Monday, December 5, 2011

Romney says Attorney General Holder should quit (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is calling on President Barack Obama's attorney general to resign because of the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border.

Romney tells reporters after a rally in New Hampshire that Eric Holder has misled Congress and has "brought shame" on the Justice Department through his handling of Operation Fast and Furious.

Operation Fast and Furious involved more than 2,000 weapons purchased by straw buyers at Phoenix-area gun stores. Nearly 700 of those guns have been recovered ? 276 in Mexico and 389 in the United States, according to ATF data as of Oct. 20.

Controversy erupted over the intitiative after two assault rifles turned up at an Arizona shootout where border agent Brian Terry was killed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_attorney_general

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Farms, stores brighten stalled NYC building lots (AP)

NEW YORK ? A remnant of the Great Recession is hiding behind a paint-splattered wall in Chinatown, in an empty lot where a building was supposed to rise into the sky.

The plywood barely conceals the mess behind it: a pile of cement blocks and tangled metal and empty bottles of beer. It is, in short, exactly the sort of place that draws the ire of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

"There's a lot of bad things that happen in stalled construction sites," says Stringer, whose office issued a report earlier this year cataloguing the more than 600 stalled sites that are scattered throughout New York City. "Especially if everybody sort of ignores the site and lets it grow in a very unpleasing way."

Instead of allowing these lots to become eyesores, some developers are coming up with creative ways to use them temporarily until construction can begin. Grow vegetables in milk crates? Sure. Sell doughnuts out of a shipping container? In New York City, where open space is a precious commodity, just about anything goes.

In a lot near the East River, an urban farm sprouted last summer on the spot where the construction of a life science park is in limbo. At roughly 15,000 square feet, it's a patch of green in the shadow of the tower next door.

"We thought, we have this bald site here, this plot of land in the middle of New York," said Scarlet Shore, executive director of corporate strategy for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. "Why don't we figure out how to make it productive?"

The original design for the project called for two towers that would house office space for commercial life science companies. Work began on both towers in 2007, and the East Tower was completed. But after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, Alexandria, the developer, decided to halt construction on the West Tower. Now the company is taking a wait-and-see approach amid continued economic uncertainty.

Soon the place was a maze of milk crates lined with landscaping fabric and soil. Riverpark Farm, which officially opened on Sept. 13, isn't just a bright spot for neighborhood residents in need of greenery. It also supplies fresh produce for Riverpark restaurant, which is located next door in the East Tower.

Zach Pickens, the farm manager, likes to watch people do a double-take when they walk along the low wooden wall that separates the farm from the street.

"They'll look in the first window and they'll be like, `Oh my gosh, there's plants growing in there,'" he said.

The crops are being covered in plastic as colder weather moves in, but the farm will continue to grow vegetables like spinach, carrots and beets.

The developer charges no rent for the farm project. It's unclear when construction will begin on the West Tower, but when that does happen, the goal is to transport the moveable farm to a new location.

Developers say the beauty of these sites lies in their easy portability. And it doesn't get much more portable than the shops at downtown Brooklyn's DeKalb Market, which have been fashioned out of giant, colorful shipping containers of the variety carried on cargo ships. The market is situated on a city-owned plot of land that will eventually become a massive mixed-use retail development.

The containers have been transformed into tiny stores that can only squeeze in a few customers at a time, and they're selling everything from wool hats to antique mirrors to hot dogs. The vendors pay rent to Urban Space, a specialty retail market developer that manages the market.

"In the beginning it was very confusing for people, because they didn't understand whether they were coming to a construction site or whether they were coming to get food," said Vincent Taylor, manager of Cuzin's Duzin, a doughnut shop at the market. "It's probably the coolest place we've ever worked out of."

In order to spur more creative development, Stringer wants the city to create new zoning laws that would loosen the current restrictions at construction sites and help developers finance new projects. The fact that these sites are only temporary creates a host of legal hurdles for developers, he says.

Stringer wants to emulate cities that have led the way in transforming stalled construction sites. In Seattle, city officials are actively working with developers and neighborhoods to adopt new public projects.

The city is also trying to make use of the sites in other ways, such as a program introduced by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn that turns them into affordable housing units.

"The bottom line is that even as the economy improves, we're still going to be stuck with some stalled development that doesn't actually work with the community," Stringer said.

Carlos Little, a landscape architect and artist, is running his art studio and a gallery space in a stalled construction site on Leroy Street near the West Side Highway. The building is set to be demolished to make way for a residential building on the lot and a parking lot next door.

Little says it's a mutually beneficial situation, since he is able to keep an eye on the building and notify the owner when there's a burst pipe or a fire hazard. And in turn, he says, the building has become his muse ? a pedestal of sorts for his artwork. He even uses materials from the building itself in his sculptures.

"The point is about today," he said. "Today I'm right here and I can deal with the fact that tomorrow it can go away. It helps maintain the creative cycle of creating something and destroying something."

___

Associated Press writer Karen Zraick contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_us/us_stalled_construction_nyc

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Expelled Iran diplomats leave Britain (Reuters)

TEHRAN/LONDON (Reuters) ? All Iranian diplomats left Britain on Friday, expelled in response to protesters storming the British embassy in Tehran, hardening a confrontation between Tehran and the West over its nuclear program.

In Iran, crowds chanted "Death to Britain" at Tehran University, and a militia linked to the storming of the embassy prepared to greet the returning diplomats as heroes. A hardline cleric denounced the U.N. Security Council and European Union for backing Britain following the embassy storming.

But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained silent, perhaps reflecting unease within the faction-riven leadership about an incident likely to deepen Iran's international isolation.

Protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds on Tuesday, smashing windows, torching a car and burning the British flag in protest against new sanctions imposed by London.

The incident followed accusations from Washington of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador and a report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog suggesting Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, all contributing to increased diplomatic isolation for Tehran in recent months.

"I can confirm that, earlier this afternoon, all diplomatic staff of the Iranian Embassy in London took off from Heathrow airport," a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

After the embassy storming, Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that Britain was closing its embassy in Tehran, ordered the closure of the Iranian embassy in London and gave all Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave Britain.

Hague said the assault could not have happened without the consent of Iranian authorities.

The Iranian diplomats slipped away quietly. The green, white and red Iranian flag still flew over the Iranian embassy in west London that was the scene of a dramatic six-day siege in 1980 when gunmen seized 21 hostages, two of whom they killed.

Across the street, a dozen protesters opposed to Iran's government chanted "Free Iran" and urged "terrorists" to go home. A few police officers stood guard.

Western powers suspect Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons but Iran insists its program is peaceful.

Diplomacy has come to a boil after a report in November by the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency suggested Iran has worked on a nuclear bomb program. The United States and Israel have not ruled out military strikes.

REMORSE

Britain's Ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott, said hardliners in the Iranian establishment may have thought confrontation would rally Iranians, but miscalculated how strong the response to the embassy storming would be.

"They probably didn't expect us to send home the Iranian embassy in London and, reading between the lines, you can see in the way they have responded to that move, some remorse in having provoked it," Chilcott told the BBC.

The closure of the embassies, by cutting off a channel of communication between Britain and Iran, complicates the search for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute.

"Having this tension between Iran and Europe will make those negotiations a lot harder," said Adam Hug, policy director of the Foreign Policy Centre, a London think-tank. "It does make the risk of conflict slightly more plausible."

France, Germany and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Tehran for consultations as a protest against the storming of the British compounds.

The EU added 180 Iranian people and entities to its sanctions list on Thursday and laid out plans for a possible embargo on Iranian oil, the lifeblood of the Iranian economy.

The United Nations Security Council said it "condemned in the strongest terms" the attack, although veto-wielder Russia made clear it saw no need for more sanctions.

ROTTEN ROPE

In Tehran, cleric Ahmad Khatami denounced the EU and Security Council to worshippers who chanted "Death to Britain."

"If you have just a bit of wisdom, you won't tie your rope to the rotten rope of Britain," he said.

Increasing tensions with the world's fifth biggest oil exporter pushed up global oil prices despite concerns of an economic downturn in the West. Brent crude rose towards $110 a barrel on Friday from a Thursday close of $108.99.

Iran's culture ministry banned foreign media from covering anti-British pro-government protests in Tehran, especially rallies "in front of the British Embassy and the Qolhak compound unless authorized in advance," the ministry said in a statement.

Witnesses reported a heavy presence of police at Ferdowsi square, where the British embassy is located.

"Life is normal in the area but there are many police officers in the area," said a witness who asked not to be named.

The 135-year-old embassy residence was severely damaged in the onslaught. The ornate building at the centre of the complex has changed little since it hosted a dinner between Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Britain's Winston Churchill during the 1943 Tehran conference.

One Western diplomat who visited it on Thursday said priceless oil paintings had been slashed and protesters had cut out the face of a portrait of Queen Victoria. There were no reports of harm to staff.

The semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday that 11 hardline protesters detained for storming the British compounds had been released.

Iranian diplomats expelled from London were due to arrive in Tehran in the early hours of Saturday and the hardline Basij militia said it would have a welcoming committee for them at the International Imam Khomeini Airport outside the capital.

Iran's Foreign Ministry expressed regret over the embassy invasion, which it said was a spontaneous overflowing of anger during a peaceful protest by students. Britain says there must have been at least tacit approval by the ruling establishment.

The Iranian reformist website Sahamnews issued a statement by a group of students at the Islamic Azad university condemning the attack and saying the conservative hardliners did not represent the view of most young Iranians.

"Misusing the name of student is something we cannot easily let pass. There is no connection between what these people did and the honorable and sensible Iranian students," it said.

Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, a long-time rival to Ahmadinejad, condemned the U.N. Security Council reaction to the embassy storming as "hasty" and "devious."

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Parisa Hafezi and Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Peter Graff and Jon Hemming)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/wl_nm/us_iran_britain

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Twitter is Big for Business | Social Media Today

(Or why businesses need to harness the power of Twitter because their competitors are already doing it)?

Twitter is big business.

I don?t mean that Twitter is doing well and that the company is making money ? it is. What I mean is that Twitter is big for businesses. Businesses have clocked on to Twitter in a big way. A lot of them still don?t really know how it works, but they?re doing it anyway.

Why is this happening? Could it just be a passing fad that will seem ridiculous in a few years? time? Definitely not ? quite the opposite in fact. In a few years, those companies that aren?t using Twitter will seem like dinosaurs. I think it will make companies? current attempts to use Facebook to attract business look old fashioned.

The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, anyone can follow a company (or an individual) on Twitter without having to ?Like? them, which is how Facebook works. Secondly, and this is the magic ingredient of Twitter, anyone can send a direct message to anyone they follow on Twitter, and the recipient will receive it. No personal assistants will intervene to screen the incoming message (unless, perhaps, it?s Barack Obama). The individual you send the message to will read it. They may not always respond, but they?ll read it. (Getting people to respond is an art in itself and I?ll cover that skill in a subsequent article). For now I just want to stress the fact that Twitter is personal ? you contact someone, they receive the message. They want to receive the message because they?re opted in to do so.

Twitter is like e-mail but 100 times better. People don?t give their e-mails out to just anyone. But if someone decides to join Twitter, they are saying to the world, ?I?m here, contact me!?

What all this means for business is an open, global forum for discussion, idea-sharing, pitching, questioning, brainstorming and, if you?re subtle about it, selling. After all, we are in business to make money. No-one is going to devote time and energy to something that doesn?t bring in some kind of return. This is where things get a bit ?unscientific?. If there was a sure-fire way to measure ROI from using Twitter, everyone would be using it. Whoever comes up with such a method is sure to make billions. Not millions, but billions ? the stakes are that high. In the meantime, though, we have to satisfy ourselves with something a bit less concrete. There are no Excel spreadsheets here for the accountants to look at and say, ?OK, Twitter brought in X amount of business, let?s take on some more social media experts.? It just doesn?t work like that.

So how does it work? To be perfectly honest, I don?t think anyone really knows, but it works. There is a new phenomenon happening right in front of our very eyes. It?s not the birth of social media, it?s not Web 2.0 (remember that?) ? it?s something else. It?s a zeitgeist kind of thing. Everyone is doing it. OK, not everyone, but just about everyone that matters to YOU and your business is doing it. And if they?re not, they soon will be. And because everyone that matters is doing it, if you?re not doing it you?re being left behind. It?s as simple as that.

A new way of doing business is evolving, right here, right now. And it?s only going to accelerate. The ins and outs of Twitter: how to follow people, how to get followed, how to make contact with people ? these are all technicalities that anyone can learn in a few minutes (that?s another wonderful thing about Twitter ? it?s just so EASY). It?s the wider phenomenon that is important and that we need to understand. Businesses, business associations, business magazines, analysts, financial experts, CEOs (are they people?) are now using Twitter to communicate, share ideas and, basically, ?do business?.

How do we measure the outcome? It?s a pointless question. You may as well ask how we measure the impact of having a conversation at a business conference. Will we get a deal as a result? Maybe, maybe not, but we?re networking. And that?s all Twitter is ? it?s a new way to network where the entire world is at your disposal and is waiting to hear what you have to say.

The fact of the matter is that the potential, and influence, of Twitter is only just beginning to be realized. I believe we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

As Chris Bucholtz, editor-in-chief of the CRM Outsiders blog says: ?If your business has any kind of content it wishes to share with the world, Twitter?s virtually a necessity for getting it out there.?

And if you still aren?t convinced that Twitter can help your business, think about some of these facts:

  • 88 of the Fortune Top 100 companies now use Twitter daily.
  • 66 percent of questions asked on twitter have some commercial intent.
  • 80 percent of customer service tweets are negative or critical. It?s therefore essential to be able to respond to any criticism immediately.
  • 85 percent of companies are now using twitter as part of their recruitment process.
  • Twitter is now being used to predict the movement of stock markets

And some success stories:

  • When Cisco launched a new router, it decided to use only social media to market it. This allowed the company to effectively measure the results. ?The campaign was one of the top five most successful campaigns in the company?s history, and it saved the company a six figure sum.
  • Comcast started a ?Comcast Cares? Twitter customer service center and attracted 2,700 followers. Many were initially critics of the company but were converted to ardent fans.
  • Dell used Twitter to create ?Dell Outlet?, which generated US$3 million revenue in one year from Twitter postings.
  • JetBlue set up a Twitter account to have more direct relationships with customers and potential customers, to listen to their complaints, and to understand how to serve them better. They now have over 1.5 million followers.
  • Oracle added social networks to its existing communication channels and trained 25,000 partners while reducing costs, boosting satisfaction and increasing PR.
  • TeamTurboTax launched a Twitter campaign to answer questions during the key tax season and found its customers were 71% more likely to recommend TurboTax because of their interactions with the company through Twitter.

A final comment from Heather Whaling at Geben Communication: ?My company can trace ~75% of its business back to relationships that initially began on social media, and the *vast* majority of those relationships began on Twitter. That's a pretty compelling business case for me. And, it also helps me understand how to help clients generate business-related outcomes from their social media use. As I always say, time spent online has to be time well spent.?

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/damian-corbet/398265/twitter-big-business

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Friday, December 2, 2011

Now Facebook updates can be over 60,000 characters

Facebook

By Rosa Golijan

A Facebook status update could be up to 420 characters long in March 2009, 500 characters in July 2011, and 5,000 characters in September 2011.

But now? Now you can post status updates that are over 60,000 characters long, according to?Facebook's?Journalist Program Manager Vadim Lavrusik.?In case you're wondering how far over 60,000 you can go: The character limit is set at 63,206.

How'd Facebook come up with this ridiculously large, and unusual, character limit? Bob Baldwin, the software engineer who set the new number, explains:

Facebook

Don't worry if that flies over your head ??geeky calculations tend to require several cups of coffee and a bit of homework for most of us.

Live Poll

Should Facebook updates really be up to 63,206 characters long?

  • 169821

    Yes! I need all that space!

    10%

  • 169822

    63,206 characters? I need more!

    6%

  • 169823

    No! I don't want to see people write that much!

    44%

  • 169824

    Yes, but only if people are signed up for mandatory writing classes and grammar lessons.

    40%

VoteTotal Votes: 292

What you really should know is that this change means that you could theoretically post an entire novel in fewer than nine Facebook updates. (Assuming that the average novel is about 500,000 characters long.)?Alternatively, you could squeeze over 450 tweets, about 395 text messages, or one incredibly long rant into a single new text space.

No guarantees that your friends will read it though.

Related stories:

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/01/9140900-now-facebook-updates-can-be-over-60000-characters

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'Jersey Shore' star Pauly D teams up with 50 Cent

Rapper and businessman Curtis Jackson, also known as 50 Cent, poses with Paul ?DJ Pauly D? DelVecchio from MTV's "Jersey Shore," at the G-Unit Offices, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 in New York. DelVecchio signed a record deal with 50 Cent's G-Note record label, which focuses on dance and pop music. (AP Photo/PictureGroup, Brad Barket)

Rapper and businessman Curtis Jackson, also known as 50 Cent, poses with Paul ?DJ Pauly D? DelVecchio from MTV's "Jersey Shore," at the G-Unit Offices, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 in New York. DelVecchio signed a record deal with 50 Cent's G-Note record label, which focuses on dance and pop music. (AP Photo/PictureGroup, Brad Barket)

(AP) ? He's talked about it, but now Pauly D is officially a member of 50 Cent's music group.

The "Jersey Shore" star officially signed to the rapper's G-Note label Thursday. The label focuses on dance and pop music ? a good fit for Pauly D, since he's known as a DJ as well as a reality star.

He's been working in music since he was 16 and parlayed his success on the MTV hit series into becoming an in-demand DJ. Pauly D even joined Britney Spears for a few dates on her recent "Femme Fatal" tour as an opening act.

A few months ago Pauly D confirmed that he and the rapper were working together.

50 Cent said Pauly D was a "great addition to G-Note and G-Unit family" and called him smart and creative.

____

Online:

http://www.g-noterecords.com/

____

Alicia Quarles is the AP's global entertainment editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/aliciaquarles

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-12-01-Music-50%20Cent-Pauly%20D/id-f575547910cb4d6fba5ee5a199ea867f

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Twitter Nabs The Two Guys Behind Mobile Security Startup Whisper Systems

Screen Shot 2011-11-28 at 11.09.37 AMThe team behind security startup Whisper Systems has been acq-hired by Twitter, they have?announced on their company blog this gorgeous Cyber Monday morning.
"We started Whisper Systems with the goal of improving security and privacy for mobile devices. We were attracted to this not only because we saw it as an opportunity to reinvent the security solutions that never really worked in the PC environment to begin with, but also because the stakes are much higher ? due to the nature of mobile devices themselves ? and we didn't like the way that things were looking."
As Whisper Systems consists of just two employees, Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson, this has talent acquisition written all over it. In their year of being in the business, the startup has built a variety of encryption products for Android phones and the web including WhisperCore, a product that encrypts all data on your phone and TextSecure, a product that encrypts text messages.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/EQEMSsQi1bY/

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sunday Media Notes (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166990472?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Gunfire erupts at NC mall as early shoppers arrive (AP)

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. ? Authorities say gunfire erupted at a North Carolina mall as holiday shoppers gathered, though there are no reports of any injuries. No evacuation was ordered, but several shoppers left the mall and some smaller stores closed.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office says detectives are looking for two suspects after gunfire rang out at Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville early Friday.

The first shots were fired around 2 a.m. outside the mall near a food court entrance. Investigators say several more shots were fired after one of the suspects ran inside the mall.

Investigators say no one with gunshot wounds has shown up at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.

Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season, when merchants can make 25 to 40 percent of their annual revenue.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111125/ap_on_re_us/us_black_friday_mall_shooting

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Pillow Pets As Low As $7.99 Shipped | Faithful Provisions

pillow-pet

Amazon has some select Pillow Pets for as low as $7.99 right now. ?Here are the ones that are available:

Plus, you can get FREE Super Saver shipping with order of $25 or more.

*Note: Some of these are Pillow Pets and some are Pet Pillows! ?

{ 0 comments }

Source: http://faithfulprovisions.com/2011/11/25/pillow-pets-as-low-as-7-99-shipped/

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Oil hovers above $96 amid light holiday volume (AP)

SINGAPORE ? Oil prices hovered above $96 a barrel Thursday in Asia amid light trading volume ahead of a U.S. holiday.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 1 cent at $96.18 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.84 to settle at $96.17 in New York on Wednesday.

Brent crude for January delivery was steady at $106.70 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Markets in the U.S. are closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Crude has fallen from above $103 last week amid investor concern the Europe debt crisis will undermine global economic growth and oil demand.

However, crude inventories have dropped in recent months in the U.S. and Europe. Crude supplies fell by 6.2 million barrels last week and are about 8 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

"The low inventory situation has prevented oil prices from falling sharply," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report. "But eventually, deteriorating financial conditions could start to impact economic activity and bring oil prices somewhat lower."

Bank of America said it expects Brent crude to average $104 in the first quarter of next year.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 1 cent to $2.98 per gallon and gasoline futures gained 1.2 cents to $2.53 per gallon. Natural gas was steady at $3.61 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_re_as/oil_prices

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Snowy landing for first Soyuz return since shuttle

Chelsea Whyte, contributor

POD2211.jpg(Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

As the sun rose over the snowy fields outside Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, it greeted three returnees from the black of space.

Surrounded by steam, the Soyuz capsule looks otherworldly as it rests on the tundra. After the landing at 8:26 am local time on November 22, workers helped the crew out of the cramped-looking capsule.

Its passengers were NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, who spent five months aboard the International Space Station serving as crew for ISS Expeditions 28 and 29.

The Soyuz is the first spacecraft to return astronauts to Earth since the space shuttle was retired in July. These astronauts leave the ISS in the hands of a crew that arrived just one week ago, amid fears that the space station would be left unmanned due to safety concerns after the failed launch of a Soyuz rocket in August.

Subscribe to New Scientist Magazine

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1a4ea4b7/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A110C110Csoyuz0Ecapsule0Egets0Esteamy0Eretu0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Think Klout Is For Suckers? Flout.me Wants You To Set Your Own Social Influence Score.

Screen shot 2011-11-22 at 8.44.27 PMSome people love Klout, while others are in doubt. But, the fact of the matter is that, in the end, all this talking about Klout is ... good for Klout. Apparently, in 100 million ways. At the very least, when it comes to social media influence and reputation, Klout is hard to ignore. Even if, like Alexia, one believes that no one really gives a damn about your Klout score. Well, thanks to Josh Constine's legwork and research, we bring you another solution. Enter the snark-ily named Flout.me, founded by Pat Nakajima and Anoop Ranganath. In the duo's own words: "Sites like Klout try to tell you how important you are. That's ridiculous! Only you know how important you are. Flout lets you flaunt it to the world."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dIV0OhNv0o4/

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Paul stays out on limb, frustrating rivals (Politico)

Ron Paul got more speaking time Tuesday night than he has at most of the other debates, and he used it to point out even more differences that set him far apart from his rivals and the Republican mainstream.

Turned to repeatedly by moderator Wolf Blitzer, Paul detailed his disagreements on renewing the Patriot Act, attacking Iran, supporting Israel and giving foreign aid. Those answers aren?t surprising ? he?s said most of the lines he delivered Tuesday many times before ? but with Paul?s core of support likely to keep him in the debates for months to come, they were a reminder of just how much of a thorn he has the potential to be in the side of the eventual nominee.

Continue Reading

Paul started the evening taking on former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who?d argued about the importance of preserving the Patriot Act to more effectively fight terrorism.

?I think the Patriot Act is unpatriotic because it undermines our liberty,? Paul responded. ?Today it seems too easy that our government and our congresses are so willing to give up our liberties for our security.?

As the other candidates sided with Gingrich, Paul became visibly agitated, waiting for his opportunity to respond.

?You can prevent crimes by becoming a police state,? Paul aid. ?So if you advocate the police state, yes, you can have safety and security and you might prevent a crime, but the crime then will be against the American people and against our freedoms.?

Even Mitt Romney got drawn in to the Paul orbit. Though Romney?s avoided much direct confrontation with this rivals, on Tuesday he challenged Paul on his position that foreign bases are provoking the nation?s enemies. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani used this as a tactic in the 2008 primaries, pitting himself against Paul to enhance the impression of his foreign policy strength.

On border security, Paul took issue with fellow Texas Rick Perry recommending ending the ?war on drugs? to curtail violence created by Mexican drug cartels.

?That?s another war we ought to cancel,? Paul said. ?And that?s where the violence is coming from.?

Paul made his usual comments about ending all foreign wars, which he?s kept firing hard on, even in a field comprised of several hawks who advocated hardline responses to Iran and Pakistan.

?I am convinced that needless and unnecessary wars are a great detriment,? Paul said. ?They undermine our prosperity and our liberties.?

The rest of the Republican field has positioned itself as strong supporters of Israel, but Paul said he?d be against helping if the country decided to go to war with Iran to halt nuclear proliferation.

?No, I wouldn?t do that,? Paul said when asked, prompting laughter from the audience.

Paul argued that it?s unlikely Israel would even opt to attack Iran.

?And if it did ? you?re supposing that if it did, why does Israel need our help?? he said. ?We need to get out of their way.?

While the other Republicans bemoaned possible cuts in defense spending, Paul argued the reductions aren?t as deep as others were making them out.

?There?s nothing cut against the military,? he said. ?And the people on the Hill are nearly hysterical because they?re not going ? the budget isn?t going up as rapidly as they want it to.?

And with the topics and questions continuously coming back to Paul, Rick Santorum ? who?s repeatedly locked horns with the congressman ?instead tried to insert himself into the discussion with a joke.

?I agree with Ron Paul,? Santorum said, pausing to the let the audience respond to how he?d framed his answer about how ?war on terrorism? was a misnomer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1111_69024_html/43691213/SIG=11mpdlt71/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/69024.html

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Rob Kardashian tops 'Dancing' leaderboard (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Rob Kardashian swung to the top of the "Dancing with the Stars" leaderboard Monday.

The 24-year-old reality TV star and his professional partner, Cheryl Burke, waltzed ahead of the competition on the ABC ballroom contest's final dance-off. Kardashian and Burke nabbed a combined 57 out of a possible 60 for a breezy waltz and dizzying swing-era freestyle routine that garnered Kardashian his first perfect 30 of the season.

"Never would I ever have thought that I'd get a perfect score, and we did it with the hardest freestyle," he said.

U.S. Army veteran J.R. Martinez and TV personality Ricki Lake tied for second place with 54. Lake remained consistent with a 27 for both her cha-cha and a freestyle number that incorporated everything from quickstep to salsa moves, while Martinez earned a 24 for a so-so cha-cha before winning a perfect 30 for his high-energy salsa-inspired freestyle.

"It was a like a jungle tribal hypnotic experience," judge Bruno Tonioli told Martinez.

Lake and partner Derek Hough have been front-runners throughout the show's 13th season, consistently earning high marks from the judges. Martinez and partner Karina Smirnoff have also ranked high with the panel, occasionally topping the leaderboard. Kardashian has experienced steady growth under Burke and may have peaked at just the right moment.

"You're like the male version of Cinderella who made it to the ball," judge Carrie Ann Inaba told him.

The scores will be combined with viewer votes to determine the champion Tuesday.

Previously dismissed contestants include actor David Arquette, activist Chaz Bono, soccer player Hope Solo, singer Chynna Phillips, actress Elisabetta Canalis, basketball player Metta World Peace and TV personalities Kristin Cavallari, Carson Kressley and Nancy Grace.

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report. Derrik J. Lang and Sandy Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang/ and http://www.twitter.com/APSandy.

___

Online:

http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_en_tv/us_tv_dancing_with_the_stars

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EPA Delays Proposal for Greenhouse Gas Standards Again (ContributorNetwork)

According to Reuters, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced it will delay its proposal of greenhouse gas limits on oil refineries. Following a court settlement with both states and environmental organizations, the EPA had been given until mid-December to propose these limits on refineries.

However, the delay in the presenting of the proposal is due to the fact the agency needs more time to develop the greenhouse gas standards and construct plans on how oil refineries can cut down on emissions. Here are some facts about the events leading up to the recent proposal delay and the criticism the EPA is facing:

* The EPA initially announced its plans to set standards for power plant and oil refinery greenhouse gas emissions in December 2010, according to Scientific American.

* Collectively the country's 500 fossil fuel power plants and 150 oil refineries emit about 2.4 billion metric tons, or 40 percent of the nation's total emissions, of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases every single year.

* The decision was the result of two major proposed settlement agreements and EPA agreed to set new source performance standards for industrial categories.

* The Tucson Citizen reported that in March, House Republicans attempted to strip the EPA of its ability to use the Clean Air Act from regulating carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and oil refineries.

* The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 would bar the EPA from imposing these rules, causing President Barack Obama to most likely veto it since it goes against his climate agenda.

* The GOP noted that one of the reasons it was seeking to push this bill is because of rising gas prices in the U.S., noted USA Today.

* Another Reuters article reported that environmental organizations that originally sued to the EPA to enforce the emissions standards have given the agency several extensions for its proposal.

* The most recent extension was in October, but other delays were issued in June and September as well.

* The EPA made the delays in order to gain more time to develop and outline the specific plans after speaking with numerous businesses, states that would be affected by the changes, and environmental organizations in support of the rules.

* Other lawsuits have been filed to prevent the EPA from imposing standards, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

* Additionally, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Republican Gov. Rick Perry have spoken out against the rules, saying that the changes and stricter standards would kill jobs for Americans.

Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111121/us_ac/10497543_epa_delays_proposal_for_greenhouse_gas_standards_again

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Monday, November 21, 2011

Natalie Wood detectives face conflicting accounts (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Natalie Wood's drowning death nearly 30 years ago came after a night of dinner, drinking and arguments but the question remains ? was it anything more than a tragic accident?

Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht shared by Wood, her actor-husband Robert Wagner and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981.

Two sheriff's detectives are now diving into the mysterious events on the yacht Splendour, although whether they reach any different conclusions than their predecessors remains to be seen. They recently received new, seemingly credible information and heard from potential witnesses who weren't included in the original investigation of Wood's death, sheriff's Lt. John Corina said Friday.

But he said nothing has happened to changed the official view that Wood's death was originally an accidental drowning. Wagner, the star of "Hart and Hart" is not considered a suspect, he added.

Corina released few details about who investigators have contacted or plan to re-interview, but the inquiry will certainly lead them to speak with the three survivors of the trip ? Wagner, Walken and skipper Dennis Davern.

Wood's sister, Lana, was not on the boat, but told CNN's Piers Morgan on Friday that she has spoken with Davern many times and believes her sister did not fall off the boat.

"I don't think she fell, I don't know if she was pushed, I don't know whether there was an altercation and it happened accidentally but she shouldn't have died and that does stay with me and hurt," Lana Wood said.

"I would prefer to always believe that RJ (Wagner) would never do anything to hurt Natalie and that he loved her dearly, which he did, and I don't believe that whatever went on was deliberate. I've always cared about him. I always will care about him," she said.

The captain said on NBC's "Today" on Friday that Wagner is to blame for the Oscar-nominated actress' death in the chilly waters of Southern California in November 1981, but didn't offer many specifics. For years he has maintained that he heard the famous couple arguing on the boat before Wood went missing and Wagner refusing to immediately search the waters nearby for his wife.

Davern's account is dramatically different from what he told investigators after Wood's body was found in 1981, when no mention of an argument between the couple was made. Wood was wearing a nightgown, wool socks and red down coat when she was found floating off Santa Catalina Island.

The renewed investigation comes at a time when plenty of attention was sure to be focused on Wood, whose beauty and acting in films such as "West Side Story" and "Rebel Without a Cause" made her Hollywood royalty. Her death stunned the world and CBS' "48 Hours Mystery" has been looking into the case for a special airing on Saturday.

Sheriff's officials denied the renewed attention prompted their review, which could take months.

"We're not concerned with the anniversary date," Corina said. "It may have jarred some other people's memories."

Davern and Wagner agree on one point about the fateful night ? there was a heated argument on the yacht after the group returned from dinner on Catalina. All had been drinking, and here is where the three men's accounts begin to differ.

Davern said he heard Wagner and Wood arguing and its outcome had horrific consequences.

Was that fight "what ultimately led to her death?" Davern was asked by "Today" show host David Gregory.

"Yes," Davern replied.

"How so?"

"Like I said, that's going to be up to the investigators to decide," Davern responded after a long pause.

Wagner acknowledges a fight took place on the Splendour, but in his best-selling 2008 memoir "Pieces of My Heart," he wrote that the fighting was between him and Walken. The disagreement began over the acting profession and led to Wood retreating to her cabin, while the dispute raged on between Wagner and Walken. Later Walken went to bed, according to Wagner, who, after staying up with Davern for a while, went looking for his wife and couldn't find her on board. He then noticed that a dinghy attached to the boat _and his wife ? was gone.

Walken, who has rarely spoken about the events that led to Wood's death, denied in a 1982 interview on "Good Morning America" that he and Wagner quarreled.

"No, that's not true," Walken said when asked if a fight was the reason Wood left the yacht. "They were very good to me, that family, and that's not true.

"We were having a Thanksgiving weekend, a good time," he said.

But Walken told sheriff's detectives that there was an argument, according to a 2000 Vanity Fair piece that included statements from a report by the investigating detective. It also included comments from Davern, who told the magazine that he heard Wagner and Wood fighting before she went missing.

The detective, Wagner and Walken and coroner's officials all have maintained that Wood's death was an accident, possibly caused by her trying to secure the dinghy to the side of the yacht.

"The people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth," Walken was quoted in the Vanity Fair piece as saying during an interview in the 1980s. "Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it. It was an accident."

Wagner too addressed the uncertainty about what happened in his book.

"Nobody knows," he wrote. "There are only two possibilities; either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

Wagner said through a spokesman that his family trusts the sheriff's department to conduct a fair investigation into Wood's death.

The couple were married twice, first in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972.

___

Associated Press writer Denise Petski contributed to this report.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111119/ap_on_en_mu/us_natalie_wood_investigation

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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Liverpool beats Chelsea 2-1 in Premier League

Glen Johnson, Dirk Kuyt

updated 6:08 p.m. ET Nov. 20, 2011

LONDON - Glen Johnson sent Chelsea to a second straight home loss in the English Premier League with a late winner at Stamford Bridge on Sunday as Liverpool took a 2-1 victory to reignite its chances of finishing in the top four.

Galloping onto Charlie Adam's raking pass in the 87th minute, the England right back cut inside international teammate Ashley Cole, burst into the area before curling home left-footed into the bottom corner.

Not only did Johnson's superb solo goal extend Liverpool's unbeaten run in the league to seven matches and lift the team above Arsenal into sixth place, it also dealt a major blow to Chelsea's hopes of reeling in unbeaten leader Manchester City.

City is 12 points clear of Chelsea after nearly a third of the season, which will pile the pressure on the London club's inexperienced manager Andre Villas-Boas, especially given the notorious impatience of Chelsea's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.

"The situation in the league isn't good for us but it's not impossible to turn it around," said Villas-Boas, whose team has lost three of its last four matches.

Former Argentina midfielder Maxi Rodriguez had given Liverpool a deserved lead in the 33rd minute on his first league start of the season, before Daniel Sturridge equalized from close range 10 minutes after coming on as a halftime substitute and adding some urgency to Chelsea's sterile attacking play.

If either side looked likely to nick a winner in the dying stages, it was Chelsea. But up popped Johnson to decide the game against the team he played for between 2003-07.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal are all level on 22 points, as is Tottenham, which has two games in hand starting with a home match against Aston Villa on Monday.

___

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Athletic Bilbao beat Sevilla 2-1 on Sunday to extend its unbeaten run to eight games in the Spanish league.

Andoni Iraola gave Bilbao an early lead in the sixth minute with a sharply taken strike from outside the area to put the visitors on their way to their first win at Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in 18 years.

Jesus Navas equalized for Sevilla in the 15th, but Bilbao never lost its attacking verve and Oscar de Marcos put the Basques back ahead for good in the 71st when the left back stole the ball, raced onto Iker Muniain's through pass and rolled home his own rebound.

Atletico Madrid beat fourth-place Levante 3-2, a third straight loss for the unheralded club after a memorable start to the season that had taken it to the top of the table for the first time in its history.

The match between Granada and Mallorca was suspended in the 63rd minute after a linesman was hit in the face with an umbrella thrown from the stands at Los Carmenes stadium. Granada was winning 2-1.

Sporting Gijon rallied to beat 10-man Getafe 2-1, while Osasuna-Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad-Espanyol both ended in scoreless draws.

___

ROME (AP) ? Juventus showed no signs of rustiness after a three-week layoff on Sunday, reclaiming the Serie A lead with a dominating 3-0 win over Palermo, as previous leader Udinese lost 2-0 at Parma.

Simone Pepe put Juventus in front with a header in the 20th minute following a well-placed cross from Giorgio Chiellini, and then celebrated by imitating a golf putt into the corner flag.

Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo hit the post in the 31st but Alessandro Matri doubled the lead with a sharply angled shot that went under Palermo goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas in the 48th.

Claudio Marchisio sealed the victory in the 65th after Matri faked a shot to leave him wide open, as the Bianconeri remained unbeaten ? with a game in hand.

Juventus and Lazio are level with 22 points each but Juventus holds the edge on goal difference ahead of the two clubs' meeting next weekend ? with head-to-head results being the first tiebreaker in the Italian league.

AC Milan and Udinese are next with 21 points each.

In the late match, Roma beat Lecce 2-1 as Miralem Pjanic and Fernando Gago each scored their first Serie A goals, moving the capital club into fifth place, five points back.

___

BERLIN (AP) ? Hamburg SV beat Hoffenheim 2-0 Sunday to climb out of the Bundesliga relegation zone and give coach Thorsten Fink his first win since taking over.

"We believed in it and we fought for it," Fink said.

Jose Paulo Guerrero scored against the run of play in the 25th minute, when the Peru striker was lucky to receive the rebound after his initial shot hit the right post.

Hamburg kept pressing in the second half and Marcell Jansen added the second goal in the 65th, when he ran at the visiting defense before unleashing a low shot past Tom Starke at the near post.

Hamburg players danced before fans at the final whistle after claiming their first win at home in 10 attempts since a 6-2 win over Cologne in March.

"It's a fantastic feeling, of course, but I must say it was just a question of time," said Hamburg sporting director Frank Arnesen. "Today was just reward for all the guys work over the last four of five weeks. If we keep playing like we did today we'll have many more wins."

Hamburg, which spent several weeks bottom of the Bundesliga, is unbeaten since Fink took over on Oct. 17.

Earlier, Martin Harnik scored twice to give Stuttgart a hard-fought 2-1 win at home over Augsburg.

___

PARIS (AP) ? Paris Saint-Germain lost 1-0 to Nancy but stayed first in the French league on goal difference over Montpellier.

Nancy defender Jean Calve with a curling shot into the top corner in the 49th minute. The result made PSG coach Antoine Kombouare's position more fragile after the club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said anything other than the league title would be a failure.

___

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? John Guidetti scored twice to guide Feyenoord to a 4-0 win at Vitesse Arnhem in the Dutch league on Sunday, while leader AZ Alkmaar and American forward Jozy Altidore were hit by thick fog which forced officials to abandon its game at Excelsior Rotterdam.

Sekou Cisse and Jordy Clasie netted the other two for Ronald Koeman's side as Feyenoord moved up to fifth in the standings with 21 points from 13 games.

Alkmaar has 31 points from 12 games after its match was called off at halftime following a goalless 45 minutes.

"The assistant referees couldn't see anymore," referee Kevin Blom said. "The players and the coaches gave their consent to this decision."

PSV Eindhoven, which beat De Graafschap 3-1 on Saturday, is second on 28 points. FC Twente is two points further back after a 1-1 draw at Heracles Almelo.

Ajax, which drew 2-2 against NAC Breda in another Saturday fixture, is fourth on 21 points.

___

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) ? American defender Clarence Goodson scored the first goal on the game, helping Brondy beat visiting Copenhagen 2-1 in the Danish league.

Goodson headed in a free kick in the 17th minute. After Dame N<Doye tied it in the 41st, Thomas Rasmussen scored a go-ahead goal in the 81st.

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


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FDA revokes approval of Avastin for breast cancer (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Drug regulators withdrew their approval of Roche's Avastin for breast cancer, saying the drug was not effective enough to justify its risks even if patients believe it has helped them live longer.

Reversing course on a drug that was approved for the disease in 2008, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said subsequent research did not confirm hopes that Avastin would help patients with advanced breast cancer live longer or improve quality of life.

The drug will remain on the market for other uses, such as treating types of colon, lung, kidney and brain cancer.

"This was a difficult decision," Hamburg said. "With so much at stake, patients and their doctors count on the FDA to ensure the drugs they use have been shown to be safe and effective for their intended use. Sometimes, the results of rigorous testing can be disappointing."

While doctors still have discretion in using Avastin for breast cancer off-label, the FDA move may lead health insurers to drop coverage of a medicine that costs $88,000 a year.

An estimated 17,000 women are being treated with the drug, and patient advocates insist there are enough examples of survival to justify its use.

"The bottom line is that they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater," said Dr. Elisa Port, co-director of the Dubin Breast Center of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. "There absolutely may be subsets of carefully chosen breast cancer patients who benefit from Avastin."

Roche said it will pursue a new Phase III study of Avastin in combination with the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel to look for biological clues about which breast cancer patients may benefit from the drug, clinically known as bevacizumab.

The Swiss drugmaker still expects Avastin, its top medicine, to generate peak annual sales of 7 billion Swiss francs ($7.6 billion), despite the FDA's decision. Analysts have said a withdrawn FDA approval for breast cancer could cost nearly $1 billion in sales.

Roche stock ended 0.5 percent lower at 142.60 Swiss francs in Switzerland on Friday. Its decline was in line with a 0.7 percent fall in the European healthcare index.

MEDICARE STILL PLANS TO COVER

The FDA determined in December 2010 that it should revoke its approval of Avastin for breast cancer, but an appeal from Roche and the outcry from patients led it to convene a hearing of advisers in June.

Some insurers have already started pulling back on Avastin coverage for breast cancer. But the U.S. government's Medicare insurance program will continue covering Avastin for the use, said a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

"CMS will monitor the issue and evaluate coverage options as a result of action by the FDA but has no immediate plans to change coverage policies," spokesman Don McLeod said.

European regulators actually relaxed curbs on the use of Avastin in breast cancer this summer to allow its use with Xeloda, another type of chemotherapy drug that is also made by Roche. It was first approved for use with paclitaxel both in Europe and the United States.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, the world's largest breast cancer organization, said the decision should lend urgency to the need for research showing whether specific patients are likelier to benefit from Avastin.

"We know that this decision was a difficult one for the FDA and respect the length of time they spent deliberating the many issues that impact patients," Komen foundation president Elizabeth Thompson said in a statement.

The FDA's decision could also prompt a review of industry guidelines from groups including the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, which represents leading cancer treatment centers. NCCN has so far not strayed from its earlier guideline, approving use of Avastin with paclitaxel for some patients.

Breast cancer is the second-most common type of cancer among women after skin cancer. One in eight U.S. women are expected to develop invasive breast cancer during their lives.

Avastin won U.S. clearance for the disease based on a study showing it stalled breast cancer growth by 5.5 months when used in combination with standard chemotherapy.

Later studies found only a one-to-three-month delay in breast cancer growth. None of the studies showed Avastin extended the lives of patients with advanced breast cancer.

Some patients also had severe side effects, including holes in the stomach and intestines, severe bleeding and blood clots. The company says the incidence of these serious side effects was just under 3 percent greater for those taking Avastin.

$1 = 0.9165 Swiss franc

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London, editing by Michele Gershberg, John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/hl_nm/us_fda_avastin

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

Nanoparticles used as additives in diesel fuels can travel from lungs to liver

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2011) ? Recent studies conducted at Marshall University have demonstrated that nanoparticles of cerium oxide -- common diesel fuel additives used to increase the fuel efficiency of automobile engines -- can travel from the lungs to the liver and that this process is associated with liver damage.

The data in the study by Dr. Eric R. Blough and his colleagues at Marshall's Center for Diagnostic Nanosystems indicate there is a dose-dependent increase in the concentration of cerium in the liver of animals that had been exposed to the nanoparticles, which are only about 1/40,000 times as large as the width of a human hair. These increases in cerium were associated with elevations of liver enzymes in the blood and histological evidence consistent with liver damage. The research was published in the October 13 issue of the peer-reviewed research journal International Journal of Nanomedicine.

Cerium oxide is widely used as a polishing agent for glass mirrors, television tubes and ophthalmic lenses. Cerium oxide nanoparticles are used in the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency and reduce particulate emissions. Some studies have found that cerium oxide nanoparticles may also be capable of acting as antioxidants, leading researchers to suggest these particles may also be useful for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease and radiation-induced tissue damage.

Blough, the center's director and an associate professor in the university's Department of Biological Sciences, said, "Given the ever-increasing use of nanomaterials in industry and in the products we buy, it is becoming increasingly important to understand if these substances may be harmful. To our knowledge, this is the first report to evaluate if inhaled cerium oxide nanoparticles exhibit toxic effects in the liver."

Dr. Siva K. Nalabotu, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. student in Blough's lab, said, "The potential effects of nanomaterials on the environment and cellular function is not yet well understood. Interest in nanotoxicity is rapidly growing.

"Our studies show that cerium oxide nanoparticles are capable of entering the liver from lungs through the circulation, where they show dose-dependent toxic effects on the liver. Our next step is to determine the mechanism of the toxicity."

The research was supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, grant DE-PS02-09ER09-01.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Siva Krishna Nalabotu, Kolli, Triest, Ma, Manne, Katta, H Addagarla, Rice, Blough. Intratracheal instillation of cerium oxide nanoparticles induces hepatic toxicity in male Sprague-Dawley rats. International Journal of Nanomedicine, 2011; : 2327 DOI: 10.2147/IJN.S25119

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111117141157.htm

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Friday, November 18, 2011

CRTC rules against traffic-based internet billing, touts 'flexibility' for small ISPs

Chalk one up for the little guy, because Canada's telecom regulator has finally come down in favor of independent ISPs -- ostensibly, at least. Earlier this week, the CRTC ruled that major providers will not be able to bill smaller operators based on bandwidth usage, effectively reversing a controversial policy it implemented (and eventually rescinded) back in February. Under the ruling, heavyweights like BCE and Rogers will be able to sell their bandwidth to smaller ISPs on a monthly basis, with rates pre-determined according to the network capacity each independent operator requires. Large companies can continue to charge flat monthly fees, as well, but they won't be allowed to impose the same traffic-based billing that many apply to individual consumers. The regulator explained the decision thusly: "This wholesale billing model, which is based on capacity, will give independent ISPs added flexibility in offering competitive and innovative services to Canadians." For more details, surf past the break for a dose of PR.

[Image courtesy of Jeff Myers/Flickr]

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In NYPD spying, a Yippie legal battle echoes again (AP)

NEW YORK ? Barbara Handschu had tried to remove her name from the agreement that is her legacy.

More than a quarter century ago, after New York's police were caught spying on Americans who were exercising their right to free speech, she and others filed suit to stop it. The outcome was an agreement to place limits on surveillance ? the Handschu rules.

But then, in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, police said they needed more flexibility to protect the city. When the judge agreed to weaken the rules, Barbara Handschu tried unsuccessfully to strip her name from the guidelines.

Now, she sees the fruit of the weakened Handschu rules: the New York Police Department's secret surveillance program targeting Muslims, detailed in a months-long Associated Press investigation. And she finds echoes of an earlier time in reports of police infiltrating student groups, of detectives inventing excuses to snoop in people's homes.

"It's not that different than what happened back in the `60s, except that somebody's being targeted because of ethnicity and before we were targeted because of political belief," Handschu says. "I mean, this is worse. This is racial profiling."

The AP stories revealed that that over the last decade, the NYPD built a wide-ranging program to map and monitor Muslim communities, recording everything from where they pray to the restaurants they eat in. Without evidence of wrongdoing, officers have infiltrated student groups, eavesdropped on people and documented what they heard in daily reports.

The revelations have brought attention to the 40-year-old lawsuit filed by Handschu, "Steal This Book" author Abbie Hoffman and a motley assortment of Yippies, hippies, anarchists, computer geeks and Black Panthers. In justifying the surveillance, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has repeatedly cited the rules that emerged from the Handschu case as proof that police are acting lawfully; civil rights advocates, in turn, have pointed to the fate of the Handschu rules as a prime example of how privacy rights have crumbled in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Handschu's story begins in the late 1960s, when anti-war protests swept through New York and the NYPD's intelligence arm began compiling detailed reports on activists.

The police file on Joel Sucher, a former film student at New York University, includes a list of the demonstrators at an Oct. 15, 1971 rally and the messages on their placards. "The rich set the bail, the poor go to jail," said one sign. No detail was considered irrelevant.

"Joel Sucher of the Pacific Street Film Collective was operating a 1968 Mustang," one page notes.

"I loved that car," Sucher recalls, 40 years later.

But other surveillance was much more menacing, and after the killing of protesters at Kent State University activists became increasingly worried about their safety.

In May 1971, Handschu ? who was then a civil rights lawyer ? sued the NYPD along with Hoffman, Sucher and members of the War Resisters League, the Gay Liberation Front, Computer People for Peace, the Black Panther Party, and other groups.

Hoffman, who was already famous as one of the "Chicago Seven" protesters arrested during the 1968 Democratic Convention, joined the lawsuit representing the Youth International Party, or Yippies. He was about to become a bestselling author with a counterculture how-to guide, "Steal this Book."

Together they argued the NYPD had created a landscape of intimidation and fear: groups infiltrated, families harassed, careers threatened.

Steven Tullberg, a law student at Columbia University, said he was baffled when the New York Bar Association's Committee on Character and Fitness questioned him in February 1971 about his membership in the Coalition for an Anti-Imperialist Movement ? a group he had never heard of. The allegation was leaked from his secret NYPD file, the lawsuit alleged.

"I was stunned," says Tullberg, now living in Maryland. "You're getting on with your life, and then you get hit by something like this."

The leftists argued that police surveillance was so oppressive that it was threatening free speech.

One NYPD informant joined Veterans and Reservists Against the War in Vietnam, known as V&R, and began urging group members to break the law during demonstrations. Detectives visited the homes of two members and warned one that he should drop out of the group.

The infiltration "created such fear among the members of V&R, and so chilled their interest in the exercise of their rights of free expression and association, that V&R disbanded as a group shortly thereafter," the Handschu lawsuit alleged.

"They had so much going on, so much surveillance of us," says Keith Lampe, a Korean war veteran and one of the group's organizers.

In 1985 the police and plaintiffs reached a settlement: The NYPD agreed to a set of surveillance rules and oversight by a three-member panel. In return, Handschu and the others dropped their lawsuit.

"We thought we had accomplished something," Handschu said. "Everybody felt like it was a good thing we had been able to do."

The Handschu Guidelines, as the rules were known, barred police from starting a surveillance file purely because of the religion or political leanings of a person or group. It also required detectives to have "specific information" about a future crime and barred them from keeping notes on political or religious activities.

The lawsuit was declared closed. The court files were packed into boxes and sent to a vault deep inside a former mine in Lee's Summit, Mo.

Then came the attacks on the World Trade Center. The NYPD's new head of intelligence, a former CIA official named David Cohen, worried that the Handschu Guidelines were holding back the city's police. One day after the first anniversary of the attacks, Cohen asked Judge Charles Haight to loosen the Handschu rules.

"The counterproductive restrictions imposed on the NYPD by the Handschu Guidelines in this changed world hamper our efforts every day," he wrote.

He proposed rules similar to those used by the FBI, and the judge agreed.

The changes did away with the three-member panel. Under the new rules, known as the Modified Handschu Guidelines, Cohen can act alone to authorize investigations for a year at a time. He can also authorize undercover operations for four months at a time.

While the original rules called for "specific information" that a crime was about to be committed, the revised rules say only that facts should "reasonably indicate" a future crime.

Handschu, Sucher and the other plaintiffs were shocked.

"It's all been watered away," Handschu said. She wrote a letter to the judge, asking that her name be taken off the rules, but he said no.

In defending the secret program to monitor Muslims the police commissioner has repeatedly cited the modified rules as proof that the NYPD was within its bounds.

"By operating within the framework of the modified consent decree, we ensure that our investigations comport with the U.S. Constitution," Kelly told a city council committee last month. "The protection of civil liberties is as important to the Police Department as the protection of the city itself."

Handschu and Sucher disagree.

"Things are probably worse than they were 40 years ago," Sucher said. "They're cops. They're not going to change their ways."

As the years ticked by, the original Handschu plaintiffs went on to start careers, raise families, grow old.

Barbara Hanschu became a divorce lawyer. Joel Sucher made a movie about NYPD surveillance with fellow plaintiff Steven Fischler, and they went on to become successful documentary filmmakers. Michael Zumoff of Computer People for Peace became a software developer.

Hoffman, the clown prince of anti-war activists, became a fugitive from drug charges and spent seven years on the lam in the 1970s. He committed suicide in 1989, downing a handful of barbiturate pills and liquor.

But the Handschu case lives on.

The plaintiffs' longtime lawyers have done battle with the NYPD over police videotaping of protesters in 2004 and 2005. And on Oct. 3 Jethro Eisenstein ? the lawyer who co-wrote the original class-action complaint in 1971 ? filed another motion with Haight, the judge who has handled the case from the beginning. It cites the AP investigation and demands that the NYPD open its files regarding the surveillance of Muslims in order to determine if they violate the Modified Hanschu Guidelines.

The plaintiffs, meanwhile, say they worry the NYPD is broadening its surveillance beyond counterterrorism. Sucher says he's concerned about reports of the so-called "Hipster Cop" who wears plainclothes at Occupy Wall Street protests, and of pictures showing police videotaping the demonstrators.

"I've seen this go full circle," Sucher said, as he sat in a cramped back room of his office beside boxes filled with his FBI and police files. "There was this outcry, there was this anger at what the NYPD was doing."

"Now after 9/11, it's gone the other way."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_re_us/us_nypd_intelligence_the1960s_problem

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