Private Investigator in West Palm Beach Now Offers Child Support Investigations Services to Help Track Down Dead Beat Parents and Collect Back Child Support

South Florida Private Investigators Inc in West Palm Beach, Florida now offers new services, which includes back child support investigations, including employment searches and asset, bank searches to find dead beat parents.

West Palm Beach, FL (PRWEB) January 01, 2013
South Florida Private Investigators Inc now offers full background checks, asset, bank searches, and full child support investigations in securing back child support owed, employment searches, and collection of back child support.
Private Investigator in West Palm Beach, Florida has many tricks to find dead beat parents in relation to collecting back child support. South Florida Private Investigators offers a new service in which the most high tech resources are used to find dead beat parents. Whether the subject is being employed by family members, getting paid under the table, or simply living off the government, South Florida Private Investigators can open a case and get the results needed at an affordable price.
South Florida Private Investigators Inc offers new services and affordable prices. Many new services include pre employment checks, bug sweeps, infidelity surveillance, background checks, and GPS vehicle surveillance. South Florida Private Investigators serves the Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Boca Raton, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach area.
John Bairunas is the Lead Investigator at South Florida Private Investigators Inc. Author John Bairunas discusses many ways fraud is on the rise in South Florida and tips on how to prevent infidelity, ripoffs, and scams

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Sector Glass Shower Enclosures by DreamLine, SHEN-7031316 and SHEN-7035356 are the Newest Addition to Warehouse USA’s Inventory

The Sector shower enclosures are the newest in style enclosures based on a half-circle shape that have been introduced to Warehouse USA’s inventory.

Aiken, SC (PRWEB) December 31, 2012
The Sector line of shower enclosures by DreamLine compliments the shapes and sizes of shower enclosures already in Warehouse USA’s inventory. The Sector enclosures are designed to be installed in a corner against finished walls; they are crafted from 1/4” tampered glass. The enclosures come in two sizes with three types of glass: clear, frosted, and “rain glass”. The “rain glass” is the newest type of glass introduced by DreamLine; it is semi-transparent with a textured surface on one side. The Sector enclosure is based on a half-circle shape surrounded by an anodized aluminum frame with polished chrome finish. It consists of two stationary panels mounted on both sides adjacent to the walls, and the door (in the middle of the enclosure) is made of two molded pieces that swing open to the sides. The door is sealed with a magnetic door latch running the full length of the door’s edge. The enclosure is 72 7/8” tall, including the frame.
The Sector enclosures come in two sizes:

SHEN-7031316-01 with clear glass (SHEN-7031316-01-FR frosted glass, and SHEN-7031316-01-RN rain glass) is designed to enclose walls (from the inside corner) 30 3/4” x 30 3/4”. Each stationary panel is 8 5/8” wide; when the door is fully opened it leaves a 16 1/2” walk-in opening. This enclosure can be installed on a corresponding DreamLine white acrylic shower base: model SHTR-7032320-00.
    SHEN-7035356-01 with clear glass (SHEN-7035356-01-FR frosted glass, and SHEN-7035356-01-RN rain glass) is designed to enclose walls (from the inside corner) 34 3/4” x 34 3/4”. Each stationary panel is 16 1/2” wide; when the door is fully opened it leaves a 21 1/4” walk-in opening. This enclosure can be installed on a corresponding DreamLine white acrylic shower base: model SHTR-7036360-00.
DreamLine Sector shower enclosures are now available at Warehouse USA – http://warehouse-usa.com. They are on sale with free shipping throughout 48 contiguous states. For more technical information or if in doubt, please do not hesitate to call 888-693-8066.

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Dr. Lou’s 2013 Weight Loss and Fitness Challenge Pays Cash To Get In Shape

Portland, ME chiropractor offers a chance to win big while losing big

Portland, ME (PRWEB) January 01, 2013
Lose Weight, Get Paid. What a perfect way to start off the New Year. For those who made a resolution to trim off that extra weight, Portland, ME chiropractor and acupuncture specialist, Dr. Lou Jacobs is offering all the support you need as well as the extra incentive to win big and help out those in need. It’s win-win all the way around.
For the past six years Dr. Lou’s Weight Loss Challenge has helped hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds. In 2013 participants will pay $50 to enter. Of that $50, $15 will go toward classes and diagnostics. $5 of every entry fee will be donated to The Center for Grieving Children. The other $30 will be put toward the winnings. The cost will rise $5/day after January 1, and all additional fees will be given back to the winner(s). There are three categories. Greatest percentage of original body weight lost, greatest transformation, and new for 2013, the family category. In 2012 a family of four that participated lost a total of 180 lbs and under the guidance of their medical doctors, they were able to come off all of their medications. Previous winners have used the money won for down payments on cars, vacations and a host of other fun things. There is no limit to the amount of prize money that can be won; the final amount is determined by the number of entries.
In order to help people in their pursuits, several supportive meetings are held each month for participants and their guests. Topics include nutrition, exercise, and personal improvement. Meetings are facilitated by a licensed professional in the particular field. The challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to March 31, 2013.
The sixth annual “Dr. Lou’s Weight Loss Challenge” motivates, educates, inspires and holds people accountable for their weight loss and fitness. Last year, hundreds of pounds were lost among the top 5 participants alone. Sixty percent of Maine residents are considered overweight or obese. Obesity is linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and a host of other painful and expensive health problems. Maine’s healthcare system is crumbling, we are first in the country for addiction to pain killers and most of Maine’s healthcare financial burdens are due to preventable disease that are directly related to weight.
Dr. Lou’s 2013 Weight Loss Challenge is poised to help individuals, the community and the state economy!
Details:
$50 Cash or Check

*Shorts or bathing suits recommended for weigh in pictures
Weigh-in

January 1, 2013 from 8 am -12 noon

January 2,3,7,8 from 9-1 and 3-6
Weigh out

March 31, 2013
Location:

138 St. John Street

Portland, Maine 04102
For more information

Dr. Lou Jacobs

Office: (207) 774-6251

Email: drj(at)drloujacobs(dot)com
About Dr. Lou Jacob’s Chiropractic & Acupuncture: Dr. Lou Jacobs is a licensed chiropractor in Portland, ME with an additional specialization in acupuncture treatments. Jacobs Chiropractic Acupuncture helps patients treat chronic pain, various injuries, headaches, and more.

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OverallHealth.org Presents a Detailed Review of Popular Fat Burning Supplement, RealDose Weight Loss Formula No. 1

By removing all four fat burning hormonal barriers, RealDose Weight Loss Formula No. 1 helps the human body burn more fat. This is the claim of RealDose Nutrition regarding their popular weight loss supplement, and today, http://OverallHealth.org releases a revealing product review.

(PRWEB) January 01, 2013
Weight loss and fat burn remain one of the top consumer products in today's retail market, likely because of the emphasis this culture places on image. The result has been a flood of weight loss supplementation onto the market, which makes a purchase decision all the more difficult for sincere weight loss discerners. OverallHealth.org goes over the RealDose Nutrition weight loss supplement, Weight Loss Formula No. 1, with a fine tooth comb, in a review released today.
Summarily, the RealDose supplement unlocks the body's natural fat burning potential by acting upon the hormones that normally prompt weight gain. The result is that real people in RealDose Nutrition's double-blind clinical studies are losing more than twice the amount of weight versus placebo when following the exact same diet plan.
In fact, two separate ingredients in this formula are both proven in human double blind studies to double weight loss, and RealDose has effectively combined them together with a third component, also effective even by itself. For more information about the ingredients and effectiveness, OverallHealth.org has made a detailed review available here.
Further, weight loss seekers also want to know that a product is safe. RealDose Weight Loss Formula No. 1 is stimulant-free, decaffeinated, and non-addictive. It can be taken with any meal plan and weight loss program, without conflict. Finally, it contains only natural ingredients - no GMO, gluten, dairy, eggs, or soy.
It is important to understand what makes the RealDose forumla effective, in contrast to the myriad "gimmicky" and incomplete products burdening the retail shelves these days. To this ends, OverallHealth.org emphasizes a visit to its website for the RealDose Weight Loss Formula No. 1 review.
Here's the RealDose website link, where plenty of information on the product is available.
OverallHealth.org is a free-spirited site where author and chief editor Henry Rearden enjoys profiling and reviewing fresh – sometimes trendy - new products to hit the health market. Anything in the periphery of health and well-being is fair game for Henry to pull off the shelf for a look-see!

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New Dental Marketing Packages From IDA are Field-Tested By Practicing Dentists

The new dental marketing packages from Internet Dental Alliance, Inc. (IDA) include targeted websites and internal training that have been tested by practicing dentists.

(PRWEB) January 01, 2013
These days, plenty of web marketing companies claim to build websites for dentists. But there's a big difference between those websites and the new dental marketing packages developed by Internet Dental Alliance, Inc. (IDA). The IDA New Patient Marketing Machine™ includes dental websites and other tools that have been successfully field-tested over the past decade by practicing dentists throughout North America.
"My Internet Dental Alliance marketing program is extremely effective and cost efficient. We are currently averaging approximately 20 new patients per month via the website," says Missouri dentist
Dr. Mark Mancin. "The only other form of marketing in my practice that is more effective is my direct referral program for my existing patient base."
IDA takes this kind of feedback seriously, so there's a bonus referral marketing tutorial included in the multi-site versions of its New Patient Marketing Machine™. The tutorial helps dentists train their front desk team how to ask existing patients to refer their friends and family. It provides phone scripts and three videos that role play successful interactions.
According to Jim Du Molin, founder of Internet Dental Alliance, Inc. and a dental marketing expert with 25 years of consulting experience, some dentists can lose up to half of their new patient prospects as a result of poorly trained front desk staff. Therefore, one of the most effective ways to increase cases is to invest time in training that team.
“We designed IDA Portals, or dental websites, to generate leads and encourage new patients to contact the dental office," says Jim Du Molin, founder of Internet Dental Alliance and a dental marketing expert. "IDA's New Patient Marketing Machine™ goes one step further and includes training for the front desk team to convert those leads into new dental patients."
For more information about IDA's New Patient Marketing Machine™ packages, visit http://InternetDentalAlliance.com/
About Internet Dental Alliance, Inc.
IDA is the largest provider of dental directories, websites for dentists and online dental marketing tools in North America. In 2012, it completed its unique Lead Fire lead generation system, which automates dental SEO and content marketing. LeadFire technology allows doctors to begin generating new patient leads within minutes of set up. It uses organic geo-targeted local search which is customized and optimized for each dental office. The Internet Dental Alliance provides dental practices with internet dental marketing services such as dental website design and other dental management advice and resources.

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Syria to discuss Brahimi peace proposals with Russia

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss proposals to end the conflict convulsing his country made by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.
Brahimi, who saw Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents in Damascus this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power, but has disclosed little about how this might be done.
More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests but which has descended into civil war.
Past peace efforts have floundered, with world powers divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad flew to Moscow to discuss the details of the talks with Brahimi, said a Syrian security source, who would not say if a deal was in the works.
However, a Lebanese official close to Damascus said Makdad had been sent to seek Russian advice on a possible agreement.
He said Syrian officials were upbeat after talks with Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, who met Foreign Minister Walid Moualem on Tuesday a day after his session with Assad, but who has not outlined his ideas in public.
"There is a new mood now and something good is happening," the official said, asking not to be named. He gave no details.
Russia, which has given Assad diplomatic and military aid to help him weather the 21-month-old uprising, has said it is not protecting him, but has fiercely criticized any foreign backing for rebels and, with China, has blocked U.N. Security Council action on Syria.
"ASSAD CANNOT STAY"
A Russian Foreign Ministry source said Makdad and an aide would meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, on Thursday, but did not disclose the nature of the talks.
On Saturday, Lavrov said Syria's civil war had reached a stalemate, saying international efforts to get Assad to quit would fail. Bogdanov had earlier acknowledged that Syrian rebels were gaining ground and might win.
Given the scale of the bloodshed and destruction, Assad's opponents insist the Syrian president must go.
Moaz Alkhatib, head of the internationally-recognized Syrian National Coalition opposition, has criticized any notion of a transitional government in which Assad would stay on as a figurehead president stripped of real powers.
Comments on Alkhatib's Facebook page on Monday suggested that the opposition believed this was one of Brahimi's ideas.
"The government and its president cannot stay in power, with or without their powers," Alkhatib wrote, saying his Coalition had told Brahimi it rejected any such solution.
While Brahimi was working to bridge the vast gaps between Assad and his foes, fighting raged across the country and a senior Syrian military officer defected to the rebels.
Syrian army shelling killed about 20 people, at least eight of them children, in the northern province of Raqqa, a video posted by opposition campaigners showed.
The video, published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, showed rows of blood-stained bodies laid out on blankets. The sound of crying relatives could be heard in the background.
The shelling hit the province's al-Qahtania village, but it was unclear when the attack had occurred.
STRATEGIC BASE
Rebels relaunched their assault on the Wadi Deif military base in the northwestern province of Idlib, in a battle for a major army compound and fuel storage and distribution point.
Activist Ahmed Kaddour said rebels were firing mortars and had attacked the base with a vehicle rigged with explosives.
The British-based Observatory, which uses a network of contacts in Syria to monitor the conflict, said a rebel commander was among several people killed in Wednesday's fighting, which it said was among the heaviest for months.
The military used artillery and air strikes to try to hold back rebels assaulting Wadi Deif and the town of Morek in Hama province further south. In one air raid, several rockets fell near a field hospital in the town of Saraqeb, in Idlib province, wounding several people, the Observatory said.
As violence has intensified in recent weeks, daily death tolls have climbed. The Observatory reported at least 190 had been killed across the country on Tuesday alone.
The head of Syria's military police changed sides and declared allegiance to the anti-Assad revolt.
"I am General Abdelaziz Jassim al-Shalal, head of the military police. I have defected because of the deviation of the army from its primary duty of protecting the country and its transformation into gangs of killing and destruction," the officer said in a video published on YouTube.
A Syrian security source confirmed the defection, but said Shalal was near retirement and had only defected to "play hero".
Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar left Lebanon for Damascus after being treated in Beirut for wounds sustained in a rebel bomb attack this month.

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Tunisia seeks gold in former dictator's assets

On a crisp December morning in Tunis, a finance ministry official named Mohamed Hamaied was demonstrating the horsepower of maroon V-12 BMW on the runway of a national guard airfield. Beside him sat an agent for a potential buyer.
“You know, this is the same runway that Ben Ali fled from,” remarked another passenger, automotive expert Mourad Bouzidi, from the back seat.
The BMW is among the seized possessions of deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his inner circle that the government is selling to help fill depleted treasury coffers. But the sale of regime assets, which are often hard to track down and obtain, is not going to be enough. Long-term prosperity needs real reforms.
In Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, the fall of dictators has triggered a scramble for cash as new governments struggle to restore stability amid high expectations and damaged economies.
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In Tunisia, high unemployment has fueled labor strikes and rioting, which in turn provoke political squabbling. Last month, clashes in the rural town of Siliana between stone-throwing protestors and police – who fired birdshot – prompted some opposition politicians to demand Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali’s resignation.
Economic woes stem partly from last year’s revolution, which spooked tourists and foreign investors while the eurozone crisis hobbled key trading partners. But the roots of trouble go deeper, to a regime that spent years neglecting rural regions and letting unemployment rise while amassing great wealth for itself.
“Seemingly half of the Tunisian business community can claim a Ben Ali connection through marriage,” wrote then-US Ambassador Robert F. Godec in a June 2008 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, describing an extended family seen as “the nexus of Tunisian corruption.”
TIGERS AND FRENCH ICE CREAM
A year later, Mr. Godec got a taste of regime opulence when Ben Ali’s son-in-law and heir-apparent, Sakher El Materi, invited him for dinner at his seaside villa. Godec’s July 2009 cable notes an infinity pool, ice cream flown in from St. Tropez, and a pet tiger named Pasha.
Ben Ali and most of his family fled Tunisia in January 2011 as protests brought down his regime. Two months later, then-interim president Fouad Embazaa ordered the seizure of assets belonging to 114 top regime figures, including Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi.
It’s unclear how much the assets – from cars, yachts, and palaces to major stakes in Tunisian companies – are worth. One estimate last September by a government commission put their total value at around $13 billion.
Think you know Middle East? Take our geography quiz.
Ben Ali’s personal wealth is even harder to gauge, with most of his assets believed to be stashed abroad, says acting finance minister Slim Besbes. Many countries that froze his assets last year have been slow to unfreeze them – the European Union only did so last month – while other legal challenges remain.
The two largest known concentrations of Ben Ali wealth outside Tunisia are around $65 million in Switzerland and $28 million in an account under Mrs. Trabelsi’s name at Lebanon’s central bank, says Mr. Besbes. But while governments are cooperating, Ben Ali and his family's lawyers are fighting back.
Ben Ali’s Beirut-based lawyer, Akram Azoury, argues that a March 2011 seizure of his client's assets was illegal and says Ben Ali has no assets in his name outside Tunisia. Those in the country “are limited, to my knowledge, to his personal residence and a bank account whose value I cannot estimate, contrary to what Tunisian authorities have told the public,” he said by e-mail.
BIG NEEDS
Meanwhile, Tunisia relies heavily on foreign money. Last month it borrowed $500 million each from the World Bank and African Development Bank.
The government has also begun liquidating regime assets: 1.2 billion dinar ($776 million) generated from asset sales helped pay for a 2.5 billion dinar ($1.6 billion) increase in this year’s budget.
Latest on the block are thousands of personal items, including cars, jewelry, and fine art, which went on sale this week at a ritzy hotel near Tunis. To oversee things, the finance ministry tapped Mr. Hamaied, an old hand in commerce.
One morning earlier this month, Hamaied and Mr. Bouzidi, the car expert, were at the national guard facility in Tunisia, giving a preview of cars to the buyer’s agent. There was Ben Ali’s Maybach town car, with massage seats in back, a mini-fridge stocked with Evian, and a yard of leg room. Nearby was a black Aston Martin bearing a small plaque that read, “Handbuilt in England for Sakher El Materi.”
The scout was drawn to the BMW, seized from a Trabelsi. Hamaied popped the hood so he could photograph the big V-12 engine. The odometer showed 2,587 kilometers (about 1,600 miles).
“They’re all like that; these cars didn’t roll much – just between La Marsa and Hammamet,” Hamaied said, naming chic beachside towns near Tunis. Then he proposed a test drive. The men got in, Hamaied gunned the engine, and the BMW tore down the runway as the needle shot to 100 kilometers per hour (about 60 miles per hour).
Authorities hope the sale, which will last at least a month, will generate about $13 million. The government says the proceeds will be spent on development projects.
Ultimately, however, Tunisia has more work ahead to revitalize the economy, says Antonio Nucifora, lead economist on Tunisia for the World Bank. It must reform laws such as those governing foreign investment and labor, cut red tape, and combat a lingering penchant for cronyism.
“At present it is connections that make the system work,” he says. “They need to change from a system based on privileges and connections to one based on merit and competition.

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Russia's adoption ban exposes political rift

Russia's upper house of parliament today unanimously approved a ban on US citizens adopting Russian children, a highly charged move that appears to have prompted an unusual public split among government officials.
The Dima Yakovlev bill, named after one of 19 Russian children to die due to abuse or negligence at the hands of adoptive US parents in the past two decades, now goes to the Kremlin for President Vladimir Putin’s consideration. In his only comments so far on the anti-adoption measure, Mr. Putin said last week that it was "emotional but adequate," which is widely seen as an indication that he will sign it into law.
The legislation was originally framed as a tit-for-tat response to the Magnitsky Act, a US measure signed into law by President Barack Obama earlier this month that aims to punish officials connected to the 2009 prison death of Russian whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. But the Russian legislation has been amended beyond recognition by hardline lawmakers and now looks like a shotgun law to punish US citizens who become involved in almost any kind of non-business activity in Russia.
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Many experts think that Putin may yet act as the "voice of reason" and strip the ban on adoption out of the bill before he signs it.
"This whole discussion over the adoption ban has served the purpose of shifting public attention from the corrupt Russian officials targeted under the US Magnitsky Act to the problems of orphans and the dangers they face in foreign homes," says Nikolai Petrov, an expert with the Moscow Carnegie Center.
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"It's perfectly possible that Putin will ultimately adjust the adoption ban, but leave in place many of the other tough measures in this bill that haven't gotten much attention," Mr. Petrov says. Those measures include even harsher restrictions that would prevent any US passport holder from holding a leadership post in any Russian organization that is deemed by authorities to engage in politics.
The adoption ban has also become the focus of controversy and prompted a rare government split inside Russia. This week a liberal radio station leaked news of a memo by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets warning that the proposed ban would violate Russian law and at least two treaties that Russia is party to. It would also overturn a bilateral accord on adoptions, negotiated between the United States and Russia, which came into force last month.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Education Minister Dmitry Livanov have also spoken out against the anti-adoption bill. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, voiced annoyance that the government’s internal disagreements were being aired in public, but still signaled support for the measure.
"Learning about official correspondence from the media is not always pleasant," Mr. Peskov told the Kommersant FM radio station yesterday. But "it would be a mistake to think that there is staunch opposition to the bill within government. On the contrary, there are many arguments in favor of it," he said.
Many Russians believe it is a national shame that thousands of children are adopted by foreigners each year. According to a public opinion survey published this week by the state-run Public Opinion Fund, 56 percent of Russians support the proposed adoption ban, while just 21 percent oppose it.
Pavel Astakhov, the Kremlin's children's rights ombudsman and a strong supporter of the ban, said in a letter to Putin published today that Russia could simply pull out of the bilateral agreement with the US and that the move would violate no Russian laws.
Meanwhile, about 130,000 Russians have signed a petition at the website of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta asking the Kremlin to scrap the proposed ban.
In a sign that the ill will generated by the issue might snowball further, a petition posted at the White House's website, signed by over 54,000 Russians and Americans, urges President Obama to expand the so-called Magnitsky List by adding the names of all the Russian lawmakers in the two chambers who voted for the adoption ban. About 7,000 signed a petition calling for Obama to add Putin's name to the list.
Over the past two decades, about 60,000 Russian children have been adopted by US families. Of those, at least 19 died due to parental abuse or neglect. Each one of those cases ignited a firestorm of public outrage in Russia, and led to two suspensions of all foreign adoptions.
It also led to several efforts to tighten up Russia's once-lax foreign adoption process. Today, prospective parents are no longer able to arrange an adoption on their own, but must work through heavily regulated and fully accredited agencies, says Alyona Senkevich, a representative of Hand-in-Hand, one of fewer than 40 US-based adoption agencies still accredited to work in Russia.
"It's heartbreaking to think that we just signed the bilateral adoption agreement. . .. The main impact of this law (if Putin signs it) would be to strip Russian orphans of the right to be adopted abroad,” she says. “They will become the victims of political games."
Under Russian law, a child is not eligible for foreign adoption until the child has been rejected at least three times by prospective Russian adoptive parents— which usually happens for health reasons.
Albert Likhanov, president of the non-governmental Russian Children's Fund, says that the proposed ban would result in the approximately 1,000 orphans adopted each year by US families to be institutionalized instead of ending up in loving homes.
"I fully understand the wish of many Russians that our children would all be adequately cared for in Russia. But this is not the situation today, and a child cannot wait for everything to get stabilized," he says.
Mr. Likhanov said that Putin’s predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev, once pointed out that in 2008 alone there were 130,000 cases in Russia of violence against children and over 2,000 deaths.

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Iraq: New protests break out in Sunni stronghold

 Large, noisy demonstrations against Iraq's government flared for the third time in less than a week Wednesday in Iraq's western Anbar province, raising the prospect of a fresh bout of unrest in a onetime al-Qaida stronghold on Syria's doorstep.
The rallies find echoes in the Arab Spring. Protesters chanted "the people want the downfall of the regime," a slogan that has rippled across the region and was fulfilled in Tunisia and Egypt. Other rallying cries blasted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government as illegitimate and warned that protesters "will cut off any hand that touches us."
While the demonstrators' tenacious show of force could signal the start of a more populist Sunni opposition movement, it risks widening the deep and increasingly bitter rifts with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. If left unresolved, those disputes could lead to a new eruption of sectarian violence.
The car bombings and other indiscriminate attacks that still plague Iraq are primarily the work of Sunni extremists. Vast Anbar province was once the heart of the deadly Sunni insurgency that emerged after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and later the birthplace of a Sunni militia that helped American and Iraqi forces fight al-Qaida.
Today, al-Qaida is believed to be rebuilding in pockets of Anbar, and militants linked to it are thought to be helping Sunni rebels try to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The demonstrations follow the arrest last week of 10 bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, who comes from Anbar and is one of the central government's most senior Sunni officials. He appeared before Wednesday's rally and was held aloft by the crowds.
Al-Issawi's case is exacerbating tensions between the Shiite-dominated government that rose to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and Iraq's Sunnis, who see the detentions as politically motivated.
"The danger is that the revolution in Syria is perpetuating Sunni opportunism and overconfidence in Iraq," said Ramzy Mardini, an analyst at the Beirut-based Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies. "Al-Maliki may have sparked a Sunni tribal movement that will attempt to harness and capitalize on the revolutionary spirit," he said.
Protesters turned out Wednesday near the provincial capital Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad. The city and nearby Fallujah were the scenes of some of the deadliest fighting between U.S. troops and Iraqi insurgents.
Demonstrators blocked the main highway linking Baghdad with neighboring Jordan and Syria, just as they did at another protest Sunday.
Wednesday's protesters held banners demanding that Sunni rights be respected and calling for the release of Sunni prisoners in Iraqi jails. "We warn the government not to draw the country into sectarian conflict," read one. Another declared: "We are not a minority."
Al-Issawi, the finance minister, addressed the rally after arriving in a long convoy of black SUVs protected by heavily armed bodyguards. He condemned last week's raid on his office and rattled off a list of grievances aimed at al-Maliki's government.
"Injustice, marginalization, discrimination and double standards, as well as the politicization of the judiciary system and a lack of respect for partnership, the law and the constitution ... have all turned our neighborhoods in Baghdad into huge prisons surrounded by concrete blocks," he declared.
Large numbers of protesters also took to the streets in Samarra, a Sunni-dominated town 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to Salahuddin provincial spokesman Mohammed al-Asi.
Many Sunnis see the arrest of the finance minister's guards as the latest in a series of moves by the Shiite prime minister against their sect and other perceived political opponents.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, another top-ranking Sunni politician, is now living in exile in Turkey after being handed multiple death sentences for allegedly running death squads — a charge he dismisses as politically motivated.
Al-Maliki has defended the arrests of the finance minister's guards as legal and based on warrants issued by judicial authorities. He also recently warned against a return to sectarian strife in criticizing the responses of prominent Sunni officials to the detentions.
In a recent statement, the prime minister dismissed the rhetoric as political posturing ahead of provincial elections scheduled for April and warned his opponents not to forget the dark days of sectarian fighting "when we used to collect bodies and chopped heads from the streets."
Al-Maliki's spokesman, Ali al-Moussawi, criticized al-Issawi's participation in the protest Wednesday.
"He can't be in the government and use the street against it at the same time. If he can't shoulder his responsibilities then he has to step down so that another person can take over," he said.
The political tensions are rising at a sensitive time. Iraq's ailing President Jalal Talabani is incapacitated following a serious stroke last week and is being treated in a German hospital. The 79-year-old president, an ethnic Kurd, is widely seen as a unifying figure with the clout to mediate among the country's ethnic and sectarian groups.
Also Wednesday, the United Nations mission to Iraq said its monitors have determined that a hospital that treated a member of an Iranian exile group who died this week at a refugee camp near Baghdad did not consider his health condition serious enough to warrant hospitalization when he arrived for treatment in November.
An organization representing the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq exile group on Monday accused Iraqi authorities of preventing 56-year-old Behrooz Rahimian from being hospitalized, and alleged that the U.N. failed to take sufficient steps to intervene. Iraq considers the MEK a terrorist group and wants its members out of the country.

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NewsWatch features Hyatt Hotel and The Michael Mondavi Family's "Canvas Art of Wine" iPad App on AppWatch

NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “Canvas Art of Wine”, a new app by Hyatt Hotels and the Mondavi Family. The segment aired as part of “AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) December 26, 2012
NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “Canvas Art of Wine”, a new app by Hyatt Hotels and the Mondavi Family. The segment aired as part of “AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.
Hyatt Hotels and The Michael Mondavi Family teamed up to create Canvas Wines, the signature wine brand of the hotel chain. The app allows users to take photos of their travels, share experiences, and mail customized postcards to their friends and family.
The Canvas Art of Living Postcard app offers the ability to create digital and print postcards to share with family and friends. Users can capture everyday moments or special occasions with the Canvas Art of Living Postcard app!
To download the app, users should visit http://www.canvaswines.com/living or at their next stay at a Hyatt, order a glass of Canvas wine. When they receive the glass of wine, the Hyatt Hotel bartender will provide a coaster that will include a QR code. This code will automatically direct a mobile phone’s web browser to the Canvas Wines website. From the site, users can download the Canvas Art of Living app and start sharing their many travel and wine experiences!
Once users have downloaded the app from either the iTunes Store or Google Play, they can select one of the many postcard designs inspired by Canvas Wines, upload a photo from their smartphone or take a new photo, create their own personalized headline and custom message, then send the card. All finished postcards are automatically saved to a user’s personal gallery.

A user’s digital postcards can be shared via email, text message or on Facebook. Users can convert their digital postcard into a printed postcard to share with family and friends. This customized postcard will be printed and mailed for just $1.99.
For more information or to download the “Canvas Art of Living” app, go to Canvas Wines.
NewsWatch is a weekly 30-minute consumer oriented television show that airs on the ION Network Thursday mornings at 5:30am across the nation. NewsWatch regularly features top travel destinations, health tips, technology products, medical breakthroughs and entertainment news on the show. A recent addition to NewsWatch, AppWatch is a weekly segment that provides viewers app reviews and game reviews of the latest and hottest apps and games out on the market for iOS and Android devices. The show airs in 180 markets nationwide as well as all of the top 20 broadcast markets in the country, and is the preferred choice for Satellite Media Tour and Video News Release Distribution.

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