The Russian president's comments came as a surprise amid widespread criticism of the country's ban on homosexual "propaganda."

SOCHI, Russia - President Vladimir Putin, Ergonomic seating seeking to defuse criticism over his treatment of Russia's gay community, said all people will be welcome in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Triggering angry criticism from the West and even calls to boycott the Sochi games, Russia adopted in June a ban on homosexual "propaganda" among minors, a law denounced by critics as discriminatory and aimed at stifling dissent.

"We are doing everything, both the organizers and our athletes and fans, so that participants and guests feel comfortable in Sochi, regardless of nationality, race or sexual orientation" Putin told Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), on an inspection visit in Sochi on Monday.

The remark came unexpectedly from Putin, who says there is no discrimination against gays in Russia which decriminalized homosexuality in 1993.

But gay people are often blamed for not helping overcome Russia's demographic problems and face ostracism from the resurgent Orthodox Church, which has fostered increasingly close ties with the Kremlin during Putin's 13-year rule.

Bach made no public mention of the issue, offering praise for Russia's preparations for the Olympics.

Russia is spending more than $50 billion on the February Games, a top priority for Putin who wants to use it to showcase the country's modern face to the world two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union.

"We are fully confident that the Games will be on a magnificent level," Bach said in his first comments about Russia's readiness for the Games.

"Sochi and the whole region completed a very big, successful development journey and we have been deeply impressed with this path g-suite cardinal manchester," he said in comments translated from German into Russian as he sat next to Putin, a fluent German speaker.

The praise must have been music to Putin's ears since he has staked his reputation on the success of the Games. He said Russia needed a final push to finish off preparations with just over three months before the Games open on Feb. 7.

"Now that the overwhelming majority of sites are almost ready, there's a final push left, we need to accomplish this final milestone," Putin said.

"We need to prepare everything once and for all."

During a previous inspection of the Olympic venues last month, Putin urged officials to overcome failures and delays in preparatory works.

Olympic preparations have been marred by over-running costs and delays and organizers have faced criticism from rights groups over the treatment of migrant workers engaged in large-scale construction works.

Moscow is also trying to head off potential security threats in Sochi, a few hundred kilometers from the volatile North Caucasus region where Russia is struggling to quell a persistent Islamist insurgency.

A deadly suicide bombing in southern Russia on Oct.21, blamed on a Muslim woman from the North Caucasus, highlighted increased security risks in proximity to the mountainous region.

The Russian parliament has toughened punishments for those who take part in military conflicts abroad as officials estimate up to 400 people have left Russian territory to fight along with the international jihadists in Syria.

STRONG TEAM

Bach urged Russia to brace itself for tough competition during the event which will challenge not only Russia's organisational skills but also its confidence in its sporting standing nuskin hk.

"When the Olympic flame will be burning at the Olympic stadium, it is up to you, because the success of Olympic Games also very much depends on the success of the home team," Bach told Putin.

Russia came 11th in the medal standings at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, with host Canada, Germany and the United States topping the list.

The Kremlin, disappointed with the result, pledged billions in investments and upgrades of Russia's winter sports infrastructure in preparation for the Sochi Games.

But Putin said he did not want medals to restore the country's former glory as a leading sports power.

"Great sports achievements are not a question of prestige and ambitions to us - the link between records in sports and (promoting) popular sports are evident," he said.

Home furnishing decoration tax

The home renovation tax incentive HRI scheme will run for two years.
CONSTRUCTION GROUPS HAVE welcomed a new scheme to give a tax incentive for homeowners to carry out home improvements.

The home renovation tax incentive (HRI) scheme will run for the next two years and give a tax credit of 13.5 per cent on money spent on renovations between €5,000 up to a maximum of €30,000.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said during his budget speech that qualifying work would include work such as window-fitting, plumbing g-suite in oldham, tiling and plastering.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) has said that the incentive will encourage people to use registered builders and discourage black market construction which is damaging standards in the sector.

“Given recent issues such as Priory Hall, it is imperative that standards are upheld which may not be the case with operators in the shadow economy g-suite manchester,” according to SCSI president Micheál O’Connor.

Pat Barry of the Irish Green Building Council also said that the initiative will hinder “tax dodging cowboys” in the shadow economy but insisted that more targeted measures to boost environmentally friendly construction are still required:

However the tax rebates above a certain level, g-suite cardinal must be targeted at measurable improvement in energy performance of the house, rather than just boosting construction for its own sake.

The other side easily hurt

Autumn is cool, cool the whole city came through again, not the path you, set foot on the rub shoulders of the broken bridge, seek again, have no her figure.

The autumn leaves rolled up the scroll, memories, but also rolled out the dark war. Leaves drifting into the distance, floated into the Nai River, swim, as you, constrained Set up Business in Hong Kong, not as I, paranoid that an attachment.

Time, it seems like a dream of love, still remaining, that smile, that hurt, that a white. The wind is not to read, the wind stop thinking and.

Know, know, the stone engraved on a waiting, but paranoid to find a familiar figure, waiting for life alone.

Only a rub shoulders, only a smile. Blank attachment, hong kong company register paranoid waiting. Just for the short rub shoulders.

The other shore, were not in the night, look up, the ethereal star, at the end of the dark, still waiting.

But, keep the pure land, I hope a bloom, encounters, had not at first. III the memories, the obsession, but is this III a glimmer of hope. And in this life, but have changed.

Autumn is cool, into the bottom of my heart, that sadness again filled the air, keep III, love you, today, and this field empty mournful, eventually hiding in the years.

The origin reason, Xie blooming flowers, youth passes as a fleeting wave how to register a business. In the world of mortals, with silk, gold, waiting for the next reincarnation.

Peters's personal charm and exquisite charm

According to research into voting at the last election the answer is a resounding yes.

Victoria University political specialist Hilde Coffe studied gender-based voting patterns at the 2011 polls and found no differences between the sexes in party preference - except for New Zealand First.

She discovered "substantially fewer" woman gave their vote to Mr Peters' party, in keeping with global trends showing women are more likely to support left-wing parties.

However, when it came to the other parties, Kiwi women were no more likely to vote for Labour or the Greens, or less likely to vote for National, suggesting something else is at work to turn women off New Zealand First.

Dr Coffe also analysed the so-called "John Key factor" to find out whether support and sympathy for the prime minister specifically as leader could resolve this puzzle.

But it seems women like him just as much as men.

"In fact, women and men were found to be equally supportive of John Key as prime minister and the rationale behind party preferences turned out to be quite similar for both men and women," she said.

Studies of elections in 1981 and 1990 also found no substantial gender differences, but previous research showed women voted Labour in greater numbers in 1996 election, when Helen Clark was leader.

Australian women showed the same sympathy and support for a female leader at the 2010 election, electing Julia Gillard as prime minister, Dr Coffe said.

Having a female co-leader in Metiria Turei did not give New Zealand's Green Party the same advantage, however, the researcher said.

The research is published in the latest issue of Political Science, New Zealand's professional political science journal.

Prime Minister Maliki will overhaul of Iraqi security strategy

"We are about to make changes in the high and middle positions of those responsible for security and the security strategy," Maliki said at a news conference in nuskin hk
Baghdad.

"We will discuss this matter in the cabinet session tomorrow (Tuesday) to take decisions," Maliki said.

The militants will not be able to return Iraq to the sectarian conflict that killed tens of thousands of people in Iraq in past years, he added hong kong event photo.

A car bomb exploded in Shaab, a Shi'ite area in north Baghdad, at around the time Maliki spoke, killing 12 people and wounding at least 20, officials said Tourism course.

It was just one in a wave of bombings on Monday.

Two car bombs went off in the main southern port city of Basra, killing 13 people and wounding 48, while a wave of other bombings hit Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and wounding 102.

In Balad, north of the capital, a car bomb exploded near a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing eight people and wounding at least 15.

Five Sahwa anti-al-Qaeda fighters were also killed and 19 wounded in three separate attacks north of Baghdad.

The Sahwa are made up of Sunni Arab tribesmen who joined forces with the US military against al-Qaeda from late 2006, helping to turn the tide against the insurgency.

A car bomb also killed one person and wounded four in Rutba, a town in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, while a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul wounded three people.

Monday's violence comes after 24 police were killed overnight.

Police and soldiers carried out a joint raid to free kidnapped police officers in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, Police Lieutenant Colonel Majid al-Jlaybawi said.

Twelve kidnapped policemen were killed and four wounded, although it was not immediately clear if they were caught in crossfire, nu skin hong kong killed by their abductors, or a combination of the two.

Mohammed Hadi, one of the wounded policemen, told AFP they had been abducted on the highway between Baghdad and Jordan on Saturday.

In Haditha, a town in Anbar province, gunmen attacked a police station, killing eight police, among them two officers, First Lieutenant Murad al-Hadithi and a doctor said.

And gunmen killed four police and wounded three in an attack on another police station in the town of Rawa, also in Anbar, said Qais al-Rawi, head of the area's local council.

Gunmen also killed a shop owner in Mosul on Sunday.

The security situation in Anbar, home to two of the main centres of Sunni anti-government protests that broke out almost five months ago, has deteriorated sharply.

On Saturday, security forces tried to arrest Mohammed Khamis Abu Risha, who is wanted in connection with the killing of five Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi, west of the capital.

But the bid to arrest Abu Risha, nephew of a powerful tribal sheikh who is a key supporter of Sunni anti-government protesters in Anbar, sparked clashes with tribesmen in which two of them were killed.

Hundreds of gunmen then gathered in the area of the Anbar Operations Command headquarters near Ramadi, but later withdrew, police said.