Thursday, January 26, 2012

Deflation risk up in some G20 states: IMF (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Global growth is slowing rapidly and the possibility of ample economic slack means risks of "damaging deflation" are rising in some G20 member economies, the International Monetary Fund said in a paper published on Wednesday.

"Should growth turn out lower than expected, there is a risk that very large output gaps would lead to deflation in some countries, with damaging consequences where debt burdens remain high," the IMF said in a document presented at a G20 meeting in Mexico last week.

The IMF, which on Tuesday scaled back its forecasts for global growth this year, said it appears recovery will stall in many economies during 2012 but said "a collapse should be avoided."

With demand likely to soften, price declines are likely in many commodities and that will feed through to consumer prices and add to chances for deflation.

Overall, the IMF identifies the ongoing European debt crisis as a key risk to the global economy and notes the region has large debt rollover needs in 2012 that are equal to about 16 percent of total economic output.

"Successful debt issuance will require a durable recovery of market confidence about prospects for both growth and fiscal sustainability across the euro area," the IMF said.

But it also says the United States and Japan face a threat to their prospects from their failure to come up with credible, medium-term plans for reducing their heavy levels of debt and borrowing.

The IMF cautions that while the United States and Japan's sales of debt may look attractive to investors at the moment in comparison with those of Europe, that could change quickly and politicians need to get a grip on debt reduction.

"As developments in the euro area have shown, market confidence can be lost quickly with damaging consequences for growth and financial stability, underscoring that time is of the essence," the IMF document said.

(Reporting By Lesley Wroughton; Editing by James Dalgleish and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_imf_inflation

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Mourinho defiant despite rising pressure

Associated Press Sports

updated 2:32 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2012

MADRID (AP) -Appearing angry and irritable, Jose Mourinho claimed all was well at Real Madrid on Tuesday despite reported divisions within his squad following the loss last week to Barcelona causing speculation to mount about his future.

Mourinho has come under criticism from his usually staunch allies - Madrid fans and the local media - for his tactics against Barcelona in the 2-1 home loss in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals last Wednesday.

During a tense news conference on Tuesday, the Portuguese coach was quick to dismiss all questions regarding his future and the mood among the players inside the changing room, answering "I don't know" on each occasion.

Mourinho was similarly dismissive when asked if this is his most difficult period since joining Madrid in 2010 after having guided Inter Milan to the Champions League title.

"It's a very nice moment," countered Mourinho, whose team leads the league by five points from Barcelona.

Mourinho was hired by president Florentino Perez to not only win trophies but ensure Madrid beats Barcelona. Last season's victory in the Copa del Rey final, however, is his lone win in nine games against the club where he once worked as an assistant coach.

"When I first arrived, this club's (cup) tradition was elimination at the hands of smaller teams, and last year we won the Copa," Mourinho said in one of his few lengthy answers. "When we got to Real Madrid we weren't even a top seed (in the Champions League), and now we've managed a record number of victories in the first half of the season and we're leading the championship.

"We're not doing too bad."

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported details Tuesday of discussions between Mourinho and his players after the 2-0 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals in which he reportedly said the series was over ahead of the return leg.

That follows sports daily Marca revealing a critical exchange between Mourinho and defender Sergio Ramos after last week's loss to Barcelona.

"I've never lacked respect for a coach at any point of my career," Ramos wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday. "With that, I deny these things said of me, that I never said. The coach and I are fighting for the same interests."

Although stating that Pepe was available for Wednesday's second leg if he escapes a ban for stomping on Lionel Messi, Mourinho was less forthcoming about whether he is ready to abandon his defensive game plan.

"I don't have to reveal how we are going to play the game at the Camp Nou," Mourinho said, adding: "Tomorrow's game will not have an impact on my time at Real Madrid."

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Reuters
That's a reason?

AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng is hurt again, and his girlfriend says it's because they have sex "7-10 times a week." Oh.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45447222/ns/sports-soccer/

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US military raid in Somalia frees American, Dane (AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia ? U.S. Special Forces troops flew into Somalia on a nighttime helicopter raid early Wednesday, freed an American and a Danish hostage and killed nine of the kidnappers in a mission that President Barack Obama said he personally authorized.

The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were freed and "are on their way to be reunited with their families."

The raiders came in very quickly, catching the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were, and that they told him nine pirates had been killed in the raid and three were missing.

A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2 a.m. about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Somali town of Adado where the hostages were being held.

Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, were working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.

The U.S. military's Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, confirmed that nine kidnappers were killed.

"Last night's mission, boldly conducted by some of our nation's most courageous, competent, and committed special operations forces, exemplifies United States Africa Command's mission to protect Americans and American interests in Africa," said Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command.

Obama seemed to refer to the mission before his State of the Union address in Washington Tuesday night. By then it was already Wednesday morning in Somalia. As he entered the House chamber in the U.S. Capitol, Obama pointed at Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the crowd and said, "Good job tonight."

"As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts," Obama said in a statement released by the White House Wednesday. He said he had authorized the rescue mission on Monday.

"Jessica Buchanan was selflessly serving her fellow human beings when she was taken hostage by criminals and pirates who showed no regard for her health and well-being," Obama said. "The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice."

A Western official said the helicopters and the hostages flew to a U.S. military base called Camp Lemonnier in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti after the raid. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been released publicly.

The timing of the raid may have been made more urgent by a medical condition. The Danish Refugee Council had been trying to work with Somali elders to win the hostages' freedom but had found little success.

"One of the hostages has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved," Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal told Denmark's TV2 channel. Soevndal did not provide any more details.

Soevndal congratulated the Americans for the raid and said he had been informed of the action.

Panetta visited Camp Lemonnier just over a month ago. A key U.S. ally in this region, Djibouti has the only U.S. base in sub-Saharan Africa. It hosts the military's Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

The Danish Refugee Council said both freed hostages are unharmed "and at a safe location." The group said in a separate statement that the two "are on their way to be reunited with their families."

Ann Mary Olsen, head of the Danish Refugee Council's international department, was the one who informed the family of Hagen Thisted of the successful military operation.

"They (the family) were very happy and incredibly relieved that it is over," she said.

The two aid workers appear to have been kidnapped by criminals ? sometimes referred to as pirates ? and not by Somalia's al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab. As large ships at sea have increased their defenses against pirate attacks, gangs have looked for other money making opportunities like land-based kidnappings.

The Danish Refugee Council had earlier enlisted traditional Somali elders and members of civil society to seek the release of the two hostages.

"We are really happy with the successful release of the innocents kidnapped by evildoers," said Mohamud Sahal, an elder in Galkayo town, by phone. "They were guests who were treated brutally. That was against Islam and our culture ... These men (pirates) have spoiled our good customs and culture, so Somalis should fight back."

Buchanan and Hagen Thisted were seized in October from the portion of Galkayo town under the control of a government-allied clan militia. The aid agency has said that Somalis held demonstrations demanding the pair's quick release.

Their Somali colleague was detained by police on suspicion of being involved in their kidnapping.

The two hostages were working in northern Somalia for the Danish Demining Group, whose experts have been clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Several hostages are still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighboring Kenya, and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

___

Associated Press reporters Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to this report. Houreld reported from Nairobi.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_af/af_somalia_helicopter_raid

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Stock futures fall on worries about Greece

A trader rushes across the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Wall Street is opening slightly higher. Traders are weighing signs that Germany, Europe's largest economy, could slide into a recession against reports that the International Monetary Fund could get more cash to help countries struggling with debts. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A trader rushes across the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Wall Street is opening slightly higher. Traders are weighing signs that Germany, Europe's largest economy, could slide into a recession against reports that the International Monetary Fund could get more cash to help countries struggling with debts. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

(AP) ? European leaders' hard line in negotiations with Greek bondholders is driving U.S. stock markets lower as investors worry that a deal to cut Athens' mountain of debt might fall through.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average are down 51 points to 12,599. The broader S&P 500 futures are down 7 points to 1,304. The Nasdaq composite is down 10 points to 2,425.

A deal with bondholders is crucial to Greece's and the eurozone's stability because it's clear there's no way Athens can ever pay back all that it currently owes. Time is running out for politicians and the banks to get it right ? Greece has several billions of euros of debt coming due in March.

Most European markets suffered declines of 1 percent or more.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-24-Wall%20Street/id-f33a111390ce4a6f9038fde39e0e7adc

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Giffords' decision to resign sets up Ariz. race

FILE - This Jan. 8, 2012 file photo shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords waving at the start of a memorial vigil remembering the victims and survivors one year after the Arizona congresswoman was wounded in a shooting that killed six in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords announced, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she will resign from Congress this week. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)

FILE - This Jan. 8, 2012 file photo shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords waving at the start of a memorial vigil remembering the victims and survivors one year after the Arizona congresswoman was wounded in a shooting that killed six in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords announced, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she will resign from Congress this week. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)

This video image provided by the Office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, walking. Giffords announced Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2012, file photo Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, left, accompanied by her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, reacts after leading the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of a memorial vigil remembering the victims and survivors one year after the Arizona congresswoman was wounded in a shooting that killed six othersin Tucson, Ariz. Giffords said Sunday Jan, 22, 2012, that she will resign from Congress this week. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

This video image provided by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords announcing her plans to resign, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)

(AP) ? The race to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords begins in earnest Monday as the Arizona congresswoman's planned resignation sets up a free-for-all in a competitive district.

The three-term Democrat announced Sunday that she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering. She was grievously injured just over a year ago in an assassination attempt that shook the country.

Giffords could have stayed in office for another year even without seeking re-election, but her decision to resign scrambles the political landscape. Arizona must hold a special primary and general election to find someone to finish out her term, as well as hold the regular primary and general election later this year.

"I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice," she said on a video announcing her decision.

Interspersed with photos, the video showed a close-up of Giffords gazing directly at the camera and speaking in a voice that is both firm and halting.

"I have more work to do on my recovery," the congresswoman said at the end of the two-minute-long "A Message from Gabby," appearing to strain with all of her will to communicate. "I have more work to do on my recovery. So to do what's best for Arizona, I will step down this week."

Giffords was shot in the head in January 2011 as she was meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz. Six people died and Giffords and 12 others were injured. Her progress had seemed remarkable, to the point that she was able to walk into the House chamber last August to cast a vote.

The shooting prompted an agonizing national debate about super-charged rhetoric in political campaigns, although the suspect later turned out to be mentally ill.

With Giffords stepping down from her seat in southeast Arizona's 8th Congressional District, Gov. Jan Brewer will call a special primary election likely in April, followed by a general election in June. Before the cycle begins for the regular election, the district will be remapped and renumbered as the 2nd Congressional District.

The regular primary for the new district, which will cover most of the current district's territory, was scheduled for August.

The Republican governor acknowledged that the twin election cycles were going to create a mess, especially for potential candidates.

"I think that it's putting a lot of pressure on a lot of people awfully quick, given the fact that they're going to be filling that continuing seat that expires this year, and then we have elections coming (along) new congressional lines," Brewer said. "So there's going to be a lot of confusion in that congressional district."

Giffords would have been heavily favored to win re-election, since she gained immense public support as she recovered from the shooting. She was elected to her third term just two months before she was shot, winning by only about 1 percent over a tea party Republican.

A bevy of Republicans and Democrats have been mentioned as possible candidates for her seat, with several in the GOP already forming official exploratory committees. Republicans who have expressed interest include state Sen. Frank Antenori and sports broadcaster Dave Sitton, among others.

Democratic state lawmakers have been mentioned as possible candidates, as has the name of Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, although he has publically quashed such speculation.

"That's the great 'mentioner' out there, and there are going to be a lot of people mentioned," said Arizona Democratic Party chairman Andrei Cherny. "I think the best rule in situations like this is, 'The folks who are talking don't know, and the folks who know aren't talking.'"

Those who decide to throw their hat into the ring will face yet another quirk in the race: the deadline to turn in nominating signatures for the general election comes before the special general election.

"I'm sure both parties and candidates of all stripes will in the days to come be thinking wide and hard about this district, and I'm sure there's going to be a very vigorous contest," Arizona Democratic Party chairman Andrei Cherny said Sunday. "But today's about thinking about a member of Congress who's going to be irreplaceable no matter who wins that seat."

Late Sunday night, Giffords' office said she will complete the meet-and-greet political event in Tucson Monday that erupted in the shooting last year. Among those attending will be some of the wounded, those who helped them and those who subdued the gunman. She will also visit a family assistance center set up after she was shot, and event billed as her final act as a congresswoman in her district.

Giffords also planned to attend President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. And her political career may not be over, said a state Democratic party official who was among a group that met with her Sunday.

Jim Woodbrey, a senior vice chairman of the state party, said at the meeting, Giffords strongly implied she would run again for office someday. He said the decision to resign came after much thought.

"It was Gabby's individual decision, and she was not in any condition to make that decision five months ago," he said. "So I think waiting so that she could make an informed decision on her own was the right thing to do."

___

AP Special Correspondent David Espo contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-Giffords/id-dc967ea3ca8647cfa8f7dab0d1bd9928

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97% The Artist

All Critics (172) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (167) | Rotten (5)

'The Artist': Michel Hazanavicius's novelty film owes much to Jean Dujardin's irresistible smile

For a movie that is so much about technique, it's surprising how affecting the story is.

The Artist is the most surprising and delightful film of 2011.

A silent movie shot in sumptuous black-and-white, no less. A silent flick made with not a jot of distancing winking, but instead born of a heady affection for a bygone, very bygone, era of filmmaking.

It's a rocket to the moon fueled by unadulterated joy and pure imagination.

Strangely, wonderfully, The Artist feels as bold and innovative a moviegoing experience as James Cameron's bells-and-whistles Avatar did a couple of years ago.

'The Artist' offers a unique cinematic experience in an age when extremely loud sound effects attack our eardrums while watching so many current movies.

The Artist delights in an ingeniously straightforward way that exceeds many a modern, technologically advanced, effects-loaded, big-budget blockbuster.

A silent movie that speaks louder and with more power than a dozen films packed with pages and pages of dialogue. Definitely the year's best movie.

Imaginative, gorgeous, witty and even kind of sexy.

A gift that keeps on giving, The Artist is a film that demands your attention at every moment. All senses are glued to the screen and director Michel Hazanavicius delivers with drama, laughter, romance and stellar performances from his cast.

Has the allure of a freshness it may not entirely deserve, but one that makes it go down very smoothly.

Initially, the lack of spoken dialogue is discomfiting. Once you've adjusted to its storytelling conventions, though, you almost forget that this is a silent film.

I'm not sure Hazanavicius' love letter to the cinema is, in fact, the most outstanding movie of last year. But who would deny that it stands out from the motion-picture pack?

In a strange way, it's not unlike The Matrix -- only this time the red pill transports you into the futuristic world of sound, rather than a cynical world of two increasingly abysmal sequels.

Completely fun. Dujardin defies time periods. Bejo is all sparkly effervescence.

Was there ever a guy who could play an old school movie studio mogul like John Goodman? No.

A movie that is so old-fashioned from beginning to end that it's literally a breath of fresh air.

Visually stunning, imaginative, and cleverly scored and choreographed, The Artist is quite simply and quietly, the year's finest film.

Deeper than mere mimicry...

The Artist plays less like an original take on the early sound era than as fan fiction set in the world of Singin' in the Rain.

[C]ould have been all about the gimmick. Marvelously, it isn't. And yet its marvelousness is wrapped up in the gimmick... [A] sweet, deep passion for The Movies... throbs through The Artist and makes it sing.

A story that's so sweet and innocent, it's practically forgivable for being the awards bait it's being offered up as.

The Academy Awards are the biggest annual party that Hollywood throws for itself, and The Artist is a movie that worships Hollywood. Looks like a done deal.

See it, but remember: no talking.

A silent love song that anyone who adores film can nonetheless hear, loud and clear!

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_artist/

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Video: Ron Paul Gives Speech on Civil War in Front of Giant Confederate Flag (Little green footballs)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/189125998?client_source=feed&format=rss

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More than 1,600 deportation cases set to be closed (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration has recommended canceling deportation proceedings for more than 1,600 illegal immigrants in Denver and Baltimore not considered a national security or public threat, a DHS official said Thursday.

The recommendations come after a review of 11,682 pending cases involving illegal immigrants not jailed by federal authorities as part of an Obama administration pledge to focus deportation efforts on criminal illegal immigrants and those who pose a national security or public safety threat.

According to preliminary figures shared with The Associated Press, 7,923 cases were reviewed in Denver and officials recommended closing 1,301. In Baltimore, 366 of the 3,759 cases reviewed were recommended for closure.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the preliminary data has not been released publicly, said the recommendation to cancel the deportation case hinges on the immigrants being cleared by a final and extensive background check that will include the use of biometric data such as fingerprints.

"We wanted to triple check" everyone's background before halting a deportation case, the official said.

Starting in early December, the immigration court dockets in Denver and Baltimore were suspended while officials did a "deep dive" of the entire backlog of pending deportations. Meanwhile, cases in other jurisdictions were also reviewed, though data on those reviews has not been released.

The Obama administration announced in August that roughly 300,000 pending deportation cases would be reviewed and non-criminals and those illegal immigrants who don't pose a public safety or national security threat were likely to have their cases put on hold indefinitely. In June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton issued a memo outlining when authorities could use discretion in deciding which illegal immigrants to arrest and put into deportation proceedings.

Critics of the review and the discretion policy have said President Barack Obama is circumventing Congress to change immigration policies.

In a statement Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith again called the policies "backdoor amnesty."

"The results from the pilot programs show that President Obama's backdoor amnesty only works for illegal immigrants, not Americans," Smith said. "Nearly 2,000 illegal and criminal immigrants in Denver and Baltimore have been granted backdoor amnesty that allows them to remain in the U.S. and apply for work authorization. And this administration routinely grants work authorization to 90 percent of illegal immigrants when their cases have been administratively closed."

The DHS official said that only illegal immigrants who would have been eligible to apply for a work permit before their deportation case was suspended will now be eligible. The official did not say how many people may be eligible.

"If you can apply for a work permit under existing law, you can apply now," the official said, adding that closure of the deportation case will not automatically qualify someone for a work permit.

Immigrants whose cases are closed won't gain legal status and could once again face deportation if they commit a crime or become a security threat, the official said.

The nationwide review is expected to be completed by the end of the summer. The official said the number of cases recommended for closure is likely to vary by court jurisdiction.

___

Follow Alicia A. Caldwell at http://www.twitter.com/acaldwellap

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_immigration_review

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Should couples share passwords?

Live Poll

Should couples share passwords?

  • 173871

    ABSOLUTELY. Those that have nothing to hide, hide nothing.

    51%

  • 173872

    NO. We're still individuals entitled to privacy and we trust each other.

    49%

VoteTotal Votes: 907

By Athima Chansanchai

Just how much do you trust your spouse or partner? Enough to share passwords? For some, passwords are the final frontier of privacy not only in financial matters, but in social media and email correspondence. But for others, there are no secrets when you're in a relationship?? even risking the potential payback should a break-up sever the happy union.

The New York Times tells us about an "intimate custom" writer Matt Ritchel says is happening between teens in love: "sharing their passwords to email,?Facebook?and other accounts." The desire to be one even extends, the article claims, to couples creating identical passwords and letting each other read private emails and texts.?

For some, it takes a court order to share so much.

But for others, it's imperative to know each other's passwords as part of an open, healthy and fully functioning relationship. Sometimes this comes after a loss of trust, as when one partner has cheated on the other. On the Surviving Infidelity website, where more than 34,000 members have exchanged stories of betrayal and support one another in the forums, there is a saying that becomes a mantra for many of them: "Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing." To that end, nothing is private anymore in order to facilitate healing for the offended party.?

In this philosophy, those who have been unfaithful should share (or make open and available) not only passwords to their email accounts and Facebook, but also the contents of their text messages, phone logs, work and travel itineraries "without qualms."

Many in those forums mention how finding secret Facebook and email correspondences led to the big reveal of infidelity in their marriages and relationships, and we've seen surveys that attribute at least some fault in Facebook, though an informal poll we took at the end of year showed that nearly half of the 876 votes attributed the demise of their marriages with other factors. But 34 percent did blame Facebook.

Some of the teens in the New York Times article who opened themselves up were dealt a nasty lesson in human nature when their not-so-better halves decided to use the passwords in retaliation for perceived wrongs. The Times listed some examples:

The stories of fallout include a spurned boyfriend in junior high who tries to humiliate his ex-girlfriend by spreading her e-mail secrets; tensions between significant others over scouring each other?s private messages for clues of disloyalty or infidelity; or grabbing a cellphone from a former best friend, unlocking it with a password and sending threatening texts to someone else.

Take our poll and let us know if couples should share passwords.

More stories:

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

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199414-should-couples-share-passwords

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Winter storm dumps snow on Chicago, Milwaukee (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? A winter storm dumping snow across the Midwest on Friday forced the cancelation of more than 600 flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, while slick roads and poor visibility snarled traffic across the region.

The storm was expected to drop 1 to 8 inches of snow from the Dakotas to the lower Great Lakes, according to weather.com, with Chicago among the hardest hit among the big cities.

Up to 7 inches of snow was expected in Chicago, where Southwest Airlines also canceled all of its flights from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Midway Airport and delayed flights scheduled for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., according to the Chicago aviation department.

Milwaukee and Cleveland both were expected to be hit with up to 5 inches of snow. Several smaller school districts outside of Milwaukee have cancelled after-school programs.

The storm dropped about an inch of snow Friday morning in the Twin Cities area, where there were reports of hundreds of minor accidents on slick roads and long morning rush hour delays. Snow fall totals were heavier south of the Twin Cities.

Reports of 4 to 6 inches were common from far southern Minnesota, across northeast Iowa and southwest Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said.

The snow is expected to push into the northeast, with up to six inches of the white stuff expected from Pennsylvania through central Maine Saturday, and up to four inches in New York City, weather.com said.

In Washington state, which has seen unusually heavy snow Tuesday through Thursday, two climbers and two campers are missing in Mount Rainier National Park. Searches were suspended Friday afternoon because of the weather, which includes 40 mph winds, poor visibility, and thick fog.

The Puget Sound region continued to see scattered power outages Friday, affecting about 275,000 customers. Seattle is preparing for possible flooding, with crews clearing storm drains of snow and debris.

(Reporting by Laura Myers, Brendan O'Brien, Mary Wisniewski, Teresa Carson and David Bailey; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/us_nm/us_weather

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Friday, January 20, 2012

Video: Catching a comet death on camera

Friday, January 20, 2012

On July 6, 2011, a comet was caught doing something never seen before: die a scorching death as it flew too close to the sun. That the comet met its fate this way was no surprise ? but the chance to watch it first-hand amazed even the most seasoned comet watchers.

"Comets are usually too dim to be seen in the glare of the sun's light," says Dean Pesnell at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who is the project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO), which snapped images of the comet. "We've been telling people we'd never see one in SDO data."

But an ultra bright comet, from a group known as the Kreutz comets, overturned all preconceived notions. The comet can clearly be viewed moving in over the right side of the sun, disappearing 20 minutes later as it evaporates in the searing heat. The movie is more than just a novelty. As detailed in a paper in Science magazine appearing January 20, 2012, watching the comet's death provides a new way to estimate the comet's size and mass. The comet turns out to be somewhere between 150 to 300 feet long and have about as much mass as an aircraft carrier.

"Of course, it's doing something very different than what aircraft carriers do," says Karel Schrijver, a solar scientist at Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, Calif., who is the first author on the Science paper and is the principal investigator of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument on SDO, which recorded the movie. "It was moving along at almost 400 miles per second through the intense heat of the sun ? and was literally being evaporated away."

Typically, comet-watchers see the Kreutz-group comets only through images taken by coronagraphs, a specialized telescope that views the Sun's fainter out atmosphere, or corona, by blocking the direct blinding sunlight with a solid occulting disk. On average a new member of the Kreutz family is discovered every three days, with some of the larger members being observed for some 48 hours or more before disappearing behind the occulting disk, never to be seen again. Such "sun-grazer" comets obviously destruct when they get close to the sun, but the event had never been witnessed.

The journey to categorizing this comet began on July 6, 2011 after Schrijver spotted a bright comet in a coronagraph produced by the SOlar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). He looked for it in the SDO images and much to his surprise he found it. Soon a movie of the comet circulated to comet and solar scientists, eventually making a huge splash on the Internet as well.

Karl Battams, a scientist with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, who has extensively observed comets with SOHO and is also an author on the paper, was skeptical when he first received the movie. "But as soon as I watched it, there was zero doubt," he says. "I am so used to seeing comets simply disappearing in the SOHO images. It was breathtaking to see one truly evaporating in the corona like that."


SDO's AIA instrument captured the first ever video of a comet passing directly in front of the sun in the early morning of July 6, 2011. The comet comes in from the right and is very faint. Credit: NASA/SDO

After the excitement, the scientists got down to work. Humans have been watching and recording comets for thousands of years, but finding their dimensions has typically required a direct visit from a probe flying nearby. This movie offered the first chance to measure such things from afar. The very fact that the comet evaporated in a certain amount of time over a certain amount of space means one can work backward to determine how big it must have been before hitting the sun's atmosphere.

The Science paper describes the comet and its last moments as follows: It was traveling some 400 miles per second and made it to within 62,000 miles of the sun's surface before evaporating. Before its final death throes, in the last 20 minutes of its existence when it was visible to SDO, the comet was some 100 million pounds, had broken up into a dozen or so large chunks with sizes between 30 to 150 feet, embedded in a "coma" -- that is the fuzzy cloud surrounding the comet -- of approximately 800 miles across, and followed by a glowing tail of about 10,000 miles in length.

It is actually the coma and tail of the comet being seen in the video, not the comet's core. And close examination shows that the light in the tail pulses, getting dimmer and brighter over time. The team speculates that the pulsing variations are caused by successive breakups of each of the individual chunks that made up the comet material as it fell apart in the Sun's intense heat.

"I think this is one of the most interesting things we can see here," says Lockheed's Schrijver. "The comet's tail gets brighter by as much as four times every minute or two. The comet seems first to put a lot of material into that tail, then less, and then the pattern repeats." Figuring out the exact details of why this happens is but one of the mysteries remaining about this comet movie. High on the list is to answer the not-so-simple question of why we can see the comet at all. Certainly, there are a few basic characteristics of this situation that help. For one, this comet was big enough to survive long enough to be seen, and its orbit took it right across the face of the Sun. It was also, says Battams, probably one of the top 15 brightest comets seen by SOHO, which has observed over 2,100 sun-grazing comets to date. The SDO cameras, in of themselves, also contributed a great deal: despite being far away and relatively small compared to the sun, the comet showed up clearly on SDO's high definition imager. This imager, called the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) takes a picture every 12 seconds so the movement of the comet across the face of the sun could be continuously watched. Most other similar instruments capture images every few minutes, which makes it hard to track the movement of an object that's only visible for 20 minutes.

But ultimately, the fact that one can see this comet against the background of the sun means there is some physical process not yet understood. "Normally," says Goddard's Pesnell, "a comet passing in front of the sun absorbs the light from the sun. We would have expected a black spot against the sun, not a bright one. And there's not enough stuff in the corona to make it glow, the way a meteor does when it goes into Earth's atmosphere. So one of the really big questions is why do we see it at all?"

Figuring out this question should offer information not only about material in the comet, but also about the sun's atmosphere ? and so this opens up the door to a new niche of study. Assuming, of course, that one can spot some more comets. So far SDO has only seen the one passing in front of the sun, though SDO did spot Comet Lovejoy traveling through the corona, as it went behind the sun and reappeared.

Stay tuned, as new sun-grazing comets appear every few days . . .

###

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.

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

This press release has been viewed 38 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116903/Video__Catching_a_comet_death_on_camera

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EBay reports higher 4Q earnings, revenue (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? EBay reported on Wednesday that net income grew sharply higher in the fourth quarter, helped by a gain from the sale of its remaining investment in Skype. Its results beat Wall Street's expectations, aided by strong holiday sales at its namesake website and growth at PayPal, its online payments business.

The company said it earned $1.98 billion, or $1.51 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up from $559 million, or 42 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding special items, eBay Inc. says it earned 60 cents per share in the latest quarter, above the 57 cents that analysts were expecting.

Revenue grew 35 percent to $3.38 billion from $2.5 billion.

On average, analysts polled by FactSet expected revenue of $3.32 billion.

The e-commerce and online payments company said its PayPal business continued to grow, ending the quarter with more than 106 million active accounts. That's up 13 percent from a year earlier. Revenue jumped 28 percent to $1.24 billion and the business processed $33.4 billion worth of payments during the quarter. That's up 24 percent from a year earlier.

As more people used their smartphones and tablets to buy things online, payments made through mobile devices accounted for $4 billion of the total payments processed through PayPal ? a more than fivefold increase from the prior year.

EBay has been working on expanding PayPal's reach beyond the Web. In addition to mobile payments, the company is testing a service that will let people use their PayPal accounts to shop in brick-and-mortar stores.

The company's marketplaces business, which includes eBay.com and other e-commerce sites and businesses, saw its revenue grow 16 percent to $1.77 billion.

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay is forecasting adjusted earnings of 50 cents to 51 cents per share in the first quarter. That's below Wall Street's expectations of 54 cents.

The company's stock climbed 24 cents to $30.58 in after-hours trading after closing down 19 cents at $30.34.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_hi_te/us_earns_ebay

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Cell 'battery' found to play central role in neurodegenerative disease

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A devastating neurodegenerative disease that first appears in toddlers just as they are beginning to walk has been traced to defects in mitochondria, the 'batteries' or energy-producing power plants of cells.

This finding by researchers at Queen Mary, University of London and Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro - at McGill University, is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

The disorder, Autosomal Recessive Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS), primarily affects the cerebellum, a center for movement coordination in the brain. It was first identified in the late 1970s in a large group of patients from Quebec in Canada.

ARSACS strikes at an early age. Symptoms, which worsen over time, include poor motor coordination, spastic stiffness, distal muscle wasting, uncoordinated eye movements and slurred speech. Most patients with the disease are wheelchair-bound by their early 40s and have a reduced life expectancy. ARSACS is not unique to French-Canada as scientists have now found over 100 separate mutations in people worldwide including, including patients in the UK.

The research significantly increases understanding of the disease and reveals an important common link with other neurodegenerative diseases, providing renewed hope and potential new therapeutic strategies for those affected around the world.

"This finding is the most important discovery about ARSACS since the identification of the mutated gene because it gives an indication of the underlying cellular mechanism of the disease," says Dr Paul Chapple, cell biologist at Queen Mary. He adds: "This work is an essential first step towards developing therapeutic strategies for ARSACS".

In 2000, scientists identified the gene associated with the disease, which produces a massive 4,579 amino acid protein called sacsin, but until now the role of the sacsin protein has been unknown.

The multi-institutional collaborative research led jointly by Dr Paul Chapple at Queen Mary and Dr Bernard Brais and Dr Peter McPherson in Montreal indicates that that the sacsin protein has a mitochondrial function, and that mutations causing the this ataxia are linked to a dysfunction of mitochondria in neurons.

By studying neurons in culture as well as in knockout mice (which do not produce sacsin), the team found that loss of the sacsin protein results in abnormally shaped and poorly functioning mitochondria. In cells mitochondria are constantly fusing together and dividing, with loss of sacsin causing this network to become more interconnected. This disruption led to defective changes in and eventual death of the neurons. In the knockout mice, these disruptions led to neuron death specifically in the cerebellum, suggesting that this is the basis for the neurodegenerative impairments suffered by ARSACS patients.

"Mitochondrial dysfunction has also been identified in major neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson, Alzheimer, and Huntington diseases," says Dr McPherson. "This common link means that research being done on a large-scale on these other diseases may prove critically informative to rarer neurological diseases such as ARSACS, and the inverse may be true, our findings may be fundamental to the study and treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases."

Dr Chapple adds: "These links between ARSACS and more common neurodegenerations underline the value of studying rare diseases".

###

Queen Mary, University of London: http://www.qmul.ac.uk

Thanks to Queen Mary, University of London for this article.

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

This press release has been viewed 69 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116750/Cell__battery__found_to_play_central_role_in_neurodegenerative_disease

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Filly Havre de Grace wins Horse of the Year (AP)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? Filly Havre de Grace defeated the boys again, winning Horse of the Year at the Eclipse Awards on Monday night and becoming the third consecutive female to receive the honor in a year that lacked a superstar in thoroughbred racing.

Havre de Grace joins Zenyatta in 2010 and Rachel Alexandra in 2009 ? two horses that captured the general public's interest and imagination ? as one of six females to earn the sport's top award. She received 166 first-place votes and 1,897 total points in balloting by members of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

"It's some kind of thrill to win this award that I only dreamed of maybe 10, 15 years ago," owner Rick Porter said.

"She's the most deserving horse. She had the most memorable campaign and accounted for the most excitement at the top level of the sport throughout the year."

Acclamation finished second with 26 first-place votes and 552 points. Cape Blanco was third with nine first-place votes and 325 points. Game On Dude wasn't among the three finalists, but earned 10 first-place votes.

Havre de Grace was also honored with the older female trophy. She is trained by Larry Jones and ridden by Ramon Dominguez, who earned jockey of the year. She's in training at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas in preparation for a 4-year-old campaign this year.

"She's a racing star and racing needs stars," Jones said, crediting Porter for keeping her on the track and out of the more lucrative breeding shed. "Having insurance on this horse is going to cost him as much as she'll probably win."

Havre de Grace won the Woodward against male horses last year, then challenged them again and finished fourth in the BC Classic.

"It didn't go our way, but we never looked back and said it was a mistake," Jones said.

Earlier last year, she won the Apple Blossom Handicap and the Beldame, two of her three Grade 1 stakes wins.

"She did everything Larry and I asked of her and then some," Porter said, accepting her first trophy of the night. "She's an owner's dream come true. She's made racing for me and many others so thrilling. She is the best."

Kentucky Derby champion Animal Kingdom earned 3-year-old male honors at the awards honoring the top horses and humans of the year in racing.

Bill Mott won trainer honors, capping a year in which he swept the top two races at the Breeders' Cup.

Mott earned his third career Eclipse over fellow Hall of Famer Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher, who led the nation's trainers in purse earnings with $16.8 million.

Mott saddled Royal Delta to victory in the BC Ladies' Classic in November and the next day his Drosselmeyer pulled an upset in the BC Classic. Last year, the East Coast-based Mott won 15 graded stakes races, including six in November. Mott had purse earnings of more than $10.5 million.

"The competition was pretty deep and this is a real honor," Mott said in thanking his assistant trainers, his horses and his family.

Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Hansen won the trophy for 2-year-old male at the 41st annual awards honoring the top horses and humans of 2011.

Hansen beat out Union Rags, winner of the Saratoga Special and Champagne and runner-up in the Juvenile.

Ken and Sarah Ramsey were chosen owner of the year. Their horses earned more than $4.8 million, fourth-best in the nation.

Adena Springs Farms, based in Kentucky and Canada and run by Frank Stronach, was chosen breeder of the year for the fourth time.

Ireland-bred Cape Blanco earned male turf honors. He flew to the U.S. and won the Man o' War, Arlington Million and Turf Classic Invitational for trainer Aidan O'Brien. France-bred Stacelita took the female turf award.

In the sprinting categories, Amazombie won male honors and Musical Romance took the female trophy. Amazombie, who was never worse than third in nine starts last year, capped 2011 with a win in the BC Sprint. Musical Romance won the BC Filly & Mare Sprint.

California-based Acclamation received older male honors, winning five of his seven starts last year, including the Pacific Classic.

"Wow, after only 55 years in the business, I think that's pretty great," co-owner Bud Johnston said.

My Miss Aurelia, who won all four of her races, including the BC Juvenile Fillies, received 2-year-old filly honors. She is co-owned by Stonestreet Stables, the racing operation of Jess Jackson, who named the filly before he died of cancer last year.

Black Jack Blues of Ireland was chosen top steeplechase horse.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_sp_ot/rac_eclipse_awards

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Inside the Obama fund-raising machine: leadership circles (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and its key supporters are looking to grow on a national scale a fundraising effort targeting rich individual donors that was successful in its Democratic stronghold of Chicago, according to sources familiar with the program.

Eager to widen its donor base, the Obama campaign is using its team of top fundraisers and donors to distribute marketing materials to thousands of potential top-dollar donors across the nation. Those who donate $5,000 -- the maximum legal contribution to a Presidential candidate in the 2012 cycle -- will gain a stream of perks large and small, sources said.

The benefits could include free entry to campaign fundraisers featuring the President, access to strategy sessions at headquarters, and pizza parties at the homes of supporters to watch upcoming voting contests to pick the Republican candidate challenging Obama for the White House in 2012.

The campaign hopes to draw thousands to this category of donor, which so far includes roughly 80 people in Chicago, the Democratic bastion where Obama has supporters with deep pockets.

Members of the pilot group, called the "Chicago Leadership Circle," paid $5,000 either in a lump sum or over five months to get "unparalleled networking opportunities" to meet with campaign officials and key political operatives coming to Chicago for events and strategy meetings, according to sources and the program's marketing materials.

Some of the campaign's regional fundraising efforts could incorporate parts of the plan, according to a person involved with the concept, but each of the regional efforts are free to take pieces of this program or abstain.

The idea addresses concerns in the Obama campaign that well-off and passionate supporters who had already contributed the maximum $5,000 could not attend more fundraising events where supporters donate to hear or briefly meet with the President.

"The model of political fundraising for party and candidate is a little flawed," said a key supporter for the campaign and a Chicago Leadership Circle member. "The notion is to get people to max out ... and get people with shared values engaged in the campaign with multiple points of involvement."

"We've gotten calls from multiple jurisdictions" such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Dallas, Texas, "and sent sample literature to other places," the CLC member added.

A spokesman for the Obama campaign declined to comment on the expansion of the fund-raising efforts.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and its Democratic allies announced on January 12 that they raised more than $68 million in the last three months of 2011, eclipsing his Republican rivals in the White House race.

Obama's Campaign Manager Jim Messina, a former White House aide, described that quarterly fund-raising effort as "pretty good."

One of the challenges for the Obama campaign and its Democratic allies, who have brought in more than $200 million in 2011, is to rally the support of disillusioned donors from 2008 who have yet to open their wallets to Obama.

The Obama team is shooting to top the roughly $750 million it raised when he was elected president in 2008.

The closest rival in fund-raising on the campaign's heals is Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, whose campaign said on Wednesday it had raised $24 million in the fourth quarter.

(Editing By Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/pl_nm/us_hold_usa_campaign_fundraising

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Mobile Technology Is Transforming The Health Industry, But To What Extent?

iphone_healthTechnology is in the process of bringing change to every piece of the health industry -- wellness, fitness, healthcare, medicine -- you name it. And as it always seems with introduction of new technologies, it's awe-inspiring how quickly they can transform entire industries yet, at the same time, make us realize just how far we have to go (or how far behind we really are). The health industry has been touched (and defined) by cutting-edge technology for years, yet its relics, legacy infrastructure, paper-pushing, and archaic procedures are as obvious today as ever before.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8L7paGhUR5E/

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Study: Coffee Could Prevent Endometrial Cancer - Health News ...

POSTED: 12:25 pm EST January 16, 2012
UPDATED: 12:37 pm EST January 16, 2012

A recent study says that coffee may play a role in preventing endometrial cancer.According to the American Cancer Society, endometrial cancer is the most common cancer of the reproductive system in women, and thousands are diagnosed with the disease each year.A study on endometrial cancer, posted in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, recently found that women who drank coffee were at less risk for the disease.Mercy Medical Center's Dr. Hyung Ryu said they don't know what's in coffee that guards against endometrial cancer, but doctors believe it may lower the amounts of insulin and estrogen in the body."Insulin is a factor in promoting cancer risk. The theory is that coffee improves the body's ability to process insulin, and so there's less insulin in the body," Ryu said. "If you have too much estrogen, that causes a buildup of the lining of the uterus, and that's one of the big risk factors for developing endometrial cancer."Other risk factors for endometrial cancer include obesity, never having been pregnant and a family history of endometrial or colon cancer.But Mercy Medical Center dietitian Kelly O'Connor said if you're thinking of drinking more coffee to combat it, remember that too much caffeine can be harmful, so drink it in moderation."We really probably wouldn't tell people who don't drink coffee to start drinking four cups a day, and because the study really didn't show actual cause and effect, we probably would just say stick to two cups a day," O'Connor clarified.Researchers also included tea in their study, but tea did not show any protection against endometrial cancer.

? 2012 by WBALTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Contact Us

Source: http://www.wbaltv.com/health/30223555/detail.html

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Monday, January 16, 2012

Tanker carrying fuel arrives at iced-in AK town (AP)

NOME, Alaska ? Crews are laying the "icework" for the final leg of a Russian tanker's mission to deliver fuel to the Alaskan town of Nome, building a path over a half-mile of Bering Sea ice to lay a hose for the fuel transfer.

The tanker Renda was moored off Nome's harbor after a Coast Guard icebreaker cleared a path for it through hundreds of miles of ice.

Jason Evans, board chairman of the Sitnasuak Native Corp., said the bulk of the mission's biggest challenges were behind the crew, but a lot of work remained.

"In theory, it was possible and in reality, it now is done," Evans said of the journey.

The tanker stopped slightly less than a half-mile from the harbor Saturday night, and ice disturbed by its journey had to freeze again so workers could create some sort of roadway to lay a hose that will transfer 1.3 million gallons of fuel from the tanker to the harbor.

On Sunday, workers spent the morning walking around the vessel and checking the ice to make sure it was safe to lay the hose, which will take about four hours, Evans said.

The Coast Guard said that once there's a suitable path for the hose, its segments will have to be bolted together and inspected.

State officials said the transfer must start during daylight, but can continue in darkness. It could be finished within 36 hours if everything goes smoothly, but it could take as long as five days.

A storm prevented Nome's 3,500 residents from getting a fuel delivery by barge in November. Without the tanker delivery, supplies of diesel fuel, gasoline and home heating fuel were expected to run out in March and April, well before a barge delivery again in late May or June.

The especially harsh winter has left snow piled up 10 feet or higher against the wood-sided buildings in Nome, a former gold rush town that is the final stop on the Iditarod dog sled race. On Sunday, everything was covered in a layer of wind-blown snow and vehicles looked frozen in place, as though they haven't been moved in weeks.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who flew to Nome on Sunday, said the town's ordeal had captured the world's attention as it displayed a reality of Alaska life.

"This is real. This is what we deal with," the senator said, while making an appeal for more resource to be placed in the Arctic.

The tanker began its journey from Russia in mid-December, picking up diesel fuel in South Korea before heading to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where it took on unleaded gasoline. It arrived late last week off Nome, more than 500 miles from Anchorage on Alaska's west coast.

In total, the tanker traveled an estimated 5,000 miles, said Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of District Seventeen with the Coast Guard.

Despite the complicated logistics of delivering fuel by sea in winter, Sitnasuak opted for the extra delivery after determining that it would be much less costly and more practical than flying fuel to Nome.

Mark Smith, CEO of Vitus Marine LLC, the fuel supplier that arranged to have the Russian tanker and its crew deliver the fuel, described the challenges as substantial, partly because winter has been especially harsh in the region this year. He said that moving the tanker even with the help of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy through more than 300 miles of pack-ice was a "very profound obstacle."

"It seems that every day brought a new crisis," he said.

Opinion appeared to be divided in Nome, where some welcomed the arrival of the tanker and others thought it was a manufactured and unnecessary crisis.

Cari Miller was among the residents unconvinced a real crisis was at hand. The 43-year-old mother, who has lived in Nome for eight years, said she believed that another fuel provider in town had plenty of fuel for the community.

"We do not have a fuel crisis," she said. "It wasn't necessary."

Kwan Yi, 40, a maintenance worker at the Polaris Bar in Nome, faulted Sitnasuak for not arranging for barge delivery earlier last fall, but said he believed the town was in need of fuel. He said he was pleased the fuel tanker had arrived after struggling with frozen pipes and gas leaks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_re_us/us_nome_iced_in

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Merkel: Europe faces 'long road' to win back trust

German chancellor Angela Merkel, speaks at a press conference in Kiel, northern Germany, Saturday Jan. 14, 2012 after a meeting with Christian Democratic (CDU) party leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Standard & Poor's downgrades of nine eurozone countries underline the fact that Europe has a "long road" in front of it to win back investors' confidence. Merkel pushed Saturday for European countries to implement "as soon as possible" a planned pact to strengthen budget discipline and said eurozone countries also must move quickly to implement their permanent rescue fund - the so-called European Stability Mechanism. (AP Photo/dapd: Philipp Guelland)

German chancellor Angela Merkel, speaks at a press conference in Kiel, northern Germany, Saturday Jan. 14, 2012 after a meeting with Christian Democratic (CDU) party leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Standard & Poor's downgrades of nine eurozone countries underline the fact that Europe has a "long road" in front of it to win back investors' confidence. Merkel pushed Saturday for European countries to implement "as soon as possible" a planned pact to strengthen budget discipline and said eurozone countries also must move quickly to implement their permanent rescue fund - the so-called European Stability Mechanism. (AP Photo/dapd: Philipp Guelland)

German chancellor Angela Merkel, speaks at a press conference in Kiel, northern Germany, Saturday Jan. 14, 2012 after a meeting with Christian Democratic (CDU) party leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Standard & Poor's downgrades of nine eurozone countries underline the fact that Europe has a "long road" in front of it to win back investors' confidence. Merkel pushed Saturday for European countries to implement "as soon as possible" a planned pact to strengthen budget discipline and said eurozone countries also must move quickly to implement their permanent rescue fund - the so-called European Stability Mechanism. (AP Photo/dapd: Philipp Guelland)

German chancellor Angela Merkel, attends a press conference in Kiel, northern Germany, Saturday Jan. 14, 2012 after a meeting with Christian Democratic (CDU) party leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Standard & Poor's downgrades of nine eurozone countries underline the fact that Europe has a "long road" in front of it to win back investors' confidence. Merkel pushed Saturday for European countries to implement "as soon as possible" a planned pact to strengthen budget discipline and said eurozone countries also must move quickly to implement their permanent rescue fund - the so-called European Stability Mechanism. (AP Photo/dapd: Philipp Guelland)

(AP) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Standard and Poor's downgrades of nine countries underline the fact that the eurozone faces a "long road" to win back investors' confidence, pushing Saturday for it to move quickly on a new budget discipline pact and a permanent rescue fund.

Germany kept its AAA rating but S&P stripped France, with which it has co-piloted the eurozone rescue drive, of its top-notch rating ? fueling concerns that that in turn could complicate Europe's efforts to keep its weaker economies afloat.

Merkel said that she had "taken note" of the decision by S&P, which she stressed repeatedly is only one of three major rating agencies.

"The decision confirms my conviction that we in Europe still have a long road ahead of us before the confidence of investors is restored," she said at a televised news conference in the north German city of Kiel, where her conservative party's leadership was meeting.

"But I think it can be seen that we have set off with determination along this road (to) a stable currency, solid finances and sustainable growth," she added.

Merkel stressed the importance of a new treaty enshrining tougher fiscal rules, for which Germany has pushed hard.

Most European Union leaders agreed in early December to draw up the pact, and Merkel has said the pact could be signed as early as the end of this month, and at the beginning of March at the latest.

"We are now called upon ... to implement quickly the fiscal pact and implement it decisively ? without trying to water it down everywhere," Merkel said.

The chancellor sought to allay concerns that the downgrade of France, the 17-nation eurozone's No. 2 economy after Germany, would complicate the work of the bloc's temporary rescue fund, the euro440 billion ($560 billion) European Financial Stability Facility.

However, she did underline the urgency of putting its permanent successor, the European Stability Mechanism, in place quickly. European leaders already have decided to get it up up and running in July, a year ahead of the original schedule; Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that they would consider speeding up payments into the ESM.

The downgrades "won't torpedo the work of the EFSF now ? I see no need to change anything about the EFSF now," she said. "I am firmly convinced that the EFSF can fulfill the needs it still has to fulfill in the coming months with the existing methods."

She added that "we will work to implement as quickly as possible the ESM ? that is also important for investors' confidence."

The ESM will be able to lend euro500 billion. In contrast to the EFSF, it will have paid-in capital from euro countries, similar to a bank, which makes it less vulnerable to downgrades of its contributing states..

Merkel said Europe needs the new fund, "which is underlaid by capital and will be independent from such (ratings) evaluations."

As for the current temporary fund, she suggested that its top rating isn't so important ? "from the beginning, I wasn't of the opinion that the EFSF absolutely has to be triple-A."

"Of course it isn't easier to borrow money on the capital market if you have a somewhat worse rating, but as the French finance minister said yesterday, AA+ really isn't a bad rating," Merkel added.

She said she didn't expect Friday's S&P decision to lead to "Germany having to do more in comparison with others."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-14-EU-Germany-Financial-Crisis/id-19e5915f76c3473680639b3ed4d598f3

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