17 beheaded after 'music party' in Afghanistan

The shooting deaths of two American soldiers in Kabul by an Afghan colleague are under investigation, with Afghan officials are saying it was an accident. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

Updated at 11:25 a.m. ET: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan --?Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused the Taliban on Monday of beheading 17 villagers, including two women, in volatile Helmand province, in a gruesome attack recalling the dark days of the hardline group's rule before their 2001 ouster.

He ordered a full investigation into the "mass killing," which a local official said was punishment to revelers attending a party with music and mixed-sex dancing.


"This attack shows that there are irresponsible members among the Taliban," Karzai said in a statement.

In a separate incident, a rogue Afghan soldier killed two American troops in eastern Laghman, the NATO-led coalition said; 10 Afghan army soldiers were also killed in an attack on a checkpoint in Helmand, the Afghan government said.?

?The Taliban denied they had taken part in the beheadings, which Karzai's office said took place in Kajaki district in the southern province.?

Photos: A nation at a crossroads?

"The victims were killed for throwing a late night dancing and music party when the Taliban attacked," Nimatullah, governor for neighboring Musa Qala district, told Reuters.

NBC's Richard Engel discusses the troop "surge" in Afghanistan -- something touted as a success by the military but questioned by many Afghans and also some in the U.S. who worry the troops will leave in 2014 with Afghanistan as a failed state.

The beheaded bodies were found in a house near the Musa Qala district, about 46 miles north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, said Nimatullah, who only goes by one name.

The attack involving gunfire happened Sunday in a Taliban-controlled area of?the province, the Interior Ministry told The Associated Press.

In ultra-conservative Afghanistan, men and women do not usually mingle unless they are related, and parties involving both genders together are rare and highly secretive affairs.

For the Taliban, flirting, open displays of affection and the mixing of men and women are vehemently condemned.

According to witnesses of a major attack that killed 20 near Kabul in June, Taliban gunmen stormed a high-end hotel demanding to know where the "prostitutes and pimps" were.?

'No one really cares': US deaths in Afghanistan hit 2,000 in 'forgotten' war

During their five-year reign, which was toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, sparking the present NATO-led war, the Taliban banned women from voting, holding most jobs and leaving their home unaccompanied by their husband or a male relative.

Though those rights have been painstakingly regained, Afghanistan remains one of the worst places on earth to be a woman.?

American soldiers shot
The two?U.S. troops killed in east Afghanistan on Monday were?the latest in a series of insider killings that have strained?trust between the allies ahead of a 2014 pullout by foreign combat?troops.

Taliban commander, 12 others killed by US drone strike

The deaths in Laghman province brought to 12 the number of foreign?soldiers killed this month, prompting NATO to increase security?against insider attacks, including requiring soldiers to carry?loaded weapons at all times on base.

General Martin Dempsey was not on board at the time of the rocket attack, but the damage forced him to use another plane for Tuesday's flight to Iraq. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

The deaths also come a week after U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman?Martin Dempsey visited Kabul to talk about rogue shootings and?urge Afghan officials to take tougher preventative action.

"ISAF troops returned fire, killing the ANA (Afghan National Army)?soldier who committed the attack,'' the NATO-led International?Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

What's leading Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?

There have been 33 insider attacks so far this year that have led?to 42 coalition deaths. That is a sharp increase from 2011, when,?during the whole year, 35 coalition troops were killed in such?attacks, 24 of whom were American.

Afghan soldiers killed
On Sunday,?insurgents killed 10 Afghan soldiers and wounded four in an attack on a checkpoint in volatile southern Helmand province, provincial officials said.

MSNBC's Thomas Roberts talks to NBC's Atia Abawi and NBC Military Analyst General Barry McCaffery about the new military offensive against insurgents in Afghanistan.

Ahmadi, the provincial government spokesman, said?insurgents attacked the checkpoint in Washir district Sunday evening.?

Ahmadi did not provide details of the attack. He added that that the five missing soldiers left with their assailants but it was unclear if they were kidnapped or went voluntarily.

NBC News' Atia Abawi, and Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.?

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/27/13499316-seventeen-villagers-beheaded-in-southern-afghanistan-after-music-party?lite

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Isaac: Good news and bad news ? Greg Laden's Blog

The good news, if you see Hurricanes as bad, is that Isaac did not turn into a hurricane over night and is having trouble getting its act together. This has caused estimates of the hurricane?s maximum strength at the time of land fall to be reduced. Isaac will be a serious storm when it plows into the southern US coast but it will not be an Ivan, Katrina or Andrew.

The bad news is that the predicted track has moved even farther west, so the forward right quadrant, the ?Right Punch? of the hurricane, may very well hit New Orleans at a very bad angle and position.

Source: http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2012/08/27/isaac-good-news-and-bad-news/

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'Science Guy' Bill Nye takes aim at evolution deniers

In a video by the online knowledge forum Big Think, science educator Bill Nye urged parents to let their children's schools teach evolutionary biology.?

By Eoin O'Carroll,?Staff / August 27, 2012

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. According to Bill Nye, aka "the science guy," if grownups want to "deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it because we need them."

That all known life shares?a common ancestor is just about as well-established a scientific observation as you're going to get. It's right?up there with ice floating on water and the moon not being made of cheese. And the scientific explanation for all the complexity and diversity of life on Earth ? first outlined by Charles Darwin some 150 years ago and continually refined since then ? remains the linchpin of the life sciences.?

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Of course none of this prevents staggering numbers of Americans from rejecting evolution. According to a 2007 Gallup survey, about four in 10 Americans believe that "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so," an assertion that is, by any reasonable standard of evidence, nonsense.?

But creationism isn't just ordinary nonsense. It's politicized?nonsense. Nonsense that prompts TV shouting matches and comment-thread flame wars. Nonsense that bids rise to multimillion-dollar think tanks. Nonsense that makes journalists see a scientific controversy where none exists. Nonsense that ruins Thanksgiving dinner, causes childhood pals to defriend each other on Facebook, and eventually leads someone to stand up and make an exasperated call to Think Of The Children.

Which is what Bill Nye did. In a video for the Big Think, an online knowledge forum, the popular science educator notes that Darwin's theory is essential for anyone who wants to make sense of the natural world, and that it is vitally important that kids accept it.

"We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future," he says. "We need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems."?

Nye says: "I say to the grownups,?if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it because we need them."

But simply asking people to stop passing their beliefs on to their kids probably isn't going to do the trick. Even as scientists are busily mapping the genomes of humankind's closest relatives, creationists are only getting more brazen. Witness the taxpayer-financed Christian schools in?Louisiana?whose biology textbooks cite the?Loch Ness Monster?as 'evidence'?against Darwin.

Nye predicts that creationism will be dead in a few hundred years. But, as he is surely aware, that's pure conjecture.?Nobody knows what people living centuries from now will think of Darwin, natural selection, and the hexameron. It's far too early in the game to start placing bets against nonsense.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/9wpX8uQLxeY/Science-Guy-Bill-Nye-takes-aim-at-evolution-deniers

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Automotive Troubleshooting Secrets: An Internet Site To Enable You ...

Every so often we run into some sort of car trouble. As soon as your car runs into issues, you look to find out what is wrong and figure out where to get it fixed. It is easy to use the internet to get help diagnosing your problem. To determine what type of car trouble you are experiencing, you can go to an internet program called Automotive Troubleshooting Secrets or ATS. A real mechanic can assist you to solve the problem and not some software package or robot.: Auto Transport Quotes ? Hire The Right Car Shipping Co.

You will be able to determine what is wrong with your vehicle by going over the symptoms with the mechanic. You will be given a solution that is real, with drawings that could be understood by an eight year old. Which has a click of a button, you can get the most up-to-date information on automotive repairs. You can repair any problem you have by equipping yourself with the most recent solutions to your problems. Regardless what auto technician does the repair, ATS will look at the work done on your vehicle. ATS features a considerable database of garage repairs and automotive software and all technicians are experienced and ready to help you solve your problem. As soon as the fixes are reviewed, they become emailed to you.

Once the best method is chosen for your car?s problem, it will be thoroughly researched and evaluated. Because of their big database of repair information, they are able to combine wiring diagrams and common fixes and figure out what parts are causing the problem using secret techniques. Some of the troubleshooters are retired engineers and mechanics who understand the numerous systems and can analyze the problems very well. Your trouble may be much more elaborate and hard to fix, so the scanners used by the top garages will be used by the technicians to guide you. ATS has confidence in their system by offering a lifetime membership which has a one time payment, and a 90 day money back guarantee.

ATS is so good mainly because it is so easy to use. Simply because they can help you figure out what the actual problem is, when you take it for repairs, it should probably cost less. What to do whenever you test your vehicle that was repaired, and it wasn?t fixed. Along with problems like no-starts, stalling, and hesitations, you can get an analysis with illustrations and quick and practical solutions.

With ATS, they are going to explain to you the way to repair small problems before they get out of control. Until finally your trouble is fixed, you will get unrestricted support, and any vehicle driver can use ATS, even garage owners and mechanics in car moving service.

Not everyone are able to fix their very own car but at least with this information, you know exactly what the mechanic needs to do. ATS could save you considerable time and money as well as headaches. With any luck, you won?t have many car problems but if you do, you know there is a place online that can help you.

Category : Posted on August 27, 2012

Source: http://www.mesotheliomacancerinfo.net/2174-automotive-troubleshooting-secrets-an-internet-site-to-enable-you-to-save-money-on-car-repairs

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Fire spreads at Venezuela refinery, 41 dead

PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela (AP) ? An intense fire at a Venezuelan refinery spread to a third fuel tank on Monday nearly three days after an explosion killed at least 41 people and injured more than 150.

Vice President Elias Jaua said in a message on Twitter that a third tank had just ignited at the Amuay refinery, which has been in flames since Saturday's blast.

Government officials had previously said they had the blaze contained, and the spread to another fuel tank was a setback to their plans to quickly restart the refinery. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters the fire was still under control.

"There is no risk of a bigger event," Ramirez said, without specifying how much longer it might burn.

Officials have said a gas leak led to the blast, but investigators have yet to determine the precise causes. Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega said at a news conference that 151 people were injured, 33 of whom remain in hospitals.

A 9-year-old girl was missing in the area, Health Minister Eugenia Sader said on television.

Criticisms of the government's response to the gas leak emerged from local residents as well as oil experts. People in neighborhoods next to the refinery said they had no official warning before the explosion hit at about 1 a.m. on Saturday.

"What bothers us is that there was no sign of an alarm. I would have liked for an alarm to have gone off or something," said Luis Suarez, a bank employee in the neighborhood. "Many of us woke up thinking it was an earthquake."

The blast knocked down walls, shattered windows and left streets littered with rubble.

People who live next to the refinery said they smelled strong fumes coming from the refinery starting between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, hours before the blast, but many said they weren't worried because they had smelled such odors before.

Then, a cloud of gas ignited in an area with fuel storage tanks and exploded. Dark smoke was billowed from the tanks on Monday.

President Hugo Chavez visited the refinery on Sunday. In a televised conversation with the president, one state oil company official said workers had made their rounds after 9 p.m. and hadn't noticed anything unusual. The official said that at about midnight officials detected the gas leak and "went out to the street to block traffic."

"And later something happened that set (it) off," Chavez said. "A spark somewhere."

Energy analyst Jorge Pinon said the accounts of the hours leading up the explosion raise concerns.

"The fact that the gas leak went undetected for a number of hours and that there was no evacuation alarm (or) order indicates to me that there is a lack of safety related planning and behaviors throughout the complex, and most important in nearby communities," Pinon said.

"The key to refinery safety is not only equipment and maintenance but processes and behaviors," Pinon added, "not only within company employees but also contractors and surrounding communities."

U.S. refineries have also had their share of serious accidents, most recently the destructive blaze at Chevron's refinery in Richmond, California.

Some experts say that U.S. refineries have increasingly used more sensing systems to alert workers to gas leaks, and also have established safety protocols.

In the Houston area, for instance, "there are 10 or 11 different community groups that the various industries meet with frequently. They stay pretty well connected, with a set agenda," said Alex Cuclis, a research scientist at the Houston Advanced Research Center who used to be a refinery engineer.

"They have a phone number to call. And the industry can and occasionally does set off alarms to 'shelter in place,' and most who live in the communities know that means shut off air conditioners so that they aren't bringing in outside air," Cuclis said.

Amuay is among the world's largest refineries and is part of the Paraguana Refining Center, which also includes the adjacent Cardon refinery. Together, the refineries process about 900,000 barrels of crude per day and 200,000 barrels of gasoline.

The disaster occurred little more than a month before Venezuela's upcoming Oct. 7 presidential election. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles said the disaster shouldn't be politicized but repeated past criticisms about the number of accidents at the state-owned oil company.

"Accidents occur for a reason, and we Venezuelans are expecting there to be a conclusive response, a serious, responsible and transparent investigation, in order to see what the situation was," Capriles said at a news conference.

Capriles has previously been critical of problems in the oil industry.

"Look at how many events have occurred, how many accidents, how many workers have lost their lives," Capriles said. He criticized state oil company president Rafael Ramirez for what he called "political maneuvering," saying what's needed is a serious investigation.

___

Associated Press writers Ian James and Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fire-spreads-venezuela-refinery-41-dead-210502723.html

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Parliament could 'shut for 5 years'

The Houses of Parliament could close for up to five years while essential repairs are carried out, The Sunday Times said.

The broadsheet said several options were on the table while the plumbing and electrics are refurbished and the building is purged of asbestos, including leaving the Palace of Westminster for good.

"Officials are undertaking an initial study into options for the long-term upkeep of the palace," a spokesman for the House of Commons told the weekly.

"It is anticipated that the results of the initial study will be considered by the House of Commons commission and the House of Lords committee by the end of the year."

The Sunday Times said the Commons and the Lords could be evacuated for the first time since World War II, when the palace was repeatedly hit in Nazi air raids.

Options include leaving the palace, selling it and building a new parliament; a temporary replica chamber in the palace grounds; or, spreading the repair work out across decades of parliamentary breaks.

The interiors of the riverside Perpendicular Gothic palace, completed in 1870, have not been refurbished since the 1940s.

Parliament and the Treasury would have to approve the plans, the report said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/parliament-could-shut-5-years-075804785.html

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Rumjhum's Ruminations: Tuning into the Science Behind Helen ...

Rumjhum Biswasby Rumjhum Biswas

Last month we interviewed one half of Fractured West?s editing team, Kirsty Logan. This month we get up close with Helen Sedgwick , Kirsty?s co-editor, and learn that is a lot more to this quieter half. Helen is a freelance writer and literary editor based in Glasgow. She won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2012. At this time, she is?working on a short story collection, as well as a novel. She has published?short fiction and nonfiction; they?can be read in Spilling Ink, Litro, Novel Magazine and Nature, among many others. As an editor, Helen works for Freight Books and Cargo Publishing. Apart from co-editing Fractured West, of which she is also co-founding editor. Helen is also the review editor of Gutter and co-host of Words Per Minute. She teaches creative writing for the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and has performed her work at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe and Glasgow?s Aye Write.

Rumjhum Biswas: You have won the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award this year. Please tell us a bit about the award, work/s that won you this recognition, and where you plan to go in your writing life now.

Helen Sedgewick: The New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust is one of the most prestigious awards for new writers inScotland. As well as helping to fund the winning writers, the Book Trust also sets each of the winners up with a mentor and runs a variety of helpful events such as voice coaching and reading nights. I won the award for my short story collection in progress, Statistically Speaking. All the stories approach current scientific topics, from astrophysics to medical science, in a fictional and accessible way. I plan to use my year as a New Writer to complete this collection and start work on a new novel.

RB: Please give us a glimpse of your day to day writing life.

Helen SedgewickHS: My days tend to be very varied, but always begin with a cup of coffee! I usually spend the mornings working rather than writing, I work as a freelance editor, and then spend my afternoons or evenings on my own writing. I try to do some writing every day, even if it?s only a few hundred words. I have created a small office space in my flat so I can get away from all the distractions that come with working from home. I also have writing days once a week with my friend and co-editor and Kirsty Logan. If I?m struggling with a particular story or finding it hard to get started, having someone else there really helps me focus.

RB: You are co-editor of Fractured West, a journal of flash fiction. How did the idea for Fractured West come about? Tell us about your new magazine, the inspiration, the ethos, style and editorial.

HS: Fractured West ?like many ideas originally came about from having a chat! I?d previously worked as an editor on From Glasgow to Saturn, the on-line magazine of Glasgow University?s creative writing programme, and I really wanted to set up my own magazine. I got talking to Kirsty, who also wanted to run a magazine, so we decided to work together. Winning the Gillian Purvis Award to found Fractured West really helped, and allowed us to create the first two issues of the print magazine and the website. From the start we wanted the focus to be on new voices. We wanted to publish new, emerging or previously unpublished writers. We have both always loved flash fiction, so it seemed like the perfect fit.

?RB: You have co-written a story or more with your co-editor Kirsty Logan. We normally tend to think of writing as an intensely solitary exercise. How do you go about the process of co-writing a story? What advice do you have for other writers who would like to work together?

HS: I think Kirsty and I were able to write together because we know each other so well. We have a very strong working relationship, but we also usually agree about what makes good writing. We have similar taste and are interested in similar topics?although we sometimes address them in different ways?so co-writing felt very easy with her. It?s certainly not easy with everyone, though!

RB:?What short story form do you enjoy working with most, the usual 3000 /5000 words, the traditional flash ? i.e. under 1000 words, the even more challenging less than 500 or 250 or 100 (drabble) or even 50? What according to you are the highs and lows?

HS: Just to make things difficult for myself, my favourite length doesn?t really fit into any of the brackets. A natural story length for me seems to be 1000-2000 words, a bit longer than flash but a bit shorter than traditional short stories. Maybe I should come up with a new name for that length of fiction! I do vary it though, and have written stories as short as a tweet, like this one that won a competition during Social Media Week. At the end of the day, a story should be just as long as it needs to be.

RB:?Did you write as a child? Or is it something that you discovered you had in you in college, etc. Either way, do tell us a bit about those early years.

HS: When I was younger my main interests were music and science. I never wrote very much as a child or teenager, or even as an adult until quite recently. My first fully-formed short story was written in 2007, in my late 20s. I guess it took me a long time to find what I loved! It?s been great having that atypical background, though, and my early interests in science and music certainly feed into my writing now.

RB:?Were there people to encourage you when you started out? Any mentors or people or even incidents and/or books that you?d especially like to mention?

HS: I first started writing when I signed up for an evening class at Glasgow University?s Department of Adult and Continuing Education. My two teachers, Fiona Parrot and Nick Brooks, were very encouraging. I went on to do the MLitt at Glasgow and my tutors there, Zoe Strachan and Alan Bissett, were also a huge help. But most of all, I think my main source of encouragement comes from the other writers that I know, writers like Margaret Callaghan, Kirsty Logan, Katy McAulay and Maria Di Mario. Having people to talk to about writing and the sense of community that comes with that is essential.

RB:?Your story ?Horizon View? in Algebra Issue 2?is written in an unusual, and if I may call it, experimental style; each portion or paragraph located in a different geographic and time zone, often within time spans that take seconds, but connected with the following, all of which finally create an Aleph-like effect on the reader?s mind. I also found elements of flash in this story. Can you tell us about the inspiration and writing process behind ?Horizon View??

HS: The piece was commissioned by Tramway and the brief was to write a story inspired by the theme ?In The Days Of The Comet.? That title originally comes from H.G.Wells, but we were able to interpret the theme in any way that we chose. I wanted to write about the snapshots of humanity that a comet would see during the brief time it passes close to Earth on its trajectory. I used the flash style, and the sense of circularity, to mimic the motion of a comet through the solar system.

RB:?Can you tell us about other stories that you?ve written using new and unusual techniques? With regard to flash as well?

HS: I?ve written quite a few twitter-length stories, which is always a challenge. I?ve also written a piece about the origins of the universe in the style of a cake recipe! That was part of the Once Upon A Universe collaboration at the Galloway Astronomy Centre.

RB: ?Who are your favourite writers, and also some of the flash fiction writers you admire?

HS: I always find this such a difficult question, because my favourite writers change with my mood. I love William Trevor?s and Capote?s short stories, and Dave Eggers? collection of short shorts made me want to write flash in the early days of my career. Janice Galloway?s short fiction is a huge inspiration as well.

RB:?What genre do you enjoy writing more? Have you written any flash in that genre? Please share if they are published.

HS: I don?t really think in terms of genre, I just get interested in a topic or character and start writing. I struggle to place my writing in any particular genre at all. I have called my science writing fictionalized nonfiction, although that?s a bit of a mouthful! My stories in Litro and Cazart are examples of this style.

RB: You have a very interesting set of current projects list at your Helen Sedgewick blog. ?Please tell us some more. And also, are you planning to use the flash fiction form in any of these?

HS: My collection of science-themed stories will certainly involve some flash, and because it?s my favourite project at the moment I?m giving it priority. I?m looking forward to getting back to novel writing as well though. One of my ideas for a book came from the Titan Arum at Kew Gardens, the largest single flowering plant in the world. It?s sometimes given the name ?The Corpse Flower? because it smells so bad, how could I not write about that?

RB:? Give us a glimpse of the spaces/places/situations that have triggered a story idea in your head. And if you weren?t near your computer/writing pad, how did you go about keeping that idea tethered?

HS: It?s hard to say exactly where ideas come from, because they often start from the most unlikely combinations of inspirations. But places certainly are an influence from a particularly desolate beach I visited as a child to a small chapel I saw on holiday inPortugal. Like most writers I know, I carry a notebook with me everywhere. All the ideas get jotted down, even if they sometimes turn out to be illegible or nonsensical! And if I can?t reach my notebook, I tell myself that the really good ideas won?t be forgotten.

RB: What words of advice and caution do you have for writers submitting to Fractured West? Also what puts you off in a flash fiction?

HS: The one thing I?m always looking for as an editor is a new idea. The most common problem with submissions to Fractured West is not that they?re badly written, but that they feel familiar. The voice, themes or characters are too similar to what I?ve read before. So my advice to writers would be: Find something new to say. And I know, it?s not easy!

?_________________________________

Rumjhum Biswas is a writer based in Chennai. Her fiction and poetry have been published all over the world. She has prizes and accolades for poetry and fiction inIndia and abroad, including having one of her stories among Story South?s top ten stories of 2007, being long listed for the Bridport in poetry in 2006, shortlisted for Aesthetica?s Creative Works in 2011 and recently the first prize in the Anam Cara Writer?s Retreat Competition.

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Source: http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/rumjhums-ruminations-tuning-into-the-science-behind-helen-sedgwicks-art-of-writing/

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Careerinfoworld : Senior Change Manager

Job ID: 602088

Job Views: 47

Location: Not Specified, West Midlands, United Kingdom

Zip Code:

Job Category: I.T. & Communications

Employment Type: Full time

Salary: per year

Posted: 08.26.2012

Job Description

Capgemini
With around 120,000 people in 40 countries - and 9,000 people in the UK - Capgemini is one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The Group reported 2011 global revenues of EUR 9.7 billion. Together with its clients, Capgemini creates and delivers business and technology solutions that fit their needs and drive the results they want.
Capgemini provide a Service Integration Service to a global industrial organisation. As part of a multi-source delivery model, Capgemini is responsible for managing the delivery of cross-service operations functions from a number of 'bundle suppliers' providing desk-top, storage, hosting, application management and network services etc.

Role Overview
Change management plays a central role in the delivery of the service integration service. The service integration change management team is responsible for the governance and operation of the end-to-end change management process and compliance by each of the bundle suppliers. Collectively the change management team verify all Requests For Changes (RFC) submitted by the bundle suppliers, the client and Capgemini ensuring they comply with the change management policy, process and procedure.

This Senior Change Manager role holds overall responsibility for the ITIL operational Change Management, managing a team of change management practitioners based in Poland.

The role also represents Capgemini Change Management within the client campus, and involves working alongside Business Service Managers, Service Desk (Scotland and Poland) and third parties. The role is also required to contribute to the development and deployment of an ITIL aligned process, and configuration of the underlying ITSM toolset.

Key Responsibilities
Overall responsibility for Change Management process, ensuring that all changes are logged, reviewed, progressed, updated, authorised and implemented within the scope of the Service Level Agreement, ensuring that all necessary parties are informed and involved in the process:
* Acting as Change Management Process Owner
* Ensuring all changes in the IT environment are under control of the Change Management process
* Overseeing the development and harnessing of best practice Change Management within the client support organisation
* Ensuring that Change Management is delivered in line with agreed global processes and the contract
* Engaging with third party service providers to ensure Change Management is delivered to the documented Operating Level Agreement
* Performing ITIL compliant Change Management delivery within the client support organisation
* Review and analysis of Requests for Change, ensuring changes with a high impact/risk score undergo additional analysis
* Chairing Change Advisory Boards
* Promoting the process to all stakeholders, including training
* Managing a team of change management practitioners
* Responsible for delivery of Change Management related reports
* Performing analysis on Change Management Process performance to identify issues and implement process improvements

The successful candidate will have:
* A good understanding of Financials and Contracts
* Experience of fulfilling a Senior Change Manager role in a large IT organization
* General Management skills (Time management, Communication Skills, Staff Management etc.)
* Experience of managing meetings and facilitation skills (incl. teleconferences with large number of participants)
* Excellent documentation and report designing ability
* Understanding ITIL processes (ITIL v3 Foundation Certificate)
* Good understanding of commonly used IT technologies
* Knowledge of the working practices and infrastructure within Data Centres, Operations Centres and Service Desks
* A thorough understanding of the delivery issues presented in the successful delivery of service to an Infrastructure Outsourcing account
* Proven track record in Vendor and Client Management

The successful candidate will possess the following personal attributes
* Excellent communications skills
* Flexibility and ability to cope with a wide array of challenging situations
* Leadership, communication and presentation skills
* Ability to establish good interpersonal relationships

SC Level Security Clearance will be obtained for this role if the successful candidate is not already cleared.

'Capgemini is an equal opportunities employer'

In order to commence a role with Capgemini UK plc you will be required to provide documentary proof, prior to joining the Company that you are entitled to live and work in the UK.

Source: http://careerinfoworld.com/display-job/602088/Senior-Change-Manager.html

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Fred Meyer Deals 8/26-9/01 {Cheap Classico Pasta Sauce, Santiam ...

New to shopping at Fred Meyer? Start here:

Thanks for supporting Fabulessly Frugal by printing your coupons HERE! It?s just one way to keep the deals coming!

KEY:

?- means the price is better than generic/wholesale/mass store prices!
?? means this is when we stock up!!! {aka Extreme Couponing? done right}

If we don?t star an item but it is listed here, that means it is still a decent price. It?s not necessarily better than any competitor?s price, but it will save you a trip across town.

Back to School Deals

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Source: http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/2012/08/fred-meyer-deals-826-901-cheap-classico-pasta-sauce-santiam-veggies-skippy-kens-salad-dressing-kelloggs-fruit-snacks-welchs-and-more.html

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