Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/n0jCLsppmDU/
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Elizabeth Banks: Surrogacy Is a ?Big Leap? of Faith
"It's a big leap, inviting this person into your life to do this amazing, important thing for you," she explains. "And it's hard losing that kind of control. But our surrogate is so extraordinary, and she's still in our lives. She's like an auntie."
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Last day: 23 Iowa campaign stops combined (AP)
DES MOINES, Iowa ? The White House their goal, Republican presidential hopefuls raced across Iowa on Monday in a final, full day of frenzied appeals for support in precinct caucuses that open the 2012 campaign. "It is the race you make it," an upset-minded Rick Santorum told voters soon to pick a winner.
In the race's final hours, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney predicted victory and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich all but forecast his own defeat.
From Sioux City in the western part of the state to Davenport in the east, the six presidential hopefuls hustled through 23 fast-paced campaign events combined. That and the $13 million or more already spent on television commercials was evidence enough of the outsized importance Iowa holds in the race to pick a Republican opponent for President Barack Obama next fall.
Romney had one eye on his GOP rivals and another on Obama as he argued he is in the best position of all to capture the White House. The president has been "a great divider, the great complainer, the great excuse giver, the great blamer," said the former Massachusetts governor, who is making his second try for the nomination and has been at or near the top of the Iowa polls since the campaign began.
Later, before a noisy crowd in Marion, he predicted his own victory in a state that humbled him four years ago. "We're going to win this thing with all of our passion and strength," he said.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul flew into the state accompanied by his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and urged supporters to "send a message tomorrow night that echoes not just around Iowa but ... around the world." Many in the audience of about 300 chanted "end the Fed," a reference to the Texan's pledge to abolish the nation's central bank as a first step toward repairing the economy.
Most polls in recent days have put Romney and Paul atop the field in Iowa, with Santorum in third and gaining ground. More than a third of all potential caucus-goers say they could yet change their minds.
"Do not settle for less than what America needs to transform this country. Moderate candidates who try to appeal to moderates end up losing," Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, said in a slap at Romney.
After absorbing a pounding in television commercials from Romney's deep-pocketed allies, Gingrich said he was looking ahead to next week's primary in New Hampshire, and then to one in South Carolina on Jan. 21
"I don't think I'm going to win, I think when you look at the numbers that volume of negativity has done its damage," he said of the Iowa caucuses.
Romney is viewed as the overwhelming favorite in New Hampshire, although Santorum, Paul and Gingrich have all said they intend to campaign there.
South Carolina figures to be more wide-open, the first contest in the South, and in a deeply Republican state.
If others were thinking about conceding Iowa, they did not show it.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry took swipes at Romney, Santorum and Paul in an appearance in Sioux City. "If you have my back tomorrow at the caucuses, I'll have your back for the next four years in Washington, D.C," he said.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann unveiled the first television ad in months. It hailed her as Iowa-born and the only "consistent conservative fighter" in the race and concluded, "She'll never back down."
The commercial was the last in a race in which the candidates' own ads were sometimes overshadowed by the more negative ones run by super PACs, organizations established and funded by their allies.
Perry and a super PAC supporting him spent the most, $5.5 million, according to one tally of the ad spending.
But it was the combination of Romney ($1.3 million) and his super PAC ($2.7 million) that appeared to have the most noticeable impact on the race. That was particularly so in the final few weeks, when Gingrich surged to the front of the polls.
The former speaker soon found himself under relentless attack in ads by the Romney super PAC. At the same time, the former Massachusetts governor's campaign took the high road, airing positive ads designed to show him in a favorable light.
Short on funds, Gingrich was unable to respond in kind, declaring instead he would run only a positive campaign.
It wasn't much of a contest, and before long, he faded, while Paul and then Santorum rose.
In fact, Gingrich's emergence was only one in a series of twists that seemed to produce a new front-runner every few weeks.
Bachmann earned that distinction when she won a straw poll last summer in Ames, but she was bumped off stride when Perry entered the race. His boomlet lasted until his first few debate performances were judged lacking, and then it became Herman Cain's turn. The former business executive suspended his campaign after being accused of personal indiscretions, and Gingrich began gaining ground, then Paul.
Throughout it all, Romney remained steady, advantaged by his well-funded campaign, the super PAC that supports him and the missteps of his rivals.
Yet to the end, the polls suggested the former Massachusetts governor was having trouble persuading Iowa Republicans that he was conservative enough to warrant their support.
Somehow, even an intense post-Christmas push by the candidates through Iowa's cities, small towns and smaller towns left Iowa Republicans uncertain about which contender to back.
"I'm really still undecided," said Bill Brauer, of Polk City, as he listened to Santorum speak on the campaign's final day.
"I'm going to make up my mind tonight," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Thomas Beaumont, Philip Elliott, Mike Glover, Kasie Hunt and Shannon McCaffrey in Iowa contributed to this report. Espo reported from Washington.
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Libya's al-Sedr oil port resumes operations: official (Reuters)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Libya's al-Sedr oil port has resumed operations and will see the first oil shipment sail on Tuesday or earlier, an official from Waha Oil Co said, months after the terminal stopped running during a civil war that ended Muammar Gaddafi's rule.
"The port was damaged by the Gaddafi regime and the facilities are now operational," the official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters on Sunday night.
Waha Oil, which manages the port, is owned by Libya's National Oil Corporation in a joint venture with U.S. firms ConocoPhillips, Marathon and Amerada Hess.
"The ship will move tomorrow (Monday) or the day after," the official said.
"The filling of the first shipment started today (Sunday). This is very important given the limited capabilities. Export out of al-Sedr Oil Terminal will resume and will be according to demand."
The official said a 600,000-barrel tanker would leave Ras Lanuf's al-Sedr port for a European country, without identifying it.
Interim Oil Minister Abdulrahman Ben Yazza said last month that Libya's oil output had hit 1 million barrels per day (bpd). Ben Yazza also said production would reach 1.3 million bpd by the first quarter and 1.5 million bpd by the second half of 2012.
The country, formerly Africa's third-largest producer, yielded about 1.6 million bpd before the civil war led to a virtual shutdown in supplies, according to industry estimates.
(Reporting by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Dale Hudson)
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Monday, January 2, 2012
ZooFood: In Richmond too. RT @EmanuelDerman In US 13. In China 4, 14, 24.. No such elevator stops. Why is it unlucky vertically but not horizontally?
In Richmond too. RT @ In US 13. In China 4, 14, 24.. No such elevator stops. Why is it unlucky vertically but not horizontally? Source: http://twitter.com/ZooFood/statuses/153598602315431936
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Tortured Afghan girl to India for medical care
(AP)?
KABUL, Afghanistan ? A 15-year-old Afghan girl severely tortured for months by her in-laws in an attempt to force her into prostitution will be sent to India for medical treatment, an Afghan official said Tuesday.
Sahar Gul's mother-in-law and sister-in-law were arrested and her husband was being sought, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi.
The case has shocked Afghanistan, though rights activists say serious abuses against women and girls in the conservative society are common. President Hamid Karzai has said that whoever used violence against Gul will be punished.
According to officials in northeastern Baghlan province, the in-laws kept Gul in a basement for six months, ripped her fingernails out, tortured her with hot irons and broke her fingers. Police freed her last week.
The public health and women's affairs ministers visited Gul, who is now in a Kabul hospital.
She was freed from a basement at her husband's home last week after her uncle called the local police.
"It is a violent act that is unacceptable in the 21st century," Sediqi told reporters. "We are thankful of Sahar Gul's uncle."
He added that "if the police had not arrived in time she may have died."
Gul was married about seven months ago. Jawad Basharat, spokesman for the provincial police chief in Baghlan, said an arrest warrant had been issued for her husband, who is serving in the Afghan army.
"After police found out about the small girl Sahar Gul they took action and found her in the basement of the house in very bad condition," Basharat said. "Her nails were pulled out, she has injuries in all parts of her body, there are signs of burning on her body, she was suffering from different kinds of injuries."
He said that her mother-in-law and other members of the family were reportedly involved in what he described as "criminal activities," which he said included selling alcohol and prostitution.
According to preliminary reports, Basharat said, "they tried to force her into prostitution and she did not agree. This was one of the reasons that they detained her in the basement for six months."
Rahima Zarifi, the provincial director of women's affairs in Baghlan, said a commission had been set up under Karzai's orders to investigate the case.
"According to the neighbors in the area, Sahar Gul's in-laws were not good people. Besides selling alcohol, they were involved in prostitution and that is why they put pressure on Sahar Gul to join with them. She was not happy with it and that is why they put her in the basement, detained her for six months and tortured her," Zarifi said. "They pulled out her nails. You can see the signs of torture and abuse all over her body, several types of torture and abuse. They even burned her with hot irons."
Health Minister Suraya Dalil said that despite progress in women's rights, work remained to be done.
"This is the very most extreme case that we have seen. That a child, that a girl child has been abused, has been physically abused, psychologically abused. It is an issue that shows that we are still need to work a lot with regard to education, with regard to awareness, with regard to social and economic development," Dalil said.
Despite much progress since the fall of the Taliban 10 years ago, women's rights in Afghanistan remain a problem area in a country with a strict patriarchal culture
Under Taliban rule, girls' schools were banned and women could only leave the house accompanied by a male family member.
A U.N. report issued in November found that a 2009 law meant to protect Afghan women from a host of abusive practices, including rape, forced marriage and the trading of women to settle disputes was being undermined by spotty enforcement.
The Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women was passed in August 2009 and had raised hopes among women's rights activists that Afghan women would get to fight back against abuses that had been ignored under Taliban rule. The law criminalized many abuses for the first time, including domestic violence, child marriage, driving a woman to resort to suicide and the selling and buying of women.
Yet the report found only a small percentage of reported crimes against women are pursued by the Afghan government.
Between March 2010 and March 2011, prosecutors opened 594 investigations involving crimes under the law. That's only 26 percent of the 2,299 incidents registered by the Afghan human rights commission, the U.N. report said. Prosecutors filed indictments in only 155 cases, or 7 percent of the total number of crimes reported.
Sometimes victims were pressured to withdraw their complaints or to settle for mediation by traditional councils, the report said. Sometimes prosecutors didn't proceed with mandatory investigations for violent acts like rape or prostitution. Other times, police simply ignored complaints, the report said.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsGamecore/~3/882mussMtXE/
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
T.I. To Celebrate New Year's Eve With New Mixtape
'New year, new money. That's that,' Tip tells MTV News.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by FLX
T.I.
Photo: Chris McKay/ Getty Images
T.I. has a lot to celebrate this New Year's Eve. This time last year, the King of the South was locked up, serving an 11-month sentence for a probation violation, but since his September release Tip has been on a tear, dropping a ton of new music and landing a reality show with his wife, Tiny, on VH1.
Tip has some big plans for ringing in the new year, even though he tries to downplay things. "For New Year's I'm gonna be waitin' on F--- da City Up to drop. We got a party poppin' off down here in Atlanta, 200 Peachtree. We gonna turn up and it's basically that," he told MTV News nonchalantly. "Between the party and the mixtape, that's all I got going. New year, new money. That's that."
Tip has been dropping viral teasers for F--- da City Up for about a week; the latest one, which dropped on Tuesday, shows T.I. in the studio with Dr. Dre.
"Dre was here. He sent for me, and of course I answered. We really just turned up more than anything else. It was about creating chemistry," T.I. told MTV News while in Atlanta preparing for the release of the tape.
On New Year's Eve, T.I. and his Grand Hustle fam will host a party in the Grand Atrium at 200 Peachtree in downtown Atlanta from 9 p.m. ET to 3:00 a.m. Sounds like fun.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676615/new-years-eve-ti-mixtape-f-da-city.jhtml
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Wall St rises, on track for slim gains in 2011 (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, moving the S&P 500 back in positive territory for 2011 ahead of the last trading day of the year, on more positive signals on the U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 edged above its 200-day moving average, a key measure of the market's long-term momentum, but scant volume increased volatility, and made the gains harder to trust.
Europe's sovereign debt crisis has been the primary concern for U.S. investors in 2011. Mixed results on an auction of long-term Italian bonds was another sign bond markets remain worried about the euro zone.
With trading thin, the only bit of suspense left for U.S. investors is whether the S&P 500 will end positive for 2011 or not. It is now up 0.4 percent for the year, the closest it has been to unchanged for a year since 1970.
"Equities are gravitating towards that 1,260 mark on the S&P to get the end of the year in the green," said Joe Cusick, senior market analyst at optionsXpress.com in Chicago.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) shot up 135.63 points, or 1.12 percent, to 12,287.04 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) gained 13.38 points, or 1.07 percent, to 1,263.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) advanced 23.76 points, or 0.92 percent, to 2,613.74.
Banks were the biggest gainers along with commodity-related sectors, which sold off hard on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) gained 2.4 percent to $33.42. The S&P financial index (.GSPF) rose 1.6 percent, while the capital goods sector (.GSPIC) added 1.3 percent. Shares of Dow component Caterpillar (CAT.N) advanced 1.4 percent to $90.58 while Alcoa (AA.N), another Dow stock, rose 1.3 percent to $8.63.
Cusick added that strength in offensive sectors like banks, materials and industrials "could be a catalyst for stocks to end the year higher."
Italian bond yields, which helped break a five-day rally with a sharp selloff in the last session, eased on Thursday after a debt auction.
Stocks added to gains after the euro erased losses against the dollar, rebounding from a 15-month low in thin trading.
But the yield on 10-year Italian bonds hovered near 7 percent, a level markets see as a danger zone for Italy's government debt.
Pending sales of existing U.S. homes surged to a 1-1/2 year high in November, offering more signs of a tentative housing recovery. That report drove the Dow Jones home builders index (.DJUSHB) up 4.3 percent.
In addition, factory activity kept growing in the U.S. Midwest in December, as purchasing managers reported rising prices and employment, even though production eased slightly.
On the down side, initial claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected, giving a mixed labor picture, but investors said the trend was still lower.
Recent economic data, including reports on housing, have been largely positive, contributing to stocks' gains over the past month and bolstering the view that economic growth is picking up steam.
"We have seen a pretty encouraging trend in the U.S. economic data over the last two months," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer of OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. "If that trend continues, that will provide good support and perhaps some upward momentum."
The next big test for markets in terms of U.S. economic data will be the December payrolls report at the end of next week.
For the year, the Dow is up 6.1 percent and the S&P 500 is up 0.4 percent, while the Nasdaq is down 1.5 percent.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For a graphic on markets' performance in 2011:
http://r.reuters.com/xut75s
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Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) shares dipped 0.02 percent to $173.86. Goldman Sachs said the online retailer's sales growth in the current holiday quarter could miss expectations.
Diamond Foods Inc (DMND.O) shares rose 7.2 percent to $31.51 after CNBC reported rumors that high-profile investor David Einhorn may have invested in the company.
About 4.16 billion shares exchanged hands on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and the Nasdaq, well below the year's daily average of about 7.9 billion shares. On the NYSE, four stocks rose for every one that fell. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by a ratio of more than 2 to 1.
(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Jan Paschal)
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