Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166852301?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Green Holiday: Gifts For An Eco-Friendly Season
The Green Toys EcoSaucer
Green Dad's always been a sucker for flying discs and frisbees, and this particular Green Toys saucer comes in a very nifty shade of lime. At a price you can't beat ($6.99 with free shipping, a low by $3) from aSavings via Buy.com, and made from 100% recycled plastic grocery bags, this model soars above the rest for its love of Mother Earth. It weighs about 130 grams, and it sure beats trying to make your own disc out of those pesky grocery bags.
Green Dad's always been a sucker for flying discs and frisbees, and this particular Green Toys saucer comes in a very nifty shade of lime. At a price you can't beat ($6.99 with free shipping, a low by $3) from aSavings via Buy.com, and made from 100% recycled plastic grocery bags, this model soars above the rest for its love of Mother Earth. It weighs about 130 grams, and it sure beats trying to make your own disc out of those pesky grocery bags.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/26/eco-friendly-toys-green-holiday_n_1110657.html
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"Happy Feet Two" flop leads to 600 layoffs: report (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? As a result of the poor box-office performance of "Happy Feet Two," 600 of the 700 employees at the digital production studio behind the animated movie reportedly have received their walking papers.
Employees at Dr. D Studios, which is based in Sydney, Australia, have been told they will be laid off in the coming weeks, according to IF.com.au. TheWrap was unable to reach Dr. D for comment.
The film, a sequel to 2006's Academy Award-winning "Happy Feet" -- which grossed $384.3 million off a budget of $100 million -- had amassed only an estimated $30.3 million worldwide as of Thursday.
There may be a silver lining for some of the employees, who reportedly have been offered a job at a new company that Kennedy-Miller Mitchell Films -- which launched Dr. D as a joint partnership with Omnilab Media -- plans to get off the ground in early 2012. KMM was founded in 1973 by "Happy Feet" director George Miller and producer Byron Kennedy.
In addition to the layoffs, KMM and Omnilab are reportedly at odds, and there is the possibility that the partnership between the two companies may be dissolved.
Released on November 18, "Happy Feet Two" has not found much success. It opened in 3,606 theaters and came in second at the box office during its debut weekend, grossing $21.2 million. Its estimated budget was $140 million.
"We obviously came in a little bit under our expectations on 'Happy Feet,' " Warner Bros. President of Distribution Dan Fellman told TheWrap. "The market expands enormously over the holiday. By next Monday, we'll know whether we're in good shape."
With three new family films released this week -- "The Muppets," "Hugo" and "Arthur Christmas" -- "Happy Feet Two" is unlikely to gain further traction.
Dr. D Studios, which specializes in digital feature film production and high-end special effects, reportedly had hoped to compete with Peter Jackson's Weta Digital in neighboring New Zealand. The studio is also attached to the long-delayed fourth "Mad Max" film, "Fury Road"; Miller was the director, producer and writer for the first three installments.
According to DrDStudios.com, "Fury Road" is in pre-production, although the site also includes an out-of-date notice that "Happy Feet Two" is in production. There are no job openings listed on the site.
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
Nigeria: Breakaway Biafra leader Ojukwu dies at 78 (AP)
LAGOS, Nigeria ? Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a millionaire's son who led Nigeria's breakaway republic of Biafra during the country's civil war that left 1 million dead, died in a London hospital Saturday after a protracted illness following a stroke. He was 78.
The Biafran war brought the first televised images of skeletal, starving African children to the Western world, a sight repeated in the continent's many conflicts since. Leaders said the war's end would leave "No Victor, No Vanquished" ? a claim that has yet to be fulfilled as ethnic and religious tensions still threaten the unity of the oil-rich nation more than 40 years later.
Maja Umeh, a spokesman for Nigeria's Anambra state, confirmed Ojukwu's death Saturday. Anambra state, in the heart of what used to be the breakaway republic, had provided financial support for Ojukwu during his hospital stay.
Ojukwu's rise coincided with the fall of Nigeria's First Republic, formed after Nigeria, a nation split between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south, gained its independence from Britain in 1960.
A 1966 coup led primarily by army officers from the Igbo ethnic group from Nigeria's southeast shot and killed Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a northerner, as well as the premier of northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello.
The coup failed, but the country still fell under military control. Northerners, angry about the death of its leaders, attacked Igbos living there. As many as 10,000 people died in resulting riots. Many Igbos fled back to Nigeria's southeast, their traditional home.
Ojukwu, then 33, served as the military governor for the southeast. The son of a knighted millionaire, Ojukwu studied history at Oxford and attended a military officer school in Britain. In 1967, he declared the region ? including part of the oil-rich Niger Delta ? as the Republic of Biafra. The new republic used the name of the Atlantic Ocean bay to its south, its flag a rising sun set against a black, green and red background.
But instead of sparking pan-African pride, the announcement sparked 31 months of fierce fighting between the breakaway republic and Nigeria. Under Gen. Yakubu "Jack" Gowon, Nigeria adopted the slogan "to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done" and moved to reclaim a region vital to the country's coffers.
Despite several pushes by Biafran troops, Nigerian forces slowly strangled Biafra into submission. Caught in the middle were Igbo refugees increasingly pushed back as the front lines fell. The region, long reliant on other regions of Nigeria for food.
The enduring images, seen on television and in photographs, show starving Biafran children with distended stomachs and stick-like arms.
Despite the efforts of humanitarian groups, many died as hunger became a weapon wielded by both sides.
"Was starvation a legitimate weapon of war?" wrote English journalist John de St. Jorre. "The hard-liners in Nigeria and Biafra thought that it was, the former regarding it as a valid means of reducing the enemy's capacity to resist, as method as old as war itself, and the latter seeing it as a way of internationalizing the conflict."
The images fed into Ojukwu's warnings that to see Biafra fall would see the end of the Igbo people.
"The crime of genocide has not only been threatened but fulfilled. The only reason any of us are alive today is because we have our rifles," Ojukwu told journalists in 1968. "Otherwise the massacre would be complete. It would be suicidal for us to lay down our arms at this stage."
That final massacre never came. Ojukwu and trusted aides escaped Biafra by airplane on Jan. 11, 1970. Biafra collapsed shortly after. Gowon himself broke the cycle of revenge in a speech in which said there was "no victor, no vanquished." He also pardoned those who had participated in the rebellion.
Ojukwu spent 13 years in exile, coming home after he was unconditionally pardoned in 1982. He returned to politics, but lost a race for a senate seat. He was sent to a maximum-security prison for a year when Nigeria suffered yet another of the military coups that punctuated life after independence.
He later wrote his memoirs and lived the quiet life of an elder statesman until he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo for the presidency in 2003. Obasanjo served as a colonel in the Biafran war and gave the final statement on rebel-controlled radio announcing the conflict's end.
Despite the long and costly civil war, Nigeria remains torn by internal conflict. Tens of thousands have died in riots pitting Christians against Muslims in the country. Militant groups attack foreign oil firms in the oil-rich Niger Delta while criminal gangs kidnap the middle class. Poverty continues to grind the country.
The Igbos, meanwhile, continue to suffer political isolation in the country. While an Igbo man recently became the country's top military officers, others say they've been locked out of higher office over lingering mistrust from the war.
Some in the former breakaway region still hold out hope for their own voice, even their own country despite the cataclysmic losses.
As did Ojukwu himself.
"Biafra," Ojukwu told journalists in 2006, "is always an alternative."
___
Associated Press writer Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.
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UK's Ministry of Defence loses a ton of tech (Digital Trends)
From time to time, employees lose company laptops, accidentally leaving them in a bar or on a train. USB sticks go missing too, slipping out of pockets or sliding down the back of sofas, never to be seen again. And of course, some equipment gets stolen.
Workers at the UK?s Ministry of Defence, however, appear to be a particularly lax bunch, having lost possession of 287 computers, 72 hard disks, 73 USB sticks, 28 mobile phones and 194 CDs and DVDs in the last 18 months alone.
If this happened in any government department it would be bad enough, but the fact that it?s the Ministry of Defence, which of course deals with highly sensitive information, is sure to raise eyebrows among the British public.
The UK???s under-secretary of state for defence Andrew Robathan said that in Germany 21 laptops were stolen in a single incident. Another 20 laptops went missing in another incident but were later recovered.
Radios, 3G cards and cameras have also gone missing since the Conservative-led coalition government took office in 2009.
Robathan tried to calm fears that confidential material on the computers and storage devices could be accessed, saying that all data was encrypted.
In a parliamentary written answer, Robathan said, ?The MoD [Ministry of Defence] takes any loss and theft of communications and information systems and associated media storage devices very seriously. We have robust procedures in place to mitigate against such occurrences and to manage such losses when they do occur.?
He goes on to say that with a global workforce of more than a quarter of a million individuals and with devices being frequently on the move, ???it is almost inevitable that equipment will go missing.??
Despite constant reviews of ?processes, instructions and technological aids? to prevent the losses, it seems the MoD has made little progress in getting on top of the situation ? a report in 2008 said that over a four-year period more than 700 laptops had been lost or stolen at the MoD.
[Source: Daily Mail] [Image: bodhihillillustration / Shutterstock]
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin: Dog Ears Music: The Leftovers II (Huffington post)
Yemen power-transfer deal fails to stop violence (AP)
SANAA, Yemen ? President Ali Abdullah Saleh's agreement to step down failed to halt anti-government demonstrations or prevent violence Thursday as regime supporters killed five protesters demanding that the ousted leader be put on trial for crimes ranging from corruption to bloodshed during the current uprising.
Saleh signed the U.S.-backed power-transfer deal, brokered by neighboring countries, Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh in exchange for immunity from prosecution. It sets in motion a number of changes designed to stop the uprising that has battered Yemen's economy and caused a nationwide security lapse that al-Qaida linked militants have exploited to step up operations.
Saleh passed his presidential duties to his vice president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, effectively ending his 33-year rule. If the deal holds, he'll be the fourth leader to lose power in the wave of Arab Spring uprisings this year, following longtime dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
In the coming days, the opposition is supposed to name a prime minister, who will be sworn in by Hadi. The prime minister will then form a national unity government, evenly divided between the opposition and the ruling party. Hadi also is to announce a date for presidential elections, to be held within 90 days.
Observers note that the deal does not include a number of Yemen's biggest power brokers, including Saleh's relatives who head elite security forces, powerful tribal chiefs and military commanders who have joined the protesters.
Many of the protesters, who have camped out in public square for months to call for sweeping democratic reforms, rejected the deal immediately, saying the opposition parties that agreed to it were compromised by their long association with Saleh.
Thousands took to the streets again Thursday in the capital Sanaa, the central city of Taiz and elsewhere, protesting the deal and calling for Saleh to be tried for charges of corruption and for the killing of protesters during the uprising.
They chanted "No immunity for the killer" and vowed to continue their protests.
Security forces and government supporters opened fire on Sanaa's main protest camp Thursday, killing five protesters with live ammunition, said Gameela Abdullah, a medic at the local field hospital.
A video posted online by activists showed men in long robes and Arab head scarves firing assault rifles at protesters, who scramble for cover. Some throw rocks and carrying large pictures of Saleh.
"We'll keep fighting until Saleh is tried for all the crimes he has committed against the people in his capacity as the head of the armed forces," said activist Bushra al-Maqtari in Taiz, which has seen some of the most violent crackdowns on anti-regime protesters. Hundreds of demonstrators have been killed nationwide since January.
Abdullah Obal, a leader in the coalition that signed the deal, said the opposition intended to meet with protest leaders to address their demands.
"The agreement does not cancel the youth's demands or go against them," he said. "It is their right to protest."
Some doubt that the deal marks the end of political life for Saleh, who has proved to be a wily politician and suggested in remarks after the signing ceremony that he could play a future political role in the country, along with his ruling party. He had agreed to sign the deal three times before, only to back away at the last minute.
Saleh had stubbornly clung to power despite nearly 10 months of huge street protests in which hundreds of people were killed by his security forces. At one point, Saleh's palace mosque was bombed and he was treated in Saudi Arabia for severe burns.
"The signature is not what is important," Saleh said after signing the agreement. "What is important is good intentions and dedication to serious, loyal work at true participation to rebuild what has been destroyed by the crisis during the last 10 months."
International leaders who had long pushed for the deal applauded Saleh's signature, many hoping it would help end a security breakdown that has allowed Yemen's active al-Qaida branch to step up operations in the country's weakly governed provinces.
President Barack Obama welcomed the decision, saying the U.S. would stand by the Yemeni people "as they embark on this historic transition."
King Abdullah also praised Saleh, telling Yemenis the plan would "open a new page in your history" and lead to greater freedom and prosperity.
Italy's foreign minister, Giulio Terzi, lauded the agreement and called for an end to violence.
"Now it is necessary that the accord is fully implemented and that all violence cease," he said.
___
Al-Haj reported from Cairo.
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Matthew L. Skinner: Mark 13:24-37: Advent -- One of Those Dangerous Religious Ideas
Here comes Black Friday, even earlier than usual. Bell-ringers are appearing outside stores. Advertisers are shifting the consumerism-as-therapy machine into high gear. And Christians say: This is a good time to think about the world falling apart.
We're not trying to be morose. We're starting Advent.
The season of Advent (four Sundays preceding Christmas) traditionally begins, not with backward-looking remembrances of circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth, but with eerie images of cosmic mutations and grand promises of a future in which Jesus plays -- to put it mildly -- a noticeable role. Don't wear the tacky Christmas sweater just yet; track shoes and a hazmat suit may capture the mood better.
Advent's watchwords are preparation and waiting. It's about looking outward and ahead. It's time for Christians to declare that God's previous incursion into human affairs through Jesus Christ is not the end of the story but the foundation for a future hope of God bringing ultimate promises to fruition.
Advent Is About Preparing To Recognize Jesus
It's really a shame how passages such as Mark 13:24-37 have been arrogated by the "Left Behind" camp and others who view the Bible as an encrypted map of the future, leaked by God to code-breakers, who derive from it a deity who's itching to snuff out the multitudes. Instead, this passage orients us to the future in a very different way, and for different ends.
Jesus' instruction here is part of a much longer speech. Notice the words "after that suffering": He has just described a situation of awful destruction, persecution and sacrilege. The themes and imagery make this speech similar to other literature of the time, literature meant to interpret current events and political circumstances.
What great devastation is he talking about? He's not predicting the Greek economic mess or the Indianapolis Colts' current season; his words must have resonated with those who knew (firsthand or from reports) of the siege of Jerusalem, which effectively ended the Jewish-Roman War of 66-70 C.E. The first readers of the Gospel according to Mark likely read it as the fumes of ruin -- and failed promises -- still hovered in the air. The war had been a time when many Jews (including some who were Christian) expected divine intervention, believing God was ushering in a new order.
Jesus deliberately separates his description of the war from his statements about his future reappearance. His point? The war -- and perhaps every other war to be waged -- will not be the occasion by which God's intentions come to fullness.
Why was the war a false sign of God's activity? Perhaps the war's end, another decisive Roman victory, indicated as much. But I think it's the means of the war that's the problem. Jesus will not exercise power like the world's rulers and would-be rulers do. He won't be changing the world with conventional tools and tactics.
False signs remain everywhere; they are events and trends we rely upon to inform our ultimate hopes or fears. Consider Iran joining "the nuclear club," the death of Osama bin Laden, the recommendations of the congressional supercommittee or the outcomes of the Arab Spring.
Important stuff, those things. But we Christians are still waiting and watching. We suspect God has other ways.
It's not that we don't find hope (or worry) in certain large-scale political developments. We do. Still, if we expect our pet political and social causes get to be identified (exclusively) as God's causes, we're mistaken. If the change we seek for the world embraces new forms of dominance over others, then we've missed the point. Those revolutions will not be theologized. Jesus' speech instructs us to direct our vision elsewhere to find signs of God's presence.
The outcome is not just about waiting for another physical appearance of Jesus in the future, although some Christians put great stock in that hope. I think it's also (and more fruitfully) about patiently and watchfully training our attention on where Christ might be manifested today. And so in Advent we ask where Christ and his message are apparent within -- and outside! -- of Christian communities. Where are God's desires becoming actualized? We may be surprised.
Consider the unfolding Occupy movements. Is God at work through all their aspects? Probably not. But do they manifest God's activity in some aspects? People of faith are keenly attentive.
WATCH Faith Leaders Respond to Eviction From Zuccotti Park
Advent Is Dangerous
The impulses behind Advent should alarm those who are overly enamored with the current system (who probably number more than 1 percent), as well as any others who are overly confident in their ability to engineer what's best for the world.
Advent expresses the insistence that all is not right in our societies. That's a dangerous expression. Stoking hopes for a new world order, for justice really to be for all, usually implies that old systems, governments and loyalties aren't what they're cracked up to be.
Notice: The transformation anticipated in Mark 13:24-37 is such a monumental and all-encompassing upheaval, its description must resort to symbolism. The symbolism is unnerving, even though it was familiar to ancient audiences. It suggests that, in the face of the God's desires coming to full fruition, every other power (symbolized by sun, moon and stars) receives notice and sees its light go out. No aspect of human existence goes untransformed when God enters in for good.
The claims of Advent should rattle all who benefit from exploitative and domineering forms of power. This means a lot of us, of course.
Advent Is Busier Than It Looks
Waiting and watching for Jesus in our midst is not about passivity. His words in this passage commend readiness and alertness, not patient inactivity.
Everything I learned about waiting I learned as a kid waiting to be picked up by my mother. Whether I was at school or soccer practice, I couldn't stand it when she was late. Today, I could use a cellphone to find out where she is. Then, I had to cope by doing all I could to lessen the distance or the time between me and her, wherever she was. I walked to the corner in the direction from which she would drive. I squinted, looking for the right car color or headlight tint. All my senses were fixed on the road.
That's the kind of waiting this passage has in mind, an active waiting that has come to know full well that the one who is coming is recognizable, even before fully arriving.
Jesus' message about his appearance encourages advocacy, not idleness. Expectancy means looking alertly for opportunities to come alongside Christ and embody Christ's purposes in the present, as well as in the future. We expect he's all around us.
For us living north of the equator, it makes sense that Advent coincides with winter's dimmest and longest nights. We light candles, whose tiny, pathetic flames stand defiantly against the night. They say: No matter how much waiting -- and working -- lies between now and the dawn, we are not giving up hope.
Editor's Note: ON Scripture is a series of Christian scripture commentaries produced in collaboration with Odyssey Networks. Each week pastors from around the country will approach the lectionary text of the week through the lens of current events, providing a religious voice that is both pastoral and prophetic.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-l-skinner/mark-13-danger-of-advent_b_1106409.html
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Friday, November 25, 2011
BlackBerry Curve 9380 hits the FCC, talking the T-Mobile talk
RIM's first all-screen Curve has sashayed over to the FCC. Two models of the BlackBerry Curve 9380, the REA70UW and REB70UW, are included in the latest filing, which goes into typical laborious detail on radio frequencies and the like. Thankfully, those myriad charts and graphs reveal support for WCDMA band IV, meaning that the phone plays nice with T-Mobile's 3G network. Let's just hope that, if given the chance to strut its stuff in the US market, it follows the Curve family tradition of arriving keenly priced. We'll have to wait and see if it hits our wallet's sweet spot, but for those more interested in the phone's internals, the source link beckons below.
BlackBerry Curve 9380 hits the FCC, talking the T-Mobile talk originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Arabs give Syria one day to agree monitors or face sanctions (Reuters)
CAIRO (Reuters) ? The Arab League gave Syria one day to sign a protocol allowing monitors into the country or face sanctions over its crackdown on protests including halting flights and suspending transactions with the central bank.
Arab foreign ministers who met in Cairo on Thursday said unless Syria agreed to let the monitors in to assess progress of an Arab League plan to end eight months of bloodshed, officials would consider imposing sanctions on Saturday.
Under a November 2 Arab League initiative, Syria agreed to withdraw troops from urban centers, release political prisoners, start a dialogue with the opposition and allow monitors and international media into the country.
Since then hundreds of people, civilians, security forces and army deserters, have been killed as the unrest which the United Nations says has killed 3,500 people since March continued unabated.
The violence prompted former ally Turkey to bluntly tell President Bashar al-Assad to step down and led France to propose "humanitarian corridors" in Syria to help transport medicines or other supplies to civilians in need.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he would discuss the idea with the Arab League but a source at the 22-member body said the proposal was not brought up at the Cairo meeting.
"In the case that Syria does not sign the protocol ... or that it later violates the commitments that it entails, and does not stop the killing or does not release the detainees ... (Arab League officials) will meet on Saturday to consider sanctions on Syria," the Arab ministers said in a statement.
They said possible sanctions, which were not intended to affect ordinary Syrians, included suspending flights to Syria, stopping dealings with the central bank, freezing Syrian government bank accounts and halting financial dealings with Syria.
They could also decided to stop commercial trade with the Syrian government "with the exception of strategic commodities so as not to impact the Syrian people," the statement said.
Syria's economy is already reeling from the eight months of unrest, aggravated by U.S. and European sanctions on oil exports and several state businesses.
"HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS"
After months in which the international community has seemed determined to avoid direct entanglement in a core Middle East country, the diplomatic consensus seems to be changing.
The Arab League suspended Syria's membership two weeks ago, while this week the prime minister of regional heavyweight Turkey - a NATO member with the military wherewithal to mount a cross-border operation - told Assad to quit and said he should look at what happened to fallen dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Libya's deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi.
France became the first major power to seek international intervention in Syria when it called for "humanitarian corridors" in Syria to alleviate civilian suffering.
A Western diplomatic source said the French plan, with or without approval from Damascus, could link Syrian civilian centers to frontiers such as Turkey and Lebanon, to the Mediterranean coast or to an airport.
Its aim would enable the transport of humanitarian supplies or medicines to a population that is suffering, the source said.
Juppe insisted the plan fell short of a military intervention, but acknowledged that humanitarian convoys would need armed protection.
"There are two possible ways: That the international community, Arab League and the United Nations can get the regime to allow these humanitarian corridors," he told French radio on Thursday. "But if that isn't the case we'd have to look at other solutions ... with international observers."
Asked if humanitarian convoys would need military protection, he said: "Of course... by international observers, but there is no question of military intervention in Syria."
He added that he had spoken to partners at the United Nations and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and would speak later on Thursday to the Arab League. On Wednesday Juppe also said the exiled opposition Syrian National Council was a legitimate group that France sought to work with.
In a sign of Paris' growing frustration at events on the ground, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said France was particularly concerned with what was happening in the city of Homs, which has become a center of resistance against Assad.
"Information from several sources tells us that the situation in Homs is particularly worrying. It would appear to be under siege today, deprived of basic materials and experiencing a brutal repression," he said.
"A way must be found so that this city is supplied with humanitarian aid," he added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group, said at least 23 people were killed in Syria on Thursday, including six civilians in the city of Homs.
Eleven military and security personnel were killed by army deserters in the city of Houla, the Observatory said. Alongside the mainly peaceful protests, armed insurgents have increasingly attacked military targets in recent weeks.
State media have reported the funerals of 34 soldiers and police in the last four days. Since the outbreak of the uprising officials have blamed armed groups for the violence and say 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed.
"MOST DANGEROUS PHASE"
Activists and a resident said Syrian troops in tanks fired on hideouts of army deserters near the central town of Rastan on Thursday, two months after the authorities said they had regained control of the region.
"The Syrian crisis may or may not have entered its final phase, but it undoubtedly has entered its most dangerous one to date," the International Crisis Group said on Thursday.
"Many in Syria and abroad are now banking on the regime's imminent collapse and wagering that all then will be for the better. That is a luxury and optimism they cannot afford."
Washington repeated an appeal on Wednesday for U.S. citizens to leave Syria: "The U.S. Embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available," the embassy said on its website.
The U.S. navy said the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush arrived this week in the Mediterranean, en route to the United States.
"It is probably routine movement," said a Western diplomat in the region. "But it is going to put psychological pressure on the regime, and the Americans don't mind that."
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said allies were watching the situation in Syria with great concern, but reiterated that the alliance had no intention to intervene in Syria as it had done in Libya.
"There's been no request and there is no specific discussion about these proposals," she said in response to Juppe's proposal.
She said the situation in Syria could not be compared with Libya, where NATO had a clear United Nations mandate for intervention and support from the Arab League.
Assad, 46, seems prepared to fight it out, playing on fears of a sectarian war if Syria's complex ethno-sectarian mosaic shatters and relying on support of senior officials and the military to suppress the protests, inspired by Arab uprisings which toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
However many experts say Assad, who can depend mainly on the loyalty of two elite Alawite units, cannot maintain current military operations without cracks emerging in the armed forces.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Marwa Awad and Ayman Samir in Cairo, John Irish in Paris, David Brunnstrom, Robin Emmot and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Peter Graff and Louise Ireland)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/wl_nm/us_syria
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US-Egyptian writer alleges sexual abuse by police
CAIRO (AP) ? A prominent Egyptian-born U.S. columnist says she was sexually assaulted, beaten and blindfolded during a 12-hour detention by police.
Mona Eltahawy posted on Twitter Thursday that she was arrested near Egypt's Interior Ministry around Tahrir Square, where clashes between protesters and police have raged since Saturday. After her release, she posted pictures of both her arms in casts.
She says she was sexually assaulted by regular police, surrounded by half a dozen who "groped, prodded my breasts, grabbed my genital area," while others tried to get their hands in her pants.
She says she was later handed over to military police, who kept her blindfolded for two hours. She was released with an apology and a promise of an investigation.
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Finance ministry against 'undue' forex mkt intervention - source (Reuters)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? The finance ministry is not in favour of any "undue" intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the forex market to prop up the rupee, a senior finance ministry source told Reuters on Wednesday, a day after the local currency hit a record low against the U.S. dollar.
Economic growth in second quarter could be slightly less than 7 percent, the source said, adding that growth could pick up in the third and fourth quarter and end the fiscal year at around 7.75 percent.
The government will release official figures of GDP for the second quarter ending September next week.
The rupee on Tuesday slid to an all-time low of 52.73 against the U.S. dollar as foreign investors continued to pare their exposure to Asia's third-largest economy on lingering global uncertainty and mounting worries over the domestic economy.
The rupee has lost 14 percent of its value in 2011 to be the worst performing currency in Asia.
"We are not in favour of undue interventions by the Reserve Bank except to check volatility, because of macro-economic implications for the next year," the source, who declined to be named, said.
"The rupee is depreciating mainly because of external reasons which are outside our control."
The partially convertible currency, however, bounced back more than 1 percent on Wednesday after suspected central bank intervention.
The comments endorse the stand taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has always maintained that it does not protect any particular level of the rupee and would only intervene to iron out excessive volatility.
The Reserve Bank of India operates independently on monetary issues but often consults the government on important policy moves.
"We expect the rupee to remain around 50 for next three months," the source said.
"It should firm up to around 45 over a period of 5-6 months...if the situation in the euro zone does not deteriorate."
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday also blamed the fall in the rupee on the international market and said that central bank intervention would have a limited effect.
Subir Gokarn, a deputy governor at the central bank, had said last week the RBI would be careful about using foreign exchange reserves aggressively to protect the rupee's depreciation.
At 11:30 a.m. (0600 GMT), the rupee was trading at 52.02/03, 0.5 percent stronger than 52.2950/3050 at close on Tuesday.
Foreign funds have sold more than $500 million worth of shares over five trading sessions till Monday, reducing the net inflows in 2011 to under $300 million, sharply below record investments of more than $29 billion seen in 2010.
The official said New Delhi is taking measures to revive business sentiments and attract capital inflows.
The government has already raised ownership limits on government and corporate bonds and is considering allowing international retail investors direct access to Indian stocks, which have slumped about 22 percent so far this year.
It is also considering allowing foreign direct investment in the country's struggling domestic airlines.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; editing by Malini Menon)
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ESPN's longtime boss Bodenheimer stepping away (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Walt Disney announced a management shake-up at ESPN on Tuesday, saying longtime President George Bodenheimer would leave behind his day-to-day duties after 13 years in which he built the network into a sports powerhouse.
Disney tapped John Skipper to replace Bodenheimer as ESPN president and the co-chair of Disney Media Networks. Skipper will take over those roles on January 1, when Bodenheimer steps away from his day-to-day operating duties and moves into the position of ESPN executive chairman.
Skipper has been ESPN's executive vice president of content since October 2005.
The shift comes just weeks after the news that Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger will step down as CEO in March 2015 after nearly a decade at the helm. That announcement set off a guessing game over who would eventually take over the media giant, with many on Wall Street pointing to Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo and Tom Staggs, who heads the company's theme parks and resorts division.
(Reporting by Paul Thomasch; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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Angelina Jolie: I'm Very Lucky "I Didn't Die Young" (omg!)
Angelina Jolie may be a humanitarian, a mother of six children and a loving partner to Brad Pitt, but the Academy Award-winning actress says she's lucky to even be alive.
Who Are Hollywood's Highest Paid Actresses?
"I went through heavier, darker times and I survived them," Jolie says in an interview on 60 Minutes slated to air Sunday. "I didn't die young, so I am very lucky. There are other artists and people that didn't survive certain things."
While Jolie is shy to say exactly what those certain things entail, she says, "People can imagine that I did the most dangerous, and I did the worst... for many reasons, I shouldn't be here."
Check out the rest of today's news
Despite her seemingly stable life, Jolie says, "I'm still a bad girl. I still have that side of me... it's just in its place now... it belongs to Brad [and] our adventures."
Check out a sneak peek of Jolie's interview on 60 Minutes, airing Sunday at 7/6c on CBS.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Lindsay Price & Curtis Stone Welcome a Baby Boy!
The actress and Top Chef Masters host have their first baby! Plus, see more stars who welcomed new bundles of joy
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No major changes for 'Idol' this season
NEW YORK?? "American Idol" executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says don't expect any major changes when the hit Fox TV show returns in January after undergoing an extensive makeover last season.
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Lythgoe, who helped transform Britain's "Pop Idol" into the American TV juggernaut in 2002, returned as executive producer last season to usher in the post-Simon Cowell era. That ended a two-year hiatus that allowed him to focus on "So You Think You Can Dance," which he produces and helps judge.
For the 10th "American Idol" season, Lythgoe introduced new judges, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, to join holdover Randy Jackson. Veteran music producer Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M, was brought in as an in-house mentor for the contestants. All of them are back for Season 11, Lythgoe said.
"I think we made a lot of tweaks last year," Lythgoe said. "I'm not sure that we want to make too many more tweaks this year."
Lythgoe said the most significant change introduced last year had nothing to do with the judges: It was a decision to avoid those fish-out-of-water moments that forced very talented singers to sing in styles that didn't suit them.
"The biggest change we made last year was to say, 'OK, if you're a country singer you can sing any of these genres in your country style,'" Lythgoe said. "'We're not going to force you to do rock or anything you can't do. You can take a Michael Jackson song and turn it country.'"
That resulted in singers such as Casey Abrams and Haley Reinhart advancing much deeper into the competition than they might have in previous years. The two teenage finalists, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, were country singers.
McCreery, the first pure country "Idol" winner since Carrie Underwood in 2005, saw his October release, "Clear As Day," make him the first country act to debut at No. 1 with its first studio album on the Billboard 200 chart. And at 18, he became the youngest man to open at the top of the chart with his debut release. He also was the first "Idol" winner to start his post-"Idol" career with a No. 1 album since Ruben Studdard in 2003.
Lythgoe said last year the show found "some incredible talent, and it was so diverse."
"We got this great jazz singer in Casey, we got a soft jazz singer in Haley, and the two country kids (in the finals) probably in previous years wouldn't have been as successful because they would have been asked to sing in the different styles that we used to do then," he said last week.
Lythgoe expects similar results in Season 11.
"The kids that have auditioned this year that we're going to be taking to Hollywood in December are again really talented and really diverse," he said. "Hopefully they'll get through one of the toughest auditions, which is the Hollywood week, and get themselves into the top 20."
Lythgoe said he believes "Idol" should be "totally about the talent" and the recent changes foster that.
"For me," he said, "it's really showing the talent that is here and not trying to take somebody who's talented, beat them around the bucket and turn them out."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45421444/ns/today-entertainment/
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Lawrence forensic probe 'queried'
21 November 2011
Last updated at 12:26 ET
The trial of two men accused of killing Stephen Lawrence has heard there was no written procedure to ensure forensic evidence avoided contamination.
In defence questions, a police exhibits officer said seized clothing was bagged but these were not always sealed.
Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, both from south London, deny murder.
Prosecutors at the Old Bailey say DNA evidence links them to a group of white youths that attacked the black teenager in Eltham, south London, in April 1993.
The 18-year-old A-Level student was forced to the ground at a bus stop and then stabbed twice, the prosecution says.
BBC home affairs correspondent Matt Prodger said the reliability of scientific evidence was at the heart of the trial.
The prosecution has said textile fibres, and blood and hair matching Mr Lawrence was on clothing seized from the defendants in 1993 and discovered as part of a cold case review in 2007.
But in opening statements, lawyers for Mr Dobson and Mr Norris contended that there had been contamination of evidence by the police.
Robert Crane, a detective constable who was an exhibits officer at Eltham police station in 1993, told the court that items of clothing were placed in brown paper bags, but not always sealed.
He told the court that at the time he "had a degree of forensic awareness" and understood the potential for cross-contamination.
But he said there was no written procedure for ensuring that evidence was not contaminated and those handling the clothes wore gloves, but not the white forensic suits used today.
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End QuoteJury shown police surveillance photos of Gary Dobson and David Norris in days after Lawrence murder?
The jury heard that exhibits were stored in a disused cell in the building, and there were no designated forensic retrieval or packaging areas.
In cross-examination by Timothy Roberts QC, who represents Mr Dobson, the court was told that exhibit bags could be left open while officers were waiting for a photographer.
Mr Crane said he was not aware of any special procedures to prevent fibres or fragments being passed on to an exhibit by a police officer when they opened and resealed packages.
Meanwhile, Det Con Steven Pye, who collected the teenager's personal belongings from the hospital after he died, told the court that the items were in plastic hospital sacks and he bagged them up in police paper sacks using rubber gloves.
The court heard that some of the paper bags were not sealed at the hospital because blood stains on the items were still wet.
Mr Pye said the bags of bloodstained clothes were not immediately sealed because if the paper sacks became wet they might collapse. He passed them on to a colleague to be dried.
Mr Roberts, in cross examination, asked: "Is the upshot of all of this, however it happened, that the clothing from Stephen Lawrence that was most heavily blood stained, and therefore might contaminate other things, remained in unsealed packages whilst you dealt with it?
In response, Mr Pye said: "The most heavily bloodstained would appear to have been placed in paper sacks and folded over, yes."
The court heard that Mr Pye had a stack of paper bags with him at the hospital that could have picked up fibres or blood flakes on the outside.
"By touching all of the packages with the same pair of gloves and folding over the tops of all the brown paper bags you could have distributed blood and fibres from each of these items on to the outside of the packages," said Mr Roberts.
"The items were placed in bags with the same pair of gloves. My recollection is that the bags were sealed at some point in the night but I can't remember when," replied Mr Pye.
The court was shown a graphic with the clothing worn by Stephen on the night he died to help them follow how the exhibits were stored and handled.
Jury members heard that Stephen's blue cardigan, black jacket, green body warmer, red t-shirt, white vest and green cords were taken to a drying room at Southwark police station.
A groundsheet was placed in the drying space to catch any debris, along with the paper bags used to store the clothes.
After three days in the drying room, the clothes were placed in new paper bags, the tops of which were folded over but not sealed because there was a need to photograph them at Eltham police station.
Mr Crane was questioned about the photographs.
'Nervous' when questioned
During cross examination Mr Roberts said: "At the time you weren't thinking about the risk of possibly picking up fibres or flakes by way of contamination."
"No that was the norm," replied Mr Crane.
Earlier, Graham Cooke an officer who questioned Mr Dobson while on house-to-house inquiries said the defendant had seemed nervous.
The retired police officer told the court that the defendant said he was at home all night studying on the night the teenager was killed, adding that he did not know the victim.
"In my opinion he was nervous at the time," said Mr Cooke.
The jury was also shown police surveillance photographs of the defendants outside a house in Bournbrook Road in Eltham.
The trial has been adjourned until Tuesday.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-15820326
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'Breaking Dawn' rises to $283.5M worldwide debut
In this image released by Summit Entertainment, Kristen Stewart, foreground, and Robert Pattinson are shown in a scene from "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1." (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Andrew Cooper)
In this image released by Summit Entertainment, Kristen Stewart, foreground, and Robert Pattinson are shown in a scene from "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1." (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Andrew Cooper)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "The Twilight Saga" has staked out another huge opening with a $139.5 million first weekend domestically and a worldwide launch of $283.5 million.
The domestic total gives "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" the second-best debut weekend for the franchise, after the $142.8 million launch for 2009's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." ''Breaking Dawn" did more than half of its business, $72 million, on opening day Friday.
Opening in 54 overseas markets, "Breaking Dawn" pulled in $144 million internationally.
But the dancing penguin sequel "Happy Feet 2" stumbled in its debut, pulling in just $22 million over opening weekend. That's barely half what the first film in the animated franchise earned in its 2006 opening.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Cheaper Chips Mean Smarter Cheap Phones (The Motley Fool)
Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM - News) has been the only provider of chipsets for Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) Windows Phone mobile operating system. As of last month, when Nokia (NYSE: NOK - News) unveiled its two latest smartphones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, that was still true. But take nothing for granted, because Nokia has decided to change its chipset provider for its future Windows Phone handsets.
Earlier this month, Nokia announced that it would start using chipsets from ST-Ericsson, a joint venture between STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM - News) and Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC - News). Nokia described its agreement with ST-Ericsson as one that will help Windows Phone-powered smartphones reach "new price points and geographies." That phrase is the key to the switch in suppliers.
Geographies
When Nokia originally showed off its new smartphones, CEO Stephen Elop dwelled on Nokia's global reach. He was likely referring to emerging markets, places where potential future growth for smartphone sales is high -- if the costs for such handsets can be contained.
Price points
As Nokia has found out, cost can make all the difference. Even though it has been steadily losing ground with its phones in established areas, in impoverished regions like Africa, Nokia has made itself into a brand as recognizable as Coca-Cola, according to The Economist. It has done so with such devices as the $30 Nokia 1100 cell phone, which that publication has called the "Kalashnikov of communication for the poor."
So for Nokia's 60% share of the African cell-phone market, and for its 50% share of the Chinese and Indian markets -- where most consumers can only afford the cheapest entry-level phones -- the company must be able to bring the cost of its Windows Phones so low they can become those markets' first affordable smartphones.
And it better do it before Samsung, Huawei, or ZTE do it with a phone powered by Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG - News) Android OS, or well before Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - News) could ever bring out an entry-level iPhone.
A chipset price war?
Qualcomm, meanwhile, is not giving up the fight to keep Nokia's business. A top executive for the company, Enrico Salvatori, told TechRadar that the company is working on a long-term relationship with Nokia. But if that relationship is going to go back to more than a friends-with- benefits arrangement, then the chipset maker will have to keep chipping away at cost. If it doesn't, as demonstrated by ST-Ericsson, there are others that will.
Nokia's earnings for last quarter showed a company that was down but not out. It is still the world's largest maker of mobile devices; it still creates positive cash flow, and has more cash on hand than money it owes. It builds good, well-designed equipment, but has fallen down hard with its own smartphone software. Abandoning its unpopular homegrown Symbian OS for its new smartphones is a good decision. Whether or not going with Microsoft's Windows Phone OS turns out better won't be determined for at least several months.
A lot depends on how those Windows Phones do. I am going to give Nokia a thumbs-up on CAPS. I don't intend to put my hard-earned cash in it yet, as I still have trepidations, but I feel (with fingers crossed) the company can pull out of its tailspin.
You can keep your eyes on these companies by placing them all on the Fool's My Watchlist. Or choose them individually:
Fool contributor Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Microsoft, Apple, and Google, creating a bull call spread position in Apple, and creating a bull call spread position in Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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