Afghan president welcomes US remarks on Taliban not being America's enemy

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday welcomed remarks from the Obama administration saying that Taliban insurgents were not America's enemies.

Earlier this month, Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview with Newsweek magazine that the Islamist militants did not represent a threat to U.S. interests unless they continued to shelter al-Qaida.

Biden's comments came amid reports that the Obama administration and other governments are trying to establish a peace process with the Taliban to help end the 10-year war.

"I am very happy that the American government has announced that the Taliban are not their enemies," Karzai said in a speech to the Afghan Academy of Sciences. "We hope that this message will help the Afghans reach peace and stability."

A senior U.S. official has told The Associated Press that Washington plans to continue a series of secret meetings with Taliban representatives in Europe and the Persian Gulf region next year.

The U.S. outreach this year had progressed to the point that there was active discussion of two steps the Taliban seeks as precursors to negotiations, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Trust-building measures under discussion involve setting up a Taliban headquarters office and the release from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of about five Afghan prisoners believed affiliated with the Taliban.

On Tuesday, Karzai said his government would accept the Taliban establishing a liaison office in Turkey, Qatar or Saudi Arabia for the purpose of holding peace talks.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/world/136423648.html

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laurentg001fr: Fermer sa gueule dans la vraie vie et utiliser #twitter, #facebook, #Identi.ca comme #d?fouloir.

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Muslims upset by NYPD to boycott mayor's breakfast (AP)

NEW YORK ? The goodwill that Mayor Michael Bloomberg built among Muslims with his support of the planned mosque near ground zero was threatened this week as Islamic religious and civic leaders decried a recently disclosed police effort to gather intelligence on Muslim neighborhoods.

Fifteen Muslim clerics and community figures said they will boycott the mayor's annual interfaith breakfast Friday over the surveillance program, whose existence was revealed in a series of Associated Press articles.

The breakfast, traditionally held at the historic New York Public Library building on 42nd Street, has long served as a way to showcase the city's diversity during the overlapping winter holidays.

"We felt uncomfortable going to have coffee and doughnuts with the mayor knowing that this civil liberties crisis that's affecting all New Yorkers is not going to be addressed," said Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, president of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York, a group of 35 clerics and their congregations.

He and other Muslim activists and clerics sent a letter to Bloomberg this week turning down their invitations. About three dozen other people signed the letter as supporters, including rabbis, a Roman Catholic nun, Protestant pastors and a Quaker, though it was unclear how many had been invited to the breakfast.

"I couldn't be there while knowing that the mayor supports, if not established, this warrantless spying apparatus," said Hesham El-Meligy, founder of the Building Bridges Coalition of Staten Island.

Activists accused Bloomberg of squandering the goodwill built up last year when he fiercely defended a proposed Islamic prayer and cultural center not far from where the World Trade Center stood. The mosque is still in the planning stages.

Bloomberg had also won praise from Muslim leaders for criticizing anti-Islamic rhetoric and offering words of compassion after fires in the Bronx killed a large Muslim family and destroyed a mosque.

"However, despite these welcome and positive actions, very disturbing revelations have come to light regarding the city's treatment of Muslim New Yorkers," the letter said.

Bloomberg's office has said it expects about two dozen Muslim leaders to attend the breakfast.

"You're going to see a big turnout tomorrow, and it's nice that all faiths can get together," the mayor said Thursday. Boycott participants "are going to miss a chance to have a great breakfast."

He and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have insisted their counterterrorism programs are legal.

"Contrary to assertions, the NYPD lawfully follows leads in terrorist-related investigations and does not engage in the kind of wholesale spying on communities that was falsely alleged," police spokesman Paul Browne said in an email Thursday.

However, records examined by the AP show the police department collected information on people who were neither accused nor suspected of wrongdoing.

The AP series detailed police department efforts to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods and mosques with aggressive programs designed by a CIA officer. Documents reviewed by the AP revealed that undercover police officers known as "rakers" visited businesses such as Islamic bookstores and cafes, chatting up store owners to determine their ethnicities and gauge their views. They also played cricket and eavesdropped in ethnic clubs.

The surveillance efforts have been credited with enabling police to thwart a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station.

Critics said the efforts amount to ethnic profiling and violate court guidelines that limit how and why police can collect intelligence before there is evidence of a crime. They have asked a judge to issue a restraining order against the police.

Participants in the boycott said they feel betrayed by the city.

"Civic engagement is a two-way street. We've done our part as a community; we're waiting for the city to do their part," said Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York.

Other Muslim leaders said they disagreed with the boycott.

"I believe that engagement is more important. I think everyone disagrees with the way the NYPD is penetrating the community, but I think generalizing everything else as bad is not appropriate," said Imam Shamsi Ali of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York. "The mayor's not perfect, but there are many things about him we need to appreciate. And I think working with him is a way of appreciation."

The surveillance has revealed deep divisions in the city a decade after 9/11. Many New Yorkers say they empathize with Muslims living under the pall of suspicion, but also support aggressive police efforts against would-be terrorists.

The New York Daily News and New York Post defended the police in editorials this week, with the Daily News calling the AP's reporting "overheated, overhyped."

The AP's senior managing editor, Michael Oreskes, sent a letter to the newspaper Thursday in defense of the news organization.

"These were stories about where our city was drawing the line in protecting New Yorkers from another 9/11 attack," Oreskes wrote. "The stories were based on extensive reporting and documents. It is a journalist's job to report the activities of government. It is up to citizens to decide about those activities."

___

Online:

Read AP's previous stories and documents about the NYPD at: http://www.ap.org/nypd

Letter to Bloomberg: http://interfaithletter.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/hello-world/

___

Associated Press writers Samantha Gross and Tom Hays in New York and Adam Goldman in Washington contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_re_us/us_nypd_intelligence

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Waithe, Hogs set to face Texas Southern

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Source: thecabin.net --- Thursday, December 29, 2011
By ROBBIE NEISWANGER Arkansas News Bureau FAYETTEVILLE ? Arkansas forward Marvell Waithe doesn?t yet know how to define his role with the Razorbacks after 12 games. But with Arkansas inching closer to Southeastern Conference play, the senior can take comfort in something after sitting on the bench for much of 2010-11: he at least has a role. ?You know if you put in a certain amount of work and do the right things you know good things are going to happen,? Waithe said. I don?t know if last year that was the case.? read more ...

Source: http://thecabin.net/sports/college/2011-12-29/waithe-hogs-set-face-texas-southern

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Romney brings in Christie in Iowa final push (Reuters)

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) ? White House hopeful Mitt Romney brought in help from New Jersey on Friday to bolster his prospects for a win in Iowa next week that would put him in the lead in the Republican presidential race.

Romney campaigned alongside tough-talking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in a final frenzy of candidate appearances before Iowa launches the state-by-state contests to choose the Republican nominee who will face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.

Romney, buoyed by an NBC/Marist poll that showed him leading the field ahead of Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, was upbeat about his chances in the Midwestern state that jilted him for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 2008.

"This feels wonderful," Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Reuters as he worked a ropeline of supporters outside a grocery store in West Des Moines. "I tell you, the crowds and the enthusiasm couldn't be more wonderful."

The outcome of the caucuses is by no means certain and polls have been volatile as Iowans deliberate over who to choose and the candidates jockey for position in the final days.

The NBC/Marist poll of likely caucus participants put Romney on top at 23 percent, just ahead of the 21 percent for libertarian Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

Rick Santorum, a social conservative and former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, has seen his prospects improve as influential evangelicals flock to his side. Santorum jumped to third place at 15 percent in the NBC/Marist poll, followed closely by Texas Governor Rick Perry at 14 percent.

The top three or four finishers in Iowa on Tuesday will have momentum heading to New Hampshire on January 10, while the rest will have to make tough decisions about whether to continue.

POWERFUL SURROGATE

Romney brought a powerful surrogate to Iowa in Christie, who is popular with conservatives and might shore up Romney's right wing.

Christie, who has gained a following among Republicans for taking on New Jersey's political establishment, urged a crowd of about 1,000 people to "take nothing for granted" and get out to the caucuses to vote for Romney.

He praised Romney as the best hopes of defeating Obama, who he said has not made good on his 2008 pledge to bring "hope and change" to America.

"Let me tell you, after three years of Obama, we are hopeless and changeless and we need Mitt Romney to bring us back," he said.

Christie told reporters he would not rule out joining Romney as his vice presidential running mate if Romney becomes the Republican nominee.

Former Iowa front-runner Newt Gingrich sank to 13 percent in the NBC/Marist poll. The former House of Representatives speaker, buffeted by negative ads and attacks for weeks, got choked up talking about his mother during a campaign appearance.

Gingrich wiped tears from his eyes in a display of emotion that was reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's teary moment on the Democratic campaign trail in 2008.

At an event aimed at moms, Gingrich lost his composure repeatedly when asked about his own mother, who suffered from depression and bipolar disorder before she died.

"I do policy much easier than I do personal," Gingrich said by way of recovery, to laughter from the crowd.

The candidates took shots at each other and argued they have the conservative policy ideas to help the United States trigger job growth.

"I will send a signal to our country's job creators and to the world that the days of socialist policies are over, that our free market is once again open for business," Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann told supporters in Urbandale.

Romney has shied away from going all-out in Iowa but is hoping the anti-Romney vote is splintered sufficiently among his rivals to allow him to score a victory and give him an aura of inevitability heading to what is essentially home turf for him in New Hampshire.

Some in the crowd at his event with Christie came for the opportunity to hear the New Jersey governor, not Romney.

"I don't want Chris Christie necessarily to run for vice president with Romney, although that would be okay, but he needs to be president, I think, Chris Christie," said John Brown of West Des Moines.

Romney, a multi-millionaire who plays down his wealth by talking about the poor conditions his father experienced, accused Obama of elitism, criticizing the president's vacation in Hawaii and likening his stewardship of the U.S. economy to 18th century French queen Marie Antoinette, who famously declared of the peasants "Let them eat cake."

Romney seized on comments Obama has made that the U.S. economy would be even weaker if stimulus measures he pushed through Congress had not been enacted.

"The other day President Obama said it could be worse, can you imagine hearing that from a pessimistic president? 'It could be worse.' That goes down with Marie Antoinette 'Let them eat cake'," Romney said.

"He just finished his 90th round of golf. We've got 25 million Americans that are out of work or stopped looking for work or underemployed."

The Democratic National Committee said Romney's own personal wealth undermined his message.

"It is actually laughable that the "Quarter-Billion-Dollar Man" would call President Obama out of touch - and use the example of a French monarch to make the point," said DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell.

(Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign

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Sakroots Artist Circle E-Reader Case

Sakroots is the name for a line of accessories from The Sak handbag company.? Shown here is the Artist Circle E-Reader Case for Kindle, Kindle Touch, and the Nook Simple Touch.? These fabric cases are made of coated canvas, trimmed with polyurethane, and lined with polyester.? The case closes with a zipper, and all hardware [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/29/sakroots-artist-circle-e-reader-case/

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Romney, sensing opening, makes big push in Iowa

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters after a campaign stop at Homer's Deli and Bakery in Clinton, Iowa, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters after a campaign stop at Homer's Deli and Bakery in Clinton, Iowa, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop at Rastrelli's restaurant in Clinton, Iowa, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) ? Mitt Romney has stepped into the center of a perfect storm in Iowa ? and he's going all in.

Sensing an opening to win next Tuesday's caucuses, an ever-more confident Romney is campaigning hard in a region of the state where he performed well in his failed 2008 race, with a bus tour and new crush of advertising intended to bolster his closing argument: that he's the most electable candidate against President Barack Obama.

It's thanks to a combination of luck and planning that Romney now finds himself in strong contention for an Iowa caucus victory that would give him a boost heading into the next contest, in New Hampshire, where the former Massachusetts governor's standing is strong.

Not that he's publicly entertaining the notion of back-to-back victories.

"I can't possibly allow myself to think in such optimistic terms. I just have to put my head down and battle as best I can," Romney said Wednesday. "But I can tell you: If the people here in Clinton are any example, or any indication, of what's going to happen in the process, I feel pretty good."

In a sign of his growing confidence that a victory may be at hand, Romney plans to spend caucus night in Iowa.

Advisers are redoubling efforts to try to capitalize on the slide in support for Newt Gingrich and skepticism of Ron Paul by making a concerted effort to increase turnout in areas where Romney did well four years ago. His campaign also added at least $100,000 in additional advertising for the final days ? and bought broadcast advertising for the first time in the Quad Cities market in eastern Iowa.

And, while Romney is largely shying away from criticizing his rivals, he jabbed at Paul, who has emerged as his chief rival in Iowa, on Wednesday ? another indication of Romney's efforts to triumph here.

"One of the people running for president thinks it's OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon," Romney said in Muscatine in response to a question from the audience. "I don't."

This is a far more aggressive strategy than the one Romney has employed all year after pouring $10 million into the state in 2008 only to lose it in a defeat that crippled his entire campaign. He couldn't allay concerns about his Mormon faith or his reversals on some social issues in a state where evangelical Republicans and other social conservatives dominate.

Romney approached Iowa more cautiously for this race, so much so that until recently aides worked out of an attic in Des Moines on a shoestring budget. He also had spent less than $200,000 on the state before the campaign started buying TV ads in December.

But even as advisers worked to play down expectations, they quietly stayed in contact with backers from his first campaign ? and Romney stood at the ready to try to take advantage of an opportunity in the race, should one present itself.

It looks like it has.

Social conservatives that united behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008 remain splintered among a handful of candidates that include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Gingrich, the former House speaker, was Romney's latest threat but he's taken a significant beating from an onslaught of advertisements by a super PAC run by Romney's allies. Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican, is a serious contender in Iowa but he has foreign policy views so outside the Republican mainstream that most Republicans believe he has little chance to win the GOP nomination.

On Wednesday, a new CNN/TIME poll in Iowa showed Romney leading with 25 percent support. Paul had 22 percent and Santorum drew 16 percent while Gingrich had fallen to 14 percent.

So Romney is trying to seize the moment. And it may be working.

Overflow crowds have been greeting Romney at every stop of his three-day, seven-city tour on a bus plastered with his campaign logo and "Conservative, Businessman, Leader" slogan on the side.

So many people showed up at a deli in Clinton that Romney's staff also sent the candidate to visit the restaurant across the street. Before sunrise, the line to see Romney at Elly's Coffee and Tea in Muscatine stretched out the door and down the block.

On Tuesday night, the campaign said that only 150 people had RSVPed to attend Romney's speech in Davenport. But more than 500 people showed up, shutting at least 200 people out of the Blackhawk Hotel ballroom. Many area voters were notified only that morning of Romney's visit.

People seem to like what they hear.

"He's probably the best chance to beat Obama," said Carol Hetzler, a medical secretary who backed Sen. John McCain's in 2008. She had also considered voting for Gingrich.

And Tim McCleary, who was waiting in line at Elly's before 7 a.m. to see Romney, said: "The only reason I'm supporting Romney is because he can win the election."

As Romney visits small towns in eastern Iowa, he's also doing countless interviews with the local media. He spent most of Wednesday morning talking to radio stations and small Iowa newspapers.

He's also relying on friends to help him make the sale.

Romney was dispatching surrogates from nearby states, including South Dakota Sen. John Thune, former Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Jim Talent of Missouri, to campaign in Iowa. Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole was dialing influential activists Tuesday, including former state GOP chairman Steve Grubbs, who is a well-connected campaign operative in Davenport in the heart of Romney's eastern Iowa base.

"He made the argument that the candidate who has shown the ability to win by the effectiveness of the campaign he's run is Mitt Romney," said Grubbs, who worked on Dole's 1996 campaign. "At the end of the day, he was selling electability."

It's the case Romney will try to make in North Liberty, Waterloo and Ames on Thursday and in Des Moines on Friday.

Mindful not to ignore New Hampshire altogether, Romney planned events there Friday and Saturday. Four of his five sons will campaign in the state Thursday before heading to Iowa this weekend. His wife, Ann, will remain in Iowa all weekend, campaigning in the western part of the state. Romney returns to Iowa later Saturday.

__

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-28-Romney/id-cc281292f54f4d0197e3e9b06c4f5809

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Deion Sanders' Daughter Called Out Her Exiting Step-Mom On Twitter

Judging by his expression, the kid on the right saw this shit coming. NFL Hall of Famer (I have straight friends who explain these things) Deion Sanders is pouring lime on the corpse that is his marriage. His wife Pilar tearfully claims she found out on TMZ. Deion's daughter Deiondra wanted a word with Pilar on this and took it to Twitter. Pilar's hair isn't layed like Merry Christmas, according to Miss Deiondra. The names in this mess sound like one of those telenovelas that Michael K.'s abuelita used to beat his brat ass in front of.

Before she unleashed, Deiondra apologized to her father -- claiming Deion "is going to be very upset at me 4 he always takes the higher route."??

?Deiondra writes, "#HowYouDidntKnow but yo boxes have been packed for weeks now."
She adds, "HowYoTopPriorityBeen yo marriage and yo kids when u flying out to see other n**gas ... yeah we know."?

Deiondra added, "All u had to do was be a supportive wife. Only thing u ever cared about doing with my dad is reality shows."
"Pilar stop tryna play the victim. Maybe if u would of actually loved my dad and not loved the life he gave you we would be here today."?

That's right, Pilar, Miss Deiondra SAW your gold-diggin' result Louis Vuitton bags packed and ready in the damn hallway! She knew ALL about your dream to be Drunk Ass Tami Roman 2.0 (that's basketball, though - straight friends)! She SAW your triflin' ass on Expedia booking booty call flights! Deiondra SEES, bitch!

Pilar's lawyer says that the Sanders' marriage is between two adults and "doesn?t involve engaging this kind of faceless accusations made by his child." It's going to be hot when Deiondra starts tweeting him with hashtags like #YoClientIsSUSPECT and #HowYoTopPriorityBeenRepresentinThisForkedTongueDevil.

The next time my partner pisses me off, I'm going to ask Miss Deiondra to Tweet his ass with "#HowYouDidntKnow to wash that dish" or "#HowYoTopPriorityBeen taking pics of the dog with Instagram when your damn Dunkin' Donuts wrappers are piling up on the floor of our car?!?!"

(via TMZ)

Posted by: J. Harvey

Source: http://www.dlisted.com/2011/12/29/deion-sanders-daughter-called-out-her-exiting-step-mom-twitter

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Newt Gingrich Promises To Create 'Millions Of Jobs Right Now'

In the latest campaign ad from Newt Gingrich, God of Carnage, the former House Speaker says that "we can create millions of jobs right now." Is this to be achieved by Gingrich hiring one million people to manufacture and market "Ellis The Elephant" merchandise? Because I'm just just trying to plan my next couple of days around Gingrich solving the crippling unemployment crisis in the next few hours or so:

Okay, so, not exactly. Gingrich will create a million jobs by "repealing laws that raise taxes and strangle businesses" (despite the fact that such be-strangled businesses don't seem to exist), "cutting taxes" (which is another way of saying the first thing he said), and "unleashing the power of our energy industry." (I'm guessing that means "cutting taxes" and "repealing laws," as well.)

Also, there's a blink-and-you-might-miss-it graphic in the ad noting that Gingrich won the endorsement of "the architect of Reagan's economic plan," a reference to Arthur Laffer, who bestowed his blessing earlier this week. And if you're reading between the lines, here, maybe Gingrich's plan for "job creation" is the one that Laffer touted earlier this year in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, in which he suggested that "enterprise zones" be created in inner-cities, establishing a bunch of mini-Saipans within the United States where all of the labor practices we've come to know and enjoy would be suspended: no payroll taxes (and big giveaways to corporations whether they headquartered in the "zone" or not), no minimum wage, no union organization, and no "codes, regulations, restrictions and requirements" that "unjustifiably impede economic growth" (or, in other words, no codes, regulations, restrictions or requirements that keep laborers alive). Profits earned by those who don't have to live in these laissez-faire hellscapes would be taxed at a discount, of course.

This was the secret scheme that Herman Cain came up with when he had to make his 9-9-9 Plan less onerous on the poor after the whole "poor people would buy used products" to avoid the new 9 percent sales tax was deemed to be too hilarious by reporters. I also suspect that it's a thing you have to be "for" in order to get Laffer's endorsement. So, if you personally feel that the unemployment crisis in America has been caused by a dearth of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory calamities, Gingrich is your man.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not?]

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/newt-gingrich-jobs_n_1173297.html

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Isaiah Cutler, 18, Jailed After Allegedly Posting Pictures Of Things He Stole On Facebook

We're a TV network available on DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Dish Network, and more. Find us on your TV. While you are here you can watch videos from our TV shows, check our TV schedule, and participate in discussions with members of our community. Thanks for visiting, and let us know what you think!

Source: http://current.com/entertainment/comedy/93596209_isaiah-cutler-18-jailed-after-allegedly-posting-pictures-of-things-he-stole-on-facebook.htm?xid=RSSfeed

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Oscar ballots are in the mail (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? The ballots are in the mail.

Ballots for the 84th Academy Awards were mailed to the nearly 6,000 Academy members on Tuesday, the Academy has announced. Those voters now have until January 13 to decide upon their favorite films, performances and/or accomplishments of the year, and to get their choices back to PricewaterhouseCoopers in time for a week and a half of detailed and complex counting.

The basics about the Oscar ballots that were mailed on Tuesday: They're color-coded by category, and cover 15 of the 24 Academy Awards categories. (Nominations in the rest of the categories are decided by special committees or at specific AMPAS events.)

Best Picture ballots are white, with the other categories using generally muted colors.

While Best Picture ballots are tabulated using the new system, the other 14 categories use the straight preferential count, which uses a number of rounds to narrow the field down to the final five nominees.

On every ballot except the acting ballot, voters are asked to list the name of the film, not the name of the person who will actually be nominated. This will make things much easier for directors who want to vote for Michel Hazanavicius but will only need to write "The Artist."

The reminder list of eligible films that accompanies most of the ballots includes film titles only, not names of potential nominees.

Members of the Actors Branch, though, are required to list the name of the actor and the name of the film -- and they're given complete leeway to decide if a performance belongs in the lead or supporting category (or even to put it in both if they're undecided).

If a performance actually gets enough votes to be nominated in both lead and supporting categories, it will receive the nomination in whichever category it drew the most support.

And given the way the system works, in only five categories does a film need more than 100 votes to be nominated for an Oscar. That's because nominations are made by the individual branches, not by the entire membership of the Academy.

The Actors Branch, with more than 1,100 members, is by far the largest. If every member were to vote, it would take just under 200 votes to secure a nomination in the four acting categories.

The next largest branches, the Producers Branch and the Executives Branch, with about 450 members each, only vote for Best Picture (as do Public Relations Branch members and Members at Large).

Directing, writing and sound categories require about 60 votes for a nomination; music requires about 40 for an Original Score nomination, with the Original Song category using a different process.

It goes all the way down to cinematography and film editing, which require between 30 and 40 votes, and makeup and hairstyling, which require only about 20 votes.

That doesn't seem like many for an Oscar nomination -- but remember, those are 20 top experts voting. It's the Academy's unofficial credo, when it comes to membership: quality, not quantity.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111227/film_nm/us_oscar_ballots

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Starting a Blog for Your Business in 2012 ? Part 1: Early Challenges ...

New years come with many new challenges and adventures. Business, just like people, use the new year as a chance to review the successes and failures of the previous one as well as an opportunity to set new goals and objectives.?You might have even already outlined some of ?your 2012 goals as you get ready to attack the new year.

Here?s one you should add to the list:

In 2012, your business should start a blog.

(And if you already have a blog, then use this year to maximize its reach.)

Why A Blog?

Your goal with a blog is to get found by people you don?t know online. Engaging our clients and fans isn?t easy, but we have access to them. Finding your prospects is a much more challenging task and takes real expertise and hard work.

How do prospects find your business online (mostly)?

SEARCH ENGINES!

The job of a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) is to scan and scan and scan and scan (you get it, they never stop) web pages for content. These search engines use complex algorithms to determine the value of content and page rankings. ?This ongoing process determines where content appears on SERPs (search engine results pages).

Blogs are most ideal web environment for creating and sharing?content?for several reasons:

• Search Engine Friendly:?Search engines aren?t magical; there?s a precise development discipline guiding the ways they scan and index pages. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts are trained to research and implement keywords that give your content the authority to help search engines get comfortable returning content to more of the appropriate prospects. Many years ago SEO was a hidden science that created content visible to search engines but invisible to the web visitor. With the advent of blogs, there are now content management systems that house all the most important elements that search engines scan for an a very usable and?organized?way.
• User Friendly: You don?t need a degree from MIT in computer science to understand how to manage a blog. You don?t even ?need formal web design training. Most blogging software is designed so that the user experience is intuitive, letting the blogger know where the content goes, how to format it, and where to input the important SEO elements (keywords, tags,categories, etc). You may also add plug-ins that will help you share your content across the web. (For example, WordPress has plug-ins that will tweet your new content for you the second you publish it on your blog). Managing a blog is as simple as managing your e-mail.
• Great For Customer Support: Blogs have commenting systems that allow the business to interact with its readers and provide top level customer support. Your blogging platform can remind you via e-mail (or even text message in some cases) as to when a prospect or client has left a comment on your content, giving you the opportunity to engage them (prospect) or provide support (client).

Blogging Objectives

I would make zero decisions on the blog (other than deciding to have one for reasons above) before I created and understood a list of its objectives. These objectives will shape the entire scope of the blog and your Internet marketing in general. They will help set guidelines and determine?deliverables.

I cannot determine the objectives of your blog as I wouldn?t begin to pretend to understand your business or marketing philosophies, but here are three general objectives I think would apply to most businesses.

1. Help With Sales
   • Your blog should not only be a source of engaging (and often entertaining) content, but it should provide useful information that help your sales force. The more your prospects and clients know about your industry and your product, the more successful a sales call or visit is likely to go. Creating content to support sales can be done in a variety of ways:
     • Product details and specs
     • FAQs
     • How-To posts and videos
     • Product reviews
     • Photo Galleries
2. Increasing Social Reach
   • A blog presents a business an excellent opportunity to increase its reach on social networks. Engaging a visitor on your webpage is of the most importance, but many visitors require more than one or two visits before they consider becoming a buyer. Give these prospects the chance to connect with your business on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. They might forget a webpage they visited (people are busy), but chances are they check their social networks daily, and you can grab them again there.
3. Advertise New Products/Offerings
   • Creating new content to find new prospects is nice and all, but you should give them an opportunity to buy while they are there! While no website or blog should be overly aggressive with advertising, it is important that they understand your service, especially considering all the content that?s being created to get them there. Use space on your blog to host banners or call-to-actions buttons that let visitors know about something you are selling or offering.

There are many other objectives you?ll come up with as you begin. You might be interesting in collecting e-mails for e-mail marketing or gaining YouTube subscribers for your video networks. Whatever your objectives are, list them and make them clear to the people in your business before you begin creating content.

In The Next Installment, ?Part 2: Getting Started?

• Defining your blog?s target audience
• Choosing your bloggers
• Choosing your blogging software

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/digitalsherpa/415100/starting-blog-your-business-2012-part-1-early-challenges

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Head of 'Blondies' cartel arrested in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY?? Federal police say one of the United States' most-wanted drug traffickers has been arrested at Mexico City's airport.

U.S. authorities offered a reward of up to $5 million for Luis Rodriguez Olivera, or "Whitey" or "Blondie." Olivera and his brother Esteban are accused of smuggling tons of cocaine and methamphetamine into Europe and the U.S.

Luis Olivera was indicted in U.S. federal court in 2009 on cocaine-smuggling conspiracy and related charges. Federal police said in a statement that the 39-year-old, red-haired suspect was arrested Tuesday.

His gang was known as "The Blondies." Authorities say it formed temporary allegiances with bigger Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45806709/ns/world_news-americas/

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Futures edge higher after Italian auction (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday in what looks to be another low-volume session, with investors waiting for the start of 2012 before betting on risky assets.

Equities ended mostly unchanged on Tuesday on about half of the year's daily average volume as investors paused following a 5 percent gain in the previous week. Markets may continue to struggle for direction, with no major economic indicators on tap or S&P 500 companies scheduled to report quarterly results until January.

European shares were modestly higher on light volume, rising 0.5 percent after short-term Italian debt costs were cut in half at an auction, which improved confidence about demand for Thursday's Italian long-term bond sale.

"This portends good news and is a positive as the European Union tries to become more stable," said Tim Speiss, head of personal wealth advisors at EisnerAmper in New York. "However, with the limited participation, I still expect today to be fairly quiet and flat."

Wall Street movements have been closely correlated to European markets in recent weeks as the region deals with a debt crisis, but the problems have receded into the background with the lack of new developments. Still, any sign of improving conditions could spur further gains, with the light volume amplifying any moves.

S&P 500 futures rose 3.2 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 22 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures put on 5 points.

For the year, the Dow is up 6.2 percent, while the S&P is up 0.6 percent, and the Nasdaq is down 1 percent.

Energy shares may be in focus after Iran's navy chief said it would be "easier than drinking a glass of water" for Iran to close off the Strait of Hormuz, and choke off oil supplies, if foreign sanctions are tightened.

"While OPEC has already offered to step in and make up for any shortfall, meaning we may not see an impact in prices for a while, this brings up the issue of stability in the Middle East, so it could be very significant," Speiss said. "A disruption of oil shipments globally could have a significant impact on prices."

U.S. crude futures fell 0.6 percent, while Brent crude was off 1 percent.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission won a delay in its securities fraud lawsuit against Citigroup Inc (C.N) as the regulator tries to appeal a judge's decision to reject its $285 million settlement with the bank.

U.S. stocks ended flat on Tuesday after fluctuating between small gains and losses in light volume as investors took a breather following last week's rally. A stronger-than-expected reading on consumer confidence added credence to the idea that the economy was growing faster than previously thought.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111228/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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Prepare to wave/waive goodbye to these 20 NFL vets (Bay Area Sports Guy)

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Source: http://wik.io/info/US/306585990

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Caution mutes US response to N. Korea

WASHINGTON?? The Obama administration's cautious response to the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il reflects unease and uncertainty about the leadership transition in the reclusive country that has confounded U.S. presidents for 60 years.

1. The death of Kim Jong Il

   1. Report: Red skies, stormy seas marked Kim's death
   2. Circumstances of Kim Jong Il's death fabricated?
   3. Politics trump hunger in N.Korea
   4. Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong ll
   5. Source: Military coup in N. Korea 'unlikely'
   6. NYT: In Kim's death, an extensive intelligence failure
   7. Cartoons: The life and death of Kim Jong Il
   8. Analysis: Opportunities, dangers loom over N. Korea
   9. Even in death, details of Kim Jong Il's life elusive
   10. Kim Jong Il remembered as 'Team America' star

North Korea, the "hermit kingdom," has vexed the United States and its allies with war, nuclear tests, missile launches, belligerence and bellicose bombast. But since he took office in 2009, President Barack Obama has had to deal with North Korea at perhaps its most secretive point: an unclear succession amid a time of deep concern about the stability of the regime.

Thus, the administration's carefully worded public messages have underscored its desire for better relations with the autocratic nation and its concern about the welfare of the North Korean people. They are also gentle reminders that Washington expects Pyongyang to follow through on denuclearization pledges and improve ties with its neighbors, particularly South Korea.

The kid-gloves treatment accorded to the North's youthful new leader, Kim's twenty-something son Kim Jong Un, has attracted criticism from some who see this is a moment to make a forceful case for dramatic reform and regime change.

But without solid intelligence on the opaque transition process and fearful of misunderstandings that could lead to provocations with the notoriously erratic North, U.S. officials have concluded the best course is to say little, wait and watch.

Indeed, the administration's initial reactions to Kim's death have contained little substance at all.

"All I can say is that we're monitoring the situation closely," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday as North Korean state media broadcast pictures of wailing mourners, apparently overcome with grief. "Kim Jong Il had designated Kim Jong Un as his official successor, and at this time we have no indication that that has changed."

Carney added: "We hope that the new North Korean leadership will take the steps necessary to support peace, prosperity and a better future for the North Korean people, including through acting on its commitments to denuclearization."

Those comments echoed words from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. On Monday, more than 16 hours after Kim's death was announced, she was the first senior U.S. official to comment publicly, calling for "a peaceful and stable transition in North Korea" and expressing hope that it would not affect "regional peace and stability."

Ironically, it was Clinton who first stirred the pot about a possible succession crisis in North Korea.

Nearly three years ago, on her first trip to Asia as secretary of state, she stunned diplomatic circles with a frank appraisal of U.S. concerns amid speculation about the health of Kim Jong Il, who had suffered a stroke in 2008, and his choice of a successor.

"If there is a succession, even if it's a peaceful succession, that creates more uncertainty and it also may encourage behaviors that are even more provocative as a way to consolidate power within the society," Clinton told reporters on Feb. 20, 2009.

Her remarks on a previously taboo subject sparked great debate. In Seoul the next day, she expressed surprise at the uproar, noting that reports of Kim choosing his youngest son Kim Jung Un to succeed him had "been in the news for months."

"I don't think that it's a forbidden subject to talk about succession in the hermit kingdom," Clinton said. "In fact, it seems to me it's got to be factored into any policy review that one is undertaking."

That same month, U.S. diplomats were scrambling to collect any information they could about Kim Jong Un from South Korean, Chinese and Japanese officials and experts, according to leaked State Department cables published by WikiLeaks.

Unfortunately for the Americans, their interlocutors had sharply divided opinions, according to the cables. Some predicted the North Korean regime would collapse politically within two to three years of Kim Jong Il's death. Others foresaw a power struggle between the young and untested Kim Jong Un and rivals in the elite, but differed over who would prevail. Others believed there would be little change.

One apparent area of convergence, however, was that most South Korean experts believed the challenge for the younger Kim would come after his father's death.

Before Kim's passing, the U.S. administration had been expected this week to announce the resumption in food aid to North Korea and a potential bilateral meeting on nuclear disarmament. Although the State Department said there had been brief exchange with North Korean officials in New York on Monday, both initiatives are now in flux pending the end of the North's mourning period.

The administration says it is respecting that mourning period by understanding that North Korean officials will not be available for discussions. Yet it has steadfastly refused to express any sympathy for the death of Kim, whose Stalinist regime is accused of having one of the worst, if not the worst, human rights records in the world.

While showering the late Czech democracy leader Vaclev Havel with effusive eulogies, American officials have refused to even utter the word "condolence" in relation to Kim.

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Matthew Lee covers international affairs and U.S. foreign policy for The Associated Press.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45787168/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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ISRAEL: Police clash with ultra-Orthodox protesters over harrassment report

REUTERS - Israeli police and ultra-Orthodox protesters clashed on Monday in a troubled Israeli town on the outskirts of Jerusalem where protests have flared over demands to crack down on zealots accused of harassing women.

A police officer was injured and several black-robed protesters taken into custody in the disturbances that erupted after a public outcry over televised footage of an eight-year-old Israeli girl complaining of verbal abuse from black-robed Orthodox men while on her way to school.

?Nazis, Nazis,? religious protesters in the town of Beit Shemesh shouted at Israeli officers escorting them from the scene, Israeli television footage showed.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one of the protesters was arrested on suspicion of throwing a rock that slightly injured a police officer. Three other ultra-Orthodox men were being questioned, he said.

He said Israeli police were also investigating complaints that some of the Orthodox men had spat at and spoken ?disrespectfully? at girls en route to an elementary school, where Naama Margolese, 8, whose spotlight television interview was aired on Friday, also attended class.

Police have reinforced their presence in Beit Shemesh where the dispute flared at the weekend, and when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded a crackdown on the zealots some have accused of spitting at or harassing women they see as immodest.

Israeli television crews filming in the town complained rocks were thrown at them in Beit Shemesh on Monday, where ultra-Orthodox men angry at the removal of a sign urging women to avoid certain streets, threw stones.

?We have increased our presence in the town to keep it calm,? Rosenfeld said.

The dispute in Beit Shemesh underscores a widening faultline in Israel between religiously devout and a majority of non-observant Jews, a dispute often exacerbated by the powerful role of ultra-Orthodox political parties in Israeli governments.

Though numbering only 10 percent of Israel?s mostly Jewish population of 7.7 million, ultra-Orthodox voting patterns give them considerable clout, helping to secure them welfare benefits and wider influence.

Rabbis condemn violence

But many rabbis have insisted the incidents in Beit Shemesh were the acts of a fringe minority. Some rabbis, among them members of Netanyahu?s leading ultra-Orthodox coalition partner, the Shas party, have joined him in condemning the violence.

Netanyahu intervened in the festering dispute as the public began venting outrage at attempts by zealots to spread their practices of gender segregation, embraced by many Orthodox communities citing religious teachings, into the wider public domain.

?In a Western, liberal democracy, the public realm is open and safe for all, men and women both, and neither harassment nor discrimination have any place there,? Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday.

Israeli women have complained for years of black-robed religiously fervent men forcing them to sit separately at the back of public buses.

More recently, and largely in Jerusalem, some rabbis have taken to demanding that businesses avoid posting photographs of women or employ them in any of the shops they patronise.

But the controversy Israelis have now dubbed ?exclusion of women? burst into the headlines only recently after an incident involving a military base where Orthodox male soldiers walked out of a ceremony in protest of a performance by female singers.

With the focal point having moved to Beit Shemesh, activists have made plans to hold a larger rally there on Tuesday.

Some in the city fear the dispute may scar relations among an already delicate mix of religiously observant immigrants living alongside Israelis embracing a more modern lifestyle.

Matti Rosensweig, a spokesman for Beit Shemesh told reporters there that the mayor was ?working overtime to try and calm the atmosphere.?

Source: http://www.france24.com/en/20111227-israel-ultra-orthodox-harrassment-beit-shemesh-protest-clashes

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Samsung Galaxy S y Galaxy Tab 7? se quedan sin Ice Cream sandiwch

Despu?s de tanto revuelo ante la salida de la nueva versi?n del sistema operativo de Google, Ice Cream Sandwich, uno espera que la gran mayor?a de los equipo que son anunciados como poderosos lleguen atener esta?actualizaci?n, aunque siendo sinceros la realidad es otra, equipos que en su moemnto son anunciados como equipos potentes de alto rendimiento que son capaces de alcanzar grandes tazas de actualizaci?n acaban si

Source: http://bitacoras.com/anotaciones/samsung-galaxy-s-y-galaxy-tab-7-se-quedan-sin-ice-cream-sandiwch/24883500

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Source: http://moonlight-driive.tumblr.com/post/14719657321

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'Rare' brain disorder may be more common than thought, scientists say

ScienceDaily (Dec. 25, 2011) ? A global team of neuroscientists, led by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, has found the gene responsible for a brain disorder that may be much more common than once believed. In the Dec. 25 online issue of Nature Genetics, the researchers say they identified 14 different mutations in the gene CSF1R that lead to development of hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids (HDLS). This is a devastating disorder of the brain's white matter that leads to death between ages 40 and 60. People who inherit the abnormal gene always develop HDLS. Until now, a definite diagnosis of HDLS required examination of brain tissue at biopsy or autopsy.

The finding is important because the researchers suspect that HDLS is more common than once thought and a genetic diagnosis will now be possible without need for a brain biopsy or autopsy. According to the study's senior investigator, neurologist Zbigniew K. Wszolek, M.D., a significant number of people who tested positive for the abnormal gene in this study had been diagnosed with a wide range of other conditions. These individuals were related to a patient known to have HDLS, and so their genes were also examined.

"Because the symptoms of HDLS vary so widely -- everything from behavior and personality changes to seizures and movement problems -- these patients were misdiagnosed as having either schizophrenia, epilepsy, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or other disorders," says Dr. Wszolek. "Many of these patients were therefore treated with drugs that offered only toxic side effects.

"Given this finding, we may soon have a blood test that can help doctors diagnose HDLS, and I predict we will find it is much more common than anyone could have imagined," he says.

Dr. Wszolek is internationally known for his long-term efforts to bring together researchers from around the world to help find cases of inherited brain disorders and discover their genetic roots.

Dr. Wszolek's interest in HDLS began when a severely disabled young woman came to see him in 2003 and mentioned that other members of her family were affected. The diagnosis of HDLS was made by his Mayo Clinic colleague, Dennis W. Dickson, M.D., who reviewed the autopsy findings of the patient's uncle, who had previously been misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis, and subsequently, Dr. Wszolek's patient and her father. All members of the family had HDLS.

Dr. Dickson had identified other cases of HDLS from Florida, New York, Oregon and Kansas in the Mayo Clinic Florida brain bank and knew of a large kindred in Virginia with similar pathology, based upon a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neuropathologists. With concerted efforts, Dr. Wszolek and collaborators at University of Virginia were able to obtain DNA samples from the Virginia kindred. Dr. Wszolek also sought other cases, particularly those that had been reported in the neuropathology literature, and he was able to obtain samples from Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, and other sites in the U.S. He and his team of investigators and collaborators have since published studies describing the clinical, pathologic and imaging characteristics of the disorder, and they have held five international meetings on HDLS.

In this study, which included 38 researchers from 12 institutions in five countries, the study's first author, Rosa Rademakers, Ph.D., led the effort to find the gene responsible for HDLS. Her laboratory studied DNA samples from 14 families in which at least one member was diagnosed with HDLS and compared these with samples from more than 2,000 disease-free participants. The gene was ultimately found using a combination of traditional genetic linkage studies and recently developed state-of-the art sequencing methods. Most family members studied -- who were found to have HDLS gene mutations -- were not diagnosed with the disease, but with something else, thus emphasizing the notion that HDLS is an underdiagnosed disorder.

The CSF1R protein is an important receptor in the brain that is primarily present in microglia, the immune cells of the brain. "We identified a different CSF1R mutation in every HDLS family that we studied," says Dr. Rademakers. "All mutations are located in the kinase domain of CSF1R, which is critical for its activity, suggesting that these mutations may lead to deficient microglia activity. How this leads to white matter pathology in HDLS patients is not yet understood, but we now have an important lead to study."

"With no other disease have we found so many affected families so quickly," says Dr. Wszolek. "That tells me this disease is not rare, but quite common." He adds, "It is fantastic that you can start an investigation with a single case and end up, with the help of many hands, in what we believe to be a world-class gene discovery."

The study was funded by a Mayo benefactor and the Mayo Foundation. Additionally, Mayo Clinic in Florida is a Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Mayo Clinic.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Rosa Rademakers, Matt Baker, Alexandra M Nicholson, Nicola J Rutherford, NiCole Finch, Alexandra Soto-Ortolaza, Jennifer Lash, Christian Wider, Aleksandra Wojtas, Mariely DeJesus-Hernandez, Jennifer Adamson, Naomi Kouri, Christina Sundal, Elizabeth A Shuster, Jan Aasly, James MacKenzie, Sigrun Roeber, Hans A Kretzschmar, Bradley F Boeve, David S Knopman, Ronald C Petersen, Nigel J Cairns, Bernardino Ghetti, Salvatore Spina, James Garbern, Alexandros C Tselis, Ryan Uitti, Pritam Das, Jay A Van Gerpen, James F Meschia, Shawn Levy, Daniel F Broderick, Neill Graff-Radford, Owen A Ross, Bradley B Miller, Russell H Swerdlow, Dennis W Dickson, Zbigniew K Wszolek. Mutations in the colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) gene cause hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids. Nature Genetics, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/ng.1027

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111225144314.htm

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Russian oil rig sinking casts doubt on Arctic plan

(AP)? MOSCOW ? The sinking of a floating oil rig that left more than 50 crew dead or missing is intensifying fears that Russian companies searching for oil in remote areas are unprepared for emergencies ? and could cause a disastrous spill in the pristine waters of the Arctic.

Only four months ago, Russian energy giant Gazprom sent Russia's first oil platform to the environmentally sensitive region, and industry experts and environmentalists warned it is unfit for the harsh conditions and is too far from rescue crews to be reached quickly in case of an accident. They are demanding Russia put Arctic oil projects on hold.

Russia is the world's largest oil producer, but it extracts most of its oil onshore, with no more than 2 percent of its production coming from mature offshore fields in the warm Black and Caspian seas and relatively new fields just off Sakhalin Island in the far east.

As Russia's core oil fields in Eastern Siberia are depleted, companies are looking north. The government hopes that up to 80 million tons of oil will be produced annually in the Arctic by 2030.

Russia is trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, which is believed to hold up to a quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas. By speeding up the Arctic oil project, the government is strengthening its bid.

The Kolskaya floating oil rig that capsized and sank in the Sea of Okhotsk on Dec. 18 had done exploratory drilling for Gazprom Neft Shelf, a subsidiary of Gazprom. It was being towed back to an eastern Russian port in a fierce storm when a strong wave broke some of its equipment and portholes, and it capsized in the choppy water.

Gazprom is now pioneering the oil development of Russia's sector of the Arctic and was the first Russian company to dispatch a drilling rig to the Pechora Sea in northwest Russia.

Russian oil companies have never operated in weather conditions as harsh as those found in the ice-bound Arctic, where ice ridges are meters (yards) deep and storms are frequent. The Kolskaya accident has reinforced fears that they are unprepared to meet the challenges.

"This tragedy has once again reminded us of how high the risks of offshore accidents are," said Alexei Knizhnikov, an oil and gas policy officer with the World Wildlife Fund.

WWF, Greenpeace and five regional Russian environmental organizations signed a petition on Thursday calling for a parliamentary investigation and urging the government to suspend the oil projects for now.

The petition accuses government agencies of failing to enforce environmental and safety regulations and says that current laws are inadequate for dealing with the magnitude of risk in the Arctic.

Environmentalists first raised their concerns when Gazprom announced in August that it was sending its platform to the Arctic for exploratory drilling in the Pechora oil field, which holds some 6.6 million tons of oil.

The platform's underwater section was built in Russia in the 1990s, while its upper part comes from a platform built in Scotland in 1982 and decommissioned from the North Sea in 2002.

Gazprom insists the Prirazlomnaya platform, billed as the first to be ice resistant, is safe and contains no old equipment except for its frame.

"We've done our best to implement the latest technology and regulations to prevent any accidents," Vladimir Vovk, chief of Gazprom's department for the management of equipment and technologies in developing marine fields, said at a news conference in September.

Environmentalists question both the state of the equipment and the platform's design. Because the Prirazlomnaya is situated hundreds of kilometers (miles) offshore, it is designed to store huge quantities of oil until tankers can arrive to collect it. The platform's storage tanks can hold up to 120,000 tons (840,000 barrels).

Unlike the Kolskaya, which was carrying no oil when it sank, the Arctic platform could potentially cause a disastrous spill if it capsized in icy, rough seas.

The distance from shore would also complicate any rescue or cleanup mission. The nearest port of any size is in Murmansk, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away.

Even in warmer, more hospitable waters, accidents at oil platforms have been disastrous.

A giant oil slick was approaching the coast of Nigeria on Friday after what Royal Dutch Shell said was a spill during the transfer of oil from its floating platform in the offshore field to a waiting tanker. The spill came less than a week after Shell received approval from the U.S. government to drill exploratory wells off Alaska's northwest coast, in the Chukchi Sea near Russian waters.

In the Gulf of Mexico, the 2010 explosion of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and led to more than 200 million gallons (4.8 million barrels) of oil spewing from a well deep beneath the sea.

Russia's parliament gave preliminary approval in September to a bill intended to tighten regulations on oil companies working in the Arctic.

Yekaterina Khmelyova, an environment law officer at the WWF, said the bill does not do enough to hold the oil companies publicly accountable or to guarantee a full assessment of the environmental risks. She said environmentalists and the business community are working on a new draft that among other things would provide for the creation of clean-up funds.

Oil industry experts also have expressed doubts about Gazprom's expertise in offshore drilling in the Arctic as well as the platform's design.

They have questioned the economic justifications for the project. The oil in the Pechora field is of low quality and the project will be loss-making without tax breaks, said Valery Nesterov, a senior analyst with the Moscow-based investment bank Troika Dialog. For state-controlled Gazprom, the Arctic project appears to be more of strategic importance than about any immediate economic benefits, he said.

"This is clearly a strategic task that the company is executing," Nesterov said. "It looks like Russia is not going to give up that strategy since the interests of ship yards, machinery producers and, possibly, the military are involved."

Four years ago, Russia staked its claim to supremacy in the Arctic by planting a titanium flag on the ocean floor and arguing that an underwater ridge connected the country directly to the North Pole. The United States does not recognize the Russian assertion and has its own claims, along with Denmark, Norway and Canada.

Russia, Canada and Denmark are planning to their respective file claims to the ridge to the United Nations.

In past years, Russian ship yards and machinery producers have been able to stay afloat largely thanks to large orders coming from state-owned plants and government-sponsored projects. A large-scale oil and gas development of the Arctic is likely to give a welcome boost to both industries.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsGamecore/~3/zv34V4zLA6s/

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Russia's NATO envoy appointed to government (AP)

MOSCOW ? President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed Russia's envoy to NATO as deputy prime minister in charge of military procurement.

Dmitry Rogozin promised the president that he would use an "iron hand" to fight the deeply entrenched corruption that has undermined efforts to provide new weapons to Russia's armed forces.

The military prosecutor said this year that about 20 percent of the military budget was stolen by corrupt officials and contractors.

Rogozin, a nationalist politician and former parliament member, was posted to Brussels in early 2008 as Russia's envoy to the Western alliance.

Medvedev appointed him to the government position on Friday. Rogozin replaces Sergei Ivanov, who on Thursday took up a new post as Kremlin chief of staff.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_military

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Sandusky case triggers jump in U.S. abuse calls (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Child molestation charges against a former Penn State football coach have sparked an unprecedented awareness of sexual abuse marked by a sharp upturn in calls to abuse hotlines and lawyers, attorneys and counselors said on Wednesday.

More allegations of sexual abuse and a growing number of lawsuits are likely in coming months as victims are emboldened to speak out by the blaze of publicity about Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach, and other alleged molesters, they said.

"It's a watershed moment for child sex abuse victims, and I cringe as I say that because too often we equate public awareness with reform," said David Clohessy, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group.

The Sandusky case had one of its highest-profile ripple effects on Tuesday. Sports columnist Bill Conlin abruptly retired from the Philadelphia Daily News after a rival paper published a report accusing him of child sexual abuse.

A man and three women, including Conlin's niece, alleged he molested them as children. The niece said she and the others decided to speak out when reports about Sandusky awakened painful memories.

Conlin was "floored" by the story, his lawyer said.

"There have definitely been a lot more (abuse) survivors coming out that were triggered by Sandusky," said Marci Hamilton, one of the lawyers who filed the first civil suit against the former coach, Penn State and the Second Mile, a charity Sandusky founded.

MORE HOTLINE HELP

Sandusky, 67, faces 52 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys he met through the Second Mile. In the wake of the Sandusky charges, allegations of sexual abuse have been made against a Syracuse assistant basketball coach, a former Citadel student and the head of the Amateur Athletic Union.

Jennifer Marsh, hotline director at the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, said she had had to add more counselors to handle the growing call load. Online text contacts, which guarantee more anonymity, have rocketed 54 percent.

Many callers mention Penn State and Syracuse and they often seek advice on how to report potential molesters or stop abuse, Marsh said.

"We haven't seen anything like this before in terms of response on the hotlines," she said.

Calls to the Childhelp national child sexual abuse hotline are up about 20 percent since charges were filed against Sandusky at the start of November, said Michelle Fingerman, the hotline's director.

Calls by adults who were victimized as children are up by almost a third, she said.

"We're just picking up the phone more often, and the calls are longer. They are really more intense," Fingerman said.

"FOOTBALL IS PART OF AMERICA"

The National Crime Victim Bar Association, which helps crime victims with civil suits, has seen a tripling of calls on child sexual abuse since the Sandusky case broke, said director Jeff Dion.

He and Hamilton, the lawyer, said they expected to see an upsurge in child sexual abuse civil cases. The number will depend on statutes of limitations, which in most states expire generally by the time the victims are in their early 20s.

The Sandusky case had a much bigger impact with sexual abuse victims than the scandal involving Catholic priests since Sandusky had been a well-respected coach at a high-profile college program, Childhelp's Fingerman said.

"Football is part of America, really, and people are seeing that this can happen in any type of situation. It's not a certain demographic or socioeconomic class," she said.

(Reporting By Ian Simpson; Editing by Jerry Norton and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/us_nm/us_crime_coach_pennstate

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Feud between Romney, Gingrich intensifies (AP)

OSKALOOSA, Iowa ? The slugfest between Republican presidential frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich is escalating, with two sparred from a distance over attack ads that have come to dominate the volatile contest.

The rift underscores the contrasting campaign styles of the two men as they ready their final pitches to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. And it left each decrying a new campaign finance system ? fueled by deep-pocketed political action committees ? that each benefits from.

In Iowa, Gingrich vowed his White House bid would remain positive, while in the next breath he labeled the Romney camp's tactics "disgusting." The former House speaker, known for a bare-knuckles campaign style when he engineered the GOP takeover of the House in the 1990s, suggested at a campaign stop on Tuesday that his opponents "hire consultants who get drunk, sit around and write stupid ads."

Romney protested that he couldn't control the independent PAC expenditures, but pointedly declined to disavow the ads. The former businessman and Massachusetts governor, who's been on the stump in New Hampshire, is seeking to project a tough, pragmatic image, allowing there's "no whining in politics."

"I'm a big boy," he said on MSNBC.

Meanwhile, Ron Paul has emerged as a wild card in the race. The blunt-spoken Texas congressman is set to hit the trail in Iowa again on Wednesday, along with other candidates in the field. With less than two weeks to go until the first-in-the nation Iowa caucuses, the race remains unpredictable, as voters weigh electability against conservative credentials.

Jenny Turner, a 31-year-old wedding videographer from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, summed it up this way: "My heart is with Newt. But Mitt Romney is the back of my mind."

The bickering over negative ads has highlighted the role of so-called super PACs, independent groups which may accept unlimited donations but are not supposed to directly coordinate with candidates. Such groups have sprung up to work on behalf of every serious Republican candidate in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that allowed people, unions and corporations to donate unlimited sums of money to outfits advocating the election or defeat of candidates.

Romney has labeled the system a "disaster"; Gingrich calls it "a nightmare."

Still, each has PACs leveraging dollars on their behalf.

Among the most visible is the pro-Romney PAC Restore our Future, run by former Romney aides. It has been blanketing the airwaves in Iowa with a series of caustic ads painting Gingrich as an ethically-challenged Washington power broker. The onslaught has chipped away at Gingrich's poll numbers in the state

Gingrich has challenged Romney to demand the ads come down.

However, two pro-Gingrich PACs have also been raking in cash. Gingrich's longtime aide Rick Tyler just signed on with one of them.

Gingrich trails Romney badly in fundraising and his campaign had been deeply in debt following staff upheaval earlier this year. The PAC spending could help him rapidly make up that gap. Gingrich said Wednesday he would disavow any PAC that runs negative ads, but that doesn't mean they could not do so anyway.

Gingrich and Romney were each expected back on the campaign trail Wednesday, one of the last full days before the campaigns go dark for the holidays. Romney had a full day of campaign stops in New Hampshire, a must-win state for him. He was set to pick up the endorsement of a key conservative activist.

Gingrich was collecting the support from state House speakers in Iowa and New Hampshire and was set to hold events in both states. He was then set to rush to Virginia, which the former Georgia congressman now calls home, to help ensure he has the needed signatures to get on the ballot in the state.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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