Monday, January 30, 2012

Syrian troops storm areas near capital of Damascus

This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

(AP) ? In dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, Syrian troops stormed rebellious areas near the capital Sunday, shelling neighborhoods that have fallen under the control of army dissidents and clashing with fighters. At least 62 people were killed in violence nationwide, activists and residents said.

The widescale offensive near the capital suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus, which has remained relatively quiet while most other Syrian cities descended into chaos after the uprising began in March.

The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict.

The violence has gradually approached the capital. In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests.

Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may either be losing control or setting up a trap for the fighters before going on the offensive.

Residents of Damascus reported hearing clashes in the nearby suburbs, particularly at night, shattering the city's calm.

"The current battles taking place in and around Damascus may not yet lead to the unraveling of the regime, but the illusion of normalcy that the Assads have sought hard to maintain in the capital since the beginning of the revolution has surely unraveled," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a U.S.-based Syrian dissident.

"Once illusions unravel, reality soon follows," he wrote in his blog Sunday.

Soldiers riding some 50 tanks and dozens of armored vehicles stormed a belt of suburbs and villages on the eastern outskirts of Damascus known as al-Ghouta Sunday, a predominantly Sunni Muslim agricultural area where large anti-regime protests have been held.

Some of the fighting on Sunday was less than three miles (four kilometers) from Damascus, in Ein Tarma, making it the closest yet to the capital.

"There are heavy clashes going on in all of the Damascus suburbs," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who relies on a network of activists on the ground. "Troops were able to enter some areas but are still facing stiff resistance in others."

The fighting using mortars and machine guns sent entire families fleeing, some of them on foot carrying bags of belongings, to the capital.

"The shelling and bullets have not stopped since yesterday," said a man who left his home in Ein Tarma with his family Sunday. "It's terrifying, there's no electricity or water, it's a real war," he said by telephone on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals.

The uprising against Assad, which began with largely peaceful demonstrations, has grown increasingly militarized recently as more frustrated protesters and army defectors have taken up arms.

In a bid to stamp out resistance in the capital's outskirts, the military has responded with a withering assault on a string of suburbs, leading to a spike in violence that has killed at least 150 people since Thursday.

The United Nations says at least 5,400 people have been killed in the 10 months of violence.

The U.N. is holding talks on a new resolution on Syria and next week will discuss an Arab League peace plan aimed at ending the crisis. But the initiatives face two major obstacles: Damascus' rejection of an Arab plan that it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia's willingness to use its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told reporters Sunday in Egypt that contacts were under way with China and Russia.

"I hope that their stand will be adjusted in line with the final drafting of the draft resolution," he told reporters before leaving for New York with Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim.

The two will seek U.N. support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis. The plan calls for a two-month transition to a unity government, with Assad giving his vice president full powers to work with the proposed government.

Because of the escalating violence, the Arab League on Saturday halted the work of its observer mission in Syria at least until the League's council can meet. Arab foreign ministers were to meet Sunday in Cairo to discuss the Syrian crisis in light of the suspension of the observers' work and Damascus' refusal to agree to the transition timetable, the League said.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "concerned" about the League's decision to suspend its monitoring mission and called on Assad to "immediately stop the bloodshed." He spoke Sunday at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

While the international community scrambles to find a resolution to the crisis, the violence on the ground in Syria has continued unabated.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 27 civilians were killed Sunday in Syria, most of them in fighting in the Damascus suburbs and in the central city of Homs, a hotbed of anti-regime protests. Twenty-six soldiers and nine defectors were also killed, it said. The soldiers were killed in ambushes that targeted military vehicles near the capital and in the northern province of Idlib.

The Local Coordination Committees' activist network said 50 people were killed Sunday, including 13 who were killed in the suburbs of the capital and two defectors. That count excluded soldiers killed Sunday.

The differing counts could not be reconciled, and the reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities keep tight control on the media and have banned many foreign journalists from entering the country.

Syria's state-run news agency said "terrorists" detonated a roadside bomb by remote control near a bus carrying soldiers in the Damascus suburb of Sahnaya, killing six soldiers and wounding six others. Among those killed in the attack some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the capital were two first lieutenants, SANA said.

In Irbil, a Kurdish city in northern Iraq, about 200 members of Syria's Kurdish parties were holding two days of meetings to explore ways of supporting efforts to topple Assad.

Abdul-Baqi Youssef, a member of the Syrian Kurdish Union Party, said representatives of 11 Kurdish parties formed the Syrian Kurdish National Council that will coordinate anti-government activities with Syria's opposition.

Kurds make up 15 percent of Syria's 23 million people and have long complained of discrimination.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo; Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq; and Luc van Kemenade in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-29-ML-Syria/id-35c311d0f34243b293de37b99190c910

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Friday, January 27, 2012

USDA sets guidelines for healthier school meals (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? School meals for millions of children will be healthier under obesity-fighting U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards unveiled on Wednesday that double the amount of fruits and vegetables in cafeteria lunches - but won't pull French fries from the menu.

In the first major changes to school meals in more than 15 years, the new USDA guidelines will affect nearly 32 million children who eat at school. They will cost about $3.2 billion to implement over the next five years.

"Improving the quality of the school meals is a critical step to building a healthy future for our kids," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

The new meal requirements are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by first lady Michelle Obama. President Barack Obama approved the measure in late 2010.

The guidelines double the amounts of fruits and vegetables in school lunches and boost offerings of whole grain-rich foods. The new standards set maximums for calories and cut sodium and trans fat, a contributor to high cholesterol levels.

Schools may offer only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties and must assure that children are getting proper portion sizes, the USDA said.

The new standards will be largely phased in over a three-year period, starting in the 2012-13 school year.

About 17 percent of U.S. children and teenagers are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one-third of U.S. adults are obese.

FRIES WITH THAT?

Lawmakers altered the guidelines in November. They barred the USDA from limiting French fries and ensured that pizza counted as a vegetable because of its tomato paste.

Trade associations representing frozen pizza sellers like ConAgra Foods Inc and Schwan Food Co as well as French fry sellers McCain Foods Ltd and J.R. Simplot Co were instrumental in blocking changes to rules affecting those items.

Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director for the non-profit Center For Science in the Public Interest, said that the new standards were a big improvement despite food industry lobbying and the congressional revamp.

"The new school meal standards are one of the most important advances in nutrition in decades," she said in a statement.

The Environmental Working Group said the changes could pack a financial punch since they may help reduce medical bills related to diabetes and other obesity-related chronic diseases.

"A healthier population will save billions of dollars in future health care costs," said Dawn Undurraga, EWG's staff nutritionist.

As an example of a new meal, the USDA said an elementary school lunch could be whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce and a whole wheat roll, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi, low-fat milk, low-fat ranch dip and soft margarine.

That lunch would replace a meal of a hot dog on a bun with ketchup, canned pears, raw celery and carrots with ranch dressing, and low-fat chocolate milk.

As part of the new standards, schools will receive another 6 cents a meal. The USDA also will increase the number of inspections of school menus.

Food and beverages sold in vending machines and other school sites "will also contribute to a healthy diet," the USDA statement said.

The USDA gives school districts funds for meals through its National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs.

(Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles)

(Reporting By Ian Simpson. Editing by Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/hl_nm/us_school_food

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Communications Degree ? Licensure, Association and Certification ...

Find out some important communications degree institutions for licensure and certification.

Nowadays, only a few marketing, advertising and PR managers have certifications.
However, the number of communications professionals who are looking for professional recognition is projected to increase as the industry becomes more competitive.
Examinations and presentations of your winning projects may earn you professional accreditation from several large communications degree-centered institutions and non-profit organizations.

Among the popular professional accreditations and associations are the Public Relations Society of America, International Association of Business Communicators, Canadian Public Relations Society and National Communication Association.
Being a member of these organizations provides a handful of benefits and networking opportunities for communications degree holders.
Here is the overview of several communications organizations for licensure, certification and association.

Chartered in 1947, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the world?s biggest and pioneer organization of public relations professionals.
PRSA offers professional development, supports ethical principles for its members and sets standards of excellence.
The organization upholds greater understanding of public relations services and acts as one of the leading voices of the industry concerning professional and business issues.

Individuals with a communications degree (associate?s, bachelor?s or masters in communication) who want to accelerate their career may seek help from PRSA.
One of the advantages of being a member of this institution is networking, putting you in touch with other PRSA members and providing you niche conferences and other learning opportunities.
The organization has 10 PRSA districts and 111 chapters that connect members with other professionals in your area.

Besides professional networking, members may receive professional recognition during Silver Anvil, the most prestigious award event, celebrating various public relations achievements.
Other PRSA recognition awards are for tactical excellence, individual accomplishment and achievement in specialized areas.
Other benefits of PNSA for communications professionals include accreditation through the Accredited in Public Relations program (APR), learning and job guide.

Another good organization for a communications professional is the International Association of Business Communicators.
Founded in 1970, it offers a professional network for nearly 15,000 business communications professionals in more than 80 countries.
Being a member of the IABC professional network can help you find hidden job markets, and enhance your learning and skills with the website?s robust library.

The Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) is another organization for public relations in Canada and other countries.
Founded in 1948, it started with two original groups ? one in Montreal and the other in Toronto.
In 1957, it became a national society.

Today, the CPRS consists of 16 member societies, with connections in major cities and organized provinces.
CPRS aims to advance the professional standing of public relations and monitors its practice to uphold the protection of public interest.
Other than regulation of PR practice, it serves the public interest by implementing a code of ethics and a standard of proficiency.

Most importantly, the National Communication Association is the biggest national organization promoting communication education and scholarship.
NCA serves teachers, scholars and practitioners by supporting their interests in teaching and research.
It is a non-profit organization with more than 8,000 members working and living in the US and over 20 other countries.

Do you know what you can do with a communications degree association?
Without some experience and an outstanding portfolio after graduation, entry-level communications degree applicants with unadorned resumes have difficulty finding a job.
As such, having connections with esteemed professionals in the field of communication and membership to established organizations can give you an upper hand over other interested applicants.

Source: http://www.bluebearalaska.com/2012/01/23/communications-degree-%E2%80%93-licensure-association-and-certification/

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

This Week's Top Downloads [Download Roundup]

Jan 21, 2012 5:00 PM 18,279 2
  • Boxer is a Free DOS Game Emulator for your Mac (Mac) Computer games have come a long way since the days of Doom, Zork, Tie Fighter, and Castle Wolfenstein, but many of us who grew up with those games would like to replay them. Boxer is a free app that will let you play any DOS game on your Mac.
  • iBoostUp Cleans Out Your Mac's System File Clutter in a Minute (Mac) iBoostUp cleans out the crap on your drive and fine-tunes your system for better performance. It's simple, it's quick, and it's free.
  • AntiCrop "Uncrops" Your Photos by Extending the Picture's Background (iOS) If you've ever taken a hasty photo on your phone and didn't leave enough room on the outside, AntiCrop is the app can "uncrop" those photos by filling in the edges with just a few swipes.
  • Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iOS 5 Is Finally Here (iOS) iPhone-hacking group Chronic Dev Team just released the first untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1. We've explained why a tethered jailbreak can be such a hassle, which is why we've been waiting to recommend jailbreaking your up-to-date iPhone. Luckily, that wait is over.
  • Clean My Desktop Sorts Files Into Content Specific Folders (Mac) A desktop filled with hundreds of files in a variety of formats can be a headache to clean up, but Clean My Desktop makes it easy by sorting everything into content specific folders based on the file type.
  • MindNode Is a Mind Mapping App that Makes Brainstorming Simple and Easy (Mac/iOS) Regardless of the type of work that you do, brainstorming is an important part of generating new ideas and new approaches to getting your work done more efficiently. Mind mapping is a brainstorming technique that helps you get all of your interconnected thoughts out in a diagram, and there are a number of complicated tools designed to help you do it. MindNode for Mac and iOS is pricey, but it's one of the best tools we've seen for the job.
  • Pomodroido Is an Elegant Pomodoro Timer for Your Android Phone (Pomodroido) If you're a fan of the Pomodoro productivity technique, you know that part of the philosophy is to work in short, focused, timed bursts and then take periodic breaks to relax. To do this, you'll need a timer, and Pomodroido is a free app that turns your Android phone into one that follows you everywhere.
  • Forismatic Is a Free App that Helps You Relax and Keeps You Inspired Every Day (Mac) Computers are supposed to make our work easier, but in reality they often just bring us more work and stress us out. Give your Mac the opportunity to help you relax for a change with Forismatic, a free app that sits in the menubar until you need a little inspiration to help you keep going, and will remind you to take a break now and again to relax.
  • Breathing Zone Guides You Towards Slower Breathing to Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety (Mac/iOS) Breathing Zone is a simple app that helps slow your breathing rhythm to calm you down and make you feel more relaxed. If you're a bit stressed or anxious, it's a good way to help you alleviate those feelings in just a few minutes.
  • WatchMe Is a Desktop Timer that Keeps Track of Multiple Alarms at Once (Windows) Unfortunately, few of us have the luxury of only keeping track of one thing at a time. There are plenty of great timers available to help you keep track of how long you've been working or when you need to take a break, but if you need to track multiple times or set more than one timer, you may be out of luck. WatchMe is a timer that allows you to set multiple alerts and multiple timers so you're alerted at different times for different things.
Related Stories

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/94J0DABeIrw/this-weeks-top-downloads

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Angel Investing Jumps with Tax Credits :: Launch America

It?s not clear yet whether Connecticut?s 18-month-old angel investor tax credit will be the job creator its authors envisioned, but loosening the eligibility two months ago has surely been popular.

The Connecticut legislature?s jobs package bill passed in May 2010 allowed angel investors who put at least $100,000 into a young, small Connecticut company in certain technology and science fields to deduct a quarter of that investment from their state income taxes. If their income tax liability isn?t large enough to use up $25,000 ? you?d need to earn nearly $400,000 a year to owe that much ? they can carry the balance forward for several years.

Connecticut Innovations, a quasi-public agency that helps administer the investment program, has certified 37 companies that may receive the investments, from software firms to drug companies to companies that have designed consumer products, such as a hospital bed that can transfer its occupant to a chair, or an automatic shutoff for a boat if its driver goes overboard.

Thirty companies have gotten investments since the law first took effect, with about one-third of the companies only closing a round of investments once the threshold for the tax credit was lowered to $25,000. That change took effect two months ago.

?There is an explosion in entrepreneurship and people want to get in on it,? said Matthew Nemerson, president of the Connecticut Technology Council, which started lobbying for a tax credit for angel investors more than five years ago. ?The legislation came at the right time to throw fuel on the fire. Because of the $100,000 limit, the fuel [was] a little bit watered down.?

In the two months since the credit was expanded, 21 Connecticut taxpayers have applied for the program, and together invested $2.1 million in nine companies, a much faster pace than during the first 16 months. Some doubt that pace will continue, however.

In all, 66 angel investors have qualified for the credit since it began. Investors must have at least $200,000 in income and $1 million in net worth to qualify for the credit.

Anthony Viggiano, who founded Autotether in 2007 and began contracting with Connecticut manufacturers to build the automatic boat-engine shutoff device two years ago, said he had been traveling around the East Coast pitching his company as a good investment to angels for more than a year with only three bites.

?You get like $50,000, $25,000 there, it?s a tough road, it?s a lot of work,? Viggiano said.

But once the threshold for the tax credit dropped, he found another seven investors in the state. Between the two groups, they invested $550,000 in Autotether, with a round that closed just before Christmas.

Viggiano will use the money for marketing. He and four others work for Autotether. ?Within three or four months we?re hoping to have enough cash flow to pay ourselves a reasonable salary,? he said. Autotether hopes to break even by the end of the year.

When six Connecticut angel investors put $600,000 into Farmington?s Innovatient Solutions, immediately after the tax credit began, that money and a match of $500,000 from Connecticut Innovations allowed CEO Jolinda Lambert to hire two people, for a total of six. Innovatient?s software sends information to hospital patients about their treatment through the TVs in their rooms.

The company expects to sell more than $1 million in software this year, making it too large to qualify for tax credits in its next $2 million round of angel and venture capital.

?It made all the difference; without the funding and the contribution of individuals like CI and the angel investors, we would not be in existence,? Lambert said. ?We wouldn?t have had the runway necessary to build the company.?

Advocates for startups say that creating an incentive for more angel investing is important because venture capital firms have become less likely to nurture brand-new, unproven firms. Angel investors in Connecticut, by contrast, have put money into companies that are less than 6 months old ? Lambert?s company was 5 months old when it was funded, and didn?t have a product yet.

?Venture capital keeps moving up and doing bigger deals and later deals,? Nemerson said.

Peter Longo, president of Connecticut Innovations, said his organization has been moving toward new companies for four years. It started a pre-seed fund for micro investments in brand new companies in 2010. Of 37 CI investments in the fiscal year that ended in 2011, 15 were pre-seed.

Spurring more angel investing helps CI, because the state is sending it $25 million more a year for the next five years. Not all of that will be poured directly into companies, but given that CI only invested $9 million last fiscal year, it needs to find more companies deserving of its capital. ?We think this [fiscal] year we?ll close on $20 million,? Longo said.

But, Longo said, the pace of investing by smaller angel investors is unlikely to continue in 2012. ?A lot of it was pent-up demand,? he said.

Mary Anne Rooke, president and managing director of Connecticut?s Angel Investor Forum, said the legislation is too new to say what its effect will be. Even before the limit was lowered, some $25,000 and $50,000 investors got the credit by setting up corporate structures that combined their investments with others; and even now, some who don?t want to put in $25,000 do the same.

But the credit does convince others to put in more, she said, including one man in December who was planning to invest $10,000 or $15,000, ?and this pushed him up to $25,000,? she said.

But will those decisions make up for those who might have put in $100,000 when the floor was higher, and now will put in $75,000 or $50,000?

David Cohen, co-owner of Standard Oil of Connecticut, stumbled into angel investing by accident with the son of a friend of a friend who was a founder of Higher One, Connecticut?s poster-child for dorm-room startups. Cohen invested $25,000 at first, and kept putting money in each time the company asked again. When Higher One went public, he cashed out half his stake, and made roughly 60 times what he put in.

That?s not typical, he?s quick to say, but he?s used the proceeds to keep investing ? he?s now put money in seven Connecticut startups and five outside the state.

Angel Investor Forum puts about 70 percent of its money into companies outside the state, mostly in the Boston to New Jersey corridor. In seven years, only one company has provided an investment exit for the group, at a six-fold return.

Cohen always puts in at least $100,000, so the lower floor doesn?t matter for him, but he said being able to save on his state income taxes does put a thumb on the scale for Connecticut firms.

Viggiano, the Autotether founder, says the credit makes him think that Connecticut?s business climate is changing. In decades as a manufacturing executive, he thought it was a difficult state to do business in.

?I think that lower amount is going to open up a huge opportunity for a lot of people,? he said. ?It?ll make a big difference for my company, and it will make a big difference for a lot of companies. No matter how good your idea is, you can?t do it without capital.?

With a lower investment threshold and a broader spectrum of companies that could be invested in, as proposed by the Launch America Initiative, a big wave of investments could go into startups and small businesses creating new jobs and an economic resurgence.

Source: http://launchamerica.org/2012/01/angel-investing-jumps-with-tax-credits/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=angel-investing-jumps-with-tax-credits

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Sunday Morning Open Thread (Balloon Juice)

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Nicholas Hoult Is 'Beautiful' In 'Warm Bodies'

Teresa Palmer gushed to MTV News about her co-star's zombie performance.
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz


Teresa Palmer and Joel Edgerton
Photo: MTV News

If Hollywood can turn vampires and werewolves into sex icons, what's keeping zombies from entering that same sexy stratosphere? Well, there's the whole feasting-on-human-flesh thing to consider, we suppose, not to mention the endless groaning and decaying to boot.

Despite their brain-craving reputation, the walking dead are about to undergo a serious makeover in "Warm Bodies," director Jonathan Levine's adaptation of the Isaac Marion novel set in a post-apocalyptic world where a zombie named R (played by "X-Men: First Class" actor Nicholas Hoult) inexplicably falls in love with Julie Grigio, whose father is a general in the dwindling human resistance.

Teresa Palmer, who plays Julie, spoke with MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival about her work on "Warm Bodies" and why she can't wait to fall in love with a zombie on the big screen.

"I'm just excited to see how Nicholas Hoult comes across on the screen," said Palmer, who's attending Sundance to support her drama "Wish You Were Here." "He was so beautiful to work with. He does such an incredible performance. He's playing a zombie, so he can't say much, but he's very expressive with his eyes."

It's not just Hoult's "beautiful" zombie performance that Palmer fell in love with, but the "Warm Zombies" universe as a whole.

"The world that Jonathan Levine has set up is so epic and so interesting," she said. "It's always very cool when Jonathan Levine does something. I'm really excited to see it."

Are you excited to see zombie love story "Warm Bodies"? Let us know in the comments.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677682/warm-bodies-movie-nicholas-hoult.jhtml

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Unlocking the mystery of Romney's 15 percent tax rate. Yes, it's legal.

Mitt Romney can pay a tax rate of 15 percent because his income, from investment firm Bain Capital, is structured as capital gains in the form of 'carried interest.' Here's how it works.

It may sound illegal; it may sound like a tax dodge. But Mitt Romney?s declared tax rate of about 15 percent, well below that of most Americans, is perfectly legal and accepted by the Internal Revenue Service.

Skip to next paragraph

How can that be?

Mr. Romney, who lists his wealth at as much as $250 million, still?receives much of his income from Bain Capital, a Boston investment firm that he helped found in 1984.

When Romney was working for Bain, he would have received his compensation in two ways: First, a fee charged to clients and taxed as regular income, amounting to 2 percent of the value of the assets under management. Then, Romney also would have received 20 percent or more of any gains in an investment as long as Bain?s profit exceeded a pre-set rate of return.

However, Romney and his Bain partners did not put up 20 percent of the capital ? that came from the firm?s clients,?other investors such as pensions. From their profits, the client investors pay the Bain partners in what is called ?carried interest,? which is taxed at the longterm capital gains rate of 15 percent.

What is carried interest?

It is simply a percentage of the profits of the underlying investment. Although it is unclear where the term comes from, Victor Fleischer, an associate professor of law at the University of Colorado, says one possible origin is from the oil and gas business where someone raising money to drill for oil did not put up much money but received a share of the income if oil was discovered. ?Their interest is carried by other investors,? explains Mr. Fleischer.

How does this work?

Bain Capital made a lot of investments in companies. If they bought one company for $100 million and sold it three years later for $200 million, they would have a $100 million capital gain. Out of that gain, Bain could have received as much as $20 million to $25 million, says Fleischer. Bain would then divide its share among the partners who worked on the purchase and sale. Perhaps Romney got $2 million even though he never invested much of his own money. In other words, his interest was carried by the other investors and he is taxed at the longterm capital gains rate for his share of their profits.

Is this widespread?

Fleischer says other well-to-do investors who use this method to get their money are real estate partnerships, oil-and-gas partnerships, and publicly traded investment partnerships. Although hedge-fund managers make large sums of money, much of this money is short-term capital gains, which is taxed at 35 percent.

The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that taxing carried interest as regular wage and salary income would generate about $21 billion in additional revenues over ten years.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/yRhonGoXg9s/Unlocking-the-mystery-of-Romney-s-15-percent-tax-rate.-Yes-it-s-legal

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.

Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Phillip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

"For several years our team have been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 ? and it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival," Prof. Munday says.

In their latest paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Prof. Munday and colleagues report world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.

"We've found that elevated CO2 in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life," Prof. Munday says.

Prof. Munday and his colleagues began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water. They found that, while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.

"Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water ? meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish. But we suspected there was much more to it than the loss of ability to smell."

The team then examined whether fishes' sense of hearing ? used to locate and home in on reefs at night, and avoid them during the day ? was affected. "The answer is, yes it was. They were confused and no longer avoided reef sounds during the day. Being attracted to reefs during daylight would make them easy meat for predators."

Other work showed the fish also tended to lose their natural instinct to turn left or right ? an important factor in schooling behaviour which also makes them more vulnerable, as lone fish are easily eaten by predators.

"All this led us to suspect it wasn't simply damage to their individual senses that was going on ? but rather, that higher levels of carbon dioxide were affecting their whole central nervous system."

The team's latest research shows that high CO2 directly stimulates a receptor in the fish brain called GABA-A, leading to a reversal in its normal function and over-excitement of certain nerve signals.

While most animals with brains have GABA-A receptors, the team considers the effects of elevated CO2 are likely to be most felt by those living in water, as they have lower blood CO2 levels normally. The main impact is likely to be felt by some crustaceans and by most fishes, especially those which use a lot of oxygen.

Prof. Munday said that around 2.3 billion tonnes of human CO2 emissions dissolve into the world's oceans every year, causing changes in the chemical environment of the water in which fish and other species live.

"We've now established it isn't simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption ? as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons ? but the actual dissolved CO2 itself is damaging the fishes' nervous systems."

The work shows that fish with high oxygen consumption are likely to be most affected, suggesting the effects of high CO2 may impair some species worse than others ? possibly including important species targeted by the world's fishing industries.

###

ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/

Thanks to ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116913/Carbon_dioxide_is__driving_fish_crazy_

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Lana Del Rey's 'SNL' Set Defended By Andy Samberg

' 'Video Games' is a great song,' he tells MTV News at Sundance about Del Rey's 'Saturday Night Live' appearance.
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz


Andy Samberg
Photo: MTV News

PARK CITY, Utah — The critics have not been kind to Lana Del Rey following her recent performance on "Saturday Night Live." "Wack-a-doodle" was how Eliza Dushku described it, while actress Juliette Lewis likened the performance to "watching a 12-year-old in their bedroom when they're pretending to sing and perform." At times, it seems that just about everybody has it in for Del Rey.

But "SNL" castmember Andy Samberg is not so quick to criticize. Speaking with MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival — where he's busy promoting his romantic dramedy "Celeste and Jesse Forever" — Samberg acknowledged the outcry against Del Rey but took the opportunity to compliment her.

"People gave her a lot of crap. I saw it online. BriWi," he said when asked about Del Rey, referring to "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams' assessment of the performance as "one of the worst outings in 'SNL' history."

"But 'Video Games' is a great song," Samberg added.

Also there to offer support was Samberg's "Celeste and Jesse" co-star Rashida Jones, who doesn't envy anybody who has to grace the pressure-filled "SNL" stage. "It's a tough venue," she said. "You're not actually performing in front of an audience; you're performing in front of cameras. But I didn't see it, so I don't know."

"Yeah, I didn't see it either, so I can't really speak to it," Samberg quickly added, followed by a long pause and an uncomfortable look. (Perhaps there's something he's not telling us ... )

Samberg and Jones aren't the only two who have come to Del Rey's defense. Daniel Radcliffe, who served as "SNL" host during the singer's appearance, has already condemned the way people criticized her. "It was unfortunate that people seemed to turn on her so quickly," Radcliffe told the British media earlier this week. "I also think people are making it about things other than the performance. ... If you read what people are saying about her online, it's all about her past and her family and stuff that's nobody else's business. I don't think [the performance] warranted anywhere near that reaction.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance.

Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677675/andy-samberg-defends-lana-del-ray-snl.jhtml

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Friday, January 20, 2012

Camille Grammer Tweets About Kelsey Grammer Pregnancy

Real Housewives’ Camille Grammer has apparently tweeted her well wishes to her ex-husband Kelsey Grammer and his pregnant wife Kayte Walsh. Get the details behind the announcement, and what the reality star had to say below. Longtime actor Kelsey Grammer and his new wife Kayte Walsh are expecting. The Boss star, who just recently took home a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Mayor Tom Kane on the hit Starz series, confirmed the news backstage at the big event just this past week. According to USA Today, the former Cheers and Frasier actor also shared that they are having twins to boot. The fifty-six year old Grammer already has two kids with his ex-wife Camille Grammer. As many will remember the two had a terrible public divorce after Kelsey left his wife of fourteen years, immediately moving on, and wedding his mistress, flight attendant Kayte Walsh. While Grammer and Walsh were happy about making the big announcement, Camille Grammer had reportedly come out to tell the media she and her children had no knowledge about the twins. ?Camille and the children had no idea. They found out about it from the media. Once again, selfish Kelsey decided to do what?s [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/zpNaQBr-rOw/

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China, UAE agree on currency swap

China and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday signed a currency swap agreement worth 35 billion yuan, or about 5.54 billion US dollars, effective for 3 years.

According to People?s Bank of China, the deal was signed during Premier Wen Jiabao visit to the Middle East and is expected to boost the economy of both sides through lifting two-way trade and investment.

Trade between the two sides reached 32 billion dollars from January to November of last year, a sharp rise of nearly 40 percent in the same period of 2010.

The deal is the latest in a string of currency arrangements in recent years with key trading partners in a bid to boost the use of yuan for the direct settlement of international trade.

?

Editor:Zhang Rui |Source: CNTV.CN

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5769043677

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Seven charged in $62 million Dell insider-trading case (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? U.S. prosecutors charged seven people, described as a circle of friends who formed a criminal club, with running a $62 million insider trading scheme - the latest salvo in a years-long probe of suspicious trading at hedge funds.

The FBI in New York arrested four people on Wednesday and authorities announced previously secret charges against three others, making it one of the largest sweeps in the government's probe.

The seven charged worked for five different hedge funds and investment firms and reaped nearly $62 million in illegal profits on trades in Dell Inc, the prosecutors said. That is similar in magnitude to insider trading gains made by Raj Rajaratnam, the convicted founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund.

The charging document told "by now, a sadly familiar story," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference.

"It describes a circle of friends who essentially formed a criminal club, whose purpose was profit and whose members regularly bartered lucrative inside information," Bharara said.

Dubbed "Operation Perfect Hedge" by the FBI, the probe has examined suspected sharing of confidential business information with hedge fund managers and analysts. Rajaratnam was arrested as part of the investigation and is now serving an 11-year prison term following his conviction by jury trial last year.

The defendants arrested on Wednesday include Anthony Chiasson, who co-founded the Level Global Investors hedge fund. He turned himself in to the FBI in New York, an agency spokesman said.

Todd Newman, who headed technology trading for hedge fund Diamondback Capital Management from Boston, was also arrested, the spokesman said.

Chiasson and Newman are accused of illegally trading ahead of computer maker Dell's earnings announcements for the first and second quarters of 2008, netting them profits, respectively, of $57 million and $3.8 million. Another defendant, Jon Horvath, is accused of making an illegal $1 million trade in Dell.

The earnings information was provided by a source at Dell and relayed to the defendants, court documents said. The source was not identified.

The fourth man arrested was California-based hedge fund manager Danny Kuo, officials said.

A Dell representative could not immediately be reached for comment. Lawyers for the insider trading defendants could not immediately be reached to comment.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges in a parallel case against Diamondback Capital and Level Global as well as the individuals.

Newman had been placed on leave of absence from Diamondback in 2010 and subsequently was let go by that firm. Reuters in November reported the government's interest in Newman.

Chiasson, Newman, Horvath and Kuo were charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with one count each of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud, according to court documents.

Horvath, who was also arrested on Wednesday, is currently employed at Sigma Capital management, a unit of Steven Cohen's $14 billion hedge fund SAC Capital, said a person familiar with the case who is not authorized to speak publicly. A spokesman for SAC Capital could not immediately be reached for comment.

Charges also were made public against three other people who previously have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the government, court documents showed.

The three are Sandeep Goyal, a former Dell employee; Spyridon Adondakis, a former junior analyst at Level Global; and Jesse Tortora, who worked at Diamondback Capital Management.

Lawyers for Adondakis, Tortora and Goyal did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk said in a statement that the agency has arrested more than 60 people in the crackdown.

"This initiative is far from over," she said. "If you are engaged in insider trading, what distinguishes you from the dozens who have been charged is not that you haven't been caught; it's that you haven't been caught yet."

The criminal complaint - signed by FBI agent David Makol, who was assigned to the Galleon investigation - accused Newman and Chiasson of using information obtained by the three cooperators and their network of sources at companies to make illegal trades.

MORE HEADACHES FOR SAC

Horvath's arrest creates more headaches for fund industry titan Cohen, who has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Federal investigators have been looking into allegations of wrongful trading at SAC for more than four years, Reuters has previously reported, and Horvath's arrest comes after criminal cases of others who have been tied to SAC.

Donald Longueuil, a one-time SAC portfolio manager, last year was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison for insider trading while Noah Freeman, another former SAC portfolio manager, cooperated with the government and pleaded guilty.

The investigations of insider trading began at least eight years ago and were first made public in October 2009. Most of the dozens of defendants charged have pleaded guilty or been convicted.

Many of the cases have been based at least in part on the use of government wiretaps authorized by federal judges. Four hedge fund firms - Level Global, Diamondback, Loch Capital Management and Barai Capital Management - were raided by the FBI in late 2010 as part of the insider-trading probe. Level Global, Loch and Barai have since folded.

Rajaratnam remains the best-known investor implicated in the probe. Rajat Gupta, a former chief of the consulting firm McKinsey & Co and director of both Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & Gamble Co, has been charged with providing illegal tips to Rajaratnam. He is fighting those charges.

The case is U.S.A v. Todd Newman et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-0124.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Goldstein and Jonathan Stempel in New York, Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Editing by Gunna Dickson, Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/bs_nm/us_insidertrading_arrests

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Prediction: 500 million Twitter accounts by Feb.

Twopcharts

Screen grab showing number of Twitter users, new account registrations per second and the countdown to 500 million users

By Athima Chansanchai

Though China may be obsessed?with a state-sanctioned alternative to Twitter, the original microblogging site is on the rise nearly everywhere else.?One tracker predicts it will cross the 500-million-user mark sometime next month.

Twopcharts has posted that not only are there about 13 new accounts registered per second on the ubiquitous short-message network, but that the ETA for the milestone will be around Feb. 19. The site recorded its 300-million-user milestone last May.

At present, there are?466,635,886 registered on Twitter. But of those, perhaps only around 100 million are active users, as Twitter itself admitted?back in September.?

Microblogging in whatever form seems to have struck a nerve with people. While Twitter is still a powerhouse, its Chinese doppelganger, Weibo, has just hit 200 million users. (Twitter is blocked in China.) Twitter hit 400 million monthly?unique visitors in September.

Twitter is also muscling up its ad revenue with paid/promoted tweets, including political ads.

With Facebook predicted to ascend to one billion users, also?in February, social media is only going to become more embedded in our lives, not less.

More stories:

Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/17/10174801-prediction-500-million-twitter-accounts-by-mid-february

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Monday, January 16, 2012

Signs Of The Apocalypse: Vibram Five Fingers At The Golden Globes

Source: http://www.getoutdoors.com/goblog/index.php?/archives/4346-Signs-Of-The-Apocalypse-Vibram-Five-Fingers-At-The-Golden-Globes.html

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Arab League chief warns of Syrian civil war

This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, purports to smoke billowing after explosions in Homs, Syria.(AP Photo/Shaam News Network via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, purports to smoke billowing after explosions in Homs, Syria.(AP Photo/Shaam News Network via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, purports to smoke billowing after explosions in Homs, Syria.(AP Photo/Shaam News Network via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, purports to show protesters demonstrating against the killing of a French journalist in Daraa, Syria.(AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

(AP) ? The head of the Arab League warned Friday that Syria may be sliding toward civil war, as security forces fired on thousands of people who poured into the streets in support of army defectors who switched sides to try to topple President Bashar Assad. At least 10 people were killed, activists said.

Also Friday, an activist group said two foreign journalists and a translator were arrested in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The group, the Local Coordination Committees, had no further details. The government has barred access to the country by most foreign media, except on a limited number of escorted trips.

Over the course of the 10-month-old uprising, much of the bloodshed has been from security forces firing on unarmed protesters. But in recent months breakaway soldiers have been attacking the Syrian military, and some opposition members have taken up arms against the regime, adding to the violence.

Despite that, Assad appears to maintain a firm grip on power in the face of growing international pressure to halt his crackdown and step down.

The Arab League chief, Nabil Elaraby, told The Associated Press that Assad's regime was either not complying or only partially complying with an Arab League plan that Syria signed last month to end its crackdown.

"We are very concerned because there were certain commitments that were not complied with," he said in Cairo, where the League is based. "If this continues, it may turn into civil war."

The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 20,000 people were demonstrating Friday in the northwestern province of Idlib. Security forces fired on protesters there as well as in the southern province of Daraa, the eastern region of Deir el-Zour and the central province of Homs, all centers of frequent protests.

At least 10 people were killed, the Observatory said.

A video posted online by activists showed dozens of people marching in the Damascus neighborhood of Midan, chanting "Freedom forever, despite you Assad!" Midan, which has seen frequent anti-regime protests, was hit by a suicide attack last Friday that killed 26 people.

It wasn't clear who was behind that attack; the government blamed "terrorists" while the opposition suggested the regime orchestrated the blast to tarnish the uprising.

Another video posted Friday showed what appeared to be an armored personnel carrier on fire. The narrator said army defectors attacked the vehicle with a rocket-propelled grenade.

The Arab League plan calls for removing Syrian forces and heavy weapons from city streets, starting talks with opposition leaders and allowing human rights workers and journalists into the country.

An Arab League team of observers began work in Syria on Dec. 27 to offer an outside view of whether the government is abiding by its agreement to end the military crackdown on dissent.

The mission has been plagued by problems, including accusations that the Syrian government is interfering with the team's work. This week, one of the observers resigned and told the pan-Arab TV channel Al-Jazeera that the monitor mission was a "farce" because of Syrian government control.

Adnan al-Khudeir, head of the Cairo operations room to which the monitors report, told reporters Thursday that two more observers, from Algeria and Sudan, would be returning to their home countries. He did not identify them but said the Algerian gave health reasons and the Sudanese cited personal reasons.

___

Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-13-ML-Syria/id-f8d6f2a71b574c62b27a52754b0f3f66

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Sunday, January 15, 2012

President Obama Goes Down the Rabbit Hole (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Is President Barack Obama arrogant or simply ignorant about how his lavish habits irritate common Americans? Perhaps a little bit of both. The hoopla surrounding the secretive "Alice in Wonderland" Halloween party in 2009 clearly illustrates not only anger over the extravagant spending at taxpayers' expense, but the inability of the White House to live up Obama's lofty goal of transparency.

White House press secretary Jay Carney stated the White House did not attempt to keep the party or the appearance by major Hollywood stars secret, according to the Washington Post. Carney also stated the press attended the Halloween gala, but press pool access was brief and limited to specific areas of the party, according to the Post.

Not one White House journalist has yet to mention seeing actor Johnny Depp, according to the Post. The downplaying of the star power at an event has been uncommon during the Obama administration. The struggling economy and upcoming vote about universal health care likely influenced the decision to cloak the bulk of the party in secrecy.

Many journalists have tried but none has succeeded in getting a detailed report about the party or the cost the affair. Concerns about the party sticker price would have subsided long before the 2012 primary season if the White House had simply answered questions honestly and issued the standard level of media access to the event.

President Obama promised a new approach to governance filled with increased public access and ample spoonfuls of hope and change. The hope has devolved into hype and the change feels more like chains for millions of American struggling to pay for the unsustainable spending policies of the ultra-liberal commander in chief.

Hosting a gathering for military families and local school children is a thoughtful gesture and one which has been commonplace at the White House for decades. President Obama should have adhered to the first rule of public relations, appearance is everything. All presidents enjoy vacations or the occasional round of golf, but the excesses of the president and first lady during a time if extreme fiscal uncertainty will not win the coveted Independent vote.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120113/cm_ac/10817533_president_obama_goes_down_the_rabbit_hole

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Despite video outrage, no halt to peace talk moves (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Pentagon officials worry that outrage over a video purporting to depict Marines urinating on Taliban corpses will tarnish the reputation of the entire military. Some also fear it could undermine prospects for exploratory Afghan peace talks.

After roundly condemning the Marines' alleged behavior, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and top military leaders on Thursday promised a full investigation and sought to contain the damage at home and abroad.

Panetta also said the incident could endanger the outlook for peace talks, although the Obama administration and the Taliban each voiced readiness Thursday to try peace talks while pledging to carry on the military conflict until their rival objectives are met. The separate statements by senior American and Taliban officials illustrated the improved environment for Afghan reconciliation efforts as well as the daunting task ahead.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the law enforcement arm of the Navy, is heading the main inquiry, which is expected to weigh evidence of violations of the U.S. military legal code as well as the international laws of warfare. Separately, the Marine Corps is doing its own internal investigation.

By Thursday evening, the NCIS had interviewed two of the four Marines appearing in the video. At the time they were filmed urinating on the bodies, the four were members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which fought in the southern Afghan province of Helmand for seven months before returning to their home base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., last September.

Two of the four, plus the commander of the battalion, had moved on to other assignments before the video appeared on the Internet, according to Marine Corps officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an active investigation.

Even Thursday's emergence of the Internet video depicting Marines urinating on what appear to be Afghan corpses didn't seem to immediately set back movement toward exploratory negotiations with the Taliban. Asked about possible implications for peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. remained strongly committed to supporting Afghan efforts.

Panetta, however, said the incident could endanger the talks.

"The danger is that this kind of video can be misused in many ways to undermine what we are trying to do in Afghanistan and the possibility of reconciliation," Panetta said at Fort Bliss, Texas, adding it's important for the U.S. to move quickly to "send a clear signal to the world that the U.S. will not tolerate this kind of behavior and that is not what the U.S. is all about."

Before he left Washington for his troop visit to Fort Bliss, Panetta called President Hamid Karzai to promise a full investigation of the video affair and condemned the Marines' behavior as "entirely inappropriate."

As the video spread across the Internet in postings and re-postings, U.S. officials joined with Afghans in calling it shocking, deplorable, inhumane and a breach of military standards of conduct. It shows men in Marine combat gear standing in a semicircle urinating on the bodies of three men in standard Afghan clothing, one whose chest was covered in blood.

It's not certain whether the dead were Taliban fighters, civilians or someone else.

The incident will likely further hurt ties with Karzai's government and complicate negotiations over a strategic partnership arrangement meant to govern the presence of U.S. troops and advisers in Afghanistan after most international combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

Anti-American sentiment is already on the rise in Afghanistan, especially among Afghans who have not seen improvements to their daily lives despite billions of dollars in international aid. They also have deplored the accidental killing of civilians during NATO airstrikes and argue that foreign troops have culturally offended the Afghan people, mostly when it comes to activities involving women and the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

Pentagon officials said the criminal investigation would likely look into whether the Marines violated laws of war, which include prohibitions against photographing or mishandling bodies and detainees. It also appeared to violate the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs conduct. Thus, some or all of the four Marines could face a military court-martial or other disciplinary action.

Karzai called the video "completely inhumane." The Afghan Defense Ministry called it "shocking." And the Taliban issued a statement accusing U.S. forces of committing numerous "indignities" against the Afghan people.

Panetta said the actions depicted in the brief video were inexcusable.

"I have seen the footage, and I find the behavior depicted in it utterly deplorable. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms," Panetta's statement said. "Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent."

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, said he was deeply disturbed by the video and worried that it would erode the reputation of the entire military, not just the Marine Corps.

On the streets of Afghanistan, the reaction was cool.

"If these actions continue, people will not like them (the Americans) anymore and there will be uprising against them," Mohammad Qayum, said while watching a television news story about the video that was airing in a local restaurant in Kabul.

Ahmad Naweed, a shopkeeper in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban insurgency, said, "On the one hand, the Americans present themselves as friends of Afghanistan and ... they also try to have peace talks with the Taliban. So we don't know what kind of political game they are playing in Afghanistan."

___

Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Deb Riechmann in Kabul contributed to this report.

Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_marines_taliban_corpses

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Saturday, January 14, 2012

'CBS This Morning': A worthy wakeup TV alternative (AP)

NEW YORK ? Hooray for "CBS This Morning"! It's not silly!

This is not meant to damn with faint praise the brand-new wakeup show CBS is billing as "a more thoughtful, substantive and insightful source of news and information."

What CBS actually seems to be saying: "CBS This Morning" is more thoughtful, substantive and insightful than longtime NBC ratings champ "Today," or than narrowing-the-gap ABC runner-up "Good Morning America."

And it is.

After nearly 60 years and countless overlooked knockoffs of the morning-show format "Today" pioneered, CBS has dared to stray from the beaten path and try something different from its crushing competition. And in its first week, "CBS This Morning" (airing at 7 a.m. EST) proved itself a welcome alternative.

"CBS This Morning" has no jovial weather guy; no throngs of sidewalk fans waving signs; no rock bands; no we're-just-one-big-happy-family camaraderie among the co-hosts.

Hallelujah!

Increasingly, both "Today" and "Good Morning America" share a default position of fluff interrupted only when breaking, urgent news yanks them into sobriety.

"CBS This Morning" has, in effect, vowed to keep the silliness to a minimum, and its first week is promising.

This happens to be a week when "Today" was strutting its stuff even more than usual, celebrating its 60th anniversary with much hoopla. But for any viewer who yearned for a morning show that places a premium on news and information while holding the line on crime and star-gazing, "Today" as well as "GMA" was instantly upstaged by "CBS This Morning." It's an answered prayer.

The show is hosted by Charlie Rose (weathering an ill-timed cold and, by Friday, a sore throat). His calm, urbane, Southern-cured manner is counterbalanced by the caffeinated Gayle King. The third member of this hosting trio, Erica Hill, a holdover from the defunct "Early Show," falls somewhere in between.

In their first week, they seem like professional colleagues who get along fine. But refreshingly, "CBS This Morning" seems conceived not so much as a showcase for masterfully matched hosts as a destination for the information it dispenses.

The setting (dubbed Studio 57) is beautiful ? spacious, brick-and-woody and blessedly free of any windows.

The show begins in sleek, elegant fashion, quickly seguing into a 90-second "Eye Opener" video montage that sets the stage for the program (and day) ahead.

Then most of the action takes place at a glass-topped roundtable where, in various combinations, members of the anchor team, CBS correspondents and interviewees appear, and then seamlessly depart. There's no "news reader," as on the other two shows, which have a decentralized structure and whose pace seems inspired by a game of hot potato.

Here, the news, like the rest of the show, flows steadily through its hosts at this information hub. The show is brisk but grounded.

Not that its first week was perfect. Maybe the worst segment: a vacuous interview with Julianna Margulies, star of CBS' "The Good Wife," that had no point other than to plug a network series and fill time ? way too much of it.

For anyone not mesmerized by the British royals, Monday's show also included interminable coverage and analysis of Kate Middleton turning 30.

But Wednesday's edition found Gayle King interviewing first lady Michelle Obama, who refuted claims that she's "some angry black woman." It was a revealing segment made even more timely by "The Obamas," a just-published book in which she didn't participate.

Friday's show had an investigative report by Sharyl Attkisson on troubled clean-energy companies that got billions of dollars from the government and then, in several cases, went belly-up. And correspondent Mo Rocca had a smart feature on, fittingly, the stigma of Friday the 13th.

But does "CBS This Morning" have enough that's special to draw enough viewers?

Thursday's edition had a report by correspondent Elizabeth Palmer from inside Syria, where the government has severely limited access by most foreign media. And Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger offered reassuring words about flying in the wake of reports of planes diverted to foreign airports to refuel when crossing the Atlantic Ocean: "It's a passenger convenience issue, not a safety issue," he declared.

But otherwise, viewers of the first hour of "Today" would have gotten pretty much the same menu of news ? however differently packaged ? as those who watched "CBS This Morning."

Of course, during this first hour (where hard news traditionally gets the emphasis) "Today" viewers would also have seen lengthy reports on tabloid boldface names Casey Anthony and Joran van der Sloot, a prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway.

Did those stories really matter? What "CBS This Morning" didn't have ? that, too, provides a good argument for watching.

___

Online:

http://www.cbsnews.com

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_en_tv/us_ap_on_tv_cbs_this_morning

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