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WADA appeals to CAS over Contador acquittal

Sport's highest court is to ask the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Cycling Union to combine forces in their appeals against Alberto Contador's acquittal on doping charges.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Wednesday it had registered WADA's challenge to the Spanish cycling federation's decision to clear Contador, who tested positive for clenbuterol en route to his third Tour de France victory last year.

The Spanish federation accepted Contador's defense that he inadvertently consumed the banned substance by eating contaminated beef.

The WADA appeal filed late Tuesday followed the UCI's decision last week to take the case to CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The court said in a statement that CAS rules mean "it is possible to consolidate the two cases, if all parties agree.

"The parties will now have the opportunity to file written submissions including all their arguments and evidence," said CAS, which has sent a copy of WADA's appeal to lawyers for Contador and the Spanish body.

Last year, WADA and UCI successfully teamed up at CAS to get another top Spanish rider, Alejandro Valverde, banned two years for doping when his national federation refused to sanction him.

CAS already faces a tight schedule to hear the Contador case and reach a verdict before the Tour starts July 2.

The court repeated Wednesday that it was "ready to establish a procedural calendar allowing for the settlement of the dispute before the end of June."

In a typical CAS procedure, an appeal is heard by a panel of three lawyers. One is appointed by the court and each side in the dispute can nominate one.

If the panel rejects the UCI and WADA appeals, Contador could then defend his Tour title. If found guilty of doping, Contador faces a two-year ban and loss of his Tour victory.

Contador, who has won two stage races in Spain this season, can keep racing until CAS issues a ruling.

He was provisionally suspended by the UCI last August, then resumed his racing career last month after being cleared by the Spanish cycling body's disciplinary committee.

The World Anti-Doping Code regards clenbuterol, a banned anabolic agent that burns fat and builds muscle, as a zero-tolerance drug. Athletes can escape sanctions only if they prove "no fault or negligence" on their part.

Valverde was banned worldwide for two years after a CAS panel accepted WADA and UCI arguments that he doped with the blood-boosting hormone EPO and was connected to the Operation Puerto investigation. Valverde led cycling's world rankings when his suspension was confirmed in May.

The CAS verdict ended a frustrating case for the UCI and WADA, which were unable to persuade Spanish cycling officials to investigate Valverde. The case hinged on whether evidence seized in Madrid during the Puerto probe could be used in court.

Pulse Retail Partners with YESpay to Offer Jointly Integrated EMV Managed Payment Service

Point of Sale (POS) software is now integrated with YESpay’s EMV Chip and PIN accredited and PCI-DSS Level 1 certified managed payment service called EMBOSS.

Toronto, ON, Canada (Vocus/PRWEB) 30 March 2011

Pulse Retail Systems’ Point of Sale (POS) software is now integrated with YESpay’s EMV Chip and PIN accredited and PCI-DSS Level 1 certified managed payment service called EMBOSS.

specializes in retail software solutions from the Point-of-Sale software to reporting, analysis and forecasting tools. Integrated with ’s , Pulse Retail now offers a special solution forand magnetic stripe credit and debit card acceptance and processing for merchants of all sizes.

Thanks to this strategic partnership, Pulse Retail’s merchants can now securely process transactions with their selected card processor such as First Data Merchant Services (FDMS) and Chase Paymentech through YESpay’s EMV pre-accredited and PCI-DSS certifiedpayment service. EasyV-Retail solution supports all major EMV and swipe credit and debit cards including Visa, MasterCard, Interac, Maestro, Amex, Diners and more. EasyV-Retail also supports on-line PIN validation for both Canadian Interac debit card transactions as well as US magnetic debit transactions.

Bill L. Clements, Manager Client Relations of Pulse Retail Systems comments “We wanted to offer our clients a PCI-DSS compliant EMV Chip & Pin ready solution that was multi-acquirer approved. YESpay made the difficult task of achieving multiple certifications from multiple acquirers a simple one by helping us navigate the requirements to achieve both EMV Chip & Pin readiness as well as PCI-DSS compliance. By partnering with YESpay, our solution ensures that our clients do not require separate PA-DSS certification.”

Pulse Retail’s Canadian merchants have now an off-the-shelf EMV upgraded Point of Sale system enabling them to handle EMV Chip and PIN card transactions even before the liability shift date of March 31st 2011. Indeed, the quickest route to market to meet merchants’ EMV Chip & PIN requirements is using YESpay’s unique outsourced EMBOSS payment solution, fully PCI-DSS certified and EMV accredited.

This solution relieves merchants from investing and maintaining an expensive in-house payment solution as well as undergoing formal EMV end-to-end bank testing and managing PCI-DSS compliance. Outsourcing payment processing considerably cuts the costs and timescales associated with bank accreditation and compliance with PCI-DSS requirements!

Besides, the integration of YESpay payment software with POS software like Pulse Retail is completed in a matter of weeks. Integration took less than 4 weeks, and Pulse Retail used YESpay`s free toolkit and support to perform this comprehensive integration.

As Harry Morge, National Sales Manager at YESpay explains “It is a pleasure to add Pulse Retail to our growing list of partners. My mission is to ensure that Pulse Retail and its merchants benefit from an easy to deploy solution enabling them to overcome the burden of PCI-DSS & PA-DSS and accept EMV payments. The end result: merchants can beat the EMV liability shift deadline but still take payments in an integrated fashion. This leads to significant cost reduction and helps merchants focus on their core business.”

About Pulse Retail Systems:Pulse Retail Systems specializes in high performance retailing.For over 30 years Pulse Retail Systems has provided solutions for multi-channel retailers and helped their customers maximize returns on inventory. The company is noted for their responsiveness, competence and reliability and their clients view them as a key strategic partner. Pulse’s POSability Point-of-Sale provides integrated processing of magnetic swipe and EMV Chip & Pin cards using YESpay's EasyV-Retail solution. Merchants running POSability software can now process and settle transactions securely with their chosen card acquirer via YESpay's EMBOSS payment service. In conjunction with Pulse’s ReACT EKG for inventory management, retailers have a proven high performance retailing system which can help them maximize performance and profitability.

Pulse Retail Systems Head Office:#20, 12110 - 40th Street S.E., Calgary, Alberta, T2Z 4K6 Contact: Bill L. Clements, Manager Client Relations, Tel: 403.259.2646, blc(at)pulseretail(dot)net

About YESpay International Limited:YESpay International Ltd., a global card payments service company, provides highly secure Internet, EMV Chip & PIN, contactless and gift card payment processing services to independent and multi-chain merchants. Through EMBOSS, the YESpay Managed Payment Service, merchants can quickly accept integrated card payments within EPOS, kiosks, hospitality and e-commerce systems with minimal capital investment and low on-going services costs. EMBOSS is an on-line IP-based payment processing service that has been generically pre-accredited by major Card Acquirers in Europe and North America (including First Data Merchant Service (FDMS), Chase Paymentech, Barclaycard Business, HSBC, HBOS, Lloyds Cardnet, Streamline, Ulster Bank, Elavon, PBS, Amex and Diners). In addition, the YESpay EMBOSS service is fully end-to-end certified to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) Level 1 as mandated by Visa and MasterCard. The YESpay EasyV-Suite of card payment products is innovative and cost-effective for EPOS, Kiosk, Hospitality, Mobile and Internet environments. With the YESpay EMBOSS card payment service, merchants can perform card payments in both card-present and card-not-present environments.

YESpay International Ltd Offices:133 Richmond Street West, Suite 406, M5H 2L3, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaPhone:+1 416 214 6012

UK Headquarters: Checknet House, 153 East Barnet Road, EN4 8QZ, Barnet, UKPhone: +44 203 006 3790

PR Contact: Sophia Dahri, Marketing Manager. Phone: +1 416 214 6012 ext 505sophia.dahri(at)yes-pay(dot)com

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Sophia DahriYESpay International Limited1-416-214-6012 505Email Information

Hide-Away Storage Offers Discount to Non-Profits

Churches need an infinite amount of storage space.There are a lot of nonprofits that need storage, too.We wanted to help and give back to the community at the same time,” said Steve Wilson, Managing Partner of Hide-Away Storage in Sarasota, FL.

The article cited a number of non-profits that have taken advantage of the offer, like the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and the PACE Center for Girls.

“It gives us a central point to store things so we’re not keeping things all over the place at everybody’s homes,” said treasurer Lucette Wombacher, of the Manatee County Audubon Society, another non-profit that has taken advantage of the offer.

Hide-Away Storage operates ten self storage facilities in St. Pete, Ellenton, Bradenton, Sarasota, Fort Myers and Naples and will provide a 40% discount on storage for long-term needs or three months of free storage for short-term needs.The company has also found that many non-profits benefit from the free short-term use of its Mobile Storage containers for garage sales and other fundraising activities.

About Hide-Away StorageHide-Away Storage operates 10 traditional self-storage facilities and two Mobile Storage warehouses on the Southwest coast of Florida.The self storage facilities are located in St. Petersburg, Ellenton, Bradenton, Sarasota, Ft. Myers, and Naples, Florida.Hide-Away delivers portable storage units in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Lee and Collier Counties.The company also provides full-service moving of household goods.Hide-Away has approximately one million square feet of storage space, and is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida.The company was started in 1977 in Bradenton by Steve Wilson, who remains the managing partner.

For more information on Hide-Away’s storage services and pricing, visit:

Contact: Hide-Away StorageMeisha WilsonHide-Away Storage Services941-755-1166 ext. 1004

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Meisha WilsonHide-Away Storage Services941-755-1166 1004Email Information

Japan PM urges clean energy push

Japan's Premier Naoto Kan said Tuesday the country must push alternative energy sources as it recovers from its quake and tsunami disaster and struggles to contain a nuclear emergency.

"Taking this as a lesson, we have to lead the world in clean energy, such as solar and biomass, and make it a major pillar of a new Japan," the centre-left leader told a parliamentary committee.

His top spokesman, Yukio Edano, later said that the use of clean energy sources would likely be a key feature of a reconstruction plan for the northeastern region where entire towns were swept away on March 11.

"In overcoming the devastation and creating a future-oriented vision, we are looking into the possibility of promoting and pushing more for clean energy," Edano was quoted as saying by Kyodo News agency.

A massive 14-metre (46-foot) tsunami sparked by the seabed quake hit the coastal Fukushima nuclear plant northeast of Tokyo, which has since emitted radiation into the air and sea, sparking international concern.

Resource-poor Japan, highly dependent on Middle Eastern oil, meets about one third of its energy needs with nuclear power, but its high-tech companies are also world leaders in many environmental and energy-saving technologies.

Japanese officials also said Tuesday that -- despite the seismic calamity that left about 28,000 people dead or missing -- Tokyo would attend UN climate talks starting in Bangkok on April 3 as planned.

The meeting of senior officials is the first for the year aimed at building international cooperation on combating global warming.

It will also continue a fierce debate over whether to extend the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gases that expires next year.

"Japan is set to fully participate" in the meeting, said Takeshi Sekiya, an environment ministry official, despite the fact that Japan's primary focus now was on disaster recovery and reconstruction.

On the climate issue, he said: "Japan's basic stance remains unchanged. We aim to build a fair and effective framework in which all major (carbon) emitting countries, such as the United States and China, take part."

Japan attracted some criticism last year for opposing an extension of the Kyoto Protocol. It said doing so would be unfair because top polluters China and the United States were not involved.

Teens Who Smoke Early Often Try Pot Later, Study Finds

re 17, researchers report.

Their analysis of data from a Finnish-American birth cohort study that began in 1994 found that by the time they were 17, about 15 percent of girls and 12 percent of boys had used marijuana or other illicit substances at least once.

Predictors of drug use included being female, binge drinking, father's binge drinking, peers who smoked, acquaintances with drug experience, and aggressive behavior among boys.

The researchers also found that starting smoking at an early age was an especially strong predictor of drug use. Participants who started smoking by age 12 or earlier were 26 times more likely to start using drugs by age 17 than those who never smoked.

"The findings support the gateway hypothesis, which asserts that illicit substances such as tobacco and alcohol are a stepping stone to harder, illicit drugs," project team member Tellervo Korhonen, of the University of Helsinki, said in an Academy of Finland news release. The academy funded the project.

"The theory has come under much criticism in recent years. Many have argued that certain common factors may explain both smoking and drug use, factors such as problem behavior and genetic influences. That's why we wanted to look into these issues more deeply in our studies," Korhonen added.

The findings appeared recently in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about .