Taliban talks: Another Karzai tiff with the US?

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he will personally attend a meeting with Taliban figures in Saudi Arabia, working around Western efforts to coordinate the peace process.?

The Afghan government has announced plans for President Hamid Karzai to meet with members of the Taliban in Saudi Arabia. Many are heralding the announcement as a potential breakthrough because the?Taliban has thus far refused to recognize Mr. Karzai?s government.

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However, news of the meeting in Saudi Arabia?comes weeks after the Taliban agreed to open an office in Qatar and has raised some concern that Karzai could create the appearance of a disjointed negotiation effort that could undermine peace efforts and threaten relations between the Afghans and the West.?

?The Afghan side is worried about not having a complete role, and the Afghan government is suspicious of Qatar,? says Farouk Merani, an independent political analyst. ?I think the Afghan government is trying to secure its own interests.?

There was already tension between Western and Afghan officials when news broke last month that NATO was negotiating with the Taliban to create a political office in Qatar and had not consulted Karzai?s government. In response, Karzai pulled the Afghan ambassador from Doha in December.

US and NATO officials made efforts to address Afghan concerns about exclusion from the peace process and planning for the Qatar office continued. Still, such discord may confuse future talks with lingering questions?of whether Afghan and Western officials are working together.

?Karzai is trying to give an impression that he is in contact with the Taliban, the Americans are trying to give the same impression, but the real Taliban who are fighting under Mullah Omar, they are very clever, they don?t trust the Pakistani establishment, they don?t trust Karzai, and they don?t trust the Americans,? says Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist and independent analyst. ?Yes, they are ready to negotiate with the United States, but they want to negotiate directly, not through Pakistan and not through Karzai.?

Among the Taliban, the main focus of talks will likely be trying to broker a deal for the withdrawal of all foreign military bases from Afghanistan. Forging a coalition government with Karzai is less likely to be a draw for the Taliban, thus there is little need for the president at talks, adds Mr. Mir.

Among Afghans involved in the peace process, many say it is dangerous to read too deeply into Karzai?s forthcoming trip to Saudi Arabia to speak with the Taliban.

?These are the talks, and they are under one name. If they are in Qatar or Saudi Arabia they're still negotiations. I believe the people who might meet Karzai in Saudi Arabia are the same people who are sitting in Qatar. They are the political people who are responsible for talking to anyone,? says Haji Musa Hotec, a member of the Afghan High Peace Council who served as deputy minister of planning during the Taliban?s rule. ?There were concerns when the talks were going on secretly between America and the Taliban. But after the Americans gave us our share and asked us to work with them, our concerns have gone."

Adding yet another layer of complication, there are questions about whether the?Taliban?s political representatives?being sent to Qatar truly represent the interests of the group?s leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Specifically, there is some distance between the Taliban's leadership in Pakistan and the front-line commanders, especially after US forces decimated the ranks of mid-level commanders who moved between the two groups.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hUw4zg9Jrlc/Taliban-talks-Another-Karzai-tiff-with-the-US

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Summary Box: Markets rattled by lack of Greek deal (AP)

NO DEAL: The wait for an expected deal between Greece and its creditors rattled financial markets around the world Monday. Yields for ultra-safe U.S. government debt hit their lowest this year, and the euro and European stocks fell.

GREECE TALKS: Greece and its creditors were said to be close to an agreement over the weekend. It's aimed at cutting Greece's debt by roughly euro100 billion ($132 billion).

TO PORTUGAL: Borrowing costs for European countries with the heaviest debt burdens shot higher. The two-year interest rate for Portugal's government debt jumped to 21 percent after trading around 14 percent last week.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_summary_box

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Animals Get The Upper Paw, or Hoof, or Claw (preview)

Antigravity | More Science See Inside

Every so often a critter takes a shot at making headlines

By Steve Mirsky ?| January 29, 2012

Image: Matt Collins

In journalism, there?s what you call your dog-bites-man situation. Which is anything too common and expected to be a good story (unless the dog is one of those Resident Evil hellhounds, or the man is Cesar Millan). An example of a dog-bites-man science story is yet another confirmation of Einstein and relativity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Steve Mirsky has been writing the Anti Gravity column since atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were about 358 parts per million. He also hosts the Scientific American podcast Science Talk.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=06f4ff3e53d3b8a10e479108af970713

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Copyright Extension, Reversion Are Focus of Legal Panel at MIDEM ...

January 29, 2012

Recent changes in U.S. and European copyright law may not seem like the most scintillating topic for a Saturday afternoon. But a MIDEM panel titled "New Horizons in Copyright Law" drew an overflow crowd at the Midem Academy room of Riviera Hall.

And no wonder. As three prominent entertainment attorneys explained, artists, labels and publishing companies will be profoundly affected by the European Union's copyright term extension and the pending reversion of U.S. copyrights to creators of works assigned to a publisher on Jan. 1, 1978 and thereafter.

EU Extends Copyright Term To 70 Years

In September 2011, the EU adopted a directive extending copyright protection for sound recordings to 70 years, from the previous 50-year term. The directive will be implemented by EU member states over the next two years.

"This is really, really a major piece of new legislation," said Michael Sukin, chairman of Sukin Law Group in New York. Sukin, a long-time advocate of the extension, stripped down the complex directive to its bare essence, saying that it means "songs get better protection, records get another 20 years, artists get new money, artists get termination rights."

The potential implications of U.S. termination rights for works assigned to publishers in 1978 and thereafter are also significant, said Kenneth Abdo, chairman of the entertainment law department at Lommen Abdo in Minneapolis.

Business Matters: Make No Mistake, EU Copyright Extension Is Good for Record Labels, Too

In theory, Abdo said, the reversion of copyrights to creators means that labels and publishers will lose control of valuable catalogs. "Can it happen? Yes," he said. "Will it happen? Maybe. It's a complicated area."

One factor muddying the waters is the large number of parties who can be considered an "author" eligible to exercise termination rights. They include artists, songwriters, session musicians and producers. Meanwhile, creative works determined to be "works for hire" -- for instance, a work created by someone who was employed by a company claiming the copyright -- are not eligible for termination.

Bernard Resnick, an entertainment attorney based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., explained what he'd advise labels to do if they were to receive copyright termination notices. First, he said, they should take a hard look at their catalog and determine which works earn the most money. Then they should consider whether to approach a creator preemptively to try to work out a settlement with more favorable terms for the artist, explaining that the termination provision could affect the label's ability to handle copyrighted works they still control outside of the U.S., Resnick said.

Finally, labels should create departments devoted to the administration of reverted copyrights, which would buttress their argument that they are equipped to handle continued administration of their works.

"This is the kind of thing that drives artists crazy," Resnick said. "It's something we all have to pay a lot of attention to."

Source: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/legal-and-management/copyright-extension-reversion-are-focus-1006026152.story

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Climate of intolerance in West Bank, activists say (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank ? A Palestinian atheist who was jailed and beaten last year for expressing anti-Muslim views on Facebook and in blogs says Palestinian security forces are harassing him again, despite government pledges to respect human rights.

The blogger's renewed ordeal is part of a persistent climate of intolerance of dissent in the territories controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, say human rights activists. They say they've seen improvements, including a marked decrease in the mistreatment of detainees, but that Abbas' security forces, who are partially funded by the West, must halt harassment and arbitrary detention.

Government spokesman Ghassan Khatib acknowledged occasional lapses, but said that in the past two years, "there's been great progress and success in reducing abuses."

Such promises mean little to atheist blogger Walid Husayin, who has lived in fear of the security forces since being released from a nine-month prison stint last summer.

"I'm sick and tired. My life has come to a halt," the 28-year-old Husayin said in a phone interview from his home in the northern West Bank town of Qalqiliya.

Since his release on bail, he has been picked up several times by security agents and held for days at a time. In one of those detentions, he was beaten with cables and forced to stand in a painful position on empty cans, said Husayin, the son of a Muslim preacher. Interrogators smashed his two computers and demanded that he stop expressing his views, he said.

Activists from three rights organizations said they witnessed an increase in arbitrary detentions in recent months, including calling in "troublemakers" for repeated interrogation, but said they hadn't yet collated 2011 figures.

Those targeted include loyalists of the Islamic militant Hamas, Abbas' political rival, and supporters of Hezb al-Tahrir, or the "Liberation Party," a puritan Islamic movement considered apolitical.

The increased pressure on dissent coincides with pro-democracy uprisings of the Mideast Arab Spring, but it's not clear if there is a direct link. Anti-government demonstrations in the West Bank usually draw just a few dozen or few hundred people, tiny compared to protests that toppled rulers in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia over the past year.

There appears to be little popular sympathy for those targeted in the crackdown, said Jamil Rabah, an independent Palestinian pollster.

In Gaza, ruled by the Islamic Hamas since a violent takeover in 2007, the Islamists appear to dealing even more harshly with critics, particularly on religious matters.

In both territories, those who violate social norms find themselves in the crosshairs. In Gaza, Hamas recently banned a televised amateur singing contest on modesty grounds because it included female contestants.

In the West Bank, Palestinian-American comedian Maysoon Zayid said her husband was roughed up and lightly hurt last fall after she mocked Palestinian officials in a skit. Witnesses identified the assailants as plainclothes security men, said Zayid, a contributor to "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on Current TV, a U.S. cable show.

She said it was the first attempt at intimidation after years of West Bank performances.

"I feel like the Palestinian Authority is going backward," said Zayid, a resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey. "That is not the state I am fighting for."

Blogger Husayin, who got his start with anonymous Facebook posts, caused an uproar in the Arab world in 2010 by mocking Islam's Prophet Muhammad, dismissing Islam as a primitive religion and sarcastically referring to himself as God.

In November 2010, he was caught in a sting that used Facebook to find him. In the West Bank, it's against the law to defame Islam or Christianity.

He was initially held without charges, but eventually he was accused of blasphemy and insulting people's beliefs. For four of the nine months of his initial detention, he was kept in solitary confinement. He told the New York-based Human Rights Watch that he was shackled for long periods and so harshly beaten that he vomited blood. After his release on bail in August, a court gave him a three-year suspended sentence.

Husayin returned home to his conservative Muslim family, rarely venturing out. He said his family is ashamed of what people might say about him, because of his unorthodox views. Husayin said he doesn't want people to see him either ? he still fears vigilante retribution.

The blogger wouldn't allow reporters to visit, saying he feared it would inflame family tensions.

Adnan Damiri, a spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, said he was not aware of harassment against Husayin.

"It isn't acceptable to summon somebody for ideological reasons. I am prepared to deal with this case," he said.

Khatib, the government spokesman, portrayed attempts to stifle dissent as growing pains. "We can promise that in 2012, we will have progress from last year. We are building a state, and there are difficulties in doing that," he said.

While the blogger's "crime" is unusual in the West Bank, his arbitrary detention fits a pattern, activists from three human rights groups said. Shawan Jabarin of the rights group al-Haq said he was aware of hundreds of arbitrary detentions in the past few months.

The bulk of those detained are Hamas supporters.

"We haven't seen tremendous improvement in rights and freedoms," said Randa Siniora of the Independent Commission for Human Rights.

The worst abuses receded over the past two years, like torture of political activists and lengthy detentions, the activists said, and the practice of trying civilians in military courts has largely stopped, they said.

Damiri, the police spokesman, said lessons have been learned.

"There are individual cases of abuse, but we don't have a culture of revenge," he said.

Rights activists say it's too soon to speak of a major shift in attitude.

"There's a lack of accountability, a lack of laws enshrining rights," said Jabarin. "We can't talk about a culture of institutions and the rule of law."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_stifling_dissent

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To the Moon, Newt!

Now, four astronauts is not a permanent colony on the moon. To have a permanent colony, you would have to manufacture housing, most likely underground, or at least under significant shielding, since there is no atmosphere and no magnetic field to shield against the harmful effects of cosmic rays for an extended period. Not to mention the need to build facilities for waste recycling, plus food storage and preparation. That is, unless we continually provide food and other provisions for pilgrims from Earth, creating a non-self-sustaining colony. But Gingrich has already made it quite clear, in his attacks on President Obama, that he would not like to be remembered for championing any such sort of government-sponsored food program.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=53043349d14a24a95bdab247e19eed92

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demorgen: 'Black Stars' gaan al dansend de Africa Cup in http://t.co/FX1wr1TL

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'Black Stars' gaan al dansend de Africa Cup in bit.ly/AdYf2t Il y a environ 4 heures via twitterfeed

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Country music star Merle Haggard home from hospital (Reuters)

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) ? Country music singer Merle Haggard was resting at home in Northern California on Friday after a long stint in a Georgia hospital, his publicist said.

Haggard, 74, was hospitalized on January 17 for treatment of double-pneumonia. While in the hospital in Macon, Georgia, doctors discovered a number of other conditions for which Haggard needed treatment.

publicist Tresa Redburn said Haggard flew home on Thursday and she had no update on his condition Friday.

Haggard went to the hospital after his illness forced him to cancel a show in Macon just moments before taking the stage.

Doctors had the double-pneumonia pretty much cleared up earlier this week. The singer stayed in the hospital to recover after eight polyps were removed from his colon and for treatment of three stomach ulcers and diverticulitis in his esophagus, all of which were discovered by the Macon medical staff, said Redburn.

Early this week Haggard credited the Macon medical team for "probably saving my life," Redburn said.

Haggard had to cancel the remainder of his January tour. He is planning to resume his tour on February 28 in Tucson, Arizona, Redburn said, and missed dates are being rescheduled in April.

Haggard is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. With influences ranging from Lefty Frizzell to Bob Wills to Jimmie Rodgers, Haggard is an architect of country music's so-called "Bakersfield Sound."

He is best known for songs such as "Mama Tried," "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me."

(Editing by Greg McCune and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/music_nm/us_merlehaggard

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Criticism mounts of RBS bonus for CEO (AP)

LONDON ? U.K. politicians are fuming about a bonus of nearly a million pounds ($1.5 million) given to the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, which cost the U.K. government 45 billion pounds to bail out and nationalize three years ago.

Stephen Hester, the current CEO, was brought in to rebuild the bank and, for his work, the board of directors has decided to award him 3.6 million shares. But at a time when the government is hitting Britons with painful spending cuts and tax hikes, the question of bonuses in nationalized companies like RBS has become sensitive.

"Some bankers have decided not to take a bonus this year, like the chief executive of Lloyds," Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Friday, referring to Antonio Horta-Osorio, CEO of part-nationalized Lloyds Banking Group. He has said he would not accept a bonus in view of his two month absence because of stress.

"It's up to Stephen Hester, frankly; that's his individual decision," said Clegg.

A spokesman for the opposition Labour Party said Hester didn't deserve a bonus. Chuka Umunna, Labour's business spokesman and a former member of the Treasury Select Committee, said that Prime Minister David Cameron's government had failed to act to curb excessive pay.

"People listening to this program will be flabbergasted that nothing has been done about this," Umunna said in a BBC radio interview.

Hester's bonus is worth 963,000 pounds based on Thursday's closing share price of 26.75 pence and comes on top of his annual salary of 1.2 million pounds. He cannot sell the shares, however, until late 2014.

Taxpayers, who own 82 percent of the RBS shares, will recoup their 45 billion pounds investment in bailing out the bank only if the share price rises to 50 pence. At that point, Hester's bonus is worth 1.8 million pounds.

RBS shares were down 0.4 percent in midday trading in London Friday, recovering from a 2 percent drop earlier.

Jeremy Browne of the Liberal Democrat party noted that Hester's pay in three days is as much as the annual pay of a soldier in Afghanistan. "I think he should reflect on that," Browne said, suggesting that Hester refuse the bonus as a matter of honor.

But Gary Greenwood, analyst at Shore Capital, argued that the comparison was "somewhat irrelevant, with the real issue being what Mr. Hester could earn in a similar role elsewhere."

Prime Minister David Cameron had said he hoped Hester's bonus would be significantly lower than what he got last year.

"He said he thought the chief executive's bonus should be lower than it was last year and it less than half what it was last year," said a spokesman for Cameron, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

A year ago, Hester was awarded 4.5 million shares, then said to be worth 2 million pounds. They would be worth 1.3 million pounds at the current share price.

Though RBS' share price had fallen by nearly half last year, Chairman Philip Hampton said the board was pleased with the progress which had been made under Hester.

"His pay is strongly geared to the recovery of RBS, which he was recruited to turn around, having played no part in its collapse," Hampton said.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative like Cameron, said he found the bonus hard to justify.

"I find it absolutely bewildering because RBS occupies the same status in the economy as Gosbank did in the Soviet Union: it's a state-owned bank," Johnson said. "The idea that this is not in the control of the Government seems to me to be far-fetched."

Hester was hired to run the bank after Fred Goodwin, who led RBS's ill-fated takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, stepped down in October 2008 as the government was spending billions to prop up the bank.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_rbs

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FTC head calls out Facebook, Google on Data Privacy Day

By Helen A.S. Popkin

ICanHazCheeseburger.com

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Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill didn't spare Facebook in her speech opening?a forum on Data Privacy Day ? even though the event was live-streamed by the social network, in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Counsel.

"Reasonably safeguarding consumer information is critical to a trusted online marketplace," Brill said in her keynote,?elaborating how it's not enough for companies to have?privacy and security policies ? those polices have to be enforced. "Our enforcement actions in the privacy area are also a call to industry to put important privacy principles into practice. Facebook and Google learned this the hard way." (Read the full transcript of Brill's speech here.)

Coordinated by the non-profit NCSA, Data Privacy Day "is an annual international celebration designed to promote awareness about privacy and education about best privacy practice." Here in the United States, the day was observed via a Facebook Live, which streamed Brill's keynote speech, as well as two panel discussions featuring representatives from Facebook, Comcast, eBay, MasterCard WorldWide and government agency representatives.

Learning about privacy the "hard way" Brill referred to is, it seems, subjective. The Facebook case Brill was talking about was the recent settlement between the Federal Trade Commission and the social network, stemming from a massive privacy rollback Facebook forced on its users in 2009.

The FTC said Facebook "deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public."

As part of the settlement,?Facebook is now barred "from making any further deceptive privacy claims." It also requires "that the company get consumer's approval before it changes the way it shares their data, and requires that it obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years."

As we noted at the time, the settlement does not require that Facebook restore the privacy settings it rolled back in 2009, which led to the FTC investigation. Much user information is still widely available to the public ? as well as to Facebook's business partners ? by default. If you want more privacy, you need to "opt-out," otherwise your info is out there for anyone to see.

As for Google, Brill wasn't talking about the search giant's most recent privacy kerfuffle, but the Google Buzz incident of 2010. Google Buzz, you may or may not recall, was the pre-Google+ attempt to launch a social network. The weak privacy settings that left user information publicly available by default resulted in lawsuits and last year's settlement with the FTC.

Among other things, the FTC "charged that Google did not adequately disclose to users that the identity of individuals who users most frequently emailed could be made public by default," Brill said. "Like Facebook, Google settled our complaint. And like Facebook, Google is also required to implement a comprehensive privacy program and to obtain periodic assessments that will examine how well the privacy program is put into practice."

Google's Monday announcement about privacy changes could put it back in the FTC's hotseat, however ?the company plans a single privacy policy for many products to??"maintain, protect and improve" its more-than-70 services. That's good for Google, because it can build a more detailed user profile for targeting ads. That's not so good for users, because you can't opt out of any of Google's services. So if you're on Gmail, you're on Google Wallet, YouTube and Picasa and everything else, too.

Like Facebook, Google settled the FTC's complaint. And like Facebook, Google is also required to implement a comprehensive privacy program and to obtain periodic assessments that will examine how well the privacy program is put into practice. Google is collecting your information in one giant file, and there's no way to opt out.

As Ars Technica's Casey Johnston recently noted, "Facebook has been tiptoeing over that line for years, and occasionally returning to the other side, recanting. But Facebook is a service predicated on sharing information with others." All the information Facebook has, Facebook users gave willingly.

"Google, on the other hand, has made itself essential with free services like YouTube and Gmail," Johnston writes. "The cost of dropping off Facebook is increased difficulty in stalking your peers, plus nagging questions about why you don't have Facebook. The cost of dropping off Google is, often as not, moving your entire online system for managing communication and information in multiple media elsewhere."

Sounds like Google, at least, is in for the agreed-upon "periodic assessments that will examine how well the privacy program is put into practice." What better day to plan, than Data Privacy Day?

?More on the annoying way we live now:

?Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about privacy and then asks her to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.?Because that's how she rolls.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10243278-ftc-head-calls-out-facebook-google-on-data-privacy-day

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Muslims urge resignation of NY police chief over video (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? U.S. Muslim civil rights groups demanded the resignation of New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on Wednesday amid a controversy over the repeated screening of an offensive video.

Kelly said he regretted cooperating with the makers of "The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America," which shows footage of suicide attacks and says "the true agenda of much of Muslim leadership here in America" is to "infiltrate and dominate America."

Kelly came under fire following reports that the video had been screened many more times than previously acknowledged. When the video first came to light a year ago, police said it had been screened only a few times.

In fact, it was shown to more than 1,400 officers over a period of months, the New York Times reported on Tuesday based on documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent Muslim civil liberties organization, said Kelly had disqualified himself to head the country's largest and most prominent police force.

"As leaders of the nation's largest police department, Commissioner Kelly and Deputy Commissioner (Paul) Browne's actions set a tone for relations with law enforcement that impact American Muslims nationwide," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. "It's time for change."

CAIR and other civil liberties groups set a news conference for Thursday at New York City Hall.

The controversy comes as Kelly, who is closely aligned with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was restoring the police department's strained relations with the Muslim minority.

"Somebody exercised some terrible judgment," Bloomberg told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the film. "As soon as they found out about it, they stopped it."

STRAINED RELATIONS

"The Third Jihad" ran on continuous loop on a TV in a Brooklyn police location that officers used to fill in paperwork during down time, Kelly's spokesman and deputy, Paul Browne, said. He said the film was not used in training sessions and was never shown at the Police Academy.

In addition, police now admit a spokesman helped arrange an interview the filmmakers did with Kelly that appeared in the film. Previously, police had said Kelly was not involved in the making of the film and that the interview was taken from an archive.

Browne said on Wednesday the commissioner finds the finished product "objectionable" and regrets taking part.

The filmmakers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kelly has navigated difficult times with Muslims, having come into office shortly after the September 11 attacks of 2001, which led to an unprecedented security crackdown that drew the ire of civil libertarians.

Kelly and Bloomberg have since won praise for prosecuting hate crimes against Muslims and defending the right to build a mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks. But there have been periods of tension, more recently over the department's role in secret operations at New York area mosques.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/us_nm/us_usa_newyork_muslims

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In GOP response, Daniels blames Obama for economy (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama has resorted to "extremism" with stifling, anti-growth policies and sought to divide Americans, not unite them, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday in the formal Republican response to the president's State of the Union address.

Eight months after deciding against a bid for his party's presidential nomination, Daniels used his nationally televised speech to lash out at Obama and cast the GOP as compassionate and eager to unchain the country's economic potential.

He took particular aim at Obama's efforts to raise taxes on the rich and castigate them for not contributing their fair share to the nation's burdens. Joined by Republicans on Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trails, the GOP goal was to both blunt and shift the focus away from Obama's theme on Tuesday of fairness, which included protecting the middle class and making sure the rich pay an equitable share of taxes.

"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."

"This election is going to be a referendum on the president's economic policies," which have worsened the economy, said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "The politics of envy, the politics of dividing our country is not what America is all about."

Also drawing frequent GOP attacks were Obama's proposed tax increases, which included making sure millionaire earners pay at least a 30 percent tax rate.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Obama's proposals to boost taxes on the wealthy and give tax breaks for domestic U.S. manufacturers and others were "nothing more than the usual Washington game that has led to a tax code already littered with lobbyist loopholes."

Daniels is a rarity in the GOP these days ? a uniting and widely respected figure, contrasting with the divisiveness emanating from the contest for the presidential nomination being waged among former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others.

President George W. Bush's first budget chief and a two-term Indiana governor, Daniels often rails against wasteful spending big budget deficits, though critics note he served during the abrupt shift from fleeting federal surpluses to massive deficits early in Bush's term.

"When President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true," Daniels said. He added that while Obama did not cause the country's economic and budget problems, "He was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse."

The night's rhetoric come at the dawn of a presidential and congressional election year in which the defining issues are the faltering economy and weak job market and the parties' clashing prescriptions for restoring both. Obama and congressional Democrats have focused on the more populist pathway of financing federal initiatives by taxing millionaires, while Republicans preach the virtues of less regulation and smaller government.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Obama's address "a campaign speech designed to please his liberal base," and warned that he should keep legislation advancing his priorities "free from poison pills like tax hikes on job creators."

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who heads large group of House conservatives, said Obama's speech was riddled with "the ridiculous idea that America isn't fair because successful people get to keep too much of the money they earn."

Republicans fired back at Obama's vision of "an economy built to last," saying it was their party that understood the best way to trigger economic growth was to get the government out of the way.

"The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly sane pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy," Daniels said.

Obama has halted, for now, work on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to Texas' Gulf Coast. Republicans say the project would create thousands of jobs, a claim opponents say is overstated. The administration has also pursued policies aimed at reducing pollution and global warming.

To underscore Obama's decision on Keystone, Boehner invited three officials from companies he said would be hurt by the pipeline's rejection to watch the speech in the House chamber, along with a pro-pipeline legislator from Nebraska, through which the project would pass.

Obama was delivering his address during a rowdy battle for the GOP presidential nomination that has ended up providing ammunition for Obama's theme of fairness.

That fight has called attention to the wealth of one of the top contenders, Romney, and the low ? but legal ? effective federal income tax rate of around 15 percent that the multimillionaire has paid in the past two years. Romney, in Florida campaigning for that state's Jan. 31 primary, released his tax documents for the two-year period on Tuesday.

"The president's agenda sounds less like `built to last' and more like doomed to fail," Romney said in Tampa, Fla. "What he's proposing is more of the same: more taxes, more spending, and more regulation."

Romney's chief rival at this point, Gingrich, said in a written statement that the top question about Obama's speech was whether he "will show a willingness to put aside the extremist ideology of the far left and call for a new set of policies that could lead to dramatic private sector job creation and economic growth."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_state_of_union_gop_reaction

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Seal Talks To Ellen About His Marriage

Singer-songwriter SEAL makes his first television appearance since the announcement of the separation from wife, Heidi Klum on ?The Ellen DeGeneres Show? on Tuesday, January 24th. Ellen talks with Seal about the separation and why he is still wearing his wedding ring. Seal on his split from wife, Heidi Klum? ELLEN: I think it?s a [...]

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The Northern Lights dance over northern England (AP)

LONDON ? The Northern Lights have lit up the skies above Scotland, northern England and northern parts of Ireland after the biggest solar storm in more than six years bombarded Earth with radiation.

The Canadian Space Agency posted a geomagnetic storm warning on Tuesday after residents were also treated to a spectacular show in the night sky.

Ken Kennedy, director of the Aurora section of the British Astronomical Association, said that the lights, also known as the aurora borealis, may be visible for a few more days.

The Northern Lights are sometimes seen from northern parts of Scotland but the unusual solar activity this week means the lights have also been visible from northeast England and Ireland, a rarity.

Geomagnetic storms cause awesome sights, but they can also bring trouble.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, problems can include current surges in power lines, and interference in the broadcast of radio, TV and telephone signals.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_sc/eu_europe_northern_lights

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Romney: Alright, I?ll Release My 2010 Returns on Tuesday (Michellemalkin)

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Should Queen Elizabeth be a 'have-yacht' among have-nots?

Reports that a British government official proposed that the royal yacht for Queen Elizabeth be funded with public money has stirred up anger in a time of austerity.

It?s the other big boat story this week: Does Queen Elizabeth need or deserve a new royal yacht to mark her 60th?year on the throne? The debate is hotting up, with Prime Minister David Cameron sailing into rough seas of opinion after supporting the idea, despite an epic year of job loss and austerity in the United Kingdom.

Skip to next paragraph

Cameron?s Liberal Democrat coalition partner Nick Clegg, who has been pushing ?tax the rich? schemes of late, told reporters it was a debate about ?haves and have-yachts.?

In a memo this fall, Education Secretary Michael Gove floated the idea of funding a?$125 million yacht with Britain's public funds.?Mr. Gove,?a staunch monarchist,?was worried that her majesty?s Diamond Jubilee could be overshadowed by the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London.?

The proposed vessel would replace the former royal yacht Britannia, whose decommissioning in 2006 caused a famous tear from Queen Elizabeth.?

The notion of using public funds to buy a yacht for one of the world?s richest women in the midst of a dire economic climate was quickly scotched by Mr. Cameron, who favors private financing for the idea.?

British newspaper The Guardian broke the story?about Gove's suggestion that public funds be used for the gift and later reported that Prince Charles and a prominent rear admiral supported the plan. (In an article today headlined?"Britannia CAN rule the waves!" The Daily Mail ???a major proponent of the project and often of the monarchy ??rejected the claims that Gove had proposed public funding.)

Since the Guardian broke the story and the government made strong reassurances that the project would not receive public funding, the charity behind the plan has set out to campaign for private donations instead.

Plans for the yacht to be turned into a self-financing training and instructional vessel are in the works, should the proposal pan out.?However, potential donors say it is still unclear how much of the upkeep, security, staff, and other often hidden expenses of large vessels will cost the public.?

Queen Elizabeth is still going strong in her Diamond Jubilee year, and has achieved a singular level of popularity among ordinary Brits that is helping the monarchy and the damaged reputation of the royal family, says Nick Spencer of Theos, a public theology think tank.

?But this is very badly timed,? says Mr. Spencer.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/ocjTmyJxy3k/Should-Queen-Elizabeth-be-a-have-yacht-among-have-nots

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Flooding, power failures linger after Northwest storm

Ted S. Warren / AP

A downed tree rests on a car Thursday in front of an apartment building in Tacoma, Wash.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Updated 3:45 p.m.: Temperatures in the Puget Sound region warmed above freezing on Friday, but tens of thousands of people remained without power after coatings of snow and ice took down power lines and trees around the region.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridges between Tacoma?and the Kitsap Peninsula were closed because ice was falling from the upper structures and cables on to the roadway, NBC station KING/5 of Seattle reported.

Sea-Tac Airport re-opened all three runways Friday after a layer of ice forced the airport to shut them down?Thursday. But there was still a significant backup of flights.

Schools in the Seattle area?were closed for a fourth straight day during a week already shortened by the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.

In western Oregon, flooding rivers were expected to start to recede as the state got a?break in rainstorms through Friday afternoon,?said Nick Allard,?meteorologist at NBC station KGW of Portland.

Original post: Utility crews worked Friday to restore power to hundreds of thousands of Pacific Northwest residents left in the dark by a powerful snow and rain storm.

About 250,000 electric customers around Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia were expected to begin a second day in the cold and dark. Most of those affected are customers of Puget Sound Energy, which said it could take into the weekend or later to get the power back on for everybody.

The storm coated much of Washington in ice and swelled Oregon rivers, killing a child and two adults. Besides the outages, the big concern now is more flooding in both states with warmer temperatures and rain.

The National Weather Service said warming temperatures Friday should melt snow and ice in the Western Washington lowlands as the forecast returns to normal ? rain ? into next week. Forecasters said the melting snow could cause urban and small stream flooding and fill the Skokomish and Chehalis rivers above flood stage by Saturday evening.

Gov. Chris Gregoire of Washington and Gov. John Kithaber declared both a state of emergency, authorizing the use of National Guard troops if necessary.

Oregon, which saw the storm heap a torrent of rain on top of melting snow, should see a break for some hours before another front comes in, said meteorologist Paul Tolleson in Portland, Ore.

"It'll be just enough rain to make people nervous," he said.

The unusually strong system temporarily shut down Seattle's airport Thursday. Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air canceled 310 flights to and from Seattle Thursday and Alaska Air said it was canceling 50 flights on Friday. Seattle is Alaska Air's main hub.

Deadly consequences
The storm left three people dead: a mother and her 1-year-old boy, killed after torrential rain swept away a car from an Albany, Ore., grocery store parking lot; and an elderly man fatally injured by a falling tree as he was backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a backyard shed near Seattle.

Thomas Patterson / AP

Floodwaters run over Gun Club Road in Independence, Ore., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Though most of the Willamette Valley's overnight snow rapidly melted away, heavy wind and rain whipped through the region. (AP Photo/Statesman-Journal, Thomas Patterson)

The weather system also dropped snow on Washington's Mount Rainier, where four people were reported missing. A search was suspended at nightfall but was to resume Friday.

?It really is pointless to [attempt a rescue] in blizzard conditions ?,? Stefan Lofgren, head of Rainier?s climbing program but not part of this search, told The News Tribune. ?You can?t place people at risk in the same weather that pinned down the people you are trying to rescue.?

In Oregon, flooding hit the Salem-to-Eugene area the hardest, with 17 rivers across the region at or near flood stage, The Oregonian reported. Some 15.5 inches fell? in 48 hours in the tiny Lane County town of Swiss Home.

Portions of several Oregon highways were closed Thursday due to high water or downed trees.

Rick Bowmer / AP

A submerged school bus lies on its side as Diane Garibaldi looks on Thursday in Salem, Ore. Up to 10 inches of rain fell on parts of the Oregon Coast Range in a 36-hour period.

In the Willamette Valley town of Scio, Ore., many residents evacuated as the city manager said water was pouring down Main Street.

Officials in the city of Turner, Ore., issued a voluntary evacuation order to people, asking them to flee to higher ground as floodwaters from the rising Mill Creek swept through town.

To the west of Oregon's Coast Range, residents were being moved out of Mapleton, with a population of about 900.

The storm system also brought blowing snow to northwest Colorado as high winds battered the Front Range, with more heavy snow expected over the weekend.

Meteorologist Mike McFarland at the National Weather Service in Seattle said the system that brought freezing rain was over Minnesota, Wisconsin and parts of Nebraska and Kansas Friday but not packing the same punch.

"I don't think it looks like a very interesting system back east," he said. "Even though it was interesting here, it's not an extensive storm that will do much of anything anywhere else.

"It was unusual but not exceptionally potent, otherwise."

The Associated Press and msnbc.com's James Eng contributed to this story.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199517-flooding-power-outages-linger-after-huge-northwest-storm

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GOP race offers scattershot list of angels, demons (AP)

WASHINGTON ? In the short time since Mitt Romney tried unsuccessfully to leave the rest of the GOP field behind in New Hampshire, the presidential race has served up a scattershot cast of angels and demons as the candidates try to strike a chord with different slices of the electorate.

Capitalism was in, then out, then in again. Insurance companies got a sideways sympathetic nod. Mike Huckabee and Betty White proved to have some cachet. The press was an ever-popular whipping child.

Europe and entitlements, felons, food stamps and French: All were on the outs with one candidate or another.

Newt Gingrich even ran an ad faulting Romney for his language skills: "Just like John Kerry, he speaks French," it warned ominously.

The GOP challengers went after Romney's venture capitalist credentials with a vengeance ? most memorably when Texas Gov. Rick Perry rebranded him a "vulture capitalist" ? then eased up somewhat when they caught grief from the defenders of free enterprise.

For a little while, even insurance companies ? typically a popular target for politicians of any stripe ? got a little love after Romney said he liked the idea of being able to fire them for poor performance. The other candidates summoned a chorus of outrage at the notion that Romney would relish firing anyone.

Republican strategist Terry Holt said it all adds up to "a blizzard of buzz words" as candidates try to deliver a headline-grabbing quote that will get people's attention.

But does it work?

"Ultimately, it all blends together into a general sense of the candidate," says Holt. "The back-and-forth is lost on most people."

And there's been a lot of back-and-forthing.

Romney and Gingrich both ran ads trying to claim a little luster from popular conservative Huckabee by rolling out nice things he'd said about them. But it turned out Huckabee hadn't endorsed either of them, and both got a scolding from the former Arkansas governor.

President Barack Obama, watching the GOP race from the sidelines, had to be hoping that a little of Betty White's uncanny popularity would rub off when he taped a video piece for her 90th birthday in which he joked that the actress looks so good she should cough up her long-form birth certificate to prove she's really that old.

The GOP candidates trotted out plenty of reliable enemies ? "Obamacare," federal regulations, big government, the Dodd-Frank financial regulations ? but added some new ones to the mix as well.

Gingrich, catering to South Carolina sensibilities and its port communities, singled out the Army Corps of Engineers, complaining in Thursday's debate that the corps "takes eight years to study ? not to complete ? to study doing the port. We won the entire Second World War in three years and eight months."

Candidates' messages zigzagged all over in search of a winning line that would work with voters.

Earning money was good ? except if your name was Mitt Romney.

A super PAC supporting Gingrich made a half-hour movie attacking Romney for reaping "massive rewards for himself and his investors," complete with sinister music and a baritone-voice narrator.

Romney defended his capitalist credentials by lining himself up with the philosopher known as a father of capitalism, proudly announcing, "Adam Smith was right."

Perry managed to turn the news that U.S. troops had apparently been captured on video urinating on corpses in Afghanistan into an indictment of the Obama administration. The Texas governor accused the Obama team of piling on against "kids" who sometimes make "stupid mistakes."

It didn't do him much good: He was out of the race within days.

Then came the issue of infidelity: Gingrich chose not to comment on the details of his marriage to his second wife after she claimed that he'd asked her for an "open marriage" in which he could have both a wife and a mistress.

Gingrich managed to steer that conversation to the one enemy that all the candidates love to beat up on: the media.

"I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country," he declared.

But even rival Rick Santorum saw through the tactic, urging voters not to be swept away by Gingrich's blast at the press.

Republicans should "get past the glib one-liners, the beating up of the media, which is always popular with conservatives," Santorum said.

Democratic strategist Karen Finney said the Republicans' random list of friends and foes has emerged as candidates "try to pick off pieces of the Republican electorate" with very targeted appeals that will add up to an overall win in each primary or caucus state.

"The narrative is shifting based on the audiences they're speaking to," she said.

"There's always, `Who's the good guy and who's the bad guy,'" she said.

In this campaign, that lineup changes every day.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_angels_and_demons

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From tinkering on the fringes to Nobel glory

Sean O'Neill, contributor

Andre Geim receives the Nobel Prize from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf (Image: Sipa Press/Rex Features)

Andre Geim shared the Nobel prize in physics in 2010 for his co-discovery of graphene. He is director of the Manchester Centre for Mesoscience & Nanotechnology at the University of Manchester

What makes a good day for you?

There are two things. The first is a good result, one which you sort of expected but that never previously came through. A really great result is always unexpected, and you never believe it. But there is this second-tier result, where you have a marginal expectation and something happens and you feel lucky. The second is when you get a journal paper accepted. It's always a fight. Even our Nobel-acknowledged paper needed significant changes before it was accepted.

Winning a Nobel prize has been known to interrupt the winner's work. How has it affected yours?

Actually, before the Nobel prize I accumulated such inertia that I managed to go through the "prize barrier" relatively unscathed. Our work continues because it is a very hot area. It's very unusual for a Nobel to be given for something which continues to be incredibly hot. One of my colleagues said that when he heard the announcement, he thought to himself: "Oh good, now they'll leave this area for me." Then he saw another of our papers published, and thought: "damn, they're still working on it!"

Geim's levatating frog (Image: Sipa Press/Rex Features)

Besides the Nobel, what else has shaped your career?

I believe a turning point was my first visit to the University of Nottingham in 1990. I was 32. Before that I was tinkering on the fringes of scientific discovery in Russia and felt like I was destined to stay there, whatever I tried. During this first experience at a western lab, with such resources suddenly at my disposal, I realised that I could be in the very thick of research action and that, despite my limited publication record, I was well trained to contribute. There was no going back.

You have worked in many countries. How does the UK compare?

I spent four years in the UK from 1990, before returning in 2000. I like it because it's a very natural environment. I found the US, the Netherlands and practically everywhere else I have worked a bit artificial and occasionally even hypocritical. There's an expectation that you have to smile and behave in a certain manner. Despite the differences between Russia, where I was born, and the UK, there is some common sense of humour. British humour - natural and self-deprecating - is very appealing to me.

You won an Ig Nobel award in 2000 for demonstrating an unusual magnetic effect using a levitating frog. Did you know it would generate such a buzz?

It was always the intention. We wanted to get the message across that everything around us is magnetic and needed to find an image with general appeal. We considered putting spiders, lizards, cockroaches and hamsters into the field. A hamster would have done nicely, but the hole into the apparatus was too small, so we ended up with a tiny frog we found in the biology department.

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Breaking news: cancer drugs make tumors more aggressive and ...

(NaturalNews) When natural health advocates warn against mainstream medicine's arsenal of weapons used to fight cancer, including chemotherapy and radiation, their concerns often revolve around how these therapies can weaken and damage a person's body in numerous ways. But scientists are finding other reasons to question some of these therapies. It turns out that while chemotherapies may kill or shrink tumors in the short term, they may actually be causing malignancies to grow more deadly in the long term.

For example, NaturalNews previously reported (http://www.naturalnews.com/029042_cancer_cells_chemotherapy.html) that scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center and UAB Department of Chemistry are currently investigating the very real possibility that dead cancer cells left over after chemotherapy spark cancer to spread to other parts of the body (metastasis). And now comes news that a little-explored specific cell type, the pericyte, found in what is called the microenvironment of a cancerous tumor actually may halt cancer progression and metastasis. And by destroying these cells, some anti-cancer therapies may inadvertently be making cancer more aggressive as well as likely to spread and kill.

A study just published in the January 17 issue of the journal Cancer Cell concludes that anti-angiogenic therapies (which shrink cancer by cutting off tumors' blood supply) may be killing the body's natural defense against cancer by destroying pericyte cells that likely serve as important gatekeepers against cancer progression and metastasis. Pericytes cover blood vessels and support their growth.

For the new research, Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Matrix Biology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), investigated whether targeting pericytes could inhibit tumor growth in the same way that other antiangiogenic cancer drugs do.

Dr. Kalluri and his research team worked with mice genetically engineered to support drug-induced depletion of pericytes in growing tumors. Next, they removed pericytes in implanted mouse breast cancer tumors, decreasing pericyte numbers by 60 percent.

Compared with control animals, there was a 30 percent decrease in the size of cancerous tumors over 25 days. But there was a serious catch to these results. Contrary to conventional mainsteam medical wisdom, the scientists discovered the number of secondary lung tumors in the engineered mice had increased threefold compared to the control mice, indicating that the tumors had metastasized.

"If you just looked at tumor growth, the results were good," Dr. Kalluri said in a press statement. "But when you looked at the whole picture, inhibiting tumor vessels was not controlling cancer progression. The cancer was, in fact, spreading. This suggested to us that without supportive pericytes, the vasculature inside the tumor was becoming weak and leaky -- even more so than it already is inside most tumors-- and this was reducing the flow of oxygen to the tumor."

That change, he explains, makes cancer cells more mobile, so they can travel through those leaky vessels to new locations. It also makes cancer cells behave more like stem cells, so they are better able to survive.

Because cancer therapies such as Imatinib, Sunitinib and others are known to decrease pericytes in tumors, the scientists next carried out the same experiments in mice with primary tumors. Only this time, they used the chemotherapy drugs Imatinib and Sunitinib instead of genetic programs to decrease pericyte numbers. Both Imatinib and Sunitinib caused 70 percent pericyte depletion -- and they also increased metastasis threefold.

In order to see if their findings are relevant to human patients, the research team examined 130 breast cancer tumor samples of varying cancer stages and tumor sizes and compared pericyte levels with prognoses. The result? The samples with low numbers of pericytes in tumor vasculature correlated with the most deeply invasive cancers, distant metastasis and five to ten year survival rates less than 20 percent.

"These results are quite provocative and will influence clinical programs designed to target tumor angiogenesis," Ronald A. DePinho, president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said in a press statement. "These impressive studies will inform and refine potential therapeutic approaches for many cancers."

For more information:

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Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/034693_cancer_drugs_tumors_aggressive.html

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Power out, snowfall records smashed in Seattle (Reuters)

SEATTLE (Reuters) ? A historic snow and ice storm paralyzed Seattle on Thursday, shutting the airport and schools, causing car crashes, downing trees and cutting power to at least 90,000 households as blown-out transformers lit up the skies.

The National Weather Service declared an ice storm warning early on Thursday through noon local time for eight western Washington counties.

Record-setting daily snowfall of 6.8 inches was measured early Thursday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, shattering the previous record of 2.9 inches in 1954, said meteorologist Dan DePodwin on Accuweather.com.

As a result of the storm which arrived on Tuesday evening and was nicknamed "Snowmageddon," the airport remained closed with its three runways and ramps coated with ice.

"We're still not seeing departures at this point," airport spokesman Perry Cooper said.

The airport was stocked up on de-icing supplies, but "the best we can hope for is a warming situation," he said.

Streets were also a mess as frigid temperatures and freezing rain in the Tacoma area, 35 miles south of Seattle, coated roads with ice and played havoc with traffic.

In the greater Seattle area, downed trees blocked lanes on at least three state highways, Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Julie Startup told Reuters at 6:30 a.m. local time. She said there were many collisions on the icy roads.

Power outages kept residents in the dark but blown-out transformers put on a spectacular show.

"Skies just keep lighting up," Startup said.

Charles Tomala, spokesman at the Washington Emergency Operations Center, said that 24,000 residents in the Tacoma area were without power at 7 a.m. local time on Thursday.

An additional 70,000 people in southern King County, Thurston and Pierce counties were without power at 7:15 a.m. local time, Puget Sound Energy spokesman Roger Thompson said.

"Ice is really the big issue right now," Thompson said.

Puget Sound Energy warned that power outages in some areas may not be restored until Saturday.

Mark Clemens, a spokesman with the state's Emergency Operations Center, said Governor Christine Gregoire issued an unannounced "proclamation of emergency" late on Wednesday that would officially extend the hours that truck drivers could legally transport milk and other dairy products throughout the state.

Gregoire spokeswoman Karina Shagren, however, said she was unable to confirm that Gregoire had signed the proclamation.

(Writing By Barbara Goldberg; editing by Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/us_nm/us_weather

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Gina Carano 'In Control' Of Male 'Haywire' Co-Stars

'I didn't have any issue [doing] this fight scene with a woman, because I was the underdog,' Ewan McGregor tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner

Gina Carano in "Haywire"
Photo: Claudette Barius / Five Continents Imports

If you like your movies with a lot of action, kick-ass fight sequences and actors who do their own stunts, look no further than this week's new thriller "Haywire" to satisfy those needs.

The concept for the film was born after director Steven Soderbergh saw footage of MMA fighter Gina Carano in the cage, which inspired the Oscar winner to build a film around her. "Haywire" revolves around a black-ops supersoldier (Carano) who seeks the ultimate revenge after she is betrayed by her colleagues, played by the very capable Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas.

MTV News recently caught up with Carano, Tatum and McGregor to discuss the very realistic fight sequences and how the guys were more than game for getting their butts kicked by a woman.

"The physicality, that was fun to me. I didn't have to hurt anybody," Carano said of the difference between the film's choreographed fights versus her MMA matches. "I didn't have to worry about getting choked out, and there were no egos with any of the actors. They all wanted to do all their own stunts, and a lot of people around me were like, 'Gina, that's not normal. You've got some beautiful people to work with and a beautiful first experience.' "

"To be totally honest, she's better than every guy I've ever fought, really, other than one, and he was a strike force fighter as well," Tatum admitted of his co-star, with whom he shares an intense bone-breaking exchange during the first five minutes of the film. "I can say this without any amount of trying to say it for the movie: I challenge anyone to come and fight her or even move with her. She's by far the best athlete I've ever gotten a chance to move with. She's so strong and in control, it's just ridiculously unprecedented in my opinion."

McGregor added that he didn't even think about the man-vs.-woman factor, only that it was the most appropriate scenario for his manipulative, weasel-like character.

"There was a slight difference in our fight scene together. For me, I didn't ever have any issue with the fact that I was having to do this fight scene with a woman, because I was the underdog," he said. "There was no question that I was going to get killed if I didn't manage to get away."

Check out everything we've got on "Haywire."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677588/haywire-gina-carano.jhtml

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Microsoft announces Q2 earnings: record $20.89 billion in revenue, $6.62 billion net income

Microsoft has just announced its second quarter earnings, and it's touting a record $20.89 billion in revenue, up five percent year-over-year. Net income came in at $6.62 billion, which isn't far off at all from the $6.63 billion it netted in the same quarter a year ago. Breaking things down further, the company's Business Division saw a 3 percent increase in revenue to $6.28 billion, its Server & Tools business jumped 11 percent to $4.77 billion, its Windows and Windows Live Division dropped 6 percent to $4.74 billion, its Online Services business was up 10 percent to $784 million and, last but not least, its Entertainment & Devices Division jumped a full 15 percent to $4.24 billion. On that last bit, the company also reminded folks that it's now sold 66 million Xbox 360 consoles and 18 million Kinect sensors, and that its Xbox Live user base now stands at 40 million worldwide.

The company's call to discuss the earnings is coming up at 5:30PM Eastern -- we'll keep you posted on any new details that come out of it.

Developing...

Continue reading Microsoft announces Q2 earnings: record $20.89 billion in revenue, $6.62 billion net income

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Greece: Eurozone won't add cash if bond talks fail (AP)

ATHENS, Greece ? Eurozone countries won't increase financial support for Greece if it fails to secure a bond-swap deal with private creditors, the country's foreign minister warned Thursday.

Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos's remarks came hours before he held a second day of talks with banking negotiators to reach a deal, known as the Private Sector Involvement, aimed at slashing the country's debt by euro100 billion ($130 billion).

Greece is facing a renewed threat of defaulting on its debts, with a euro14.5 billion ($18.7 billion) repayment looming March 20 and no funds to cover it.

"If there is a (financing) gap, this would have to be covered by a larger contribution from the official sector ? that means the eurozone countries, directly or indirectly. And at this point, I do not see any willingness or readiness to increase that contribution," Venizelos told parliament. "So there must be no gap, and the Private Sector Involvement is very important."

Talks between the government and representatives of private investors broke down last Friday amid disagreements over the interest rate that Greece would have to pay for the new, lower-valued bonds. They restarted Wednesday, when the Institute of International Finance sent a new proposal to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos with several new elements, including the interest rates, a European Union official said Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential.

The IIF, which is representing private bondholders, now suggests an interest rate of below 4 percent that increases gradually until 2020, the official said. He said he didn't know how high the interest rate would go, but added he was hopeful a deal could be reached by the end of the week. That would allow eurozone finance ministers to discuss the deal at their meeting Monday in Brussels.

Venizelos and Papademos continued negotiations late Thursday with Charles Dallara, a top official at the IIF.

The bond-swap negotiations are part of a second bailout deal for Greece worth euro130 billion ($168 billion) tentatively agreed upon between Greece and eurozone countries, on top of the euro110 billion ($142 billion) in rescue loans Athens has been getting from the eurozone and International Monetary Fund since May 2010.

But the eurozone said Athens would only get the new financial aid if private bondholders agree to cancel 50 percent of their Greek debt in exchange for a cash payment and new bonds with longer maturities.

Venizelos warned a default would inevitably lead to Greece's exit from the 17-nation eurozone.

"Bankruptcy would of course mean our exit from the euro, because we would not be able to withstand staying in," he said Thursday.

Senior members of the EU-IMF debt inspection team known as the "troika" are due in Athens on Friday to negotiate additional terms for the second bailout and to monitor Greece's progress on slashing deficits though harsh austerity measures.

Papademos met for nearly three hours with the leaders of political parties backing his two-month-old coalition government to discuss the debt talks and the inspectors' visit.

"The discussions took place in a positive atmosphere, and the political leaders reaffirmed their for full support for the government to complete its work," Papademos said.

Also Thursday, parliament was set to approve a series of new austerity measures demanded by the debt inspectors, including provisions to open up closed professions and easier payment schemes to help businesses settle mounting tax debts.

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Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis

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Dandy financiers cut through gloom at Milan week (Reuters)

MILAN (Reuters) ? Fashion designers brushed up capes, trench coats and pinstripe suits to enliven the wardrobes of businessmen who want to cut their way through the gloom.

Chinese buyers were again the top guests at the Milan menswear week ended Tuesday, confirming their influence on an industry relying on Asia to shield itself from European headwinds.

"The luxury industry is doing well because emerging markets are offsetting less encouraging results in the old continent," Gianluca Brozzetti, chief executive of Roberto Cavalli, said.

Cavalli worked his traditional animal theme into new intricate prints for the winter season, while Italian brand Ermenegildo Zegna dressed relaxed travelers with alpaca parkas, natural-shouldered jackets and long, straight pants.

"Businessmen must go on a fiscal diet, but also keep on travelling around the world," Chairman Paolo Zegna told Reuters.

It could be a reaction to the crisis, but designers showed new ideas, sometimes drawing inspiration from their archives.

Creative Director Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta printed classic suits in fabrics of different weight, from alpaca to cashmere. "It's a very buttoned-up look, but with room for individual interpretation," he said.

Gucci, like Bottega Veneta owned by French group PPR, proposed a romantic dandy with softly oversized pieces in floral prints and jackets reminiscent of the 70s.

STAR POWER

Overcoats returned at Prada, which played with power and palazzo intrigues in a star-studded show.

Trend-setter designer Miuccia Prada lined up a sensational group of actors including Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Emile Hirsch, who modeled in double-breasted coats adorned with medal-like brooches.

Coats and capes played again the leading role at Dolce & Gabbana, who boiled, aged and painted traditional pinstripe and Prince of Wales fabrics for their sartorial suits.

Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said they used gold filigree threads for their Baroque-inspired evening suits, adding exclusivity to a collection that appeals to the wealthy.

Glitter also dominated at Versace, where denim-clad models wore golden studs and tuxedos encrusted with crystals.

Donatella Versace also pinned gold medals on jackets, giving a military allure also seen at Prada, while pinstriped suits came in new geometric patterns.

Gold also shone on gloves and leather bags at the more traditional Burberry Prorsum's show, where elegant country gentlemen carried umbrellas with owl-head handles.

English tweed returned at Giorgio Armani, who created four-dart trousers.

Soft velvet and wools dominated the collection of Salvatore Ferragamo, whose creative director Massimiliano Giornetti mixed coats and jackets in different lengths, often paired with oversized scarves.

Blue will be the main color next season, which will also play with contrasts and multi-layered clothes.

Large, soft bags were all the rage at the shows, while shoes ranged from evening slippers to high-heeled boots to satisfy all needs.

(Reporting by Antonella Ciancio)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/lf_nm_life/us_italy_fashion

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