ROCHELLE STOVALL

ROCHELLE STOVALL

Emma Watson shows her tiny figure in clingy white dress

The actress, 23, sported a dress not many women could get away with as she arrived at Nice airport. She wore a tight white skater dress that ended several inches above her knee. And the Harry Potter star combined the figure-hugging number with dark sunglasses, black shoes and a black handbag as she made her way through the airport.

Emma Watson

Emma Watson

It’s Ellie and Cal-vid Harris - Kiss ...

Cal-ling in love ... Ellie Goulding sports Daisy Dukes in the video. The Scottish producer and singer ELLIE GOULDING play a loved-up couple in the clip for their collaboration I Need Your Love.

Calvin Harris Kiss

Calvin Harris Kiss

Smiley Cyrus Star shows her cheeky side in hot pants

Golden girl ... Miley sports chunky jewellery with pal in Los Angeles. Long and short of it ... Miley shows off slender legs in hotpants during Los Angeles stroll HAS MILEY CYRUS borrowed my Italia ’90 Scotland shorts? The singer just about squeezes into the hot pants, which would fit most ten-year-olds.

Monday 31 December 2012

(CBSNews) 400 from Newtown, Conn., attend Giants-Eagles game


(CBSNews) EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Carrying signs to express their gratitude and their choice of love over violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, approximately 400 residents of Newtown, Conn., attended the New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles game Sunday.

The residents, including about 200 students from the school system, formed a gantlet to welcome players from both teams before the game. They then held hands and ringed the field as the national anthem was played at MetLife Stadium.


Players on both teams exchanged high-fives with the residents, who the Giants said included the family of Jack Pinto, the 6-year-old fan of the Giants who was buried in a No. 80 jersey of Victor Cruz, his favorite player.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also greeted the people in a tunnel at the stadium.

Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said there were a few families in attendance who lost children in the attack earlier this month. The families arrived in nine chartered buses.

The team did not allow access to the residents, saying they just wanted to attend the game and enjoy themselves.

There were at least a dozen hand-made signs in the stadium, with the most poignant a green-and-white one that said, "Sandy Hook: We Choose Love."

Eagles coach Andy Reid and Giants coach Tom Coughlin each walked the gantlet slowly and said hello to as many people as they could.

Read more article here.

(eonline) Kim Kardashian Pregnant With Kanye West's Baby!


(eonline) Move over, Baby New Year, and make way for Kimye Jr.
Yes, indeed, Kim Kardashian is pregnant with Kanye West's baby!
E! News has confirmed with the Kardashian family that Kim is expecting her first child with the rapper. But it was West who already spilled the exciting news to a few hundred concertgoers.
During his Atlantic City show on Sunday night, West decided to announce that Kim was expecting to all his fans.
Kanye West says he "ain't crazy"
And the congratulatory tweets have already begun for the future parents.
"Congrats to Kim and Kanye. Happy for both of them... bit.ly/YE4Uzh," Russell Simmons tweeted, while the Kardashians all showed their joy for the newest member of the family. "Im a happy girl !!!!!!!!! Wowza! Oh BABY BABY BABY," Kris Jenner tweeted.
Khloé Kardashian Odom wrote, "Keeping secrets is hard with so many family members! Especially when you are so freaking excited!!!!! LOVE is everything!!!!" Kourtney Kardashian also went to Twitter with, "Been wanting to shout from the rooftops with joy and now I can! Another angel to welcome to our family. Overwhelmed with excitement!"

Kim is about 12 weeks pregnant.

Read more article here.

(FOX NEWS)Reid: 'Significant distance' between sides as fiscal talks stall, carry into Monday


 ( FOX NEWS ) Capitol Hill negotiations to avert a fiscal crisis before the New Year’s deadline appeared to falter Sunday in the Senate, as lawmakers struggled to find common ground while bringing the country ever-closer to a 2013 shockwave of tax hikes and spending cuts.
Senators spent the weekend trying to craft a new proposal that they originally claimed could be ready as early as Sunday. But Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid reported late in the day that there was significant distance between the two sides, following a tense afternoon during which Vice President Biden was brought in to referee.
Talks will now push on into Monday -- but President Obama has already made clear he will press Reid to call a vote on a separate White House plan if nothing is produced by then.
The stumbling block Sunday initially appeared to be a provision in the Republican proposal that would change the way Social Security benefits are calculated -- effectively reducing benefits over time.
But while that drew the ire of Democrats, some Republicans indicated they were willing to drop the provision. Instead, they voiced serious concern about a Democratic push to use new tax revenue for new spending.
“The biggest obstacle we face is that President Obama and Majority Leader Reid continue to insist on new taxes that will be used to fund more new spending, not for meaningful deficit reduction," said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.

Sunday 30 December 2012

(sfgate) Obama makes case for gun control on TV


(sfgate)Washington --
President Obama declared in an interview aired Sunday that the Dec. 14 shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn., "was the worst day of my presidency" as he sought to rally public support for lawmakers seeking tougher gun controls.
"Anybody who was up in Newtown ... understands that something fundamental in America has to change. And all of us have to do some soul searching, including me as president, that we allow a situation in which 20 precious small children are getting gunned down in a classroom," Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Obama said he will support legislation that increases background checks on gun buyers and bans assault weapons and high-capacity clips.
These are proposals "that I have historically supported and will continue to support," Obama said in the interview recorded Saturday at the White House.
Obama has assigned Vice President Joe Biden to assemble a task force that will make specific recommendations next month to address gun violence.
He said he will put his "full weight" behind the Biden task force's recommendations. But ultimately, he said, it will be up to the American people. "We're not going to get this done unless the American people decide this is important," he said.
He urged the public to support those in Congress who are willing to vote for new gun legislation.
"The question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away.
"It certainly won't feel that way to me," the president continued. "That was the worst day of my presidency. And it's not something I want to see repeated."
In the Newtown shootings, six staff members were also killed at the elementary school. Gunman Adam Lanza committed suicide as police closed in. Earlier, he killed his mother at the home they shared.
Obama rejected the National Rifle Association's proposal that an armed guard be assigned to every school. "I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that this is going to solve the problem."

(freep) Blood clot puts Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in hospital


(freep)WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital Sunday after the discovery of a blood clot stemming from the concussion she sustained earlier this month.
Clinton's doctors discovered the clot Sunday while performing a follow-up exam, said her spokesman, Philippe Reines. He would not elaborate on the location of the clot, but said Clinton is being treated with anticoagulants and would remain at New York-Presbyterian Hospital for at least the next 48 hours so that doctors can monitor the medication.
"Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion," Reines said in a statement. "They will determine if any further action is required."
Clinton, 65, fell and suffered a concussion while at home alone in mid-December as she recovered from a stomach virus that left her severely dehydrated. The concussion was diagnosed Dec. 13, and she was forced to cancel a trip to north Africa and the Middle East that had been planned for the next week.
The seriousness of a blood clot depends on where it is, said Dr. Gholam Motamedi, a neurologist at Georgetown University Medical Center who was not involved in Clinton's care.

Read more article here.

Saturday 29 December 2012

(Techcrunch) Instagram Denies 25% Holiday User Drop From TOS Backlash, And Here Are Real Explanations For A Usage Dip


( Techcrunch )Sure, it’s not unlike the New York Post to be sensationalist. But in this case it misinterpreted data to suggest Instagram was hit harder by backlash to its terms of service changes than it actually was. Combined with it being a quiet-ish holiday news week, I am taking a story it published today on a 25 percent drop in Instagram users with a little more than a grain of salt.
Basically, it notes that figures from AppData demonstrate that Instagram lost 4 million daily active users — nearly a 25 percent drop to 12.4 million from 16.4 million — between December 19 and December 26. And as the NYP terms it, people are walking away in a “rage against rules.” The Post blames the decline on Instagram’s new, more commercially-minded terms of service — which it rolled back on December 21, i.e., in the middle of its DAU plummet, in response to public outcry.
To balance out that one-sided view, here are some further observations that give a slightly bigger picture about what is going on:
– Yes, AppData notes that Instagram lost 4 million DAUs over the holiday period, as based on Facebook logins via the app. But it’s also seen some gains (according to the same data): weekly active users in that period are up by 1 million (currently at 28.5 million), and monthly active users are up by 1.1 million (currently at 43 million). DAUs also seem to be up a bit since Christmas, and they are now down by only 3.5 million over the last seven days.
– AppData doesn’t show an app’s full user count or even a representative sample. In this case it shows users who connected their Instagram accounts to Facebook and either logged in with their Facebook credentials, searched for their Facebook friends, or shared to Facebook. That leaves out tons of users who use Instagram independently. The decline in Instagram usage may have been more pronounced amongst Facebook-connected users as they may have been exposed to more viral backlash to the TOS change via the news feed.
– There are other photo apps that have seen fluctuations in DAUs and MAUs in the last week. Look at Hipstamatic, or Snapseed, or Flickr, whose well-timed launches made some people wonder whether it could replace Instagram.
– The NYP story compares this to last Thanksgiving, which was rich pickins for Instagram. Then it celebrated record postings as people rushed to snap their turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. But this time around, the Christmas “Poke” effect may be at work:
As Josh pointed out in reference to stories of how another photo app from Facebook, Poke, is slipping after an initial burst of interest, people who would have received new iOS devices will be downloading essential apps this week rather than the second wave of nice-to-have apps. The same could apply to apps like Instagram — not just on iOS but Android as well.
– A week and a half ago, we published some data looking at whether Instagram traffic had dropped off as a result of the removal of preview “Cards” on Twitter. The answer: Yes, referral traffic went down from Twitter, but Instagram traffic overall appeared to be holding up, at least at that point.
In that post, I noted that any decline could have to do with Twitter, but could also be related to the hullabaloo over terms of service; or even a newer version of the app that is getting worse ratings than older versions. The same applies here.

Read more article here

( Information Week ) Zuckerberg Photo Flap: 4 Lessons

( Information Week )Nothing quite says the holidays like quarreling over a private family Facebook photo made public on Twitter.
Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and a former company executive, posted a recent family photo -- which included her brother -- which she presumed to be private. The photo was then tweeted by Callie Schweitzer to more than 40,000 followers (then shared countless times, no doubt) after it first appeared in her Facebook newsfeed. According to the AP recap of the social spat, Zuckerberg tweeted to Schweitzer that reposting the photo was "way uncool." That tweet has since been deleted.

  The dustup follows recent changes to Facebook's privacy controls, along with a digital uproar over updates to Facebook-owned Instagram's terms of service.
Randi Zuckerberg later returned to Twitter to offer a plea for "digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend's photo publicly. It's not about privacy settings, it's about human decency." While the Twitterati debate the nuances of privacy, etiquette, and human decency, let's look at four lessons learned for conducting social business.
[ Which rules of etiquette would you like more users to follow on social media? Here are a few suggestions: Social: It's A Matter Of Manners. ]
1. Privacy on social networks is a myth.
Online privacy is a nice idea, but to expect it fully on social networks is a setup for disappointment -- or worse. If you want to play it safe, assume everything you post to social sites is public, even if your privacy settings dictate otherwise. The fine print on Facebook and other networks changes regularly, and this trend will no doubt continue as these sites seek ways to make money from a product they're largely giving away for free.
As for Zuckerberg's plea for "digital etiquette," we all hope our friends and family don't misuse our photos, emails, and other online stuff. And yes, it's a reminder that there are indeed people on the other ends of our social media interactions. But the notion also highlights how social sites have co-opted the meaning of "friend." Schweitzer wasn't actually a friend, but a Facebook subscriber. Zuckerberg later tweeted: "Fwiw, I've been exchanging emails w/ @cschweitz & she seems lovely."
To rely on Zuckerberg's version of digital etiquette in a business context -- one that includes customers, competitors, former employees, media, online crooks, and other audience groups -- seems naive at best.
2. Personal can become professional in an instant.
The latest online privacy dustup shows again the speed with which personal can become professional, and vice versa. An apparently harmless family photo is now "a Facebook story." Zuckerberg's celebrity certainly magnified the issue -- it's an extreme case -- but the same concept applies to everyone who's on a social site. A personal photo or post on Facebook, for example, can quickly cross into the professional realm simply by virtue of listing an employer on your page.
BYOD is an enormous multiplier here, as data on employee-owned devices -- including social media activity -- used for work can be discoverable in business lawsuits. Don't simply trust that common sense will prevail on social and other online media. Educate yourself and employees on account and privacy settings. Manage risks with clear, enforceable corporate policies.
3. Twitter is not an appropriate forum for hashing out disputes.
There are some compelling examples of Twitter as a customer service channel, such as "Comcast Bill." But working out heated disagreements in Twitter shorthand -- and in public -- is chock-full of peril. Move contentious interactions to a different forum with fewer prying eyes. Zuckerberg's photo itself was pretty innocuous; the ensuing tweets generated the real attention, much of it negative. The "digital etiquette" message alone has been re-tweeted more than 500 times.
4. Social business isn't always puppies and kittens.
There's an endless supply of advice for small businesses and other organizations trying to get a handle on social media. Much of that information seems to suggest that social is a sure thing -- do it and watch the cash register ring. But there's a downside, too, and when things go wrong they often do so in a public forum, which can be expensive.
Take the cautionary tale of the Redner Group. The small PR firm fumed on Twitter over unfavorable coverage of one of its client's video games and implied it would withhold review copies from certain outlets in the future, causing a backlash. The client subsequently fired the firm.
It's a pretty safe guess that Randi Zuckerberg -- and certainly her brother -- isn't losing much sleep over this incident. It's probably not going to hurt her bottom line. For the rest of us, though, it's a reminder that social business isn't always free and easy. It requires real thought, like any other business initiative.

Read more article here.

( NYDaily News ) Matt Damon and John Krasinski’s ‘Promised Land’ was revived with director Gus Van Zant Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/damon-revived-promised-land-call-article-1.1228236#ixzz2GQmwdPYh




 ( NYDaily News )  Matt Damon had been looking for a film to direct — and thought he’d found it in “Promised Land,“ a script he co-wrote with actor John Krasinski.
But even as the start of production on “Promised Land” approached, Damon had to give up the reins at the last minute because of scheduling for “Elysium,” a thriller in which he was set to star.
“I like to say that my biggest contribution to this film as producer was firing myself as director,” Damon jokes.
While he handed directing duties over to longtime collaborator Gus Van Sant, Damon is still the star of “Promised Land,” opening Friday — and its co-writer.
But, as Krasinski observes, the movie seemed to be doomed: When Damon had to bow out as director, Warner Bros., which was going to finance the film, put it into turnaround.
“I thought the movie was dead,” Krasinski recalls. “But when Matt bailed, Gus signed on. Focus Features stepped up when Gus stepped in and we got it all back within 12 hours.”
Van Sant says he jumped aboard because “Matt helped write it. I read it quickly and I liked it a lot, because it had his style and he was going to play the lead. It happened really fast.”
Krasinski met Damon when Damon was making “The Adjustment Bureau” with Krasinski’s wife, Emily Blunt. When Damon mentioned his urge to direct, Krasinski told him about his idea, and the two started collaborating after Krasinski developed the story with writer Dave Eggers.
Damon, of course, has a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for co-writing 1997’s “Good Will Hunting” with his childhood pal Ben Affleck.
“Writing with John was a lot like working with Ben,” Damon says. “The process was similar, with us acting things out as the characters as we wrote. It brought back a lot of memories.”
In “Promised Land,” Damon plays a small-town guy who now works for a major natural-gas company. He arrives in a rural Pennsylvania town on a mission to buy mineral rights to area farms, with an eye toward using the land to extract natural gas through the controversial drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
Then Krasinski’s character shows up in town, a representative of an anti-fracking environmental group who begins lobbying the local farmers against a practice that has the potential to pollute, and even poison, local water sources.

Friday 28 December 2012

Indian Gang-Rape Victim Dies in Singapore Hospital

(ABC News) Shocked Indians on Saturday were mourning the death of a woman who was gang-raped and beaten on a bus in New Delhi nearly two weeks ago in an ordeal that galvanized people to demand greater protection for women from sexual violence.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was aware of the emotions the attack has stirred and that it was up to all Indians to ensure that the young woman's death will not have been in vain.
The victim "passed away peacefully" early Saturday at Mount Elizabeth hospital in Singapore with her family and officials of the Indian Embassy by her side, Dr. Kevin Loh, the chief executive of the hospital, said in a statement.
After 10 days at a hospital in New Delhi, the Indian capital, the woman was brought Thursday to Mount Elizabeth, which specializes in multi-organ transplants. Loh said the woman had been in extremely critical condition since Thursday, and by late Friday her condition had taken a turn for the worse, with her vital signs deteriorating.
"Despite all efforts by a team of eight specialists in Mount Elizabeth hospital to keep her stable, her condition continued to deteriorate over these two days," Loh said. "She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds, but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome."

Read more article here.

(Reuters)Analysis: For Senate leaders, a mission impossible from Obama



(Reuters) (Reuters) - Following a Friday meeting with congressional leaders, an impatient and annoyed President Barack Obama said it was "mind boggling" that Congress has been unable to fix a "fiscal cliff" mess that everyone has known about for more than a year.
He then dispatched Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, on a mind-boggling mission: coming up with a bipartisan bill to break the "fiscal cliff" stalemate in the most partisan and gridlocked U.S. Congress of modern times - in about 48 hours.
Reid and McConnell, veteran tacticians known for their own long-running feud, have been down this road before.
Their last joint venture didn't turn out so well. It was the deal in August 2011 to avoid a U.S. default that set the stage for the current mess. That effort, like this one, stemmed from a grand deficit-reduction scheme that turned into a bust.
But they have never had the odds so stacked against them as they try to avert the "fiscal cliff" - sweeping tax increases set to begin on Tuesday and deep, automatic government spending cuts set to start on Wednesday, combined worth $600 billion.
The substantive differences are only part of the challenge. Other obstacles include concerns about who gets blamed for what and the legacy of distrust among members of Congress.
Any successful deal will require face-saving measures for Republicans and Democrats alike.
"Ordinary folks, they do their jobs, they meet deadlines, they sit down and they discuss things, and then things happen," Obama told reporters. "If there are disagreements, they sort though the disagreements. The notion that our elected leadership can't do the same thing is mind-boggling to them."

Read more article here.

Stalemate in Washington Is Eroding Confidence of Consumers

(NYTimes) For months, consumers have powered spending, while businesses pulled back ahead of the looming fiscal impasse in Washington. Now, as doubts grow about whether the president and Congress can reach a compromise before a year-end deadline, evidence has emerged that consumers, too, are becoming more pessimistic about the economy.


 Consumer confidence in the first half of December took a sharper-than-expected dip, falling to its lowest level since August, according to a new survey released Thursday by the Conference Board. Wall Street also registered its frustration with the stalemate in Washington on Thursday, sending stocks sharply lower before recovering late in the day.
The gloom comes despite signs the economy has been holding up recently during the rising worries — other data released Thursday showed a healthy gain in new-home sales and a slight drop in new jobless claims. Indeed, the Conference Board’s data show consumer anxiety is centered on the outlook ahead for the economy, rather than on current conditions.
“People are realizing that we may not get a compromise and they’re getting nervous,” said Guy Berger, United States economist with RBS Securities. “It’s a precarious situation. So far consumers are worried about the future. Once they start worrying about the present, we’re in trouble.”
If Congress and President Obama cannot agree on a deal to cut the deficit by Jan. 1, more than $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts are set to take effect.
Taxes have been the main sticking point — while the president favors eliminating Bush-era tax cuts on incomes over $250,000 and preserving current rates for lower incomes, many Republicans have been wary of supporting any tax increase. Republicans have been pushing for deeper spending cuts, something many Democrats have resisted.
Both sides remained dug in, and at midday Thursday Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, said he thought it was unlikely a compromise would be reached before Jan. 1.
With Wall Street tracking every turn of negotiations in Washington, shares tumbled after Mr. Reid’s remarks but recovered later in the day after reports the House would reconvene Sunday and take up the issue. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 1.73 points, to 1,418.10, while the Dow Jones industrial average sank 18.28 points, to 13,096.31 

Read more article here.        

Thursday 27 December 2012

(Chron)Storm blows through East; 135K in dark in Arkansas


(Chron)


CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A muted version of a winter storm that has killed more than a dozen people across the eastern half of the country plodded across the Northeast on Thursday, trapping airliners in snow or mud and frustrating travelers still trying to return home after Christmas.
The storm, which was blamed for at least 16 deaths farther south and west, brought plenty of wind, rain and snow to the Northeast when it blew in Wednesday night. Lights generally remained on and cars mostly stayed on the road, unlike many harder-hit places including Arkansas, where 200,000 homes and businesses lost power.
By afternoon, the precipitation had stopped in parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts, though snow continued to fall in upstate New York and northern New England. Parts of snow-savvy New Hampshire expected as much as 18 inches.
The Northeast's heaviest snowfall was in northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York and inland sections of several New England states. The storm was expected to head into Canada on Friday, National Weather Service spokesman David Roth said.
While the East Coast's largest cities — New York, Philadelphia and Boston — saw mostly high winds and cold rain, other areas experienced a messy mix of rain and snow that slowed commuters and those still heading home from holiday trips. Some inbound flights were delayed in Philadelphia and New York's LaGuardia Airport, but the weather wasn't leading to delays at other major East Coast airports.
Forty-two students traveling to London and Dublin were stuck in the Nashville airport thanks to weather in the Northeast. The frustrated students, from universities in Tennessee and Kentucky, were supposed to leave Wednesday and arrive in London on Thursday.
Joe Woolley, spokesman for the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad, said he hopes he can get them there just one day late.
"It's a two-week program, so it's shortened already," he said.
On New York's Long Island, a Southwest Airlines jet bound for Tampa, Fla., veered off a taxiway and got stuck in mud Thursday morning. Officials said there were no injuries to the 129 passengers and five crew members. Though the area received heavy rain overnight, Southwest spokesman Paul Flanigan said it was unclear whether that played a role.
In Pittsburgh, a flight that landed safely during the storm Wednesday night got stuck in several inches of snow on the tarmac for about two hours. The American Airlines flight arrived between 8 and 9 p.m. but then ran over a snow patch and got stuck.

Read more article here.

(FOXSPORTS) Report: Nets want Phil Jackson



(FOXSPORTS)

The Nets were thinking big when they moved to Brooklyn and acquired a host of high-priced stars to rival the Knicks for New York supremacy.


Now, after firing coach Avery Johnson when the team sank into a slump, the Nets may be shooting for the stars again.

Phil Jackson is the top target of the Nets' coaching search, according to a report by ESPN's Marc Stein and Chris Broussard.
Jackson's agent, Todd Musburger, told TNT's David Aldridge that his client has "no interest in the Nets' job at this time." But, according to the report, the Nets still hope to sway him, and an ESPN source says Jackson would listen because his interest in coaching was rekindled when the Lakers approached him after firing Mike Brown in November.
Jackson, who coached the Lakers to five titles and the Bulls to six, reacted  with surprise and some disappointment when the Lakers unexpectedly hired Mike D'Antoni in November.
P.J. Carlesimo was named Brooklyn's interim coach Thursday and was told by GM Billy King to approach the job "like he's going to coach the team for the next 10 years."


Read more article here.

(CBSNEWS) Another NYC "subway push" death


(CBSNEWS



NEW YORK A mumbling woman pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday night, the second time this month someone has been killed in such nightmarish fashion, police said.

The man was standing on the elevated platform of a 7 train in Queens at about 8 p.m. when he was shoved by the woman, who witnesses said had been following him closely and mumbling to herself, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said.

When the train pulled in, the woman got up from a nearby bench and shoved the man down, he said. The man had been standing with his back to her.

Authorities say the woman waited until the last possible second before pushing the man, reports CBS New York station WCBS-TV.

It didn't appear the man noticed her before he was shoved onto the tracks, police said. The condition of the man's body was making it difficult to identify him, police said.

"Oh my God. That ... I've never heard of that. That is really ... a woman pushed a man. ... Oh my God. That is really crazy," area resident Shiek Hossain told WCBS-TV.

The woman fled, and police were searching for her. She was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, heavyset and about 5-foot-5, wearing a blue, white and gray ski jacket and Nike sneakers with gray on top and red on the bottom.

It was unclear if the man and the woman knew each other or if anyone tried to help the man up before he was struck by the train and killed.

There was no video of the incident at the station on Queens Boulevard in the Sunnyside neighborhood. Detectives canvassed the neighborhood for useable video.

On Dec. 3, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han was shoved in front of a train in Times Square. A photograph of him on the tracks a split second before he was killed was published on the front of the New York Post the next day, causing an uproar and debate over whether the photographer, who had been waiting for a train, should have tried to help him and whether the newspaper should have run the image. Apparently no one else tried to help up Han, either.

A homeless man, 30-year-old Naeem Davis, was charged with murder in Han's death and was ordered held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty and has said that Han was the aggressor and had attacked him first. The two men hadn't met before.




Service was suspended Thursday night on the 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was using buses to shuttle riders while police investigated.


Read more article here.

(newsday) Norman Schwarzkopf dead, retired general was 78


(newsday) WASHINGTON - Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who topped an illustrious military career by commanding the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991 but kept a low public profile in controversies over the second Gulf War against Iraq, died Thursday. He was 78.
Schwarzkopf died in Tampa, Fla., where he had lived in retirement, according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to release the information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known popularly as "Stormin' Norman" for a notoriously explosive temper.
He served in his last military assignment in Tampa as commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, the headquarters responsible for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly 20 countries from the eastern Mediterranean and Africa to Pakistan.
Schwarzkopf became "CINC-Centcom" in 1988 and when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait three years later to punish it for allegedly stealing Iraqi oil reserves, he commanded Operation Desert Storm, the coalition of some 30 countries organized by President George H.W. Bush that succeeded in driving the Iraqis out.
"Gen. Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomized the 'duty, service, country' creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great nation through our most trying international crises," Bush said in a statement. "More than that, he was a good and decent man — and a dear friend."
At the peak of his postwar national celebrity, Schwarzkopf — a self-proclaimed political independent — rejected suggestions that he run for office, and remained far more private than other generals, although he did serve briefly as a military commentator for NBC.
While focused primarily in his later years on charitable enterprises, he campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2000 but was ambivalent about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, saying he doubted victory would be as easy as the White House and Pentagon predicted. In early 2003 he told the Washington Post the outcome was an unknown:
"What is postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiites? That's a huge question, to my mind. It really should be part of the overall campaign plan," he said.
Initially Schwarzkopf had endorsed the invasion, saying he was convinced that former Secretary of State Colin Powell had given the United Nations powerful evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. After that proved false, he said decisions to go to war should depend on what U.N. weapons inspectors found.
He seldom spoke up during the conflict, but in late 2004, he sharply criticized then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon for mistakes that included inadequate training for Army reservists sent to Iraq and for erroneous judgments about Iraq.
"In the final analysis I think we are behind schedule. ... I don't think we counted on it turning into jihad (holy war)," he said in an NBC interview.
Schwarzkopf was born Aug. 24, 1934, in Trenton, N.J., where his father, Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., founder and commander of the New Jersey State Police, was then leading the investigation of the Lindbergh kidnap case, which ended with the arrest and 1936 execution of German-born carpenter Richard Hauptmann for stealing and murdering the famed aviator's infant son.
The elder Schwarzkopf was named Herbert, but when the son was asked what his "H'' stood for, he would reply, "H." Although reputed to be short-tempered with aides and subordinates, he was a friendly, talkative and even jovial figure who didn't like "Stormin' Norman" and preferred to be known as "the Bear," a sobriquet given him by troops.
He also was outspoken at times, including when he described Gen. William Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, as "a horse's ass" in an Associated Press interview.
As a teenager Norman accompanied his father to Iran, where the elder Schwarzkopf trained the country's national police force and was an adviser to Reza Pahlavi, the young Shah of Iran.
Young Norman studied there and in Switzerland, Germany and Italy, then followed in his father's footsteps to West Point, graduating in 1956 with an engineering degree. After stints in the U.S. and abroad, he earned a master's degree in engineering at the University of Southern California and later taught missile engineering at West Point.
In 1966 he volunteered for Vietnam and served two tours, first as a U.S. adviser to South Vietnamese paratroops and later as a battalion commander in the U.S. Army's Americal Division. He earned three Silver Stars for valor — including one for saving troops from a minefield — plus a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and three Distinguished Service Medals.
While many career officers left military service embittered by Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was among those who opted to stay and help rebuild the tattered Army into a potent, modernized all-volunteer force.
After Saddam invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Schwarzkopf played a key diplomatic role by helping to persuade Saudi Arabia's King Fahd to allow U.S. and other foreign troops to deploy on Saudi territory as a staging area for the war to come.
On Jan. 17, 1991, a five-month buildup called Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm as allied aircraft attacked Iraqi bases and Baghdad government facilities. The six-week aerial campaign climaxed with a massive ground offensive on Feb. 24-28, routing the Iraqis from Kuwait in 100 hours before U.S. officials called a halt.
Schwarzkopf said afterward he agreed with Bush's decision to stop the war rather than drive to Baghdad to capture Saddam, as his mission had been only to oust the Iraqis from Kuwait.
But in a desert tent meeting with vanquished Iraqi generals, he allowed a key concession on Iraq's use of helicopters, which later backfired by enabling Saddam to crack down more easily on rebellious Shiites and Kurds.
While he later avoided the public second-guessing by academics and think tank experts over the ambiguous outcome of Gulf War I and its impact on Gulf War II, he told the Washington Post in 2003, "You can't help but... with 20/20 hindsight, go back and say, 'Look, had we done something different, we probably wouldn't be facing what we are facing today.'"
After retiring from the Army in 1992, Schwarzkopf wrote a best-selling autobiography, "It Doesn't Take A Hero." Of his Gulf war role, he said, "I like to say I'm not a hero. I was lucky enough to lead a very successful war." He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and honored with decorations from France, Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.
Schwarzkopf was a national spokesman for prostate cancer awareness and for Recovery of the Grizzly Bear, served on the Nature Conservancy board of governors and was active in various charities for chronically ill children.

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U.N. Envoy Calls for Transitional Government in Syria

(nytimes)MOSCOW — The international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, on a mission to Damascus seeking an end to the escalating civil conflict in Syria, said Thursday that a transitional government should be granted full executive powers until President Bashar al-Assad’s term ends in 2014.

 Mr. Brahimi’s remarks to journalists, reported by news agencies, follow intensive talks this week with Mr. Assad and a range of opposition figures.
Over the past month, Mr. Brahimi, as special representative from the United Nations and Arab League, has consulted extensively with both the United States and Russia in hopes of fulfilling of an accord reached in Geneva this summer calling for dialogue between Syria’s government and the opposition.
“The Syrian people seek genuine change,” he said. He emphasized the importance of preserving state institutions and warned that military intervention would “lead to the destruction of the Syrian state” according to Russia’s ITAR-TASS news service.
“There will be no victor in this war,” he said.
As a Syrian government delegation met with Russia’s top diplomats in Moscow, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, said there was no specific plan under discussion that would envisage a transitional government. Opposition figures have suggested that Mr. Brahimi presented Mr. Assad with offers either to cede some of his authority or to leave the country, but Mr. Lukashevich denied that. “There was and is no plan, it is not being discussed with Mr. Brahimi or with American colleagues,” he said.
Mr. Brahimi will have his own meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in Moscow on Saturday, Mr. Lukashevich said. Asked about the topic of Thursday’s meeting with Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Meqdad, Mr. Lukashevich said Russia was making an effort to “intensify dialogue, not only with the government but also with the opposition groups.”
“Naturally, we are talking with the government very often,” he said.
Mr. Lukashevich said Russia was open to talks with Syria’s national opposition coalition, which has been recognized by many Western governments as representing the Syrian people.
“We are not rejecting this dialogue,” he said. “On the contrary, we are holding it very vigorously with all opposition groups who are also interested in getting better insight into the Russian approach.”

Read more article here.

Storm whips into Northeast bringing snow, rain


(sfgate)CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The death toll from a powerful winter storm that pushed through the nation's midsection into the Northeast has risen to 7.
Officials in Ohio are blaming the bad weather for a crash that killed an 18-year-old girl, who lost control of her car Wednesday afternoon and smashed into an oncoming snow plow on a highway northeast of Cincinnati.
The storm is expected to drop one to two feet of snow on parts of the Northeast just a day after it swept through the nation's middle, dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas and ruining holiday travel plans.
The National Weather Service says the Northeast's heaviest accumulations will be in northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York and inland sections of several New England states before the storm heads to Canada on Friday.
Despite the wet weather, no flights are delayed Thursday morning cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

Free Calling for Gmail Users Extended through 2013


(Mashable)Gmail users in the U.S. and Canada will get free calling for another year, Google announced Wednesday.
"You'll continue to be able to make free domestic calls through 2013," Mayur Kamat, a product manager at the company, said in a blog post.
Users with Internet connection and a microphone can make calls to any phone from within the email client. An option to "Call phone," indicated by a phone-receiver icon, is part of Google Chat's menu; when clicked, a pop-up with a dial pad appears.


Google debuted voice calls in August 2010, and extended free calling at the end of every year-- through 2011 and 2012 -- since then.
While international calls are not free, users can dial to another country from Gmail "at insanely low rates," Kamat wrote. Rates for the calls start at $0.02 per minute, according to Google.


In the first 24 hours after its launch, Google Voice saw 1 million class placed. At the time, commentators said the service could be a Skype-killer.

Read more article here.

Google lists best Android apps of 2012


( Slashgear)Google doesn’t assign any particular ranking to these apps, so none of them are supposed to be considered “better” than the others. Some of them bring online storefronts to your device, while others are services that many users take advantage of on a daily basis. The majority of them are free to install, save for just one app on the list. In no particular order, here are Google’s best Android apps of 2012:
Evernote
• Zappos
Pinterest
• Grimm’s Snow White
• Expedia
• Pocket
• Ancestry
• Fancy
• Mint.com Personal Finance
• SeriesGuide Show Manager
• Pixlr Express
• TED
It isn’t very surprising to see Evernote and Pinterest show up on the list, and Zappos is a clear choice considering it seems to be pre-installed on nearly every Android device that comes through our doors. It’s good to see apps like Pocket, Fancy, and Pixlr Express get some much-deserved attention, and it seems that Google has delivered a list that’s quite diverse.
As diverse as it is, it notably doesn’t feature any games unless you want to count Grimm’s Snow White – an interactive storybook – as one. Perhaps Google will also release a list of its favorite Android games for 2012? Only time will tell, but for now, let us know if you use any of the apps listed in Google’s favorites for the year!

Read more article here.

Former South African President Mandela Released from Hospital



A spokesman for South African President Jacob Zuma said former President Nelson Mandela will begin to get home-based medical care following his release Wednesday from a Pretoria hospital, where he has been since December 8.

The 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader underwent treatment for a lung infection and had surgery to remove gallstones.

President Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said Mandela’s discharge has brought immense relief to South Africans and well-wishers around the world.

“This [Wednesday] evening, South African time, former President Mandela was discharged from the hospital.  He will now undergo home-based high care at his home in Johannesburg until he recovers fully,” he said.

Maharaj thanked the media and the public on behalf of the government and people of South Africa for their good wishes.

“As you know, Madiba [Nelson Mandela] is adored by millions and millions of people throughout the world, and everybody has been praying for him, kept him in their thoughts and willed him to get better.  So, his discharge from hospital is a milestone in his recovery,” Maharaj said.

Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, became South Africa's first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison for his opposition to apartheid.

Read more article here.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Randi Zuckerberg loses control on Facebook (and Twitter)


(CNET NEWS)It's easy to have sympathy for those who have been misled by Facebook's ever-morphing privacy controls. One should therefore have additional sympathy when the person led astray is a former director of Facebook and enjoys the name Zuckerberg.
Randi Zuckerberg thought she had posted a picture to be only seen by her friends. Suddenly, it was there for all to see. Yes, all. The world. The whole misanthropic, green-eyed human race.
As ReadWriteWeb's Dan Lyons icily fulminates, it seems that one of her sister's friends saw the picture, assumed it was for public viewing and -- because of its profoundly fascinating nature -- tweeted it down the Styx to public hell.
You'll be wondering about the picture. Well, it shows several members of the Zuckerberg family standing around the kitchen, staring into their cellphones and seeming astoundingly happy.
You might imagine that Randi Zuckerberg felt this was not the right message to be sending to the world.
Happy families at this time of year can be disturbing sights, encouraging onlookers to wonder what lurks beneath those open mouths and exposed teeth.

People will wonder what gifts these people bought each other and why the boy with the very pale face and the hoodie is leaning smugly against the kitchen cabinets.

Zuckerberg, however, leaped onto Twitter to explain her pain: "Digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend's photo publicly. It's not about privacy settings, it's about human decency."
Oh, but this only led to her receiving little lectures -- not exclusively about human decency, oddly enough.
Media Bistro wondered whether she was a Twitter bully.


Read more article here.


Toyota in $1.1 Billion Gas-Pedal Settlement




( http://online.wsj.com )Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay about $1.1 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from complaints of unintended acceleration in its vehicles that soured its reputation for quality and undermined its sales globally.
The settlement, filed in a federal court in California on Wednesday, will result in a $1.1 billion pretax charge to earnings this quarter, Toyota said. Owners of some 16 million Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles would be eligible for payments and safety updates that would vary depending on their vehicle and its age.

The settlement includes no admission of fault or unlawful conduct by Toyota and allows the company to avoid the risks associated with battling a lengthy trial. "One of our overriding goals has been to vigorously defend the safety of our vehicles, and we believe we have done that," said Mike Michels, a Toyota spokesman.
The 2009/2010 recalls and public scrutiny of accidents involving its vehicles—including congressional hearings—dented Toyota's reputation for quality and undermined its sales. Its U.S. sales were flat in 2010, a year in which almost every other major auto maker posted gains, and ended its 30-year unbroken run of market-share increases in the U.S.
The settlement is one of the largest in a lawsuit involving the automotive industry, said Steve W. Berman, one of the lead plaintiff lawyers. The tentative agreement must still be approved by U.S. District Judge James Selna.

Read more article here.

Pats get 7 to Pro Bowl


(bostonherald)FOXBORO — The NFL has again shown its respect for the Patriots’ elite level of talent.
Seven Patriots were selected to play in the Pro Bowl on Jan. 27 in Honolulu.
Quarterback Tom Brady, tight end Rob Gronkowski, wide receiver Wes Welker, left guard Logan Mankins, defensive lineman Vince Wilfork, linebacker Jerod Mayo and special teamer Matthew Slater all received the nod.

“It is flattering to be selected, but I have always considered Pro Bowl recognition as a reflection of the team’s overall success,” Brady said. “I am happy for my many teammates who were selected again this year. I know that there are many others who are equally deserving of the opportunity. One day, I am sure, I will have a greater appreciation for individual accomplishments, but this week, my focus is simply on our preparations for Miami.”
Of course, the Patriots hope to avoid the Pro Bowl by advancing to the Super Bowl, but that’s another story for another day.
The Patriots have the third-most Pro Bowlers behind the 49ers (nine) and Texans (eight). The Pats have the fourth-most starters (Gronkowski, Mankins, Wilfork, Mayo) behind the 49ers (seven), Texans (five) and Bears (five).
The fans, players and coaches each receive one-third of the vote. Gronkowski, Mankins and Mayo led the fan vote at their positions, and Brady earned the second-most votes in the league behind Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
“We have a lot of guys who earned the honor this year, so that is pretty cool,” Mankins said. “It’s always nice to have your peers, coaches and fans select you to the Pro Bowl. Getting voted in is always a reflection of our team success. While I do appreciate this recognition, we need to get ready and keep our focus on the game this week against Miami.”
Brady earned his eighth Pro Bowl nod. Welker, Mankins and Wilfork are going for the fifth time. Gronkowski, Mayo and Slater received their second selection.
“To be selected to my fifth Pro Bowl is amazing,” Wilfork said. “I am honored and humbled. More importantly, I am proud that the other guys on my team are getting the recognition they deserve.”

Read more article here.

McConnell Pushed Into Fiscal Fight as Congress Faces Deadline


(bloomberg) Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader who has stayed largely outside the U.S. budget fight this year, will be thrust into prominence just five days before the deadline for tax increases and spending cuts.
After the House of Representatives failed to act and the Treasury Department said yesterday it will start taking special measures now to avoid breaking the debt ceiling, McConnell’s next move may influence whether more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts begin in January. President Barack Obama is pressing for lawmakers to craft an interim deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff as senators return to Washington today.
Should Democrats who control the Senate heed Obama’s call, McConnell will choose from three options: using his legislative experience to help forge a bipartisan deal, wielding his power to block a proposal by Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid from reaching a vote, or letting Democrats advance their own plan without having to endorse it.
“His instincts and his background have always been to engage more in the legislative bargaining and deal-making,” said Stephen Voss, associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky. Still, “there are lots of pressures that encourage him to represent the more conservative wing of the Republican Party in these negotiations, and we’ve seen that,” Voss said.

‘Bad Cop’ Incentive

As McConnell prepares to seek a sixth term in 2014, the Kentucky Republican risks drawing a Republican primary challenger if he supports raising taxes on anyone, giving him an incentive to be the “bad cop” who scoffs at Obama’s budget proposals, Voss said.
Whatever McConnell does, the House -- which balked at the tax-rate increases for top earners that Obama and Democrats say are needed in any deal -- would still need to approve any measure the Senate passes.
McConnell, 70, has called on the Senate to take up and consider changes to House-passed legislation that would extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels. He’s argued that the Senate could try to alter that legislation to allow tax cuts to expire for top earners, as Democrats advocate.

Read more article here.

A street dog from the Philippines that won hearts around the world



  ( sacbee)       A street dog from the Philippines that won hearts around the world after saving two girls from being hit by a motorcycle is a step closer to receiving surgery at UC Davis to reconstruct her missing snout.
UC Davis veterinarians have announced that chemotherapy has successfully eliminated the tumors that delayed facial surgery for Kabang, the dog whose muzzle was torn off in a motorcycle crash last year. Now the 2-year-old dog is getting treated for heartworms.
"Kabang begins her third week of 'bed rest' following her first heartworm treatment," says a Dec. 18 online update from the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at UC Davis.
"This will continue for about another three weeks. She is eager to go outside and play, but is accepting her needed rest well."
Kabang arrived at UC Davis in October after thousands of dollars were raised for her care through a social media frenzy. A nurse in New York state started the website www.careforkabang.com to raise money, and Kabang has her own Facebook page with more than 16,000 "likes."
When the dog got to Davis for surgery to close the gaping wound where a snout should be, veterinarians determined that her other health problems had to be treated first. They said in October that treating Kabang's tumors and heartworms would likely delay the facial surgery by six months.



(CatholicLOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Hugh Jones of the University of Hertfordshire says he and his colleagues have discovered no less than five planets orbiting Tau Ceti, a star which is just 12 light-years away.

Tau Ceti is a sun-like star in the constellation Cetus, (the whale) and can been seen with the naked eye. What's more is astronomers studying the light from the star have detected five planets orbiting it. One of those is within the star's Goldilocks zone, a band of space around the star where liquid water could possibly exist.

This intrigues astronomers because liquid water is a prerequisite for life as we know it.

Tau Ceti has long been regarded as a hopeful place, since the star is so much like our sun and it is close to the Earth. In fact, scientists from the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence project (SETI) have listened in to the star repeatedly over the years hoping to detect signs of life there.

Unfortunately, their hopes are probably doomed. Although there are so many things right with the star, there is at least one thing wrong. The star is still surrounded by a substantial disk of stellar debris, much like our solar system was soon after its formation. We know from studying the formation of our solar system, this means that large asteroid impacts must be common on those planets.

Those impacts would almost certainly prevent intelligent and complex life from evolving since any life there would be destroyed with each periodic, cataclysmic impact. We know this because it's happened here on Earth. Tau Ceti has ten times more debris in orbit than our sun.

Ultimately, researchers have concluded that Tau Ceti isn't the kind of place where humans, or anyone else is likely to live. Still, it's amazing to see such wonders of creation in our cosmic backyard.

Read more: What happens if we find life out there?
     
Read more article here.

Deadly storm spreads snow, twister risk to Atlantic coast



A major storm that unleashed heavy snow and deadly winds on the nation’s midsection on Christmas Day was moving across the East Coast Wednesday, bringing more wintry conditions and the risk of new tornadoes.
Snow was expected across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with northern Ohio, northern Pennsylvania and southern New York set to bear the brunt, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton.
Further south, driving rain and thunderstorms were expected throughout the southeast Atlantic, with the tornado threat highest in the eastern Carolinas, according to the national Storm Prediction Center.
Read more at Weather.com



Read more article here.

Egyptian Senate Convenes

(Voice of America)Egypt's upper house of parliament has convened for its first session since President Mohamed Morsi signed a decree putting the controversial new Islamist-backed constitution into effect.

The Shura Council met on Wednesday to swear in 90 new members appointed by Morsi. The council is also expected to begin setting the framework for elections in the lower of house of parliament within the next two months.

Morsi signed the decree late Tuesday, after the election commission said almost 64 percent of voters had backed the constitution in this month's polling.

However, liberal and secularist-led opposition groups have vowed to continue protests against the measure.

They say their interests were not represented when the draft constitution was formulated.  Also, some opponents say the document ignores the rights of women.


Read more article here.

Russian Parliament Sends Adoption Ban to Putin

(NYTimes) MOSCOW – The upper chamber of Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill to ban adoptions of Russian children by United States citizens, sending the measure to President Vladimir V. Putin, who has voiced support but not yet said if he will sign it.

 Enactment of the adoption ban, which was developed in retaliation for an American law punishing Russians accused of violating human rights, would be the most severe blow yet to relations between Russia and the United States in a year marked by a series of setbacks.
Since Mr. Putin returned to the presidency in May, Russian officials have used a juggernaut of legislation and executive decisions to curtail United States influence and involvement in Russia, undoing major partnerships that began after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In September, the Kremlin ordered the United States Agency for International Development to cease operations here, shutting a wide portfolio of public health, civil society and other initiatives. And officials announced plans to terminate a joint effort to dismantle nuclear, chemical and other nonconventional weapons known as the Nunn-Lugar agreement.
Russia also passed a law requiring nonprofit groups that get financing from abroad to register as “foreign agents,” sharply curtailing the ability of the United States to work with good-government groups, and another law broadening the definition of treason to include “providing financial, technical, advisory or other assistance to a foreign state or international organization.”
The adoption ban, however, is the first step that takes direct aim at the American public and would effectively undo a bilateral agreement on international adoptions ratified just this year, which took effect on Nov. 1. The agreement called for heightened oversight in response to several high-profile cases of abuse and deaths of adopted Russian children in the United States.
About 1,000 Russian children were adopted by parents from the United States in 2011, more than any other country, and more than 45,000 such children have been adopted by American parents since 1999.
Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s child rights commissioner, told news agencies on Wednesday that the ban if enacted could prevent the departure of 46 children who are ready to be adopted by parents from the United States. Some of those adoptions have already received court approval, he said. And some lawmakers said that they believed the bilateral agreement on adoptions with the United States would be void as of Jan. 1, even though Mr. Putin, at his annual news conference last week, said that changes to the agreement require one-year notice by either side.

Read more article here.

The Obama family’s Hawaiian vacation home

Today, President Obama is ending his holiday vacation short and heading back to the capital, to work with other political leaders towards a deal for avoiding the fiscal cliff.  But before donning on his presidential leader hat again, the president and his family returned back to his home state of Hawaii for some holiday R&R.

Read more article here

President Barack Obama is cutting short his Hawaiian holiday to leave for Washington on Wednesday to address the unfinished "fiscal cliff" negotiations with Congress, the White House said on Tuesday.



(Reuters) - As the clock ticks toward a January 1 deadline, efforts to avert a sharp rise in taxes and deep spending cuts have stalled, worrying world financial markets.
Obama and congressional lawmakers left Washington on Friday for the Christmas holidays with talks to avert the fiscal disaster in limbo.
When Obama arrives back in Washington early on Thursday, the focus will shift to the U.S. Senate after Republicans in the House of Representatives failed to pass their own budget measures last week.
Obama is expected to turn to a trusted Democratic ally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to help craft a quick deal.
White House aides began discussing details of the year-end budget measure with Senate Democratic counterparts early this week, a senior administration official said on Monday
The president will also need at least tacit approval from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to insure Republicans will permit passage of what is likely to be a stripped down bill that prevents taxes from rising on all Americans.
The measure may not, however, contain difficult spending cuts both parties had sought to speed deficit reduction. It is unclear how the president will seek to address the draconian across-the-board government spending reductions set to go into effect early in the year without a deal.
McConnell, who is up for re-election in 2014, has been a cautious participant in the process. His spokesman has said it was now up to Democrats in the Senate to make the next move.
Once clear of the Senate, the fiscal cliff legislation must also win enough bipartisan support to pass the House of Representatives, which failed last week to approve Speaker John Boehner's proposal to extend tax breaks for all Americans earning less than $1 million a year.
Conservative Republicans balked at any tax increases at all and withdrew support for the measure, which never came to a vote. Some Republican votes will be needed to pass any Senate bill. 

Read more article here.

Tornado in space



Image description: NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope revealed an object that looks like a giant tornado in space. The structure actually results from shock waves where a powerful protostellar jet hits neighboring gas and dust.


Photo by NASA / JPL-Caltech / J. Bally (University of Colorado)


Read more article here.

Promise Neighborhoods and the Importance of Community


Thanks to the Chavez Middle School band and the Thomas Elementary school children's choir. Thank you for that beautiful music.
It's a bittersweet day today. We need to listen carefully to the voices of children at this moment. We need to savor their innocence, and applaud their unquenchable appetite for self-expression and renewal.
Today--let me start with a piece of great news. Today, we're announcing the winners of a new round of Promise Neighborhood grants.
As most of you know, Promise Neighborhoods are cradle-to-career initiatives that call on all parts of the community to provide comprehensive wraparound supports to surround great schools, such as high-quality early learning, rich after-school activities, mental health services, and crime prevention.
I'm so pleased to announce that the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative, or DCPNI, has won a $25 million implementation award. DCPNI is one of seven partnerships around the nation that won implementation awards today. Ten additional communities have won planning grants.
We had many, many more strong applicants than we had dollars available—I wish we could have funded the important work going on in many other communities. And I hope that other applicants, who didn't win grants this time, continue to press ahead with this comprehensive, collaborative, and critical work.
I congratulate DCPNI and its partners for not only uniting the Kenilworth Parkside community around a common vision, but for doing so with a rigorous, research-based approach to bettering the lives of all young people in the community. And I applaud the community for taking a broad and comprehensive view of supporting their children.
The hub of DCPNI efforts will be two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. But you have put together a tremendous coalition of more than 30 partners, including the city government, the DC public schools, hospitals and health centers, family support organizations, and the DC Housing Authority police.
I'm thrilled to see DC Mayor Gray, DC police chief Cathy Lanier, and DC's school chancellor, Kaya Henderson, are all here today.
The hunger for this kind of work in the nation is huge. More than 200 applicants applied for this round of Promise Neighborhood grants.
So many communities are eager today to provide equal access and support to disadvantaged children. So many communities are desperate to replace the cradle-to-prison pipeline with a cradle-to-career pipeline--that's what we all are fighting for.
The winners of implementation grants today range from big-city Los Angeles to small-town Indianola, Mississippi. In Corning, California, the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians won a planning grant.
Promise Neighborhood grants are so important because they engage the entire community—they ask everyone to work together. They ask everyone to take responsibility for helping children.
Children in many communities across the country deserve a stronger opportunity structure than we as adults have provided them. This is an amazing chance to rebuild the social compact with our young people.
The concept at the heart of this program—community-based and comprehensive—is equally relevant to a much more painful conversation America began, once again, last week in the wake of the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Losing six dedicated educators and 20 first-grade students in a matter of minutes to a disturbed young man with access to weapons designed for war is forcing us all to confront some very difficult questions.
I don't pretend to have all the answers. But since last Friday, I think the world has changed. Much like with 9/11, many Americans will forever remember where they were when they heard the awful news of the shootings.
On Wednesday, I went up to Newtown to talk privately with teachers and school staff from Sandy Hook Elementary School and to attend the wake for their heroic principal, Dawn Hochsprung. And I can tell you that the sense of loss and grief there is overpowering.

Read more Article here .