Mesa Rent To Own Lease Option Homes: Beautifully remodeled 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. This Lease to purchase home comes a comfy living room, has new countertops and upgraded kitchen features plus freeway access, parks, close to shopping and dining. This Lease to Own Phoenix Home is perfect for First Time Homebuyers! Call Us Now and Get Qualified for this Property for No Money Down to Move In and we help Fix Your Credit and Provide You with Financing.? Call our Lease Option Specialist at 480-347-9242 to schedule an appointment to view the inside of this newly remodeled Rent to Own Phoenix Arizona HOUSE. To get qualified on our Rent to own AZ / lease option programs please visit our website www.LeaseOptionHomesAZ.com and fill out our FREE APPLICATION More about Our Homes for Rent to Own Program Lease Option Homes, No Money Down, Free Application - Register Now to Learn More Select one of our Newly Remodeled Lease option Homes and Move in for No Money Down. We will Fix your Credit and Provide you FHA Financing. Don't Hesitate, start viewing the properties in our Inventory. All these properties are ready to move in Right Now. Our process is simple: The 1st Step: Getting Pre-Qualified for our Lease to own Homes Phoenix Program Simply fill out a FREE application. We do not have a credit score requirement; blemished credit is acceptable. It is a FIRST COME ? FIRST SERVE on our available properties so we HIGHLY recommend you fill out a FREE application now! When you go through the pre-approval process, we ask general questions, as if you were to applying for a mortgage, but the best part is we help you repair your credit on the items preventing you from buying a home now. Items we consider for Pre-Approval in our Rent to purchase homes Program: Application: 1. Employment ? Stable and secure employment for the past 1 to 2 years. 2. Income and Debt ? Verifiable income of a minimum of $2400.00 per month, depending upon the amount of debt. 3. Rental History ? Verify good standing and NO EVICTION/RENTAL COLLECTIONS. Credit Report: 1. Your credit score is not considered for approval in our program; in fact, WE DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU HAVE FOR A CREDIT SCORE! We know that your credit score will increase by removing the negative credit reporting when you join our program. 2. We determine how long we believe you will need our credit repair service; 1 month, 2 months, etc. Remember our Lease Option Program is designed to turn you into a homeowner with the help of our credit repair and guidance in approximately 12 to 18 months. 3. We pay close attention to the negative reporting to determine the time it takes to repair credit. We consider the when the item was reported, the balance, and the collector/creditor to gauge the success of the credit repair. Once we receive your application one of our lease option representatives will contact you to review your application within 24-48 business hours. We will have a decision within 72 hours assuming we have all the information & requested items. The 2nd Step: Finding the Home of your Dreams Once you have been pre-qualified in our Lease to Own houses in Arizona program: Click on ?AVAILABLE PROPERTIES? These are newly remodeled Homes for Rent to own, move-in ready homes that do not require money down or security deposits. Just the first month?s rent is due upfront. The 3rd Step: Submit Offer on Property and Move in Now that you have chosen a home, our Lease Option Specialist will help you submit an offer to the property owner for approval. Upon acceptance, you will sign the lease option agreement for the term that it will take for your credit to be repaired and for you to save the down payment. Find a property you like, call us at our office 480-347-9242, answer a few of our questions and you will be on your way to home ownership. We are called the One-Stop-Shop because we provide all the services necessary for you to become a home owner. Call our Lease Option Specialist at 480-347-9242 to schedule an appointment to view the inside of one of our newly remodeled homes. Disclosure: Prices listed are 12-18 month terms and if you require additional time, prices/terms are subject to change. All information should be verified by the recipient and none is guaranteed as accurate.
To Talk to one of our Lease Option Specialists
480-347-9242
Price: $1,200.00
Additional Pricing Information: Monthly HOA paid by Tenant. This is 12 month pricing and if you require additional time prices/terms subject to change.
11445 E FLORIAN AVE
Mesa , AZ 85208
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2.5
Parking Spaces: 2 Car Garage
Year Built: 2002
Subdivision: Silverwood
Lot Size: 1 - 7,500
Garage Size: 2 Car Garage
School District: Mesa Unified District
Square Footage: 1824
Agent Name: Lease Option Specialist
Broker: Expert Realty Advisors
Level: Two Levels
Jr. High School: Smith
High School: Skyline
HOA: 69.00
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Range/Oven
Full Refrigerator
Dishwasher
Sink Disposal
Microwave
All information in this site is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and is subject to change
A double chin is usually due to weak muscles underneath the chin, which can be fixed without surgery. Discover how to get rid of your double chin withhelp from a certified personal fitness trainer in this free video on losing fat and building muscle. Expert: Tanya Batts Bio: Tanya Batts has been a certified personal fitness trainer for more than 11 years. Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC Series Description: Losing fat and building muscle can be achieved with a variety of exercises and programs. Get in great shape with tips from a certified personal fitness trainer in this free video on losing fat and building muscle. Video Rating: 4 / 5
Publish Date: 27-06-2012 06:35:33 | Contact name: origininteractive | Location: India | Place: New York | 16 times displayed | Comments |
Web Development Chennai - Origin Interactive is one of the leading web design company in Chennai, India providing the services are Website Design, Web Development, Brand and Logo Design, Flash Design, SEO Services effectively at affordable cost. Origin Interactive is the Best Web Design and Best SEO Company in Chennai. We offer a whole range of SEO Services, web Design and Development in Chennai. Contact us: OriginInteractive 120, N.T.R Street Rangarajapuram Main Road Kodambakkam Chennai - 600 024. India. Phone : +91 44 42009230????? E - Mail : arun(@)origininteractive.in For More Details: http://origininteractive.in/?????????
Florida Commercial Real Estate Services is pleased to announce the listing of 8.13 acres of prime real estate near the busy Southpoint office park development, I-95 and Butler blvd (SR202) sub-market of Jacksonville. This site is located 1 block north of the termination of Butler blvd expressway and Philips Highway (US1) and just west of the intersection of busy Butler blvd with I-95.
This site consists of 9 parcels. Four of the nine parcels face busy Philips Highway and total 3.38 acres with over 630 feet of frontage on US1. It ?is zoned intensive retail and currently has a vacant 21,000 square foot retail store, a 5,000 square foot retail store occupied by Budget rent-a-car with a parking lot for rental trucks and cars plus a one acre vacant lot.?? 43,000 cars pass by here on an average day. County zoning is commercial general 2, which is intensive retail and allows all types of retail including auto sales, service stations, hotels and motels, professional office and retail establishments, and many more.
Behind these retail parcels fronting US1 are 5 parcels totaling 4.88 acres of formerly residential and now zoned Business Park. Permitted uses are Medical, dental and other professional offices, hospitals, business offices, banks, warehousing, distribution, union halls, manufacturers agents and display rooms, day care centers,? off-street parking lots, churches, and many more.
These nine parcels are offered at $3.4 million or individually at prices ranging from $146,200 to $1.3 million. Parcel sizes range from 8/10 acre to 1.2 acres.
Nearby is the largest commercial office sub-market outside of Downtown Jacksonville with millions of square feet of office buildings. ?Hotels within walking distance are Microtel, Marriott Courtyard, Red Roof Inn, Jameson Inn, LaQuinta Inn, Winngate by Wyndham, Fairfield Inn. Also several chain restaurants, Appleby?s, Cracker Barrel, etc . Near the intersection of Interstate 95 and Butler Blvd (SR202) an expressway running to the beach which carries 70,000 cars per day.
?
For more information contact Pete Gentry 904-470-0010
Retail ? Business Park Site For Sale
Be sure to see all of our properties at FLACRES.COM
FLorida Commercial Real Estate Services LLC
?a Certified Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource
Member of the National Association of Realtors
?
Tags: retail
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Retail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
A nice addition to any home is a nicely crafted fence. If your home is lacking a fence, you might decide it is time to build one. Fences look great in just about any home and can help raise the property value of your home. You can also feel a little more secure, as having a fence can help keep random strangers off your property.
If you do not already have one, add a second bathroom to your home. The main reason for this is so your family does not have to fight over one bathroom. Another reason for adding another bathroom is for resale value. Having two bathrooms makes a home more attractive for potential buyers.
Even if you are an expert and home improvement tasks, leave the plumbing to the professionals. With many people wanting to do a majority of home improvements themselves, they get tempted to going into areas that are meant for professionals. Plumbing is one of those areas that should be left to the professionals because they can be far too difficult or even dangerous.
Make sure that any contract you sign when buying a home has your interests at heart. You need to have time to get financing, arrange a home inspection and discuss any problems in the home that may need repair. A contract that is written to protect you, is essential in giving you peace of mind and allowing you to enjoy your new home.
If you are thinking about repainting the exterior of your home and the existing paint is in good shape, pressure wash the outside of the home prior to putting on new primer. This will get any dirt and debris off the old paint and give the primer a good surface to bond with.
What you have just learned from the tips above might not be as specific as you need for any one particular project, but you should get a good idea of how you need to prepare for a home improvement project. It?s not just something you should leap into. Use what you?ve learned here to act as your guide. locations
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With terrific TV connectivity and a 12-megapixel camera, Sony's Xperia Ion ($99.99 with contract) is the ideal Android phone?for folks who want to take their movies everywhere, showing them on any screen available. It's quirky and not an industry leader in other ways, though, with weak phone calling performance and some other bugs.
Physical Design The Xperia Ion is a large phone, the way phones seem to be nowadays. It's 5.2 by 2.7 by .4 inches (HWD) and a solid 5.1 ounces, all in black with a curved metal back that makes it wobble a little bit when placed down on a table. It feels like it's made of premium materials: The screen is cold glass, and the top and bottom of the back are soft-touch plastic. You're getting your money's worth here.
The front is mostly a 4.55-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel TFT LCD screen. The screen has unusually deep blacks, thanks to a technology Sony calls "mobile Bravia." Below the screen there are the usual four silkscreened soft buttons for Android actions. The headphone jack is on top, and there's a dedicated camera key on the side.
The Xperia Ion's battery isn't removable, but a sliver of the top of the back cover is, letting you pop in a microSIM card and MicroSD memory card.
Call Quality, Wireless and Battery I didn't find the Ion to be a very good phone. Reception isn't the problem?volume is. The Ion's speaker is quiet, and its speakerphone is so quiet as to be barely usable. Making a call in a noisy outdoor area I could hardly hear my wife on the other end of the line, in either mode.
There's little noise cancellation in the microphone, too, so background noise comes through very clearly on the other side of calls. A call made from the Ion sounded a bit scratchy on the other end, and a call made from the Ion's speakerphone sounded muddy. In this case, a Bluetooth headset actually improved things.
The Ion is an AT&T-compatible LTE phone with national and global HSPA+ roaming, although it doesn't support T-Mobile's 3G band. AT&T only has LTE in 39 cities right now, but where it does, speed is scorching, usually exceeding 10Mbps down. The phone works as a Wi-Fi hotspot with the appropriate service plan.
Bluetooth and GPS make their usual appearance, and the GPS locked into our location without a problem. The Ion also supports two lesser-used wireless technologies: ANT and NFC. ANT+ is mostly used for health-and-fitness devices. NFC's most prominent app right now is Google Wallet, but Google Wallet isn't available in the Ion's Google Play market.
Battery life was mediocre, but not awful, with 5 hours and 20 minutes of talk time.?
Performance The Ion runs Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) on a Qualcomm S3, 1.5GHz dual-core processor. This doesn't offer quite the speed we've seen from the S4 processor in the likes of the HTC One X ($199, 4.5 stars) and?Samsung Galaxy S III ($199, 4.5 stars), especially when it comes to gaming frame rates, but it does fine on benchmarks.?The interface was generally responsive, but the soft buttons at the bottom of the screen sometimes didn't respond to touches.
Sony's approach to Android adds a relatively light skin and some bloatware. You have various options to sort apps in the App Tray, for instance, and a very useful new Power Manager app which can turn off power-hungry radios when your battery is low.
Optional Facebook integration lets you add Facebook contacts and calendars to the phone's contact and calendar apps. If you're a fan of Sony's old Timescape, Rolodex-like display of social networking updates, you can install it as an app.
Sony's LiveWare Manager is another interesting utility: It lets you automatically launch an app when you connect an accessory, for instance launching the music player as soon as you plug in your headphones. This approach also comes into play with a new accessory called Xperia Smart Tags, little NFC-enabled stickers that can be configured to change your phone's settings or launch apps when you tap the phone to them. LiveWare Manager also provides a central place to manage the extensions for your Sony SmartWatch ($149, 3.5 stars), which puts email and social networking alerts on your wrist.
Of course, this being Android, it's compatible with all the 400,000-plus Android apps. Sony has made an unusually strong commitment to updating its phones, which makes us hope for an Android 4.0 update soon. But it's still disappointing that the phone comes with an older OS, especially now that the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X are both shipping with Ice Cream Sandwich.
A great horse supplement can help your horse have a strong body. But if your horse was once abused, it takes more than just supplements to relieve your pet. Working with an abused and neglected horse isn?t all that distinctive from working together with a so-called ?normal? horse. When performing horse rescue you have to remember that you need to step back and start at the beginning. The horse you see in front of you did not begin in that state, but came to be in that state through months or maybe years of things being overlooked. There are two kinds of abuse, passive as well as aggressive.
?Passive? abuse is a term I use when a horse doesn?t get wormed for long periods of time, get frequent hoof care, get frequent teeth floating, get sufficient grain or hay to keep body weight. ?Aggressive? abuse is the term I use for beatings or anything in which a person is imposing instantaneous pain and distress on the horse. A horse coming back from passive abuse only knows that it is hungry and does put blame to any single person while a horse coping with aggressive abuse doesn?t have confidence in people, does not have any reason to trust people and has every reason NOT to rely on people. Obviously horses that endured passive abuse are the simplest to restore, but horses struggling with aggressive abuse take more time to rehabilitate, but sometimes they?ve suffered far too much and won?t let anyone get close again.
But it?s not just horses. Regardless of whether dog, cat, or other species, the common reaction to abuse is one of suspicions, social withdrawal, physical inactivity, and also depressive disorders. The completely defeated dog or cat often hunkers in the corner of the room, not venturing to explore its environment. This fear can expand to the outside world, offering an appearance of agoraphobia (the fear of open areas). Seriously afflicted animals may not want or figure out how to play. They stay wary, reclusive and often silent. These are common signs or symptoms. Specific symptoms may mirror the kind of abuse your pet suffered. For instance, if the young dog or cat was forced to spend many hours alone, it might fear a return of this situation with such depth that they become excessively attached to a caring master and may show extreme anxiety whenever separated from him/her. On the other hand, affected dogs or cats may simply fear being left alone ? a slightly distinct scenario.
Your new four-legged friend will most likely not be really playful and warm at first because he probably never had the chance to play or to love without having punishment. Expect the dog to be anxious and mistrustful. Allow him to learn on his own that you are not likely to harm him; you can?t hurry him into being your friend. Make an effort to look non-threatening and don?t make use of any force. Usually, rescue dogs who?ve been abused cower whenever greeted. If the dog does this, rather than approaching him face on, approach him walking backwards with your palm up and hands outstretched to help make him feel less threatened. As he starts to realize you mean no harm, you?ll have the ability to approach him face on.
A horse supplement will help your horse recuperate. For other animals, felines which have not been exposed to people during the first seven weeks of existence never become completely accepting of people and therefore hardly ever make good domestic pets. Cats that have been mistreated by people during the same period may become positively hostile to strangers for the rest of their lives. The same is true for dogs, except that the sensitive time period usually ends at about 12-14 weeks.
Horse Supplement specialists have numerous advice and professional opinions on how you take good care of your beloved equines using the supreme horse supplements within their day-to-day diet program.
It is Soap Dish time again my friends! After a week of fun in the sun I am back to dish with you about the 2012 Daytime Emmy Awards, woohoo! As I am sure you are all aware by now The 39th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards were held over the weekend. The show was thankfully televised by HLN so that fans like myself could see who took home the Emmy. I will have the full list of winners for you but first lets talk about the show. I thought it was good, not great but better than it has been the last couple of years. I feel like soap operas were honored properly unlike years in the recent past where I felt the did not get the recognition they deserve. That being said I was thrilled that General Hospital led the pack with wins that night, including best show which in my eyes it is. Everyone of course who was nominated was amazing and all the winners were deserving but I need to give a shout out about how freaking thrilled I was that Nancy Lee Grahn won. She is so unbelievably talented and not given kudos enough for how [...]
It?s amazing what kind of enlightenment can strike you at a bar (maybe I should go out more often). I?ve written about beauty before, but it was more so me unraveling my own confidence and exploring the beauty within me. Sitting at the bar in Broad Ripple, Tab and I had prime real-estate seats for people watching. We conversationally made observations of the crowd.
TRIPOLI - Tunisia has extradited former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's prime minister to Libya, a Libyan security official said on Sunday, making him the first senior official to be sent back for trial under the country's transitional leadership.?
Defense ministry official Mohammed al-Ahwal told Reuters that a helicopter transferred Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi to Tripoli on Sunday.?
"Mahmoudi is now in Tripoli and we are holding him in a prison," Ahwal said.?
Mahmoudi served as the Libyan dictator's prime minister from 2006 until he fled to neighboring Tunisia around the time that rebel fighters took the capital Tripoli in August.?
Libya begins battle to seize $20 billion in Gadhafi assets - starting with London mansion
His extradition could establish a precedent for other countries who have given refuge to or arrested members of Gadhafi's old entourage.?
Tripoli considers it a matter of national pride and a measure of the country's transformation that trials of people like Mahmoudi and Gadhafi's imprisoned son Saif al-Islam be held in Libya.?
But human rights groups question whether its justice system can meet the standards of international law and say he should be handed over to the ICC instead.?
A Tunisian court ruled as far back as November that Mahmoudi should be extradited. But Tunisian President Moncef al-Marzouki later said the handover would not happen until the situation in Libya had stabilized and Mahmoudi could be guaranteed a fair trial after Gadhafi himself was killed by rebels and his rotting corpse left on display.?
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
?
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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Being a top Olympic sponsor with the London Games about one month away, Adidas? choice to hit the market with a pair of sneakers that incorporate slave shackles isn?t the best idea.
Now, the German company is fielding accusations of racism after the revealing the sneakers on Facebook with the caption: ?Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles??
The JS Roundhouse Mid, which features a bright orange chain and ankle strap, are a collaboration between Adidas Originals and designer Jeremy Scott. For Scott, this apparently marks a departure from his previous Adidas designs that have featured a less offensive panda bear and Mickey Mouse.
?The design of the JS Roundhouse Mid is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott?s outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery,? a representative for the shoemaker told NBC. ?Jeremy Scott is renowned as a designer whose style is quirky and lighthearted ? ?Any suggestion that this is linked to slavery is untruthful.?
But the people have spoken. Some choice Facebook comments here:
??What is this, the slavery line??
?Why would you want shackles round your legs that?s just like back in slavery days.?
?Wearing them you can feel like real prisoner.?
?Sorry but I?d rather not look like someone who just broke out of prison.?
Not everyone was offended.
?Jeremy [Scott] always pushes boundaries. Shoes like these just makes it even more obvious that only people with real guts want and would wear them. This has nothing to do with slavery.?
Another comment simply read: ?Not everything with a chain is related to slavery, people.?
London Organizing Committee of the Olympic (LOCOG), already in hot water over it?s deals with BP and Dow Chemical, is reportedly ?discussing? the issue with Adidas.
Meanwhile, the ?racist sneakers? are scheduled to be available in August. Up next: homophobic slippers and misogynist flip flops!
The average South Florida sports fan could see Lionel Messi walking down Ocean Drive in beachwear and flip-flops this weekend, and not give him a second glance.
He hardly looks like one of the most gifted and highest-paid athletes on the planet. He doesn?t have LeBron James? superhero build or David Beckham?s GQ style. Messi is 5-7 (in cleats), sports boyish floppy hair, and is remarkably unassuming for a man with a $43.5?million annual income, an estimated $110?million net worth, and an endorsement portfolio that includes adidas, Pepsi, Herbalife, EA Sports and Dolce & Gabbana.
But put that diminutive guy they call La Pulga (?the flea?) on a soccer field, drop a ball in front of him, and he becomes larger than life.
South Floridians have a rare chance to see Messi up close at Sun Life Stadium on Saturday night, on the eve of his 25th birthday, when he and 31 other international soccer stars play an exhibition match as part of the World Masters Tour. The Argentine forward, who plays for Spanish giant FC Barcelona, dribbles as if the ball was a yo-yo attached to his feet. He has an uncanny ability to find the back of the net no matter who is standing in his way or what angle he shoots from.
?The people of Miami should crawl on broken glass just to inhale the exhaust fumes from the bus Messi is traveling on,? said TV analyst Ray Hudson, the former Fort Lauderdale Strikers and Miami Fusion coach. ?He is that good. He is one of the gods of the game, right up there with Pel? and Diego Maradona. There is something about this player that transcends the game in that magical way.
?He?s the equivalent of the Miami Heat?s great three all rolled into one. He has the borderline genius of LeBron [James], the magical exuberance of Dwyane Wade, and the coolness and effectiveness of [Chris] Bosh. This guy is spellbinding and so astonishingly special. He is Shakespeare?s greatest sonnet in motion.?
This year, Messi scored 73 goals for Barcelona, breaking Gerd Muller?s 39-year-old record for most goals scored in a European season. Muller scored 67 goals for Bayern Munich in 1972-73. Messi, a three-time FIFA Player of the Year, had an unprecedented eight hat tricks, and also became the first player to score five goals in a Champions League match.
He is considered the best player of his time. Warren Barton, a Fox TV analyst, continues to be dazzled by the beguiling superstar.
?First and foremost, Messi is the best player of his generation, like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan were in their sports,? Barton said. ?He makes the art of dribbling and scoring goals look easy. And he does all this under intense pressure. People talk about the pressure on LeBron. Messi?s pressure is global. He is scrutinized and judged by the whole world.?
In fact, Messi received more media coverage than any soccer player in the world for the fourth consecutive year, according to a study conducted by the University of Navarra in Northern Spain. His score of 28.8 points means he appeared in the news nearly 29 times more than the average player.
Messi scored more goals on his own than 13 of the other 19 clubs in La Liga scored as a team this season. With 50 goals in 36 La Liga matches, Messi also outscored 12 English Premier League teams, 13 German Bundesliga teams, and 10 Italian Serie A clubs.
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin left global oil executives in little doubt as to who was the master of the world's largest energy reserves at Russia's answer to Davos.
The sky over St Petersburg was turning white at the end of the longest day of the year, and the financiers and leaders of global industry who had gathered as Putin's guests at this year's forum were retiring to lavish parties and rooftop bars.
But the chief executives of BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Chevron stood with a dozen colleagues in a dark, chairless foyer, shifting from foot to foot on Thursday as they waited three hours for an audience.
"No one was angry," said a European chief executive as he whiled away the wait by hashing out an equipment issue with a colleague. "There was a lot to talk about."
Putin has kept them waiting in the past, both for meetings and for deals, sometimes for years as they struggled to find a way in with a government that controls access to some of the world's largest untapped oil and gas reserves.
Putin, whose conviction that strategic resources should be in the hands of the state was laid out in his doctoral dissertation, has shown a willingness in the past few months to share prospective oil riches on a scale unprecedented since Russia's early post-Soviet years.
Three Arctic drilling deals, personally brokered by energy tsar Igor Sechin in the final days of Putin's four-year spell as prime minister, have opened up new possibilities after a decade in which Russia became a byword for resource nationalism.
The appeal of advanced Western technology needed to tap increasingly remote and challenging fields, and the attendant promise of a more modern, healthy economy has chipped away at the Kremlin's jealous guard of its natural resources.
It has also set off debate around long-standing tax policies that are designed to skim off oil industry revenues but have proven costly in terms of investment in new barrels.
"What strikes me is that they are very much aware of the fact that they have to open up to other countries," Maria van der Hoeven, head of the International Energy Agency, said in an interview at the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"It has to do with investments and it has to do with markets, with market diversification. They need to find the right methods to do that, the right regulatory framework to get the (international oil companies) coming into the country."
OUR RESERVES, THEIR TECHNOLOGY
When Putin finally joined the CEOs, he was at pains to be welcoming, first giving the floor to Peter Voser, the CEO of Shell, which has been identified in media reports as a potential new investor in Shtokman, a troubled Barents Sea gas project.
"Twenty-five percent of our oil is produced by companies with foreign partners. That should tell you how open our industry is to foreign capital. Not in all countries is there such broad participation by foreigners," he told the executives.
"I just got back from Mexico, where the G20 was held, and (the oil industry) is almost completely state controlled. In a market-oriented country like Norway, there is really just one big company, Statoil."
Russia has one thing in common with those countries: declines in its old production base, though Russia has managed to keep pumping at ever higher rates, hitting post-Soviet output peaks thanks to new fields launched at great cost.
So it was that Sechin, a former military translator in Africa, found himself defending his decision to share the state oil company's reserves with foreigners at the company's annual meeting last week when a skeptical shareholder asked him whether such deals were in Russia's national interest.
His answer echoed a refrain that has been repeated since the Rosneft first announced its intent to grant a foreign oil company access to a new hydrocarbon province that could harbor fields like the Soviet-era "supergiants" which sustained the country through its last decades: Our reserves, their capital, their risk and, most of all, their technology.
EXXON'S SECRET
If the executives' long wait for Putin belied a welcoming stance, the body language with Exxon executives - notable by their absence at the table with Putin - has been easier to read.
CEO Rex Tillerson, who flew to a Black Sea refinery town this month at Rosneft's invitation for a strategy presentation with Putin, was photographed seated next to the Russian president, inclining his head for a private word.
Exxon executives were guests of honor at Rosneft's AGM, where Sechin had frank praise for the American major and its focus on delivering value to shareholders.
An executive at a rival major said he believed that was not what won over Sechin and his Kremlin patron. "They have really gone in with technology," the executive said.
The challenge faced by the Russian industry, said a source from a company with a long history in offshore drilling, is to move from standardized bulk drilling and top-down design decisions at old West Siberian fields to unpredictable environments and prospective projects where new technology must be developed and honed along the way.
Therein is the deep attraction of technology transfer for the Russian government, which is caught in a Catch-22 situation: With 50 percent of its budget revenue from energy, it can neither afford to let the industry stagnate, nor can it remain so heavily dependent on a volatile commodity.
Most immediately for Rosneft, it must invest in future output growth while simultaneously retooling its Soviet-built refineries to meet rising demand for high-specification gasoline and prevent politically damaging petrol shortages.
The order of the queue of executives at Rosneft's stand at the St Petersburg convention centre was telling. Behind Eni and Statoil - there to finalize their drilling deals - was Andrei Kostin, CEO of state bank VTB, on hand to sign a new financing deal to help build a new refinery near Moscow.
It was a reminder that, despite Rosneft's outward-looking stance of recent months, its concerns - and the Kremlin's - gravitate back to the domestic marketplace.
And with little build on outside the energy industry besides a crippled Soviet industrial base and a small if growing band of entrepreneurs, the Kremlin must pin its hopes for a modern economy on its oldest resource of all.
"Russia's energy sector is, perhaps, now, and must remain over the near term, the driver for modernization of the country's economy," said Sechin.
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Flightless, slow-moving and at times more sexually attracted to humans than their own species, it's small wonder New Zealand's kakapo parrot is on the verge of extinction.
But a mammoth conservation effort stretching back decades is offering hope for one of the world's rarest birds, lifting its numbers from about 50 in 1990 to 126 this year.
The plump, green kakapo -- the name means "night parrot" in Maori -- was once one of the most common birds in New Zealand, which had few land predators before European settlement in the early Nineteenth Century.
"There was a report from an early explorer, Charles Douglas, who said they were so populous you could shake them out of trees like apples," said Deirdre Vercoe Scott, head of the Department of Conservation's kakapo recovery programme.
"He said he'd once seen six kakapo shaken from a single tutu bush."
Vercoe Scott said habitat destruction by humans and the introduction of pests such as stoats and predatory cats and dogs, sowed the seeds of the kakapos' decline.
The flightless nocturnal birds, while essentially ground dwelling, are strong climbers but freeze when confronted by a threat, making them easy pickings for predators.
The males also attract mates by emitting a deep booming sound from thoracic air sacs, turning them into conspicuous targets for hunters in the night forest.
With an ageing population and bird numbers declining, kakapo recovery programme chief scientist Ron Moorehouse said the species' future appeared "dire" in the 1990s.
The situation sparked an intense conservation initiative, which has cost tens of millions of dollars, to save a bird that those who have encountered it describe as endearing and full of personality.
"They can be quite grumpy," ranger Sarah Kivi said. "They display so much personality, which I guess you don't get from a lot of birds. They'll sit there and look at you and you wonder 'what are they thinking?'".
Exacerbating the problem was the fact that kakapo, which can live up to 90 years, are notoriously slow breeders, only reproducing in seasons when abundant fruit is available from native tree species.
The breeding programme faced another hurdle when male kakapo became "imprinted" on their human handlers, meaning they saw them as more likely potential mates than female kakapo.
In the early days of the conservation effort, rangers even wore an outlandish rubber helmet dotted with dimples in an unsuccessful attempt to collect kakapo sperm when males tried to mate with their heads.
British actor Stephen Fry witnessed the kakapo's amorous antics first hand while filming his programme "Last Chance to See" in 2009, when a kakapo named Sirocco took a shine to zoologist Mark Carwardine and began vigorously coupling with his scalp.
The resulting footage, which Fry described as "one of the funniest things I've ever seen", attracted almost four million hits on video-sharing website Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY.
Vercoe Scott said the birds' fortunes began to improve when they were moved to two remote islands where existing pests had been eliminated and which predators from the mainland could not reach by swimming.
"The biggest breakthrough was putting all the birds together on predator-free islands and understanding how they breed while getting over (our) fear of intervening," she said.
"If we'd taken a hands-off policy we would have lost the kakapo, so we really had to get in there and be quite intense with our management, particularly during the nesting period."
She added that her team set up cameras, weighed the chicks nightly and as a result hand reared many of the birds.
Vercoe Scott said it was highly unlikely any kakapo now survived in the wild, meaning only the conservation programme could save the species.
Such has been its success that rangers this year re-introduced eight kakapo to a third sanctuary, Little Barrier Island off the Auckland coast, after eliminating a rat infestation which forced their removal in 1999.
Moorehouse said some of the eight birds originally came from the island and immediately returned to their old nesting spots, raising hopes they will quickly settle in and breed in the new environment.
While the kakapo is still listed as critically endangered, Moorehouse said the situation no longer looked bleak.
"The trend is up, so we're encouraged by that," he said.
"We're certainly more comfortable, but with 126 birds you have to manage the genetics very carefully and that's what we're trying to do, so we retain as much genetic variation in the population as we can.
"So we're not out of the woods by any means but we're going in the right direction."
CHICAGO (AP) ? Gillian Flynn's third novel, "Gone Girl," is the perfect beach read ? boy meets girl, boy marries girl, girl goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary.
The boy is Nick, who grew up in a Mississippi River town in Missouri and became a magazine writer in New York, where he meets the blonde, beautiful and bright Amy. The mystery unfolds in dueling chapters, one from Nick's point of view, then one from Amy.
"I liked playing with the idea of marriage as a 'he said, she said' story," said Flynn, a Chicagoan and mother of a 2-year-old boy with her own equally compelling story ? girl loses job, girl becomes best-selling novelist.
"Gone Girl" entered The New York Times bestseller hardcover fiction list at No. 2 for the week of June 24 and earned a top-10 spot on Amazon's Top 100 list.
Critics love it, too. People magazine gave it four stars and Publishers Weekly called it "compulsively readable, creepily unforgettable." It is crime fiction that will make readers flip to the first page after they've finished the last page, looking for clues and hints they missed.
Flynn, 41, grew up in Kansas City, Mo., the daughter of two community college professors. Her 2006 debut was the mystery "Sharp Objects" and her follow-up was 2009's "Dark Places." She said she wrote her first two books on evenings and weekends while working as a journalist.
Flynn was laid off from her job as a writer and TV critic at Entertainment Weekly after she finished "Dark Places," but before the novel came out. Losing her job allowed her the chance to turn full-time novelist. It also provided inspiration for Nick in "Gone Girl". He loses his magazine writing job, too.
"I certainly wove that experience, that sense of having something that you were going to do for the rest of your life and seeing that possibility taken away... I definitely wove that sense of unrest and nervousness into Nick's character," she said.
Even though she was finding success as a novelist, Flynn said she would have kept her magazine job if she could.
"I don't know if I had it in my mind that I would do the novel thing solo. I'm a very pragmatic Midwesterner. I liked the idea of having a day job," she said. "It took me a while, that (writing) is my day job and it's going to be OK."
Flynn's writing focuses on women ? unusual, troubled women in difficult situations, said Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, Ariz., where Flynn recently gave a talk on "Gone Girl."
"Even though they're damaged they're all strong women and that has a lot of appeal," Peters said.
Flynn thinks the appeal comes from giving readers a sneak-peek into someone else's marriage: the tugs of war, power plays and gender roles. Flynn also was ready to write a mystery from inside a relationship after two novels that she describes as exploring "loneliness and isolation."
"I wanted to kind of play with the opposite of that, which is what happens when you choose to combine lives with someone. The good things that are possible and the bad things that are possible," Flynn said.
The book's subject matter didn't make Flynn's husband flinch, she said. "It takes a big guy if your wife comes and says, 'I'm going to poke and pry around the darkest side of marriage for my next book. Is that cool?'" Flynn said. "He didn't blink an eye. He said, 'Go for it. Don't censor yourself. Put everything down.'"
Her novel also tells the story of now: Characters are dealing with the aftermath of a recession. There are abandoned shopping malls, empty foreclosed homes and workers who have lost their jobs.
"I wanted the whole thing to feel bankrupt," Flynn said. "I wanted it to really feel like a marriage that had been hollowed out in a city that had been hollowed out and a country that was increasingly hollowed out."
The result, Peters said, is a novel that shows Flynn is more concerned with the "why" of the crime rather than the "how" of the crime.
"There's a real propulsion, the way she tell that story," Peters said. "You want to read it right through the end to see what's going on."
One of Latin America's biggest rock bands is leading a novel project that proposes to tackle climate change at a local level and promote local sustainable development.
Grammy Award-winning Man, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, has always been committed to environmental projects in the region. It says this project, which emerges from research carried out under the UK Government's Darwin Initiative since 2009, is one of the most important it has undertaken.
The project, which has also been given the endorsement of Mexico's President, Felipe Caldern, gives much needed support to an area of Mexico, La Primavera Forest, that has recently been devastated by fire. It also links closely to the theme of 'green economies', and the interaction between environment and economy, which features strongly in this week's Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
It is based on research, led by Professor Jon Lovett, of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, and coordinated by Arturo Balderas Torres in Mexico looking at the potential to engage citizens with local forest owners and communities to compensate them for the ecological services they receive while promoting rural development.
In collaboration with the Mexican University of ITESO, the Darwin Initiative project conducted a study in an area of Western Mexico called La Primavera, an important biosphere reserve near the city of Guadalajara, to find out whether direct links could be made between citizens, who enjoy the benefits of having La Primavera national park on their doorsteps and landowners who work to improve biodiversity.
The model proposed by the team's research envisages local payment schemes for the services provided by the reserve, such as carbon sequestration to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, that would be used to directly compensate landowners who manage their land to promote conservation and biodiversity rather than simple profitability.
Balderas Torres lecturer at ITESO and pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Twente, says: "These local schemes could have a huge impact for development, conservation and climate change mitigation. It is more sensible for people paying to enhance public goods such as carbon and biodiversity when they can also have direct access to other benefits, such as being able to visit La Primavera and enjoy its natural beauties and improved air quality."
The concept appealed to members of Man, who, in 1995, established the Selva Negra Ecologic Foundation, an organisation that finances and supports important projects aimed at protecting the environment.
With the assistance of Selva Negra the Darwin Initiative research has been carried forwards into a pilot project spearheaded by Man as they complete their Drama y Luz World Tour.
The band have estimated the cost of the carbon emissions and other environmental impacts caused during the tour and will make a contribution to mitigation activities that can be carried out locally, in a community located in one of the unprotected wildlife corridors near to La Primavera. The money paid by Man will contribute to a 0.5 million development and conservation project that will see over 1000 hectares conserved and 80 hectares replanted.
Fher Olvera, lead singer of Man, says: "This is one of the most important projects we have undertaken. It shows the way forward by taking practical, concrete, actions. It is not only about being committed to protecting the environment, but also protecting the livelihoods of people and their connection with nature."
"It is not often that research is transformed into implementation so quickly and we are very grateful to Man and Selva Negra whose support gives us an excellent example of how the model works in practice", says Professor Lovett. "The project is also very timely, the huge international Rio +20 meeting will take place in June this year. One of the main themes will be on the interaction between the environment and the economy. Here in La Primavera that linkage is being made through the Man project. Everyone benefits: the farmers receive compensation for help to mitigate climate change by planting trees; the planet benefits from removal of greenhouse gases; and biodiversity benefits from the increased forest cover."
The Darwin Initiative assists countries that are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the three major biodiversity Conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES); and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), through the funding of collaborative projects which draw on UK biodiversity expertise.
The Darwin Initiative Project, led by Professor Lovett is called 'Market Based Scheme for Conservation in La Primavera Forest Mexico'. It aims to link the use of ecosystem services in the city of Guadalajara, in particular carbon dioxide production from urban energy use and absorption by La Primavera forests, with management of La Primavera. The project is administered by the University of Kent.
Rio+20 is the short name for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012. It is an historic opportunity to define pathways to a safer, more equitable, cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all. This project embraces a number of key Rio+20 themes.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
One of Latin America's biggest rock bands is leading a novel project that proposes to tackle climate change at a local level and promote local sustainable development.
Grammy Award-winning Man, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, has always been committed to environmental projects in the region. It says this project, which emerges from research carried out under the UK Government's Darwin Initiative since 2009, is one of the most important it has undertaken.
The project, which has also been given the endorsement of Mexico's President, Felipe Caldern, gives much needed support to an area of Mexico, La Primavera Forest, that has recently been devastated by fire. It also links closely to the theme of 'green economies', and the interaction between environment and economy, which features strongly in this week's Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
It is based on research, led by Professor Jon Lovett, of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, and coordinated by Arturo Balderas Torres in Mexico looking at the potential to engage citizens with local forest owners and communities to compensate them for the ecological services they receive while promoting rural development.
In collaboration with the Mexican University of ITESO, the Darwin Initiative project conducted a study in an area of Western Mexico called La Primavera, an important biosphere reserve near the city of Guadalajara, to find out whether direct links could be made between citizens, who enjoy the benefits of having La Primavera national park on their doorsteps and landowners who work to improve biodiversity.
The model proposed by the team's research envisages local payment schemes for the services provided by the reserve, such as carbon sequestration to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, that would be used to directly compensate landowners who manage their land to promote conservation and biodiversity rather than simple profitability.
Balderas Torres lecturer at ITESO and pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Twente, says: "These local schemes could have a huge impact for development, conservation and climate change mitigation. It is more sensible for people paying to enhance public goods such as carbon and biodiversity when they can also have direct access to other benefits, such as being able to visit La Primavera and enjoy its natural beauties and improved air quality."
The concept appealed to members of Man, who, in 1995, established the Selva Negra Ecologic Foundation, an organisation that finances and supports important projects aimed at protecting the environment.
With the assistance of Selva Negra the Darwin Initiative research has been carried forwards into a pilot project spearheaded by Man as they complete their Drama y Luz World Tour.
The band have estimated the cost of the carbon emissions and other environmental impacts caused during the tour and will make a contribution to mitigation activities that can be carried out locally, in a community located in one of the unprotected wildlife corridors near to La Primavera. The money paid by Man will contribute to a 0.5 million development and conservation project that will see over 1000 hectares conserved and 80 hectares replanted.
Fher Olvera, lead singer of Man, says: "This is one of the most important projects we have undertaken. It shows the way forward by taking practical, concrete, actions. It is not only about being committed to protecting the environment, but also protecting the livelihoods of people and their connection with nature."
"It is not often that research is transformed into implementation so quickly and we are very grateful to Man and Selva Negra whose support gives us an excellent example of how the model works in practice", says Professor Lovett. "The project is also very timely, the huge international Rio +20 meeting will take place in June this year. One of the main themes will be on the interaction between the environment and the economy. Here in La Primavera that linkage is being made through the Man project. Everyone benefits: the farmers receive compensation for help to mitigate climate change by planting trees; the planet benefits from removal of greenhouse gases; and biodiversity benefits from the increased forest cover."
The Darwin Initiative assists countries that are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the three major biodiversity Conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES); and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), through the funding of collaborative projects which draw on UK biodiversity expertise.
The Darwin Initiative Project, led by Professor Lovett is called 'Market Based Scheme for Conservation in La Primavera Forest Mexico'. It aims to link the use of ecosystem services in the city of Guadalajara, in particular carbon dioxide production from urban energy use and absorption by La Primavera forests, with management of La Primavera. The project is administered by the University of Kent.
Rio+20 is the short name for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012. It is an historic opportunity to define pathways to a safer, more equitable, cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all. This project embraces a number of key Rio+20 themes.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.