Jack White steps out solo with new album (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? The White Stripes frontman Jack White said on Monday that he will debut a solo album, "Blunderbuss," on April 24, with entirely new songs written by him and embodying his own sense of self-expression.

"I've put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas," White said in a statement on Monday.

Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, "Blunderbuss" is the first solo album from White, 36, who gained fame as lead singer, guitarist and pianist in the Grammy-winning two-piece band The White Stripes with his ex-wife Meg on drums. The band officially split in February 2011, after 14 years together.

The "Seven Nation Army" singer is also a member of rock bands The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.

Ahead of the release of "Blunderbuss" in April, fans can get a taste of the first single, "Love Interruption," which will be available to listen to online and purchase from Monday.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/music_nm/us_jackwhite_newalbum

horse slaughter horse slaughter world aids day 2011 chester mcglockton chester mcglockton arsenic los angeles weather

Camilla Williams, black opera pioneer, dies at 92 (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS ? Camilla Williams, believed to be the first African-American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company, has died. She was 92.

Williams died Sunday at her home in Bloomington, her attorney, Eric Slotegraaf, said Monday. She died of complications from cancer, said Alain Barker, a spokesman for the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Williams was a professor emeritus of voice.

Williams' debut with the New York City Opera on May 15, 1946, was thought to make her the first African-American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company and came nearly nine years before Marian Anderson became the first African-American singer to appear at New York's more prestigious Metropolitan Opera.

In her City Opera debut, Williams sang what would become her signature role, Cio-Cio-San, in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly." She displayed "a vividness and subtlety unmatched by any other artist who has assayed the part here in many a year," according to a New York Times review of the performance.

She also appeared with the City Opera that season as Nedda, in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci." The following year she performed the role of Mimi, in Puccini's "La Boheme," and in 1948 she sang the title role of Verdi's "Aida."

Williams first appeared overseas in 1950 on a concert tour of Panama, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. She also appeared as Cio-Cio-San with the London Sadler's Wells Opera in 1954 and later that same year as the first black artist to sing a major role with the Vienna State Opera.

Williams, the daughter of a chauffeur, was introduced to "Madama Butterfly," Mozart and other classical works at age 12 while growing up in Danville, Va. A Welsh voice teacher came to the segregated city to teach at a school for white girls and taught a few black girls at a private home. By that time she had been singing at Danville's Calvary Baptist Church for four years.

"My grandparents and parents were self-taught musicians; all of them sang, and there was always music in our home," she wrote for her entry in the first edition of "Who's Who in the World."

A graduate of Virginia State College, she was teaching third grade and music in Danville schools in 1942 when she was offered a scholarship from the Philadelphia Alumni Association of her alma mater for vocal training in Philadelphia, where she studied under Marion Szekely-Freschl and worked as an usher in a theater.

A lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, she performed in her hometown of Danville in 1963 to raise funds to free jailed civil rights demonstrators and sang at the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, D.C., immediately before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. She also sang at King's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony the following year. The Chicago Defender lauded her in 1951 for bringing democracy to opera.

In 1950 she married Charles Beavers, a fellow Danville native and a defense attorney whose clients included Malcolm X. He died in 1970. The couple did not have children.

Williams retired from opera in 1971 and taught at Brooklyn College, Bronx College and Queens College until becoming the first African American professor of voice at Indiana University. In 1983, as a guest professor at Beijing's Central Conservatory, she became that school's first black professor. She retired from teaching in 1997.

A memorial service has been scheduled at the First United Methodist Church in Bloomington on Feb. 18.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_en_mu/us_obit_williams

weta weta rudolph the red nosed reindeer rudolph the red nosed reindeer adam carolla desean jackson rick neuheisel

Steve Jones Out As 'X Factor' Host

Welsh TV personality breaks the news via Twitter.
By Kara Warner

Steve Jones and Melanie Amaro
Photo: FOX

Inaugural "X Factor" host Steve Jones will not be returning to his post next season. The cheeky Welshman broke the news himself via Twitter on Monday (January 30).

"I won't be hosting next seasons X Factor which is a shame but I cant complain as I've had a great time," Jones tweeted to his more than 94,000 followers. "Good luck to everyone on the show."

Jones had decidedly big shoes to fill stepping into the gig, with comparisons instantly made to "American Idol" host/ media mogul Ryan Seacrest. Throughout the season, the reviews of Jones' hosting skills were decidedly mixed.

Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly's comments during the TCA panels earlier this month now seem as though a decision was made awhile ago. "I think everyone has come to realize the value of a Ryan Seacrest," he told reporters during the network's press tour panel. "If you dialed the clock back 11 years, I'm not sure everybody in this room would have given him all the credit at that time. Those are very hard jobs to do. So whether Steve's the guy or not, it comes under the heading of 'growth' in general. There will be some tweaks to the show, but I'll tell you, I'm very happy to have it, and it's gonna be part of us for a long time."

The 34-year-old Jones seemed to take the criticism in stride and didn't appear to have high hopes for a return for the second season. "There's been no contract conversations and there won't be until the New Year," Jones told Metro UK in December. "If I'm back, great. If not, I'll do something else. Simple as that."

One thing Jones does have hope for is a possible romantic connection with "X Factor" mentor Nicole Scherzinger, the former Pussycat Doll and "Dancing With the Stars" champ who was originally supposed to be his co-host before she replaced Cheryl Cole on the judging panel.

"If I ever leave 'X Factor,' Scherzinger's phone will be smoking hot from me ringing it constantly," Jones joked to Metro. "If we are not colleagues, then she's fair game."

Will you miss Steve Jones on "The X Factor"? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678186/steve-jones-out-x-factor-host.jhtml

mermaid roger federer drake corset andy murray jerusalem nadal

Up to 10 months to remove capsized cruise ship

Italian Financial police scuba divers sale around the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers ?11,000 ($14,460) apiece to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany. But some passengers are already refusing to accept the deal, saying they can't yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured. Costa announced the offer after negotiations with consumer groups who say they are representing 3,206 passengers from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the massive Costa Concordia cruise ship hit a reef on Jan. 13. In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Italian Financial police scuba divers sale around the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers ?11,000 ($14,460) apiece to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany. But some passengers are already refusing to accept the deal, saying they can't yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured. Costa announced the offer after negotiations with consumer groups who say they are representing 3,206 passengers from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the massive Costa Concordia cruise ship hit a reef on Jan. 13. In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

View of the bow of the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers ?11,000 ($14,460) apiece to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany. But some passengers are already refusing to accept the deal, saying they can't yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured. Costa announced the offer after negotiations with consumer groups who say they are representing 3,206 passengers from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the massive Costa Concordia cruise ship hit a reef on Jan. 13. In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Italian firefighters approach the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers ?11,000 ($14,460) apiece to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany. But some passengers are already refusing to accept the deal, saying they can't yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured. Costa announced the offer after negotiations with consumer groups who say they are representing 3,206 passengers from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the massive Costa Concordia cruise ship hit a reef on Jan. 13. In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) ? The cruise ship that capsized off Italy's coast will take up to 10 months to remove, officials said Sunday, as rough seas off the Tuscan coast forced the suspension of recovery operations.

Officials called off both the start of operations to remove of 500,000 gallons of fuel and the search for people still missing after determining the Costa Concordia had moved four centimeters (an inch and a half) over six hours, coupled with waves of more than one meter (three feet).

A 17th body, identified as Peruvian crew member Erika Soria Molina, was found Saturday. Sixteen crew and passengers remain listed as missing, with one body recovered from the ship not yet identified.

Officials have virtually ruled out finding anyone alive more than two weeks after the Costa Concordia hit a reef, but were reluctant to give a final death toll for the Jan. 13 disaster. The crash happened when the captain deviated from his planned route, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship. More than 4,200 people were on board.

"Our first goal was to find people alive," Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the operation, told a daily briefing. "Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster."

University of Florence professor Riccardo Fanti said the ship's movements could either be caused by the ship settling on its own weight, slipping deeper into the seabed, or both. He also could not rule out the ship's sliding along the seabed.

Gabrielli noted that the body of a man recovered from the ship remains unidentified, despite efforts to obtain DNA samples from all of the missing, meaning that officials cannot preclude that the deceased is someone unknown to authorities. Costa has said that it runs strict procedures that would preclude the presence of any unregistered passengers.

Experts have said it would take 28 days to remove fuel from 15 tanks accounting for more than 80 percent of all fuel on board the ship. The next job would be to target the engine room, which contains nearly 350 cubic meters of diesel, fuel and other lubricants, Gabrielli said.

Only once the fuel is removed can work begin on removing the ship, either floating it in one piece or cutting it up and towing it away as a wreck. Costa has begun the process for taking bids for the recovery operation, a process that will take two months.

Gabrielli said the actual removal will take from seven to 10 months ? meaning that the wreck will be visible from the coast of the island of Giglio for the entire summer tourism season.

Residents of Giglio have been circulating a petition to demand that officials provide more information on how the full-scale operations can coexist with the important tourism season. At the moment, access to the port for private boats has been banned and all boats must stay at least one mile (1.6 kilometers) from the wrecked ship, affecting access to Giglio's only harbor for fishermen, scuba divers and private boat owners.

"We are really sorry, we would have preferred to save them all. But now other needs and other problems arise," said Franca Melils, a local business owner who is promoting a petition for the tourist season. "It's about us, who work and make a living exclusively from tourism. We don't have factories, we don't have anything else."

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-29-EU-Italy-Ship-Aground/id-a45f3d989e8543c6b8145f0e090c7a68

drew barrymore jesse ventura casey anthony portland trailblazers bill o brien will kopelman joseph kennedy iii

SUMO-snipping protein plays crucial role in T and B cell development

Saturday, January 28, 2012

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

"This research extends the activity of SUMO and the Sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 1 (SENP1) to the field of immunology, in particular the early lymphoid development of T and B cells," said the study's senior author, Edward T. H. Yeh, M.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Cardiology.

SUMO proteins, also known as the small ubiquitin-like modifiers or Sentrin, attach to other proteins in cells to modify their function or to move them within a cell. SENP1 is one of a family of six proteins that snips SUMO off of SUMO-modified proteins. SUMOylation (SUMO modification) of proteins has been implicated in development of cancer, heart and neurodegenerative diseases, among others.

The team first analyzed the role of SENP1 in the development of lymphoids in mice and found it is heavily expressed in precursor cells, the early stages of B and T cell development.

Working with genetically modified mice they developed that lack SENP1 gene expression, Yeh and colleagues found the mouse embryos had severe defects in their T and B cells, white blood cell lymphocytes that identify and fight infection.

SUMO pins STAT5 in the nucleus

Subsequent experiments led them to STAT5, a transcription factor known to play critical roles in the development and function of immune cells. Transcription factors work in the cell nucleus, activating gene expression by connecting to a gene's promoter region.

"STAT5 works in a cycle, moving from the cytosol of a cell into the nucleus to activate genes and then back out to the cytosol," Yeh said. "We found that when STAT5 is SUMOylated in the nucleus it gets trapped there when there's no SENP1 to remove SUMO."

The team found that SUMO muscles in on two other signaling events that govern STAT5 activity - phosphorylation and acetylation.

SUMO inhibits STAT5 signaling

STAT5 is activated in the cell cytosol when the JAK tyrosine kinase attaches a phosphate group at a specific site on the STAT5 protein. This transformed STAT5 crosses the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to transcribe genes.

The team found that SUMO attaches to STAT5 close to its phosphorylation site and that cells lacking SENP1 have increased SUMOylation and decreased phosphorylation.

SUMOylation vs. acetylation

In addition to phosphorylation, acetylation of STAT5 has been shown to be essential for STAT5 to cross the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to enhance gene transcription. Yeh and colleagues found that SUMO competes directly with acetyl groups for the same binding site, inhibiting acetylation.

"Without SENP1 to remove SUMO, STAT5 can't be acetylated or phosphorylated and can't be recycled for use again," Yeh said. "We discovered that SENP1 controls lymphoid development through regulation of SUMOylation of STAT5."

Since Yeh's lab discovered SUMOylation in 1996, SUMO has been found to alter the function of thousands of proteins.

Yeh is hosting the 6th International Conference SUMO, Ubiquitin, UBL Proteins: Implications for Human Diseases Feb. 8-11 in the Dan L. Duncan Building at MD Anderson. Yeh organizes the meeting every other year.

"There used to be so little known about SUMO. Now, a protein is assumed to be SUMOylated until proved otherwise," Yeh said.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center 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.

This press release has been viewed 41 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117155/SUMO_snipping_protein_plays_crucial_role_in_T_and_B_cell_development

playoff schedule pinewood derby cars republican debate tonight tinker tailor soldier spy rich forever rick ross project runway all stars elin nordegren

Santorum cancels morning events to be with child (AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. ? Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum canceled his Sunday morning campaign events and planned to spend time with his hospitalized daughter.

"Rick and his wife Karen are admitting their daughter Bella to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia this evening," spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement Saturday night, adding "Rick intends to return to Florida and resume the campaign schedule as soon as is possible."

Santorum had been scheduled to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" and attend church in Miami. Officials did not cancel Sunday's afternoon events in Sarasota and Punta Gorda.

Isabella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. When asked about her, Santorum says his daughter was not expected to survive until her first birthday and often has to catch himself to stop from tears.

"I have a little girl who's 3 1/2 years old," he told Christian conservatives in Iowa before winning that lead-off contest.

"I don't know whether her life is going to be measured ? it's always been measured ? in days and weeks. Yet here I am. ... because I feel like I wouldn't be a good dad if I wasn't out here fighting for a country that would see the dignity in her and every other child."

When voters ask him about her, he calls the decision to campaign "gut-retching" but says he goes forward for all special needs families.

"You think she's fine, and then one cold and she's this close to dying," he told The Washington Post last year in an interview.

In October, he missed one of Bella's surgeries to participate in a debate and told the audience that he planned to take an all-night flight home from Las Vegas to be with her.

"I look at the simplicity and love she emits," Santorum said in a web video his campaign released after his scheduling drew questions, "and it's clear to me we're the disabled ones."

Santorum largely has kept his daughter off the campaign schedules, preferring her to stay home with her mother. But Bella did join Santorum for a few days around Iowa's straw poll in August, and she joined her family in Charleston, S.C., the day of its primary.

She didn't join her six siblings for the public speech. She stayed backstage.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_santorum_daughter

san francisco 49ers news channel 5 49ers news ketamine sf 49ers jane goodall joe paterno died

Oil ends little changed, below $100 a barrel (AP)

Oil prices moved in a narrow range Friday, as Iran prepared to consider a ban on crude sales to European Union countries. Here's how energy contracts traded.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange:

Benchmark crude fell 14 cents to finish at $99.56 per barrel.

Gasoline rose 8 cents to end at $2.9268 a gallon.

Heating oil rose 2 cents to finish at $3.0704 a gallon.

Natural gas rose 7 cents to end at $2.6780 per 1,000 cubic feet.

On the ICE Futures exchange in London:

Brent crude rose 67 cents to finish the day at $111.46 per barrel.

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

glenn beck cacao cacao spartacus blood and sand starz kiwi kiwi

Survey says: Flying is no fun

Courtesy HNTB

Respondents to the HNTB survey about flying share their opinions about the airport screening process. Respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer.

A new survey confirms what most travelers already know: modern air travel can be stressful, frustrating and exhausting.

"Air travel has lost its spark,? said Tom Rossbach, director of aviation architecture for HNTB, the architecture, engineering and construction company that commissioned the survey. ?Going to the airport just isn?t as glamorous as it used to be. Now it?s just a chore.?

Of the survey?s 1,000 U.S. respondents, 44 percent called air travel stressful, 41 percent said it was frustrating and 32 percent declared it downright exhausting. Very few people (16 percent) found air travel easy, luxurious (5 percent) or relaxing (7 percent).

Math whizzes will note that these totals add up to more than 100 percent?but survey respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer to the question: ?Air travel is...?

Not surprisingly, the survey found that air travelers are displeased with the modern-day airport security-screening process. ?The biggest frustration is with waiting in those long lines,? said Rossbach.

Only 22 percent said airport security-screening procedures were effective and only 11 percent said it was efficient. A mere 4 percent found it pleasant while 42 percent found the security checkpoint ?a hassle.?

But some travelers are optimistic that new technology and better airport amenities can help patch things up.

According to the survey, almost half of Americans think that over that last 10 years there?s been improvement in terminal amenities such as shops, food options and entertainment. And more than half count the now ubiquitous self-check-in kiosks among the improvements.?

Going forward, more than a quarter of the survey respondents would like to see paper baggage tags replaced by electronic GPS tags. And 53 percent said they?d feel safer in an airplane that had "NextGen" GPS technology installed, instead of the current radar-based system.

More than 10 percent of respondents would also like to see improvements at airport drop-off and pick-up curbs and at the departure gate lounges as well as a few more designated areas for quiet or conversation.

?We?re going to take this information and use to it design better airports with facilities that are easier to manage and much more enjoyable to be in,? said Rossbach.

100 percent of travelers would most likely say yes to that.

More from Overhead Bin:

Find more by Harriet Baskas on?Stuck at The Airport.com?and follow her on?Twitter.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10253138-survey-says-flying-is-no-fun

eddie long ncaa bowl schedule ncaa bowl schedule occupy dc trisomy 18 farrah abraham whats going on

Obama officials back bill to hit China subsidies (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192255404?client_source=feed&format=rss

la auto show powerball winning numbers powerball winning numbers uc davis pepper spray uc davis pepper spray usc oregon breaking dawn part 2

Prince Fielder introduced by Detroit Tigers (AP)

DETROIT ? Saying "dreams come true," Prince Fielder was introduced Thursday by the Detroit Tigers.

Fielder appeared at a news conference at Comerica Park after finalizing a $214 million, nine-year contract, the fourth-largest deal in baseball history.

"This is awesome," Fielder said. "I just never thought this could happen."

With Detroit desperate to win its first World Series title since 1984, the big first baseman will combine with Miguel Cabrera to give the Tigers perhaps the most formidable Nos. 3-4 hitters in the major leagues. But with Cabrera shifting to third, it also will give Detroit a potentially troublesome defense at the infield corners.

Fielder was seated at a dais along with owner Mike Ilitch, manager Jim Leyland, GM Dave Dombrowski and agent Scott Boras.

Dombrowski called it "a very exciting time for this city" as Fielder was given his Tigers jersey.

Ilitch recalled how Prince Fielder used to hang around Tiger Stadium whether his father Cecil played for Detroit,

"He was marked to be a major league baseball player," Ilitch said.

Ilitch said discussions began after the Tigers learned that Victor Martinez will miss most or all of the season because of a knee injury sustained during offseason workouts.

Leyland said Brandon Inge, who is being displaced because of Fielder's arrival caused Cabrera's move to third, "isn't the happiest camper." Leyland also said he thought Cabrera was capable of handling defensive duties at third.

Fielder will earn $23 million in each of his first two years with Detroit, then will make $24 million annually in the final seven seasons of his $214 million, nine-year contract, according to terms obtained by The Associated Press.

That contrasts with Albert Pujols' backloaded $240 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels, agreed to last month.

Pujols gets $12 million this year and $16 million in 2013, with the salary increasing to $23 million in 2014 and then rising $1 million annually.

Detroit announced the deal Thursday, and scheduled a news conference later in the day.

Fielder would get an additional $500,000 if he's the AL MVP, $200,000 if he's second through fifth and $100,000 if he's sixth through 10th. For each MVP he wins after the first, he would get $1 million.

He also would get $100,000 if he's an All-Star starter and $50,000 if he's a reserve, or alternatively $100,000 if he's a Baseball America or Sporting News postseason All-Star. He also would receive $100,000 for a Gold Glove, $100,000 for a Silver Slugger, $100,000 for the Hank Aaron Award, $150,000 for league championship series MVP and $200,000 for World Series MVP.

In addition, he gets a hotel suite on the road.

Fielder made $15.7 million in his final season with the Brewers. He had a $15.5 million base salary and earned $100,000 for finishing third in NL MVP voting, $50,000 for starting the All-Star game and $50,000 for a Silver Slugger award.

This is the fourth $200 million contract in baseball history, following Alex Rodriguez's $275 million, 10-year contract with the New York Yankees, A-Rod's $252 million, 10-year deal with Texas and Pujols' agreement with the Angels.

Among current players, Fielder's $23.78 million average salary is behind only A-Rod ($27.5 million), Ryan Howard ($25 million), and Cliff Lee and Pujols ($24 million each).

___

AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bba_tigers_fielder

colts colts matt barkley melanie amaro x factor boise state anencephaly jordans

Elder Scrolls RP Anyone?

Hey all, Anyone interested in an Elder Scrolls RP please Join Elder Scrolls: Agents of Talos
I promice it will be worth you time! XD

Thank You!

~SkunkishBlue!
this is the first day of my life
I?m glad I didn?t die before I met you
But now I don?t care I could go anywhere with you
And I?d probably be happy

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/uKKYPxuXyYE/viewtopic.php

hopkins hopkins the big year the big year breast cancer walk breast cancer walk major league

Hyperactive sun clears space junk ? for now

Low Earth orbit just got a free spring-clean, thanks to the sun. It turns out that increased solar activity in recent years has removed some of the satellite debris that clogs this region, making it temporarily safer for other satellites and astronauts.

The sun will hit an 11-year peak in its activity ? the solar maximum ? in 2013. As this approaches, small increases in solar radiation warm the outer layer of Earth's atmosphere, called the thermosphere, forcing it to expand into space. This places atmospheric molecules in the path of low orbiting debris, which brake their orbital velocity and cause them to re-enter the atmosphere sooner than expected, where they usually burn up.

In the latest edition of NASA's Orbital Debris Quarterly News, the agency's chief scientist Nicholas Johnson notes that the billowing thermosphere has accelerated the rate of burn up of debris from Fengyun-1C, a satellite China destroyed in an anti-satellite missile test in 2007, and from the 2009 collision between Russia's Kosmos 2251 and the US Iridium 33. This is a "welcome, albeit brief, respite from an otherwise growing orbital debris population", he says.

It's a short-lived respite since, in the long term, climate change will warm the planet while cooling the thermosphere ? and so keep junk aloft longer ? says space debris researcher Hugh Lewis at the University of Southampton, UK.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1c1e8b51/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn213860Ehyperactive0Esun0Eclears0Espace0Ejunk0E0Efor0Enow0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

sweet potato recipes green bean casserole recipe karina smirnoff pumpkin cheesecake deviled eggs pie crust pie crust

O2 data breach potentially shares your cellphone number with the world

There's an alarming rumor circulating that suggests that UK network O2 forwards your phone number to any website visited on a smartphone. Lewis Peckover built a site that displays the header data sent to sites you visit, finding a network-specific field called "x-up-calling-line-id" which displayed his number. Angry users who tested the site have flooded the company's official Twitter, which is currently responding with:

"Security is our top most priority, we're investigating this at the moment & will come back with more info as soon as we can."

The Next Web confirmed that Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone numbers are unaffected by the issue, but GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile (both MVNOs that operate on the same network) do. TNW's sources say it's most likely an internal testing setup, while Mr. Peckover suggests it's because the network transparently proxies HTTP traffic, using the number as a UID.

Update: We received confirmation from O2, who said that it was "investigating with internal teams and it's our top priority." Slashgear and Think Broadband were unable to replicate the problem, but in our tests (pictured) it was sharing our data with the site.

O2 data breach potentially shares your cellphone number with the world originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  Lewis Peckover  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/25/o2-data-breach/

current time earthquake today earthquake today droid razr oklahoma news atomic clock earthquake map

Embryonic Stem Cell Retinal Implants Seem Safe, So Far

An anonymous reader writes "A biotechnology company said Monday that results from the world's first human trial using embryonic stem cells to treat eye diseases suggested that the new procedure appears to be safe four months after the cells were injected into the eyes of two blind patients. The study also describes visual improvements in patients, and experts said the findings hold promise for treating blindness in patients with currently incurable conditions like age-related macular degeneration in older patients and Stargardt's Disease, a main cause of blindness in young people."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/37-TPkK3D1E/embryonic-stem-cell-retinal-implants-seem-safe-so-far

pef pef the perfect storm draya michele draya michele ozzie guillen ozzie guillen

Bird Flu Scientists Agree to Pause H5N1 Research

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A national biosecurity panel in the United States had asked researchers who produced a more contagious form of the bird flu virus to keep some data secret.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=924347f31b0f4b2874a0134903f6877b

21 jump street 19 kids and counting 2011 election results 11/11/11 11 11 11 activision blizzard acrylamide

Mitt Romney Hits Newt Gingrich On Past Experience, 'Leadership' In Republican Debate

Mitt Romney wasted no time in going after his new chief rival in the GOP primary, Newt Gingrich, during the Monday night NBC-National Journal debate in Tampa:

I think this is going to come down to a question of leadership. I think as you choose the president of the United States, you're looking for a person who can lead this country in a very critical time, lead the free world and the free world has to lead the entire world. I think it's about leadership.

The speaker was given an opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994. And at the end of four years, he had to resign in disgrace. In the 1970s, he came to Washington. I went to work in my first job in the 1970s, at the bottom level of a consulting firm. In the 1990s, he had to resign in disgrace from this job as speaker. I had the opportunity to go off and run the Olympic Winter Games. In the 15 years after he left the speakership, the Speaker has been working as an influence-peddler in Washington.

And during those 15 years, I helped turn around the Olympics, helped begin a very successful turnaround in the state of Massachusetts. The speaker -- when I was fighting against cap and trade, the speaker was sitting down with Nancy Pelosi on a sofa encouraging it. When I was fighting to say that the Paul Ryan plan to save Medicare was bold and right he was saying it was right-wing social engineering.

We have very different perspectives on leadership and the kind of leadership that our conservative movement needs not just to get elected but to get the country right.

In response, Gingrich said he wasn't going to "spend the evening trying to chase Gov. Romney's misinformation." He said that on Tuesday his website, Newt.org, will have answers to some of the attacks.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/mitt-romney-newt-gingrich_n_1225592.html

oomph oomph cmj olin kreutz olin kreutz au pair au pair

Epic clash: Silicon Valley blindsides Hollywood on piracy (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The massive online protest last Wednesday, in which Wikipedia and thousands of other websites closed down or otherwise protested and helped to kill controversial online piracy legislation, was widely heralded as an unprecedented case of a grassroots uprising overcoming backroom lobbying.

Yet a close look at how the debate unfolded suggests that traditional means of influencing policy in Washington had its place too. The technology industry has ramped up its political activities dramatically in recent years, and in fact, has spent more than the entertainment industry -- $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2011, compared with $906.4 million spent by entertainment companies.

The latest chapter in what has become an epic, decades-long battle between the two industries over copyrighted digital content began innocuously enough. Hollywood movie studios, frustrated by online theft that they claim already costs them billions of dollars a year and will only get worse, in 2010 started pushing for a law that would make it possible to block access and cut off payments to foreign websites offering pirated material.

In 2010, longtime industry friend Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, introduced a bill, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously but never went further.

In May last year, Leahy tried again, introducing his Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act. In October, Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a similar bill. The last major piece of copyright law, the Pro-IP Act of 2008, moved through Congress with little controversy, so the industry felt hopeful.

Through the end of September, Hollywood had outspent the tech industry 2-to-1 in donations to key supporters of measures it was backing. More than $950,000 from the TV, music and movie industries has gone to original sponsors of the House and Senate bills in the 2012 election cycle, compared with about $400,000 from computer and Internet companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Tech companies preferred backers of a narrower alternative bill. The computer and Internet industries gave more than $291,000 to supporters of that measure vs. about $185,000 from the content makers.

"They're both very powerful. They're all big players. They give a lot of money to politicians. This has to be a tough choice for many members of Congress," said Larry Sabato, a campaign finance expert who teaches at the University of Virginia.

PAY ATTENTION

The bills had attracted no public attention, but in early September, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman wrote to senators to oppose the bill. Later that month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce marshaled a group of 350 companies to write in supporting it.

The introduction of the House bill in late October prompted more scrutiny. Critics including the Consumer Electronics Association fretted over issues such as whether U.S. websites could be shut down under the bill, and security risks to Internet infrastructure that they said may arise.

By mid November, technology executives were paying close attention. Many watched online as Google copyright counsel Katherine Oyama testified before a House Judiciary Committee hearing November 16. Another, Ben Huh, chief executive of the online media network Cheezburger Inc, would eventually help organize the Web blackout.

Members of Congress "basically beat up Google," said Huh, who tuned in from the office. "We were watching it going, 'This is incredibly unfair.'"

Later that day, he talked over the testimony with Erik Martin, general manager of the social news site Reddit.com. The two would later help lead the online blackout efforts, along with others such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Meanwhile, the White House was taking meetings from both sides. The first week of December, Motion Picture Association of America chief and former Senator Chris Dodd moved the MPAA's board meeting from its traditional site of Los Angeles to Washington, in part so executives could lobby on the issues.

Dodd, along with movie executives including Warner Bros Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer and Fox Filmed Entertainment co-Chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, met with White House officials including chief of staff Bill Daley and Vice President Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with the situation. They hammered home why the law was needed to go after foreign sites.

TAKING TURNS

The following week, it was the tech companies' turn. Executives including LinkedIn's Hoffman, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, and venture capitalists Brad Burnham and Paul Maeder met with the same officials to press their case.

Major tech companies then took out advertisements in newspapers including the Washington Post and The New York Times, saying the bills would allow U.S. government censorship of the Internet. The ads ran December 14 in the form of an open letter to Washington, signed by heavyweights such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

The ads ran as the House Judiciary Committee was turning back the bill. The proceedings streamed live over the Internet, allowing the public to watch many members struggling to fully understand terms such as IP address and DNS server.

North Carolina Rep. Mel Watt, for example, professed that he was "not a nerd and didn't understand a lot of the technological stuff." That opened them up to mockery in the blogosphere, with commentators questioning their ability to craft law around the Internet. "Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How the Internet Works," Motherboard blogger Joshua Kopstein wrote in a widely circulated post.

The weekend after the committee adjourned its hearing, opponents started an online petition to veto SOPA at the White House's "We the People" website. Within days, the petition had acquired 38,500 signatures, far exceeding the 25,000 required for review by the administration. An separate petition started in late October had already gathered more than 52,000 signatures.

A few days before Christmas, the House Judiciary Committee released the names of the many companies that supported SOPA. But that succeeded only in galvanizing further opposition: influential Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham took the unusual step of saying that any company that supported SOPA would be barred from Demo Day, an industry showcase.

People posting to the social-news site Reddit then suggested a boycott of one of the bill's supporters, the domain-name registrar GoDaddy, asking people to transfer their domains to another registrar. Many sites, among them Huh's Cheezburger, said they would switch. Just before New Year's Day, GoDaddy dropped its support for the bill amid widespread publicity.

Meanwhile, the White House was crafting its response to the online petitions. Three top aides to President Barack Obama, who won election in 2008 supported by online organizing and who has long been friendly to Internet industry concerns, weighed in on the issue in mid-January just as Hollywood was preparing to celebrate the Golden Globe Awards. The officials posted a response to the online petition and voiced concerns about the bills, while calling for improved antipiracy legislation.

That sparked a flood of media coverage and helped expand the Internet blackout to more sites. One popular protest, the brainchild of Instagram engineer Greg Hochmuth and YouTube Product Management Director Hunter Wall, allowed people to add black "Stop SOPA" banners to their Twitter and Facebook profile photos. On Wednesday, some 30 people a minute were adding the banners to their photos, Hochmuth told Reuters.

A FORMIDABLE COMBO

The combination of White House concerns, the impending online protest and the intense pressure on legislators from high-profile Internet industry leaders abruptly changed the dynamic on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, as the blackout unfolded, support for the bills quickly crumbled.

Some Hollywood executives acknowledge their own flat-footedness in trying to marshal public opinion as opposition mounted. While technology companies brandished the power of the Internet, Hollywood relied on old-media weapons such as television commercials and a billboard in New York's Times Square. It proved to be too little, too late.

One entertainment-company lawyer complained that opposing arguments were often inaccurate but spread like wildfire anyway on the Internet, leaving supporters scrambling to correct the information without the benefit of a strong online network.

"We do some of that (online) stuff, but it has to go through a committee of 14 people," he said. "The other side doesn't have conference calls. They just put stuff out there."

Both friends and foes of SOPA and PIPA do not think they have seen the end of this battle.

"Bills are a lot like zombies," said Cheezburger's Huh. "You never know if they're dead or going to come back."

When it comes around again, lobbyists on both sides will have learned some valuable lessons.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, with additional reporting by Jasmin Melvin and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/en_nm/us_congress_piracy

freetown nicole scherzinger modern family troy davis troy davis cough new facebook layout

Political Parties Win Campaign Finance Lawsuit Against City of San ...

On January 20, a U.S. District Court struck down several campaign finance restrictions enacted in 1973 by the city of San Diego. Here is the 32-page opinion in Thalheimer v City of San Diego, 09-cv-2862. Probably the most important part of the decision is the deference that the court paid to political parties.

The decision upholds a contribution limit of $500 from individuals to candidates for city office. It also upholds a ban on direct corporate contributions to candidates. But it strikes down a contribution limit of $1,000 from political parties to candidates. The decision explains that parties are intended to represent their members, by aggregating contributions and broadcasting messages more wisely than individual contributors generally could afford to do.? Because parties are large groups of like-minded citizens, they are entitled to a larger contribution limit.

There are other issues in the case. The decision strikes down a law that prevents candidates from contributing to their own campaign more than a year before the election (the city didn?t even try to defend that law), but upholds a law making it illegal for anyone else to make a contribution more than a year before the election. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Source: http://www.ballot-access.org/2012/01/21/political-parties-win-campaign-finance-lawsuit-against-city-of-san-diego/

dippin dots triumph the insult comic dog tucson weather tucson weather peyton hillis cl p cl p

South Korea allows aid group to visit North Korea (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? South Korea says it is allowing a group of civilians to visit North Korea with a shipment of aid.

The Unification Ministry said Friday the group will take 180 tons of flour to North Korea next week. Seoul allowed a shipment of aid earlier this month but no civilians accompanied it.

South Koreans are not allowed to visit the North without government permission.

The latest shipment comes as North Korea makes a push to unite around new leader Kim Jong Un.

The North has said since Kim Jong Il's death last month that it will not deal with South Korea's current government.

South Korea has cut off large-scale food aid to North Korea since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008. Lee says North Korea should first take steps toward nuclear disarmament.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_aid

roy orbison red solo cup xbox live update new planet new planet green bay packers stock jeff garcia

Europe exhales after another good week

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves Maximou mansion after a meeting with Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance, which represents Greece's private bondholders and Greek Prime Lukas Papademos, Athens, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves Maximou mansion after a meeting with Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance, which represents Greece's private bondholders and Greek Prime Lukas Papademos, Athens, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

Charles Dallara, right, and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance, which represents Greece's private bondholders, leave Maximou mansion after a meeting with Greek Prime Lukas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. Greece is confident a debt relief deal with private creditors that is crucial to avoid default can be reached "very soon," a government spokesman said Friday. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Europe has taken a step back from the brink.

Three weeks into the year, borrowing rates for debt-saddled countries have fallen to more manageable levels. Auctions of government debt have gone better, a sign of increased investor confidence.

And while it may have been an embarrassment, especially to France, the recent downgrade of nine European countries by credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's has been met with a shrug in financial markets.

All this is in stark contrast to the final weeks of last year, when countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece watched helplessly as the costs of managing their debt spiraled ever higher, and governments fell in Athens and Rome.

High hurdles remain: Greece must still cut a deal with its private creditors, to say nothing of the long-term problems ? massive debt, uncompetitive economies and the prospect of years of cutbacks in public spending.

But for the moment, the continent is exhaling.

Portuguese Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar, after his country successfully sold ?2.5 billion of its national debt on Thursday, ventured that it was "a sign that we may be coming to a turning point."

Among other good news in the past week:

? Despite now having an AA+ credit rating, France easily sold ?9.5 billion, or about $12.2 billion, in bonds at interest rates lower than in previous auctions when its rating was AAA. The sale eased fears that S&P's downgrade of France would hurt the finances of the continent's No. 2 economy. France sold four-year bonds at 1.89 percent, down from 2.32 percent in November, and 10-year, inflation-linked bonds at 1.07 percent, also down from 2.32 percent.

? Spain raised ?6.6 billion ($8.5 billion), far more than its initial target of ?3.5 billion to ?4.5 billion. It agreed to pay 5.4 percent on its bonds, down from 5.54 percent in the last such auction in December. Demand was twice what was being offered.

? Stock indexes in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain ? plus the Dow Jones industrial average in the United States ? have climbed back close to their levels from last August, when the crisis spread to Italy and took a turn for the worse.

The European Central Bank, chief monetary authority for the 17 countries that use the euro currency, gets some of the credit for sending cash flowing to banks ? and through them, it appears, to troubled countries.

In December, the ECB said it would lend banks unlimited amounts of money to stabilize them. It also said it would lower the interest rate on the loans to 1 percent, extend the maximum term from one year to three and accept collateral of lower quality. The banks responded by borrowing ?489 billion ($632.6 billion) in three-year loans at a low interest rate, currently 1 percent.

The banks appear to have used at least some of that money to buy the bonds that governments have been selling almost daily. The extra demand at the bond auctions also helps bring down the interest rates on the bonds.

Stefan Schneider, chief international economist at Deutsche Bank, says the ECB "is now the main source of financing" for the troubled countries' banks "and gives these banks the opportunity to invest in the government bonds of their own countries."

Another ECB all-you-can-eat credit offering is slated for Feb. 28.

The central bank has refused pleas to expand its limited program and buy government bonds itself on the open market. It says countries need to cut debt themselves and not expect a central bank bailout.

Members of the ECB governing council have cited law that prohibits the bank from financing governments. Some analysts say the massive bank loans appear to be doing exactly that, just indirectly.

Schneider, though, cautioned that there is no "magic bullet" to solve the crisis.

"I think we will not be able, even with the advantage of hindsight, to indicate the point in time when the crisis ended," he said.

On Friday, stocks in Europe mostly held their gains for the week, waiting for the outcome of Greece's negotiations with its creditors on a deal to cut the face value of up to ?200 billion in debt by 50 percent.

A deal in Athens would allow the country to receive a second bailout package from other European governments and the International Monetary Fund, and cut Greece's debt from an estimated 160 percent of its annual economic output to 120 percent by 2020.

That is still painfully high, but without the help, Greece will not be able to pay ?14.5 billion ($18.8 billion) in debt due March 20. A Greek default would send borrowing costs higher across Europe and could trigger chaos in the global financial system.

Even with a deal, Greece could default in coming years. An IMF review in December conceded that 120 percent is at the upper end of what is sustainable, and only if Greece's economy starts growing again after five years of recession.

And Greece is just one potential problem. Many countries are either headed for recession or stuck in deep ones, which will make debt reduction even tougher.

While Portugal, Greece and Ireland could be bailed out by the other euro countries and the IMF, Italy is considered much too big to rescue for any substantial length of time.

The new prime minister, Mario Monti, has promised to shake up what he calls an over-regulated, underperforming economy, accelerate economic growth and reduce the country's debt burden, which is also 120 percent of its annual economic output. But he faces tough political opposition.

Spain has taken some steps to loosen regulations on hiring and firing but has no clear growth model after the collapse of its real estate bubble. Unemployment is 22.9 percent, and for people under 25, it's a staggering 49.6 percent.

Bank stocks got a big bounce Thursday after stronger-than-expected bank earnings in the United States and word that Germany's Commerzbank could meet new requirements to boost its capital buffers without needing government help.

This week's stock rally across Europe left Germany's DAX 30 9.5 percent higher over the past month, France's CAC up 8.7 percent and the FTSE 100 in London up 5.9 percent.

Investors are all too aware that previous respites from market turmoil have turned out to be temporary.

For now, investors can increase their holdings of risky assets, says Joerg Kraemer, chief economist at Commerzbank. But he had an ominous warning this week in a note to investors.

"The ECB can only buy time," he said. "With many problems still unresolved in Spain and Italy, the sovereign debt crisis is likely to continue, and the economic recovery following the recession is likely to be lackluster."

___

Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-21-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-51bb57a445fe432d86df6e4a8c269401

nelson mandela champions online champions online mezzanine mezzanine jules verne jules verne

Report: UK soldiers allegedly abused Afghan youths (AP)

LONDON ? British authorities said Wednesday that they are investigating allegations of inappropriate behavior by two soldiers in Afghanistan after reports surfaced about possible abuse of children there.

The Sun newspaper reported the allegations, saying the solders filmed the children and showed the video to other servicemen who reported them. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said it was "deeply disturbed" by reports that British soldiers encouraged two Afghan children to touch them.

The British Ministry of Defense, however, would not comment on the nature of the allegations or say if the soldiers remain on active duty.

It said Wednesday that the investigations branch of the Royal Military Police, the part of the army that polices soldiers, has launched a probe. "We take any such allegation extremely seriously," a ministry statement said. "It would be inappropriate to comment further while an investigation is ongoing."

Tensions between the Afghan government and coalition forces grew last week after a video emerged purporting to show U.S. Marines urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan.

Karzai's office on Wednesday slammed what it called a disgusting "rise in recent incidents of immoral nature among foreign soldiers." Calling the alleged acts "child abuse," the Afghan government called on Britain to investigate and punish anyone involved.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_afghanistan

flight 93 al qaeda infiniti empire state building amazing grace wtc united 93

Man charged in NY Fed Reserve software theft

NEW YORK?? U.S. prosecutors arrested a Chinese computer programmer on charges he stole software code valued at nearly $10 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Romney launches offensive against Gingrich
   2. Stop pirating my stories about SOPA, or I'll have to support it
   3. Romney's tax rate rekindles fairness debate
   4. Slow response to East African famine costs lives
   5. Wikipedia goes dark on piracy bill protest day
   6. Homeless numbers down, but risks rise
   7. Brother keeps hope alive as cruise search is halted

Bo Zhang, 32, of Queens, New York, worked as a contract programmer at the bank. He was accused of illegally copying software to an external hard drive, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. district court in Manhattan.

Authorities said the software, owned by the U.S. Treasury Department, cost about $9.5 million to develop.

A New York Fed spokesman said in a statement that the bank immediately investigated the suspected breach when it was uncovered and promptly referred the matter to authorities.

"The New York Fed has further strengthened its already considerable protections as a result of this incident," the spokesman said.

A federal magistrate judge ordered Zhang released on $200,000 bail after a brief court hearing. He was arrested on Wednesday morning, a federal prosecutor told the judge.

An attorney for Zhang, Joseph Grob, confirmed his client was a Chinese citizen but declined to comment on the charges. Grob told the judge that Zhang holds a job in New Jersey.

Zhang was charged with one count of stealing U.S. government property, which carries a maximum 10 year prison term. He is due back in court on Feb. 17.

The complaint, signed by an FBI agent, said Zhang had admitted to copying the code onto a drive and taking it home.

Zhang told investigators he took the code "for private use and in order to ensure that it was available to him in the event that he lost his job," the complaint said.

While U.S. intelligence officials have become increasingly worried about economic espionage by China and Russia, cyber crime experts said the case appeared to be one of simple theft.

"The fact that he was released on bail and charged only with theft is an indication that, at this time, the FBI does not believe that this is connected to international espionage," said a former law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak by his current employer.

Zhang was hired as a contract employee in May by an unnamed technology consulting company used by the Fed to work on its computers, the complaint said.

The code, called the Government-wide Accounting and Reporting Program (GWA), was developed to help track the billions of dollars the United States government transfers daily. The GWA provides federal agencies with a statement of their account balance, the complaint said.

Investigators uncovered the suspected breach only after one of Zhang's colleagues told a supervisor that Zhang had claimed to have lost a hard drive containing the code, the complaint said.

The case is USA v. Bo Zhang, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-0108.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46048400/ns/us_news/

october 21 2011 ohio ohio john beck john beck mariska hargitay gmcr

Arab League considers extension of Syria mission

In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 photo, anti-Syrian regime protesters chant slogans and flash the victory sign as they march during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 photo, anti-Syrian regime protesters chant slogans and flash the victory sign as they march during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this Tuedsay, Jan. 17, 2012 photo, a young anti-Syrian regime protester shows bullet casings, said by protesters to be left by Syrian army soldiers, at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, an anti-Syrian regime protester flashes the victory sign as he waves the Syrian revolution flag during a demonstration, at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, anti-Syrian regime protesters shout slogans and flash the victory sign as they march during a demonstration, at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the border with Lebanon. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian government tanks and armored vehicles have pulled back from an embattled mountain town near Damascus, activists and witnesses said Thursday, but at least 16 people were killed by security forces elsewhere as a monthlong Arab League fact-finding mission expired.

The pullback from Zabadani left the town under the control of the opposition, activists said. The besieged town of Zabadani has witnessed heavy exchanges of fire between army troops and anti-government military defectors over the past six days.

The 10-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad has turned increasingly militarized and chaotic as more frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces. The capital has seen three suicide bombings since late December which the government blamed on terrorist extremists.

Arab League foreign ministers will consider extending the League's observer mission in Syria in a meeting Sunday in Cairo, officials said Thursday.

Although the mission expired Thursday, Adnan al-Khudeir, head of Cairo operations room that handles reports by the monitors, told The Associated Press that observers will remain in Syria until a decision is made on Sunday.

According to al-Khudeir, the meeting chaired by the Qatari foreign minister will discuss a report by the head of the mission Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi who is arriving in Cairo from Syria on Thursday.

The monitors will remain in 17 different places around Syria until the Arab League makes a final decision, he says.

"If there is a decision to extend the mission of the observers, we are ready to send more monitors after training them in three days," he said, adding that the total number of monitors might reach 300.

The mission has been mired in controversy, with the opposition claiming it served as a cover for the regime to continue its brutal crackdown against protesters.

Rejecting charges that the observers have been ineffective in reducing violence, another official said extending the mission would help the opposition more than the regime.

"The killings are less, the protests increase," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. "The mission's presence offers assurance to the people because the observers can spot any violations. There is a conviction even among Syria opponents that the extension is better than withdrawal."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the monitors have had a "mixed picture" of results, enabling some protests and some media coverage, but violence continues.

"We believe that we've got to increase the economic pressure on the Assad regime to change course," she said.

More than 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising erupted last March.

Activists reported continued violence Thursday. In Damascus, a Syrian security agent was wounded when a small explosive device tore through his car in the Tadamon neighborhood, a Syrian official said. No other damages were reported from the morning explosion, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give statements.

A military security brigadier, Adel Mustafa, also was killed by soldiers who had defected and refused his orders to shoot at civilians in the Bab Qibli area of Homs, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists. The officer had previously overseen many killing and arrest operations, according to the LCC.

In Zabadani, activist Fares Mohammad said Syrian forces withdrew Wednesday night to two military barracks on the outskirts.

"There is a cautious calm, but fear of another major assault being prepared against Zabadani," he told The Associated Press by telephone from the resort town, located alongside the Lebanese border 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of Damascus.

The Syrian opposition has on several occasions throughout the uprising gained control of a town or city, but ultimately forces loyal to Assad retook them. It is unusual however for the army to take so long to recapture a town so close to the capital.

The activist said the siege had eased, although heating oil has not been allowed into the town, where it snowed earlier this week. Military checkpoints surrounding the Zabadani were still in place, he said, while about 100 armed defectors were "protecting" it.

Residents said government mortars had shelled the town on Wednesday, but that too had stopped.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the pullout from Zabadani, saying only two armored personnel carriers were left behind at one of the checkpoints near the town.

Syrian officials issued no comment about the fighting in Zabadani.

Activists said at least 16 people were killed by security forces across Syria on Thursday, including four activists who were ambushed in the northern Jabal al-Zawiya region.

___

Michael reported from Cairo. Additional reporting by Bradley Klapper in Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-19-ML-Syria/id-dd8dd87cbb87473fb96056f317d2c83f

nbpa itunes match itunes match walmart black friday 2011 walmart black friday 2011 packers vikings bob costas jerry sandusky