Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (IRIN) – Graduating from primary school was just a dream for Rohingya teenager Ali Tofik, who, until 2010, lived in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State, where access to education, particularly secondary education, is limited.

In recent decades, this ethnic and religious minority has been stripped of its citizenship and property rights by Myanmar’s military-dominated government, leading to human rights abuses and exploitation and resulting in mass exodus.

Some 200,000 fled to Bangladesh over the years, with smaller numbers to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere in the region by boat.

Now the 17-year-old is keen to get ahead, learning the Malay language with a group of younger students in the two-room Malaysian school. English, Malay, mathematics and science are taught on the second floor of a business block in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur.

“I would like to become a teacher so that I can help my people and I can teach them and talk with the international community,” explains Tofik, who fled Myanmar with his family a year ago.

The local NGO-sponsored school, established in 2009, is accessible to Rohingya, but remains a rarity in Malaysia, with fewer than a dozen similar schools nationwide. Officially, Rohingya children in Malaysia cannot study in government schools without birth certificates or any other official documents.

“Most of the young children are actually born in Malaysia but can’t attend the public schools because refugees do not have access to the Malaysian education system, including primary schools,” Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya, told IRIN.

Illiteracy among the Rohingya is estimated at around 80 percent, with a higher percentage among women, according to the latest available data.

Without a proper education and work permits, job opportunities are severely limited for Rohingya, Lewa said.

But she has also witnessed some improvement in Malaysia’s handling of arrivals by providing them with access to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) , as well as halting forcing them into unscrupulous hands along the Thai-Malaysian border.

According to UNHCR, there are some 30,000 ethnic Rohingya seeking asylum in Malaysia today, including 20,800 registered with the agency.

“Based on information gathered from the refugee communities, it is estimated that there are about 10,000 more asylum-seekers who have not yet been registered,” Yante Ismail, an external relations officer with the agency, explained.

At the Rohingya Society in Malaysia (RSM) , a community-based organization, deputy president Abdul Ghani and a small staff assist in registering asylum-seekers for UNHCR, which then determines their status.

It is a difficult process as most Rohingya arrivals are male and often seen by authorities as economic migrants.

But Ghani is quick to deny this. “Please don’t link Rohingyas to economic migrants. We Rohingya left our country because of harassment, because of torture, the confiscation of our land. That’s why we left our country to get protection from a third country. We ran away from the military regime’s harassment.”

Indeed, many at the RSM center tell of the struggle to earn enough to survive and feed their families in Myanmar.

“It’s impossible to maintain a peaceful family life, so I had to flee,” said one young man, awaiting an interview. “Nasaka [paramilitary] forces would order us to work at their camps. If we don’t go, they come to our houses during the night and take us. They lock us up in the stockade and beat us.”

For many new arrivals, assimilation into Malaysia’s Muslim-dominated culture is easier than in their former homeland, but until solid legislature is implemented for proper work permits, the refugees are in limbo, say aid workers.

According to UNHCR, those Rohingya who are working are in the informal sector, including irregular, low-paying menial work in construction, domestic positions, or in the local markets.

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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If you are going through a rough phase with respect to your credit condition, and you feel really hopeless about any lending agency, to provide you with Private Money Loans, then still it is a very realistic situation. You will be awarded with loan funds, depending on your selection of property. It is the item which is going to serve you with financial uplift and that of your private money lender. When we talk about credit then it means that is going to be something those hard money lenders and even nobody is going to touch and here they are. If you have a bankruptcy in the last 12 months or you are currently in a bankruptcy then nobody is going to get in such situation of making a deal with you. You got to be out of your bankruptcy and you got to be out of your bankruptcy for 12 months so that is one thing.

If you have judgments or collections nobody is going to touch that. So judgments and collections can attach to properties and so if the lender actually lends you private money loans, and you bought the property that all of sudden is going to attach and that has to be paid off before you can resell that property. To give you an example, let’s say you bought a property for $80,000 and somebody lent you money on that and you had a judgment for $20,000. Now there is $20,000 on the property that has to be paid before you resell it and that may be more money than you are planning on making in your profits. So you want to make sure that your collections and your judgments are paid if you are looking for a bad credit hard money loan.

In order to be eligible to get Private Money Loans, you need to be out of bankruptcy for more than 12 months. You want to make sure that you don’t have any collections. You want to make sure that you don’t have any judgments and you want to make sure that you haven’t had a foreclosure in the last 12 months. You want to make sure that you don’t have any IRS leans or anything like that. If you are working with the right companies that will be willing to lend to you even if your credit is terrible, your credit may be zero. See the important thing about these loans for bad credit is that they are looking at the value of the piece of property not based upon you.

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The battle to fill the top International Monetary Fund post vacated by the resignation of Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has apparently been reduced to a war between Europe and developing nations.

Mexico’s Central Bank Governor, Agustin Carstens, took the struggle to a higher level on Tuesday by seeking the vote of developing countries to counter the solid support enjoyed by French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde from European nations.

Even the U.S. is apparently siding with Europe’s choice in a tit-for-tat political arrangement to ensure Washington keeps its grip on the top spot at the World Bank and the number two post in IMF.

Carstens criticized European leaders for imposing Lagarde on the rest of the world. The governor said that if the selection of Strauss-Kahn’s replacement would be treated as “business as usual,” changes would never take place.

Carstens pointed out that although there was no final list of candidates yet for the IMF managing director post, Europe has made up its mind in backing Lagarde. The IMF will close application for the position on Friday.

Lagarde, however, is also courting the vote of developing nations despite being frontrunner of the race. She met with Indian officials as part of her world tour to seek their support for her candidacy. The French minister even promised to represent the needs of emerging economies by partly “becoming an Indian.”

Lagarde will next try to convince Chinese officials to back her up, based on her merit. Carstens is holding his global tour and plans to court the votes of Indian, Chinese and Japanese officials.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he agreed with Lagarde that the next IMF managing director should be picked based on merit and not geography. But he declined to indicate if India would support Lagarde or Carstens.

The IMF is expected to name Strauss-Kahn’s successor by the end of June. Another rival of Carstens and Lagarde for the position is South African former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States (AHN Sports) – The Pittsburgh Pirates had the second pick in the 2010 draft and went for a power arm. The Pirates had the first pick in the 2011 draft Monday and decided to stay the course.

Pittsburgh selected UCLA righthander Gerrit Cole, a 6-4, 220-pounder with a fastball that has registered as high as 102 miles per hour.

Pittsburgh took high school righthander Jameson Taillon with the second pick last season and spent $11.35 million in the span of a week last August to secure Taillon, second-round pick Stetson Allie and 16-year-old Mexican hurler Luis Heredia.

“It’s really a dream come true,” said Cole, who was interviewed on MLB Network. “You want to play Major League Baseball. Every kid grows up dreaming about that. The first time came around [in 2008], and it really wasn’t my time [to sign]. The second time is now. We have to take care of some business, but hopefully, things will work out.”

The Yankees took Cole with the No. 28 overall pick in 2008 before he opted to go to college. That decision did nothing but boost his stock.

“I think I’ve learned a lot of things,” Cole said. “You can’t really sum it all up in one sentence. There are a lot of different aspects of the game that I have fine-tuned. There are a lot of things that you learn and you really don’t expect to learn, and that’s not something that shows up in the box score or the statistics.”

The Pirates also strongly considered Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon and University of Virginia lefty Danny Hultzen, who went second to Seattle.

“Gerrit Cole has the size, strength, overall package of stuff and mentality to potentially develop into a top-of-the-rotation Major League starting pitcher,” said Pirates scouting director Greg Smith. “He has the potential for three-plus Major League pitches to complement his strong traits mentally, physically and personally.”

Cole finished his junior season 6-8 with a 3.31 ERA in 16 starts. Opponents hit .242 with 103 hits in 114 1/3 innings.

Cole is advised by Scott Boras and will have until Aug. 15 to come to an agreement with Pittsburgh. In two of the past three seasons, the Pirates have not been able to sign their first pick until the final hours of the negotiating period. If Cole doesn’t sign by mid-August, it’s unlikely he’ll begin his professional career until next spring.

Cole is the fourth Pirate selected first overall, joining Jeff King in 1986, Kris Benson in 1996 and Bryan Bullington in 2002.

After Hultzen went second, Arizona selected righthanded pitcher Trevor Bauer, Baltimore chose righthander Dylan Bundy and Kansas City selected Bubba Starling.

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Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN Sports) – Though the financially-troubled Dodgers are not formally for sale as of now, former Dodgers greats Steve Garvey and Orel Hershiser are forming an exploratory ownership group in the event the franchise is placed on the market.

Garvey, who reportedly conceived the idea of forming the group, approached Hershiser and the two launched the Garvey-Hershiser Group.

“We’ve always talked and communicated through the years,” Hershiser, 52, who has a vast background in baseball and is currently an ESPN analyst, told the Los Angeles Daily News. “He was a little more of a role model for me, the way he did things. I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ He’s been a good businessman.”

Hershiser, who after concluding his stellar playing career became a pitching coach for the Texas Rangers and then worked in their front office, added, “When he called and said he wanted me to be part of this group, I said, ‘Garv, I’d always be interested in helping and doing something like this that would be a lot of fun.’ We’re forming a group that’s investigating situations as they arise. That would be very interesting for me.”

Although excited of the possibility of becoming part of the ownership, Hershiser, who spent all but five of his 18 seasons with the Dodgers, is still backing team owner Frank McCourt.

Hershiser, recognized with the 1988 NL Cy Young after setting the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched at 59, met with Garvey and other possible investors in Los Angeles Friday, according to the Daily News.

The idea, according to Garvey, came after hearing Hershiser reminisce about his playing days with the Dodgers.

“I was just thinking to myself, we had so many similarities: the success of the team, rapport with fans, life after baseball,” Garvey told the newspaper. “I gave him a call. We had lunch. I told him he might be the perfect fit. He loves what our business plan is, and he’s talked about how he could make contributions. He’s a pretty smart guy, and he’s the type of person I think would be a great asset for us.”

The report also links Garvey to billionaire and part-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins Ron Burkle, as a possible partner.

Former Major League Baseball first baseman Garvey, 62, was part of the 1981 World Series champion Dodgers team. He was the 1974 NL MVP for the Dodgers and a 10-time All-Star over 19 seasons with the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

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When you are considering for Hard Money Loans Virginia for your assistance, then I think it is important to realize that you as a real estate investor and your hard money lender are really on the same grounds. Both of you are in search for good profit. You just have two different ways of getting there. The hard money lender has cash so he is looking to get a return on with as little effort as possible and with as much security as possible. If you are a real estate investor and you are trying to get hard money loans Virginia for getting high returns. Whether you have money or don’t have money you want to leverage someone else’s capital to get a high return but to do that you are going to have to find the investment vehicle and the investment vehicle is a single family house in need of repairs.

When it comes down to it a lot of real estate investors in Virginia are overpricing properties thinking that the property is worth more than it really is. When it comes down to hard money loans Virginia, then it isn’t going to make money as it is not going to be worthy of. I know a lot of hard money lenders, they collect evaluation, appraisals will be done on the property but that is not a profit center. No company is going to be able to survive based upon money that they collect because they have to pay it out especially if they have to pay fee of evaluation done on the property. I would say average fee on that is $500-550.

Usually you are going to pay somewhere between 500 and 750 dollars is what you are going to have to pay to get your property evaluated, and to determine a value that is going to a reasonable cost that you have to pay to determine the value. Now the interesting thing for hard money lenders in Virginia is one they get evaluation done. It is surprising when I talked to some of them about how many people disagree with the value, and most of people do not even realize the importance of having an evaluation for their own security, and for the purpose of good investment in future business.

Dallas, TX, United States (AHN Sports) – Vancouver business magnate Tom Gaglardi is expected to acquire the cash-strapped Dallas Stars, a source close to situation reported Friday.

Gaglardi will reportedly shell out around $250 million and at least 50 percent of lease to the American Airlines Arena in an effort to purchase the money-losing Stars.

However, the potential sale faces several requirements, including the approval by bankruptcy court of Fort Worth and the creditors of current owner Tom Hicks.

The Stars lost millions of dollars a year under Hicks, who also sold the Texas Rangers and shares of the Liverpool soccer club.

Still, the source added the structure of the deal nears completion and expected to be approved by the NHL in July.

The Stars, who missed the postseason for the third straight year, could benefit under new management after slightly improving their record to 42-29-11 during the 2010-2011 NHL season.

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You are just fed up of your job and want to make it big for earning profit. You are no more needed to show all of your financial documents including bank statements, tax return statements or bad credit scores. You are not dealing with conventional lenders but with Hard Money Lenders, and they don’t ask you for all of such things. They want you to make good choices of properties and then come to their places for private money loans. You can buy a brand new house with the money and even invest in old ones.

Even Hard Money Lenders provide you with Rehab Loans that are going to be used for buying old properties. Here are lots of good properties and especially houses in wholesale market. These houses are abandoned by the owners due to death or other factors, and they are available at a much discounted rate than the retail market. You can buy old properties and make lot of changes in it. There are so many people and even retail brokers who think of investing in old properties as a waste of time. They want to invest in something that is going to pay them instant money. But your hard money lenders provide you with Private Money Loans to get involved in rebuilding of making repairs of houses.

Everybody can invest in old houses but it requires an extra energy to build a team of good workers. You need to consider the fact that the work has to be started on immediate basis after getting loan funds. You have to consult your hard money lenders and work effectively for your profit earning. There is lot of things that needed to be considered at every point. There is a possibility of getting hard money loans for rehabbing and renovation. But you need to consider an important aspect as to understand everything about your life. Profit margin is comparatively very high in dealing with Private Money Loans as wholesale prices are really very low in many contexts. People get lots of interesting opportunities if they are actually following the instructions of their lenders and if they are going to play smartly for their own benefit.

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Obama administration considers reports that hackers in China tapped into the e-mail accounts of American government and military leaders to be a “serious” national security issue, a White House spokesman said Thursday.

On Wednesday, Internet giant Google reported that hackers based in Jinan, China had used phishing software to seek e-mail account information of top U.S. government and military officials. They also sought information on Chinese dissidents, journalists and South Korean government officials.

“We’re looking into these reports,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney. “We have no information that any official government accounts were accessed.”

He declined to give more detail about hackers into Google’s e-mail accounts, saying he would prefer to await results of an FBI investigation.

“The president is obviously aware of it,” Carney said.

Hundreds of e-mail accounts were reportedly compromised, including one belonging to a Cabinet-level government official.

Google said in a blog post that it has disrupted the phishing software and notified its customers who might have been affected.

The phishing programs typically try to trick e-mail customers into revealing their passwords so their accounts can be accessed by other persons.

It is uncertain how much information from U.S. government personnel might have been transferred to Google e-mail, or G-mail, accounts. Carney acknowledged that government officials use the Internet widely.

“We are definitely instructed that we need to conduct all of our work on official government accounts,” Carney said.

In addition, government agencies – such as the General Services Administration – increasingly uses G-mail to conduct business.

The Chinese government is denying that it sponsored the hacking.

Carney sidestepped the source of the e-mail infiltration by saying, “I’m not going to confirm anything about origins. The FBI is investigating it.”

Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement that the “Chinese government is firmly opposed to any cyber criminal activity, including hacking . . . [and] is ready to cooperate with the international community to combat against it.”

He also said that “any blame against China in this [latest incident] is groundless and with an ulterior motive.”

Nevertheless, Google traced the attack on its e-mail accounts to Lanxiang Vocational School in Jinan. The Chinese military often uses computer scientists trained at the school.

The same school was blamed for a cyber attack against Google in a separate incident last year. The incident prompted Google to transfer its Internet services for China to Hong Kong to put it out of reach of Chinese censors.

About the same time, Internet service provider Yahoo blamed Chinese hackers for attacking its e-mail service.

The Obama administration responded to the latest Google hacking incident Thursday on the same day the House Energy and Commerce Committee considered the possibility of a new federal law to improve Internet security.

A bill set to be introduced soon would require Internet companies to notify customers promptly when their personal data is hacked.

“Consumers have a right to know when their personal information has been compromised and companies have a responsibility to promptly alert them,” said Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that held the hearing Thursday.

Witnesses included officials from Sony Corp. and Alliance Data Systems Corporation’s Epsilon Data Management unit. Both companies have been victims of recent high-profile hacking attacks.

Millions of customers of the companies had their names, e-mail addresses and credit card numbers accessed by the hackers.

The lawmakers criticized the company executives for failing to adequately protect the private information and for not notifying their customers quickly about the security breaches.

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Atlantic City, NJ, United States (AHN Sports) – The Super Six has taken a toll on the gaudy records of the half dozen Super Middleweights that entered it.

Two of the fighters entered the Super Six with world titles, only to lose them.

Two fighters entered with undefeated records and lost their 0 in the loss column.

Carl Froch is the only fighter to lose both.

Froch lost a unanimous decision to Mikkel Kessler in Kessler’s home country of Denmark. The judges’ scorecards were all over the map, with one official seeing the bout as a two-point fight, while another had the margin of victory as wide as six points.

The fight was one of the most entertaining bouts of the Super Six to date, with both fighters actively attacking the other. Kessler and Froch both finished the night cut and bloodied, and both thought they’d done enough to win.

“I thought I did,” Froch said immediately after the fight. “I’ve got to be honest. I thought I had him hurt two or three times. I know I had him badly hurt three times, actually.”

“It was very close,” he continued, “but if this was in my hometown, the decision would have gone the other way…There will be a lot of people out there who say this was a robbery.”

More than 13 months later, Froch hasn’t softened his stance.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m an unbeaten fighter coming into this fight,” Froch said on a conference call for Saturday’s Super Six semifinal against Glen Johnson in Atlantic City. “I still consider myself unbeaten. That loss was maybe just a little injection or a kick in the (backside), whatever you want to call it, to get me back to where I was when I became champion.”

Froch lost his WBC Super Middleweight title in the fight, and also suffered the first blemish on his won-loss record.

Since that night last April, Froch has repaired half the damage. The WBC vacated the title when Kessler suffered an eye injury, and Froch’s win over Arthur Abraham in November put that belt back around his waist.

Evening the score on his first career loss will take a little longer, however.

“I’m WBC champ and everybody talks about my one loss, against Mikkel Kessler,” Froch said, “and 80 percent of the people don’t acknowledge it was a loss. The fight could have gone either way.”

Kesssler’s injury forced him to drop out of the Super Six, however. The man who replaced him is Froch’s opponent Saturday night–Glen Johnson.

“I think I’ll get my vengeance against Glen Johnson (instead of Kessler),” Froch said. “He’s a great fighter and a war horse, and I won’t disrespect him. He really knows what he’s doing, but I would have rather fought Kessler just purely for the revenge.”

“I’m a warrior myself. It’s a big thing for me to have lost that fight, because I’m serious about this business and that blemish on my record. I’d love to get that corrected before I retire. Someday, after I hang them up, I want to be able to say I lost that decision to Kessler, but I won it back. I’ve avenged that defeat.”

In the meantime, Froch will have to console himself with a chance to win the inaugural Super Six tournament.

“The final person to hold the Super Six Cup will have withstood the test of time,” Froch said.

Winning that would more than make up for everything Froch has lost since the start of the tournament.

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