Jack White Drops New Song, 'Love Interruption'

Track is from White's first solo album, Blunderbuss, due April 24.
By James Montgomery

Jack White
Photo: WireImage

Jack White hasn't exactly been living life outside the public eye since announcing the end of the White Stripes last year, making records with everyone from Tom Jones to the Insane Clown Posse and appearing on a (really pretty excellent) episode of "American Pickers," to name just a few of his endeavors.

And on April 24, he'll officially add "solo artist" to that résumé, with the release of Blunderbuss, the first album to bear his name — and his name only. And while we suppose the move was inevitable, according to White, he never really had any plans to go solo. In fact, Blunderbuss, the first album basically began life as a happy accident.

"I didn't really even think of recording under my own name for a long time," White told BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe on Monday. "A few months ago, we had a session booked and someone didn't show up. So I said, 'I guess we'll do some of my songs' ... It kick-started the whole process."

In further kick-startery, White has also premiered the first song from the album, "Love Interruption" on his brand-new official site. A smoky, sumptuous mix of winsome Wurlitzer, acoustic guitar (and maybe a clarinet?), the song sees White harmonizing with Nashville singer Ruby Amanfu and lamenting over the power and promise of love. Yes, it is pretty great.

Fans can download "Interruption" now, and it will be available on 7-inch (of course) on February 7. Blunderbuss will be released through White's own Third Man Records, in conjunction with Columbia, and will reportedly feature contributions from the likes of Seasick Steve and Chris Thile, formerly of Nickel Creek.

Sound off on Jack's "Love Interruption" on our Facebook page!

Related Artists

• Jack White

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678225/jack-white-love-interruption.jhtml

robert de niro winner of x factor cheesecake recipe leona lewis carlos beltran air jordan 11 concord unemployment extension

Merkel to urge China to cut Iran oil imports: source (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel will use an upcoming visit to China this week to encourage Beijing to reduce its imports of Iranian oil, a German government source said on Tuesday.

The European Union will implement an embargo on Iranian oil by July as it tightens sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.

(Reporting by Matthias Sobolewski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/wl_nm/us_germany_iran

ravens ray lewis baltimore ravens steven tyler national anthem penn state paterno newt gingrich

Jury finds Afghan family guilty in honor killings (AP)

KINGSTON, Ontario ? A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

But Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

Hamed's lawyer, Patrick McCann, said he was disappointed with the verdict, but said his client will appeal and he believes the other two defendants will as well.

But prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis welcomed the verdict.

"This jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family in the most troubling of circumstances," Laarhuis said outside court.

"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," he said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing theory. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Shafia's lawyer, Peter Kemp, said after the verdicts that he believes the comments his client made on the wiretaps may have weighed more heavily on the jury's minds than the physical evidence in the case.

"He wasn't convicted for what he did," Kemp said. "He was convicted for what he said."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_ca/cn_canada_honor_killing

mount rainier ohio state football michigan state michigan state capital one bowl georgia bulldogs football winter classic 2012

Congress tries to police itself on insider trading

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Aware that most Americans would like to dump them all, members of Congress hope to regain some sense of trust by subjecting themselves to tougher penalties for insider trading and requiring that they disclose stock transactions within 30 days.

A procedural vote Monday would allow the Senate later this week to pass a bill prohibiting members of Congress from using nonpublic information for their own personal benefit or "tipping" others to inside information that they could trade on.

Insider trading laws apply to all Americans, but the CBS TV news magazine "60 Minutes" in November said members of Congress get a pass, citing investment transactions by party leaders and a committee chairman in businesses about to be affected by pending legislation.

The broadcast report raised questions about trades of House Speaker John Boehner; the husband of Democratic leader and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; and Rep. Spencer Bachus, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

All three denied using any insider information to make stock trades, but the broadcast set off a flurry of efforts in Washington to deal with the public perception.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of registered voters found 56 percent of them favor replacing the entire 535-member Congress. Other polls this year have given Congress an approval rating between 11 percent and 13 percent, while disapproval percentages have ranged from 79 percent to 86 percent.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he's working on an expanded bill that would go beyond stock transactions and ban lawmakers from making land deals and other investments based on what they learned as members of Congress.

The Senate version of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act would subject any member of Congress who violates the ban on insider trading to investigation and prosecution by regulatory agencies and the Justice Department. It also directs the House and Senate ethics committees to write rules that would make violators subject to additional congressional penalties.

"We can start restoring some of the faith that's been lost in our government by taking this common sense step of making members of Congress play by the exact same rules as everyone else," said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who with Republican Sen. Scott Brown, wrote the bill "We must make it unambiguous that this kind of behavior is illegal."

President Barack Obama endorsed the bill in his State of the Union speech last week, saying he would "sign it tomorrow." Brown used that opening to briefly speak with the president as he was exiting the House chamber after Tuesday's address.

"The insider trading bill's on Harry's desk right now," Brown told Obama, referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Tell him to get it out, it's already there."

"I'm gonna tell him," answered Obama. "I'm gonna tell him, I'm gonna tell him to get it done."

Obama raised the issue again in his radio and Internet address on Saturday.

"The House and Senate should send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress, and I will sign it immediately. They should limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries they impact," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-29-Congress-Insider%20Trading/id-47b95466ba4e441da94a575a55d99253

snl lance ball lance ball kansas city chiefs chiefs kc chiefs kc chiefs

A Whodunit in Florida (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192982770?client_source=feed&format=rss

brown recluse brown recluse heather locklear hospitalized joplin tornado there will be blood there will be blood extreme makeover home edition

Costa offers $14,460 per person for ruined cruise (AP)

ROME ? Costa Crociere SpA is offering uninjured passengers euro11,000 ($14,460) apiece to compensate them for lost baggage and psychological trauma after its cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany when the captain deviated from his route.

Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse passengers the full costs of their cruise, travel expenses and any medical expenses sustained after the grounding.

The agreement was announced Friday after negotiations between Costa representatives and Italian consumer groups who say they represent 3,206 cruise ship passengers from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the Costa Concordia hit a reef on Jan. 13.

The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on the ship, the roughly 100 cases of people injured or the families who lost loved ones.

Passengers are free to pursue legal action on their own if they aren't satisfied with the deal.

Some consumer groups have already signed on as injured parties in the criminal case against the Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, who is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all passengers were evacuated. He is under house arrest.

In addition, Codacons, one of Italy's best known consumer groups, has engaged two U.S. law firms to launch a class-action lawsuit against Costa and Carnival in Miami, claiming that it expects to get anywhere from euro125,000 ($164,000) to euro1 million ($1.3 million) per passenger.

But Roberto Corbella, who represented Costa in the negotiations, said the deal offered Friday provides passengers with quick, "generous," and certain restitution that consumer groups estimate could amount to some euro14,000 per passenger including the reimbursements.

"The big advantage that they have is an immediate response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind them," he told The Associated Press.

Angry passenger Herbert Greszuk, a 62-year-old German who left behind everything he had with him, including his tuxedo, camera, jewelry, and even his dentures, told the AP before the compensation was announced that it was an issue of accountability.

"Something like this must not be allowed to happen again. So many people died; it's simply inexcusable," he said.

The Concordia gashed its hull on reefs off the island of Giglio after Schettino made an unauthorized deviation from its approved route to bring it closer to Giglio. Some 4,200 passengers and crew were hastily evacuated after the Concordia ran aground and capsized a few kilometers away near the port of Giglio.

Sixteen bodies have been recovered and another 16 remain unaccounted for and presumed dead. Search efforts for them resumed Friday as salvage crews prepared to begin extracting some 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil before it leaks.

Italy's civil protection office on Friday released a list of some of the other possibly toxic substances aboard the cruise liner amid concerns of possible environmental pollution. They include 50 liters of insecticide and 41 cubic meters of lubricants, among other things.

But so far, even though there has been some film detected in the waters around the ship, tests on the waters indicate nothing outside the norm, according to Tuscany's regional environment agency.

"Toxic tests have all resulted negative," the agency said. "For now, there are no significant signs of sea water pollution."

The crystal clear seas around Giglio are a haven for scuba divers and form part of a marine sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

Passengers have said the evacuation was chaotic, with crew members unprepared to deal with an emergency and constantly downplaying the seriousness of the situation. Coast guard data shows the captain only sounded the evacuation alarm an hour after the initial collision, well after the Concordia had listed to the point that many lifeboats couldn't be lowered.

Schettino has admitted he had taken the ship on "touristic navigation" near Giglio but has said the rocks he hit weren't charted on his nautical maps.

Codacons has called for a criminal investigation into the not-infrequent practice of "tourist navigation" ? steering huge cruise ships close to shore in a publicity stunt to give passengers a view of the sites.

The chief executive of Costa, Pier Luigi Foschi, told an Italian parliamentary committee this week that "tourist navigation" wasn't illegal, and was a "cruise product" increasingly sought out by passengers and offered by cruise lines to try to stay competitive.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_cruise_aground

time magazine person of the year time magazine person of the year la clippers verizon galaxy nexus verizon galaxy nexus lawrence lessig lawrence lessig

London 2012 Olympics cost to spiral to ?24bn...10 TIMES higher than 2005 estimate

By Amy Oliver

Last updated at 6:20 AM on 27th January 2012

The final bill for the 2012 Olympics could be ten times higher than the original estimate, according to an investigation.

The predicted cost of the games when London won the bid in 2005 was ?2.37billion. That figure has now spiralled to more than ?12billion and could reach as much as ?24billion, the Sky Sports investigation claims.

The Olympics public sector funding package, which covers the building of the venues, security and policing, was upped to around ?9.3bn in 2007.

Scroll down for video

'Waste of money': Taxpayers' money was used to pay for this ?335,000 Olympic sculpture by Richard Harris, which will greet motorists entering the sailing events in Weymouth, Dorset

'Day of the Triffids': 'Jurassic Stones' has been blasted by residents who are furious about the cost when the country is economic meltdown

LONDON 2012: WHAT'S THE COST?

In December the head of the National Audit Office warned of the risk of the government exceeding its Olympics budget of ?9.3billion.

This figure includes the build of the venues and the ?600million police and security budget. The government has just allocated an extra ?41million (with a ?7million contingency) from this budget to Locog to pay for the Opening Ceremony, which is set to cost ?81million total.

Locog has also been allocated ?271m to pay for venue security. The figure also includes ?2.8m for Games Time Testing, ?35m to convert the stadium after the event and ?35m for tourism campaigns.

However Sky Sports investigators drew figures from freedom of information requests and public documents to reveal the cost to the public purse could be as much as ?24bn. Highlights of the investigation include the ?766m cost of the land used for the venues. Legacy programmes are also set to hit ?826m, while the Olympic Park Legacy Company is set to cost ?300m.

Then there's the tube drivers who receive extra pay during the games. 13,000 of them will each get ?500 each bringing that bill to ?6.5m. And what about the quangos? UK Sport received a ?29m injection from Andy Burnham in 2008 because of the Olympic Games. Sport England has used some of a ?22million handout to measure Legacy work.

Transport for London spent ?2.5million taking 30,000 staff on a tour of the Olympic Park, according to the Sky investigation. While so-called 'London Ambassadors' - who will meet and greet tourists, will cost: ?3.5million.

It was also revealed that councils across Britain have spent nearly ?11.4m on torch relay and other Olympic themed events. But not all local authorities responded to requests for information so this figure could be higher. Local councils have spent ?407,102 on tickets.

But the three-month investigation, which used figures from freedom of information requests and public documents, revealed extra spends that could drive up the cost to taxpayers by an extra ?2.4bn.

These include anti-doping control officers, legacy schemes, tube drivers being paid extra to work and local Olympic torch relay programmes.

The news comes as it was today revealed that ?335,000 of taxpayers' money has been spent on a single sculpture for the games.

'Jurassic Stones' by Richard Harris, described as a 'row of stones on sticks' by locals, has been slammed as a waste of money after it went on display in Weymouth, Dorset.

Several locals to the town, which is hosting the sailing events for the games, took to internet forums to criticise the artwork.

One said: 'Government debt has just gone through the one trillion pounds barrier.

'Obviously deeper cuts still have to be made. May I suggest that they start with the Arts Budget.

?

'How can we waste 335,405 pounds on this rubbish?'

Another posted: 'And I thought everyone was hard up. Can I have the equivalent Council Tax refunded please and let the councillors pay for this folly out of their own pockets?'

Despite the ongoing debacle over increasing costs, Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, today insisted they remain within budget.

The double Olympic champion said the costs currently fell within the agreed budget, during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He also posed with an expensive looking ice sculpture of London created to promote the games for the trip.

Sky's figure of ?12bn includes the cost of buying the land for the venues, which currently stands at ?766m.?

But it does not include the ?1.131bn being allocated to the police for extra counter terrorism during the games or the ?4.4bn budgets of the security and intelligence services.

Nor does it consider the cost of having up to 12,000 officers policing the games instead of crime fighting elsewhere or the ?6.5bn spend on upgrading transport networks.

Anyone for noodles? Dale Chihuly's 'Torchlight Chandelier', a specially commissioned piece for the Olympics, was also unveiled in London today

Bedding in: Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent tries out an athlete's bed today six months ahead of the Games

Expensive ice: Despite the ongoing debacle over increasing costs, Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, today insisted they remain within budget

'Look on the bright side - we've got tickets for the ladies' synchronised swimming'

34K APPLY FOR 2012 SECURITY JOBS

There have been 34,000 applications for more than 10,000 jobs as private security staff at the London 2012 Games, security firm G4S said.

So far 20,000 of the G4S applications have been made by London-based residents and 4,500 roles have already been allocated. The 23,700-strong security force that will be deployed for the Games is a mix of military, private security guards and at least 3,000 unpaid London 2012 volunteers who will be used at the start of the security process.

The military will provide 13,500 personnel, which is more than the 10,000 that were deployed to Afghanistan. G4S staff will be paid from ?8.50 an hour in what the company is billing as 'the biggest paid recruitment drive of the century'. G4S has opened the doors to its recruitment centre in east London, a stone?s throw away from the Olympic Park in Stratford.

The recruitment centre will also serve as a training facility, where new recruits will be put through their paces and provided with role-specific training to ensure they are fully prepared for the Games. Mark Hamilton, managing director of G4S security personnel, said: 'In addition our training will provide successful applicants with a professional security services qualification that will start their careers in the sector post-2012.'

The investigators say the final figure could exceed its ?24bn estimate as many requests for information have been ignored.?

Requests for information did reveal that Newham Council, which is staging most of the Games, are providing ?40m of taxpayers' money towards the Olympic Stadium and ?700,000 on Olympic projects.

However the council's legal bill over the row between West Ham and Spurs FC over the stadium has cost almost ?1m.?

It has also forked out ?29,400 on tickets. In December Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office warned about the real risk of the Games going over budget. ?Not everything is rosy,' he said.

'The Government is confident that there is money available to meet known risks, but in my view, the likelihood that the Games can still be funded within the existing ?9.3billion public sector funding package is so finely balanced that there is a real risk more money will be needed.?

However a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman today hit back at the Sky investigation saying: 'The Public Sector Funding Package for the Games is ?9.3bn and includes all additional security, defence and public transport provision for the Games.

'It is simply not right to start adding on top of that budgets that would have been in existence regardless of 2012 and claim that as being an Olympic cost.'

He added: 'We have always been transparent about the cost of the Games and have rigorously managed the budget to ensure the programme remains within the ?9.3bn.

Olympic Park: The cost of buying the land for the venues currently stands at ?766million

Bringing out the big guns: The Royal Marines and Metropolitan Police performed a security exercise along the Thames last week. The security bill for the Games currently stands at ?600m, but could rise

In training: A woman puts her things in a clear plastic bag, left, while a man gets searched, right, as part of an Olympic security trial at Old Trafford, Manchester

Video: London mayor Boris Johnson dismisses reports that London Olympic budget will hit ?12 billion

?

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092077/London-2012-Olympics-cost-spiral-24bn--10-TIMES-higher-2005-estimate.html?ITO=1490

hypertrophic cardiomyopathy kaye stevens michael jordan engaged kid cudi kasey kahne notre dame football breedlove

Paterno's long goodbye ends with public memorial (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? Some 10,000 ticket holders headed to a campus memorial service on Thursday for one final goodbye to late Penn State coach Joe Paterno, concluding five days of public mourning for the U.S. college football legend.

Big crowds have been turning out since Paterno died on Sunday of lung cancer at age 85, with supporters choosing to remember how he built a hugely successful and profitable college football program rather than his fall from grace for failing to alert police to a child sexual abuse scandal involving an assistant.

Interest in "A Memorial to Joe" at the school's basketball arena on Thursday afternoon was so intense that 10,000 free tickets were snapped up within seven minutes earlier this week. At least one ticket holder tried to profit by selling a ticket for $66,000 on EBay but the online site immediately banned the sale.

The week of mourning has drawn back to campus stars from past football teams, members of the 2011 squad, Penn State alumni who have no memory of any other football coach, undergraduates, and townspeople to remember the winningest coach in college football history.

They lined the streets by the thousands on Wednesday to watch the hearse carrying his casket weave through the town of State College and past Beaver Stadium on its way to his grave.

Mourners on Thursday will see four videos chronicling Paterno's career, six players representing his decades of coaching here, speeches by a Paterno scholarship winner, and a college dean.

The hero's sendoff contrasts with the sudden end of Paterno's career in November, when the university's board of trustees fired him following revelations about a child sex abuse investigation of his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Trustees, faced with a grand jury report that accused Sandusky of years of child sex abuse and accusations of perjury by two high-ranking university officials, concluded Paterno - who was not charged in the scandal - had not done enough to report a 2002 incident that authorities said involved Sandusky and a child.

Sandusky, 67, who maintains his innocence, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court has placed him under house arrest.

Nearly 40,000 admirers of Paterno - a figure that nearly matches the entire population of State College - stood in line on two cold, raw days for a chance to pay respects at a campus spiritual center only a few blocks from his home.

Paterno won a major college record 409 games and two national championships in 46 years, creating a football powerhouse that generated $53 million in profit in 2010, according to Forbes magazine.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/us_nm/us_usa_paterno

golden globes red carpet martin luther king jr quotes martin luther king jr i have a dream speech packers score ricky gervais napoleon dynamite michelle williams

Canadian commander by day; sexual killer by night

During cocktail hour at a Manhattan art gallery in May 2008, German-born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter politely introduced himself to socialite Roxane West as someone he was not.

"I was standing there looking at a painting and he came over ... a gentleman," West remembered. He introduced himself as Clark Rockefeller, a member of the storied New York family, charming West as he had done many other women, mostly wealthy but sometimes not.

For despite his smooth demeanor, prosecutors say, Gerhartsreiter was a serial con artist and a rough customer.

This week, Gerhartsreiter and his defense lawyers have attended a preliminary hearing in Alhambra Superior Court, where he was ordered Wednesday to stand trial in the 1985 murder of John Sohus. The victim?s remains were unearthed in 1994 at a San Marino, Calif., property owned by Sohus' mother, where Gerhartsreiter once lived in a guest house.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. NBC/WSJ poll: Gingrich leads Romney, but badly trails Obama
   2. Romney revising disclosures for overseas accounts
   3. No, President Obama isn't actually proposing to cut defense spending
   4. Whirlwind weeks for formerly homeless student
   5. Banks may not like new mortgage task force
   6. Jerry Brown aims for California comeback
   7. Sorry I'm late, boss, my cat had the hiccups

"Dateline NBC" details the new developments in the decades-old case in a one-hour special report Friday at 10 p.m. ET. NBC News' Mike Tabibi retraces Gerhartsreiter?s shape-shifting cross-country journey and the new evidence that has surfaced after so many years.

"He's always maintained his innocence," said attorney Jeffrey Denner. "At the end of the day he believes he will be vindicated."

When he first arrived in San Marino in the 1980s, Gerhartsreiter identified himself as ?Christopher Chichester, the 13th baronet of Chichester.? Meredith Brucker, who became a regular acquaintance of Chichester's, told NBC News that he tempered his alleged aristocracy with a quick likeability.

"I just called him Chichester," Brucker said. "He even laughed about it being pretentious, so he was self-deprecating."

By day, he claimed to take filmmaking classes at the University of Southern California, even starring in his own student horror film. By night, he enchanted wealthy widows at San Marino's Church of Our Savior social events.

"My father introduced us,? said Carol Campbell, who was then a college student, describing a date with Chichester. "I assumed it was lunch, but instead we went on a series of errands, like to the post office. It didn't add up.?

His story further unraveled when he asked Cori Woods out on a date to the movies. Woods was 12 years old at the time.

"My mom said a very definitive 'no,' and then after that, it got a little weird," Woods said. "He started asking other inappropriate girls out ... not age-appropriate."

Chichester was living at the time in the guest house of Ruth Sohus, the divorced mother of an only son, John.

John and his wife, Linda, suddenly packed up one day in 1985 and left to pursue secretive government jobs in Paris, leaving Ruth alone with Chichester.

Chichester, who, it turned out, had been the point of contact for the overseas jobs, continually reassured Ruth that John and Linda were alive and doing fine. Detectives later speculated that he also assumed the role of surrogate son to Ruth Sohus while John had been away.

But in spring 1985, John and Linda Sohus were reported missing, and a few months later Christopher Chichester left San Marino, heading East. He discarded his business card emblazoned with the Chichester heraldic arms and put on "the Rockefeller Suit," as reporter Mark Seal characterized it in his book "The Man in the Rockefeller Suit."

Clark Rockefeller was every bit as charming as Christopher Chichester, and just as quirky.

Socialite Roxane West showed NBC News several coy and strange text messages she received from him:

?I did want to tell you that I find you superbly ... never mind,? read one. ?Perhaps go to Central Park and kiss for an hour or so??

?In a submarine. Crowded. Strange ? thought of you just a minute ago.?

"The texts were so wild and so farfetched," said West. "You would giggle and go, 'Where does he come up with this stuff?'"

Rockefeller settled on Boston's Beacon Hill, where he lived as husband to Harvard MBA Sandra Boss and as a loving father to their daughter.

The con artist appeared genuinely happy, said neighbor Amy Patt. "I saw Clark as a doting father,? she said. ?He would carry her on his shoulder. He would gloat about how smart she was."

But when Boss divorced Rockefeller in 2008, taking their daughter with her, Clark Rockefeller kidnapped the girl. He was quickly caught, and his trail of lies tracked back to California.

While he was convicted of his daughter?s kidnapping in 2008, Gerhartsreiter maintains he is innocent of killing John Sohus.

As for his years posing as Chichester and Rockefeller, Gerhartstreiter gave a simple reply to the FBI in trancsripts obtained by The Boston Globe:

"If you're born short, you want to be bigger."

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. NBC/WSJ poll: Gingrich leads Romney, but badly trails Obama
   2. Romney revising disclosures for overseas accounts
   3. No, President Obama isn't actually proposing to cut defense spending
   4. Whirlwind weeks for formerly homeless student
   5. Banks may not like new mortgage task force
   6. Jerry Brown aims for California comeback
   7. Sorry I'm late, boss, my cat had the hiccups

? 2011 msnbc.com Reprints

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46162610/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

the villages florida lakers shirataki noodles elizabeth warren jorge posada maurice sendak eric cantor

Official: Miracle to find cruise ship survivors

Recovery efforts at the site of the cruise ship disaster off the coast of Italy has entered a new phase Tuesday, with crews ready to remove oil from the wreckage. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Updated at 11:00 a.m. ET: GIGLIO, Italy -- The official overseeing the search effort of the capsized Costa Concordia has acknowledged it would take a miracle to find any survivors from the Jan. 13 cruise ship grounding.

Franco Gabrielli, head of the national civil protection agency, told reporters Wednesday that recovery operations would nevertheless continue until the ship, which is half-submerged off the Tuscan island of Giglio, was searched as much as possible.

Operations continued Wednesday as crews set off more explosions on the submerged third floor deck to allow easier access for divers. On Tuesday, the body of a woman was found on the deck.

Rescuers have found 16 bodies. At least six of the bodies remain unidentified, and are presumed to be among some of the 17 passengers and crew still unaccounted for.

Citing Italian civil protection officials, NBC News reports that a woman was identified Wednesday, but no name has been released yet. Officials also said that bodies may have floated away in recent days and that it may take more time to find victims of the accident.? Divers are now limited to searching for 20 minutes at a time as a result of poor conditions.

Workers kept up preparations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the ship before it leaks into the Tuscan sea. Pumping is expected to begin Saturday, and according to officials, tests will begin Wednesday.

Spokesman Martin Schuttevaer said "based on what we have seen the position of the tanks are in line with what we expected."

The Concordia ran aground and capsized off the island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain veered from his planned course and gashed the ship's hull on a reef, forcing the panicked evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew.

On Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Italy David Thorne was at Giglio's port with relatives of two missing Americans, Gerald and Barbara Heil of Minnesota. The Heil's children posted on their blog Monday that they are still waiting for word about their parents. The Heils are the only Americans missing in the wreck.

Survivors of the Costa Concordia are realizing the limits of their legal claims, as they signed away their rights when they bought their tickets. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports on what travelers should know.

The search and rescue operation will continue in tandem with the fuel removal operation.

Officials have identified an initial six tanks that will be tapped, located in a relatively easy-to-reach area of the ship. Franco Gabrielli, head of the national civil protection agency, told reporters Tuesday that once the tanks are emptied, 50 percent of the fuel aboard the ship will have been extracted.

The pumping will continue 24 hours a day barring rough seas or technical glitches in this initial phase, he said.

Officials at Smit, the Dutch salvage company hired to remove the fuel, say the first thing divers will do is drill holes into the tanks and attach valves onto them. The sludge-like oil will then be heated and hoses attached to the valves to suck out the oil as seawater is pumped into displace it.

"This is a complicated operation," Gabrielli warned. Smit has estimated the extraction operation could last a month.

Giglio and its waters are part of a protected seven-island marine park, favored by VIPs and known for its clear waters and porpoises, dolphins and whales.

The disaster prompted the U.N. cultural organization to ask the Italian government to restrict access of large cruise ships to Venice, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. UNESCO charged that the liners cause water tides that erode building foundations, pollute the waterways and are an eyesore.

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

Related stories:

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

?

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10233297-official-miracle-to-find-cruise-ship-survivors

brine turkey uc davis super committee walmart black friday ad 2011 nl mvp nl mvp verlander

Navy SEAL raid in Somalia shows campaign ahead (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Navy SEAL operation that freed two Western hostages in Somalia is representative of the Obama administration's pledge to build a smaller, more agile military force that can carry out surgical counterterrorist strikes to cripple an enemy.

That's a strategy much preferred to the land invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan that have cost so much American blood and treasure over the past decade. The contrast to a full-bore invasion is stark: A small, daring team storms a pirate encampment on a near-moonless night, kills nine kidnappers and whisks the hostages to safety.

Special operations forces, trained for such clandestine missions, have become a more prominent tool in the military's kit since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The administration is expected to announce Thursday that it will invest even more heavily in that capability in coming years.

The SEAL Team 6 raid in Somalia, which followed last May's operation that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has political dimensions in an election year.

It gave an added punch to the five-state tour President Barack Obama began the day after he delivered his State of the Union speech. Obama did not mention the raid that was unfolding during his Tuesday night address, but he dropped a hint upon arriving in the House chamber by telling Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, "Good job tonight."

The SEAL mission also helps soften the blow of defense cuts the White House is seeking in spite of a chorus of criticism by hawkish lawmakers. Not to be discounted is the feel-good moment such missions give the American public, a counterbalance to the continued casualties in Afghanistan.

After planning and rehearsal, the Somalia rescue was carried out by SEAL Team 6, officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret mission. It was not clear whether any team members participated in both the raid in Somalia and the bin Laden mission in Pakistan.

The SEALs parachuted from U.S. Air Force special operations aircraft before moving on foot, apparently undetected, to the outdoor encampment, two officials said. They found American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Dane, who had been kidnapped in Somalia last fall.

The SEALs encountered little resistance from the kidnappers during the operation, which lasted about an hour to an hour and a half, two U.S. officials said. Only one of the attackers fired back and was quickly subdued, one official said. The rest were believed killed, though officials did not rule out the possibility of an escape, as aerial surveillance of the scene was hampered on the cloudy, dark night.

Army special operations MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters then swooped in to the subdued encampment near the town of Adado to carry away the SEALs and hostages.

The captors were heavily armed and had explosives nearby when the rescuers arrived on the scene, Pentagon press secretary George Little said, but he was not more specific. Little declined to say whether there was an exchange of gunfire and would not provide further details about the rescue beyond saying that all of the captors were killed by the Americans.

The American raiders caught the kidnappers as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were. They told him that nine pirates had been killed in the raid and three were taken away, he said. However, two U.S. officials said no Somalis were captured.

Little said the decision to go ahead with the rescue was prompted in part by rising concern about the medical condition of Buchanan. He said he could not be specific without violating her privacy but did say U.S. officials had reason to believe her condition could be life-threatening.

Mary Ann Olsen, an official with the Danish Refugee Council, which employed Buchanan and Thisted in de-mining efforts in Somalia, said Buchanan was "not that ill" but needed medicine.

In the last week or so U.S. officials had collected enough information to "connect the dots" that led Obama to authorize the mission on Monday, Little said.

A Western official said the rescuers and the freed hostages flew by helicopter to Camp Lemonnier in the nearby Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been released publicly.

The hostages were expected to leave Djibouti fairly soon, one U.S. official said, and will travel to another location for medical screenings and other evaluations before heading home.

A key U.S. ally in the region, Djibouti hosts the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, a U.S.-led group organized under U.S. Africa Command.

The mission was directed by Army Gen. Carter Ham, head of Africa Command, from his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Panetta and other members of Obama's national security team monitored the mission from the White House before traveling to the Capitol to attend Obama's speech.

Minutes after Obama completed his State of the Union address he was on the phone with Buchanan's father to tell him that his daughter was safe.

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

___

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor and Julie Pace in Washington, Jason Straziuso and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Kimberly Dozier at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier, Katharine Houreld at http://twitter.com/khoureld and Robert Burns at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_somalia_raid

san antonio weather austin box austin box the academy is the academy is colorado avalanche colorado avalanche

Newt Gingrich's Success Entertains Democrats (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | There is a doctored Washington Post front page making the rounds on Facebook with an image of President Barack Obama laughing with the headline "Gingrich Wins S.C. Primary." Clearly this is not a real headline from The Post, but it has probably been seen by even more people than if it were.

The reason so many people are sharing this faux front page is because it mimics exactly how many Democrats felt when they heard that Newt Gingrich handily beat Mitt Romney in last week's primary in South Carolina. Seriously; do Republicans really think that Gingrich is their best option? Are the pigs flying or do these folks just have their head buried extra deep along their lovely coastline?

As a Democrat, I have watched the Republican primaries with interest. Even though I will not be participating in the vote for the Republican nominee, it is important to me to be knowledgeable regarding the candidates as one of them will be running for the office of President.

It seemed clear early on that Mitt Romney would be the most formidable opponent for President Obama. Romney is conservative, but not so conservative that he would turn off independents. With so many people concerned about the economy, Romney has a wealth of real-world business experience that would seem to make him particularly qualified to deal with economic issues and possibly lead our country down the road to prosperity. He has been married to the same woman for many years, and seems to have raised a lovely family.

So, why, oh why, are so many Republicans choosing Newt Gingrich? Are they poorly informed or just dim? Newt Gingrich claims to have strong family values, but he is currently married to his third wife, who he began relations with while still married to his second wife, who he asked to marry him while he was still married to his first wife, who was battling cancer at the time. Is this a man that people actually believe puts a priority on family values?

Based on a 1997 ethics report, Newt Gingrich was sanctioned by an overwhelming bipartisan vote which forced him to pay back $300,000 in costs due to ethics violations. Gingrich later stepped down as Speaker of the House when he was told that as many as 30 Republicans would refuse to vote for him on the floor of the House. Those were members of his own party, Republicans, who refused his leadership of the House. Yet some people think he would make a good president?

The Republicans that are working to make Newt Gingrich the Republican nominee, if successful, will be handing President Obama his second term on a silver platter. As Republican political consultant Mike Murphy said on Meet the Press this Sunday, "Newt Gingrich cannot carry a general election swing state it if was made of feathers." He's exactly right, and the heads of Republicans leaders are spinning.

The reasons Mitt Romney would appeal to many who don't vote strictly along party lines are the same reasons he isn't conservative enough for tea party Republicans. However Newt Gingrich isn't the guy they are looking for, he's just pretending to be. Gingrich is the dream Republican nominee from a Democrat's perspective. It is truly astonishing that those who are voting for him are blind to this.

"Gingrich stuns Washington by stepping aside," cnn.com

Heidi Pryzbyla, "Gingrich's Ex-Wife Says He Sought 'Open Marriage' to Keep Affair," Businessweek

January 22nd transcript, Meet the Press, NBC

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120123/us_ac/10873563_newt_gingrichs_success_entertains_democrats

death penalty gary busey the x factor execution execution facebook music facebook music

Mitt Romney Going Backward, Not Forward (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Few people care about or remember silver medal winners. It is all about who brings home the gold.

Mitt Romney should be aware of this fact after overseeing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. A pair of second-place finishes in Iowa and South Carolina has the one-time favorite for the Republican nomination no longer enjoying frontrunner status. The former Massachusetts governor looks more like a candidate desperately searching for answers on what went wrong.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich overtook Romney in South Carolina and walked away with a primary victory in a state that has accurately predicted the Republican nominee in every Presidential election since 1980. Gingrich won by a wide margin, capturing 243,153 votes or 40.4 percent of the primary total. Romney finished a distant second with 167,279 votes or 27.8 percent of the primary total.

This does not mean that Romney is finished in the battle for the nomination. It does mean, however, that his chances of coming out on top in Florida or elsewhere have taken a major hit.

The biggest problem facing Romney is the same one that has faced him all along. As a candidate, he is seen as indecisive on where he really stands on key conservative issues. Romney was elected in Massachusetts as a moderate Republican. Now as he has tried to court the conservative wing of the party, some Republicans are not convinced he is conservative enough based on his record as Massachusetts governor.

Religion has been another issue as some voters have shown reluctance to support a Mormon as a candidate for President. The concern is that loyalty to LDS Church general authorities as an active Mormon could exert undue influence on decisions Romney would make if he were elected U.S. President. Romney's religious beliefs have therefore caused concern among some Republicans that he would not fare well against President Barack Obama in the Presidential election.

Still, one thing Romney has in his favor over his rivals for the nomination are deep pockets and a campaign that runs like a well-oiled machine. None of them enjoy the financial support Romney does. A larger number of leaders from the traditional Republican establishment have come out in support of Romney as well in comparison to his rivals.

Florida could be a make or break state for Romney. If he should fail to win the primary there on January 31, he risks fading into irrelevancy and watching either Gingrich or Rick Santorum rise up and snatch the Republican nomination away for themselves.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120123/cm_ac/10869085_mitt_romney_going_backward_not_forward

school closings giants vs 49ers san francisco 49ers san francisco 49ers super bowl 2012 news channel 5 49ers news

Space Shuttle Discovery headed to the Smithsonian

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum is preparing to welcome the space shuttle Discovery into its collection.

Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough (cluff) says the shuttle will be flown to Washington Dulles International Airport on the back of a Boeing 747 in April. A flyover is planned above the nation's capital before Discovery makes its final home at the museum's massive hangar in northern Virginia.

Clough said Monday the flyover is planned for April 17. A formal welcome ceremony is planned for April 19 at the museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

Shuttle Endeavour will travel to the California Science Center in Los Angeles in the second half of the year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-01-24-Smithsonian-Space%20Shuttle/id-41c906c2200c42f2ae6631362ea1bb87

boxing andy dalton corporal kelsey de santis corporal kelsey de santis ufc on fox juan manuel marquez juan manuel marquez

France passes genocide law, faces Turkish reprisals (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? France approved on Monday a bill making it illegal to deny the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide, sparking angry retaliation from Turkey which threatened a "total rupture" of diplomatic ties.

Lawmakers in the upper house (Senate) voted 127 to 86 in favor of the draft law outlawing genocide denial after almost six hours of debate. The lower house had backed it in December, prompting Ankara to cancel all economic, political and military meetings with Paris and recall its ambassador for consultations.

The bill had been made more general so that it outlawed the denial of any genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing the Turks. But Ankara condemned the bill's approval and said it would take permanent steps against France, a NATO ally.

The bill now goes to President Nicolas Sarkozy to be ratified. Turkey says the bill is a bid by Sarkozy to win the votes of 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France in the two-round presidential vote on April 22 and May 6.

"Turkey is committed to taking all the necessary steps against this unjust disposition which reduces basic human values and public conscience to nothing," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Turkish ambassador in Paris, Tahsin Burcuoglu, said the vote would lead to a "total rupture" of relations between the two countries. Ankara could seek to downgrade its diplomatic presence in Paris.

"When I say total rupture I include things like I can leave definitively," he told reporters.

"You can also expect that now diplomatic relations will be at the level of charges d'affaires not ambassadors anymore."

Charge d'affaires is the lowest rank of diplomatic representative recognized under the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.

The Ottoman empire was dissolved after the end of the war, but successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the charge of genocide is a direct insult to their nation. Ankara argues there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.

"This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the history of the protection of human rights," said Armenia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Nalbandian.

Earlier, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg that Ankara would take new and permanent measures unless the bill was rejected and compared it to the Inquisition in the Middle Ages which was created by the Catholic Church to stamp out heresy.

Arinc said Turkey could take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.

It mandates a maximum 45,000-euro ($58,000) fine and a year in jail for offenders. France passed a law recognizing the killing of Armenians as genocide in 2001.

WAVING VOTING CARDS

About 200 Franco-Turks protested outside the Senate. They waved their French voting cards and banners with slogans including: "It's not up to politicians to invent history".

The Socialist Party, which has a majority in the upper house, and Sarkozy's UMP party, which put forward the bill, backed the legislation.

A non-binding Senate recommendation last week said the law would be unconstitutional and, after weeks of aggressive Turkish lobbying, there were suggestions the outcome would be closer.

Opponents in the Senate said the law would not encourage the Turks to recognize the Armenian genocide and would do nothing to help relations between the two nations.

"It is an unbearable law which calls into question historical research," said centre-left senator Jacques Mezard.

Sarkozy is expected to ratify the bill before parliament is suspended in February ahead of the presidential election.

It could still be rejected if some 60 lawmakers agree to appeal the decision at the country's highest court and that body considers the text unconstitutional. The Constitutional Council would have one month to make its decision.

Sarkozy wrote to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last week saying the bill did not single out any country and that Paris was aware of the "suffering endured by the Turkish people" during the final years of the Ottoman empire.

European Union candidate Turkey could not impose economic sanctions on France, given its World Trade Organisation membership and customs union accord with Europe.

But the row could cost France state-to-state contracts and would create diplomatic tension as Turkey takes an increasingly influential role in the Middle East.

(Additional reporting by Lucien Libert in Paris, Gilbert Reilhac in Strasbourg and Daren Butler in Istanbul; editing by Robert Woodward)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_nm/us_france_turkey_genocide

raiders news raiders news ice cream sandwich android ice cream sandwich android harry belafonte harry belafonte batman arkham city

Beijing releases key air pollution data (AP)

BEIJING ? Caving to public pressure, Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data Saturday that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital's air pollution is.

The initial measurements were low on a day where you could see blue sky. After a week of smothering smog, the skies over the city were being cleared by a north wind.

The readings of PM2.5 ? particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair ? were being posted on Beijing's environmental monitoring center's website. Such small particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

It is the first time Beijing has publicly revealed PM2.5 data and follows a clamor of calls by citizens on social networking sites tired of breathing in gray and yellow air. The U.S. Embassy measures PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releases the results, and some residents have even tested the air around their neighborhoods and posted the results online.

Beijing is releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 that are taken from one monitoring site about 4 miles (7 kilometers) west of Tiananmen Square, the monitoring center's website said Saturday. It said the data was for research purposes and the public should only use it as a reference.

The reading at noon Saturday was 0.015 mg/m3, which would be classed as "good" for a 24-hour exposure at that level, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The U.S. Embassy reading taken from its site on the eastern edge of downtown Beijing said its noon reading was "moderate." Its readings are posted on Twitter.

Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing's pollution data since 2006, said he was "already a bit suspicious" of Beijing's PM2.5 data. Within the 24-hour period to noon Saturday, Beijing reported seven hourly figures "at the very low level" of 0.003 milligrams per cubic meter.

"In all of 2010 and 2011, the U.S. Embassy reported values at or below that level only 18 times out of over 15,000 hourly values or about 0.1 percent of the time," said Andrews. "PM2.5 concentrations vary by area so a direct comparison between sites isn't possible, but the numbers being reported during some hours seem surpisingly low."

The Beijing center had promised to release PM2.5 data by the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Monday. It has six sites that can test for PM2.5 and 27 that can test for the larger, coarser PM10 particles that are considered less hazardous. The center is expected to buy equipment and build more monitoring sites to enable PM2.5 testing.

Beijing wasn't expected to include PM2.5 in its daily roundups of the air quality anytime soon. Those disclosures, for example "light" or "serious," are based on the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Beijing interprets air quality using less stringent standards than the U.S. Embassy, so often when the government says pollution is "light," the embassy terms it "hazardous."

"There has been tremendous amounts of attention in the Chinese media ? whichever newspaper you pick up, whichever radio station you listen to, channel you watch ? they are all talking about PM2.5 and how levels are so high," said Andrews.

"What has been so powerful is that people are skeptical, and I think rightly skeptical," about the government's descriptions of data, he said.

___

Online:

Beijing center's readings (in Chinese): http://zx.bjmemc.com.cn/

The U.S. Embassy's Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/beijingair

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_as/as_china_air_quality

cyber monday grover norquist grover norquist nfl week 12 picks nfl week 12 picks jason witten ucla vs usc

After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Caving to a massive campaign by Internet services and their millions of users, Congress indefinitely postponed legislation Friday to stop online piracy of movies and music costing U.S. companies billions of dollars every year. Critics said the bills would result in censorship and stifle Internet innovation.

The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was a clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has campaigned for a tougher response to online piracy. The legislation also would cover the counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.

Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their collective might to block those who want to change the system.

The battle over the future of the Internet also played out on a different front Thursday when a loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" shut down Justice Department websites for several hours and hacked the site of the Motion Picture Association of America after federal officials issued an indictment against Megaupload.com, one of the world's biggest file-sharing sites.

The site of the Hong Kong-based company was shut down, and the founder and three employees were arrested in New Zealand on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. New Zealand police raided homes and businesses linked to the founder, Kim Dotcom, on Friday and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials there said.

In the U.S., momentum against the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act and the House's Stop Online Piracy Act, known popularly as PIPA and SOPA, grew quickly on Wednesday when the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Web giants staged a one-day blackout and Google organized a petition drive that attracted more than 7 million participants.

That day alone, at least six senators who had co-sponsored the Senate legislation reversed their positions. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in statements at the time and again on Friday, stressed that more consensus-building was needed before the legislation would be ready for a vote.

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing a test vote set for Tuesday "in light of recent events." House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, followed suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed "until there is wider agreement on a solution."

With opposition mounting, it was unlikely that Reid would have received the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation to the Senate floor.

The two bills would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. The legislation would bar online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies from doing business with an alleged violator. They also would forbid search engines from linking to such sites.

The chief Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., cited estimates that copyright piracy costs the American economy more than $50 billion annually and that global sales of counterfeit goods via the Internet reached $135 billion in 2010. He and Smith insist that their bills target only foreign criminals and that there is nothing in them to require websites, Internet service providers, search engines or others to monitor their networks.

That didn't satisfy critics who said the legislation could force Internet companies to pre-screen user comments or videos, burden new and smaller websites with huge litigation costs and impede new investments.

The White House, while not taking a specific stand on the bills, last week said it would "not support any legislation that reduces freedom of expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said online piracy is an issue that has to be addressed, "but everybody has to be in on it for it to work and get through Congress."

The scuttling, for now, of PIPA and SOPA frustrates what might have been one of the few opportunities to move significant legislation in an election year where the two parties have little motivation to cooperate.

Until recently "you would have thought this bill was teed up," with backing from key Senate leaders and support from powerful interest groups, said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who cosponsored the original bill but quickly dropped his backing on the grounds the bill could undermine innovation and Internet freedom.

Moran said the "uprising" of so many people with similar concerns was a "major turnaround, and in my experience it is something that has happened very rarely."

Moran said PIPA and SOPA now have "such a black eye" that it will be difficult to amend them. Reid, however, said that there had been progress in recent talks among the various stakeholders and "there is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved."

Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer protection and privacy advocacy group, said Google and Facebook and their supporters "have delivered a powerful blow to the Hollywood lobby." He predicted a compromise that doesn't include what many see as overreaching provisions in the current legislation.

"It's been framed as an Internet freedom issue, but at the end of the day it will be decided on the narrow interests of the old and new media companies," he said. The big questions involve who should or shouldn't pay ? or be paid ? for Internet content.

Leahy said he respected Reid's decision to postpone the vote but lamented the Senate's unwillingness to debate his bill.

"The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," Leahy said. Criminals in China, Russia and other countries "who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided" it was not worth taking up the bill, he said.

In the House, Smith said he had "heard from the critics" and resolved that it was "clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." Smith had planned on holding further committee votes on his bill next month.

The bill's opponents were relieved it was put on hold.

Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, commended Congress for "recognizing the serious collateral damage this bill could inflict on the Internet."

The group represents Internet and technology companies including Google, Yahoo and Amazon.com. Erickson said they would work with Congress "to address the problem of piracy without compromising innovation and free expression."

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has joined Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Moran in proposing an alternative anti-piracy bill, credited opponents with forcing lawmakers "to back away from an effort to ram through controversial legislation."

But the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, former Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, warned, "As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves." The MPAA, which represents such companies as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., is a leading advocate for the anti-piracy legislation.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_en_ot/us_internet_piracy

divine bettie page harry caray northern lights maksim chmerkovskiy aurora borealis s.978