New book chronicles Madoff son's demise

In this undated photograph provided by Security Traders Association of New York, Mark Madoff is shown. Madoff, one of Bernard Madoff's sons, was found dead of an apparent suicide Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. A book by Stephanie Madoff Mack, Mark Madoff's widow, "The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, A Widow's New Life," goes on sale, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Security Traders Association of New York, Kimberly Unger) NO SALES

In this undated photograph provided by Security Traders Association of New York, Mark Madoff is shown. Madoff, one of Bernard Madoff's sons, was found dead of an apparent suicide Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. A book by Stephanie Madoff Mack, Mark Madoff's widow, "The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, A Widow's New Life," goes on sale, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Security Traders Association of New York, Kimberly Unger) NO SALES

In this Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009 file photo, Bernard L. Madoff, the accused mastermind of a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, leaves Federal Court in New York. A book by Stephanie Madoff Mack, Madoff?s daughter-in-law, ?The End of Normal: A Wife?s Anguish, A Widow?s New Life? goes on sale Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, file)

In this April 6, 2009 file photo, Ruth Madoff is escorted by private security as she leaves the Metropolitan Correctional Center after visiting her husband, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The son of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff swallowed a batch of sleeping pills in a failed suicide attempt four months before he killed himself on the second anniversary of his father's arrest in the biggest financial fraud in American history, according to a new book by his widow.

"The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, A Widow's New Life" gives an intimate account of Mark Madoff's two years of torment over the infamous swindle that wiped out thousands of his investors and ? by his wife's account ? left him a man broken beyond repair. The book vilifies her father-in-law "Bernie" while calling her husband an innocent bystander and "hero" for turning him in.

"There are people who never knew Mark Madoff, yet who gleefully point to his suicide as proof that he must have known of or participated in his father's epic crime," Stephanie Madoff Mack writes in the book that went on sale Thursday. "Nothing could be further from the truth. His death was proof of his pain."

Stephanie Madoff says she took the name Mack to try to deflect fallout from the scandal.

"I wish I could have changed my birthday as well," she writes. "I share the date with Bernie."

Elsewhere in the book, she writes, "I hated Bernie thoroughly and deeply from the instant Mark told me what he had done."

The elder Madoff, 73, was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008 ? the morning after his two sons notified authorities through an attorney that he had confessed to them that his investment business was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. The following year, he pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges and was given a 150-year prison term.

The former Nasdaq chairman has always insisted that his family was in the dark, and Mark Madoff, his brother and uncle ? all executives for a broker-dealer operating under the same roof as the crooked private investment firm ? have never been charged. But they have come under intense scrutiny by the FBI and by a bank-appointed trustee seeking to recover funds for burned clients.

Before his death, Mark Madoff became increasingly isolated and obsessive about news coverage of the runaway scandal, his wife says. Two weeks after watching a "60 Minutes" segment on the case, he briefly vanished.

He surfaced in a fog at home several hours later. She says he told her he had just woken up after taking 30 sleeping pills inside a hotel room where he left a suicide note reading: "Bernie: Now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit."

When Madoff appeared to stabilize after a hospital stay, she decided to take their daughter to Disneyworld, she writes. He stayed at home to care for their young son Nick in their Manhattan apartment.

Once away, the couple stayed in touch with a series of texts included in the book. She panicked when she read one with the subject line "Help" and the message, "Please send someone to take care of Nick."

Her father-in-law discovered his son's body hanging from a dog leash the victim had fashioned into a noose.

Madoff "had never known anything but privilege," his widow writes, "and he lacked the basic tools to cope with any adversity, much less a monumental one."

There was no immediate response to a message left Wednesday with Bernard Madoff's attorney.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-20-Madoff%20Scandal-Book/id-bdc5534ce8db43efb3a31bd1beb60973

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Home building jumps 15 percent in September (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Homes were built in September at the fastest pace in 17 months, a hopeful sign for the economy.

Most of the gain was driven by a surge in volatile apartment construction, which helps boost economic growth. But other data suggest a housing recovery is far off.

Single-family home construction, which represents nearly 70 percent of homes built, rose only slightly. And building permits, a gauge of future construction, fell to a five-month low.

"Certainly there is no overbuilding going on now, so the overall result is favorable," said Pierre Ellis, an analyst at Decision Economics. "But greater optimism would have been prompted if single-family starts had increased ? suggesting that builders were seeing a better market ahead."

Builders began work in September on a seasonally adjusted 658,000 homes, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That's a 15 percent increase from August and the best pace since April 2010, when a federal homebuyers' tax credit temporarily boosted construction.

Still, the level is roughly half the 1.2 million that economists say is consistent with healthy housing markets.

Single-family homes rose 1.7 percent. And building permits fell 5 percent.

Apartment building surged 53.4 percent to its highest level in three years.

Increased apartment construction could be a sign that builders are gaining access to hard-to-get financing for projects, analysts said. It could also be a positive sign for the broader economy.

The Federal Reserve "will still be more encouraged than not, given the healthy multi-family sector ? and the positive hint about availability of financing that it gives," Ellis said.

While home construction represents a small portion of the housing market, it has an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Overall, homebuilding fell to its lowest levels in 50 years in 2009, when builders began work on just 554,000 homes. Last year was not much better.

Cash-strapped builders are struggling to compete with deeply discounted foreclosures and short sales, when lenders allow borrowers to sell homes for less than what is owed on their mortgages. And few homes are selling.

After previous recessions, housing accounted for at least 15 percent of economic growth in the United States. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, it has contributed just 4 percent.

New-home sales fell in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000, a six-month low. This year is shaping up to be the worst since the government began keeping records a half-century ago.

Renting has become a preferred option for many Americans who lost their jobs during the recession and were forced to leave their homes. Still, the surge in apartments has not been enough to offset the loss of single-family homebuilding.

Another reason sales have fallen is that previously occupied homes are a better deal than new homes. The median price of a new home is about 30 percent higher than the median price for a re-sale. That's almost twice the markup in a healthy housing market.

The trade group said Tuesday that its survey of industry sentiment rose this month to 18, the highest level in 17 months. Still, the index has been below 20 for all but one month during the past two years. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market. The index hasn't reached 50 since April 2006, the peak of the housing boom.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111019/ap_on_bi_ge/us_housing_starts

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Palestinians say will work with Blair (Reuters)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) ? A senior Palestinian official on Wednesday added his voice to calls for the replacement of international Middle East envoy Tony Blair, but the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said it would carry on cooperating with the former British leader.

"The Palestinian presidency will continue to work with the envoy of the international Quartet Committee Tony Blair in his capacity as the choice of the Quartet," presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said in a brief statement.

It made no direct reference to calls from senior Palestinians for the replacement of Blair, whom they accused of bias in favor of Israel.

Mohammed Ishtayeh, a member of the Central Committee of the dominant Fatah movement and a confidant of Abbas, told Voice of Palestine radio earlier on Wednesday that Blair was no longer trusted to be an impartial mediator.

Ishtayeh said the Palestinians had also written to the Quartet of mediating powers which Blair represents -- the European Union, United States, Russia and United Nations -- to say its latest proposition for a resumption of stalled peace negotiations was too vague to be meaningful.

Quartet envoys were due to meet in Brussels on Sunday.

"We do not expect much of the Quartet. There is discontent with its envoy Mr. Tony Blair," Ishtayeh said. "Our general evaluation of his efforts is that he has become of no use at all. He has developed a large bias in favor of the Israeli side and he has lost a lot of his credibility.

"We hope the Quartet will reconsider the appointment of this person," he added, in the most explicit public suggestion to date that influential Palestinians want Blair to go.

The presidential spokesman did not allude to recent negative statements about the envoy.

FOCUS ON QUARTET

Abu Rdainah urged the Quartet, and Blair, to "exert every possible effort to compel Israel to accept the last statement of the Quartet committee by deeds, not words, through finding a mechanism to stop (Jewish) settlement in Palestinian lands."

A call by the Quartet for the rapid resumption of talks without preconditions was turned down by the Palestine Liberation Organisation last week but accepted by Israel.

The Palestinians say the Quartet failed to explicitly require Israel to stop building on occupied land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- the only condition under which they will agree to restart direct peace talks.

The Quartet formula demanding that neither side undertake unilateral acts which could interfere with the talks was simply too vague, PLO official Ishtayeh said.

"I believe the Quartet needs to work on itself more than anything else ... The situation does not permit ambiguity. Either settlement stops or there will be no negotiation."

A spokesman for Blair said Ishtayeh's comments did not reflect Blair's conversations with the Palestinian leadership.

He said it was the role of the Quartet representative to interact with both sides "not least so that we can continue to deliver change on the ground for Palestinians to improve their quality of life."

Blair has been the Quartet's envoy since 2007, focusing on easing the practical conditions of Israel's military occupation of the West Bank so the Palestinian economy can develop and form a solid foundation on which Abbas's Palestinian Authority can build the infrastructure of a future state.

The economy has grown and in the past two years Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has created most of the attributes of statehood, in government institutions, administration and security. But Israeli forces remain in ultimate control.

Since peace talks collapsed a year ago, with the expiry of an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction, the Palestinians have shifted the focus of their efforts to a bid for statehood at the United Nations, where Abbas formally lodged an application for full membership last month.

The United States has said it will veto that step, insisting along with Israel that a Palestinian state can only come into being via a negotiated, comprehensive treaty with Israel to resolve the 63-year-old Middle East conflict.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111005/wl_nm/us_palestinians_quartet_blair

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Some Tips to Provide a Better Customer Service Experience for ...

Many people look into internet marketing because, for the most part, it is a mostly automated business model. You need to create a website from which your customers can buy things, direct people to your site so they see what you have to offer, and then (or so the thinking goes) you can just sit back and watch the money roll in.

When you skim the surface, it seems like it wouldn?t take much to start up. This is probably the mentality that causes many newer internet marketers to shirk their customer service responsibilities. Whether you?re operating an online or a traditional, brick-and-mortar business, customer service is going to be critical to your success. Follow these simple customer service tips and see your clients and customers returning time and again to purchase from you.

As soon as you make a sale, be sure to get the person?s mailing address so you can send them a nice, handwritten note that tells them how appreciated they are. This is a task that is much easier to undertake if you have a small business and will not be left writing hundreds or more notes. If you are operating a small business, though, these are the little things that customers will notice.

Sending a handwritten thank you note for choosing you will often convince your customers to return to you when they are in need of your specific type of service again. And really, a quick little note should only take you a couple of minutes to write. Think of it this way, when you spend that little time on the note, you could be promising your business future sales. Always make sure to keep up to date on customer feedback and seriously consider it. Try to make the time to personally reply to each email you receive, even the ones that are negative.

Be sure to proof read your e-mails, sales and web pages before posting them or sending them to anyone. Make sure that any typos or erros in grammar or spelling are corrected before you post a page or send out an e-mail.

Remember, your website is what people are going to judge you by. Having lots of typos and mistakes on your site will not be sending the right message to visitors, and may make them doubt that your products are services are a good value. If writing is not your strong suit, hire someone to help you! Writers, editors and proofreaders are easy to find online.

Your customers want to know that you are a real person who is available if you need them. You have to give people a form or e-mail address where they can contact you if they want. Rather than thinking about this as more work or trouble for you, think of how it can improve your image and how many sales you make. Providing a certain amount of personal service is necessary if you want more customers.

Offline businesses aren?t the only ones that need to pay attention to customer service. If you continually disappoint your customers with a poor standard of customer service, you will find that they never return to buy from you again. For online businesses too, excellent customer service can often spell the difference between success and failure. What policies have you started to keep your clients pleased with your service?

Writer is an author, small business owner and niche website builder. Furthermore of running multiple entities online which primarily focused on SEO, he also created wonderful websites on multiple subjects like understand the benefit of biometric security and eyewash station as well.

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• Traffic Generating Tips with E-mail Marketing Advancement has come in all fields including marketing. Now, sending messages is not a big problem, as the fast messaging service e-mail has taken the major role. You can send messages swiftly sitting at your home computer to anyone who is millions of miles away. This advancement has also influenced many business people to make money. Even traditional business people have started using the internet. While some have their full business under the control of internet, few have their marketing and finance department through internet. The business people have decided to market through e-mail marketing which is fast and easy...
• Professional Email Marketing The experience you have in business and the employees you have in your office is not alone behind your success. Your success is certified only when you choose the effective advertising method and promote your product. Before the computer domination, people chose some traditional method of advertising. But, the technological advancement has given way for online promotion....
• Follow Up Promoting with E-mail E-mail gives you an extremely efficient and cheap way of sending your message out to customers and clients. And the simplicity and the excellent value that you can achieve using email as your major follow-up method is unrivaled....
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Source: http://blog.onewaylinksite.com/some-tips-to-provide-a-better-customer-service-experience-for-your-online-clientele/

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Obama says announcement on trade coming soon (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama said the White House will have an announcement "in the next day or so" on sending three free trade agreements to Congress, a move that would put the deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama on a path toward final passage after years of delay.

Separately, an official familiar with the discussions said the White House was expected to send the trade deals to lawmakers Monday afternoon.

Obama has made the trade pacts a centerpiece of his economic agenda. He's repeatedly said the agreements would support tens of thousands of jobs and boost U.S. exports.

Trade is a rare issue on which the White House and congressional Republicans agree on policy objectives. But the two sides have been stuck in procedural fights for months, delaying implementation of the agreements.

The White House had held off sending Congress the final legislation until the Senate approved an assistance package to train workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition. The Senate eventually passed the Trade Adjustment Assistance package last month, in coordination with the White House.

The assistance package is yet to pass the House, though Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has pledged to take up the bill in tandem with the three trade agreements. Boehner has said all four could be finalized by mid-October.

The White House is hoping to show significant progress on final passage by the time South Korea's president arrives at the White House for a state dinner on Oct. 13. The South Korea deal is by far the largest of the agreements, and the administration says it could support up to 70,000 jobs.

The official familiar with the discussions spoke on the condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has not been made.

The U.S. signed the trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia in 2007 under President George W. Bush. But the Democratic-controlled Congress never brought the agreements up for a vote, giving the next administration of Barack Obama time to renegotiate areas it found objectionable.

U.S. trade officials spent months negotiating outstanding issues on the pacts, reaching an agreement with South Korea in December. The pact would boost U.S. exports by $11 billion a year, according to the administration.

Deals were struck this past spring with Panama, one of Latin America's fastest-growing economies, and Colombia. The administration says a final pact with Colombia will boost U.S. exports by more than $1 billion per year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111003/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_trade

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Laws against Cyber Bullying | Security World News

Number of View: 8

?Over the last few years, a couple of states have passed firm cyber bullying legislations which have been specially formulated to safeguard kids from being intimidated, terrorized and humiliated on the web. These legislations represent a critical move towards nationwide anti-cyber harassment legislations that will safeguard kids of all ages despite their social or financial statues from cyberspace bullying.

?The following are some of the laws enacted by a number of states so as to protect children from cyber bullying:

?The State of Arkansas

?In the year 2007, the State of Arkansas passed legislations permitting school authorities to take stern actions against cyberspace bullying even though the bullying was not instigated or took place within the school?s property. The decree gave school officials much more flexibility and room to bring to book those people that sought to bully their fellow colleagues.

The State of Idaho

?In 2006, the law makers in the State of Idaho passed a by-lay which permitted school administrators to suspend students that participate in cyber bullying (i.e. internet and telephone).

?The State of Iowa

?The State of Iowa passed a couple of rulings that compelled schools to form anti-cyber bullying strategies that address bullying within a school setting.

?The State of New Jersey

?The State of New Jersey has always been recognized for its stern laws against bullying. However, it was not until the year 2007 that the legislations were revised to add bullying through ?electronic communication?. These bylaws gave extra power to school administration to implement bullying-related retribution for actions which cannot take place whilst in the school?s premises.

?The State of Oregon

?The State of Oregon actually digs deeper into the facts of cyberspace bullying. The by-laws enacted in the past few years in Oregon extend the barriers of what makes up online bullying to incorporate those actions that ?significantly affect? the education of young children.

?The State of Missouri

?After a 13 year old student, Mega Meier, committed suicide as a result of cyberspace bullying, there was an increased awareness of internet bullying and its punishment in the State of Missouri. The governor of Missouri went as far as creating a special task force that was charged with studying and formulating bylaws in respect to cyber bullying. Due to this, the Internet Harassment Task Force has set precedence for other states. In addition, the State of Missouri has strengthened the laws on the issue, elevating cyber-bullying from a misdemeanor to a class crime.

?The State of New York

?The State of New York formed a system to examine allegations of cyber bullying which would assist the police and the school authorities better determine the circumstances of every occurrence as well as bring to book the offenders to fullest extent of the law.

?The State of Rhode Island

?Currently, the governor of Rhode Island is in the process of attempting to enact a bill which would compel repeat cyberspace bullying culprits to come before a family court judge, where they would face charges as criminals.

Source: http://www.securityworldnews.com/2011/10/01/laws-against-cyber-bullying/

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Idris Elba would love to be the next James Bond (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? You love him as British cop "Luther," you loved him as the thinking man's drug kingpin Stringer Bell on "The Wire," and Idris Elba hopes one day you'll love him as the post-Daniel Craig James Bond.

Asked in an interview with National Public Radio if he'd be interested in the role, the Emmy-nominated "Luther" star said he would be -- but only if he's not known as the "black Bond."

"I'd definitely consider it," Elba said. "I just don't want to be the black James Bond. Sean Connery wasn't the Scottish James Bond, and Daniel Craig wasn't the blue-eyed James Bond, so if I played him, I don't want to be called the black James Bond."

NPR interviewer Linda Wertheimer then tried to elicit a more committed response from Elba, asking if he'd jump into a cab if Sony called and asked him to come to a meeting about a potential 007 movie.

"I'd not only get in the cab, but I'd take the taxi driver out of the car, hostage," he said. "The taxi, jump out while it was moving, jump onto a pedal bike that was just past the door as I got on it, and then get onto a plane -- on the wing -- land on top of Sony Studios, slide through the air conditioning, and land in the office."

And that's why he should be the next James Bond.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110930/film_nm/us_idriselba

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It Is Extremely Important To Choose The Very Best Domain Name ...

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One of the best things you can do when starting up an Internet business is to ensure that you get the best domain name possible. For people who are new to this, the domain name is precisely what you enter into your Internet browser to go to a particular website, like google.com. Should you be beginning an online business and you need a website selecting the domain that will match the niche you are entering is crucial. Picking a really good domain name definitely can mean the particular difference between success and failure.On the subject of choosing a domain you will also need to make sure you are choosing the appropriate extension. The extensions are the letters that come right after the actual domain name like .com, .net, .info and so on. What you are going to recognize would be that the .com extension is the extension that most folks want because it looks more professional. A primary reason is simply because that is what most folks will use when typing in a website. So if you own weightloss.net and someone wants to go to your site, they will most likely end up typing in weightloss.com and they're going to be going to a different website that is not yours. This really is essential, so when you acquire your domain you must make sure that the domain name you get ends with .com.Another thing you must think about would be the actual domain name for your website. Let's just say you're offering widgets, you will not want a domain name such as findthecheapestwidgetsonline.com, this is something that no one is going to want to type into their Internet browser. But you will quickly realize something like lowcostwidgets.com is a domain name that can present you with traffic. This is a domain name that men and women will remember and have absolutely no problem typing into their Internet browsers. You need to keep the domain name as very simple as achievable.Something else that is vital to keep in mind is that you want your domain name to focus on your niche. This means that when you're going to become involved in widgets the domain name that you decide on should at least have the word widget inside it. Furthermore do a little keyword research to see if there are a lot of men and women looking for "cheap widgets". If you discover that lots of people are really searching for that keyword phrase try to get the domain cheapwidgets.com. You could already understand this, but making use of a method like this to get your domain name will really help you to get ranking for that term.Some men and women know that they must try to get a keyword targeted domain name, nevertheless they will still wind up picking a different domain name just because it may sound cooler. Once more if you are marketing widgets and you discover that hiphop.com is available, don't choose that for your domain name. It is really vital that what ever domain name you decide upon will actually go with whatever niche you're in.Now that you have read this article you should recognize the value of choosing the best domain name for your Internet business and the niche that you are going into. If for what ever reason you don't follow the recommendations above you are going to find that getting traffic from the search engines is something that will end up being very hard for you.

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You May Not Comprehend This But The Right Domain Is Important To Your Suc

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Submitted 2011-10-01 07:42:44 Article From Article Mayhem

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A Dictionary of Science (Oxford Paperback Reference) eBook PDF ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A Dictionary of Science (Oxford Paperback Reference)

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Chinese dissident establishes web school (AP)

TAIPEI, Taiwan ? A prominent Chinese dissident has established a school on the Internet to educate young Chinese on democracy, hoping they may one day help institute political changes in China.

At an opening ceremony in Taipei on Saturday, Wang Dan said the "New School for Democracy" will invite leading political scientists to give lectures and engage in "preparatory work for China's democracy."

Wang said Chinese authorities no doubt will block access to the school on the mainland, but he believed the facility can reach out to the tens of thousands of Chinese studying abroad.

The political changes sweeping the Arab world "have proved that social media and the Internet will be an important medium for democratization," Wang said.

Wang was among a number of student leaders behind the 1989 democracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Following a bloody crackdown on the movement, he went into exile and has since been banned from returning to China.

"The Chinese Communists have full control over the country's political and economic resources," the New School for Democracy said on its website.

"China's road to democracy will be long and difficult," it said.

Wang currently lives in Taiwan, and has taught political science at National Tsing Hua University.

___

Online:

New School for Democracy: http://www.NS4D.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111001/ap_on_re_as/as_taiwan_chinese_dissident

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