Jamaica's opposition party wins landslide

KINGSTON, Jamaica?? Jamaica's opposition capitalized on discontent over the economy to return to power Thursday, as voters gave the country's first female leader a second chance to govern the island.

Supporters of former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, 66, shimmied and shouted in the capital, Kingston, as they heard that the center-right government of Prime Minister Andrew Holness had been defeated and their candidate had staged a dramatic political comeback in general elections.

Holness, Jamaica's youngest prime minister at 39, said the defeat will prompt a time of introspection and reflection for leaders of his Jamaica Labor Party to examine what went wrong.

"I wish the new government well. We hope for the benefit of the country that they will do a good job," said Holness, who warned during the campaign that an opposition win would scare away foreign investment and dash hopes of economic progress.

While official results have not been released, elections director Orrette Fisher told The Associated Press that preliminary results showed Simpson Miller's slightly left-of-center People's National Party, or PNP, heading to victory.

"Based on the margins, it appears safe to say" that Simpson Miller's party won, Fisher said shortly after Jamaican newspapers and broadcasters called the election for her faction. He expected his office to release the official count and breakdown of parliamentary seats on Saturday.

News station TVJ said the PNP won 41 seats in parliament and Holness's Jamaica Labor Party 22.

Simpson Miller is beloved by her supporters for her folksy, plainspoken style and is referred to affectionately as "Sista P" and "Comrade Leader." She became Jamaica's first female prime minister in March 2006 after she was picked by party delegates when P.J. Patterson retired as leader. But she was tossed out of office a year later in a narrow election defeat.

On Thursday, she thanked her supporters at party headquarters in Kingston, where more than a thousand elated partisans decked out in the party's color of orange swayed to reggae and soul tunes, waved flags and clapped hands.

"I am humbled as I stand before you and I wish to thank the Jamaican people for their love, for their support and for giving the People's National Party and the leader of the party her own mandate," she said, after receiving hugs from numerous candidates, some crying.

She has pledged to lift debt-wracked Jamaica out of poverty, secure foreign investment, and create jobs.

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Her party will face deep economic problems in this island of 2.8 million people, with a punishing debt of roughly $18.6 billion, or 130 per cent of gross domestic product. That's a rate about 10 percentage points higher than debt-troubled Italy's.

Veteran opposition lawmaker Omar Davies said one of the first things the PNP will do is get "a true assessment of the state of the economy," a dig at Holness' party which was accused of rarely providing citizens with a clear picture of the island's dire fiscal straits.

Holness, who became prime minister two months ago after Bruce Golding, Jamaica's leader since 2007, abruptly stepped down in October amid anemic public backing, won his parliamentary seat with 54 percent of the vote.

Political commentator Patrick Bailey said Holness, who was a respected education minister before becoming prime minister, shouldn't be blamed for the loss.

"In fact, he is the one who made it competitive for the JLP," Bailey said.

Simpson Miller has been a stalwart of the People's National Party since the 1970s. She paints herself as a champion of the poor and was first elected to Parliament in 1976 and became a Cabinet member in 1989.

Partisans have long admired Simpson Miller as a Jamaican who was born in rural poverty and grew up in a Kingston ghetto, not far from the crumbling concrete jungle made famous by Bob Marley.

During her brief tenure as prime minister, her support waned amid complaints she responded poorly to Hurricane Dean and was evasive about a scandal regarding a Dutch oil trading firm's $460,000 payment to her political party leading up to 2007 elections.

After she was defeated in 2007 elections, she remained leader of her party, setting the stage for a political comeback.

The two top candidates' different styles were clear while they cast their votes.

Holness is largely seen as unexciting, but bright and pragmatic. He whisked into the voting center in the middle class area of Mona, barely interacting with voters. After being heckled by an opposition partisan, he said he was "very confident" of a Labor victory and departed after taking three questions from reporters.

By contrast, Simpson Miller hugged and chatted with supporters at a school in Whitfield Town and told election workers to help struggling elderly voters.

Her party, which experimented with democratic socialism in the 1970s, is still perceived as more focused on social programs for the poor than the slightly more conservative Labor. There are no longer stark ideological differences between the two clan-like factions that have dominated Jamaican politics since the onetime British colony began self-rule in 1944. Jamaica became independent within the British Commonwealth in 1962.

She has inspired some hope for a young, struggling nation fed up with chronic hard times.

"She cares about the ghetto people," said Trishette Bond, a twenty-something resident of gritty Trench Town who wore an orange shirt and a bright orange wig to show her allegiance to the People's National Party.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45822072/ns/world_news-americas/

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And you thought 2011 was tough? (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets.

Familiar themes for those who lived through 2011, and investors should be ready to revisit them next year.

With a spiraling debt crisis in Europe, political upheaval around the world, and crumbling creditworthiness in major industrial nations, 2011 was a tough year to know where to invest. 2012 is unlikely to offer much respite.

The S&P 500, a measure of the biggest U.S. companies' market value, spent much of the year getting pushed up and down, flummoxing shorts and longs - and scaring Moms and Pops away from stocks. In the end, it will finish about where it started.

But the S&P 500's tepid performance was encouraging, compared with other world equity markets. The United States may still be seen as a safe haven, though even that looks uncertain.

For every rally built on improving economic figures this year, selloffs were never far away on worries the European debt crisis would eventually drag the continent into a recession and perhaps the United States as well. That could continue in 2012.

China and other fast-growing emerging markets can no longer be leaned on as those economies slow. In 2011's last half, the poorest-performing sectors outside of banks were most connected to global growth - materials, energy and industrial companies.

"There is a growing realization that the global economy is in jeopardy," said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co in Nashville. "There is uncertainty in every corner of the world."

That uncertainty fed substantial volatility in 2011. Despite the S&P's flat performance this year, there were 66 trading days when stocks moved in a 2 percent range. In 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed during a global financial crisis, there were more than 130 trading days when stocks swung that much. But that led to a flight from equities by retail investors.

U.S. equity funds had outflows in every month since May. More than $483 billion left U.S. mutual funds in 2011 through the year's second-to-last week, even though the U.S. market outperformed foreign stocks late in the game.

BEATING GLOBAL RIVALS

The S&P 500 was up just 0.3 percent for the year on Friday afternoon. In contrast, the MSCI world stocks index (.MIWD00000PUS) fell 9 percent, while the FTSEurofirst-300 index (.FTEU3) slid nearly 11 percent.

The darlings in the emerging markets fared the worst. China's Shanghai Composite index (.SSEC) lost 22 percent, India's BSE (.BSESN) sank 25 percent, and Brazil's Bovespa (.BVSP) dropped 18 percent.

Strategists say the U.S. stock market may benefit from reasonable economic growth and attractive market valuation. The S&P 500 is expected to rise 6 percent by the end of 2012, according to the most recent poll of Wall Street strategists.

Volatility is likely to persist through early 2012 because of the uncertainty in Europe and rising concern about slowed earnings growth due to recent revisions.

The S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio - what investors are willing to pay for a dollar of earnings - is under 12, below the 25-year average of 15. In weaker markets like Germany's DAX, the figure is below 9.

"We're building in a massive recession into these numbers," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. in San Francisco.

U.S. companies cutting earnings' outlooks recently outpaced those raising theirs by the greatest ratio in 10 years. Some sectors, such as materials, have seen a sharp drop in forecasts for the fourth quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Last week, downbeat earnings from Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) shook confidence in the tech sector's health before the quarterly earnings season's start in January. Oracle joined a growing list of companies, including some of technology's biggest names, whose results and outlooks have set off alarm bells.

Next year, S&P 500 earnings are seen rising 9.9 percent, down from an estimate of 13 percent in October.

RECESSION FEARS

Many economists believe the euro zone is already in recession. They forecast that the economies of the 17-nation bloc will stagnate in 2012 after contracting in this year's fourth quarter and the first quarter of the next.

Investors are worried that Italy and Spain will have to keep refinancing borrowings at unsustainable levels early next year, which could escalate the crisis.

The correlation between the U.S. stock market and the euro skyrocketed in 2011 as investors tied bets on risky assets to the euro's moves. That trend ebbed as equities rallied near the end of the year, but it is likely to flare up again.

So far the U.S. economy has stayed on course for moderate growth. Economists expect it to expand by about 2.1 percent next year. But it is unclear how a slowdown in the rest of the world will affect the economy stateside.

The key may be China rather than Europe.

"China is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and is probably the most important country to watch in terms of their contribution to global growth," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut.

Chinese business confidence is weakening. A survey showed export orders fell for the first time in nearly three years.

The drop in materials shares in 2011's second half reflects worry about declining activity overseas. The S&P Materials Index (.GSPM) lost nearly 14 percent in the last six months.

GRIDLOCK SHOCK

One of the pivotal events of 2011 was the downgrade of the United States' perfect triple-A credit rating. Standard & Poor's cited congressional bickering as the reason for the downgrade.

August's stalemate in Washington over raising the debt ceiling sparked a selloff that accelerated after the downgrade.

Investors expect the gridlock in Congress to get worse as the U.S. presidential election approaches in November. The election is likely to be close, which will not make legislative efforts to tackle high debt levels and weak demand any easier.

Rancor was in view again in December as Congress struggled to pass a two-month extension of U.S. payroll-tax cuts.

"There will be less certainty about taxation and regulation so that will inhibit business formation and business growth," said Brian Battle, a trader at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago.

Goldman Sachs sees global growth highly susceptible in 2012 to even minor shocks - and those shocks may be political.

"Slowing growth (and in places outright contraction), public-sector cuts, and a renegotiation of the social compact between state and society in different parts of the world is an environment ripe for political turmoil," Goldman said in a note to clients.

(Reporting By Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/bs_nm/us_usa_stocks_weekahead

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UK's Times newspaper names Bouazizi person of 2011 (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Britain's The Times newspaper on Wednesday named as person of the year Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian whose self immolation inspired uprisings that toppled dictators across the Arab world and shook the region's remaining autocracies.

Bouazizi set himself alight last year after officials confiscated the unemployed 26-year-old's unlicensed grocery cart, reportedly slapping and insulting him. His desperate act struck a chord with millions of Arabs living with few job prospects or avenues for change under entrenched autocracies.

"The Times today names Mohamed Bouazizi, the street vendor who became the inspiration for the Arab Spring, as its person of the year," the paper said on its front page. "Bouazizi was no revolutionary, yet his lonely protest served as the catalyst for a wave of revolts that have transformed the Middle East."

Bouazizi' death from his wounds in January prompted protests across Tunisia, forcing autocratic President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country. Soon afterwards, millions took to the streets in Egypt, Libya, Syria and elsewhere to protest against repression, corruption, poverty and joblessness.

The uprisings unseated despots in Libya, Egypt and Yemen as well as Tunisia, while Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's writ is disintegrating and other authoritarian rulers in the region are eyeing the tide of public anger with nervousness.

Tunisia has since elected new leaders through peaceful democratic elections.

In an October interview with Reuters, Bouazizi's mother Manoubia urged the new leaders to honor her son's sacrifice by helping poor people like him.

"Nothing would have happened if my son had not reacted against voicelessness and a lack of respect," she said.

"But I hope the people who are going to govern will be able to keep this message in mind and give consideration to all Tunisians, including the poor."

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111228/people_nm/us_times_bouazizi

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PFT:?Big Ben might play Sunday, Tomlin says

Reuters

The Saints can still improve their playoff position by one spot, if they beat the Panthers and the 49ers somehow lose to the Rams in St. Louis.? (In the same way that the Saints, you know, somehow lost in St. Louis.)? Both games will be played at the same time, which could prompt Saints coach Sean Payton to do some scoreboard-watching, given that two of his key players ? cornerback Malcolm Jenkins and tight end Jimmy Graham ? suffered injuries in a meaningless regular-season finale in 2010.

The fact that quarterback Drew Brees sits only 190 yards ahead of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady raises the stakes.? Since the Pats need to beat the Bills to claim the No. 1 seed (the other contenders, the Ravens and Steelers, play at 4:15 p.m. ET), Brady will likely play most if not all of the game, and he could easily swipe the record if Brees plays less than 60 minutes.

On Tuesday, Payton addressed the situation, ultimately explaining that he?ll make a decision later in the week.? He dropped no specific hints as to the direction in which he?s leaning, but the bulk of his comments suggests that Brees and the rest of the regulars will play.

?I know I am twice shy when the ball comes near me on the sidelines,? Payton told the local media as to the possibility of getting gets injured in a meaningless game.? ?I have been bitten.? I think we just have to be smart.? We are playing well, with some momentum.? Each year is different.? We will look at that closely.?

Payton said he doesn?t know whether he?ll have someone keep an eye on the 49ers-Rams game.? ?Last year, we tried to go that route of paying attention to the game,? Payton said.? ?One of the challenges always is your roster to begin with.? You guys know that.? We sat players before.? It?s always hard because you don?t really have enough.? It?s not the preseason where you have 80, you only have 53.? We will try to do what is best for the team.?

But is it best for the team to have Brees hold off Brady?? Payton has a strong sense of history, but whether Brees holds the single-season passing yardage record for six days or 60 years has zero relevance to the team?s goals.

?I?m not really aware of the space between the two,? Payton said.? ?I am probably better off not knowing.? That being said, what we have to do is keep playing.? The playoffs are close.? How do we put ourselves in the best position to play well and put ourselves in an opportunity to win a championship?? That?s not always what is popular.? Two years ago in 2009, a lot of people in this room criticized us for resting players at Carolina.? It was what we needed to do as a team.? You make decisions.? They are not always right.? You try to make them with the right things to help your team.? Last night was one of those situations.? This upcoming game will be one of those situations.? It?s part of what we do.? It?s part of coaching.? It?s part of sport.?

Setting ? and holding ? records is part of what they do, too.? If Payton didn?t know the space between the two players, he likely will.? Even if he doesn?t know the number, he surely senses that it?s close enough to compel Brees to play a full game.

And so I?d be shocked if Brees and the rest of the starters don?t play a full game.? With Brees unlikely to wrest the MVP award from Aaron Rodgers, setting ? and keeping ? that record arguably becomes more important to Brees, to Payton, and to the rest of the franchise.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/27/tomlin-says-ben-has-a-shot-at-playing-sunday/related/

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No-man's land attests to Japan's nuclear nightmare (AP)

IWAKI, Japan ? Fukushima was just emerging from the snows of winter when the disaster hit ? a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the strongest in Japan's recorded history, followed by a tsunami.

The wall of water destroyed much of the northeastern coast on March 11. In the northeast region of Fukushima, a different disaster was brewing: Three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant were melting down, irreparably damaged by the super tremor.

Now, as the snows are beginning to fall again, the government has announced the plant has attained a level of stability it is calling a "cold shutdown." As many as 3,000 workers ? plumbers, engineers, technicians ? stream into the facility each day.

The tsunami's destruction is still visible. Mangled trucks, flipped over by the wave, sit alongside the roads inside the complex, piles of rubble stand where the walls of the reactor structures crumbled and large pools of water still cover parts of the campus.

In the ghost towns around Fukushima Dai-ichi, vines have overtaken streets, feral cows and owner-less dogs roam the fields. Dead chickens rot in their coops.

The tens of thousands of people who once lived around the plant have fled. They are now huddling in gymnasiums, elementary school classrooms, bunking with friends, sometimes just sleeping in their cars, moving from place to place as they search for alternatives.

For those who lived on the perimeter of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, fliers used to come in the mail every so often explaining that someday this might happen. Most recipients saw them as junk mail, and threw them away without a second glance. For those who did read them, the fliers were always worded to be reassuring ? suggesting that although a catastrophic nuclear accident was extremely unlikely, it could require evacuating the area.

Never was it even hinted that the evacuation could last years, or decades.

At most of the shelters, food is doled out military-style, at set times. Personal space is extremely limited, often just big enough to fit a futon and the collective snoring at night makes sleep fitful, at best. Baths are public, cramped, dark.

The total amount of radiation released from the plant is still unknown, and the impact of chronic low-dose radiation exposures in and around Fukushima is a matter of scientific debate.

Recent studies also suggest Japan continues to significantly underestimate the scale of the disaster ? which could have health and safety implications far into the future.

According to a study led by Andreas Stohl the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, twice as much radioactive cesium-137 ? a cancer-causing agent ? was pumped into the atmosphere than Japan had announced, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl. The French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety found 30 times more cesium-137 was released into the Pacific than the plant's owner has acknowledged.

Under a detailed roadmap, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. will remove the melted nuclear fuel, most of which is believed to have fallen to the bottom of the core or even down to the bottom of the larger, beaker-shaped containment vessel, a process that is expected to begin in 10 years.

All told, decommissioning the plant will likely take 40 years.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111227/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_inside_the_zone

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Military Green Sweatshirt Soft Eco Fleece Pink Tree Fall Fashion

Military Green Sweatshirt Soft Eco Fleece Pink Tree Fall Fashion.

Who said the military can't be stylish and decorated in pink? Comfy Fall Fashion,
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AVAILABLE IN SIZES:

SMALL + MEDIUM + LARGE + X-LARGE

Model is wearing a Medium. She is 5.9 1/2, her measurements are 34B, 26, 36.

This design is ALSO available on Heather Gray, Charcoal Grey, Sky Blue and Pink, yes that is right, Pink!

NOTE: Although I have only a quantity of 1 listed, I have all other sizes in stock!

Just indicate desired Size in "Message to Seller" during the Check Out process or convo me with the size you desire.

Women?s regular-fit eco-fleece long-sleeve sweatshirt with off-the-shoulder neckline and front kangaroo pocket. 2x1 rib set in cuffs and bottom band. NECK and POCKET EDGES have a RAW HEM finish for a super-cool retro appeal.

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machine wash cold, tumble dry low

I print with water-based inks only. I highly recommend hand-washing inside out and line drying all my tops. In this way you will prolong the color brilliance of the design and the garment itself.

As with all my tees and other items, this design is hand silkscreen printed one at a time, so allow for slight variations in design layout.

Have any questions? Please convo me.

AND please read my policies re: returns, lost packages and other important information, prior to purchase: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sealmaiden/policy

Source: http://www.etsy.com/listing/86046471/military-green-sweatshirt-soft-eco

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Maria Shriver Having Second Thoughts About Divorcing Arnold Schwarzenegger?

According to TMZ, Maria Shriver is having second thoughts about divorcing her husband, the former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hmm. What do you think, readers? Fact or fiction? 2011 has been difficult for Shriver and Schwarzenegger, no doubt about that. Let’s recap, shall we? Earlier this year, Arnie admitted to his wife that he had fathered a child, now 13 years old. To make matters worse, the baby Mama was none other than their housekeeper of over 20 years, Mildred Baena. Can you even imagine? Not only has your husband just admitted that he has another child, but to find out that the mother of your husband’s child is someone that has been close to your family for over 20 years? Ouch. What a slap in the face. News of Arnold fathering a love child became public in May. Reports surfaced that Schwarzenegger told Shriver the news in January of this year and she subsequently moved out of their Brentwood mansion. While it was unclear what would come of their marriage, especially given Maria’s Catholic beliefs, she eventually hired high profile divorce attorney Laura Wasser and filed for divorce on July 1st, citing the ever popular “irreconcilable differences”. Things [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/7ejo99G4Joo/

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Nigeria leaders rapped after Islamists attack churches (Reuters)

ABUJA (Reuters) ? Nigeria lacks competent leaders to tackle its security problems, a former military ruler said on Monday, following Christmas Day bomb attacks on churches by Islamist militants that killed more than two dozen people.

Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner who lost the last presidential election in April to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, said in a statement in a Nigerian daily that the government was slow to respond and had shown indifference to the bombings.

The Boko Haram Islamist sect, which aims to impose sharia law across Africa's most populous country, claimed responsibility for three church bombings, the second Christmas in a row it has caused carnage at Christian houses of worship.

Security forces also blamed the sect for two explosions in the north and fear is growing that Boko Haram is trying to ignite a sectarian civil war in a country split evenly between Christians and Muslims who for the most part co-exist in peace.

"How on earth would the Vatican and the British authorities speak before the Nigerian government on attacks within Nigeria that have led to the deaths of our citizens?" Buhari said in the statement published by Punch newspaper.

"This is clearly a failure of leadership at a time the government needs to assure the people of the capacity to guarantee the safety of lives and property," Buhari said.

He said the government needed to do more than spend more on security to deal with the problem.

Jonathan, a Christian from the south who is struggling to contain the threat of Islamist militancy, called the attacks "unfortunate" but said Boko Haram would "not be (around) forever. It will end one day."

Pope Benedict on Monday condemned the attacks as an "absurd gesture" and prayed that "the hands of the violent be stopped."

The pope, speaking from his window overlooking St Peter's Square in Rome, said such violence brought only pain, destruction and death.

COORDINATED ATTACKS

The attacks, which came a few days after clashes between security forces and Boko Haram killed at least 68 people, show evidence of increasing coordination and strategy by the group that could ring alarm bells in Nigeria and Western capitals.

St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Madala, a satellite town about 40 km (25 miles) from the centre of the capital Abuja, was packed when the first blast exploded just outside after Christmas mass.

A few hours later, blasts were reported at the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in the central, ethnically and religiously mixed town of Jos, and at a church in Gadaka in the northern state of Yobe. Residents said many were wounded in Gadaka, but there were no immediate further details.

A suicide bomber killed four officials at the State Security Service in one of the other attacks in the northeastern town of Damaturu, police said. Residents heard two loud explosions and gunfire in the town.

A Reuters reporter at the church near Abuja saw the front roof had been destroyed, as had several houses nearby. Five burnt out cars were still smoldering. There were scenes of chaos, as shocked residents stared at the wreckage in disbelief.

"Mass just ended and people were rushing out of the church and suddenly I heard a loud sound: 'Gbam!' Cars were in flames and bodies littered everywhere," Nnana Nwachukwu told Reuters.

Father Christopher Barde, Assistant priest of the church, said: "The officials who counted told me they have picked up 27 bodies so far." Police cordoned off the area around the church. Thousands of furious youths set up burning road blocks on the highway from Abuja leading to Nigeria's largely Muslim north.

Police and the military tried to disperse them by firing live rounds into the air with tear gas.

"We are so angry!" shouted Kingsley Ukpabi, as a queue of hooting vehicles lined up behind his flaming barrage.

VIOLENCE SPREADS

Boko Haram - which in the Hausa language spoken in northern Nigeria means "Western education is sinful" - is loosely modeled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

Its low level insurgency used to be largely confined to northeastern Nigeria, but it has struck several parts of the north, centre and Abuja this year.

Last Christmas Eve, a series of bomb blasts around Jos killed 32 people, and other people died in attacks on two churches in the northeast.

At the church near Abuja, a wounded man whose legs were almost shattered to pieces by the blast was loaded onto a stretcher near an ambulance by security services.

"I'll survive," he said in a hushed voice.

The blast in Jos, a tinderbox of ethnic and sectarian tensions where deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians have occurred, was accompanied by a shooting spree by militants, who exchanged fire with local police, said Charles Ezeocha, special task force spokesman for Jos.

"We lost one policeman and we have made four arrests. I think we can use them to get more information and work on that," he said. Police found four other explosive devices in Jos, which they deactivated, he added.

The White House condemned "this senseless violence and tragic loss of life on Christmas Day."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attacks and expressed his condolences "to the people of Nigeria and to the bereaved families."

"The Secretary-General calls once again for an end to all acts of sectarian violence in the country and reiterates his firm conviction that no objective sought can justify this resort to violence," a statement released by his office said.

(Additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Lagos, Tife Owolabi and Buhari Bello in Jos, Mike Oboh in Kano, a correspondent in Maiduguri and Philip Pullella in Vatican City; Writing by Tim Cocks and Bate Felix; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111226/wl_nm/us_nigeria_blast

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Automotive Auction In Sacramento | Cheap Home Ideas

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In the first place, long time in the past, when the first automobile appeared and the automobile business was born this way of transportation was seen more as a hobby. The ordinary people would nonetheless use the previous ways of transportation. So the car?s utility wasn?t absolutely understood not till within the 20th century. Now the automobile is an object that?s now not thought to be a hobby but a should, it?s now an utility. People can no longer imagine their world with out the automobile.

Unfortunately for some of us, vehicles are still too expensive. Not everybody can afford to spend some huge cash on new cars. That is why the automotive auctions are so profitable today. One of these public sale is used in plenty of nations, and is now a common practice.

In the United States the number of automotive auctions has elevated since a number of years in the past and is constantly increasing. There are car auctions in every metropolis, there are automotive auctions in L.A, automotive auctions in New York, automobile auctions in Sacramento, and so on.

The automotive public sale in Sacramento for instance, has nothing more or less from the automotive public sale in L.A. All the car auctions work across the same idea: used vehicles that people should buy for a lower price.

What are Automotive Auctions Actually about?

For dealers, the automobile public sale is a good market, a marketplace stuffed with opportunities and a very important a part of their business. The car public sale represents the assembly point the place both socializing and large transactions take place.

As a result of we first took the example of the car public sale in Sacramento let us continue with this one. Automobiles end up at an automobile public sale for all form of reasons. It is the same here, with the automotive public sale in Sacramento. One of the the reason why automobiles find yourself at an automobile auction, for instance at the automotive auction in Sacramento, is their age.

Many dealers provide all form of leases and other sorts of facilities. When returned, these ?off-lease? vehicles will end up at a car auction. This occurs because it?s a lot easier and also more convenient for the dealership to use the automobile auction system as a substitute of just attempting to sell them and place them in an automobile lot, especially if the autos are properly used.

Another method how automobiles can end up at an automotive public sale is that their companies are trading them. The companies? automobiles are normally traded after some years, and the automobile auction is the most effective place where they can be sold. That?s the reason the automobile public sale is the best place where you can either sell or purchase an used car. It is the same at all the automobile auctions, no matter their location, and it?s the same at the automobile auction in Sacramento too, simply in case you have been asking.

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Source: http://cheaphomeideas.com/automotive-auction-in-sacramento/

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Lenovo H330-77801HU

The Lenovo H330-77801HU ($899 direct and $1,118 with monitor), a small form factor desktop PC, is decked out with a Blu-ray player, fast Core i5 processor, and a huge 1TB hard drive. It bundles in a monitor, making it a reasonably-priced starter PC for those that want more kick than something like the HP Pavilion p7-1167cb ($899.99 list, 4 stars). However, the lack of integrated Wi-Fi edges this system out for users that don't have their router located in the same room as their PC.

Design and Features
The H330-77801HU is a thin and tall small form factor PC, measuring 11.5 by 9.9 by 15.75 inches (HWD). We've seen smaller from Apple's Mac mini (Thunderbolt) ($799 list, 4.5 stars). The front of the chassis has a tray-loading Blu-ray player/ DVD+-RW, audio and mic jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, and a couple of media card readers that support CF I/CF II/ MD and SD/ SDHC/ MMC/ MS/ MSPro formats. The back has more audio jacks, two PS/2 ports (one of which will be occupied by the included keyboard), Ethernet jack, and four USB 2.0 port (one of which will be occupied by the included mouse). One major feature missing from the Lenovo H330-77801HU is Wi-Fi. Because it has been left out, users will have to utilize the wired Ethernet jack to connect to the Internet, which may be a problem for consumers that don't have their router setup in a convenient position nearby for a PC.

The 23.6-inch widescreen LS2421p Wide ($219.99 direct, 4 stars) monitor displays in 1,920-by-1,080. It comes with VGA and HDMI video inputs, corresponding to the included HDMI and VGA outputs on the Lenovo H330-77801HU. The system also comes bundled with VGA and HDMI cables, so you can just plug and play without having to worry about ordering cables ahead of time. Generally, you don't buy a small form factor PC if you're thinking about upgrading; the H330-77801HU is no different. It will require a good chunk of effort, time, and patience to unscrew every screw and separate the entire exterior casing from the internal components by sliding it off?I wouldn't recommend it. Mid-tower chassis, like the Acer AM3470-UC30P ($599.99 list, 4 stars), are easier to tinker with, as all you need to do is unscrew the screws on one of the side panels and slide it off.

The H330-77801HU has a 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive, much bigger than the Mac mini's 500GB one. There's a little preinstalled software on the system; most of it being Lenovo's proprietary applications.

Performance
The H330-77801HU is outfitted with a 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500 processor, 8GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 6450 (512MB) discrete graphics. These components beat allowed it to beat out the Apple Mac mini (1,936) and Acer AM3470 (2,081) by a significant margin in PCMark 7 (2,606)?a test measuring day-to-day performance. In more media-oriented tests, the Lenovo H330-77801HU was able to quickly encode a video in Handbrake in 1 minute 12 seconds. While the Mac mini (1:42) and Acer AM3470 (2:33) fell behind again.

The H330-77801HU does come with a discrete graphics processor, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's ready for the gaming grid. In Crysis (DirectX 10), it wasn't able to average a playable frame rate (29.2fps) during its play-through (30fps is considered playable) on Medium quality settings and 1,280-by-720 resolution. Similar results were seen in Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 11), averaging 12.4fps on the same settings. The H330-77801HU's AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics will be able to get you through Azeroth if you're an avid World of Warcraft player, but anything more complex and the system will stutter. If you want more gaming performance without sacrificing the small form factor, the Apple Mac mini comes with a much more powerful AMD Radeon HD 6630M (256MB) that could easily play Crysis on Medium settings (48 frames per second), but not Lost Planet 2. If a monitor/ PC bundle is more what you're looking for, and you don't mind sacrificing some space, the Acer AM3470's AMD Radeon HD 6550D graphics was able to garner playable frame rates in Crysis (40fps).

The Lenovo H330-77801HU is a powerful small form factor PC and well-priced monitor/PC bundle unit. However, it comes with a major feature missing?Wi-Fi. For just $20 more Lenovo could have installed a wireless card, and it's beyond me why they omitted it. If you're looking for a great budget PC/monitor bundle, the Editors' Choice Acer AM3470-UC30P is a great option. If you're more concerned about saving space, the Editors' Choice Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) is a powerful small form factor PC, but it doesn't come with a monitor.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo H330-77801HU with several other laptops side by side.

More laptop reviews:
??? HP Omni 120-1024
??? Lenovo H330-77801HU
??? HP Omni 220-1080qd
??? HP TouchSmart 520-1070
??? Samsung Series 7 (DP700A3B-A01US)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/lH5BQXjk8EI/0,2817,2397698,00.asp

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Mayor Reed responds to inquiries about airport concessions

By Richard Halicks

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

At its next meeting Jan. 3, the Atlanta City Council may award the contracts for running restaurants, bars and shops at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The deals are long-term ? many cover at least 10 years ? and during that decade the total concession sales at the airport will be in the hundreds of millions. Because there?s so much money involved, airport concessions over the years have sometimes been tainted by corruption and challenged in court. This year, however, Atlanta?s new mayor said he would establish a new and transparent method for awarding those deals.

The Journal-Constitution sought to interview Mayor Kasim Reed about airport contracting, but he declined and said he would only accept written questions. Here are the AJC?s questions and the mayor?s responses.

1. Essentially, the fact that many of the winning bidders are significant contributors or participants in your campaign can give the impression that they won because they have a close relationship with you, or at least that the relationship was a factor. Was it?

No. I was not involved in the solicitation, evaluation or selection of the winners of this procurement. This question requires context about the decision made by the Department of Aviation (?DOA?) and the Department of Procurement (?DOP?) to bid the entire concessions package at once. This is something that has never been done. Typically, the packages are bid in phases. The DOA and DOP decided to rebid everything at once to ensure the most fair and ethical process possible. Why? If city officials had phased in the program, some would have argued that companies that received lease extensions were getting special treatment because they donated to my campaign. So, instead, my Administration started the procurement process from a blank slate where everyone could compete on a level playing field.

Since my inauguration, I have taken or directed my Administration to take a series of unprecedented actions regarding the management and business operations of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, including:

1. Returning campaign contributions from vendors competing for a procurement;

2. Implementing a new process for hiring the Aviation General Manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. I appointed a panel of nine, well-respected business leaders to identify and review candidates for the position. The result? The selection of Louis Miller, who spent 28 years running two of America's busiest airports without a hint of scandal or any ethical lapses. He has led and been the primary architect of this process, and his record as a professional should be noted;

3. Disclosing the financials of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to our airline tenants, most notably Delta Air Lines, which resulted in a $30 million contribution to our bond financing efforts;

4. Bringing the Corey litigation to a satisfactory conclusion for the plaintiff and the City of Atlanta;

5. Conducting background checks on the members of the selection panel;

6. Committing to make the names of the selection panel public, an action which has never occurred at any point before, during or after an airport procurement in the City of Atlanta.

2. Conversely, it would appear that bidders that did not give a lot of money did not win. Is that coincidental?

Again, I was not involved in the solicitation, evaluation or selection of the winners of this procurement. This question also requires more context. It is important to note that I have returned all contributions from airport vendors since the procurement process began, an action which is unprecedented. I have raised about $3.6 million since I began campaigning for Mayor. The amount of contributions I have received from airport vendors represents a very small percentage of my total campaign contributions. It is also worth noting that the other two candidates for Mayor of the City of Atlanta in 2009 also received substantial contributions from airport vendors. A review of the campaign disclosures of the three candidates concluded that the contributions made to them had no direct correlation to whether or not a particular proponent would be successful in winning a concessions bid. Please see the attached document.

3. Why would you have airport concessionaires play such a role in your campaign in the first place? Given that it could have been predicted that questions would be raised about possible conflicts of interest at the airport, why was Daniel Halpern your co-chair? Why not go with someone who?s not a significant contractor?

There is no conflict of interest because I was not involved in the solicitation, evaluation or selection of the winners of this procurement. I selected Dan Halpern as my campaign co-chair because of his qualifications for the position. Mr. Halpern is a member of the Democratic National Committee, Chairman of the Georgia Restaurant Association and a Board Member of the National Restaurant Association. Mr. Halpern also served as a member of the National Finance Committee for the campaign of President Barack Obama. It is important to note that I selected other well-respected individuals such as Elaine Alexander, Gwen Keyes Fleming and Peter Aman as my campaign co-chairs as well.

4. Did you or your staff discuss the bids with any bidder during the RFP process or provide help or advice of any kind?

I did not have any discussions with bidders or provide help or advice of any kind. Further, I am not aware of any discussions between staff and the bidders. The City of Atlanta implemented a ?black-out? period during the active phase of the procurement, which is the period between when the RFPs are issued by the Department of Procurement and the time that the Atlanta City Council awards the contracts. The black-out period also includes any additional time during which any resulting protests are resolved or the RFPs are otherwise canceled. During the active procurement process phase, proponents and individuals acting on behalf of proponents are prohibited from communicating with City-appointed officials and employees about the solicitations or proponents.

5. Can you characterize your relationship with the following individuals: Wassim Hojeij, Daniel Halpern, Mack Wilbourn and Terry Harps?

Sure, I know each of them. The individuals listed above are well-known, successful businessmen in the City of Atlanta.

6. Was the fact that certain companies? proposals would be disqualified a factor in the decision to reissue the RFP?

Chief Procurement Officer Adam Smith decided to re-issue the bids because 36 percent of the proposals would have been disqualified due to errors with the state-mandated E-verify form. It is worth noting that my Administration met with members of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution?s editorial board and a large contingent of reporters and editors on Friday, September 2, 2011, to share the rationale behind the decision and its implications prior to making a public announcement. Chief Operating Officer Peter Aman, Deputy Chief Operating Officer Duriya Farooqui, Chief of Procurement Adam Smith and Director of Communications Sonji Jacobs attended the meeting from the City of Atlanta; James Mallory, Bert Roughton, Kyle Wingfield, Matt Kempner and Kelly Yamanouchi were among those AJC reporters and editors who attended the meeting. It is also important to note that Delta Air Lines, the airport's largest tenant, supported the city's decision to re-bid this procurement in order to insure that we had the highest amount of competition possible so that the city can repay the $1.5 billion in debt that is associated with the airport, namely financing of the new Maynard H. Jackson International Jr. Terminal. Earlier this month, we were recognized by The Bond Buyer for the Deal of the Year in the Southeast Region for the debt financing around that transaction.

7. Would Delaware North Companies? proposals have been disqualified during the first round?

Once again, I was not involved in the solicitation, evaluation or selection of the winners of this procurement so I did not know which companies were competing in the bid process. The initial RFP was cancelled when the Department of Procurement conducted its initial review and found that 36 percent of the proposals would have been disqualified due to errors on the state-mandated E-verify form. I believe the Chief Procurement Officer?s decision to re-bid was the correct course of action because this process occurs once every 7-10 years, and we needed maximum competition. If approved by the Atlanta City Council, the recommendations will significantly increase competition as shown by the fact that the airport is projected to receive $23 million dollars more per year in additional revenue.

8. Would that have affected Mr. Halpern?s contract wins? Did Halpern or anyone on his behalf discuss this issue with anyone with the city (including in the mayor?s staff, procurement, law, aviation, etc.) or on the city?s behalf?

I was not involved in the solicitation, evaluation or selection of the winners of this procurement so I do not know what would have affected Dan Halpern or any other vendor, nor am I aware of any such discussions between Mr. Halpern and city staff. Again, the City of Atlanta implemented a black-out period during the procurement, which is still in effect.

9. When did the city make the decision to prohibit exclusive agreements between primes and subtenants and have no limit on the number of contracts subtenants could win? Why did the city make that decision? Was it a result of small businesses asking for that provision? Which, if any, companies asked for the change?

This question should be referred to Louis Miller, General Manager for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and the Department of Aviation staff because I had no role in making that decision.

Source: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/mayor-reed-responds-to-1270951.html?cxtype=rss_news_81963

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"Nigerian Taliban" church bombings kill scores

(AP)?

LAGOS, Nigeria - An explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital Sunday, killing at least 25 people, officials said. A radical Muslim sect waging an increasingly sophisticated sectarian fight claimed the attack and another bombing in the restive city of Jos, as explosions also struck the nation's northeast.

The Christmas Day attacks show the growing national ambition of the sect known as Boko Haram, which is responsible for at least 491 killings this year alone, according to an Associated Press count. The group's fundamentalist views and violent ways have earned them the nickname "Nigerian Taliban." The Christmas assaults come a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombings in Jos claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded.

The first explosion on Sunday struck St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, a town in Niger state close to the capital, Abuja, authorities said. Rescue workers recovered at least 25 bodies from the church and officials continued to tally those wounded in various hospitals, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.

His agency already has acknowledged it didn't have enough ambulances immediately on hand to help the wounded. Luguard also said an angry crowd that gathered at the blast site hampered rescue efforts as they refused to allow workers inside.

"We're trying to calm the situation," Luguard said. "There are some angry people around trying to cause problems."

In Jos, a second explosion struck near a Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church, government spokesman Pam Ayuba said. Ayuba said gunmen later opened fire on police guarding the area, killing one police officer. Two other locally made explosives were found in a nearby building and disarmed, he said.

"The military are here on ground and have taken control over the entire place," Ayuba said.

The city of Jos is located on the dividing line between Nigeria's predominantly Christian south and Muslim north. Thousands have died in communal clashes there over the last decade.

After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with public.

The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria's capital of Abuja had issued a warning Friday to citizens to be "particularly vigilant" around churches, large crowds and areas where foreigners congregate.

Several days of fighting in and around the northeastern city of Damaturu between the sect and security forces already had killed at least 61 people, authorities said. On Sunday, local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said two explosions struck Damaturu, including a blast near government offices. He declined to comment further, saying police had begun an operation to attack suspected Boko Haram sect members.

In the last year, Boko Haram has carried out increasingly bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state's capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.

The sect came to national prominence in 2009, when its members rioted and burned police stations near its base of Maiduguri, a dusty northeastern city on the cusp of the Sahara Desert. Nigeria's military violently put down the attack, crushing the sect's mosque into shards as its leader was arrested and died in police custody. About 700 people died during the violence.

While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes after the 2009 riot, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties.

Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say.

Sect members are scattered throughout northern Nigeria and nearby Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsGamecore/~3/Y7utc2vZ_DY/

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This Week?s Galaxy Tab News

The specs are solid enough?it runs a tasty 1.2GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor and has 1GB of RAM, and you can augment the onboard 16GB of storage with up to 32GB of microSD storage?but it?s the extras, which we?ll delve into shortly, that really make the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus an excellent entry in the 7-inch tablet market.
? Read the rest of the story

via HotHardware.com

Source: http://tabletcomputer.org/galaxy-tab/this-weeks-galaxy-tab-news-44/

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?Dragon Tattoo? Star Rooney Mara on Her Lisbeth Salander Transformation, Nude Scenes and More

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara is creating some buzz in one of the highly anticipated flicks of the year. The 26-year-old star chats with Parade.com about her Lisbeth Salander transformation, how she was originally turned down for the role, and much more. Here are some highlights: On the audition process… ?The [...]

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Kobe Bryant day-to-day with torn wrist ligament (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Kobe Bryant did not play in the Los Angeles Lakers' preseason finale against the Clippers on Wednesday night because of a torn ligament in his right wrist, and his status for the season opener on Christmas Day is up in the air.

A MRI revealed the extent of the injury, which occurred early in the in the third quarter of the Lakers' 114-95 loss to the Clippers on Monday night. Bryant was examined by Dr. Steven Shin of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic. Depending on the degree of the tear, he could be sidelined as long as three to four weeks.

"He's day-to-day. As soon as I figure it out, I will let you guys know," said coach Mike Brown, who took over this season after the retirement of Phil Jackson. "The doctor has to clear him. Guys will go through the year and get hurt, obviously. Sometimes they'll get hurt and can't play, sometimes they'll get hurt and still can play. It just depends on the situation. Come Sunday, we'll see how it is. There's a chance, though, that he could play Sunday."

Bryant, who shoots right-handed, was sent crashing to the floor by Clippers center DeAndre Jordan on a blocked layup and came up holding the wrist. He stayed in the game for another 3 minutes, then went to the bench for a good stretch and was allowed to return to the floor during the fourth quarter.

"I knew he landed on his wrist, but I was not aware that he was in significant pain," Brown said. "He did not tell me he was in pain, nor did our trainer (Gary Vitti) tell me he was in pain."

Bryant practiced Tuesday, but did not participate in Wednesday morning's shootaround. He did not talk to the media before the game and camped out in the trainer's room.

After Monday's game, when asked about the wrist, Bryant said it wasn't a problem. Brown's understanding was that his best player did not need surgery. Last season, Bryant played in all 82 games for the fourth time in his career. And with this season reduced to 66 games because of the 149-day lockout, every game without him is a bigger deal. But the NBA's sixth all-time leading scorer continually has demonstrated his ability to play through pain at a high level.

"He came up to me in practice yesterday and said: `My wrist is a little sore, but I'm good to go,'" Brown said. "And when it got to competitive stuff, where it was 5-on-5, he scored runners over defenders with his left hand. So he was playing a game within himself, I guess."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_sp_bk_ne/bkn_lakers_bryant_injured

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China says open to visit by new North Korean leader (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China said on Tuesday it was open to a visit by new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following the death of his father Kim Jong-il, as President Hu Jintao visited the hermit state's embassy in Beijing to express his condolences.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, speaking at a daily news briefing, initially said he had "no information" about whether Jong-un would be welcome to visit China.

But later he clarified: "I want to add that China and North Korea have always kept up high-level visits, and we welcome the North Korean leader to visit at a convenient time to both sides." He did not elaborate.

The remarks follow a message from China's central leadership on Monday that gave Beijing's support for isolated North Korea and expressed confidence in Kim Jong-un -- Kim Jong-il's young and little-known successor.

Hu, during his visit to North Korea's sprawling embassy in one of Beijing's leafy diplomatic quarters, offered his support for the country's new leader, Kim Jong-un, highlighting efforts to shore up friendship with Pyongyang under the younger Kim.

State television showed a grim-faced Hu bowing in mourning for the elder Kim, accompanied with several other top officials, including Vice President Xi Jinping, the man most likely to succeed Hu from late next year.

"We are confident that the people of North Korea will carry on the task bequeathed by Comrade Kim Jong-il, and closely unify around the Korean Workers' Party, and under Comrade Kim Jong-Un turn their anguish into strength," Hu said in his condolence remarks.

"Cooperative relations between China and North Korea is the immutable and unwavering guiding policy of China's party and government," the report paraphrased Hu as saying.

The visit -- unusual for China's highest ranked leader -- is another sign of Beijing's determination to protect its ties with Pyongyang as it enters an uncertain transition.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had spoken in the morning with his South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-hwan and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

All three agreed it was important to maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, the statement, carried on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn), said.

"Maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula accords with the interests of all sides. China is willing to work hard with all sides to this effect," it cited Yang as saying.

Impoverished and squeezed by international sanctions for conducting a series of nuclear and missile tests since 2006, North Korea has increasingly turned to Beijing for help to fill the gap left by the drying up of economic assistance from South Korea and the United States.

In turn, China has made clear that it wants to shore up North Korea as a buffer protecting its regional influence from the United States and its allies.

Over the 18 months before his death, Kim visited China four times, although in the past he rarely travelled abroad.

During Kim's China visit in May, the two sides vowed that their alliance, "sealed in blood," would pass on to their successors.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111220/wl_nm/us_china_northkorea_hu

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Manning lawyer asks judge to step down

FORT MEADE, Maryland?? The 23-year-old soldier accused of slipping a trove of national security secrets to the WikiLeaks website sat quietly at the defense table in the opening session of his pretrial hearing Friday as government and defense lawyers tangled over whether the presiding officer can be impartial.

David Coombs, the civilian attorney for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been in military detention since his arrest in Iraq in May 2010, pushed for the presiding officer, Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, to step aside.

Almanza's civilian occupation as a Justice Department prosecutor was the chief reason defense lawyer David Coombs gave in asking him to recuse himself. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

A member of the prosecution team, Capt. Ashden Fein, said the government opposes recusal.

"The United States does not believe you've exhibited any bias in any form and that you can render a fair and impartial decision," Fein said.

Almanza said he believed he was unbiased but did not make an immediate decision on the matter.

Manning, 23, is charged with aiding the enemy by leaking hundreds of thousands of secret documents that ended up on the website. At the time, he was a low-level intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

The case has spawned an international movement in support of Manning, who is seen by anti-war activists as a hero who helped expose American mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan. To others he is a villain, even a traitor, who betrayed his oath of loyalty by deliberately spilling his government's secrets.

Friday's hearing is to determine whether Manning will face a court-martial. If his case goes to trial and he is convicted, Manning could face life in prison. The government has said it would not seek the death penalty.

Coombs also argued that Almanza had wrongly denied a defense request to call as witnesses the "original classification authorities" who first decided to classify as secret the material WikiLeaks published.

"Let's put witnesses on the stand," he said. "Why is this stuff classified? Why is it going to cause harm?"

Classified documents
Dressed in his camouflage Army fatigues, Manning sat at the defense table showing little expression. He occasionally twirled a pen between his thumb and finger.

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The hearing is open to the public, but with limited seating. A small number of reporters were present but not allowed to record or photograph the proceedings.

A U.S. military legal expert told reporters shortly before the proceedings began that the presiding officer is likely to make his recommendation on whether to court-martial Manning within eight days after the hearing ends. The hearing is expected to last over the weekend and possibly well into next week.

The legal expert, who could not be identified under Army ground rules, said Manning is to be present for all proceedings, including sessions closed to the public for consideration of classified material.

The site of the hearing, Fort Meade, is home to U.S. Cyber Command, the organization whose mission includes protecting computer networks like the one Manning allegedly breached by illegally downloading huge numbers of classified documents in Iraq.

Manning's lawyer asserts that the documents' release did little actual harm.

Last month, 54 members of the European Parliament signed a letter to the U.S. government raising concerns about Manning's 18-month pretrial confinement.

Plans for vigil
Manning's supporters planned to maintain a vigil during the hearing and were organizing a rally for Saturday.

Army Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, could choose other courses aside from court-martial, including applying an administrative punishment or dismissing some or all of the 22 counts against Manning.

The Manning case has led to a debate over the broader issue of whether the government's system for classifying and shielding information has grown so unwieldy that it is increasingly vulnerable to intrusions.

Rape allegations
Absent from the Meade proceedings will be Assange, who runs WikiLeaks from England. He is fighting in British courts to block a Swedish request that he be extradited to face trial over rape allegations.

A U.S. grand jury is weighing whether to indict Assange on espionage charges, and WikiLeaks is straining under an American financial embargo.

The materials Manning is accused of leaking include hundreds of thousands of sensitive items: Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, State Department cables and a classified military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.

Manning, who turns 24 on Saturday, was detained in Iraq in May 2010 and moved to a Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va., in July. Nine months later, the Army sent him to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after a series of claims by Manning of unlawful pretrial punishment.

When it filed formal charges against Manning in March 2011, the Army accused him of using unauthorized software on government computers to extract classified information, illegally download it and transmit the data for public release by what the Army termed "the enemy."

Global headlines
The first large publication of the documents by WikiLeaks in July 2010, some 77,000 military records on the war in Afghanistan, made global headlines. But the material provided only limited revelations, including unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings as well as covert operations against Taliban figures.

In October 2010, WikiLeaks published a batch of nearly 400,000 documents that dated from early 2004 to Jan. 1, 2010. They were written mostly by low-ranking officers in the field cataloging thousands of battles with insurgents and roadside bomb attacks, plus equipment failures and shootings by civilian contractors. The documents did not alter the basic outlines of how the war was fought.

A month later, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of State Department documents that revealed a hidden world of backstage diplomacy, including candid comments from world leaders.

It took months for the Army to reach the conclusion that Manning was competent to stand trial. In the meantime Manning's civilian lawyer, Coombs, has sought to build a case that appears to rest in part on an assertion that the government's own reviews of the leaks concluded that little damage was done.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45696903/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Liftopia Ski Ticket Deal Engine Releases iPhone App [IPhone Downloads]

iPhone/iPod Touch: Skiing deals site Liftopia just released an iPhone/iPod Touch app that allows you to purchase discounted lift tickets, check the local snow conditions, and get ski reports. If you're an avid skier this is your app.

While you can buy tickets directly from the app, it is also connected to your account at Liftopia.com, so you can purchase tickets from your computer and use the app to access your tickets when you arrive to avoid having to keep up with printed confirmations.

You can also setup deal alerts, list certain resorts as favorites, and get directions to hard to find slopes. Liftopia offers over 75,000 deals on 150 different ski areas at up to 80% off list prices for lift tickets. You can also bundle in equipment rentals if necessary.

Liftopia Ski Reports, Snow Conditions and Ultimate Lift Ticket Deal Engine is a free download for iPhone and iPod Touch from the iTunes App Store.

Liftopia Ski Reports, Snow Conditions and Ultimate Lift Ticket Deal Engine | iTunes App Store via TechCrunch

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/_RfZxoNR5f4/liftopia-ski-ticket-deal-engine-releases-iphone-app

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The Golden Globe nominations: How they affect the Oscar race (The Week)

New York ? Which actors and films just saw their stock change thanks to nods ? or snubs ? from the Hollywood Foreign Press?

With Thursday's announcement of the 2011 Golden Globe nominations, the Oscar race is officially in full swing. The Globes nods, however, are hardly a perfect preview of what Academy Awards voters are thinking. For starters, by dividing the major motion-picture races into two categories, comedy and drama, the Globes make room for twice as many nominees. But the nominations announcement comes at the tail end of a busy week in awards season ? many critics' organizations just handed out honors and the Screen Actors Guild announced its nods ? and pundits often take the opportunity to gauge how the Oscar race is stacking up. Which films and actors just saw their awards stock rise, or fall? Here's a look at the winners and losers:

WINNERS

SEE MORE: Shame: Will an NC-17 rating doom the 'mesmerizing' Oscar contender?

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The Artist
As expected, The Artist "cemented its position as the season's frontrunner," says Guy Lodge at HitFix. The charming silent film's six nominations ? which include Best Comedy Picture, Director (Michael Hazanavicius), Comedy Actor (Jean Dujardin), and Supporting Actress (Berenice Bejo) ?make The Artist the film to beat. (Sadly, Uggie the dog continues to be overlooked.)

George Clooney
For a while, it looked as if Oscar chances for Ides of March, the political thriller directed by and starring George Clooney, were nil. The awards-season machinery has so far largely ignored the film, making its four Globe nods "the biggest surprise" of the day, says Oliver Lyttelton at Indie Wire. The film's strong showing ? Best Drama Picture, Director (Clooney), Drama Actor (Ryan Gosling), and Screenplay ? undeniably brings the film "back into the awards discussion," says Adam Waldowski at Gold Derby. With his additional Best Actor nod for The Descendants ? not to mention that film's impressive five nominations ? "George Clooney is the King of the Globes this year," says Steve Pond at The Wrap.

SEE MORE: The Artist: The silent film that's an Oscar frontrunner?

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Tilda Swinton
Four of the Oscars' Best Actress slots have been all-but-locked for a while now: Viola Davis for The Help, Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn, and Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs. But with consecutive nods from SAG and the Golden Globes, Tilda Swinton "does seem to be firming up" her position as that fifth nominee for her performance as the mother of a teen who commits a school shooting in We Need to Talk About Kevin, says Willa Paskin at New York.

The Help
With its five nods, The Help also had a strong Globes showing, and is seen as a likely bet for four major Oscar nominations at this point: Best Picture, Best Actress (Davis), and Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain). For a while, Chastain's awards prospects seemed uncertain, says Lodge, but "her awards season narrative has been set" now thanks to a burst of momentum from the SAG, the Globes, and the Critics Choice Awards.

SEE MORE: The Descendants: George Clooney's best performance yet?

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LOSERS

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
A complete shut out from the Globes "came as a decisive blow" for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, says Waldowski. The drama, about a boy dealing with his father's death on 9/11, was expected to be a strong contender for Best Picture, Director (Stephen Daldry), Supporting Actress (Sandra Bullock), and Supporting Actor (Max Von Sydow), but after coming up empty at both the Globes and Wednesday's SAG announcements, the film's Oscar chances look seriously diminished.

SEE MORE: Should stars of bad movies win Best Actress Oscars?

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Melissa McCarthy
Bridesmaids scenestealer Melissa McCarthy's awards campaign was on a roll this week, collecting numerous critics' trophies, earning SAG and Critics Choice nominations, and generating Oscar buzz. She failed, however, to make the Globes' shortlist in the Best Comedy Supporting Actress category, leaving critics baffled. "I had to check my Golden Globes score sheet multiple times" to ensure that she was actually missing, says Jeff Labrecque at Entertainment Weekly. Her exclusion is the "most head-scratching snub," says Paskin at New York. Bridesmaids got other boosts, however, thanks to a Best Comedy Picture nod and star Kristen Wiig's inclusion in the Best Comedy Actress division.

Tree of Life
Tree of Life, a film that has polarized critics, was also "completely shut out" from the Golden Globes, says Labrecque. Though Terrence Malick's extremely artsy drama has been racking up Best Picture accolades from a number of critics' groups, neither the film nor acting contenders Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain were recognized (though the thespians earned nods for Moneyball and The Help, respectively).

SEE MORE: Bridesmaids: An Oscar contender?

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Steven Spielberg
War Horse did manage to get nominated for Best Drama Picture ? as the field was extended to six, instead of five, nominees ? but its director Steven Spielberg had no such luck, says Lyttelton. That the film hasn't received the rousing support that The Artist, The Descendants, and Hugo have is making its Oscar hopes "look incredibly bleak," says Paskin.

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get Will Brett Ratner ruin the Oscars?

Opinion Brief: Should Billy Crystal host the Oscars again?

Burning Question: George Clooney's The Ides of March: The year's first Oscar 'sure-thing'?

EssayThe last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111215/cm_theweek/222515

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