Owners of Apple trademark claim victory in lower Chinese court that could spell the end of iPad sales there

Owners of Apple trademark claim victory in lower Chinese court that could spell the end of iPad sales there - Chinese firm Shenzhen Proview Technology in legal dispute with Apple over 'iPad' trademark - Proview trying to stop iPads being sold in China while case is resolved - Proview registered 'iPad' in 2001 as an 'Internet Personal Access Device'

Dispute: Chinese tech firm Shenzhen Proview have claimed ownership of the iPad trademark

A Chinese technology firm who claim ownership of the iPad trademark could stop the tablet device being sold in the country following a legal ruling today in their dispute with Apple.

Shenzhen Proview Technology, a firm based in Guangdong province, China, make LCD screens and have accused the technology giant of 'acting dishonestly' when it bought rights to the iPad name.

Today a lawyer for Proview claimed the Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong had ruled last week that distributors should stop selling iPads in China.

The ruling, which was also reported widely in China's state media, may not have a far-reaching effect.

In its battle with Apple, Proview is utilizing lawsuits in several places and also requesting commercial authorities in 40 cities to block iPad sales.

Apple insisted in a statement today, however, that it does hold trademark rights to the iPad in China.

Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said: 'We bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago.

'Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter.'

Lawyers representing Apple have accused Proview of breaching 'principles of good faith and fair dealing' and of making 'false and misleading' statements.

Proview, a maker of LCD screens which is based in Guangdong, has asked regulators to seize iPads in China in a possible prelude to demanding a payout from Apple.

A Shanghai court is due to hear a similar case on Wednesday.

Proview claims it registered the trademark for iPad in 2001, calling it an 'internet personal access device'

So far, iPads have been pulled from shelves in some Chinese cities but there has been no sign of action at the national level.

Shenzhen Proview Technology is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Proview International Holdings.

It registered the iPad trademark in China in 2001 and says the name was used for a computer described as an 'Internet Personal Access Device' that employed touch panel technology.

The company says it plans to ask China's customs agency to block imports and exports of iPads.

The technology giant has responded to Proview's claim by saying the Chinese firm

Apple contends that it acquired the iPad name when it bought rights in various countries from a Proview affiliate in Taiwan in 2009 for 35,000 British pounds ($55,000).

Proview won a ruling from a mainland Chinese court in December that it was not bound by that sale.

Proview International's shares have been suspended from trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since August 2010 and reports say it is deep in debt.

It will be delisted in June if it cannot show it has sufficient assets, business operations and working capital.

Proview has filed a trademark-violation lawsuit that goes to court Wednesday in Shanghai. In the meantime, China's mass media is abuzz with speculation over the case.

'The iPad trademark case: Who cheated who?' quizzed a story in Monday's edition of the 21st Century Business Herald.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, points to a Hong Kong court ruling in July that said Proview had acted with the intention of 'injuring Apple.'

According to that ruling, Apple set up a company in Britain to buy the iPad trademark from owners in various markets without revealing Apple was the purchaser. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Owners of Apple trademark claim victory in lower Chinese court that could spell the end of iPad sales there

Science Fiction-Style Sabotage a Fear in New Hacks

Science Fiction-Style Sabotage a Fear in New Hacks – When a computer attack hobbled Iran's unfinished nuclear power plant last year, it was assumed to be a military-grade strike, the handiwork of elite hacking professionals with nation-state backing.

Yet for all its science fiction sophistication, key elements have now been replicated in laboratory settings by security experts with little time, money or specialized skill. It is an alarming development that shows how technical advances are eroding the barrier that has long prevented computer assaults from leaping from the digital to the physical world.

The techniques demonstrated in recent months highlight the danger to operators of power plants, water systems and other critical infrastructure around the world.

"Things that sounded extremely unlikely a few years ago are now coming along," said Scott Borg, director of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a nonprofit group that helps the U.S. government prepare for future attacks.

Aug. 31, 2011: Researcher Dillon Beresford said it took him just two months and $20,000 in equipment to find more than a dozen vulnerabilities in electronic controllers of the same type used in Iran. The vulnerabilities, which included weak password protections, allowed him to take remote control of devices and reprogram them.

While the experiments have been performed in laboratory settings, and the findings presented at security conferences or in technical papers, the danger of another real-world attack such as the one on Iran is profound.

The team behind the so-called Stuxnet worm that was used to attack the Iranian nuclear facility may still be active. New malicious software with some of Stuxnet's original code and behavior has surfaced, suggesting ongoing reconnaissance against industrial control systems.

And attacks on critical infrastructure are increasing. The Idaho National Laboratory, home to secretive defense labs intended to protect the nation's power grids, water systems and other critical infrastructure, has responded to triple the number of computer attacks from clients this year over last, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revealed.

For years, ill-intentioned hackers have dreamed of plaguing the world's infrastructure with a brand of sabotage reserved for Hollywood. They've mused about wreaking havoc in industrial settings by burning out power plants, bursting oil and gas pipelines, or stalling manufacturing plants.

But a key roadblock has prevented them from causing widespread destruction: they've lacked a way to take remote control of the electronic "controller" boxes that serve as the nerve centers for heavy machinery.

The attack on Iran changed all that. Now, security experts -- and presumably, malicious hackers -- are racing to find weaknesses. They've found a slew of vulnerabilities.

Think of the new findings as the hacking equivalent of Moore's Law, the famous rule about computing power that it roughly doubles every couple of years. Just as better computer chips have accelerated the spread of PCs and consumer electronics over the past 40 years, new hacking techniques are making all kinds of critical infrastructure -- even prisons -- more vulnerable to attacks.

One thing all of the findings have in common is that mitigating the threat requires organizations to bridge a cultural divide that exists in many facilities. Among other things, separate teams responsible for computer and physical security need to start talking to each other and coordinate efforts.

Many of the threats at these facilities involve electronic equipment known as controllers. These devices take computer commands and send instructions to physical machinery, such as regulating how fast a conveyor belt moves.

They function as bridges between the computer and physical worlds. Computer hackers can exploit them to take over physical infrastructure. Stuxnet, for example, was designed to damage centrifuges in the nuclear plant being built in Iran by affecting how fast the controllers instructed the centrifuges to spin. Iran has blamed the U.S. and Israel for trying to sabotage what it says is a peaceful program.

Security researcher Dillon Beresford said it took him just two months and $20,000 in equipment to find more than a dozen vulnerabilities in the same type of electronic controllers used in Iran. The vulnerabilities, which included weak password protections, allowed him to take remote control of the devices and reprogram them.

"What all this is saying is you don't have to be a nation-state to do this stuff. That's very scary," said Joe Weiss, an industrial control system expert. "There's a perception barrier, and I think Dillon crashed that barrier."

One of the biggest makers of industrial controllers is Siemens AG, which made the controllers in question. The company said it has alerted customers, fixed some of the problems and is working closely with CERT, the cybersecurity arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Siemens said the issue largely affects older models of controllers. Even with those, the company said, a hacker would have to bypass passwords and other security measures that operators should have in place. Siemens said it knows of no actual break-ins using the techniques identified by Beresford, who works in Austin, Texas, for NSS Labs Inc.

Yet because the devices are designed to last for decades, replacing or updating them isn't always easy. And the more research that comes out, the more likely attacks become.

One of the foremost Stuxnet experts, Ralph Langner, a security consultant in Hamburg, Germany, has come up with what he calls a "time bomb" of just four lines of programming code. He called it the most basic copycat attack that a Stuxnet-inspired prankster, criminal or terrorist could come up with.

"As low-level as these results may be, they will spread through the hacker community and will attract others who continue digging," Langer said in an email.

The threat isn't limited to power plants. Even prisons and jails are vulnerable.

Another research team, based in Virginia, was allowed to inspect a correctional facility -- it won't say which one -- and found vulnerabilities that would allow it to open and close the facility's doors, suppress alarms and tamper with video surveillance feeds.

During a tour of the facility, the researchers noticed controllers like the ones in Iran. They used knowledge of the facility's network and that controller to demonstrate weaknesses.

They said it was crucial to isolate critical control systems from the Internet to prevent such attacks.

"People need to deem what's critical infrastructure in their facilities and who might come in contact with those," Teague Newman, one of the three behind the research.

Another example involves a Southern California power company that wanted to test the controllers used throughout its substations. It hired Mocana Corp., a San Francisco-based security firm, to do the evaluation.

Kurt Stammberger, a vice president at Mocana, told The Associated Press that his firm found multiple vulnerabilities that would allow a hacker to control any piece of equipment connected to the controllers.

"We've never looked at a device like this before, and we were able to find this in the first day," Stammberger said. "These were big, major problems, and problems frankly that have been known about for at least a year and a half, but the utility had no clue."

He wouldn't name the utility or the device maker. But he said it wasn't a Siemens device, which points to an industrywide problem, not one limited to a single manufacturer.

Mocana is working with the device maker on a fix, Stammberger said. His firm presented its findings at the ICS Cyber Security Conference in September.

Even if a manufacturer fixes the problem in new devices, there's no easy way to fix it in older units, short of installing new equipment. Industrial facilities are loath to do that because of the costs of even temporarily shutting its operations.

"The situation is not at all as bad as it was five to six years ago, but there's much that remains to be done," said Ulf Lindqvist, an expert on industrial control systems with SRI International. "We need to be as innovative and organized on the good-guy side as the bad guys can be." ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Science Fiction-Style Sabotage a Fear in New Hacks

Now Muslim militants target Prince Harry: Outrage after extremists post chilling online hate video

Now Muslim militants target Prince Harry: Outrage after extremists post chilling online hate video - An extremist group is believed to be targeting Prince Harry after a propaganda hate video has come to light following the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

The 26-year-old, third in line to the throne, is the subject of a three-minute video posted last week by an organisation calling itself Muslims Against Crusades.

It is believed that Harry is being targeted to avenge the death of the Al Qaeda leader, who was shot by American commandos last Sunday, as six years ago he dressed as a Nazi and has served the British Army in Afghanistan.

Action: The video shows a series of clips from Prince Harry's time in Afghanistan fighting Taliban forces

The video, entitled 'Harry the Nazi', shows the young royal - who was best man to his elder brother William just over a week ago - serving for the British Army against Taliban forces in 2007 and 2008, saying that 'all my wishes have come true'.

It begins with the Muslims Against Crusades sign looming large and imposing, and then sounds of soldiers marching are accompanied by Arabic voices.

Originally posted on the group's jihadist website, the video continues to show snippets of Prince Harry talking to the media while in action in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

It also shows the royal - who spent 10 weeks in Afghanistan and joked that he is a 'bullet magnet' - using derogatory Asian terms 'Paki' and 'Raghead' in videos taken while he was in the Middle East, and exposed by the News of the World.

Man's best friend: Prince Harry pictured today at a polo tournament, playing with the vet's dog

The clips are spliced together and framed in a central box, as though someone is watching the footage on a television, flicking through Harry's actions.

Outside of the frame, there is a dark border, and smoke rises from beneath.

The clips stop suddenly, and all that remains is a picture of Harry dressed as a Nazi - a decision which caused outrage, when he wore the outfit for a fancy dress party in 2005 - and then the production abruptly ends..

Best man: The 26-year-old was his elder brother's right-hand man at the Royal Wedding

The film is designed to incite hatred against Harry - who has recently been promoted to captain in the Army - and it appears to have worked. Below the video, posted on YouTube, people have written aggressive, threatening messages in response to it.

One person wrote: 'May Allah curse and destroy him.' Another, calling himself Brother Younis, said: 'May he rot in hell.' And a third poster pointed out that both Harry and Hitler begin with the letter H, and added: 'Harry the royal British Nazi.'.

Extremists: The video, which was posted on YouTube on April 29, shows the group name as a title credit

Dead: Osama Bin Laden was shot by US commandos in northern Pakistan on May 2 and Anjem Choudary, a member of the pro-Islamic group 'Islam4UK', has warned that Britain should expect another 7/7 terror attack

'Prince Harry is inevitably at risk,' a security source told the News of the World. 'As risks go up then the protection capability has to be increased.'

Muslims Against Crusades's website claims that their members are 'raising the banner for Islam' and reveals why Prince Harry - and William - are targets.

In the Frequently Asked Questions section they write: 'It would seem fitting and appropriate to condemn individuals, who sympathise with such a brutal mob (referring to the British Army who are fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya), or who promote their literature or glorify their cause.

'William and Harry are not exempt from accountability, and their conscientious decision to enrol in an army that engages in the aforementioned crimes, cannot be taken lightly.'

The extremist organisation today claimed that the video was not meant to be inflammatory, and inist that it is not a call to arms for terrorists to target Harry.

The group's spokesman, Islamic cleric Anjem Choudary did admit, however, that the video was designed to direct Muslim anger towards the Royal Family's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the video was created to promote the group's aborted attempts to protest at the Royal Wedding.

Protests: Extremists clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday

Clashes: Muslim demonstrators marched outside the U.S. Embassy and called President Obama 'arrogant'

'There is a real anger with the Royal Family about their participation in war against Iraq and Prince Harry because of his tour fighting against Muslims in Afghanistan,' said the 44-year-old.

'Prince William has also expressed a desire to fight in Afghanistan.

'This video was being used to explain why we were planning to protest at the Royal Wedding.'

He continued: 'I can assure everyone that the Muslims Against Crusades has no intention of targeting Prince Harry or any other member of the Royal Family.

'We believe in political action, not military action. We believe in the covenant of security; in return for our wealth and well-being protected it is not permitted to target wealth and life of those with whom we live.

'It is the objective of this, and videos like it, to draw attention to the Royal Family's involvement in wars that kill our Muslim brothers and sisters.'

Last Friday Choudary organised a 200-person strong protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, so that Muslims Against Crusades could voice their opinions against 'arrogant' President Obama, who ordered the commandos to attack Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan.

They organised a mock funeral for the 54-year-old Al Qaeda leader, and carried placards which read: 'Royal Family baby killers' and 'William and Harry watch your back'.

And Al Qaeda-supporting cleric Choudary warned that Britain is likely to suffer another 7/7 terrorist attack.

'Following the boasts and gloats of the arrogant President Barack Obama that he ordered the murder of "unarmed" Sheikh Osama Bin Laden without trial or consideration of his rights and the shooting and kidnapping of his defenceless wife and son, Muslims around the world are witness to America's utter disregard for fairness or justice,' the Muslims Against Crusades website explained.

Police stepped in to separate the protesters and members of the English Defence League amid threats of violence from both sides.

Though many were shocked that the protest was allowed to go ahead, coming as it did shortly after the verdict into the 7/7 inquest was released by Lady Justice Heather Hallett.

She recorded that the 52 victims had been 'unlawfully' killed when four terrorists attacked three London Underground trains and a bus in 2005.

While the Metropolitan Police refused to answer questions about the extremist group asked by MailOnline directly, a 'police source' told the News of the World: 'The Met are constantly monitoring activity by Muslims Against Crusades.

'If a direct threat is made we will respond.' ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Now Muslim militants target Prince Harry: Outrage after extremists post chilling online hate video

One is back to the daily grind - even the Queen has to return to work after wedding bank holiday

One is back to the daily grind - even the Queen has to return to work after wedding bank holiday - Four days ago she was the proud grandmother overseeing a wedding watched by two billion people.

But after the bank holiday it was back to the daily grind for the Queen today as she visited a famous horseracing town.

After one million people took to the capitals streets for the wedding which thrilled the world, the monarch visited a day centre in Newmarket, Cambridge, this afternoon.

Refreshed: Four days after the Royal Wedding the Queen meets children at the Newmarket Day Centre

Flashback: The Queen at William and Kate's wedding last Friday talking to her son Prince Charles

The Queen and Prince Philip left for a weekend away before a Buckingham Palace party for 300 friends and relatives.

Refreshed, she shied away from discussing the Royal Wedding today as she discussed her love of the sport with horse racing veterans.

The Queen, a keen racing fan, spoke to former horse trainer Jerry Blum who offered a taste of nostalgia with photographs from the VE Day 1,000 Guineas race in July 1945.

'She was delighted with the photographs. She had requested to speak to someone about racing,' the 87-year-old said.

'I spoke to her about the filly that I used to look after, Sun Stream. She won the 1,000 Guineas on VE Day in 1945.'

Mr Blum described how he reminisced with the Queen about previous royal visits to the racing town and said she was 'very interested in the horses'.

He said: 'I spoke to her about 70 years ago, when the late King and Queen and Princess Margaret used to come here. They came into the box. Us apprentices used to put our jackets on for the occasion.'

Back to the day job: After the Royal Wedding the Queen spent a weekend away with Prince Philip

Cut price deal? The Queen talks to Vera Smith, from Stetchworth, Suffolk, during a visit to the hair dressers at Newmarket Day Centre

Long-serving volunteer Pat Dugdale, 68, from Chippenham, said she had been working at the centre for 28 years.

She likened the jubilant Royal Wedding celebrations to those at the day centre today.

'Friday was a day for the nation but today has been our day in this day centre. It's been just absolutely wonderful. We've been so excited for weeks on end,' she said.

Describing the Queen as 'amazing', Ms Dugdale said she was surprised she was still standing after Friday.

The Queen and Prince Philip take their seats in Westminster Abbey on Friday before the wedding. After the lunchtime reception at Buckingham Palace, they left for a weekend away

'On top of the Royal Wedding where does she get the energy from? It's incredible,' she said.

The Time Of Your Life day centre is a community drop-in service run by Newmarket Day Centre Charity. The Queen's visit marks its 30th anniversary.

The centre provides resources for over-50s and offers activities such as line dancing and Tai Chi.

The Queen was greeted by well-wishers and schoolchildren who lined the nearby street, waving Union flags and holding baskets of flowers. She was given a posy of local blossoms before she toured the day centre.

As the Queen, dressed in a royal blue coat and matching hat, spoke to long-term staff at the centre she was all smiles and described the facility as 'lovely'. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - One is back to the daily grind - even the Queen has to return to work after wedding bank holiday

Rate of Depression Among U.S. Unemployed

Rate of Depression Among U.S. Unemployed. The steep downturn in the U.S. economy and the accompanying rise in unemployment have caused financial hardship for millions of Americans. The recession is also having a negative impact on Americans' mental health. A new national survey, recently released in conjunction with a U.S. Mental Health Awareness campaign, finds that unemployed Americans are far more likely than those with jobs to report symptoms of severe mental illness.

Money troubles are causing mental stress

The survey of almost one thousand adult Americans was conducted for two independent mental health advocacy groups. David Shern, president of Mental Health America, says the survey clearly shows that for many people, financial distress is translating into serious psychological distress, and in some cases, to thoughts of suicide.

For many people, financial distress is translating into serious psychological distress

David Shern, president of Mental Health America

"People who are unemployed are at substantially higher risk for ideas of harming themselves. In fact they are four times more likely to report that they had thoughts of harming themselves in contrast with individuals who are employed. Even for people who are employed, those who have been forced to make a change in their employment during the last year are twice as likely to meet the criterion for severe mental difficulties as individuals who have not had a forced change," Shern says.

He also says that Americans who were forced to take a pay cut or forced to work fewer hours are also five times more likely to report feeling hopeless than individuals who hadn't experienced those involuntary changes.

Those who need help are less likely to be able to afford it

Not surprisingly, the study notes that unemployed Americans are six times as likely as those with jobs to have difficulty meeting household expenses. But Shern says that creates another problem, because 42 percent of jobless survey respondents said either the prohibitive costs or their lack of insurance coverage prevented them from seeking professional mental health care

"Affordability and universal insurance coverage are both important issues here. What we recommend for individuals who are concerned about their health care and they cannot afford it is that they contact the community mental health agencies in their communities. Most communities have a community mental health agency that provides what we call safety net services for people. However, like all aspects of the human services system, they are extremely stressed by the economic circumstances as well," Shern says.

Michael Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of the non-profit National Alliance on Mental Illness, says his group co-sponsored the survey to alert the public that, like the troubled economy itself, emotional depression can be remedied.

"The message we really want to put out today is that depression is very treatable by a combination of talk therapy and antidepressants. There is a recent research that shows that almost 80 percent of people who receive treatment get better," Fitzpatrick says.

Free mental health screenings and referrals may be available

Michael Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of the non-profit National Alliance on Mental Illness says depression is very treatable by a combination of talk therapy and antidepressants

Fitzpatrick says his organization is using the survey results during Mental Health Awareness Week to urge Americans to seek free psychiatric screenings to find out if their financial anxieties might really be a far more serious case of depression.

"There are free depression screening events in over a thousand communities around this country, mental health professionals are on site to assist with referrals. There are 1100 affiliates around the country who are ready and willing to talk to people experiencing depression, and to their families. We have a number of free sources of information as well as educational programs that are readily available," Fitzpatrick says.

Mental health advocates believe that while the U.S. economy is starting to turn around in terms of housing sales and industrial production, it will take a little longer for the jobless rate to decline. In the meantime, they say, addressing the critical mental health needs of millions of financially-imperiled Americans will contribute to a healthier economic recovery for the nation. voanews.com

READ MORE - Rate of Depression Among U.S. Unemployed

Steps to Preserve Language

Immersion classes teach the youngest tribal members the Cherokee language

Steps to Preserve Language. Six young children - four girls and two boys - sit on the floor looking up at their teacher seated in a chair. An older woman with streaks of gray in the long, straight hair pulled back from her face, she holds up flashcards with colors and words spelled out in distinctive lettering. Her students are learning Cherokee, the language of their ancestors, but a language many of their own parents didn't speak as children.

A difficult language for adults to learn

"I'm still learning. I'm a second language learner," says Renissa Walker, who is in charge of the language, history and cultural preservation program for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Cherokee is the only Native American language with its own syllabary

"It's a very, very difficult language. In Cherokee, there are so many verb tenses and tones and inflections." Cherokee also has a unique syllabary with 85 characters, each representing a syllable. It was created by a tribal member, Sequoyah, and adopted by the Cherokee in 1825.

Walker says, like many languages, Cherokee is not always easily translated. "There are appropriate ways of Cherokee living that are embedded into the language," she says. She fears those ways of Cherokee living are being lost, because the Cherokee don't use the language in everyday living.

Like Walker, Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is among those adults learning Cherokee. "My grandmother was fluent. My dad understands. He speaks some, but he only taught in bits and pieces, so that is how I learned." Chief Hick says he's still learning, and although he isn't fluent he does know quite a few phrases.

Chief Hicks has made language instruction a priority of his administration. The tribe estimates there are 300 fluent speakers among the population of 14,000. The majority are under five or over 50, like Renissa Walker's mother, Myrtle Driver.

The most important part of being Cherokee

Myrtle Driver says if the Cherokee language is lost, much of the history and the traditions of the Cherokee people will also be lost

"I think the most important part of being Cherokee is the language," Driver says. "When I speak my own language, I'm speaking from the heart. When I'm speaking English, from here." Driver brings her finger to her temple as she says this.

Driver was raised by her grandparents, who would not allow her to speak English in the home. Her daughter Renissa was raised by a white family. Driver says, at the time, it seemed the best choice for both her and her daughter, even though she wanted her to know about her Cherokee heritage.

"In order for me to go to school so I could provide for my children, I had to put her with a trustworthy foster home, and she liked it." Driver says her daughter, who moved back to the community as a teenager, had a far better education growing up with a white foster family.

But schools have improved on the reservation. A 1988 law gave American Indian tribes the authority to establish casinos on their lands. Some of the money that comes from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian's casino is funneled into education, including language classes.

Literature for future generations

Charles Frazier's account of the Cherokee removal in "Thirteen Moons" is the first work of English literature to be translated into Cherokee in 175 years

When she thinks of the young children learning Cherokee today, Myrtle Driver is optimistic about the future of her tribe and its language. To ensure that generations to come would have literature to read in their language, she translated into Cherokee a portion of Charles Frasier's novel Thirteen Moons. It tells of the forced migration of the Cherokee people in 1838. Over 4,000 died on the journey. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are descendants of those who remained behind, hidden in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Although Frazier is white, Driver says, "He wrote it as if he experienced it." One day, she says, the young children learning Cherokee through immersion classes will read that account of the Trail of Tears, "and they will read it in the Cherokee way, as if grandma were sitting there telling them what actually happened."

They will read it with their hearts as well as their minds.voanews.com

READ MORE - Steps to Preserve Language

The American workforce is getting grayer

The American workforce is getting grayer. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the number of workers between 65 and 74 years old will grow by more than 80 percent between 2006 and 2016. Economic hard-times are causing members of the so-called 'baby-boomer' generation to postpone their retirement plans.

Joan Hansen

At 70-years-old, Joan Hansen is still working. Born in 1938, Hansen could have retired with full government benefits at 65. But she admits being nervous about quitting her job as head a small, non-profit organization.

"When you think about no longer receiving your salary and wanting to still have a nice lifestyle, it does become a little bit scary," Hansen said.

Hansen's daughter died several years ago. She says she keeps working to make enough money to raise her 14-year-old granddaughter. "I do have a lot of expenses," she says, "so with the economy the way it is, you're just a little bit fearful of breaking off and trying to start a new life."

So that she can stay on the job, Hansen keeps healthy by exercising.

A Pew Research Center study finds that 40 percent of Americans, like Hansen, work past the median retirement age because of economic conditions.

Sean Snaith

Economist Sean Snaith says seniors are hard hit by declines in home equity and retirement funds. "A lot of both retirees and near retirees, of course, saw their nest eggs cut in half," she explains, "and in and of itself that, I think, prompted a lot of people to say, 'You know, I can't retire now because I just don't have enough saved up.'"

While officials forecast a growing number of older workers, they predict a decline in employment among people under 24.

"For people that are trying to find jobs, older workers that are staying on the job much later in life are effectively locking up those slots," Snaith said.

The U.S. Census Bureau says a desire for more retirement savings, an increase in life expectancy and the high cost of health care all contribute to the increasing age of America's workforce. Like many Americas, Joan Hansen says she does not yet know when she will retire, but she expects to continue working for the foreseeable future.voanews.com

READ MORE - The American workforce is getting grayer