By Caroline Stauffer

INAPARI, Peru |
Wed Feb 8, 2012 12:12pm EST

INAPARI, Peru (Reuters) – Nearly 300 Haitians fleeing the poverty of their earthquake-ravaged homeland have been stuck for a month in the Peruvian Amazon, where a gate to what they saw as a better life in Brazil has abruptly closed.

Mostly educated and in their 20s, they have taken refuge in a stuffy church in the Peruvian border town of Inapari since Brazil stationed federal police along the border in early January to stop a wave of illegal immigration.

The 273 Haitians in Inapari sold all their belongings and paid big fees to unscrupulous travel agents to fly to Peru through Panama or Ecuador. They planned to cross overland into Brazil, where a growing economy has attracted some 4,500 desperate Haitians since the quake two years ago – only to find that the border was closed when they arrived.

“We don’t have money and we are so far from Haiti … we just ask Brazil to let us in,” said Joniel Clervil, 22, speaking in English he learned in university before the January 2010 disaster ended his studies.

Having run out of cash, the group is relying on donations of rice and beans from the Brazilian border town of Assis Brasil. It is not clear if they will eventually be able to stay in Brazil or Peru or be deported.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, in an attempt to manage the influx and discourage “coyotes” who take advantage of the immigrants, said during a visit to Haiti on February 1 that her country would award 100 humanitarian visas per month in Port-au-Prince in the next five years while tightening border security.

Brazil also has said it would give humanitarian visas to all Haitians already in Brazil but that future migrants would be turned back at the border unless they had obtained proper visas before leaving Haiti.

PERU REQUIRES VISA

Peru’s President Ollanta Humala has tried to help shut down what the governments regard as a human trafficking route by signing a decree last month requiring Haitians to obtain a tourist visa before entering Peru.

The Haitians stuck in Peru left home before the changes took effect and now are in a bureaucratic limbo. The governments say they will hold a meeting next week where they could decide the Haitians’ fate.

Brazil has Latin America’s largest economy and, owing to an economic surge in the past five years and a more assertive foreign policy, it now faces a very First

Article source: PRNewswire

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK |
Wed Feb 8, 2012 7:05am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Navy is likely to replace black on the catwalk when New York Fashion Week starts on Thursday, with experts expecting rich fabrics, waist-defining jackets and some 1920s-inspired styles sparked by movies like The Artist.

Dresses will continue to feature strongly among the 90 or so designers showing fall 2012 collections, experts say, because of the wide appeal to consumers who are more thoughtful and focused on value as the United States emerges from recession.

A dress is seen as more tempting because it allows women to skip the extra, and sometimes more costly, step of having to coordinate skirts or pants with a blouse or T-shirt.

“Dresses perform very well. Women love a dress,” said Ken Downing, fashion director of luxury chain Neiman Marcus. “It’s such an easy way to look amazing. It’s effortlessly chic … it goes from coffee to cocktails.”

“Navy will be the neutral of the season,” he said.

Downing said some designers will have drawn inspiration for a “modernized flapper” style from the silent film “The Artist” and Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” – both nominated for several Academy Awards – and the pending release of director Baz Luhrmann’s remake of “The Great Gatsby.”

But he cautions this does not mean an immediate return to the dropped waist dresses that defined the 1920s era.

“Many designers really understand the importance of celebrating a woman’s shape and clothes that are reflective of her curves are always the most popular,” he said. “Women spend a lot of time at the gym … they want credit for how they look.”

Deep shades of green and rich fabrics such as brocades and jacquards are likely runway trends that could draw in customers, said Colleen Sherin, senior fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue.

“When customers spend their money, they want to feel and see that they are truly getting something for what they paid,” she said. “Any form of embellishment or decorative fabrication makes the consumer feel they getting something quite special, that’s worth the money they have spent.”

SCULPTED JACKETS, HEMLINES FOR ALL

Designers were expected to show menswear-inspired tailored jackets sculpted to define a woman’s waist and peplum dresses and other styles that show off the waist.

“I’m liking the masculine (inspiration), I like women that have a cool tailored jacket. Definitely I am heading in that direction, but we have a lot of great surprises,” said designer Yigal Azrouel, whose collection will be

Article source: PRNewswire

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES |
Wed Feb 8, 2012 5:05am EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Eight years ago, Rachel McAdams hit Hollywood’s map in teary, romantic drama “The Notebook.” Since then, she has broadened her range of work to include laugh-out-loud comedies such as “Wedding Crashers,” adventure films like “Sherlock Holmes” and recently, the Woody Allen movie “Midnight in Paris.”

But the Canadian actress has returned to her romantic roots with new drama “The Vow,” due in theaters on Friday. The actress portrays Paige, a young bohemian artist happily married to Leo (Channing Tatum) until a devastating car crash leaves her with a head trauma that erases her entire memory of their relationship.

While Leo tries in vain to get her to remember him, Paige reverts back to the person she was five years earlier — a law student with a conservative wardrobe who doesn’t understand why she’s estranged from her parents or why she broke off her engagement to a charming businessman (Scott Speedman). Leo must make Paige fall back in love with him if he is to win her back.

McAdams, 33, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film, the surprise success of Oscar-nominated “Midnight in Paris” and why she feels compelled to always take breaks between projects.

Q: “The Vow” is actually based on a real story that happened to a couple from New Mexico. Did you meet Krickitt Carpenter, the woman upon whom the character Paige is based?

A: “I did. Both Channing and I met her and her husband (Kim Carpenter). It was nerve wracking at first because you want to do justice to their story. At the same time, our story was only inspired by them, so we were playing different people. But they are an incredible couple. They had a strong faith in God and had that to fall back on. They had only been married two months when it happened in the early ’90s. Today they have two children.”

Q: Your character dressed and behaved one way before the accident and another after it. Was that challenging?

A: “It was difficult to play almost two different people at times, and to keep the thread going between my character and Channing’s character. You want some sense of hope that these people might find each other again. I did some research into brain injuries and the emotional effects of that. It’s quite isolating. The more your family and friends try to bring back your memories, the more you

Article source: PRNewswire

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mark Riccobono, executive director of the National Federation of the
Blind Jernigan Institute, testified today before a hearing of the Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The hearing,
“The Promise of Accessible Technology: Challenges and Opportunities,”
was convened to explore the barriers and opportunities that technology
presents to Americans with disabilities. Mr. Riccobono testified
regarding the importance of ensuring that technology used in K-12 and
postsecondary educational institutions is accessible to the blind and to
other students with disabilities.

“The Promise of Accessible Technology: Challenges and Opportunities”

Mr. Riccobono testified in part: “Harnessing the extraordinary promise
of technology is within our reach, but it will take leadership,
commitment, and ongoing oversight. The alternative is a future where we
spend our time, money, and innovative capacity retrofitting bridges to
patch the digital divide rather than enjoying the economic and social
advantages gained by the increased usability of technology and the
increased leveraging of human capacity that results from technology that
is designed and built to be accessible to all. … If built universally
and implemented effectively, technology will make the passion and skill
of our greatest teachers even more powerful as we nurture the next
generation of leaders for our nation. If we fail to include
accessibility in that technology, we will set this generation of
students with disabilities back decades. The cost to those individuals
and to our country is too great and the opportunity is too promising to
stand by and let that happen.”

Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
“We would like to thank Senator Tom Harkin and the members of the HELP

Article source: PRNewswire

GENEVA, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SPIRE
Institute is pleased to announce a new partnership that will advance
the organization’s mission to integrate sports and education,
training
and learning, performance and competition like no where else. SPIRE’s
plan to offer a 9-12^th
grade sports academy is a reality due to the newly formed
affiliation with Andrews
Osborne Academy—a premier, academic institution. Andrews Osborne
Academy (AOA) is a college prep, co-educational day and boarding school
located in nearby Willoughby, Ohio.

SPIRE’s high
school/post
grad academy provides Michael
Johnson Performance athletic development, alongside sports specific
training with world-class coaches in swimming,
soccer,
volleyball,
basketball
and track
field. This is the first time a sports academy has ever
offered this combination of sports training programs. AOA will house
SPIRE’s high school athletes and deliver their academic curriculum in a
manner ideally suited to the training and competition schedules of
serious student athletes.

Founded over 100 years ago, Andrews
Osborne Academy is recognized nationally, as well as around the
globe, as a premier college prep, day and boarding academy. The
beautiful campus includes over 300 acres. AOA is able to process the
I-20 forms to allow international students to receive an F1 Student Visa
to attend SPIRE. This qualification allows SPIRE Institute to attract
both national and international student

Article source: PRNewswire