user: News: JERUSALEM, June 13 -- Shimon Peres, the former prime minister, Nobel laureate, and perennial loser of elections, handily won Israel's presidency Wednesday in his second bid for what will likely be his last official position in public life.

Peres won a secret-ballot victory in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to secure the largely ceremonial post that eluded him seven years ago. He will take office next month at a time when Israel's presidency has been tarnished by criminal allegations swirling around the man now holding the office, Moshe Katsav.

"The president's role is not to deal with politics and partisanship, but to represent what unites us," said Peres, a great-grandfather who will turn 84 the month after he is sworn in. "The Knesset chose to prove today that elected figures represent the people."

Israel's president serves a single seven-year term, and the post has often gone to Israeli elder statesmen as capstones to long public careers. The president formally accepts the credentials of foreign diplomats, globe-trots to promote the Jewish state, and holds the power to grant pardons.

An articulate polyglot who often seems more loved abroad than at home, Peres holds the ideal credentials for the post, especially following Katsav's tenure.

Katsav, a former Likud Party lawmaker, suspended himself in January from official duties pending a decision from the attorney general on whether to indict him on rape, assault and other criminal charges stemming from allegations made by several women who once worked for him.

"We hope that in the next seven years you bring respect to this institution, respect that lately has been missing," Dalia Itzik, the Knesset speaker, told Peres following the afternoon vote.

Peres was first elected to parliament in 1959 as a protege of the founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, after distinguishing himself building Israel's fledgling defense forces and nuclear power program. He became minister of immigrant absorption in 1969 and has since held the important foreign, defense and finance portfolios in various governments.

But Peres, who arrived in Tel Aviv from Poland as a child, is the only former Israeli prime minister never elected outright to the office. He held the job three times -- first in 1977 when he briefly replaced Yitzhak Rabin, his rival within the Labor Party, after Rabin resigned amid a financial scandal.

Later that year, Peres led Labor to its first defeat in national elections. He followed that with another loss in 1981. In 1984, he became prime minister through an unprecedented rotating arrangement with Likud because neither party won enough seats to govern without sharing power with the other.

A proponent of a two-state solution to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians, Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his work as foreign minister on the Oslo accords.

That agreement set in motion the process of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but it has collapsed since then. Peres again succeeded Rabin as prime minister in 1995 after his assassination, serving less than a year in office before losing the next general election.

Peres ran as the Labor candidate for the presidency in 2000, but lost to Katsav in a secret vote after most lawmakers pledged in public to support him. A year later he took Labor into a national-unity government with his old friend and rival, Likud leader Ariel Sharon.

At the end of 2005, after losing the Labor leadership race, Peres left the party to join Sharon's new Kadima movement.

In contrast to his last bid for the presidency, Peres worked diligently behind the scenes to secure parliamentary support. His closest rival was Reuven Rivlin, the Likud candidate for the job who withdrew from the race Wednesday after Peres secured a large lead in the first round of voting.

Staff researcher Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.

Title: Shimon Peres Easily Wins Israeli Presidency


News: It has been said that good design has visual appeal as well as function and comfort. But how do you accomplish all three when arranging furniture in a new home? Listed below are six commonsense tips to take the headache out of the process.

FUNCTION: You must first determine how the room will be used. Will it be a media room where the family watches TV or will it be a recreation room where people play pool, board games, cards or puzzles? Perhaps the space will be used for a home office or a place where children to do homework. Whatever the purpose of the room is, select the furniture that will function best to accomplish that purpose. For instance, if the room is used to watch TV, a comfortable couch and chairs would be necessary or perhaps an ottoman or coffee table to put one’s feet on. If it is a game room then a brio table and chairs might be nice because the height will enable you to see the action on the pool table and play cards or work puzzles. If the room is designated for a home office or homework, a desk for a computer and comfortable chair is the obvious place to begin.

FOCAL POINT: Before you begin placing the furniture in the room you must establish a focal point. The main furniture pieces will be arranged around this. If the room has an architectural feature, such as a fireplace this can be the focal point. Perhaps there is a window with a desirable view of a pool or a lake; the furniture can be arranged facing the window thus determining the window as the focal point. When placing the furniture always think of hospitality & comfort. For example, if the room is for visiting then place the furniture so that the people can see each other and visit in a comfortable manner. In other words they do not have to twist or turn to have a conversation. In this case, the furniture would be arranged facing each other and the focal point would be the coffee table. If the space is designated to watch TV then most of the seating should be positioned to view the TV and thus the TV is the focal point of the room.

FURNITURE: Now that you have determined the function of the room and the focal point, the selection of furniture pieces naturally follows. To make sure that the space has good function you must determine the necessary furniture to accomplish the purpose of the room. Start by selecting from what you have this will not only save money but time as well. Place the furniture appropriately until you have exhausted your inventory. Next, simply make a list of what you need to purchase to finish the space and provide function and furnishings.

FLOW: It is important to establish a traffic pattern whereby you can enter and exit the room easily and unobstructed, so position the furniture with an easy sensible travel path.

FINE TUNE: At this point you tweak and adjust the placement of the furniture for optimal comfort and use.

FINISHING TOUCHES: The last layer is accessories. Using what you desire out of your current inventory, first place the lamps keeping in mind that lamps for tasks like reading need to be at least twenty four inches high for effective lighting. Next place tabletop items and hang wall art. Lastly make a list of what you need to purchase to finish the room, always keeping hospitality and comfort for your family and guests in mind.

This method is a natural progression and makes the process easy. If you follow these suggestions, the six F’s will take out the difficulty when furnishing a home.

Lee Anne Culpepper is an Atlanta interior designer who works with Atlanta painting contractors and remodeling contractors.

Click to view original post.

Title:

assistant: The six F’s of arranging furniture