Tuesday, January 31, 2012

All My Children actor Nick Santino has died after committing suicide on Wednesday

The soap star reportedly phoned an ex-girlfriend in the early hours of the morning, before police officers discovered his body later in the day. Santino’s death came just hours after he was forced to put his beloved pet dog down on Tuesday – the day of the star’s 47th birthday. The Gossip Girl actor was [...]

Source: http://www.celebritymound.com/all-my-children-actor-nick-santino-has-died-after-committing-suicide-on-wednesday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=all-my-children-actor-nick-santino-has-died-after-committing-suicide-on-wednesday

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Man kidnapped in Nigeria says he wasn't tortured (AP)

BOWDON, Ga. ? The Georgia man who is now home safe after being kidnapped in Nigeria says he was on his way to a clinic in the African country when two men ambushed his car.

Greg Ock tells The Associated Press his car was idling in traffic in a remote town when the two men came out of nowhere. One gunned down his security guard and another forced him into a waiting vehicle that sped him away.

Ock was held in captivity for seven days before he was released Friday. He returned to Georgia on Sunday.

He said he was working as a contractor maintaining gas turbines and other equipment.

Ock says he was never tortured, but he was roughed up after trying to escape.

Ock, who is 50, said he didn't know if his company paid the $330,000 his captors demanded for his safe return.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_us/us_nigerian_kidnapping

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Fresh clashes near Syrian capital kill 9

AAA??Jan. 29, 2012?6:03 AM ET
Fresh clashes near Syrian capital kill 9
ZEINA KARAMZEINA KARAM, Associated Press?THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES?

This citizen journalism image provide by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria and released early Friday Jan. 27, 2012, purports to show a Syrian man, right, mourning over the dead body of his son, who was shot by the Syrian forces, in Idlib province, Syria, on Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. A "terrifying massacre" in the restive Syrian city of Homs has killed more than 30 people, including small children, in a barrage of mortar fire and attacks by armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, activists said Friday. (AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO

This citizen journalism image provide by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria and released early Friday Jan. 27, 2012, purports to show a Syrian man, right, mourning over the dead body of his son, who was shot by the Syrian forces, in Idlib province, Syria, on Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. A "terrifying massacre" in the restive Syrian city of Homs has killed more than 30 people, including small children, in a barrage of mortar fire and attacks by armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, activists said Friday. (AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO

This citizen journalism image provided by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria and released on Friday Jan. 27, 2012, purports to show the bodies of five Syrian children wrapped in plastic bags, with signs in Arabic identifying them by name. Activists say the children were killed in a shelling attack by Syrian forces, in the Karm el-Zaytoun neighborhood of Homs, Syria, on Thursday Jan. 26, 2012 A "terrifying massacre" in the restive Syrian city of Homs has killed more than 30 people, including small children, in a barrage of mortar fire and attacks by armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, activists said Friday. (AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO EDITORIAL USE ONLY

An anti-Syrian regime protester, gestures during a demonstration against Syrian President Bashar Assad, at Khalidya area in Homs province, central Syria, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus on Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors stand guard on a rooftop to secure an anti-Syrian regime protest in the Deir Baghlaba area in Homs province, central Syria, on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad barraged residential buildings with mortars and machine-gun fire, killing at least 30 people, including a family of women and children during a day of sectarian killings and kidnappings in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, activists said Friday. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors secure a street near an anti-Syrian regime protest in the Deir Baghlaba area of Homs province, central Syria, on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad barraged residential buildings with mortars and machine-gun fire, killing at least 30 people, including a family of women and children during a day of sectarian killings and kidnappings in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, activists said Friday. (AP Photo)

(AP) ? Fresh clashes erupted Sunday between the Syrian military and groups of army defectors in suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus, killing at least nine people, activists and state media said.

Government forces dispatched more tanks and armored vehicles to reinforce troops in the restive area early Sunday, a day after it witnessed some of the most intense fighting yet so close to the capital as President Bashar Assad's regime tries to uproot protesters and dissident soldiers who have joined the opposition.

The ten-month uprising against Assad has become increasingly militarized recently as more frustrated protesters and army defectors arm themselves against the regime. A spike in violence since Thursday has killed nearly 100 people.

On Sunday, activists said three people including a 16-year-old died in fierce fighting in the suburb of Kfar Batna. There was heavy shelling there and in the nearby suburbs of Saqba and Arbeen, they said.

Syria's state-run news agency, meanwhile, said "terrorists" detonated a roadside bomb by remote control near a bus carrying soldiers in the Damascus suburb of Sahnaya, killing six soldiers and wounding six others.

Among those killed in the attack some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the capital were two first lieutenants, SANA said.

The rising bloodshed has added urgency to new attempts by Arab and Western countries to find a resolution to the 10 months of violence, which according to the United Nations has killed at least 5,400 people as Assad seeks to crush persistent protests demanding an end to his rule.

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

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told reporters in Egypt on Sunday that contacts were under way with China and Russia. "I hope that their stand will be adjusted in line with the final drafting of the draft resolution," he said.

Elaraby spoke to reporters at Cairo airport before leaving for New York with Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim. The two will seek U.N. support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis. The plans calls for a two-month transition to a unity government, with Assad giving his vice president full powers to work with the proposed government.

The Arab League announced Saturday it was halting the observers' work in Syria immediately because of the increasing violence, until the League's council can meet to decide the mission's fate.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-29-ML-Syria/id-24521c83296b459899a05beadc6ead35

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Pardoned by Haley Barbour, a 'free man' is on the run

Convicted for killing a convenience store clerk in 1994, Joseph Ozment walked out of the Governor's Mansion after being pardoned by Gov. Haley Barbour on Jan. 8 and hasn't been seen since.

Declaring Joseph Ozment ?rehabilitated,? Gov. Haley Barbour included the convicted killer among over 200 pardons he issued in his last days as governor of Mississippi.

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Mr. Ozment was last seen leaving the Governor's Mansion, where he was a convict ?trusty,? on Jan. 8 when he got into a car driven by his grandmother.

Ozment, whom Barbour described Friday as a ?free man,? is now being sought by Mississippi authorities investigating the constitutionality of Barbour's mass pardons, which shocked many Mississippians, including victims and law enforcement. The list included over 40 murderers, rapists and others convicted of violent crimes.

OPINION:?Congress must allow ex-prisoners to vote

The unusual manhunt is the latest twist in a peculiar tale of Southern patriarchy and redemption that has dogged Mr. Barbour since he left office earlier this month. The governor has defended his actions, saying the state pardon board had already freed most of the people, and that the clemency was mainly designed to give worthy ex-convicts the right to vote and hunt.

But national scrutiny has revealed that those pardoned were both disproportionately white and many had access to powerful interests in the state. In the aftermath, the state ended its mansion ?trusty? program, a judge is deciding the constitutionality of the majority, and the legislature is weighing several bills to curtail the pardon process.

At the same time, the pardons also touched on deeper issues around the nature of redemption and mercy for a country that has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.

?While his timing and transparency are in question, he has at least reopened a needed national discussion on how justice must be tempered by mercy,? wrote the Monitor's editorial board last week.

But in Mississippi, that debate has taken backseat to concerns about Ozment's whereabouts. While four other former mansion ?trusties? that were released have checked back in with the judge, and vowed to maintain daily contact, Ozment has disappeared.

Attorney General Jim Hood, who called Barbour's mass pardons ?a slap to the face? of victims and the judicial system, said Ozment was last seen in northwest Mississippi, from where he hails.

A CNN crew trying to track him down also traveled to Memphis, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., where Ozment has family, but have so far come up short. On Jan. 17, the network carried an interview with Anthony McCray, one of the five former mansion ?trusties? pardoned by Barbour. Mr. McCray called Ozment and the other trusties ?nice guys,? and suggested that ?God touched Haley Barbour's heart? as the reason why Barbour signed the pardons.

The search has raised unprecedented issues, including the extent to which the state can legally force Ozment, who's not wanted for any crime and now has a clean criminal record, to report to a judge.

The issue became only murkier on Friday when Attorney General Jim Hood hinted that there could be a financial reward for information on his whereabouts. Mr. Hood has said he may begin a criminal investigation if Ozment continues to refuse to surface.

The fact that Ozment hasn't abided by a judge's order to report for a hearing suggests to Hood that he may be a threat to public safety.

?He doesn't have a lot to lose if he thinks he's going back to prison for life," Hood said Friday. "That's what concerns me about the public safety."

OPINION:?Congress must allow ex-prisoners to vote

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Dfm7_jf_H-Y/Pardoned-by-Haley-Barbour-a-free-man-is-on-the-run

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Celebrity Quote Of The Week: Melissa McCarthy

This week’s Celebrity Quote of the Week goes to funny lady Melissa McCarthy. I can’t tell you how much I love this woman, she makes me laugh all.the.time. I mean really, who doesn’t love her? So what did the “Bridesmaids” star have to say this week that has everyone talking? On Tuesday, McCarthy received an Oscar nomination for her role as Megan in the hilarious comedy, “Bridesmaids”. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, what is wrong with you?? Heh heh. It’s out on DVD, you must buy it NOW. Err, okay, check it out on Netflix. You will not be disappointed. You will understand why McCarthy is so deserving of the Oscar nomination. She was totally snubbed at the Golden Globes, not receiving a nod for her hilarious efforts in the film, but co-star Kristen Wiig was nominated in the Best Actress in a Comedy category. Wiig was beat out by Michelle Williams in “My Week With Marilyn”. Anyhoo, McCarthy was a guest on Ellen DeGeneres’ birthday celebration show on Thursday (Jimmy Kimmel served as co-host), and recalled to Ellen and Jimmy about her experience while attending her very first Golden Globes. She certainly was starstruck by the whole [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/MrQBYQ-VeKc/

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

'Dabbling' in hard drugs in middle age linked to increased risk of death

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? Young adults often experiment with hard drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamines and opiates, and all but about 10 percent stop as they assume adult roles and responsibilities. Those still using hard drugs into their 50s are five times more likely to die earlier than those who do not, according to a new study by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers published online Jan. 27, 2012, in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.4 percent of Americans ages 50-59 and 7 percent of adults ages 35-49 reported use of a drug other than marijuana sometime in the past year. The study?s lead author, Stefan Kertesz, M.D., associate professor in the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine. and colleagues attempted to discover if lifelong hard-drug use shortens lifespan to better enable primary-care doctors to advise patients who use drugs recreationally.

?While government guidelines have not endorsed screening for drugs in primary care, many doctors are challenged when they discover patients continue to dabble with them,? Kertesz says. ?In primary-care practice, we often hear from stable patients who report using some cocaine, irregularly, perhaps on weekends. It?s an underappreciated but very common situation. The typical question physicians have to ask is ?If this patient doesn?t have addiction, what advice can I give other than noting that it?s unwise to break the law?? After all, we are supposed to be doctors, not law enforcement.?

Kertesz and a research team from other universities looked at data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study for their analysis. CARDIA, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, is a long-term research project involving more than 5,000 black and white men and women from Birmingham, Chicago, Minneapolis and Oakland, designed to examine the development and determinants of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Participants ages 18-30 were recruited and followed from 1985 to 2006.

The research team looked specifically at the reported use of ?hard drugs? by 4,301 of the CARDIA participants. They compared people who stopped drug use early to those who continued and calculated the likelihood of premature death among these groups.

?Fourteen percent of the people in the study reported recent hard-drug use at least once, and of these, half continued using well into middle age,? Kertesz says. ?But, most of the drug users in our study were not addicts. They were dabblers who used just a few days a month.?

Kertesz and his colleagues found that older hard-drug users were more likely to report being raised in economically challenged circumstances in a family that was unsupportive, abusive or neglectful. The team also found that those who were heavy drug users into young adulthood and continued at lower levels into middle age were roughly five times more likely to die than persons who didn?t use drugs.

?We can?t assume that drugs caused death, as in an overdose,? he says. ?Rather what we found is that middle-age adults who continue to dabble in hard drugs represent a group that is at risk of bad outcomes ? which could include death from trauma, heart disease or other causes that are not a direct result of their drug use ? at a higher rate than people who stopped using drugs.?

Kertesz added that the team?s findings are a reminder that people who continue to use drugs are potentially quite vulnerable. They often have grown up under economic and psychosocial stress from childhood onward. They continue to smoke and drink and they remain at elevated risk of premature death.

?Based on the data we hope to offer better advice to primary-care doctors struggling with the rising tide of drug-taking by adults who have not left behind many of the bad habits they learned in young adulthood,? he says.

Study co-authors include Yulia Khodneva, M.D., Monika Safford, M.D., and Joseph Schumacher, Ph.D., UAB Division of Preventive Medicine; Jalie Tucker, Ph.D., UAB School of Public Health; Joshua Richman, M.D., Ph.D., UAB Department of Surgery; Bobby Jones, Ph. D., Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University; and Mark J. Pletcher, M.D., departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alabama at Birmingham, via Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Stefan G. Kertesz, Yulia Khodneva, Joshua Richman, Jalie A. Tucker, Monika M. Safford, Bobby Jones, Joseph Schumacher, Mark J. Pletcher. Trajectories of Drug Use and Mortality Outcomes Among Adults Followed Over 18?Years. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s11606-011-1975-3

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/2012/01/120127174737.htm

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Connecticut killer sentenced to die for "unimaginable horror" (Reuters)

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) ? A judge ordered Joshua Komisarjevsky to be executed this summer for the 2007 murders of a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in Connecticut, saying on Friday that he committed a crime of "unimaginable horror."

Judge Jon Blue told Komisarjevsky, 31, that he alone was to blame for his new address on death row after the triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, and beating of husband and father Dr. William Petit Jr.

"This is a terrible sentence but one you have written for yourself," Blue told Komisarjevsky in New Haven Superior Court.

"Your crime was one of unimaginable horror and sadness," the judge said. "Your fate is now in the hands of others. May God have mercy on your soul."

He set an execution date of July 20 pending an appeal, which could drag out the matter for years.

Before the judge spoke, Komisarjevsky, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, denied he killed or raped anyone and blamed "the hurt I caused" on being a victim himself of sex abuse as a child, drug addiction, and his accomplice Steven Hayes, 48, already sentenced to death row.

Hawke-Petit was strangled and the girls died of smoke inhalation after the home was set afire. Hawke-Petit was raped and Michaela Petit was sexually assaulted.

Dr. Petit, who had been tied up and beaten unconscious, escaped as the home went up in flames.

"I did not rape, not that that excuses what I did do," Komisarjevsky told the judge in a monotone voice.

"I did not strangle Mrs. Petit. I did not pour the gas or light that fire. I did not want them to die. My personal feelings about their deaths are just that, personal. When will the killing end?"

He told the judge, "The clock is now ticking and I owe a debt I cannot repay."

The killer's portrayal of innocence was in stark contrast to the "evil" described by the sole survivor of the attack, Dr. Petit, who told the court how Komisarjevsky's actions had destroyed his family.

"July 23, 2007, was my own personal holocaust," Petit said. "Evil does live among us."

He said he missed his late night chats with his wife and their partnership raising their daughters, who he will never walk down the wedding aisle and who will never bear the grandchildren he would have loved to have known.

Outside the courthouse, Petit's father spoke of the slow emotional recovery of his son, who is now engaged to be married.

"He's starting to come back a little bit now to what he was. He never will come all the way back," William Petit Sr. told reporters after the sentencing.

"To know Bill, the brilliant young doctor that he was, the happy young man, the good father, brother, cousin, uncle, all of those things, and son, and then to see him after this is just heartbreaking."

Christopher Komisarjevsky, the killer's uncle, said outside court that he had "no doubt" his nephew committed the crimes he is sentenced to die for.

He likened the violence to "an earthquake where the Petit and the Hawke families are at the epicenter. At that center point of impact, the horror and sadness are beyond comprehension and beyond description."

A jury convicted Komisarjevsky last fall, then said he deserved the death penalty as his punishment.

Komisarjevsky targeted Hawke-Petit and her younger daughter at a grocery store and later went with Hayes to their home as the family slept, police said he confessed to investigators. He bashed Petit with a baseball bat, tied him up and ransacked the home.

The two men then tied the girls to their beds and concocted a plan to take Hawke-Petit to the bank to withdraw $15,000.

Despite his last-minute denial at the sentencing, Komisarjevsky admitted to investigators he molested Michaela while her mother was at the bank, according to police.

With the police circling the home, Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit and the two men doused the home with gasoline.

Police caught Komisarjevsky and Hayes as they tried to flee.

Komisarjevsky's sentencing brought to 11 the number of men on the Connecticut's death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Connecticut has executed only one person, in 2005, since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, the center said.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Barbara Goldberg and Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/us_nm/us_crime_homeinvasion

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Arms from Libya could reach Boko Haram, al Qaeda: U.N. (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) ? The Libyan civil war may have given militant groups in Africa's Sahel region like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches, according to a U.N. report released on Thursday.

The report on the impact of the Libyan civil war on countries of the Sahel region that straddle the Sahara - including Nigeria, Niger and Chad - also says some national authorities believe the Islamist sect Boko Haram has increasing links to al Qaeda's North African wing. Boko Haram killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 this year in Nigeria.

The U.N. Security Council met to discuss the report, which was prepared by a U.N. assessment team that met with officials from countries in the region. The discussion highlighted the deep divisions between Western powers and Russia over NATO's intervention in the North African oil-producing state.

"The governments of the countries visited indicated that, in spite of efforts to control their borders, large quantities of weapons and ammunition from Libyan stockpiles were smuggled into the Sahel region," the report said.

Such weapons include "rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns with anti-aircraft visors, automatic rifles, ammunition, grenades, explosives (Semtex), and light anti-aircraft artillery (light caliber bi-tubes) mounted on vehicles," it said.

More advanced weapons such as surface-to-air-missiles and man-portable air defense systems, known as MANPADS, also may have reached groups in the region, the report said.

U.N. special envoy to Libya Ian Martin, however, has told the Security Council that Libya's missing stocks of MANPADS have largely remained inside the country.

The report said some countries believe weapons have been smuggled into the Sahel by former fighters in Libya - Libyan army regulars and mercenaries who fought on behalf of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed by rebels.

Some of the countries told the assessment team that they had registered an increase in arms trade across West Africa.

"Some of the weapons may be hidden in the desert and could be sold to terrorist groups like al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram or other criminal organizations," the U.N. report said.

'UNCONTROLLED SPREAD OF WEAPONS'

Lynn Pascoe, U.N. under-secretary-general for political affairs, told the Security Council that the new Libyan government insists many of the problems related to weapons and the Sahel originated when Gaddafi was still in power.

"Some of the problems are directly related to the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya but the nation's interlocutors emphasize that most of the problems are long-standing ones," he said.

British, French and U.S. envoys echoed the Libyan view that the problems existed long before the civil war.

Russia, which has criticized the toppling of Gaddafi and accused NATO of using a U.N. mandate to protect civilians in Libya as a springboard for regime change, said the U.N. report highlighted problems unleashed by NATO's intervention in Libya.

Russian envoy Alexander Pankin said the U.N. report confirmed that the "real consequences of the Libyan crisis, the real scope of which is only beginning to come to light, are a serious threat to security and stability in the entire region."

He said Moscow was especially concerned about "the uncontrolled spread of weapons in Libya and beyond its border."

The U.N. report said Nigeria was not the only country worried about the activities of Boko Haram. It said the group also was in Niger, adding that some governments believed Boko Haram members from Nigeria and Chad had received training at al Qaeda training camps in Mali in 2011.

"Although Boko Haram has concentrated its terrorist acts inside Nigeria, seven of its members were arrested while transiting through the Niger to Mali," it said, adding that they possessed documents about explosives manufacturing, propaganda leaflets and contact details for known al Qaeda members.

Links between al Qaeda and Boko Haram have become "a growing source of concern for the countries of the region," it said.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_libya_un_arms

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Baltimore man tricked by FBI pleads guilty to trying to bomb recruiting site

Antonio Martinez, who attempted to detonate a car bomb at a Maryland recruiting station as an act of holy war against the United States, did not know the bomb was inert.

A Baltimore man entered a guilty plea on Thursday to attempting to use a car bomb to destroy a military recruiting office and kill the six service members in the building in an effort to wage Islamic holy war on US soil.

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Antonio Martinez agreed to drive an SUV laden with what he thought was an active bomb to the front entrance of a recruiting station in Catonsville, Md. on Dec. 8, 2010.

After parking the car bomb, Mr. Martinez traveled to a safe distance where he attempted to detonate the explosives.

What Martinez did not know was that his co-conspirators in the bombing were working undercover with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The bomb was inert and the triggering device was rigged to fail.

Law enforcement officials stress that they gave Martinez multiple opportunities to back out of the bombing plot, including a chance four days before the planned attack.

?I came to you about this, brother,? Martinez said to an undercover FBI agent posing as a militant Muslim with connections in Afghanistan.

Under terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors are asking that Martinez be sentenced to 25 years in prison. He faces up to life in prison.

US District Judge Frederick Motz has set sentencing for April 6.

Martinez is a US citizen and was a recent convert to Islam at the time of the plot. He had come to admire the writings of Anwar Awlaki, the US-born militant cleric who had called on American-based Muslims to attack inside the US. The cleric was killed by an American missile in Yemen last year.

Martinez called him ?a real inspiration.? He once wrote: ?I love Sheikh Anwar al Awlaki for the sake of ALLAH.... I don?t care if he is on a terrorist list!?

According to court documents, the bomb plot began in the fall of 2010 when Martinez began attempting to recruit fellow Muslims for a violent operation against the US military in Maryland.

He told an associate that he wanted to send a message that American soldiers would be killed as long as the US continued its ?war? against Islam.

But Martinez admitted that he did not know how to conduct an attack with explosives. At one point he suggested that perhaps they could stuff socks in the exhaust pipes of the soldiers? cars with the hope that they would suffocate as they drove home.

By November, Martinez expressed a willingness to die in an attack, if necessary. ?I have a desire to die in the cause of Allah? And if I got to hell for that, then I?ll be happy ? we blow one recruiting center up ? people ain?t gonna be able to get recruited at that one,? he told an associate, according to court documents. ?Then we hit another one, then we hit another one.?

A week later in November 2010, he expressed similar views. ?Every soldier that we see in uniform will be killed on the spot, God willing,? he said. ?They will be killed until they stop waging war against Islam. We won?t stop, God willing, until they kill us or they lock us up. This is for Allah.?

The US Attorney in Maryland, Rod Rosenstein, said investigators relied on individuals coming forward from within the Muslim community to make the case.

?We are catching dangerous suspects before they strike, and we are investigating them in a way that maximizes the liberty and security of law-abiding citizens,? Mr. Rosenstein said.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/_Igv0o_X3wg/Baltimore-man-tricked-by-FBI-pleads-guilty-to-trying-to-bomb-recruiting-site

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Calif. poised to vote on new 'clean car' regs

(AP) ? The head of California's air quality board is calling proposed rules that would require automakers to build less-polluting cars and trucks by 2025 a historic move for a cleaner environment.

A vote on the rules will come at a meeting that began Thursday of the California Air Resources Board.

Board Chairman Mary Nichols says she hopes the rules to require that vehicles emit about three-quarters less smog-producing pollutants will "lead the nation and the world."

The new standards, which also include big cuts in greenhouse gas pollutants, would begin with new cars sold in 2015, and get increasingly more stringent until 2025.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-26-California%20Clean%20Car%20Standards/id-0c7384284c5b45f5a6dfeb552178ec43

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Justin Timberlake Is 'Perfect' In Coen Brothers Flick

'Inside Llewyn Davis' actor Oscar Isaac has been recording music with Timberlake for the '60s folk flick.
By Jocelyn Vena


Justin Timberlake
Photo: Getty Images

"W.E." star Oscar Isaac is deep in musical preparations for the next Coen Brothers film, "Inside Llewyn Davis," in which he'll play the title character. In a couple weeks, Isaac and his castmates, including Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and Garrett Hedlund, will be on set, but until then they are in the recording studio putting the finishing touches on the film's musical elements.

"Right now I'm gearing up for the Coen Brothers film, which is all music-based," he told MTV News at the New York premiere of the Madonna-directed "W.E." "So that's actually taking up a lot of the musical creative energy. So excited."

Isaac, much like his co-stars, has dabbled in music, having put off recording his own music to focus on the film. And with some assistance from some big-name musical heavyweights, the music is destined to shine. The actor said the cast is currently in the studio with Timberlake, the Punch Brothers, T-Bone Burnett and Mulligan's fiancé, Marcus Mumford — what he called an "amazing group of musicians."

"It's folk from the '60s — old songs passed down for many generations — but new takes on them," he said of the songs being used in the film, which follows the life of a New York City folk singer in the 1960s. "Obviously we have the hindsight of now and so we kind of revisit these old songs. They're hopeful and beautiful and in contrast [to] the life of a folk singer, which is not very beautiful at all. It's very drab and dire. It's a screwball comedy."

As for Timberlake, the pop star best known for his bouncing beats can sing folk too. "He's perfect, really pure," Isaac said.

How do you think Justin Timberlake will do with folk music? Sound off in the comments.

Related Photos Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677867/justin-timberlake-inside-llewyn-davis.jhtml

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Euro zone may skirt recession as PMIs surprise (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? The euro zone may escape recession thanks to a surprise upturn in the service sector this month but the overall economy is still struggling to gain any traction outside Germany and to a lesser extent France, surveys showed on Tuesday.

Markit's Flash Eurozone Purchasing Managers' Composite Index (PMI), a reliable indicator of overall economic performance, showed the euro zone economy grew in January for the first time since August, confounding forecasts for a contraction.

Survey compiler Markit said that if sustained, the data pointed to no growth in the first quarter - but no contraction either.

Germany's service sector expanded at its fastest pace in seven months in January - far quicker than expected - while manufacturing business grew for the first time in four months, according to a PMI survey.

France's service sector grew at its fastest pace since August, but manufacturing shrank for the sixth straight month. Business activity also contracted across the rest of the 17-member bloc, where demand has been hit by tough austerity measures and waning confidence as the region struggled to contain its debt crisis.

The euro zone composite PMI, jumped to 50.4 from 48.3 in December, its highest in four months, and breaking above the 50 level that marks growth in activity.

The reading easily beat the highest forecast of 49.5 in a Reuters poll and a median prediction of 48.5.

"The numbers are very encouraging. We're just seeing more and more evidence that ... things in the euro zone, or at the very least in the core, are bottoming out," said Alan Clarke, economist at Scotiabank.

A Reuters poll last week predicted the euro zone would be mired in a mild recession until the second half of this year, shrinking by around 0.3 percent for 2012 as a whole.

While Tuesday's data suggests the economy is doing slightly better than expected it is still very weak outside the core.

"They beat expectations, but the manufacturing sector appears to be contracting and services is broadly flat," said Peter Dixon at Commerzbank.

"What this seems to be telling us is that the economy is struggling to gain any traction outside of Germany."

Some of the growth in activity this month clearly was spurred by fulfilling old orders. The composite backlogs of work sub-index remained below 50 at 47.2, but up slightly from 46.4 in December.

Firms were also forced to cut prices for the second month to drum up business, despite rising input costs.

OPTIMISTIC OUTCOME

The sovereign debt crisis that began in Greece over two years ago rages on, threatening to rip the currency union apart.

Euro zone finance ministers on Monday rejected an offer made by private bondholders to help restructure Greece's debts, sending negotiators back to the drawing board and raising the threat of a disorderly Greek default.

The euro zone has also been hurt by slowing economic growth in some of its major export markets.

Even German's big exporters are feeling the pressure with Siemens (SIEGn.DE), Europe's biggest engineering conglomerate and a bellwether for the region, reporting an unexpectedly sharp fall in core profits on Tuesday and warning that 2012 would be a difficult year.

The European Central Bank is expected to cut its official interest rate from a record low of 1 percent, having taken measures to ease banks' funding strains in an effort to spur growth and relieve pressure from the debt crisis.

Services firms, ranging from banks to hotels, grew more optimistic about the future this month with the business expectations index jumping to 56.0 from December's 53.6, the highest reading since August.

The euro zone services PMI rose to 50.5 this month from 48.8 in December, the first time it has been above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction since last August, and beating both the consensus of 49.0 and the highest forecast of 50.0 in a Reuters poll.

The euro zone manufacturing PMI came in at 48.7, above December's 46.9 and also beating both the top-end forecast and a median prediction for 47.3 in a Reuters poll.

The figures showed that factories took on a few extra workers this month but service sector firms cut staff.

Official data showed the unemployment rate held steady at 10.3 percent in November but a Reuters poll predicts it will rise this year.

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/bs_nm/us_economy_europe

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'Mad Men' boss: Don 'may be back with Betty'

By Kimberly Potts, TheWrap.com

AMC

Could it be? Will Betty and Jon reunite next season on "Mad Men"?

Don and Betty Draper?... together again?

That's the hint "Mad Men" series creator Matt Weiner is dropping about the show's upcoming fifth season, which premieres on AMC on March 25.

"It's called 'A Little Kiss,' " Weiner tells TV Guide of the two-hour season premiere. "I like the title to have some kind of synergy with the show so it will pique your interest."

More from TheWrap: Dear ('Downtown) Abbey': An obsession with a long shot

And when asked if Jon Hamm's Don Draper is one half of the titular kiss, perhaps with secretary-turned-fianc?e Megan (Jessica Par?), Weiner answered with a cryptic comment that could mean a surprise reunion for exes Don and Betty (January Jones).

"Who says Megan's even going to be part of Don's life?" Weiner told the magazine. "He may be back with Betty. One of my favorite scenes from (the season four finale) was when Betty offered herself to him again. And let's face it -- those two look really good together."?

AMC did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.

Do you want to see Don and Better together again? Tell us on our Facebook page!

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Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10219055-mad-men-boss-don-may-be-back-with-betty

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Wash. has enough votes to legalize gay marriage

By msnbc.com staff and news services

A Washington state senator on Monday joined those lawmakers who support gay marriage, ensuring enough votes to pass a bill out of the state Senate.

"I have very strong Christian beliefs, and personally I have always said when I accepted the Lord, I became more tolerant of others," Democratic Sen. Margaret Haugen said in a statement posted on her website. "I stopped judging people and try to live by the Golden Rule. This is part of my decision. I do not believe it is my role to judge others, regardless of my personal beliefs."


The state House already has enough support, and Gov. Chris Gregoire has endorsed the plan.

Still, it's?expected that opponents of gay marriage will oppose the measure on a statewide ballot.

Haugen's announcement came moments before the?state Legislature held its first public hearing on the issue.

STORY: King5.com's coverage of the legislation

If ultimately approved, Washington would join New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia in approving gay marriage.

?

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10218513-gay-marriage-backers-get-majority-in-washington-state-legislature

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Klum and Seal: 'We have decided to separate'

By Anna Chan

It's official: Supermodel and "Project Runway" host Heidi Klum and singer Seal are officially separating after seven years together.

TMZ first reported on Saturday that Klum was going to file for divorce as early as this week. On Sunday night, the pair confirmed the split in a statement to People.

"While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate," the?pair told the magazine.?

"We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart. This is an amicable process and protecting the well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during this time of transition."

Klum and Seal have three biological children together, and the singer adopted the model's eldest daughter, Leni, from a previous relationship.

"They've had a very rough road lately," a friend of the couple told Us Weekly on Saturday.?"They're either madly in love or having? crazy fights."

More in TODAY entertainment:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10213217-heidi-klum-and-seal-we-have-decided-to-separate

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Obama's State of the Union: Jobs, re-election time (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Vilified by the Republicans who want his job, President Barack Obama will stand before the nation Tuesday night determined to frame the election-year debate on his terms, using his State of the Union address to outline a lasting economic recovery that will "work for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

As his most powerful chance to make a case for a second term, the prime-time speech carries enormous political stakes for the Democratic incumbent who presides over a country divided about his performance and pessimistic about the nation's direction. He will try to offer a stark contrast with his opponents by offering a vision of fairness and opportunity for everyone.

In a preview Saturday, Obama said in a video to supporters that the speech will be an economic blueprint built around manufacturing, energy, education and American values.

He is expected to announce ideas to make college more affordable and to address the housing crisis still hampering the economy three years into his term, people familiar with the speech said. Obama will also propose fresh ideas to ensure that the wealthy pay more in taxes, reiterating what he considers a matter of basic fairness, the officials said.

His policy proposals will be less important than what Obama hopes they all add up to: a narrative of renewed American security with him at the center, leading the fight.

"We can go in two directions," Obama said in the campaign video. "One is toward less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

That line of argument is intended to tap directly into concerns of voters who think America has become a nation of income inequality, with rules rigged to help the rich. The degree to which Obama or his eventual Republican opponent can better connect with millions of hurting Americans is expected to determine November's presidential election.

Obama released his video hours ahead of the South Carolina primary, where Republican candidates fought in the latest fierce contest to become his general election rival.

The White House knows Obama is about to get his own stage to outline a re-election vision, but carefully. The speech is supposed to an American moment, not a campaign event.

Obama didn't mention national security or foreign policy in his preview, and he is not expected to break ground on either one in his speech.

He will focus on the economy and is expected to promote unfinished parts of his jobs plan, including the extension of a payroll tax cut that is soon to expire.

Whatever Obama proposes is likely to face long odds in a deeply divided Congress.

More people than not disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, and he is showing real vulnerability among the independent voters who could swing the election. Yet he will step into the moment just as the economy is showing life. The unemployment rate is still at a troubling 8.5 percent, but at its lowest rate in nearly three years. Consumer confidence is up.

By giving a sneak peek to millions of supporters on his email list, Obama played to his Democratic base and sought to generate an even larger audience for Tuesday's address. He is unlikely to getter a bigger stage all year.

More people watched last year's State of the Union than tuned in to see Obama accept the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver in 2008.

The foundation of Obama's speech is the one he gave in Kansas last month, when he declared that the middle class was at a make-or-break moment and he railed against "you're on your own" economics of the Republican Party. His theme then was about a government that ensures people get a fair shot to succeed.

The State of the Union will be the details to back that up.

But even so, the speech will still be a framework ? part governing, part inspiration.

The details will be rolled out in full over the next several weeks, as part of Obama's next budget proposal and during his travels, which will allow him more media coverage.

On national security, Obama will ask the nation to reflect with him on a momentous year of change, including the end of the war in Iraq, the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the Arab Spring protests, with people clamoring for freedom. He is expected to note the troubles posed by Iran and Syria without offering new positions about them.

Despite low expectations for legislation this year, Obama will offer short-term ideas that would require action from Congress. For now, the main looming to-do item is an extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, both due to expire by March.

His travel schedule following his speech, to politically important regions, offers clues to the policies he was expected to unveil.

Both Phoenix and Las Vegas have been hard hit by foreclosures. Denver is where Obama outlined ways of helping college students deal with school loan debt. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Detroit are home to a number of manufacturers. And Michigan was a major beneficiary of the president's decision to intervene to rescue the American auto industry.

Republican leaders in Congress say Obama has made the chances of cooperation even dimmer just over the last several days. He enraged Republicans by installing a consumer watchdog chief by going around the Senate, which had blocked him, and then rejected a major oil pipeline project the GOP has embraced.

Obama is likely, once again, to offer ways in which a broken Washington must work together. Yet that theme seems but a dream given the gridlock he has been unable to change.

The address remains an old-fashioned moment of national attention; 43 million people watched it on TV last year. The White House website will offer a live stream of the speech, promising extra wrinkles for people who watch it there, and then invite people to send in questions to administration officials through social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Obama's campaign is also organizing and promoting parties around the nation for people to watch the speech.

__

AP deputy director of polling Jennifer Agiesta and Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

__

Online:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

___

Follow Ben Feller at http://twitter.com/BenFellerDC

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_state_of_the_union

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Borneo by new expedition

Friday, January 20, 2012

An international team of scientists has found one of the rarest and least known primates in Borneo, Miller's Grizzled Langur, a species which was believed to be extinct or on the verge of extinction. The team's findings, published in the American Journal of Primatology, confirms the continued existence of this endangered monkey and reveals that it lives in an area where it was previously not known to exist.

Miller's Grizzled Langur (Presbytis hosei canicrus) is part of the small primate genus Presbytis, found across Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the Thai-Malay Peninsula. In Borneo, P.h. canicrus is only found in a small corner of the county's north east and its habitat has suffered from fires, human encroachment and conversion of land for agriculture and mining.

The team's expedition took to them to Wehea Forest in East Kalimantan, Borneo, a large 38,000 ha area of mostly undisturbed rainforest. Wehea contains at least nine known species of non-human primate, including the Bornean orangutan and gibbon.

"Discovery of P.h canicrus was a surprise since Wehea Forest lies outside of this monkey's known range. Future research will focus on estimating the population density for P.h. canicrus in Wehea and the surrounding forest," said Brent Loken, from Simon Fraser University Canada. "Concern that the species may have gone extinct was first raised in 2004, and a search for the monkey during another expedition in 2008 supported the assertion that the situation was dire."

By conducting observations at mineral licks where animals congregate and setting up camera traps in several locations, the expedition confirmed that P. h canicrus continues to survive in areas west of its previously recorded geographic range. The resulting photos provide the first solid evidence demonstrating that its geographic range extends further than previously thought.

"It was a challenge to confirm our finding as there are so few pictures of this monkey available for study," said Loken. "The only description of Miller's Grizzled Langur came from museum specimens. Our photographs from Wehea are some of the only pictures that we have of this monkey."

"East Kalimantan can be a challenging place to conduct research, given the remoteness of many remaining forested areas, so it isn't surprising that so little is known about this primate," said Dr. Stephanie Spehar, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. "We are very grateful to our local partners. This discovery represents the hard work, dedication, and collaboration of Western and Indonesian scientists, students, NGOs, as well as local communities and government."

"While our finding confirms the monkey still exists in East Kalimantan, there is a good chance that it remains one of the world's most endangered primates," concluded Loken. "I believe it is a race against time to protect many species in Borneo. It is difficult to adopt conservation strategies to protect species when we don't even know the extent of where they live. We need more scientists in the field working on understudied species such as Miller's Grizzled Langur, clouded leopards and sun bears."

###

Wiley-Blackwell: http://www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell

Thanks to Wiley-Blackwell for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116909/_Extinct__monkey_rediscovered_in_Borneo_by_new_expedition

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Why is ?Cyborg? talking trash and doing so with fake pictures of Gina Carano?

After a positive steroid test, it's probably best to slink off into the shadows for a while.

Apparently, Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos doesn't realize the damage her positive test did to her reputation. The last thing fans want to hear from an alleged "cheater" is her dumping on someone who's currently in the mix, licensed and clean.

Cyborg went down that path and did so in the oddest fashion. Santos decided to lash out at Ronda Rousey. Rousey, a former Olympian and current 135 and 145 pound contender, has buried Cyborg over her positive test. You feel bad for Cyborg? Some will say, tough luck it comes with the territory.

Along with a postfight photo of Gina Carano, Cyborg responded today by tweeting "next victim ... Ronda" in Portuguese.

One problem, the Carano photo taken after Cyborg beat her up appears to be severely photoshopped.

Some sharp fans and Rousey noticed the photo had been altered, and called her some nasty names on Twitter.

Maybe this is an innocent mistake and Cyborg thought she really beat up Carano that badly. Either way, the fact the she's talking trash less than a month after shaming the sport and female fighter inexcusable.

Tip via Bloody Elbow

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/why-cyborg-talking-trash-doing-fake-pictures-gina-000030358.html

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Friday, January 20, 2012

Sundance for sale: Festival market is wide open (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? Just about everyone has something to sell at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which has an unusually large inventory of titles looking for a home with movie distributors.

All of the films in the star-laden premieres lineup are up for sale to U.S. distributors in the festival that opened Thursday and runs through Jan. 29.

Sundance organizers believe it's the first time none of its premieres came into the independent-film showcase with domestic distribution, potentially making it a busier time for buyers to see them all along with the huge slate of movies up for sale in the festival's four main competitions, which tend to focus on newer talent.

"I guess we'll have a lot of competition, with all the premieres in kind of the same boat, so to speak," said James Marsh, whose Northern Ireland thriller "Shadow Dancer," starring Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough, is among the films on sale at Sundance. "One of the reasons we're happy to be at Sundance is that marketplace element."

The festival opened Thursday with premieres of four of the 64 films playing in its U.S. and world-cinema competitions. The big launch for star-studded premieres was to begin Friday night with the debut of Lee Toland Krieger's divorce story "Celeste and Jesse Forever," with Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg and Elijah Wood, and Rodrigo Cortes' paranormal tale "Red Lights," with Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro.

Other years, at least some of those premieres enter the festival with distribution already in place, such as last year's Fox Searchlight entries "Win Win" and "Cedar Rapids."

It could just be an aberration this year, with distributors that might have had something to show at Sundance unable to get the films ready in time. Whatever the reason, it means more films competing for buyers' attention throughout the festival.

Many films that play Sundance never make it beyond the film festival circuit or wind up getting such limited theatrical release that barely anyone in the real world sees them. Filmmakers come to Sundance hoping they hook up with distributors that will put the same care into releasing them that went into making them.

There have been great success stories for past Sundance acquisitions, among them "Little Miss Sunshine," "In the Bedroom," "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Garden State." Yet for every hit that emerges from Sundance, there are a dozen films virtually no one has ever heard of.

Brokering deals has never been the main goal of the festival itself, which is overseen by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute to give independent filmmakers a place to show their work. But it's good for Sundance and the indie world to have as many of its films graduate to commercial theaters as possible.

It's that sort of success that improves a filmmaker's odds of raising money to make another film, which is such a battle in the indie landscape that some directors joke that they're professional fundraisers who occasionally get to shoot a movie.

Among the premieres seeking domestic distribution at Sundance are Stephen Frears' gambling caper "Lay the Favorite," with Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rebecca Hall; Spike Lee's urban drama "Red Hook Summer"; Leslye Headland's bridesmaid comedy "Bachelorette," starring Kirsten Dunst; and Jake Schreier's geriatric jewel-thief tale "Robot and Frank," featuring Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon.

At least as important as finding a distributor is finding the right distributor, a company that loves the film as much as its creators do and will invest time and resources to get it in front of audiences.

Writer-director Julie Delpy, who co-stars with Chris Rock in the relationship comedy "2 Days in New York," said distribution rights for her film already have been sold in some countries but that her producers decided to hold off on striking a deal for its U.S. release so they could shop it around at Sundance.

"We're hoping to sell it. It's a question of how to sell it and the best person to make sure it's nurtured the right way and released the right way," said Delpy, whose film is a sequel to her 2007 comedy "2 Days in Paris."

With 117 films, most of them hunting for buyers, Sundance will be a scramble for distributors as they rush to see as many movies as they can and try to strike deals on the ones they want.

Sundance has seen occasional bidding wars that have driven the price of some films to more than $10 million, a fortune in the low-budget cinema world. Some pricey festival acquisitions, such as "Little Miss Sunshine," become hits that earn their money back many times over. Others, such as "Happy, Texas" and "Next Stop Wonderland," wind up as commercial duds.

Bidding wars have become rare in recent years as studios closed low-budget film banners and grew more cautious about throwing money around at film festivals amid the economic downturn.

Still, buyers have to be careful to avoid getting caught up in the frenzy over films that set festival crowds buzzing. A film that earns a rapturous response in the thin, high-altitude air of the Utah mountains may be met with indifference at sea level.

"You're just so busy. You have to figure out a way to see the movies and make a business decision based on the reaction at Sundance, which could be the last reaction like that for the film," said Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, whose Sundance acquisitions last year included Vera Farmiga's "Higher Ground" and Michael Rapaport's "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest."

"You just don't know if that reaction is going to translate to the rest of the country or the rest of the world."

___

Online:

http://www.sundance.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_en_mo/us_film_sundance_buyer_s_market

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China Emerges as World's Fastest-Growing Automotive MEMS ...

Driven because of the aggressive implementation of car or truck basic safety and pollution mandates, China has emerged since the world?s fastest-growing region for product sales of automotive microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), according to a whole new IHS iSuppli Automotive MEMS Promote Transient from material and examination company IHS.
China?s automotive MEMS sector is anticipated to develop to $387.nine million in 2015, up from $194.three million in 2010. This equates to a five-year compound annual progress rate of 14.eight % substantially increased compared to around the globe ordinary of nine %. ?MEMS really are a important enabling expertise to improve the basic safety and reduce carbon emissions in motor automobiles,? commented blog , senior analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS. ?With China?s motor vehicle product sales booming and its sensor usage soaring, the country?s automotive MEMS sector is set for world-leading progress with the year 2015.?
Vehicle sector will get back in gear
The growth with the international automotive is being fueled by a revived passenger car or truck sector, which happens to be projected to rebound in the financial slump. Manufacturing of passenger autos for the Chinese sector is set to improve to 22.2 million models in 2015, up from debora 16.three million in 2010.
Total, China will continue being the world?s third main user of automotive throughout the five-year time period, ahead of Japan in addition to a assortment of nations underneath the designation ?Rest with the World.? North The usa will carry on to lead the house, followed by Europe. Intercontinental automotive MEMS income is forecast to hit $2.nine billion in 2015, up greater than 50 % from $1.nine billion in 2010.

Right now the biggest automotive MEMS apps concerning unit shipments are airbags, followed by silicon MEMS manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensors needed for engine administration. Nevertheless, TPMS will outpace airbags in 2015.
A person other software, electronic balance management to help reduce skidding in automobiles, is at present underpenetrated in China and can continue being so except if there exists a authorities mandate. Official authorities suggestions have set a national standard in China for TPMS, which might have can come into result in July but will ramp up in mid-2012. China is adopting TPMS ahead rochette.listdiscount.info of Japan with an eye to your useful advantages that might be derived: The characteristic in automobiles not simply saves lives but affects the surroundings, as appropriate tire pressure outcomes in improved mileage and significantly less carbon emissions. China?s notable position in employing TPMS for its automobiles will accelerate the international TPMS sector to a fitment rate of 73 % by 2015.
By following year, more high-end car or truck types in China would be equipped with TPMS ahead of other mandates, these as adaptive front headlights, brake help and adaptive cruise management, IHS study suggests.


Source: http://www.stirredup.net/china-emerges-as-worlds-fastest-growing-automotive-mems-promote/

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Essay Due? Here?s How To Access Wikipedia During The SOPA Blackout

wikipediagirlAs you can tell from the homepage, it's a sad, trying day for the internet. Many of our favorite sites like Reddit and Wikipedia have gone dark, leaving only an argument against SOPA on their homepages in lieu of cat gifs and knowledge. All in all, it will shape up to be an incredibly boring day in the name of justice. Because to be honest, SOPA is unconstitutional in the way it'll be enforced, and means rarely if ever justify the ends.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Y8fNtRhoNEU/

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