Europe backs Monti reforms as Italy crisis hits markets

ROME (Reuters) - European partners urged the next Italian government on Monday to stick to Prime Minister Mario Monti's reform agenda, after his decision to resign early and Silvio Berlusconi's return to frontline politics rattled financial markets.

Monti's surprise weekend announcement that he would quit because Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party had withdrawn its support for his technocrat government pushed up Italy's borrowing costs and prompted a stock market sell-off.

The campaign for an election expected in February is likely to be fought over Monti's reform agenda which Berlusconi, his predecessor as prime minister, said had condemned Italy to recession and forced him reluctantly to run for a fifth term.

By contrast European politicians and officials warned that Monti's policies must continue to prevent a return of the crisis which brought him to power a year ago, when he was charged with rescuing the euro zone's third biggest economy from the threat of a Greek-style collapse.

"Monti was a great prime minister of Italy and I hope that the policies he put in place will continue after the elections," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said in Oslo, where he was part of a European Union delegation receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

The comments echoed similar remarks in the past two days from policymakers ranging from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to the head of the European bailout fund Klaus Regling and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

With Rome's European allies doing little to conceal dismay at the thought of Berlusconi's return - on a day when his trial on sex charges was also back in the headlines - the billionaire former premier called the EU sniping at him an insult to Italy.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos warned that instability there could spill over and put Spain's fragile public finances at risk of further turmoil.

Attention is now focused on whether Monti will enter politics himself, either as a candidate or by endorsing one of the centrist forces that have backed his reforms and made more or less explicit pleas for him to run.

The daily La Repubblica quoted the 69-year-old former European Commissioner as saying that he had not yet made up his mind but was worried by the situation. "I don't know," he was quoted as saying. "If I had to ... describe my feelings today, I would say that I am very concerned."

He has repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the rise of populist, anti-European forces in the region.

CENTRE-LEFT LEADS

Monti's decision to resign once the 2013 budget is approved, probably before Christmas, has brought forward to February an election that had already been expected in March or by the latest April.

Opinion polls suggest Berlusconi has little chance of re-election and he has struggled to reassert his previously undisputed domination of rival factions and courtiers in his deeply divided centre-right party.

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) under Pier Luigi Bersani holds a strong lead and is likely to form the next government on a broadly pro-European platform, largely in line with Monti's agenda.

Bersani - who hopes that the former European Commissioner will stay on in some capacity, possibly as Italy's president - said on Monday that "precisely because Monti should still be able to be of service to this country, it would be better for him to stay out of the contest".

Berlusconi's strategy appears designed to ensure he retains influence in the next parliament with a substantial voting bloc that, among other things, can protect his business and personal interests.

After several weeks of calm, markets bridled at the prospect of Berlusconi's return to lead the centre-right, just over a year after a financial crisis drove the scandal-plagued billionaire from office to be replaced by Monti's technocrats.

"You can expect a sharpening in anti-austerity, anti-reform rhetoric...and this will probably translate into a higher risk premium on Italian assets," said Goldman Sachs analysts Silvia Ardagna and Francesco Garzarelli.

The main measure of investors' confidence, the spread between Italian 10-year government bonds and their lower risk German equivalent, widened to 362 basis points from 325 late on Friday, reflecting worries over a return to the political uncertainty which dogged Italy last year.

Milan's blue-chip share index dropped over 3 percent, with sharper falls in banking stocks that are seen as most vulnerable to a renewed debt crisis.

"IRRESPONSIBILITY"

Berlusconi's reappearance on the frontline and the prospect of a messy anti-Monti election campaign galvanised attention in Italy and abroad, reawakening memories of the financial and sexual scandals that plagued the media magnate's last government.

Rubbing in the point, the prosecutor in Berlusconi's trial on charges of having sex with a juvenile prostitute accused the 76-year-old of delaying tactics after the young woman failed to appear as a witness.

A barrage of comment from European leaders underlined the concern about Berlusconi's return and the Roman Catholic Church made outspoken and thinly veiled criticism of the former premier that may influence the PDL's conservative voting base.

"What leaves one astonished is the irresponsibility of those who think of arranging things for themselves while the house is still burning," the influential head of the Italian bishop's conference, Angelo Bagnasco, told the Corriere della Sera.

On Monday night, Belusconi issued a terse statement rejecting the negative comments from foreign politicians and media as an offensive interference in domestic affairs.

He said he had always been a "convinced supporter of Europe" and that the comments were "offensive not so much to me personally but to the free choice of the Italians."

With a new government likely to be formed in a few months, Italy's European partners have now started to look more closely at Bersani, the overwhelming victor in a centre-left primary election last month.

A no-frills former communist who is close to Italy's trade unions, Bersani has promised to stick to the promises on fiscal discipline the government has made and has said that Monti is likely to continue playing a role after the election.

While Italy's election laws are likely to give Bersani a strong majority in the lower house, the complicated rules may make it more difficult for him to take control of the Senate, posing a possible risk to the formation of a stable government.

Whoever wins will have to confront a severe recession, record unemployment and a ballooning public debt expected to surpass 126 percent of gross domestic product this year.

The depth of the crisis was underlined on Monday, with data showing GDP shrinking 2.4 percent in the third quarter and industrial production dropping 1.1 percent in October.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker and Balazs Koranyi in Oslo, Lisa Jucca, Silvia Aloisi, Giancarlo Navach, Alessia Pe, Maria Pia Quaglia in Milan and Francesca Piscioneri in Rome; Editing by Barry Moody, David Stamp and Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/europe-hails-great-monti-italy-crisis-hits-markets-144333176--finance.html

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Review: Terfel shines in Zurich's odd 'Dutchman'

ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) ? There's scarcely a ship or a sailor to be seen in the wildly revisionist, weirdly anti-colonialist new production of Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" at the Zurich Opera. But, fortunately, there is Bryn Terfel.

The Welsh bass-baritone was in splendid voice and commanded the stage with mesmerizing, hulking presence as the Dutch mariner condemned to sail the seas until he finds a woman faithful unto death. It may be a slight exaggeration to say Terfel single-handedly redeemed the spectacle that premiered Sunday night ? but only slight.

One night earlier the company presented Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" in a musically vibrant but similarly befuddling production, this one a revival of a staging by David Pountney first seen two seasons ago.

But "Dutchman" was the big news, because it's the first production directed by Andreas Homoki since he became general manager of the opera house earlier this year. With the license that comes from the European fashion of radically reinterpreting standard works, Homoki apparently decided to turn Wagner's romantic ghost story into a cautionary tale about the evils of bourgeois greed and imperialism.

Daland the sea captain becomes head of a shipping company, and his sailors are desk-bound clerks, keeping in touch by telephone on the progress of a returning ship. A map of Africa on the wall marks its ports of call, and Daland keeps a fez-wearing African manservant. Daland's daughter, Senta, and the other women are no longer seamstresses but office workers who sit at typewriters instead of spinning-wheels. And the only time we see a ship among Wolfgang Gussmann's sets is when a painting of a turbulent ocean churns to life and the Dutchman's ship with red sails emerges from the waves.

None of this sheds any particular new light on Wagner's opera, but at least it sticks to the broad outlines of the plot. Things turn really perverse in the final scene, when Daland's crew tries to rouse the ghostly sailors aboard the Dutchman's ship. Suddenly, the African servant morphs into a spear-carrying savage, and the map of Africa goes up in flames. Senta proves her loyalty not by jumping into the sea to join the Dutchman but by shooting herself with a hunting rifle.

Terfel, wearing a fur coat with long brown hair hanging over the collar and streaks of dark makeup that accentuate his piercing eyes, manages to keep his dignity amid all this and creates a searing portrayal of a man possessed. Reprising a role that sounds almost easy for him after his recent exertions as Wotan, Terfel musters stentorian power for the climaxes but sings many passages with a quiet, yearning tenderness.

Anja Kampe as Senta matches him well, singing with warm, penetrating tone, except for some strident high notes. Veteran bass Matti Salminen revels in the role of Daland, even if his voice has lost some of its richness. Conductor Alain Altinoglu whips up considerable excitement in the pit, though there were a few opening night coordination problems with the excellent chorus.

It should be noted that although Zurich opera audiences have come to expect that liberties will be taken, there were more than a few boos when Homoki and his team came out for curtain calls.

For "Ballo," Pountney takes off from the fact that the real King Gustavo III of Sweden was a playwright and theater buff. So Verdi's opera becomes a play staged by the tenor, abetted by his page, Oscar, and a woman who starts off dressed as his nurse but then acts the part of the fortune teller Ulrica.

Anyone who saw the recent David Alden production at the Metropolitan Opera will recognize some similarities: Oscar wears wings; Ulrica takes frequent swigs of liquor, and the opening scene ends with a jaunty chorus line.

In the finale, Pountney gives us not one but three Gustavos ? the king who is assassinated during the masked ball, the king who has directed the show, and the life-size puppet king he carries in and lays atop the prompter's box. It's all a bit bewildering.

Tenor Ramon Vargas brings an urgent lyricism to the role of Gustavo, while soprano Tatjana Serjan displays a striking range of colors as his beloved Amelia. Baritone Alexey Markov is impressive as her husband, Renato, though his sound is more Slavic than Italianate. Mezzo-soprano Yvonne Naef is a vivid Ulrica, and soprano Sen Guo a spirited Oscar.

Perhaps the best thing about the performance is the presence in the pit of octogenarian Nello Santi, who leads a rich, finely detailed performance. Santi provides a rare link to a bygone golden era: He made his Met debut 50 years ago conducting "Ballo" with a cast that starred Carlo Bergonzi, Robert Merrill and Leonie Rysanek.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-10-Opera%20Review-Flying%20Dutchman/id-1332e6420540447aa96cbe92b89f1dec

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How silver turns people blue

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Researchers from Brown University have shown for the first time how ingesting too much silver can cause argyria, a rare condition in which patients' skin turns a striking shade of grayish blue.

"It's the first conceptual model giving the whole picture of how one develops this condition," said Robert Hurt, professor of engineering at Brown and part of the research team. "What's interesting here is that the particles someone ingests aren't the particles that ultimately cause the disorder."

Scientists have known for years argyria had something to do with silver. The condition has been documented in people who (ill advisedly) drink antimicrobial health tonics containing silver nanoparticles and in people who have had alternative medical treatments involving silver. Tissue samples from patients showed silver particles actually lodged deep in the skin, but it wasn't clear how they got there.

As it turns out, argyria is caused by a complex series of chemical reactions, Hurt says. His paper on the subject, authored with Brown University colleagues Jingyu Liu, Zhongying Wang, Frances Liu, and Agnes Kane, was published online earlier this month in the journal ACS Nano.

Hurt and his team show that nanosilver is broken down in the stomach, absorbed into the bloodstream as a salt and finally deposited in the skin, where exposure to light turns the salt back into silver metal and creates the telltale bluish hue. That final stage, oddly, involves the same photochemical reaction used to develop black-and-white photographs.

From silver to salt and back again

Hurt and his team have been studying the environmental impact of silver, specifically silver nanoparticles, for years. They've found that nanosilver tends to corrode in acidic environments, giving off charged ions ? silver salts ? that can be toxic in large amounts. Hurt's graduate student, Jingyu Liu (now a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology), thought those same toxic ions might also be produced when silver enters the body, and could play a role in argyria.

To find out, the researchers mixed a series chemical treatments that could simulate what might happen to silver inside the body. One treatment simulated the acidic environment in the gastrointestinal tract; one mimicked the protein content of the bloodstream; and a collagen gel replicated the base membranes of the skin.

They found that nanosilver corrodes in stomach acid in much the same way it does in other acidic environments. Corrosion strips silver atoms of electrons, forming positively charged silver salt ions. Those ions can easily be taken into the bloodstream through channels that absorb other types of salt. That's a crucial step, Hurt says. Silver metal particles themselves aren't terribly likely to make it from the GI tract to the blood, but when some of them are transformed into a salt, they're ushered right through.

From there, Hurt and his team showed that silver ions bind easily with sulfur present in blood proteins, which would give them a free ride through the bloodstream. Some of those ions would eventually end up in the skin, where they'd be exposed to light.

To re-create this end stage, the researchers shined ultraviolet light on collagen gel containing silver ions. The light caused electrons from the surrounding materials to jump onto the unstable ions, returning them to their original state ? silver metal. This final reaction is ultimately what turns patients' skin blue. The photoreaction is similar to the way silver is used in black and white photography. When exposed to light, silver salts on a photographic film reduce to silver metal and darken, creating an image.

Implications for nanosilver safety

Despite its potential toxicity, silver has been valued for centuries for its ability to kill germs, which is why silver nanoparticles are used today in everything from food packaging to bandages. Regulators have established limits for occupational exposure to silver, but there are questions as to whether there should be special limits on the nanoparticle form.

This research "would be one piece of evidence that you could treat nanoparticles in the same way as other forms of silver," Hurt says.

That's because the bioavailable form of silver ? the form that is absorbed into the bloodstream ? is the silver salt that's made in the stomach. Any silver metal that's ingested is just the raw material to make that bioavailable salt. So ingesting silver in any form, be it nano or not, would have basically the same effect, Hurt said.

"The concern in this case is the total dose of silver, not what form it's in," Hurt said. "This study implies that silver nanoparticles will be less toxic than an equivalent amount of silver salt, at least in this exposure scenario."

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Brown University: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau

Thanks to Brown University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124911/How_silver_turns_people_blue

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Exclusive: UAE's Dana Gas won't pay bond on maturity - sources

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dana Gas is set to become the first United Arab Emirates (UAE) company to fail payment of an Islamic bond on maturity, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The UAE's largest listed natural gas firm, hit by payment delays from Egypt and Iraq's Kurdistan region, will not repay a $920 million convertible Islamic bond, or sukuk, when it matures on Wednesday, the sources said.

However, Sharjah-based Dana has won more time to hammer out a deal with bondholders, they added.

Dana Gas declined to comment.

Although indebted firms in the Gulf Arab state have extended maturities on billions of dollars in bank loans since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008-09, no sukuk have been restructured or unpaid on maturity so far.

Dana has a $1 billion sukuk maturing on October 31. It repurchased about $80 million of the sukuk in 2008, leaving $920 million outstanding.

The five-year sukuk, which was issued with a 7.5 percent coupon, has gained international interest as a large chunk of the debt is owned by large investment firms including BlackRock Inc , Ashmore Group and Spinnaker Capital.

There is "absolutely no chance" of a white knight swooping in to repay the bond by the due date, a source close to the talks said. In 2009, the Abu Dhabi government stepped in at the eleventh hour to help Dubai repay developer Nakheel's $4.1 billion Islamic bond.

The sources said Dana, in which Crescent Petroleum owns a 20-percent stake, reached a so-called standstill agreement with creditors in early October giving it more time to repay the bond and that this was effective for up to six months.

However, some creditors are preparing for a potential "post-default scenario", one source familiar with the discussions said, in which no deal would be reached at all.

Dana is to issue a statement on Wednesday or early Thursday detailing its plans on restructuring the bond, two sources said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is not public.

Shares in Dana fell 8.5 percent to 0.43 dirhams on the Abu Dhabi bourse after the Reuters report. The stock closed down 4.26 percent. The shares have been battered by concerns over how Dana will find funds to repay the bond and limited communication from the company on the matter. The sukuk has a conversion price of 1.926 dirhams.

Dana, which is privately-owned, is not seen as a strategic entity for the UAE and so any government support is unlikely.

PAYMENT PROBLEMS

In May, Dana said it wanted to find a consensual deal with sukukholders to repay the bond, and said it had hired Blackstone Group , Deutsche Bank and law firm Latham & Watkins as advisers.

Investors have hired Moelis and law firm Linklaters as advisers.

The sukuk, which is lightly traded, was quoted at a bid price of 77 to 78 cents on the dollar on Tuesday, up from lows of about 68 cents in mid-September, indicating investors were hopeful of some sort of resolution.

Natural gas producer Dana, which has operations in the UAE, Egypt and Iraq's Kurdistan region, says its cash flow has been affected by global economic conditions and regional events, including Egyptian unrest last year which delayed payments.

The company had a cash balance of 601 million dirhams ($164 million) as of June 30, 2012. Outstanding receivables on Egypt gas deliveries stood at 729 million dirhams and 1.2 billion dirhams in the Kurdistan region at that time.

In a recent interview, Dana board member and Crescent Chief Executive Majid Jafar said Egypt was paying the company for all fuel it was receiving from its operations and was optimistic outstanding payments would be settled.

Jafar said last week talks between the company and creditors were still ongoing, and have been "amicable and friendly."

(Additional reporting by Mirna Sleiman, Rachna Uppal, David French and Daniel Fineren; Editing by Andrew Torchia and Mark Potter)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-uaes-dana-gas-wont-pay-bond-maturity-103030786--sector.html

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Syria bombards major cities, weakening truce

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad renewed their bombardment of major cities on Saturday and rebels launched several attacks, further undermining a truce meant to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha religious holiday.

The violence, reported by residents, opposition supporters and Syria's government, came on the second day of the ceasefire called by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who had hoped to use it to build momentum to end the 19-month-old conflict in which an estimated 32,000 people have been killed.

Syrian state news SANA reported dozens of "ceasefire violations" by rebel groups including a car bomb in front of a Christian church in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor.

Activists in Deir al-Zor and in Aleppo, which is Syria's most populous city and about half controlled by rebels, said mortar bombs were being fired into residential areas.

Residents in Damascus posted internet footage of fighter jets they said bombed the suburbs of Erbin and Harasta. Eight people were killed, according to the residents and to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition organisation with a network of sources within Syria.

It was not possible to verify events due to Syria's restrictions on media access.

The army has said it agreed to the ceasefire but that it has a duty to respond to rebel attacks.

A commander from the rebel Free Syrian Army said his force would honour the truce but demanded Assad meet opposition demands for the release of thousands of detainees. Some Islamist militants, including the Nusra Front, said they would keep on fighting.

More than 150 people were killed on Friday, including 43 soldiers, said the Observatory for Human Rights. Most were shot by sniper fire or in combat, the Observatory said.

SECTARIAN WORRIES

The conflict pits Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is distantly related to Shi'ite Islam, against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels. Recent attacks, such as Saturday's bomb by a Syriac church, point to an increasingly sectarian conflict.

The Observatory released a statement on Saturday condemning a clash on Friday in the Aleppo district of Ashrafieh between rebels and an armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, which left 30 dead.

"(The fight) threatens dire consequences. It will work in the interests of the regime, which is working hard to incite national sedition and sectarianism," said Observatory head Rami Abdelrahman.

Syrian state TV said two people were killed in Ashrafieh, after "terrorists" opened fire on a demonstration calling for them to leave the area.

Syrian Kurds have long faced discrimination, a lack of full citizenship rights and forced displacements. But Assad sought to dissuade them from joining the uprising against him that erupted elsewhere in March 2011 by promising citizenship.

About 10 percent of the population, Kurds have been able to exploit an uneasy vacuum left by Assad's retreating forces to set up their own militia, some with ties to the government.

Rebels in Azaz, a northern Syrian town, reported on their Facebook page that they have detained Lebanese journalist Fidaa Itani. They said Itani, who works for LBCI television, was put under house arrest as his work was "incompatible with the course of the Syrian revolution."

TRUCE BREACHES

A Reuters cameraman in the Turkish border village of Besaslan in southern Hatay province said he could hear a helicopter circling on the Syrian side of the border, as well as gunfire and explosions.

Turkish ambulances were ferrying wounded people from an unofficial border crossing for treatment in Turkey.

Brahimi's ceasefire appeal won widespread international support, including from Russia, China and Iran, Assad's main foreign allies.

The peace envoy's predecessor, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon fell apart, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan.

Divided international powers have been unable to stop the violence, with the West condemning Assad but blaming Russia, Iran and China for supporting Damascus.

Russia's deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov tweeted on Saturday that "Westerners" in the United Nations Security Council had prevented the body from condemning a bomb attack in Damascus on Friday, which the Syrian government blames on rebels it labels as "terrorists."

(Additional reporting by Mert Ozkan in Besaslan, Gleb Bryanski in Moscow and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; editing by Jason Webb.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-bombards-major-cities-weakening-truce-120102793.html

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UNO film arts student slain in Oct. 19 shooting on Burke Avenue ...

A University of New Orleans student majoring in film arts was fatally shot last Friday night in eastern New Orleans, according to officials. Police found Valan May sitting in his car in the 7900 block of Burke Avenue with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head.

May died at a hospital later that evening, said John Gagliano, chief investigator for the New Orleans coroner's office. He was 24.

May graduated in 2007 from Peabody Magnet High School in Alexandria in Rapides Parish, his social media profiles say. He subsequently received an associate's degree from the University of Phoenix and enrolled at UNO.

At UNO, May was a sophomore, school spokesman Adam Norris said Thursday. May's social media pages suggest he was a devoted fan of professional wrestling, particularly World Wrestling Entertainment and its personalities.

He also wrote a number of love poems, some of which he posted on social media as well as on a website for amateur poets. One of his pieces was about losing "his one and only girl" to gun violence on her birthday.

"Never again into her hazel eyes will I gaze. / Without her it feels like I'm trapped in a maze," he wrote. "Never again will I hear her say 'I love you, Valan.' / That cuts into me like an eagle talon."

Attempts to contact the victim's family on Thursday weren't immediately successful. Investigators haven't discussed details on a motive or a suspect in May's slaying.

NOPD Detective Darrell Doucette is in charge of the case. Anyone who has information on May's killing is asked to call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 877.903.7867.

People can also text tips to C-R-I-M-E-S (274637); text TELLCS and then the crime information. Callers or texters do not have to give their names or testify and can earn a $2,500 reward for information that leads to an indictment.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/uno_film_arts_student_slain_in.html

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The Living and the Dead: War, Friendship, and the Battles that Never End

A new Byliner Original by acclaimed journalist and Iraq War veteran Brian Mockenhaupt

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 24, 2012

?The worst feeling,? Sergeant Tom Whorl scribbles in a small spiral notebook, surrounded by nameless enemies in a strange and hostile landscape, ?is not knowing when your last step will be. That?s what takes a toll on your brain.? With those simple words, a courageous man fighting a war that many would just as soon forget about captures the gut-wrenching day-to-day, life-and-death struggles and triumphs of the men of Patrol Base Dakota. Their story happens to unfold at a Marine encampment in southern Afghanistan, but it could be the story of young American soldiers in any war, trying to do the job when doing the job might mean, at any second, losing your life?or watching your best friend lose his.

A new e-book, The Living and the Dead, by Brian Mockenhaupt, just released by digital publisher Byliner, relates the grippingly true story of three close friends?Tom, Ian, and Jimmy?and the reality of how twenty-first-century combat plays out in the lives of those who fight it. How walking through the Afghan countryside means patrolling for cleverly hidden explosives that can instantly tear a man in half. How the families back home live in dread of the men in gray cars showing up at their front door with news too grim to imagine. How the consequences of a split-second decision can replay over and over in a soldier?s mind and haunt him for the rest of his days. How those who sign up to do democracy?s dirty work somehow manage to endure the unendurable. The Living and the Dead is a powerfully moving and timelessly compelling account of bravery, friendship, struggle, and sacrifice in the face of unimaginable tests. It is an unforgettable tale of battles that continue to rage long after the final shot has been fired.

About the Author: Brian Mockenhaupt is a contributing editor at Esquire and Reader?s Digest and is the nonfiction editor at the Journal of Military Experience. He writes regularly for The Atlantic and Outside. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Chicago magazine. He served two tours in Iraq as an infantryman with the 10th Mountain Division. Since leaving the U.S. Army in 2005, he has written extensively on military and veteran affairs, reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq, hometowns, and hospitals.

About Byliner: Byliner commissions and publishes original stories written to be read in a single sitting. Bestselling Byliner titles include Amy Tan?s Rules for Virgins, Margaret Atwood?s Positron, Jon Krakauer?s Three Cups of Deceit, Ann Patchett?s The Getaway Car, Nick Hornby?s Everyone?s Reading Bastard, and Buzz Bissinger?s After Friday Night Lights. The companion website, Byliner.com, gives readers personalized access to an unmatched library of fiction and nonfiction, handpicked by our editors. On Byliner, readers can discover new writers, explore, save, and share great stories, connect with other readers, and even engage directly with their favorite writers.

The Living and the Dead is available for $2.99 as a Kindle Single at Amazon, a Quick Read at Apple?s iBookstore, a Nook Snap at BarnesAndNoble.com, a Short Read at Kobo, and at Google Play. For an Advance Reading Copy or to schedule an interview with Brian Mockenhaupt, please contact Clare Hertel at clare(at)byliner(dot)com; 505-474-6783.

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Clare Hertel
Clare Hertel Communications
(505) 474-6783
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/living-dead-war-friendship-battles-never-end-090619902.html

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