 2008.

The degree to which federal regulators had advance warning about issues with Libor is a question that U.S. lawmakers are starting to ask, as well. On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committe announced it will call Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to testify about the Libor scandal.

That announcement followed a letter sent Monday by Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Texas, chair of the House Financial Services Committee's oversight and investigations panel, to New York Fed chair William Dudley, requesting transcripts of all communications between Barclays and the Fed concerning Libor from August 2007 to November 2009. “Some news reports indicate that although Barclays raised concerns multiple times with American and British authorities about discrepancies over how Libor was set, the bank was not told to stop the practice” of manipulating the rate, the letter said.

A spokesman for the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Geithner's calendar, five discussions with one or more Barclays executives were scheduled from April 2007 to October 2008. They include a breakfast on the morning of April 3, 2007, with Chet Feldberg, then chairman of Barclays America; an afternoon meeting on May 14, 2007, that included former Barclays CEO John Varley; and the Oct. 10 meeting with Diamond.

The calendar also indicates that Geithner also participated in conference calls with unnamed representatives of Barclays and a person identified as Paulson (possibly Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson) on the afternoon of Sept. 13, 2008, three days before Barclays announced its takeover of parts of Lehman Brothers at the height of the financial crisis.

Only one meeting on Geithner’s calendar during that 2007-2008 stretch is listed as focusing on Libor specifically -- a meeting titled “Fixing Libor” that was scheduled for the afternoon of April 28, 2008, between Geithner and eight other Fed officials, Brian Peters, Debby Perelmuter, Jamie McAndrews, Meg McConnell, Patricia Mosser, Sandy Krieger, Simon Potter and William Dudley.

No Barclays representatives were scheduled to attend that meeting.

In a statement dated Tuesday on its website, the New York Federal Reserve said, "In the context of our market monitoring following the onset of the financial crisis in late 2007, involving thousands of calls and emails with market participants over a period of many months, we received occasional anecdotal reports from Barclays of problems with Libor. In the spring of 2008, following the failure of Bear Stearns and shortly before the first media report on the subject, we made further inquiry of Barclays as to how Libor submissions were being conducted. We subsequently shared our analysis and suggestions for reform of Libor with the relevant authorities in the UK."

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Edited By Cen Fox Post Team

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