State Dept: Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy

FILE - In this Aug. 14, 1998 file photo, the U.S. embassy in downtown Cairo, Egypt. Three U.S. citizens whom Egyptian authorities have barred from leaving the country have sought refuge in the American Embassy in Cairo, U.S. officials said Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Leila Gorchev, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 14, 1998 file photo, the U.S. embassy in downtown Cairo, Egypt. Three U.S. citizens whom Egyptian authorities have barred from leaving the country have sought refuge in the American Embassy in Cairo, U.S. officials said Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Leila Gorchev, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2009 handout file photo proved by the Transportation Department, Sam Lahood, left, watches as his father Ray is sworn in as Transportation Secretary, at the Transportation Department in Washington. Three U.S. citizens whom Egyptian authorities have barred from leaving the country have sought refuge in the American Embassy in Cairo, U.S. officials said Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Those banned include Sam LaHood, son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, but officials would not say whether he is at the embassy. (AP Photo/ Transportation Department, File)

CAIRO (AP) ? Three American democracy advocates barred by Egyptian authorities from leaving the country have sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, officials said Monday, as tensions between the two allied nations sharply escalated over a probe into foreign-funded organizations.

The unusual step comes amid a row over an Egyptian crackdown on U.S.-funded groups promoting democracy and human rights that has jeopardized more than $1 billion of crucial U.S. aid to Egypt, one of its biggest recipients.

The investigation is closely intertwined with Egypt's political turmoil since Hosni Mubarak's fall nearly a year ago. The generals who took power have accused "foreign hands" of being behind protests against their rule and frequently depict the protesters as receiving foreign funds in a plot to destabilize the country.

Egyptian authorities are preventing at least six Americans and four Europeans from leaving the country, citing a probe opened last month when heavily armed security forces raided the offices of 10 international organizations. Egyptian officials have defended the raid as part of legitimate investigation into the groups' work and funding.

Those banned include Sam LaHood, son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, but officials would not say whether he is at the embassy. The younger LaHood, who heads the Egypt office of the Washington-based International Republican Institute, referred queries to a spokeswoman in Washington who did not return calls seeking comment.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Kate Starr told reporters in Washington Monday that the citizens were in the embassy.

"A handful of U.S. citizens have opted to stay in the embassy compound in Cairo while waiting for permission to depart Egypt," she said.

Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said three Americans are at the embassy, adding that the move was not because the U.S. feared their imminent arrest.

A former IRI official quoted in The Washington Post Sunday, however, said his colleagues had indicated that they would only move to the embassy if they feared they'd be arrested soon.

U.S. officials have warned that restrictions on civil society groups could hinder aid to Egypt, which would be a major blow to the country as it struggles with economic woes and continued turmoil in the wake of the 18-day popular uprising that led to Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster. Egypt's military has been locked in a confrontation for months with protesters who demand it immediately hand over power to civilians.

The Egyptian army itself receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington. The December raids brought sharp U.S. criticism, and last week President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Egyptian military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi about the issue.

Recent U.S. legislation could block annual aid to Egypt unless it takes certain steps. These include abiding by its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, holding free and fair elections and "implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association and religion and due process of law."

The U.S. is due to give $1.3 billion in military assistance and $250 million in economic aid to Egypt in 2012. Washington has given Egypt an average of $2 billion in economic and military aid a year since 1979, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Sam LaHood of IRI said last week that three other employees of his organization were on the no-fly list, two American and one European.

From the National Democratic Institute, which was also raided in December, three Americans and three Serb employees are on the list, the group's Egypt director, Lisa Hughes, said last week.

Hughes said in a text message Monday that none of NDI's employees are residing at the U.S. Embassy.

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman did not respond Monday to requests for comment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-30-Egypt-US/id-999ec2e4125d41f59bc3b80c6bdd43b8

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Contraceptive mandate could face tough sledding in Supreme Court

Reporting from Washington?

The Supreme Court and the Obama administration, already headed for a face-off in March over the constitutionality of the healthcare law, appear to be on another collision course over whether church-run schools, universities, hospitals and charities must provide free contraceptives to their students and employees.

The dispute stems from one of the more popular parts of the new healthcare law: its requirement that all health plans provide ?preventive services? for free. That category includes vaccines and such routine screenings as cholesterol checkups and mammograms. Starting this year, it also includes coverage of birth control pills, IUDs and other contraceptives.

Catholic leaders reacted fiercely when the administration announced in recent days that it would hold most religious institutions to that mandate, even those that have moral and religious objections to what some of their lawyers describe as ?abortion-inducing drugs.?

Already two religious colleges have sued, and their cause got a major boost earlier this month from a unanimous Supreme Court decision that greatly expanded the definition of religious freedom.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan in New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, denounced the requirement as ?unconscionable,? saying the church should not be forced ?to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs.?

Women?s rights groups, on the other side, say that without the law?s coverage, hundreds of thousands of women, including students at Catholic universities and workers at church-related hospitals, would be denied coverage for one of the most commonly used forms of healthcare.

?This is good health policy and good economic policy,? said Dawn Laguens, vice president at Planned Parenthood. ?It increases access to affordable birth control, but it is up to an individual employee to choose it or not. That?s very much the American way.?

The administration agreed to a one-year delay of the rule, but starting next year, health plans, including those offered by religious institutions, must pay for ?all FDA-approved forms of contraception,? said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.? Employers who fail to provide this insurance will face heavy fines.

The law exempts churches, themselves, and some other religious entities that ?primarily? employ and serve persons of the same faith. Catholic officials, however, say that definition is too narrow and excludes church-run colleges, hospitals and charities and many primary schools.

?For us, serving non-Catholics has been a point of pride, but we are punished under this rule for serving the common good,? said Anthony R. Picarello Jr., general counsel of the U.S. Catholic Conference.

The dispute already has become a significant political issue. The leading Republican presidential hopefuls have all said they would seek to repeal the healthcare law, but also would end the contraceptive-coverage requirement if they could not eliminate the law entirely.

If Obama wins reelection, however, the requirement seems likely to be fought out in court. Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic school in North Carolina, and Colorado Christian University near Denver have filed suit. College officials say the mandate forces them ?to violate their deeply held religious beliefs.? The Catholic Conference has not yet decided on joining a lawsuit, but ?the bishops are eager to pursue every lawful means to stop this mandate,? said Picarello.

The legal challenge got a major boost three weeks ago,? when the high court strengthened the Constitution?s protection for religious freedom. In a 9-0 defeat for the administration, the justices said the 1st Amendment gives ?special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations? in decisions about their employees.

At issue in that case was a clash between the rights of church employers and the government?s interest in protecting the rights of employees. The administration had backed a job-bias suit filed by a teacher who was fired by a Lutheran school. Churches and church schools are not exempt from civil rights claims, the administration argued.

But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.said the Constitution does not allow for ?government interference with an internal church decision that affects the faith and mission of the church itself.? He called the administration?s view ?extreme? and ?remarkable.? Legal scholars called his opinion the court?s most important for religious freedom in two decades.

Judy Waxman of the National Women?s Law Center said religious freedom is not threatened by the health-coverage requirement. ?Religious freedom is guaranteed to the individual, and 98% of American women use contraception at some time in their lives. And that is true for Catholics as well,? she said.

But lawyers challenging the rule say the dispute is not about women using contraception, but about forcing the Catholic Church to pay for it. Hannah Smith, a former law clerk to Justices Samuel A. AlitoJr.and Clarence Thomas, filed the two college suits on behalf of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

She described this month?s decision in the Lutheran school case ?as a stinging rebuke to the Obama administration?s extremely narrow view of religious liberty. I was shocked they went ahead with this quest to force religious groups to pay for abortion drugs in violation of their religious convictions.?

Her suits say the mandate violates both the 1st Amendment and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits the government from putting a ?substantial burden? on religious liberty.

The suits are at their early stage, and the administration is due to respond next month. If the case eventually reaches the high court, they would come before a tribunal with six Catholics among the nine justices.

david.savage@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/hAp7gNMikH4/la-na-court-contraception-20120131,0,190970.story

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US Sen. Brown releases military service record (AP)

BOSTON ? U.S. Sen. Scott Brown released his military service record Saturday documenting the more than three decades he has served in the Army National Guard.

The records include his promotions, awards and officer evaluation reports, which offer high praise of Brown's service during the Massachusetts Republican's years in the military.

An officer evaluation report from 1985 was typical, describing Brown as "a young and aggressive officer."

"He is self-motivated and learns very fast. He has the potential to be promoted to a position with greater responsibilities," the report said.

Brown, a member of the Armed Services Committee, is facing a tough re-election campaign.

His office said the documents show the reason he was passed up for a Guard promotion to lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General Corps in 2003 and 2004 was due to a missing document in his file.

Brown's office described the failure to include the document ? which showed that he had completed the necessary Command and General Staff Office Course ? as an administrative oversight. They noted that after Brown appealed to show that he had completed the required military education, he received the promotion in 2006.

The same oversight caused the Army National Guard to place Brown into the Retired Reserve from July 2005 through December 2005, his office said.

Brown first enlisted in the Massachusetts Army National Guard in 1979.

"I am proud of my 32 years of service in the Army National Guard," he said in a statement accompanying the documents. "The Guard has profoundly impacted my life, and I credit those I have served with for inspiring me to be a better man, and a better servant of my country."

The documents did not include Brown's military medical records, which he said he plans to release when the military provides a copy.

Brown's office said he has never requested a transfer during his military service and that every transfer he received was ordered by the Massachusetts National Guard Adjutant General.

The awards Brown received include a Meritorious Service Medal, an Army Commendation Medal, an Army Achievement Medal and Army Parachutist Badge.

Brown, who also serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs committees, has said his service in the military has helped inform his work as an elected official.

He pointed to a recent proposal he sponsored that he said was designed to protect housing benefits for National Guard members deployed overseas.

Brown recently hosted a field hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee of Veterans Affairs to address what he said was the unprecedented claims backlog at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the difficulty that returning veterans face as they try to enter to the workforce.

Last August, Brown participated in a weeklong training session in Afghanistan, spending most of his time in Kabul, where he lived, ate and trained with other troops, according to his office. It was his first time serving in a combat zone.

He was a key vote to end the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy that had prevented gay soldiers from serving openly in the military.

Brown won a special election in 2010 to fill the seat held for nearly half a century by Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy until his death from brain cancer.

His chief Democratic rival this year is Harvard professor and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren. Polls show the two locked in a tight race.

The two recently signed an agreement designed to discourage outside, third-party groups from running attack ads in the race, which could end up being the most expensive campaign in Massachusetts history.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_se/us_massachusetts_senate_brown

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ABB near $4 billion deal for Thomas & Betts: report (Reuters)

NEW YORK/ZURICH (Reuters) ? Swiss engineering company ABB (ABBN.VX) was near an agreement on Sunday to acquire U.S. manufacturer Thomas & Betts Corp (TNB.N) for about $ 4 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

An agreement could be announced as soon as Monday, although the talks could still fall apart, the paper said on its website, citing the same unnamed sources.

ABB, which makes products used by oil, mining and utility companies, was not immediately available to comment.

Memphis-based Thomas & Betts makes electrical components for industrial companies in the United States, Canada and Europe. It had sales of about $2 billion in 2010 and is scheduled to report its 2011 and fourth-quarter results on Monday, the paper said.

The Zurich-headquartered company has been on a buying spree for the past two years and analysts have kept a close eye on the size of its war chest to see where it might pounce next.

Under the leadership of Chief Executive Joe Hogan, it returned to the M&A market after a lengthy absence, buying industrial motor business Baldor Electric for $4.2 billion in 2010, among other deals.

ABB had net cash of some $1 billion at the end of the third quarter. Acquisitions could potentially add another 3 to 4 percent to its overall growth rate, although in November, Hogan ruled out emptying its war chest for one single target.

Hogan has said ABB still had gaps in the United States and in the market for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) -- small equipment control devices.

In 2011 ABB, which competes with France's Schneider (SCHN.PA) and Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE), bought Australian software company Mincom, having in 2010 spent more than $1 billion on U.S. software company Ventyx.

(Reporting by; Joseph A. Giannone, additional reporting by Catherine Bosley; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/bs_nm/us_thomasbetts_abb

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Launch Center puts Messages, Facebook, Twitter, a flashlight and more in your iPhone Notification Center [Macworld 2012]

Launch Center, a new shortcuts app for iPhone, aims to make everything from sending messages and mail to posting on Facebook and Twitter, to turning on your LED flashlight, faster

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/WkeujsSZqx4/story01.htm

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Video: Century 21 Hopes to Score Big in Super Bowl Ad

Real estate giant Century 21 will be advertising for the first time during the big game. Insight with Bev Thorne, Century 21 Real Estate chief marketing officer.

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95% Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

"They fatten up the pig, now we gonna roast it."After a prison riot, Captain Nascimiento, now a high ranking security officer in Rio de Janeiro, is swept into a bloody political dispute that involves government officials and paramilitary groups. REVIEWElite Squad 2 works because it grows from the first one. The first movie introduced BOPE to the world and had to spend time explaining its methods, philosophy, code of honour and recruitment process. The sequel doesn't suffer from the burden of exposition, and instead of rehashing the plot of the first - the bane of most sequels - it lets the characters' personalities lead the story.Brazilian cinema has been very good since City of God exploded in the world like a hand grenade. Because of it Brazilian cinema has become synonymous with crime movies, even if that's a gross generalization. A subgenre of crime movies defined by graphic violence, social criticism and inventive camera work has prospered in its wake: My Name Ain't Johnny, The Man Who Copied, City of Men, Bus 174, and the Elite Squad movies. At the heart of this Renaissance is the movie's screenwriter, Br?ulio Mantovani. For better or for worse all these movies take inspiration from the style he established in City of God. Directors and actors come and go, but everyone still copies the dark humour, the political irreverence, the non-linear narratives, and the clever voice-over that earned Mantovani an Oscar nomination almost a decade ago.Editor Daniel Rezende, who also worked in City of God, puts the movie together with the force of a tornado. Complementing director of photography Lula Carvalho's documentary-like style, the fast editing and the dizzying camera work go as far as cinema outside of 3D can go in immersing the viewer in the middle of the action.

November 26, 2011

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

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Russian investigators probe election violations (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia's top investigator says his agency is investigating a few dozen alleged electoral violations, even though opposition parties and election monitors have said they numbered thousands.

Claims that last month's parliamentary vote was manipulated to allow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party to retain its majority in parliament sparked Russia's largest anti-government protests in two decades.

Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said Friday that almost half of the 36 alleged violations involve Putin's United Russia party.

Lawmakers from the Communist, Just Russia and Liberal Democratic parties dismissed Bastrykin's report and said they had reported thousands of violations including ballot stuffing and forcible removal of observers from polling stations.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_elections

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Romney failed to disclose income from Swiss bank (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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School lunches to have more veggies, whole grains (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Schoolchildren's favorite lunch ? the ubiquitous frozen pizza ? is about to get healthier.

First lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are expected to announce Wednesday that most school meals, including pizza, will have less sodium, more whole grains and more fruits and vegetables as sides. The popular pizzas will still be on school lunch lines but made with healthier ingredients.

Mrs. Obama and Vilsack were making the announcement at an elementary school in Alexandria, Va., with celebrity chef Rachael Ray.

The new rules, the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in 15 years, won't be as aggressive as the Obama administration had hoped. Congress last year blocked the Agriculture Department from making some of the changes the department had sought, including limiting french fries and pizzas.

A bill passed in November would require USDA to allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. The initial draft of the department's guidelines, released a year ago, would have prevented that. Congress also blocked USDA from limiting servings of potatoes to two servings a week. The final rule to be announced Wednesday will have to incorporate those directions from Congress.

The congressional changes had been requested by potato growers and food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, among others in the food industry. Conservatives in Congress called the guidelines an overreach, saying the government shouldn't be telling children what to eat. School districts had also objected to some of the requirements, saying they go too far and would cost too much.

The new guidelines would apply to lunches subsidized by the federal government, and a child nutrition bill signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 would help school districts pay for some of the increased costs. Some of the changes could take place as soon as the next school year, while others would be phased in over time.

The guidelines are also expected to limit the total number of calories in an individual meal and require that milk be low in fat. Flavored milks would have to be nonfat.

While many schools are improving meals already, others are still serving children meals high in fat, salt and calories. The guidelines are designed to combat growing childhood obesity and are based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

The subsidized meals that would fall under the guidelines are served as free and low-cost meals to low-income children and long have been subject to government nutrition standards. The 2010 law for the first time will extend nutrition standards to other foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the federal government, including "a la carte" foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines.

Those standards, while expected to be similar, will be written separately and have not yet been proposed by USDA.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_healthier_school_lunches

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UK economy shrinks by 0.2 pct in 4th quarter (AP)

LONDON ? Britain's economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the last three months of 2011, official data showed Wednesday, a worse than expected result that raises fears of a recession and could see the Bank of England push for more monetary stimulus.

The market consensus had been that the economy would contract by only 0.1 percent in the quarter. For the year, GDP grew by just 0.8 percent, the Office for National Statistics said.

The fourth-quarter drop is likely to confirm analysts' belief that the Bank of England will authorize spending more billions next month to stimulate the economy.

Minutes of the January meeting of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee showed that, as expected, the nine members had been unanimous in voting not to approve more stimulus.

The Bank had indicated that it would take at least through January to spend the 75 billion pounds in asset purchases approved in October.

Some analysts expect the bank to authorize more purchases next month.

The GDP report showed that Britain's big services sector didn't grow at all in the fourth quarter, while output of production industries, including factories, fell by 1.2 percent.

The International Monetary Fund this week cut its forecasts for the U.K. economy, predicting growth of only 0.6 percent compared with 1.6 percent previously.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_economy

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Strong business morale shows Germany will avoid recession (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? German business sentiment rose for the third month in a row in January, beating expectations and offering fresh evidence that Europe's largest economy is shrugging off a sovereign debt crisis that has hammered growth in other euro zone countries.

The Munich-based Ifo think tank said on Wednesday its business climate index, based on a monthly survey of some 7,000 companies, rose to 108.3 in January from a revised 107.3 in December, its highest level since August and the biggest monthly increase in 11 months.

The reading was at the top end of expectations in a Reuters poll of 39 economists that produced a median forecast of 107.5. It sent the euro to a session high versus the dollar.

"Did anyone say recession? Today's Ifo index shows that the German economy only made a short stopover at the end of last year and is now heading towards expansion again," said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING in Brussels.

"The widely-spread fear that the euro zone's biggest economy could now also be caught by the crisis virus has been soothed."

A sub-index on expectations posted the biggest monthly climb since July 2010, a sign businesses are confident that Europe's powerhouse will return to healthy growth from the second quarter of the year. It rose to 100.9 from a revised 98.6.

Ifo's sub-index on current conditions fell to 116.3 from 116.7 in December.

TURNING POINT

Economists said the third consecutive increase signaled a turning point in Germany's outlook, with growth broadening again, prompting JP Morgan analysts to expect German quarter-on-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around 1 percent in the first three months of the year.

Germany's government predicts the economy will grow 0.1 percent in the first quarter.

"We have hit the floor with GDP in the first quarter," Unicredit economist Andreas Rees said.

Germany has been resilient in the face of troubles elsewhere in the euro zone, as fiscal prudence, steady demand for its high-quality products, and high competitiveness have helped it weather a tough global environment.

But its economy slowed at the end of last year and some economists see a risk of two consecutive quarters of contraction -- the technical definition of a recession -- in the fourth quarter of 2011 and first quarter of 2012.

"There are no signs of a recession," said Ifo economist Klaus Abberger, pointing to the euro zone debt crisis as the main risk to the German outlook.

Germany was the only country in the euro zone to retain a top-grade AAA credit rating with a stable outlook from Standard & Poor's, after the rating agency's mass downgrade of states using the single currency earlier this month.

The strong Ifo, combined with an expanding manufacturing sector and better investor sentiment, came a day after the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for German growth to 0.3 percent from 1.3 percent for this year, a forecast that Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said was too low.

Still, economists are concerned that while Germany is weathering the storm well, its growth is far from enough to bolster the euro zone as a whole.

And in a sign that the gloomier economic environment is making it harder for firms already struggling to secure financing, a number of high-profile German companies have filed for insolvency in recent months.

Germany's biggest drugstore chain Schlecker said last week it was filing for insolvency after failing to secure funds to keep it afloat while it restructures its business.

Even Siemens (SIEGn.DE), Europe's biggest engineering conglomerate, has felt the pinch of the debt crisis. The maker of trains, turbines, hearing aids and lightbulbs said on Tuesday it suffered an unexpectedly sharp fall in core profit, as the debt crisis squeezed its margins, especially in the renewable energy business.

(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt, additional reporting by Stephen Brown, Madeline Chambers, Brian Rohan and Gareth Jones; Editing by Noah Barkin and Stephen Nisbet)

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

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Officials: Car bombs kill 14 across Baghdad (AP)

BAGHDAD ? A wave of car bombings hit the Iraq capital on Tuesday, killing 14 people and wounding more than 70 as violence surges in the country amid an escalating political crisis a month after the U.S. military withdrawal.

At least 170 people have died in attacks since the beginning of the year, many of them Shiite pilgrims attending religious commemorations. The last American soldiers left the country Dec. 18.

Suspected Sunni insurgents have frequently targeted Shiite communities and Iraqi security forces to undermine public confidence in the Shiite-dominated government and its efforts to protect people.

Tuesday's first attack targeted an early morning gathering of day laborers in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Police said eight were killed and another 21 wounded. Minutes later, an explosives-packed car blew up near a pastry shop in the same district, killing three people and wounding 26, police said.

Later in the morning, two more explosives-laden cars detonated, killing three and wounding 29 people.

A parked car bomb exploded near a high school at 10:30 a.m. in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shula in northern Baghdad, killing two students and wounding 16 others, most of them also students, according to local police.

In the neighboring district of Hurriya, one person was killed when an explosives-packed car, parked along a busy commercial street detonated five minutes after the Shula blast, police officials said. Thirteen people were injured in that bombing.

Hospital officials in Baghdad confirmed the death toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

While insurgents have carried out a number of deadly attacks in recent years, there is little indication so far that the country is slipping back toward the widespread sectarian bloodshed of 2006 and 2007.

Nonetheless, these recent attacks are seen as particularly dangerous because they coincide with both the departure of U.S. troops, as well as a political crisis pitting Shiite officials against the largest Sunni-backed bloc.

The political battle erupted last month after the Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, on terrorism charges, sending him into virtual exile in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. In protest, al-Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc has been boycotting parliament and Cabinet sessions, bringing government work to a standstill.

Sunnis fear that without the American presence as a last-resort guarantor of a sectarian balance, the Shiite government will try to pick off their leaders one by one, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tries to cement his own grip on power.

Last week, the leader of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, Ayad Allawi, accused al-Maliki of unfairly targeting Sunni officials and deliberately triggering a political crisis that is tearing Iraq apart. Allawi, who is a Shiite, said Iraq needs a new prime minister or new elections to prevent the country from disintegrating along sectarian lines.

____

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

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[OOC] Blacklight Delilahs

Forum rules
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Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Blacklight Delilahs?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

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Can I reserve the lead female vocalist? I'll have her up tonight.

Horseygirl

Member for 3 years

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can I reserve 'Guitarist 1'?

i can have the character sheet up asap.

BekaL101

Member for 1 years

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Second body found aboard capsized cruise ship

As the death toll rises from the Costa Concordia, the ship's captain is fighting back against allegations that he abandoned his post. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Published at 10:40 a.m. ET: GIGLIO, Italy -- Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than the 20 previously announced.

Divers, meanwhile, pulled out a woman's body from the capsized Costa Concordia on Sunday, raising to 13 the number of people dead in the Jan. 13 accident. Italian Coast Guard divers on Saturday found a woman's body in a corridor of a submerged section of the ship.

Civil protection official Francesca Maffini told reporters the victim found on Sunday was wearing a life vest and was found in the rear of a submerged portion of a ship by a team of fire department divers. The unidentified body was being removed from the ship.

Earlier, Italian authorities raised the possibility that the real number of the missing was unknown because some unregistered passengers might have been aboard. As of Sunday, 19 people are listed as missing, but that number could be higher.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio, where the ship, with 4,200 people aboard rammed a reef and sliced open its hull on Jan. 13 before turning over on its side.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But in addition to the body recovered on Sunday, the body found on Saturday and those of three men found a few days earlier, have yet to be identified, because the corpses were badly decomposed after so much time in the water. Gabrielli said they have identified the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national.

Until Sunday, authorities had said that 20 people are still missing.

Seemingly minute shifts in the position of the cruise ship that partially sank in an Italian port is hampering the underwater search for 21 passengers and crew missing for more than a week. NBC's Michelle Kosinki reports from Giglio, Italy.

Holding out hope
Meanwhile, family members of a couple from the state of Minnesota still missing after last week's cruise ship wreck say they've been meeting in Italy with rescue workers.

In an email statement sent Saturday night to news organizations, relatives of Jerry and Barbara Heil say the captain in charge of the operation indicated he wasn't ready to give up hope that the missing can be found.

The family members say they and relatives of others missing from the Costa Concordia accident were taken out near the ship and allowed to place flowers in the water honoring their loved ones. They say the workers stopped what they were doing and saluted during the tribute.

The Heil family says it's grateful for the efforts from the workers trying to find the missing.

The search had been halted for several hours early Sunday, after instrument readings indicated that the Concordia has shifted a bit on its precarious perch on a seabed just outside Giglio's port. A few yards away, the sea bottom drops off suddenly, by some 65-100 feet, and if the Concordia should abruptly roll off its ledge, rescuers could be trapped inside.

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of passengers as the ship began heavily listing.

The effort to find survivors and bodies has postponed an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia's tanks; specialized equipment has been standing by for days.

Light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized ship, was spotted in nearby waters, authorities said Saturday.

Searching for evidence
Meanwhile, police divers, carrying out orders from prosecutors investigating Captain Francesco Schettino for suspected manslaughter and abandoning the ship, swam through the cold, dark waters to reach his cabin. State TV and the Italian news agency ANSA reported that the divers located and remove his safe and two suitcases. His passport and several documents were also pulled out, state media said.

Searchers inspecting the bridge Saturday also found a hard disk containing data of the voyage, Sky TG24 TV reported.

The captain of the cruise ship told magistrates he informed the ship's owners of the accident immediately, denying he had delayed raising the alarm, judicial sources said on Saturday.

Schettino has been blamed for causing the accident. He is under house arrest, accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.

His statements to prosecutors investigating the disaster, reported in the Italian press and confirmed by judicial sources, underline the growing battle between him and Costa Cruise Lines which operates the 114,500 ton vessel.?

According to transcripts of his questioning by prosecutors leaked to Italian media, he said that immediately after hitting the rock he sent two of his officers to the engine room to check on the state of the vessel.

As soon as he realized the scale of the damage, he called Roberto Ferrarini, marine operations director for Costa Cruises.

"I told him: I've got myself into a mess, there was contact with the seabed. I am telling you the truth, we passed under Giglio and there was an impact," Schettino said.

"I can't remember how many times I called him in the following hour and 15 minutes. In any case, I am certain that I informed Ferrarini about everything in real time," he said, adding he had asked the company to send tug boats and helicopters.

Costa Cruises Chief Executive Pier Luigi Foschi says Schettino delayed issuing the SOS and evacuation orders and gave false information to the company headquarters.

"Personally, I think he wasn't honest with us," Foschi told Corriere della Sera Friday. He said the first phone conversation between Schettino and Ferrarini took place 20 minutes after the ship hit the rock.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/22/10210202-second-body-found-aboard-capsized-cruise-ship

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Mitch Rofsky: Timing Is (Almost) Everything: Bain Capital, Open Marriages and Why There's No Such Thing as a "January Surprise"

No political candidate wants their past sins exposed. Who wants your financial or sexual gaffes (which is really too weak a word) to be headline news?

But, the old line "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" applies here. A terrible incident (especially more than one) can kill you, of course. Herman Cain is the most recent example of the exposure being too strong.

It's the "stronger" part that doesn't get enough attention. There is a little recognized upside to these revelations. Once they are a matter of public record, the American public becomes inured to them. On Hardball, Chris Matthews may yell (redundant?) "Don't people have memories?" referring to today's events affecting the general election. Well, Chris, you can remember something, but just not care anymore.

While serving as President, Ronald Reagan was lazy? Had memory problems? Took daily naps when someone younger would have been working? Made no difference! The American people knew these things when they elected him.

Bill Clinton had an affair with Gennifer Flowers? He propositioned (also too weak a word) Paula Jones. Guess what? This saved him when Monica Lewinsky gave Clinton headlines. We knew he was a womanizer when we elected him.

There is a case to be made that a political candidate wants all of his weaknesses exposed as early as possible -- again, as long as those weaknesses won't defeat him. And it's pretty clear that Bain won't keep Romney from being the Republican nominee for president.

But isn't the Obama reelection team just salivating to take the Bain issue and run with it? Well, they shouldn't be. Timing is everything.

The 2004 John Kerry campaign best exemplifies this. The Swift Boat Veterans against Kerry hit the airwaves with their negative ads just after the Democratic Convention. It was perfect timing. Kerry went from leading President George W. Bush to trailing him -- and never caught up.

Would the ads have had the same impact in the general election if they had played in January of that year? Doubtful. Would they have prevented Kerry from getting the nomination. Doubtful again. (And then they would have been old news by August.)

This reflects the nature of any contest -- that there is a time limit, the "final gun." In the case of politics, campaigns end when people vote. Thus, each side always worries about an "October Surprise," fearing that there would not be the opportunity to change last minute impressions. Again... timing.

Now, how these attacks are handled is not irrelevant, of course. The best strategy for dealing with sexual affairs is for your wife to defend you. It's the major reason that Bill Clinton became president and David Vitter is still a Senator from Louisiana but neither Governor Eliot Spitzer nor Representative Anthony Weiner still represent New Yorkers. (We can't test whether a husband defending his wife would be equally effective as we have no such examples.)

Another effective defense is "conversion." Newt Gingrich hasn't made the most of this, but perhaps he will now that his 2nd wife is talking. Open marriage? Conversion can give you a "clean slate." It also reenforces your image with your new community of believers. (And this isn't limited to religious conversion. Reagan used his political conversion from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican very effectively to bond with his new party while still being able to speak to disaffected Democrats.)

President Obama still has an opportunity -- if his staff can come up with a new angle on the Bain story. Bain is alleged to have received federal government bailouts, perhaps on more than one occasion. If so, there is an opening to play up this angle -- if it doesn't get too exposed in the near future.

And then there are Romney's tax returns. Any doubt that there must be something politically "inconvenient" there? We're just finding out about his shelters in the Cayman Islands -- one of the worst tax avoidance ploys. Will it "kill" his candidacy? Or is it helpful to get it out early?

But as for his 2011 return, Romney is now saying that he'll release it in April. For Romney is well aware: There's no such thing as an "April Surprise," either.

?

Follow Mitch Rofsky on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@mrofsky

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitch-rofsky/bain-capital-open-marriage_b_1217672.html

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A year later, Egypt activists seek more revolution (AP)

CAIRO ? A crowd of anti-military activists suddenly converged on a bustling Cairo boulevard, erecting makeshift screens and showing videos of soldiers beating protesters, dragging women on the ground, partially stripping one and stomping on her chest. Their message: The generals ruling Egypt have to go.

The activists who led the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year have been holding hundreds of so-called flash mobs around the country, in a campaign they call "Liars." By showing people recent abuses by the military, they say they have injected new public support for their demand that the generals quickly surrender power.

But it also raises questions.

"What do they want?" one passer-by, Mohammed Ali, asked at one such gathering this week.

"Even if (the military) are liars... we are going to get power transferred to civilians in six months. That is not bad," the 30-year-old said. "It doesn't deserve all this noise. Let's wait and see."

Wednesday marks the first anniversary of the start of the 18-day wave of protests that toppled Mubarak. Activists are trying to turn public discontent over lack of change into support for continuing revolutionary protests. But they face the task of explaining to Egyptians who are sick of turmoil: Revolution for what?

The revolution's second year, the activists say, must pressure both the ruling military, which they maintain is as authoritarian as Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood, which dominates the new parliament and which they fear is allying itself with the generals.

The anniversary shows the tensions. Each of the country's power brokers has its own plans to mark the day, underlining the stark differences over the very meaning of the revolution and raising the potential for a clash. State and pro-military media blare warnings that the protesters aim to "burn the country," raising concerns over a crackdown.

The activists are organizing new nationwide protests for the occasion. Thousands rallied in Tahrir Square on Friday, kicking off what they say will be several days of demonstrations, including Monday when parliament convenes and on the Wednesday anniversary.

The military has put together its own elaborate Jan. 25 celebrations, declaring the day a national holiday. It plans a nationwide air show, including flyovers by warplanes that it boasts will be bigger than those it holds for anniversaries of the 1952 coup that first brought the generals to the helm of Egyptian politics. Other planes will drop gift coupons to the public. Officers will be decorated for their role helping the anti-Mubarak protests.

The military's message is that it supported the anti-Mubarak uprising, but the time for revolution is over.

"Stability is the first goal," said Maj. General Ismail Etman, a member of the military council that took power after Mubarak's Feb. 11 fall. "If there is tension between the people and the armed forces, it must be removed ... We want the big family to enjoy love and stability."

For the activists and many others in Egypt, the army celebrations aim to co-opt their movement.

"We are not going down to celebrate, we are going to finish our revolution," activist Ahmed Imam said at a news conference by youth movements this week. "We will not celebrate while the blood of martyrs is shed without retribution. ... We will not celebrate, because they are liars."

Critics say the military is keeping the status quo with a slight reshuffle of the cards but with the same authoritarianism and abuses by security forces, if not worse. They point to almost 100 protesters killed in military crackdowns since Mubarak's fall, some run over by armored vehicles. Nearly 12,000 civilians have been tried by military tribunals, and female protesters have been subjected to humiliating "virginity tests."

They say the revolution's vision of "freedom, social justice and dignity" has been aborted in favor of an emerging ruling coalition between the Islamists and the military.

The difficulty for the activists is that a transition plan is in place, set by the generals and backed by the Brotherhood.

The military promises to transfer power to an elected civilian president by the end of June. Before that, a constitution is to be written by a committee chosen by the Islamist-controlled parliament while the generals are still in charge.

Brotherhood officials deny any alliance with the military. They say they want the army to step down, but maintain parliament not protests can ensure they do so. They warn protesters endanger the process by creating turmoil.

Ahmed Abou Baraka, a leading Brotherhood member, said the revolution against Mubarak aimed "to grant the people sovereignty and build a state based on the rule of law."

Protests must be "within the law and ...uphold the higher interests of the state," he said.

The "Liars" campaign ? "Kazeboon" in Arabic ? has been a new way for revolutionaries to reach out to a skeptical public.

Hundreds of impromptu street shows highlighting military abuses have been put on around the country in past weeks, sometimes more than 10 a day. The campaign has mobilized thousands of volunteers, a sign of the activists' increasing reach, said Rasha Azab, an organizer.

"Kazeboon is a bridge between the street and the square ... They are now seeing that Tahrir is no longer the only expression of the revolution," she said. "They cornered us in the square. Now there are 50 squares."

Many of the gatherings have been harassed by hecklers the activists believe are hired. At this week's flash mob in Cairo's Mohandessin district, young men tried to disrupt the show. One shouted that the screen and video projectors had to be packed up in five minutes. Across the street, another yelled, "Down with revolution."

Still, the activists' plan for the future remains hazy. They want the military to step aside, but are divided about whether it should hand executive powers to the parliament, a president or to a council of civilians.

Some fear handing power to the parliament would further strengthen the Brotherhood.

"We would replace a tyrant with no popularity and a corrupt majority, with a tyrant supported by religious legitimacy and an organized majority," said Abdel-Gelil el-Sharnoubi, a former Brotherhood member who since last year's revolution has become a fervent opponent.

Ahmed Maher, of the April 6 activist movement, counters that it is the best tactic to draw the Brotherhood away from the military.

"They are civilians. We will argue with them, negotiate, fight, whatever," said Maher. "But with the military council, they will drive over us with armored vehicles."

Despite disagreements, the activists' main intention remains to use street pressure for the long haul.

"It is hard ... (but) we are creating a new country, we are creating the future," said Lobna Darwish, an activist with Mosireen, a media collective that produces most Kazeboon videos. "It is not even a choice ? when you see people die ... you feel this is a commitment to go on."

At the Kazeboon rally, Mostafa Abou-el-Wafa parked his motorcycle and joined the crowd. He intends to attend the activists' anniversary rallies, his first ever protest.

Nothing has changed under the military, the 26-year-old delivery man said, pointing to a recent bribe he had to pay to get his motorcycle licensed.

"The military council has no shame," he said. "I will go with what these people are saying."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_revolution_s_second_year

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Mondale: Time 'not on our side' for Vikings stadium this year (Star Tribune)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/189076654?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Video: Gingrich?s momentum too much for Romney

>> few days ago showed mitt romney with a wide lead in south carolina , but the romney campaign sensing a change in the winds has been trying to tamp down expectations as it ratchets up its attacks on newt gingrich . peter alexander has that end of the story. good evening to you.

>> reporter: lester, good morning to you. and roomy took the afternoon off, in fact, to relax and he took his family to the movies today. regardless of what happens here this evening, governor romney 's advisers say he's in this for the long haul. for the romney campaign, proudly meticulous about every detail, that visit to tommy's country hamhouse featured an oversight that summed up a week's worth of stumbles.

>> we came here.

>> reporter: the crowd couldn't hear the candidate because his campaign didn't bring its own microphone. all week romney who is largely focused on attacking president obama --

>> repeal obamacare --

>> reporter: has struggled to fend off jabs from his rivals. newt gingrich and santorum and sidetracked about his personal wealth and wavering answers about whether he'd release his tax returns.

>> maybe. i'll take a look at what the -- what our documents are.

>> reporter: saturday morning romney tried to slow gingrich's momentum, and talking about the contract he signed with freddie mac .

>> this is a big issue, got the washington insiders, talking about freddie mac . let's see what the report was to freddie mac . what advice he gave them.

>> reporter: the romney campaign levelled this sarcastic attack, wishing again dprigingrich a happy anniversary. part of the increasing nasty campaign that has some voters turned off.

>> even got carolina to answer some. just hanging up. we're not listening to the messages.

>> reporter: still as romney looks to lower expectations here, his advisers are already touting their head start in florida.

>> we have a long way to go. come join us in florida. then in nevada and michigan and colorado.

>> reporter: but first, romney appears to have a few chores. today, his son tweeted this photo. showing the former governor doing laundry. and the next time we expect to see all four of the republican presidential candidates together, lester, is monday night in tampa. that of course is nbc news's presidential debate .

>> peter alexander in columbia, thank you.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46083879/

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ABC's Weir finds health problem on routine story (AP)

NEW YORK ? A routine news story took a strange turn when an ABC "Nightline" anchor had a full body scan that turned up a possible warning sign.

Bill Weir was interviewing Dr. David Agus, who gave him a full series of tests. That included a costly body scan that's not recommended for screening people with no symptoms of disease.

The scan found a calcium deposit in an artery, which the doctor told the Wisconsin native could cause a heart attack.

But since the program aired Tuesday night, other doctors have challenged that assessment.

Weir says he's changed his diet and is on medication.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_en_tv/us_tv_weir_s_heart

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Obama to press Congress to revisit $1.2T in cuts (AP)

WASHINGTON ? In its budget submission next month, the Obama administration will urge lawmakers to revisit the failed attempt by a congressional supercommittee to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion, the White House says.

The proposal runs counter to the common wisdom in Washington that any major deficit reduction effort is unlikely in a presidential election year. Instead, lawmakers are focusing on a one-year extension of a payroll tax cut and supplemental jobless benefits sought by the president as part of last fall's jobs agenda.

But also looming are sweeping across-the-board spending cuts required next year because of the supercommittee deadlock. Top lawmakers like House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., are focusing on a less ambitious one-year plan to give the Pentagon a reprieve from cuts that both the administration and Republicans say would cripple the military.

The White House plan, likely to reprise new taxes and fee proposals that are nonstarters with Capitol Hill Republicans, would turn off the entire nine-year, $1.2 trillion across-the-board spending cuts, referred to as a "sequester."

"We have a sequester coming less than a year from now unless Congress acts," said a senior administration official. "We're going to ask Congress to do now what we think Congress should have done in December, which is enact more than $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, turn off the sequester and maintain the (spending caps)."

The official required anonymity as a condition to speak to a reporter on the plan.

That plan of budget cuts would be imposed under last summer's budget and debt pact between Obama and Congress that imposed $900 billion in savings from accounts appropriated by Congress each year and promised at least $1.2 trillion more from the work on the deficit supercommittee, or, failing that, across-the-board cuts to a sweeping set of defense and domestic programs.

The threat of the across-the-board cuts was supposed to prod the panel, but it never got on track and collapsed just before Thanksgiving over intractable differences on tax increases and cuts to popular programs like Medicare.

The failure of the panel capped a long, difficult budget year in which the warring sides were only able to agree when facing either a shutdown of the government or an unthinkable default on U.S. obligations. Policymakers face the prospect of more gridlock this year as election-year politics promise to even further cripple the already limited ability of Obama and Capitol Hill Republicans to work together.

In that light, the administration's proposal could be doomed to dead-on-arrival status despite widespread desire to turn off the automatic cuts

At the same time, a new wrinkle has emerged due to the collapse of the supercommittee: a new set of spending caps for the 2013 budget year that begins Oct. 1 that require cuts of about $8 billion from the $554 billion budget for defense programs, the first outright cuts since the so-called peace dividend of the early 1990s.

The required defense cuts are separate from those that would be imposed under the sequester, but the administration official predicted lawmakers might revisit them when turning to the annual appropriations bills later this year.

The budget is slated to be released Feb. 6.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_budget

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Lawmakers flip on piracy bills protested on Web (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Some members of the Congress switched sides to oppose antipiracy legislation as protests blanketed the Internet on Wednesday, turning Wikipedia dark and putting black slashes on Google and other sites as if they had been censored.

Content providers who favor the anti-piracy measures, such as Hollywood and the music industry, were scrambling to win back public opinion and official support.

Wikipedia, the world's free online encyclopedia, shut down for a day. Google and others used the black censorship bars to draw attention to what had until recently been an obscure and technical legislative proposal to curb access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.

Many of the sites participating in the blackout urged their users to contact their legislators on the issue, a plea that brought quick results.

Several sponsors of the legislation, including Senators Roy Blunt, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch and John Boozman and Marco Rubio, said they were withdrawing their support. Some blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for rushing the Senate version of the bill.

Meanwhile, friends of the bills stepped up their efforts.

Creative America, a studio- and union-supported group that fights piracy, launched a television advertising campaign that it said would air in the districts of key legislators. In Times Square, it turned on a digital pro-SOPA and PIPA billboard for the day - in space provided by News Corp, which owns Fox Studios.

The group also said it is sending a team of 20 organizers to big events around the country, including the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, to try to get voters to see the situation their way.

The legislation, known as PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House of Representatives, has been a priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical companies and other industry groups who say it is critical to curbing online piracy, which they believe costs them billions of dollars a year.

But Internet players argue the bills would undermine innovation and free speech rights and would compromise the functioning of the Internet.

In switching their positions, Blunt called the legislation "deeply flawed" while Rubio and Boozman cited "unintended consequences" that could stem from the proposed law. All said they still supported taking action against online piracy.

Other lawmakers, such as Senator Kristen Gillibrand, said they supported changes to the legislation.

The blackout affected thousands of sites and served as the culmination of several efforts online to fight the legislation. In recent days, for example, many Twittter users placed black "Stop SOPA" bands on the bottom of their profile pictures.

Even sites that didn't black out their sites, which would have cost them a day's worth of advertising revenue and angered some consumers, made their opposition to the bills plain.

"We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development," Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

Zynga issued a blog post complaining that "the overly broad provisions we've seen in the pending SOPA and PIPA bills could be used to target legitimate U.S. sites and chill innovation at a time when it is needed most."

While the Facebook and Zynga sites functioned as normal, others looked jarringly different.

Wikipedia mounted a 24-hour protest starting at midnight by converting their English page to a shadowy black background and warning readers that "the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet."

It included a link to help Internet users contact their representatives.

Craigslist, the free Internet classifieds site, also went black in protest, while Google's home search page included a black bar slapped over its logo and asked readers: "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!"

Smaller sites, such as Reddit.com and BoingBoing.net, were also dark, while icanhascheezburger.com placed a banner over its site alerting users to the situation and inviting them to click on a link for more information.

"It's a way of engaging the public in something that had been a very much behind closed doors, kind of business as usual in Washington thing," said Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, a lobbying watchdog group. "It's a way to get the public aware and alerted to it, and somewhat on their side."

A lunchtime protest in San Francisco drew about 100 protesters, including Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and rapper M.C. Hammer, who called the proposed legislation "barbaric."

But content providers said the protests were long on hype and short on substance, and that reaching voters one-on-one and in person would prove more effective. "We see this as a long battle," said Mike Nugent, executive director of Creative America. He has been sending outreach staff to events like local festivals and movie screenings to get them to call their legislators and enlist their support.

MOMENTUM COOLS

The bills were seemingly on track for approval by Congress, but sentiment has shifted in recent weeks and an implicit veto threat from the White House over the weekend cast doubt on whether the legislation would pass.

Republican Representative Tom Price, head of the House Republican Policy Committee, said in a hallway interview, "I don't think it is going anywhere."

"There is real confusion about it, number one, but number two, there are real concerns about whether or not it would shut down the ability of entrepreneurs, new businesses and the like to utilize the Internet for their purposes," Price said.

When asked about the anti-piracy legislation at a news conference on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner said lawmakers will continue to try to find support for it, but that it's not there now.

"It's pretty clear to many of us that there is a lack of consensus at this point," Boehner said.

The protest drew some criticism ahead of its launch.

"This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts," Lamar Smith, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a sponsor of SOPA, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy."

Former Senator Chris Dodd, who now chairs the Motion Picture Association of America, labeled the blackout a "gimmick" and called for its supporters to "stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy."

The blackout harkens back to some similar movements on the Internet in recent years, particularly a 2007 protest over online radio royalties. Then, services like Pandora turned off their music for a day. Two years later, the music services and record labels reached an agreement over the payments.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Diane Bartz in Washington D.C.; Additional reporting by Jasmin Melvin, Malathi Nayak, Alistair Barr and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Tim Dobbyn, Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/media_nm/us_internet_protest

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