Double the Stars

Of course not. Most people don?t watch the Oscars because a certain movie has been nominated, the occasional megahit like Titanic or Lord of the Rings aside. They watch for the actors?how they dress, how they take a joke from Billy Crystal, how they feign graciousness when they lose. So if the academy wants to expand something, why not blow out the acting categories? Expanding each one from five to 10 nominees would add 20 stars to the Oscar-night mix. This year, such an expansion would likely have meant the participation of Tilda Swinton, Kirsten Dunst, Charlize Theron, Leonard DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Vanessa Redgrave, and Carey Mulligan.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=cf54520f684b4c0a6f4884b3919fce07

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Oil spill brings attention to delicate Gulf coast (AP)

TIVOLI, Texas ? For decades, farmers and fishermen along the Gulf of Mexico watched as their sensitive ecosystem's waters slowly got dirtier and islands eroded, all while the country largely ignored the destruction.

It took BP PLC's well blowing out in the Gulf ? and the resulting environmental catastrophe when millions of gallons of oil spewed into the ocean and washed ashore ? for the nation to turn its attention to the slow, methodical ruin of an ecosystem vital to the U.S. economy. Last month, more than a year and a half after the spill began, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a three-year, $50 million initiative designed to improve water quality along the coast.

"I'm not going to say that it's the silver lining," Will Blackwell, a district conservationist with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Services, said of the oil spill. Blackwell is one of many regional officials who have long worked with farmers and ranchers to fence cattle, reseed native grasses and take on other seemingly inane projects that go a long way toward preventing pollution and coastal erosion.

"I'm going to say that it will help get recognition down here that we have this vital ecosystem that needs to be taken care of," he said. "This will keep it at the forefront."

NRCS administrators struggled for years to divide a few million dollars among farmers and ranchers in the five Gulf states. Now, they are getting an eleven-fold increase in funding, money that will allow them to build on low-profile programs that already have had modest success in cleaning crucial waterways by working with farmers and ranchers to improve land use practices.

The nation's focus turned sharply to the Gulf when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blew up in April 2010. Images of oil-coated birds and wetlands were splashed across newspapers and cable news networks. Coastal wetlands that are habitat to all sorts of wildlife were soiled and oyster beds were wiped out, underscoring the Gulf's ecological and economic importance.

The project is called the Gulf of Mexico Initiative, the first concrete step from a year's worth of meetings, studies and talking by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a committee formed by President Barack Obama in the spill's wake.

Sometimes, the money is spent on simple projects, such as building fences and installing troughs to keep cattle away from rivers and creeks that flow into the Gulf. The minerals in cow manure can pollute those upstream waters and then flow into the ocean. Those minerals can deplete oxygen in the Gulf, creating "dead zones" where wildlife can't thrive.

Other times, the program pays for expensive farming equipment that turns soil more effectively and creates straighter rows. That helps keep fertilizers on the farm ? where it helps crops ? and out of the Gulf, where the nutrients choke oxygen from the water. This equipment also decreases erosion, which has eaten up hundreds of miles of Gulf Coast habitat in the past century.

Until now, most counties in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas got right around $100,000 apiece to spend annually on these programs. The demand was far greater in many areas, but money was hard to come by, Blackwell said, highlighting the popularity of the program in Refugio County, Texas ? the rural area of Southeast Texas he oversees.

The influx of money has many farmers and ranchers ? especially those who have reaped the program's benefits in the past ? eager for more opportunities to improve the environment they rely upon for their livelihood.

Now, they are hurriedly filling out applications and waiting for officials to rank the paperwork ? those considered to have the greatest possible impact are the most likely to be approved.

"Fifty million dollars sounds like a lot. But when you consider ? Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and Texas, it's not going to be enough," said Glen Wiggins, a Florida farmer applying for help buying new farming equipment.

"But it'll help."

Dallas Ford, owner of the 171-acre Smoky Creek Ranch in Tivoli, Texas, first worked with the NRCS to build fences and strategically located troughs. The fences keep cattle in separate fields and allow him to rotate the cows between the fields, a practice that helps keep grass longer and better able to recover when it rains. The troughs ensure the cattle remain in the area and keep away from Stony Creek ? a bountiful tributary of the Gulf's Hynes Bay.

Ford estimates he has between $15,000 and $20,000 worth of additional work to do on his ranch ? all of which will ultimately improve water quality in Stony Creek ? but he will be able to do it only if he can get another contract with NRCS, which would cover about half the costs.

The cash infusion reminded him of a mentor who once said you could cook anything with time and temperature. In this project, Ford said, time is plentiful ? the temperature is money and manpower.

"We might be able to cook something a little faster," Ford said. "Now, maybe I can get you a nice steak."

About 685 miles away, Wiggins has been buying new tilling equipment to use on his 800-acre peanut and cotton farm that straddles the Alabama-Florida line. The high-tech farming equipment helps him better turn the soil and plant straighter rows, which ultimately prevent erosion and keep nutrients in the soil rather than allowing them to flow downstream and into the Gulf.

Wiggins' land sits on three watersheds ? Canoe Creek and Pine Barren Creek that are part of Sandy Hollow Creek, and Little Pine Barren Creek. With the work he's already done, Wiggins estimates he has reduced erosion by at least 50 percent. Now, he wants to further reduce it, mostly through the use of new equipment that will decrease conventional, and more destructive, tillage of his land.

"I'd like to get it down to zero, but if I could get it to 10 percent conventional tillage, I would be tickled to death," Wiggins said.

He estimated the new equipment will cost about $70,000. The only way he can make that purchase is with NRCS' help ? and now it may be within reach.

"The oil spill has been a powerful force to get people's attention," Wiggins said.

___

Ramit Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com//RamitMastiAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_us/us_gulf_oil_spill_restoration

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Sarkozy details measures for growth, jobs (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? President Nicolas Sarkozy used a primetime television interview on Sunday to flesh out a flurry of measures to boost employment and competitiveness which he hopes to rush through France's parliament before a presidential election in April.

Sarkozy, who is running far behind Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls for the election, said he would raise the VAT rate to 21.2 percent from 19.6 percent from October to fund a reduction in social charges on companies.

The move, which Sarkozy first alluded to in a New Year's speech, is aimed at narrowing a competitiveness gap with Germany that is weighing on French growth, but it risks angering voters.

Among other measures, Sarkozy said he would set up an industrial investment bank in February with a billion euros in capital that will lend to small and medium-sized businesses struggling to obtain financing in today's climate.

He also said companies with more than 250 employees would be obliged to take on interns to the level of 5 percent of total staff, as a way of helping reduce chronic youth unemployment.

Sarkozy said he had a duty as president to hold off announcing his re-election bid until as late as possible.

Yet his interview, broadcast live across eight TV channels, seemed timed to respond to a series of TV appearances and speeches last week by Hollande, who is campaigning at full throttle for the two-round election on April 22 and May 6.

"We have to protect employment, we have to defend it, value it," said Sarkozy, who has thrown his focus onto growth and jobs since it became clear late last year that his deficit-cutting efforts could not save France from a credit rating downgrade.

"I am convinced this decision will save jobs and that it's the only credible way to stop outsourcing," he said of his so-called "Social VAT" plan to ease firms' social contributions.

Sarkozy, who turned 57 on Saturday, said a financial transaction tax he is planning for August would set a tax of 0.1 percent on transactions in French securities.

He gave no detail on the tax, which France wants to be adopted across the European Union, but a government source later said it would target shares, not bonds, and could raise a billion euros annually.

Separately, Sarkozy announced a rise in taxes on individuals' financial income such as interest and dividends.

UPS AND DOWNS

Sarkozy has worked hard in recent months to present a more austere and presidential demeanor following criticism of his informal and sometimes brash manner, and he stuck to a highly technical discourse on Sunday. He referred frequently to Germany as an economic model that France should be copying.

Setting the stage for what aides say will be an "honest" campaign that admits past mistakes yet seeks to show he is the safest pair of hands to steer France out of economic gloom, Sarkozy sounded a note of humility about his years in office.

"I accept the criticism," he said, adding that there had been "ups and downs" and things he regretted.

Opinion polls show Sarkozy could lose a runoff against Hollande by 10 percentage points, and some in his UMP party believe he is suffering from his decision to leave launching his campaign until close to a March 16 deadline.

Hollande put in an able performance last week in a TV debate against Alain Juppe, Sarkozy's foreign minister and one of the most talented politicians in his team, and he also unveiled a weighty and fiscally responsible economic plan.

In an attempt at one-upmanship, Sarkozy said France's public deficit for 2011 could come in as low as 5.4 or 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, well below a target of 5.7 percent.

Yet illustrating the economic challenge ahead, the source said that the government will soon revise down its 1.0 percent forecast for 2012 growth.

Both Hollande and Sarkozy are seizing on the euro zone crisis and what many fear is a descent into recession in France as their key focus for the 2012 election.

While Hollande blames France's woes on more than a decade of conservative leadership, Sarkozy is playing on his experience next to a man who has never been a government minister.

An Ifop poll published on Sunday showed, however, that many see Hollande as the best candidate to tackle debt reduction and unemployment, which is running at a more than 12-year high.

The poll found 46 percent of respondents trusted Hollande most to fight unemployment, versus 22 percent for Sarkozy, and 34 percent chose Hollande as the best to handle the public debt, versus 32 percent for Sarkozy.

Underlining a belief that Hollande could defeat Sarkozy, Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party said on Saturday that the German Chancellor plans to actively back Sarkozy in his campaign by making joint appearances with him.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/ts_nm/us_france_sarkozy_deficit

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Investing Advice For The Neophytes - Forex

So you?ve won your first job. Congratulations! After treating your friends and family to the finest eatery your startup salary can afford, it is time to think about saving some money. After all, you are never too young to start investing for the future. But although your reliable piggy bank and savings account can aid you in saving for the rainy days, it will take a long time before you can save adequate to buy your dream home. So perhaps you need to learn how to invest immediately so you can get your hands on a comfortable life for yourself in the future.

It is understandable and even expected that you are still making loose change in comparison with your parents because it is your first job. However if you really want to, it won?t prevent you from entering the investment market. No radical moves yet like buying a house and lot yet; you can simply start small. Just be wise, though, and inquire questions about everything unfamiliar to you before you begin buying stock shares, bonds, and other investment choices.

Be warned, though, investing is not like saving. You can expect your cash to stay as is or gain a little when you are saving. But if you are investing, you should acknowledge that there?s as much chance that you will lose your money or a chunk of it as you will multiply it. Investing has higher likelihood return but it likewise has higher risk. maybe the safest course for neophytes in the working industry like you is to take a low-risk investment first even if it has small earnings possibility before diving into more competitive choices.

Don?t worry too much if you can?t understand the phrases used in investment. Even the old-timers in the corporate world still need support in understanding how their investment works for them. Teach yourself with the industry and do your research. Investment broker agents and banks can help you with your questions so don?t hesitate to inquire them. And if you are still not confident with making your own decisions, then you can leave it to the experts.

Remember, any type of investment requires thorough planning. You may not have adequate bucks or even the will for riskier investment choices so it?s better to start with lesser risk types. Only get into investing if you have adequate money to start with. Allot an amount you are comfortable with for investment after you have already settled the bills. Also, don?t replace investing with saving. Do them both and make them part of your everyday life.

Click for further information on be a financial advisor or investment services.

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Source: http://forexfinanceanalysis.com/2012/01/29/investing-advice-for-the-neophytes/

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British police arrest 5 in tabloid bribery probe

A news camera films the offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

A news camera films the offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

A traffic warden writes a ticket outside the offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

LONDON (AP) ? The criminal investigation into British tabloid skullduggery turned full force on a second Rupert Murdoch publication Saturday, with the arrest of four current and former journalists from The Sun on suspicion of bribing police.

A serving police officer was also held, and authorities searched the newspaper's offices as part an investigation into illegal payments for information.

The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing ? which has already shut down one Murdoch paper, the News of the World ? to Britain's best-selling newspaper.

London police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London. A 42-year-old man was detained later at a London police station.

Murdoch's News Corp. confirmed that all four were current or former Sun employees. The BBC and other British media identified them as former managing editor Graham Dudman, former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, current head of news Chris Pharo and crime editor Mike Sullivan.

A fifth man, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.

Officers searched the men's homes and the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence.

The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World.

Police said Saturday's arrests were made based on information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch's News Corp., the internal body tasked with rooting out wrongdoing.

News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated," it said in a statement.

In an email to staff after the arrests, Tom Mockridge ? chief executive of Murdoch's British operation, News International ? said the internal investigation into wrongdoing at The Sun "is well advanced."

"News International is confronting past mistakes and is making fundamental changes about how we operate which are essential for our business," Mockridge said.

"Despite this very difficult news, we are determined that News International will emerge a stronger and more trusted organization," he added.

Thirteen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged. They include Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch's News International; ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson ? who is also Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief; and journalists from the News of the World and The Sun.

Two of the London police force's top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid amid a wave of public revulsion, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.

An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence that hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, who were both jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping on the phones of royal staff.

But News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.

Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.

The furor that consumed the News of the World continues to rattle other parts of Murdoch's media empire.

As well as investigating phone hacking and allegations that journalists paid police for information, detectives are looking into claims of computer hacking by Murdoch papers.

News Corp. has admitted that the News of the World hacked the emails as well as the phone of Chris Shipman, the son of serial killer Harold Shipman. And The Times of London has acknowledged that a former reporter tried to intercept emails to unmask an anonymous blogger.

News Corp. is preparing to launch a new Sunday newspaper ? likely called the Sunday Sun ? to replace the News of the World.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-28-EU-Britain-Phone-Hacking/id-2813b6667b934649878d382d4910a8c6

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Tony Hawk Interviews Odd Future Crew At Big Day Out Festival (VIDEO)

Tony Hawk should probably never be in the interviewer seat, but here he is, tempting fate, with probably one of the most unruly groups out there. At the Big Day Out music festival in Australia, the salt-and-peppery-haired skater stayed standing (technically not in the interviewer seat, but equally if not more awkward) to ask questions of a half-seated Tyler the Creator and the rest of his Odd Future crew on a stairwell. The hip hop collective is into skating, so there's your tenuous link -- aside from that, we're just as lost as you are as to why this is happening. The Odd Future boys put up a shop for the week of the festival to sell merchandise, and Hawk begins his line of questioning where they can find common ground -- t-shirts. The camera zooms in on a t-shirt of two gay cats, and Hawk vaguely asks where they get their inspiration from.

"Really I get inspiration from meth, and I like cats a lot, and I'm not playin'," Tyler said.

We're glad this interview happened.

WATCH:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/tony-hawk-odd-future-interview_n_1239176.html

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Stars Hit Sundance!

Celebrities braved the snow and flocked to the Sundance Film Festival, but the films weren't the only hot tickets in Park City, Utah, this year.

The place to be seen in the day was definitely T-Mobile's The Village at the Lift where celebrities like Kate Bosworth, Liv Tyler and Victoria Justice could enjoy McCaf? lattes, hit up the uber cool Puma Social Lounge or get Mac makeup touchups.

But what would Sundance be without mentioning the swag?! The biggest celebs were gifted everything from Soul headphones at the Miami Oasis Lounge, Solstice designer sunglasses at the Gen Art Bertolli Meal Soup Chalet, the new Nintendo 3DS at its gaming lounge and sexy DL1961 Premium Denim at the Talent Resources Suite. But the winner for the best celeb lounge had to be the Vevo Sorel lounge, where almost every hot celebrity stopped by even The Bachelor's Ben Flajnik, who received several of the brand's hottest snow boots. But the biggest swag of all was at the Fender Music Lodge where Emily Blunt was gifted a trip to Vomo Island Resort in Fiji!

In the evening, stars Christina Hendricks and Tommy Lee dined at ChefDance where some of the world's leading chefs prepared a different delicious menu every night. The best part was the Yogurtland station for dessert as guests left. After dinner, the hottest acts in music today such as Ludacris, Deadmau5 and OneRepublic preformed at Park City Live and Drake at Bing Bar. Common also hosted an exclusive Express concert for his Sundance film LUV.

Also worth mentioning were the Grey Goose Blue Door Lounge and Acura Studio which served as the exclusive A-List lounges for several film dinners and after-parties. Rashida Jones, James Marsden and Emma Roberts were all spotted partying the night away at the lounges while sipping cocktails til 2 a.m.

For the late-night celebs, the hotspot was the T-Mobile Presents Google Music at Tao. Nick Lachey, Drake, Paris Hilton and Kirsten Dunst were all spotted at the pop-up nightclub getting their groove on and trying not to be seen.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InTouchWeekly/~3/j865zdURBac/stars_hit_sundance.php

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Stock index futures signal steady open (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stock index futures pointed to a steady open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.02 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.05 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2 percent at 4 a.m. ET.

European stocks dipped in early trade following strong increases in the previous session, as gains sparked by the Federal Reserve's pledge of low interest rates gave way to worries about Portugal, seen as the potential next domino in the euro zone crisis, and uncertainty over Greek debt talks. (.EU)

The Federal Reserve's latest efforts to bolster the recovery with unprecedented policy tools will hurt the U.S. economy in the long run, a former member of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's inner circle suggested on Thursday.

3M Co's (MMM.N) board of directors are divided over whether to extend the contract of chief executive George Buckley once it expires in a month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The economy likely grew at its fastest pace in nearly two years at the end of 2011, but a rebuilding of stocks by businesses and weak exports could be early warning signs of a slowdown in early 2012. U.S. gross domestic product is expected to have expanded at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, according to a Reuters poll.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. Treasury note was steady in Asia on Friday, while the yield on five-year paper was slightly above a multi-decade low as investors awaited U.S. data later in the session that is likely to show the economy has picked up.

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday he voted against the central bank's decision this week to keep rates near zero until at least late 2014 because he believes rates will need to rise before then.

Juniper Networks (JNPR.N) and Riverbed Technologies (RVBD.O) disappointed investors with gloomy first quarter outlooks that were below expectations, raising fears that demand for companies that help manage Internet traffic may be weak for some time.

Cirrus Logic Inc (CRUS.O) forecast fourth-quarter revenue higher than analysts' estimates as the analog chipmaker expects to launch several new products during the period.

Delphi Automotive PLC (DLPH.N) reported a nearly four-fold increase in fourth-quarter earnings on stronger sales of vehicle electronics and engine systems in its first results since returning as a public company.

Sallie Mae (SLM.O), the largest U.S. student lender, raised its quarterly dividend and said its board authorized a $500 million share buyback program.

A Brazilian prosecutor plans to file criminal charges against Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and some of its local managers within weeks, adding the threat of prison sentences to an $11 billion civil lawsuit as punishment for a November offshore oil spill.

A month-long rally on Wall Street appears to be sputtering as stocks slipped on Thursday in what investors called a possible warning of weakness ahead. Weaker-than-expected home sales figures and a group of mixed earnings reports tempered the market's recent buying interest.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 22.33 points, or 0.18 percent, at 12,734.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was down 7.60 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,318.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 13.03 points, or 0.46 percent, at 2,805.28.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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Namath: Sanchez will be fine with right roster

In this photo provided by StarPix, former New York Jets' quarterback Joe Namath stands next to a poster bearing his image at the New York premiere of "Namath," Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/StarPix, Dave Allocca)

In this photo provided by StarPix, former New York Jets' quarterback Joe Namath stands next to a poster bearing his image at the New York premiere of "Namath," Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/StarPix, Dave Allocca)

FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2011, file photo, former New York Jets' player Joe Namath looks on as he he is honored during halftime of an NFL football game in East Rutherford, N.J. Namath is subject of a new HBO documentary abouth his football career and life, from winning a state championship in western Pennsylvania to Alabama to the "guarantee" of a Super Bowl title with the Jets. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 1969 file photo, New York Jets Joe Namath (12) throws a pass against the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in Miami. Namath is subject of a new HBO documentary abouth his football career and life, from winning a state championship in western Pennsylvania to Alabama to the "guarantee" of a Super Bowl title with the Jets. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 1969, file photo, New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath gives his father, who is wearing an Orange Bowl hat, a big hug in the Jets' locker room after leading them to a 16-7 win over Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl III NFL Football game in Miami. Namath is subject of a new HBO documentary abouth his football career and life, from winning a state championship in western Pennsylvania to Alabama to the "guarantee" of a Super Bowl title with the Jets.(AP Photo/File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Joe Namath had just watched a film about a young quarterback who threw too many interceptions, then learned to trust his teammates and led his club to a championship.

He believes someday the same story could be told about Mark Sanchez.

The Hall of Famer saw the new HBO documentary about his life for the first time at a screening in Manhattan on Wednesday night. Images of the glamorous QB leading the New York Jets to a Super Bowl title inevitably lead to questions about whether the current photogenic starter at that position can finally lead the franchise back to glory.

"He's going to learn from his mistakes," Namath said. "He needs the help around him. He presses at times. He wants to do things because he's expected to."

"They get the people around him," he added, "he's going to be fine."

Just look at the city's other quarterback, Eli Manning, Namath said. He's rooting for the Giants in the Super Bowl, by the way.

Namath has been vocal in his criticism of the Jets' leadership at times in recent years and makes clear that's where his concern lies ? not with Sanchez.

"I feel awful about my relationship with the Jets right now," he said.

"I don't want them upset with Joe, but dammit I have to say what I see, what I think, what I feel. I think we can do some things better," Namath said, still referring to the Jets as "we."

He won't say Sanchez needs to be a better leader because he doesn't believe a quarterback can boss around those big linemen.

"I didn't push any kind of leadership," Namath said. "Lead by example as a football player, as the quarterback: to know the plan frontwards, backwards; be able to answer; know my guys; convince them I was ready and would give it my best. But no taking over a locker room. You have to have someone with the strength of the guy over in Baltimore ? maybe Ray Lewis ? you've got to be a beast to do that kind of thing, man."

Of course, Namath always did things the unconventional way. Teammates in the documentary tell of how he would show up with a hangover at games and still somehow play well.

Namath says he was sober for 13 years after the birth of his children, but his divorce sent him back to drinking. That was revealed very publicly during an on-air interview at a Jets game in 2003, when a visibly drunk Namath repeatedly told ESPN reporter Suzy Kolber he wanted to kiss her.

"I think the way I felt about it at the time was, he's a really good guy having a bad moment that happened to be captured on national television," she says in the film.

Namath didn't cooperate with an earlier biography about him, but he said he agreed to help with the documentary because he trusted HBO and its partner in the movie, NFL Films. "Namath" premieres Saturday.

As Namath spoke to reporters after the screening, a young woman brought over a coffee. He joked that he initially thought it was Johnnie Walker: "You see how things have changed."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-25-Namath%20Documentary/id-97a274c65de14697b75b7974f6d47346

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Jay-Z Joins T.I., Fat Joe, Fabolous As A Hip-Hop Dad

'It's serious being a hip-hop rapper and being a father in the real world,' Fat Joe tells MTV News.
By Rob Markman

T.I. and his son Domani
Photo: MTV News

Jay-Z isn't the first rapper to become a dad, not by a long shot. But now that he and wife Beyoncé welcomed Blue Ivy Carter into the world on January 8, there has been much speculation over what kind of parents they will be.

So how will Jay balance his street-bred rap persona with his new fatherly responsibilities? It's a balancing act that MCs like T.I., Fat Joe and Fabolous have been juggling for some time now.

Before rap, Fat Joe had quite the reputation on the streets of the Bronx, and over the course of his 19-year career, his music has reflected just that. His teenage son, Ryan, sometimes feels the pressure to live up to his dad's rep, but Joey Crack works hard to guide him right. " 'Everywhere he goes people tell him, 'I remember when your father was this, this and that,' so he's tryin' to live up to that," Joe told MTV News. "But I'm tryin' to tell him, 'Yo, we live in a mansion, B, like you know that's done.' "

Ja Rule, who is currently serving a two-year sentence on a gun charge, talked to MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway about how his life decisions ultimately affect his kids when he appeared on "RapFix Live" in April. "She needs her father," Rule said of his teenage girl, Brittany. "My boys, they need me right now too, as well as my wife. They need Daddy, and Daddy f---ed up."

Nick Cannon was recently hospitalized for kidney failure and spoke to MTV News about maintaining a healthier lifestyle to be there for his and wife Mariah Carey's children."There was a second I was thinking like, 'Damn, what if I'm not able to instill the things that I want to instill into my children?' " he said of his time in the hospital earlier this month. "It just makes you think, 'Yo, I need to give them everything I can possibly give them right now,' and obviously it starts with love."

Being a hip-hop father definitely changes things. Before he became a dad, Fabolous rarely rhymed about his personal life, but in 2009 he opened up about his son Johan on "Stay," a track from his Loso's Way album. On his upcoming Loso's Way 2, Fab figures he will open up even more. "[Children] change the way you look at things and do things and I think the music will reflect that too," he said.

T.I. has been balancing rap and family life for almost his entire career. He and wife Tameka "Tiny" Harris now star in the VH1 reality series "T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle," where cameras follow the couple and their six children around. On the show, Tip's kids exhibit a star quality similar to their famous dad; his son Domani is even starting a rap career of his own. "I'm not going to encourage him," T.I. said about his son following in his footsteps. "However, I will support him if I see that he's sincerely passionate."

There's a lot to consider when being a hip-hop dad, so Hov has his work cut out for him. "It's serious being a hip-hop rapper and being a father in the real world," Fat Joe said.

Share your advice for Jay-Z in the comments!

Related Videos

• All About Beyonce And Jay-Z's New Arrival

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677919/jay-z-ti-fat-joe-hip-hop-dads.jhtml

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State: 'Serious' questions on GOP pipeline bill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The State Department says a Republican bill that would strip President Barack Obama of his authority to decide on a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline raises "serious" legal questions.

A top State Department official told Congress Wednesday that the bill "imposes narrow time constraints and creates automatic mandates that prevent an informed decision" on the Keystone XL pipeline.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., would transfer authority over the 1,700-mile pipeline to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Obama blocked the $7 billion pipeline last week, saying officials did not have enough time to review an alternate route that avoided environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska.

The plan by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. would carry tar sands oil from western Canada across six U.S. states to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_oil_pipeline

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Vatican official warns pope of corruption (AP)

VATICAN CITY ? An Italian news program has obtained letters from a top Vatican official to the pope in which he begs not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was removed in October as the No. 2 administrator of the Vatican city-state and was named the pope's ambassador to Washington. While the job is highly prestigious, the posting took Vigano far from headquarters and out of the running for the Vatican's top administrative job, which carries with it the rank of cardinal.

The investigative news program "The Untouchables" on the private La7 network broadcast a series of letters Vigano sent Pope Benedict XVI and the secretary of state last year in which he claimed to have exposed corruption and abuse of office in the running of the Vatican's administration.

Vigano said he corrected them during his two years as secretary-general of the Vatican city-state, the Vatican department that is responsible for everything from maintaining the pope's gardens to running the Vatican Museums.

But in the process of cutting costs, Vigano made enemies who he blamed for launching a smear campaign in the Italian media in 2011 calling for his removal that, he claimed, sealed his fate.

"Blessed Father, my transfer in this moment would provoke confusion and discouragement for those who thought it was possible to clean up so many situations of corruption and abuse of office" that for a long time have been rooted in the Vatican administration, Vigano wrote Benedict on March 27, 2011.

Seven months later he was named ambassador to Washington after the sudden death of the previous envoy following complications from surgery.

Vigano claimed that when he came into office in 2009 he discovered a small coterie of businesses held the vast majority of Vatican contracts and charged the Holy See twice the going rate for services, according to the letters shown on the La7 report.

The Vatican's larger-than-life-sized nativity scene, for example, cost the Holy See euro550,000 in 2009. Vigano said he trimmed the cost for the 2010 edition to euro300,000.

He denounced the workings of an unofficial group of Italian bankers appointed after the global financial crisis to try to shore up the Vatican's finances, charging that their management of two investment funds "resulted more in their own interests than ours."

In one Dec. 9 transaction they lost the Vatican $2.5 million, the letter on La7 said.

An email seeking comment from Vigano at the Vatican's embassy in Washington was not returned Wednesday. The Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment on the report.

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the recently retired head of the Vatican's finance department, was asked by the show's host if Vigano's claims of corruption were well-founded.

"From what I know, I don't think there was actual corruption," De Paolis said. But he suggested that there may well have been "instances of a lack of correctness" that can happen anywhere.

Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, insisted on the show that Vigano's transfer to Washington wasn't a punishment for exposing wrongdoing or stepping on too many toes. He noted that Vigano had been in the Vatican's diplomatic service for years and said he was being promoted to the Holy See's most important overseas post.

"He wasn't sent away. He was made the pope's representative in Washington!" Vian said.

The show was hosted by Gianlugi Nuzzi, author of Vatican SpA, a 2009 book outlining the shady dealings of the Vatican bank that was based on a trove of leaked Vatican documents.

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

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NC man who ran tortuous Afghan jail dies (AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. ? Jonathan "Jack" Idema, a former Green Beret from North Carolina convicted of running a private jail in Afghanistan where he tortured terrorism suspects, has died. He was 55.

The director-general of police in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Arturo Olivares Mendiola, said Idema died of AIDS on Saturday. No one has shown up to claim his body from the medical examiner's office, Mendiola said.

Idema had moved to Mexico at some point after being released from prison in Afghanistan in 2007, when he was pardoned by President Hamid Karzai as part of a general amnesty.

A native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Idema joined the Army in 1975 and was an active duty Special Forces soldier until 1978. He eventually settled in Fayetteville and began a long series of bizarre and sometimes criminal misadventures while pursuing the national spotlight.

Idema was, among other things, a plaintiff in numerous unsuccessful lawsuits, including one against filmmaker Stephen Spielberg, who Idema claimed stole his life story for a movie. He also spent three years in jail in the 1980s after being convicted of a fraud charge.

"He had charisma," Penny Alesi, a former girlfriend, told The Fayetteville Observer. "He was funny. He was smart ? oh, my God, smart and well-read, but toxic. Truthfully, he was a sociopath."

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Idema traveled to Afghanistan, claiming he was close to catching Osama bin Laden. His claims led to his being featured in several books and television programs.

In 2004, he returned to the country along with another former Fayetteville soldier and a freelance videographer. They ran a private jail in which terrorism suspects were tortured for information. Although convicted of the offenses, Idema denied them in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press.

"Nobody was hung upside down. Nobody was burned with cigarette butts ... nobody was beaten, nobody was tortured, nobody had boiling water poured on them," he said. "Did we interrogate people? Absolutely. Did we keep them up with sleep deprivation? Absolutely."

The two other Americans were released from prison before Idema. He claimed that his operation was conceived with the knowledge and support of American and Afghan military authorities, which they denied, saying any connection was entirely in his imagination.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_idema

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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 museum spokeswoman later said the flyover has not been confirmed, and details are still being finalized.

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-8d7c874bc5f04611bbf983d80b587cfb

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It's Official! Emily Maynard Is the New 'Bachelorette'

You've got to hand it to bubbly blond Emily Maynard -- she's determined to find love. First, she won The Bachelor's season 15 by snagging Brad Womack. After breaking off the engagement with him in June, she's now heading back to ABC to be the newest Bachelorette! 

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/emily-maynard-new-bachelorette-0/1-a-421571?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aemily-maynard-new-bachelorette-0-421571

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[OOC] Ruyn: The Winds of Fate

Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.

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

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Ruyn: The Winds of Fate?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
Nederlandse folk metal=EPIC! \m/

Looks like at this rate I'm going to be home tomorrow too. Can't see the doctor until Monday. In the meantime, to recap, the convoy on the way to Port Arn was attacked by pirates, and is now headed to Merchant's Lodge, sans the Imperial Secretary, who is traveling by the forest straight on to Arn (I also put up a new picture under Sylwyn's profile, which I worked on during the extra time I had when my brain was too groggy to work but I couldn't sit idle). Borrowed the background, and did the color entirely in Paint with my touch pad and index finger. Let me know whatcha think.

Red Soldier's characters, Sennex (Djinn) and Karem (senior guardsman) are engaged with a possible assassin in Port Arn. There is supposed to be an attempt on the Ambassador's life, so one assassin is supposed to be counter-assassinating the other. I'm in the midst of finishing up a post for Akanishi, Faithchan's character, and pondering over a post for Blood Fang Caves, where the General is supposed to meet the Crimson Blades.

And there is our engagement which I am working on right now. :) Hope that sums it all up for you.

Edit: Not sure how this ended up as a separate thread, since I didn't mess with the settings that I know of...

Sylwyn

Member for 1 years

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"Mama's Boy" Monkeys Score with the Ladies

Advances | More Science See Inside

Females in some species may have evolved to play a critical role in their sons' reproductive success

By Joan Raymond ?| January 22, 2012?|

Image: Courtesy Carla B. Possamai/Federal University of Espirito Santo

Human males living with their moms may not expect to have much luck hooking up this Valentine?s Day. But among the northern muriqui monkeys, males that spend the most time around their mothers seem to get an added boost when mating time rolls around.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, suggest that females in some species may have evolved to play a critical role in their sons? reproductive success. Karen Strier, the paper?s lead author and a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin?Madison, says the paper ?extends? the so-called grandmother hypothesis, a concept in which human females evolved to live past their prime reproductive years to spend more time helping offspring.

The research team observed and collected genetic data from a group of 67 wild monkeys living in a protected reserve in Brazil?s Atlantic Forest: infants, mothers and possible sires. They found that six out of the 13 adult males they studied spent more time in close proximity to their mothers than would be expected by chance. These same six monkeys, on average, sired the greatest number of offspring.

The investigators are still trying to figure out why. ?It?s not like we see moms intervening and helping their sons out,? Strier says. ?Maybe by sitting near their moms, they get to see when females are sexually active, or maybe they just get more familiar with other females.? Strier also found that there was no inbreeding among sons and their close female relatives, a process that might also be mediated by mothers. ?Mating may be less random than we think, perhaps because of the influence of the mothers,? she says.

The findings can help with future conservation efforts for the critically endangered species. ?The last thing we would want to do is take a male out of its natal group,? Strier observes.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1f91fb7af514a69dcf64ce6832c0081b

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Road rage at driverless cars? It's possible

Paul Sakuma / AP

Stanford graduate student Mick Kritayakirana shows the computer system inside a driverless car on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Calif.

By John Roach

The road to a future where we jump in our cars, enter a destination, and let them do the driving could be filled with rage, according to an expert on driverless car technology.

For starters, driverless cars will likely be programmed to obey all traffic laws. They won't speed and will always come to a complete stop at stop signs, for example.

Throw just a few of those law-abiding robots on roads clogged with 250 million human-controlled cars, and there's bound to be some shaken fists, or worse.

"Let's face it, ? [we] don?t always follow exactly the traffic rules," Sven Beiker, the executive director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University in California, told me Friday.?

"An autonomous car would probably need to because there's a company putting code into a system and that obviously then becomes a legal action."

20-year vision?
The road rage-at-the-robot scenario came up as we discussed the evolution of driverless car technology and how we might eventually realize the dream of texting while the robot does the driving.

It'll likely remain a dream, Beiker said, for the foreseeable future.

Some experts in the field, he noted, call it a 20-year vision. "Quite frankly, if someone says 20 years, that's basically telling you we don't really know," he said.

But, driver-assisted technologies such as cars that can park themselves, maintain a safe distance from other cars on the road, and have other crash-avoidance technologies are increasingly available on cars today.

All of these technologies, Beiker said, still require drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road. But those aids are becoming more common, and not just in luxury models.

"These things are definitely happening, and basically you can expect something new every year in that regard," he noted.

Technological, legal, cultural hurdles
When the field will reach the point where we can relinquish control of the car will depend, in part, on further technological developments, a new set of laws?? and a cultural shift.

From the technological standpoint, cars can and do drive themselves today (see the Google Street View cars, for example). So, in a sense, we are technologically there.

But a future of roads full of driverless cars would be enhanced by the development and deployment of a wireless communication system that lets the robots anywhere on the road talk to each other.

Such a system, for example, would let cars know if the car in front of it was planning to turn left or right, as well as provide points of traffic congestion that alert robot drivers to alternate routes.

Think of such a system as a radio traffic report on steroids.

Roads full of autonomous vehicles all talking to each other could be much safer than they are today, Beiker noted. After all, human error contributes to 95 percent of all accidents.?

But, "no technology is 100 percent safe," he said.

When a wreck happens, who gets the blame? That's unclear today. Stanford's automotive center has a legal fellow, Bryant Walker Smith, on staff precisely to help answer these types of questions.

It'll probably shake out one of two ways: Either the car owner and/or passenger will be legally responsible just as drivers are today for most accidents, or the manufacturer will be.

But until such laws are written ? and there are some are in the works, such as in Nevada where?a law has been passed to make?driverless cars?legal ? it's unlikely that autonomous cars will rule the roads.

And then there's the question of how to deploy the robots once we're technologically and legally ready. Perhaps at first autonomous cars will be restricted to one lane of travel on certain roads, such HOV lanes.

"But mixing the conventional vehicle and the autonomous vehicles?" Beiker said. "That's quite a challenge."

More on driverless car technology:

---

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Ten years of war have given robot developers a chance to refine and improve their bots. Now the robots are finding all sorts of new jobs on the homefront.

Source: http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10201865-road-rage-at-driverless-cars-its-possible

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Mild winter offers break from high heating costs (AP)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. ? Ashley Tatum was three months behind on utility payments after leaving her job at a coffee shop because of pregnancy complications. The mother of two owed $648, and the tough economy did not offer many options.

The Milwaukee resident had one small reason to hope: The winter has been mild and her heating bills low, offering an unexpected chance to catch up on overdue payments.

"It was helpful because then I wouldn't have to stress about getting all this extra money," she said.

Although there have been some cold snaps and storms, the moderate weather has been a boon to millions of Americans, allowing them to save money on snow removal and permitting outdoor activities to continue well beyond autumn. But few have been more grateful than low-income families, who are getting a break from high heating costs.

Tatum first noticed the lower charges in November. Her bill covering most of December was $164, less than half the price from a year earlier.

"I was surprised," Tatum said. "I called my sister and said, `Girl, is your bill cheaper, too?' I'm happy that we had those nice warm days."

Initially, forecasters made grim predictions that this winter could rival or exceed the cold, snowy assault of 2010-11. But average temperatures have been well above normal across the Upper Midwest and Northeast. Combined with a lack of snow and ice, the unseasonable conditions have been a blessing for many families who normally devote much of their budgets to natural gas, propane or heating oil.

In Michigan, temperatures have been 15 percent above normal since October, and plentiful fuel supplies are driving down natural gas prices.

"It's helping all customers," said Judy Palnau, spokeswoman for the Michigan Public Service Commission.

Utility company Consumers Energy says its 1.7 million natural gas customers in Michigan are paying about 20 percent less than a year ago. The average residential bill for January will be $112, down from about $140.

Marc Ryan of Traverse City is living in a friend's trailer for the winter. His latest utility bill was for $90 ? about $25 less than last year.

"It's not a lot, but 25 bucks is 25 bucks," Ryan said. "It's half a tank of gas in my pickup truck. I'll take that."

Advocacy groups and government agencies agree the weather has been helpful ? to a point. Demand for heating assistance remains high, they say, partly because so many Americans are unemployed or working at low-paying jobs.

Congress in December slashed the federal program that provides low-income heating and utility subsidies from $4.7 billion to $3.5 billion for this year. But because of the moderate weather, assistance agencies that had been turning people away now have money to give.

Still, many recipients will be getting less. Minnesota's average grant is now $400, down from $500 to $600 a year ago. The state is helping 190,000 households with heating expenses ? more than last year, despite a 23 percent drop in federal payments.

"There are households that are calling. They're wondering, `What are we going to do? The grant I was provided will barely get me one fill of my propane tank,'" said Judd Schultz, housing director for Minnesota Valley Action Council, one of 28 nonprofit agencies through which the money is distributed.

In Indianapolis, employment coach Janice Duffey of Southeast Community Services said she's been flooded with calls for heating help and expects no letup anytime soon.

"The weather could go berserk in a week," Duffey said.

The owner of an oil company in Scarborough, Maine, said heating oil usage among his customers dropped about 25 percent in November and 18 to 20 percent in December.

Les Thomas, who runs Cash Energy, has two tanks in his house. "I've usually filled them up again around Christmastime," he said. This year, he didn't need to.

One couple's oil supply lasted so long that they stopped checking it regularly.

"I got home last night and realized my tank was just about empty. It's been so warm, I forgot about our oil," said Angie Tapper, a waitress who lives with her husband in Lewiston, Maine.

She also got used to having some extra money. "It's been a welcome break for our bank account," she said.

Still, Tapper knows there's still plenty of winter ahead.

"I've got to get into a January-February mindset," she said, "until I see flowers."

___

Associated Press writers Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee; Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing, Mich.; Corey Williams in Detroit; Carrie Schedler in Indianapolis; Alexandra Tempus in Minneapolis; and Glenn Adams in Augusta, Maine, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_us/us_mild_winter_cheap_heat

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US considering closing embassy in Syria

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The State Department said Friday it "may have no choice" but to close the U.S. embassy in Damascus and remove all US personnel from the country wracked by a 10-month revolt against the regime of President Bashar Assad unless Assad's government takes extra steps to protect the mission.

The department issued a statement late Friday noting that the Obama administration has "serious concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Damascus, including the recent spate of car bombs and about the safety and security of embassy personnel."

The uprising against Assad has killed an estimated 5,400 people since March. Although the revolt began with mostly peaceful protests, an increasingly strong armed element has developed, and many people are now fighting the regime.

The department said the administration has asked Syria to take additional security measures to protect the U.S embassy and that the Syrian government "is considering that request."

But it also said it warned Assad's government that "unless concrete steps are taken in the coming days we may have no choice but to close the mission."

The U.S. removed its ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, from Damascus in October over security concerns. He returned to Syria in December.

The administration argued at the time that Ford's presence in Syria was important for advancing U.S. policy goals by meeting with opposition figures and serving as a witness to the ongoing violence.

The Obama administration has long called for Assad to step down, and officials say his regime's demise is inevitable.

U.S. officials say Syria has become increasingly isolated, with Iran as one of its last remaining allies, and point to recent defections by some military and government leaders as a sign that Assad's grip on power is unraveling. The 10-month uprising against Assad has turned increasingly militarized and chaotic as more frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-20-US-US-Syria/id-a150bb46d115481da48bee3ac2af4f50

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Divers resume search of capsized ship (AP)

ROME ? Divers are resuming the search of the wreckage of the capsized Costa Concordia after data indicated the cruise ship had stabilized in the sea off Tuscany.

To make it easier to enter and leave, the divers blasted more holes Saturday into the carcass of the ship, which has been lying on its side near the port of Giglio island since shortly after it crashed into a reef Jan. 14

They are searching for bodies or survivors, although it is unlikely any of the 21 missing in the accident could still be alive. The search was suspended on Friday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears the ship could roll off a rocky ledge of sea bed and plunge deeper into the sea. There are also fears the Concordia's fuel could leak, polluting pristine waters.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_cruise_aground

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