মঙ্গলবার, ৩১ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Michigan School District Files Lawsuit, Forms Coalition to Block EFM (ContributorNetwork)

Highland Park (Mich.) School District, which was placed under the auspices of an emergency financial manager on Monday, announced the formation of a coalition designed to oppose state control and decide upon alternative measures, according to Michigan Radio.

The coalition, which is made up of school board officials and other local leaders, has vowed to fight newly appointed EFM Jack Martin. A lawsuit challenging the state's right to appoint an EFM was filed by School Board Secretary Robert Davis on Monday, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Here is information surrounding the district.

* Davis' lawsuit alleges the meetings regarding the beleaguered school district's financial situation violated the state's open public meetings law by being held behind closed doors. He named Gov. Rick Snyder, state Superintendent Michael Flanagan and members of the state-appointed financial review team as defendants.

* Davis is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent Martin from beginning his duties.

* State Senator Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, announced the formation of the Financial and Academic Reinvestment Commission, according to the Detroit News.

* The commission is reportedly going to join forces with other groups in the state that have formed in opposition to Public Act 4. It is also focused on spurring reinvestment and encouraging repopulation in the district, according to the Huffington Post.

* Rev. D. Alexander Bullock, a member of the new commission, has said EFMs have caused "irreparable damage" to Detroit Public Schools and the cities where EFMs have been placed in charge of managing budgets and deficits.

* Highland Park Superintendent Edith Hightower announced the district would close one of its three remaining schools after the consolidation of its two K-8 schools is complete. She also announced the district's administrative offices would change locations to one of the two open schools, according to MLive.

* Barber Focus School will close and all students will be moved to Henry Ford Academy.

* Hightower said the decision to close the school had been made before Gov. Snyder declared Highland Park to be facing a financial emergency and before he appointed Martin to be the district's EFM.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in politics and public issues.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120131/pl_ac/10907209_michigan_school_district_files_lawsuit_forms_coalition_to_block_efm

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Summary Box: Markets rattled by lack of Greek deal (AP)

NO DEAL: The wait for an expected deal between Greece and its creditors rattled financial markets around the world Monday. Yields for ultra-safe U.S. government debt hit their lowest this year, and the euro and European stocks fell.

GREECE TALKS: Greece and its creditors were said to be close to an agreement over the weekend. It's aimed at cutting Greece's debt by roughly euro100 billion ($132 billion).

TO PORTUGAL: Borrowing costs for European countries with the heaviest debt burdens shot higher. The two-year interest rate for Portugal's government debt jumped to 21 percent after trading around 14 percent last week.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_summary_box

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সোমবার, ৩০ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

French judge to probe killings in Afghanistan (AP)

PARIS ? A magistrate will investigate whether France's military is to blame for not ensuring the safety of 10 French troops killed in an Taliban ambush on an Afghan mountaintop in 2008, officials said Monday.

The probe, the first of its kind in France, could raise uncomfortable questions about whether a government can be held to account for the death of its soldiers at war ? a prospect France's top military man rejects.

The Paris appeals court on Monday gave its go-ahead to a probe of the killing of the French soldiers in the Uzbin Valley, judicial officials said. The officials were not authorized to be publicly named because of judicial policy.

It was the bloodiest single day for French forces since they joined the U.S.-led international coalition in Afghanistan a decade ago.

The soldiers' families have sought an investigation for years, and faced repeated delays. They filed a legal complaint saying the French military didn't ensure the soldiers' safety, and their lives were unnecessarily put in danger.

The authorization for a probe comes as President Nicolas Sarkozy is speeding up the timetable for France's pullout from the NATO-led operation in Afghanistan, after a French-trained Afghan soldier killed four French troops on Jan. 20.

Just two days before those killings, Adm. Edouard Guillaud, the head of the French armed forces, warned against allowing courts to get involved in adjudicating on matters of war and the military.

"When it is excessive or poorly understood, it can imperil our operational effectiveness," Guillaud said, adding that military chiefs must not be hindered in their decision-making when it comes to "risk inherent to the military career."

"A soldier who dies in combat is not a victim: He or she is first a man or woman who takes his or her commitment to the fullest," he added.

A change in the judicial status of France's military opened the door to the investigation. Such complaints were once heard by a military court; now, under a legal change authorized by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, the Paris court has been granted jurisdiction since Jan. 1.

___

Eds: Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_afghanistan

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Contest Challenges Students to Control Space Station Robots (SPACE.com)

Two basketball-size robots gave off puffs of compressed gas as they flew around inside the International Space Station to simulate the mining of virtual asteroids. Their success or failure depended completely upon computer coding provided by student teams watching from 250 miles below on Earth.

Two hundred high school students gathered at MIT to compete in the third annual Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge held Monday, Jan. 23. They watched a live video feed of astronauts Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers commanding the robots to follow each team's algorithms ? tests that could lead to better software for tomorrow's spacecraft docking operations or space robot assistants.

"It is just amazing to me what these high school students have accomplished," said Charlie Bolden, NASA administrator. "To program a robotic spacecraft with the precision of a NASA flight controller is
quite a feat, but to have that ability, talent and discipline at such a young age is remarkable. Our future is in good hands."

Students had to program the robots to perform certain maneuvers that mimicked docking, formation flying or retrieving objects. Pettit and Kuipers acted as astronaut referees, and occasionally scrambled to "refuel" the robots by digging into the space station's extra tanks of carbon dioxide.

The contest took on heightened intensity when a glitch brought down the video connection during the championship round. But Pettit saved the day by stepping in to narrate the robotic maneuvers over the live audio feed.

"They're stabilizing at 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches) and closing," Pettit announced to the MIT crowd. "Are they going to crash? They just missed each other! It looks like they've completed ? and we have a score!"

Teams from high schools in Maryland, New Jersey and Florida claimed first place in the U.S. competition under the collective name of "Alliance Rocket." The European winning teams, called "Alliance CyberAvo," hailed from Turin, in Italy, and Berlin.

The contest was sponsored by NASA and the U.S. military's DARPA research arm ? both agencies with a strong interest in boosting the onboard intelligence of satellites, spacecraft and robots.

For now, the space station robots ? called SPHERES robots ? spend their time acting as floating video cameras or practicing spacecraft maneuvers. They could also serve as extra eyes to help the space station crew perform dull but necessary inventory or environmental surveys.

Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120129/sc_space/contestchallengesstudentstocontrolspacestationrobots

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Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana celebrate at Sundance (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana came to the Sundance Film Festival to promote their closing-night film, "The Words."

The two actors play a married couple in the movie, which follows an aspiring writer who gains fame when he finds an old manuscript and passes it off as his own.

The pair avoided any appearance of their reported off-screen romance by staying apart from one another while posing for photos and giving interviews to support the film. Saldana did affectionately touch Cooper as they passed in a hallway, though.

Both had been to Sundance before, where snow fell throughout the festival and the weather dipped into the teens. Still, Saldana maintained her fashionista edge.

"I did bring warm stuff but I also brought fashion-y stuff. Come on. You've got to pay the price, even if it's too cold," she said.

The 33-year-old actress wore green suede shoes with spiked stiletto heels despite the slushy conditions.

"They're kind of fabulous. They're also lethal. So I have to be really careful, and somebody has to be careful not to piss me off," she said with a smile. "Yeah right. I'm just trying not to fall. It's like `Please don't fall. Please don't fall,' if I'm walking."

Cooper's first time at the festival was 12 years earlier with the eventual cult comedy hit "Wet Hot American Summer."

"I wasn't even able to get into the screening," he recalled.

Saldana said playing Cooper's wife in "The Words" made her think about how she approaches relationships and the concept of unconditional love.

"Like how unconditional am I when I'm in love. Do you bypass certain things? Would I be able to be with a man ? or with someone ? that feels incomplete, doesn't matter what we do?" she said. "If we change this, if we get married, if we have a baby ? just someone that feels incomplete. Would I be able to deal with that for so many years and accept them as who they are and go, `Come as you are. This is who I fell in love with and I don't want to change you?'

"I'm not like that, which is why I wanted to play her, because it was a challenge, you know. Look at me, I totally said I'm not unconditional at all. So awful."

Cooper's part as author-plagiarist Rory Jansen is his second writerly role after playing a novelist in last year's "Limitless." But that's just coincidence, he said. Despite having a degree in English, the 37-year-old actor says he typically only writes in his "girlnal."

"Journal, sorry," he said. "That's a `Wet Hot' reference. Paul Rudd says that."

Saldana, meanwhile, is in the midst of shooting the "Star Trek" sequel in Los Angeles with director J.J. Abrams and much of the original's cast.

"It's wonderful because I've been dying to work with the cast again, to work with JJ," she said. "I love him so much. He's such an amazing human being and such an amazing storyteller and a great director, so what more can I ask for? I start the year and I'm literally going back to a very familiar environment and being a part of a great story."

"The Words," which also stars Dennis Quaid, Jeremy Irons, Ben Barnes and Olivia Wilde, premiered Friday. It was acquired early in the festival by CBS Films, which plans to release it theatrically in the fall. Sundance continues through Sunday.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report.

___

Online:

www.sundance.org/festival

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_en_mo/us_film_sundance_cooper_saldana

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রবিবার, ২৯ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Etta James remembered as triumphant trailblazer

Stevie Wonder performs at the funeral of singer Etta James, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena, Calif. James died last Friday at age 73 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She was most famous for her classic "At Last," but over her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate singing voice. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Stevie Wonder performs at the funeral of singer Etta James, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena, Calif. James died last Friday at age 73 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She was most famous for her classic "At Last," but over her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate singing voice. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Stevie Wonder performs at the funeral of singer Etta James, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena, Calif. James died last Friday at age 73 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She was most famous for her classic "At Last," but over her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate singing voice. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Donto James, son singer Etta James speaks at his mother's funeral, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena, Calif. James died last Friday at age 73 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She was most famous for her classic "At Last," but over her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate singing voice. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Christina Aguilera performs at the funeral of singer Etta James, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena, Calif. James died last Friday at age 73 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She was most famous for her classic "At Last," but over her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate singing voice. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Christina Aguilera performs at the funeral of singer Etta James, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena, Calif. James died last Friday at age 73 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She was most famous for her classic "At Last," but over her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate singing voice. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

GARDENA, California (AP) ? Rhythm & blues legend Etta James was remembered at a service Saturday attended by hundreds of friends, family and fans as a woman who triumphed against all odds to break down cultural and musical barriers in a style that was unfailingly honest.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist, eulogized James in a rousing speech, describing her remarkable rise from poverty and pain to become a woman whose music became an enduring anthem for weddings and commercials.

Perhaps most famously, President Barack Obama and the first lady shared their first inaugural ball dance to a version of the song sung by Beyonce, who portrayed James in the film "Cadillac Records." Sharpton on Saturday opened his remarks by reading a statement from the president.

"Etta will be remembered for her legendary voice and her contributions to our nation's musical heritage," Obama's statement read.

The Grammy-winning singer died Jan. 20 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She had retreated from public life in recent years, but on Saturday her legacy was on display as mourners of all ages and races converged on the City of Refuge church in Gardena, south of downtown Los Angeles.

Among the stars performing tributes to James were Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera, who told the gathering that she has included "At Last" in every concert she's performed as a tribute to her musical inspiration.

Wonder performed three songs, including "Shelter In the Rain" and a harmonica solo. James' rose-draped casket was on display, surrounded by wreaths and floral arrangements and pictures of the singer.

Sharpton, who met James when he was an up-and-coming preacher, credited her with helping break down racial barriers through her music.

"She was able to get us on the same rhythms and humming the same ballads and understanding each other's melodies way before we could even use the same hotels," Sharpton said, referring to the era when racial segregation was the law in many U.S. states.

He said James' fame and influence would have been unthinkable to a woman with James' background ? growing up in a broken home during segregation and at times battling her own demons.

"The genius of Etta James is she flipped the script," Sharpton said, alluding to her struggles with addiction, which she eventually overcame.

"She waited until she turned her pain into power," he said, adding that it turned her story away from being a tragic one into one of triumph.

"You beat 'em Etta," Sharpton said in concluding his eulogy. "At last. At last. At last!"

The assembly roared to their feet, and would again stand to applaud performances by Wonder and Aguilera, who filled the sanctuary with their voices.

"Out of all the singers that I've ever heard, she was the one that cut right to my soul and spoke to me," Aguilera said before her performance.

Throughout the service, a portrait of James as a woman who beat the odds in pursuit of her dreams repeatedly emerged.

"Etta is special to me and for me, because she represents the life, the triumphs, the tribulations of a lot of black women all over this world," said U.S. Rep Maxine Waters, a California Democrat.

"It does not matter who sang 'At Last' before or after Etta. It does not matter when it was sung, or where it was sung. 'At Last' was branded by Etta, the raunchy diva ? that's her signature and we will always remember her."

James won four Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement honor, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. In her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate, soulful singing voice.

She scored her first hit when she was just a teenager with the suggestive "Roll With Me, Henry," which had to be changed to "The Wallflower" in order to get airplay. Her 1967 album, "Tell Mama," became one of the most highly regarded soul albums of all time, a mix of rock and gospel music.

She rebounded from a heroin addiction to see her career surge after performing the national anthem at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She won her first Grammy Award a decade later, and two more in 2003 and 2004.

James is survived by her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills, and two sons, Donto and Sametto James.

"Mom, I love you," Donto James said during brief remarks. "When I get to the gates, can you please be there for me?"

___

Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-28-Etta%20James-Funeral/id-1d902050374c4cecb43a8f6b2fda27db

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শনিবার, ২৮ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Should Undercover Video Be Banned at Livestock Farms? (Time.com)

Humane Society of the United States

For decades, animal activists have gone undercover to take jobs inside large-scale livestock farms in order to document conditions for farm animals that they say are routinely inhumane. Their hidden camera footage has resulted in criminal charges against owners and workers, plant shutdowns, and after one at a California slaughterhouse in 2008, the largest meat recall in U.S. history.

But these images could soon be made illegal. Legislation pending in five states ? Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and New York ? would criminalize the actions of activists who covertly film farms. Proponents of the various pieces legislation say that their proposed laws would lead to beneficial consequences, including the protection of such farms from potential terrorist infiltration (preserving the integrity of the food supply) and espionage; the prevention of images that mislead consumers; as well as regulating the job application process to circumvent potential employees from lying in order to be hired. See the legal assault on animal-abuse whistleblowers.

These so-called "ag-gag" bills have ignited a national debate about undercover videos and have raised concerns about free speech and journalists' and whistleblowers' ability to report on the farming industry.

TIME traveled to Iowa, the nation's leading producer of eggs and pork and the first state to propose a ban on undercover videos, with one former investigator for a rare glimpse at how these videos are made and why they are so controversial.

LIST: Top 10 Pictures of the Year of 2011

SPECIAL: TIME's 2011 Person of the Year: The Protester

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Candidates pay homage to Hispanic leaders, Rubio (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? The GOP presidential candidates say they'd involve a number of top Hispanic GOP office holders in their Cabinet ? and three say they're particularly impressed with Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio.

Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney all name-checked Rubio, the Florida senator elected in 2010. He is a tea party favorite and widely viewed as a potential vice presidential nominee.

Gingrich is implying he would look hard at Rubio as his vice presidential nominee. Santorum and Romney both mentioned Rubio as a top Hispanic leader.

The candidates also mentioned New Mexico Gov. Barbara Martinez and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval among other prominent Hispanic leaders.

Their responses came after a question on what Hispanic leaders they would involve in their Cabinet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_debate_hispanic_leaders

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শুক্রবার, ২৭ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Egyptians mark 1st anniversary of 'Friday of Rage'

Egyptian protesters sit in front of graffiti showing protesters chat slogans and the on the right side the face of Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), with arabic writing, center, that reads "if you see the fangs of the lion bared, then don't think the lion is smiling," at a rally to mark the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Some 10,000 Egyptian protesters converged on Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Egyptian protesters sit in front of graffiti showing protesters chat slogans and the on the right side the face of Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), with arabic writing, center, that reads "if you see the fangs of the lion bared, then don't think the lion is smiling," at a rally to mark the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Some 10,000 Egyptian protesters converged on Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Egyptian protestor Khalid Ali, 14, his face painted in the colors of his national flag, attends a rally to mark the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Some 10,000 Egyptian protesters converged on Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

An Egyptian protestor holds a placard depicting Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak encircled in a noose that reads, in Arabic, "rule of the people," during a rally to mark the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Some 10,000 Egyptian protesters converged on Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Nathalie Bardou)

An Egyptian protestor camping in Tahrir Square, walks out of a tent toward a rally marking the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Some 10,000 Egyptian protesters converged on Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Egyptians protesters wave the national flag from their perch atop a lamp post at a rally to mark the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Some 10,000 Egyptian protesters converged on Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

(AP) ? Large marches of protesters chanting antimilitary slogans streamed from mosques around Cairo to join tens of thousands massed in central Tahrir Square in a new uprising anniversary rally Friday, with many demanding an early transfer of power by the ruling military and the trial of generals for the killing of protesters.

Tensions erupted when one march of hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the Defense Ministry and were confronted by dozens of supporters of the military. The two sides chanted slogans outside the building, which was guarded by barbed wire and armored vehicles, until a series of loud booms went off. The protesters scattered, and several said they saw a military supporters throw homemade bombs and that one protester was injured.

"We broke the barrier of fear, we delivered a message to the military that we are not scared," Milad Daniel, whose brother Mina was killed in a military crackdown on protesters in October, said after the ministry protest. "They have tanks and armored vehicles but we have God."

Divisions also boiled over in Tahrir Square, where scuffles broke out between the Muslim Brotherhood and secular protesters, who have been in competition over the gatherings this week to mark the one year anniversary of the protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Many in the leftist and secular camp are suspicious of the Brotherhood, believing that now that it won domination of parliament it intends to strike a deal with the generals to give them continued power. The Brotherhood denies any deal.

The political differences have translated into a dispute over the very meaning of the anniversary. The Brotherhood has presented this week as a celebration of the revolution's successes. The secular groups say there is nothing to celebrate when so many demands of the revolution are left unachieved and killings of protesters have gone unpunished.

The fights erupted because of a giant stage the Brotherhood set up in the square since protests Wednesday, which some protesters complain has sought to dominate the gatherings there by blaring religious anthems and music. Others were angered a celebratory banner on the stage proclaiming, "Holiday of the Revolution."

Arguments over the music and banner turned to pushing and shoving, then fistfights and bottles and rocks thrown back and forth, witnesses said. When Brotherhood supporters formed a human chain in front of the state, protesters raised their shoes in the air at them in a show of contempt, chanting, "out, out, out," and "dogs of the military council."

The day's protests, which included mass rallies in other Egyptian cities, commemorated the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," one of the bloodiest days of the 18-day wave of protests a year ago that ousted Mubarak.

In last year's "Friday of Rage," Mubarak's security forces fired on protesters marching toward Tahrir from around the capital, killing and wounding hundreds. Protesters battled back for hours until Mubarak's widely hated police forces collapsed and withdrew from the streets.

A year later, protesters' focus is now on demands that the military, which has ruled since Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster, leave power.

But here too, Islamists and leftist, secular-leaning "revolutionary" protesters are divided. The revolutionaries want the generals out immediately. The Brotherhood, which is now the most powerful bloc in parliament with just under half the seats, is willing to wait for the military's promises to step aside by the end of June.

The leftists and secular groups accuse the military of being as dictatorial as Mubarak and of intending to preserve their power even after handing over their authority to civilians. Regardless of the timetable, there is widespread resentment that little has been done to dismantle Mubarak's regime and prosecute security officers for the deaths of hundreds of protesters during and after the anti-Mubarak uprising.

Amid the crowds in Tahrir, a Muslim cleric delivered a boisterous Friday sermon, proclaiming that the protesters, not the military, have the right to determine the country's course.

"Our right is to dictate the decisions of the revolution," said the cleric, Muzhar Shahine, speaking from the "revolutionaries" stage, as the crowd cheered and cried, "God is great."

He gave a litany of the unrealized changes sought by the revolution.

"A year later, has State Security really been dissolved," he said, referring to Mubarak's feared internal security force that was the backbone of his police state. "Has our land been freed?" He said state media, a key mouthpiece for Mubarak and now the military, must be purged, a constitution must be written that is "shared by all political parties and that gives rights for all of Egypt's children," and Christians must be given the same rights as Muslims.

Rallies of thousands of protesters moved from main mosques all around Cairo to Tahrir, chanting "we want civilian, not military." Some young men had shaved the words "down with military rule" in their hair cuts.

"This is a day of mourning, not celebration," said Abdel-Hady el-Ninny, the father of a slain protester, Alaa Abdel-Hady. He and his family carried large posters of his son around Tahrir.

Friday's protests come two days after hundreds of thousands packed into Tahrir to mark the Jan. 25 start of the uprising against Mubarak. That rally, too, was marked by similar divisions.

There were increasing calls among many protesters for presidential elections to be moved up to April to select a civilian for the military to give its powers as head of state. Under the military's timetable, presidential elections would be held by late June after a new constitution is written, and after the election it would step down.

A youth umbrella group of liberal political forces and activists named "Our Egypt" or "Masrana" issued a statement Thursday calling for a presidential vote before the constitution, a demand repeated in a large banner in Tahrir on Friday.

Supporters of the idea says the constitution should be written under the rule of a civilian president, because the military may try to force provisions that give it a political say or prevent civilian oversight.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-27-ML-Egypt/id-11be899ada944897a90fdf70a2affeca

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Reuters Magazine: Springtime for Europe? (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Political convulsions in the euro zone have only just begun. Six prime ministers have been kicked out of office, protesters have occupied public spaces, nationalist parties have grown in popularity, and two countries have appointed technocratic leaders. And that was just 2011. The coming year is likely to prove even tougher on the economic front as the crisis continues to rage, austerity bites, and unemployment mounts. Euro zone countries are being forced to choose between fiscal discipline or the disintegration of their shared currency. Under pressure from Germany, governments have agreed to sign up for treaty changes that will require them to balance their budgets, pay down their debts, and give the European Commission in Brussels more power to interfere with national budgets. Such loss of sovereignty could provoke a backlash from the people - and boost the support of right-wing euro-skeptic parties such as France's National Front. It's possible that the treaty changes may not even get ratified.

The euro zone could start coming apart at the seams, not just economically but politically. Populist parties in northern Europe - such as the True Finns and Holland's PVV - could gain traction by arguing that their citizens shouldn't have to bail out the Greeks, the Italians, and the Portuguese. Meanwhile, pretty much everybody could grow unhappy with the Germans for dictating how to run their countries. Anti-foreigner sentiment could rise across the board. In a nightmare scenario, protectionism would return while border checks and capital controls would be reimposed.

The conventional view is that economic crises are the breeding grounds of extremists, particularly right-wing ones. Such worries are legitimate, but the economic and political strains of the present do not have to play out like a repeat of the 1930s. Everything depends on the actions of political elites and the general population.

For politicians, the most important challenge will be to contain the crisis without getting too far ahead of what the people are prepared to tolerate - both in terms of austerity and loss of sovereignty. The best bet is probably for the southern countries to emphasize structural reforms to boost long-term growth - such as pushing up pension ages, freeing up labor markets, and fighting corruption - rather than passing yet more short-term spending cuts and tax hikes that will drive their economies deeper into recession. For this strategy to be possible, the northern countries will have to cut the southerners some slack, which would require a significant change of mindset, especially from Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor.

Whatever is done on the policy front, there will be political upheavals. In some respects - the defenestration of incumbent prime ministers or presidents - the politics will be "normal." This year may not be quite as dramatic as 2011, when half a dozen leaders, including Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, Greece's George Papandreou, and Spain's Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero, bit the dust. But we will probably witness the biggest fall yet: that of France's Nicholas Sarkozy, who is fighting off a stiff challenge from Fran?ois Hollande, the socialist candidate. Some countries could also see big shifts in the political landscape as old parties collapse and new ones take their place. This outcome is most likely in Italy and Greece, where corrupt political elites, known in each country as "castes," have for decades fed off the state rather than serving the public interest. Disaffection with traditional politics in both countries is high. When Berlusconi and Papandreou fell, it was telling that the opposition parties were not in a position to replace them. Instead, both countries turned to technocrats - Mario Monti, an economist and former European Commissioner, and Lucas Papademos, formerly vice president of the European Central Bank.

The crisis has created an opportunity for a break with the past. In Italy, Berlusconi's center-right PDL party could easily fall apart. That might open the way for a stronger centrist group to emerge around the so-called Terzo Polo (or Third Pole) led by Pier Ferdinando Casini. There's even a possibility that the new technocrats will develop a taste and aptitude for politics and create a new centrist political force of their own. In Greece, both Papandreou's left-wing Pasok party and the right-wing New Democracy party are beset with internal rivalries. In each party, there are traditionalists, who tend to be euro-skeptics, as well as more centrist, pro-European modernizers. In one scenario, the modernizers on left and right could break away from their current colleagues and join with each other as well as some small center parties to create a new force.

But it won't just be the politicians who determine how the political landscape changes. How the people behave will also be critical. Last year saw the birth of a new phenomenon: the Indignados. Hundreds of thousands of mostly young, largely apolitical nonviolent Spaniards occupied city centers in Madrid and Barcelona. They were objecting to austerity, greedy bankers, and incompetent politicians.

The Indignados were copied in Greece and in Italy, where they were called the Aganaktismenoi and the Indignati respectively. They were partly inspired by the mass rallies in Egypt during the Arab Spring, and they shared some ideas with the Occupy movements in the United States and Britain. But despite creating a lot of noise, the Indignados have not coalesced into a political force. That's partly because they are diffuse, and partly because they haven't developed positive programs. Their name gives it away: they are indignant about what is happening but tend not to have constructive ideas about what can be done better. In some cases, moreover, their protests were also hijacked by violent extremists. Such violence was mostly avoided in Spain, but in Athens protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the police, and in Rome the Black Bloc, an anarchist group, attacked banks, smashed windows, and set cars on fire. Although the Aganaktismenoi and the Indignati were not responsible, their cause suffered.

The slightly older educated middle classes, meanwhile, were largely silent in these southern countries. Sure, they were indignant, too, but they didn't take to the streets in large numbers. Instead, they fumed in the privacy of their homes. They blamed their politicians for mismanaging their economies and destroying their wealth, but they have been largely passive. Admittedly, there have been a few attempts by this demographic to organize themselves. In Milan, for example, citizens campaigned via social media for Giuliano Pisapia, a non-traditional politician. He went on to defeat Berlusconi's candidate, Letizia Moratti, in the mayoral race in May. And in Greece a group mainly composed of intellectuals set up an organization called Koinonikos Syndesmos, a pro-European pressure group campaigning for a new type of politics to serve the national interest rather than vested interests.

What euro zone countries now need is the engagement of their liberal-minded middle classes on a much wider scale. These groups need to slough off their natural passivity and organize themselves as a counterweight to the potential growth of extremism in the years ahead. However the financial side of the crisis plays out, the active involvement of constructive citizens could be an important element in stopping European politics from taking a very nasty turn.

(Hugo Dixon is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. Any opinions expressed are his own.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_davos_reutersmagazine_springtime

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৬ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Studies: Avastin may fight early breast cancers (AP)

Surprising results from two new studies may reopen debate about the value of Avastin for breast cancer. The drug helped make tumors disappear in certain women with early-stage disease, researchers found.

Avastin recently lost approval for treating advanced breast cancer, but the new studies suggest it might help women whose disease has not spread so widely. These were the first big tests of the drug for early breast cancer, and doctors were cautiously excited that it showed potential to help.

In one study, just over one third of women given Avastin plus chemotherapy for a few months before surgery had no sign of cancer in their breasts when doctors went to operate, versus 28 percent of women given chemo alone. In the other study, more than 18 percent on Avastin plus chemo had no cancer in their breasts or lymph nodes at surgery versus 15 percent of those on chemo alone.

A big caveat, though: The true test is whether Avastin improves survival, and it's too soon to know that ? both studies are still tracking the women's health. The drug also has serious side effects.

"I don't think it's clear yet whether this is going to be a winner," Dr. Harry Bear of Virginia Commonwealth University said of Avastin. But he added, "I don't think we're done with it."

Bear led one study, in the United States. Dr. Gunter von Minckwitz of the University of Frankfurt led the other in Germany. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Avastin (uh-VAS'-tihn) is still on the market for some colon, lung, kidney and brain tumors. In 2008, it won conditional U.S. approval for advanced breast cancer because it seemed to slow the disease. Further research showed it didn't meaningfully extend life and could cause heart problems, bleeding and other problems. The government revoked its approval for breast cancer in November.

Now doctors can prescribe Avastin for breast cancer but insurers may not pay. Treatment can cost $10,000 a month. The drug is made by California-based Genentech, part of the Swiss company Roche. It is still approved for treating advanced breast cancer in Europe and Japan.

The new studies tested it in a relatively novel way ? before surgery. This is sometimes done to shrink tumors that seem inoperable, or to enable women to have just a lump removed instead of the whole breast.

The women in the studies had tumors that were large enough to warrant treatment besides surgery. Their cancers were not the type that can be treated by Herceptin, another widely used drug.

In the U.S. study, 1,200 women were given chemo or chemo plus infusions of Avastin. By the time of their surgery, no cancer could be found in the breasts of more than 34 percent of those given Avastin versus 28 percent of the others. (Surgeons still have to operate because they don't know the tumor is gone until they check tissue samples.)

The German study involved 1,900 women including some with larger tumors. It used a stricter definition of cancer-free at surgery: no sign of disease in the breast or lymph nodes rather than just the breast. No cancer was seen in 18 percent of women on Avastin versus 15 percent of those given only chemo. Different chemo drugs were used ? a factor that might change Avastin's effectiveness.

The U.S. study was paid for by the National Cancer Institute with some support from drug companies. The German study was sponsored by drug companies. Some researchers consult for Genentech or other makers of cancer drugs.

If even one of these studies shows a survival advantage for Avastin "that would be a game changer" although side effects remain a concern, said Dr. Gary Lyman. He is a Duke University researcher who was on the federal advisory panel that recommended revoking Avastin's approval.

However, von Minckwitz said side effects are more justifiable in early breast cancer patients because "the intention is cure" rather than in late-stage disease where cure isn't usually possible.

Of the more than 200,000 women in the U.S. diagnosed each year with breast cancer, about 30,000 are like those in the new studies, Lyman estimated.

But the studies' impact could be far greater: The participants' tissue samples are being analyzed for genes and biomarkers to predict which women are most likely to respond to Avastin. That could lead to a relook of using the drug for certain women with advanced disease, too.

Three other studies are under way testing Avastin in early breast cancer; one is expected to have results by the end of this year, said Dr. Sandra Horning, global development chief of cancer drugs for Roche and Genentech. The company does not plan to seek any change in Avastin's use until more results are available, she said.

___

Online:

Studies: http://www.nejm.org

Avastin: http://www.avastin.com

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_he_me/us_med_breast_cancer_avastin

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Upbeat and on a roll, Obama showing some swagger

President Barack Obama signs autographs after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

President Barack Obama signs autographs after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

President Barack Obama shakes hands after speaking about manufacturing and jobs during a visit to Intel Corporation's Ocotillo facility Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Chandler, Ariz. In 2011 Intel announced a more than $5 billion investment to build the new chip manufacturing facility, called the Fab 42, bringing thousands of construction and permanent manufacturing jobs to Intel's Arizona site. (AP Photo/Haraz Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama jogs toward a group of onlookers to shake hands after arriving at the airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks about manufacturing jobs at the Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing plant, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

President Barack Obama speaks about manufacturing jobs, at the Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing plant, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

(AP) ? If President Barack Obama is showing some swagger, it shouldn't be a surprise.

His job approval ratings point to an uptick. The Navy SEAL unit that killed Osama bin Laden just pulled off a daring rescue that Obama authorized in Somalia. He's fresh off a big speech before Congress, and the Republicans who want his job are criticizing each other probably more than they are Obama.

As he hits the road for three days of travel to important political states, Obama is on a roll.

Feeling good, he even tried his hand at a bit of public crooning a few days ago, channeling the Rev. Al Green to a fundraising crowd at the Apollo Theater in New York and securing the highest of pop culture distinction: a ring tone.

It could be a fleeting moment for Obama. While the economy is improving with indicators trending positively, unemployment remains high at 8.5 percent and international debt crises and tensions could unravel the gains. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows signs of increasing optimism that the economy will improve with 37 percent saying it will get better in the next year, the highest level in that poll in more than a year.

For now, Obama is not hiding his upbeat demeanor.

Arriving in Iowa on Wednesday, he jogged, grinning, to a rope line of a couple of dozen supporters. He later expressed nostalgia for the days in 2007 when he was campaigning in Iowa, and he struck a defiant tone against congressional Republicans that was even sharper than the repudiation he offered Tuesday night in his State of the Union address.

"Our economy is getting stronger, and we've come too far to turn back now," he told workers and guests at a conveyor manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids. Speaking of Republicans, he said, "Their philosophy is simple: We're better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules."

"Well, I am here to say they are wrong," he said.

In a stop later in the day in Arizona, Obama stripped off his jacket and joked about the warm weather to a crowd at an Intel chip plant, seeming to revel in being out on the stump.

He even mixed it up with the state's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, confronting her over how she depicted him in her book. Reporters witnessed the two in intense conversation after Brewer greeted Obama on the tarmac at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, and Brewer later said it was over a passage in her book in which she describes Obama as lecturing her over immigration.

A White House official said Obama, who opposes Arizona's controversial immigration law, responded to an invitation from Brewer to meet with her by telling the governor he'd be glad to, but adding that Brewer had inaccurately described their last meeting in her book.

The spring in his step comes as polls show slight improvement in his job approval ratings. A Washington Post/ABC poll last week had him evenly split 48-48 on that question. A Gallup tracking poll has him even in recent surveys, compared with a few months ago when more disapproved than approved.

On the road through Friday, Obama will bask in the afterglow of his prime-time address and use the power of the presidency to compete for headlines with leading GOP White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as they knock heads ahead of the Jan. 31 Florida primary. He will try to promote a populist message of income equality that Obama's team believes can resonate with voters.

Underscoring the political subtext, four of the five states he will visit will hold Republican presidential caucuses or primaries within the next month. The two caucuses ? in Nevada and Colorado ? come within two weeks of his visit.

If 2011 began with overtures to Republicans and big business, 2012 is about operating on his own terms. He will challenge Congress to pass his initiatives, some of which he has tried before without success. For now, Obama is liberated. The thrust and parrying of governing has not picked up in Washington yet.

The road gives him an opportunity to goad congressional Republicans, believing he has been able to sway public opinion with his presidential megaphone before. He cites Washington's decision to extend, for two months, a payroll tax cut for workers. He's now seeking to extend it for the full year, and while there's little doubt that Congress eventually will agree, Obama prodded anyway.

"Your voices convinced Congress to extend this middle-class tax cut before," he said. "You remember there was little resistance there last year. I need your help to get them to do it again. Tell Congress to pass this tax cut without drama, without delay. No soap operas. Just get it done."

Political events are going his way as well.

Just as he stepped up his call for a minimum 30 percent tax rate for millionaires, Romney released his tax returns under pressure, revealing that he paid an effective tax rate of 14 percent. That not only underscored Romney's wealth, it also provided an argument for altering the nation's tax laws, a central element of Obama's re-election campaign.

Gingrich on Wednesday helped keep the focus on Romney's wealth, saying that the wealthy businessman lived in "a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work."

Romney and Gingrich have been forced to target each other in the GOP presidential contest, freeing Obama from the fray. For instance, Romney has ads in Florida and Nevada blaming the housing crisis on Gingrich and concludes that nothing would make Obama happier than Gingrich winning the nomination.

___

AP Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta in Washington and Associated Press writer Cristina Silva in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-25-Obama/id-f841bc3cc3ea464a94f04caed4185999

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বুধবার, ২৫ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Clashes spread in Tibetan region in China (AP)

BEIJING ? Deadly clashes between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese security forces have spread to a second area in southwestern China, an overseas Tibetan activist group said Wednesday.

Two Tibetans were killed and several more were wounded Tuesday when security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Seda county in politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province, the group Free Tibet said. It quoted local sources as saying the area was under a curfew.

The reported violence comes as some 30 Tibetans who were wounded Monday when Chinese police fired into a crowd of protesters were sheltering in a monastery in neighboring Luhuo county, a Tibetan monk said. Military forces have surrounded the building, said the monk, who would not give his name out of fear of government retaliation.

The counties have been tense for some time, and at least 16 Buddhist monks, nuns and other Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest in the past year. Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Many Tibetans resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule and the large-scale migration of China's ethnic Han majority to the Himalayan region. While China claims Tibet has been under its rule for centuries, many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for most of that time.

"Chinese forces are responding with lethal force to Tibetans' ever-growing calls for freedom," Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said in a statement Wednesday.

A man who answered the telephone at the Seda county government office would not confirm or deny the group's account of Tuesday's violence. He would not give his name.

Calls to the county police offices rang unanswered Wednesday.

Chinese authorities have said Monday's unrest in Luhuo was caused by a "mob" and that overseas advocacy groups are twisting the truth about what happened in order to undermine the government. The government says order has been restored after one Tibetan died and four others were injured. It said five police were wounded.

Independent confirmation of the clashes is difficult due to a heavy security presence and lack of access to outsiders.

The United States, which will host Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the White House next month, has expressed grave concern at the reported violence.

U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero urged Beijing to address "counterproductive policies" in Tibetan areas that have created tensions and threatened Tibetans' religious, cultural and linguistic identity.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington has always been clear with China about its concerns for the human rights of Tibetans and others. She said the U.S. would be "just as clear" when Xi visits next month.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

____

Gillian Wong can be reached on http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_as/as_china_tibet

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মঙ্গলবার, ২৪ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

U.S. flouts law at Guantanamo, despite Obama vow: U.N. (Reuters)

GENEVA (Reuters) ? The United States is still flouting international law at Guantanamo Bay, despite President Barack Obama's election pledge to shut the facility, the United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Monday.

"It is ten years since the U.S. Government opened the prison at Guantanamo, and now three years since 22 January 2009, when the President ordered its closure within twelve months. Yet the facility continues to exist and individuals remain arbitrarily detained - indefinitely - in clear breach of international law," Pillay said in a statement.

Former President George W. Bush set up the camp at a U.S. naval base in Cuba after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to expel al Qaeda which had launched the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Eight prisoners have died at Guantanamo, two deaths ascribed to natural causes and the rest classified as suicides, and many detainees have said they were tortured. Only six trials have been completed in 10 years.

"While fully recognizing the right and duty of states to protect their people and territory from terrorist acts, I remind all branches of the U.S. government of their obligation under international human rights law to ensure that individuals deprived of their liberty can have the lawfulness of their detention reviewed before a court," Pillay said.

"Where credible evidence exists against Guantanamo detainees, they should be charged and prosecuted. Otherwise, they must be released."

Obama had planned to move some detainees to the United States, but Congress blocked funding for that plan and tightly restricted all transfers out, demanding his administration must notify congressional intelligence committees and guarantee the prisoner will not engage in terrorism.

Pillay urged Congress to enable the administration to close the camp.

(Reporting by Tom Miles)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/ts_nm/us_un_guantanamo

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Supreme Court says police need warrant for GPS tracking (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police cannot put a GPS device on a suspect's car to track his movements without a warrant, a test case that upholds basic privacy rights in the face of new surveillance technology.

The high court ruling was a defeat for the Obama administration, which had argued that a warrant was not required to use global positioning system devices to monitor a vehicle on public streets.

The justices unanimously upheld a precedent-setting ruling by a U.S. appeals court that the police must first obtain a warrant to use a GPS device for an extended period of time to covertly follow a suspect.

The high court ruled that placement of a device on a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle's movements was covered by U.S. constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures of evidence.

There are no precise statistics on how often police in the United States use GPS tracking in criminal investigations. But the Obama administration told the court last year it was used sparingly by federal law enforcement officials.

The American Civil Liberties Union rights group hailed the ruling as an important victory for privacy. "While this case turned on the fact that the government physically placed a GPS device on the defendant's car, the implications are much broader," Steven Shapiro of the ACLU said.

"A majority of the court acknowledged that advancing technology, like cell phone tracking, gives the government unprecedented ability to collect, store, and analyze an enormous amount of information about our private lives," he said.

SUSPECTED DRUG TRAFFICKER

The case began in 2005 when police officers went to a public parking lot in Maryland and secretly installed a GPS device on a Jeep Grand Cherokee used by a Washington, D.C. nightclub owner, Antoine Jones.

Jones was suspected of drug trafficking and the police tracked his movements for a month. The resulting evidence played a key role in his conviction for conspiring to distribute cocaine.

The appeals court had thrown out Jones's conviction and his

life-in-prison sentence, and ruled prolonged electronic monitoring of the vehicle amounted to a search.

All nine justices agreed in upholding the appeals court decision, but at least four justices would have gone even further in finding fault not only with the attachment of the device, but also with the lengthy monitoring.

In summarizing the court's majority opinion from the bench, Justice Antonin Scalia said attachment of the device by the police was a trespass and an improper intrusion of the kind that would have been considered a search when the Constitution was adopted some 220 years ago.

The administration argued that even if it were a search, it was lawful and reasonable under the Constitution. Scalia said his opinion did not decide that issue and some more difficult problems that may emerge in a future case, such as a six-month monitoring of a suspected terrorist.

Joining Scalia's opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor wrote separately to say the case raised difficult questions about individual privacy expectations in a digital age, but said the case could be decided on narrower grounds over the physical intrusion in attaching the device.

LONG-TERM MONITORING

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate opinion that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan joined. He wrote that he would have decided the case by holding that Jones's reasonable privacy expectations were violated by long-term monitoring of his vehicle's movements.

Alito said in recent years many new devices have emerged that track a person's movements, including video surveillance in some cities, automatic toll collection systems on roads, devices on cars that disclose their location, cell phones and other wireless devices.

"The availability and use of these and other new devices will continue to shape the average person's expectations about the privacy of his or her daily movements," he wrote.

One law professor said those four justices were clearly concerned about the potential impact of new technologies and believed extended monitoring likely required a warrant so law enforcement should "be on the safe side and get a warrant."

"This is an indication that there are justices who are recognizing that privacy norms are shifting but the fact that people's lives take place increasingly online does not mean that society has decided that there's no such thing as privacy anymore," said Joel Reidenberg, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.

The Supreme Court case is United States v. Antoine Jones, No. 10-1259.

(Reporting By James Vicini; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/tc_nm/us_usa_police_gps

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The Uphill Battle Of Social Event Sharing: A Post-Mortem for Plancast

plancast_penguin_running_200x225Nearly three years ago, I left my position at TechCrunch to start my own Internet business, with the idea of creating a web application that?d help people get together in real-life rather than simply helping them connect online as most social networking applications had done. Alas, our efforts began to stall after several months post-launch, and we were never able to scale beyond a small early adopter community and into critical, mainstream usage. While the initial launch and traction proved extremely exciting, it misled us into believing there was a larger market ready to adopt our product. This post-mortem is an attempt to describe the fundamental flaws in our product model and, in particular, the difficulties presented by events as a content type.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/iiH2kuLjszc/

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Patriots in Super Bowl, beat Ravens 23-20 (AP)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. ? Tom Brady's 1-yard touchdown dive held up after the Ravens missed a chance to win, then tie the game in the final seconds, and the New England Patriots are on their way to the Super Bowl.

With New England leading by 3 points with 11 seconds left, Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal attempt and the Patriots escaped with a 23-20 win over Baltimore in the AFC championship game on Sunday.

Two plays earlier, Joe Flacco's pass to wide receiver Lee Evans in the end zone was stripped by backup cornerback Sterling Moore.

On his touchdown with 11:29 left in the fourth quarter, Brady took a huge hit from Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis, then emphatically spiked the ball as he walked away. Earlier, Brady showed his fire by barking at Lewis following a hard tackle on a 4-yard run.

Next up as the Patriots chase their fourth Super Bowl trophy in Brady and coach Bill Belichick's tenure in New England is the winner of Sunday's NFC championship game between the Giants and 49ers. The Super Bowl is Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.

In their last trip to the big game, the Patriots had an 18-0 record when they were stunned by the Giants four years ago. They won the NFL championship for the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons. This time, they had to the Sup Bowl with a 10-game winning streak.

Brady's fifth trip to the Super Bowl will equal John Elway's achievement with Denver.

"We're going to try to go out and kick some butt in a couple of weeks," Brady said.

Moore's big play made up for getting victimized for a touchdown that gave Baltimore the lead 17-16. After Cundiff's kick hooked left, the Patriots stormed off their sideline in celebration as the chilled crowd roared. The Ravens looked on in disbelief.

A three-time NFL champion, Brady didn't throw for a touchdown for the first time in 36 games, although he did pass for 239 yards.

"Well, I (stunk) pretty bad today, but our defense saved us," Brady said. "I'm going to try to go out and do a better job in a couple of weeks, but I'm proud of this team, my teammates."

Brady needed help not only from Cundiff's botched kick in guiding the Patriots (15-3) to their fifth AFC title in 11 seasons, but from New England's maligned defense.

"We stepped up," Pro Bowl nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. "We all stepped up big time. Being in this situation is a great moment. You have to cherish this moment."

The Patriots shut down Ray Rice, the league's total yardage leader, who was limited to 78 yards. Brandon Spikes made a fourth-quarter interception of Flacco, who played well before that and threw for two touchdowns. And when the Ravens (13-5) were threatening to score a late touchdown to win their first conference title in 11 years, New England clamped down.

"It's two great football teams, two gladiators, I guess, just kind of going at each other at the end, and I'm proud of our guys," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "You know, we've got 53 guys, mighty men, as we like to call them ? and they fought, and we came up a little bit short, as 53. You know, 53 win and 53 lose."

With Rice a nonfactor, Baltimore had to rely on Flacco, and he delivered one of his best performances. Flacco has led the Ravens into the playoffs in all four of his pro seasons, but not to the Super Bowl. He was 22 for 36 for 306 yards and touchdowns of 6 yards to Dennis Pitta and 29 to rookie Torrey Smith.

The loss hardly could be blamed on Flacco.

Operating against a maligned secondary missing its top cornerback, Kyle Arrington, who left in the second quarter with an eye injury, Flacco gave Baltimore its first lead. His short pass on third down to explosive receiver Smith turned into a 29-yard scamper down the right sideline after Moore completely whiffed on the tackle.

Danny Woodhead's fumble on the ensuing kickoff set up Baltimore at the Patriots 28, but a third-down sack forced Cundiff to kick a 39-yard field goal, making it 20-16.

New England didn't flinch.

Brady took the Patriots 63 yards in 11 plays, and seemed to score on a 1-yard run. The call was overruled by replay, though, and on fourth-down, he dived just high enough over the line for the winning points.

"Those guys fought all year, and just like today, it wasn't always perfect, but they fought to the final gun and we came out on top," Belichick said.

Defense was particularly dominant early on ? New England's 31st-ranked defense. The Patriots held Baltimore to minus-4 yards on its first three first-down runs and forced the Ravens to go three-and-out each time. Meanwhile, the Patriots put together a methodical 13-play, 50-yard drive helped greatly by an illegal contact penalty on Lardarius Webb that negated a tipped interception by Bernard Pollard.

But Brady was sacked for the first time by Paul Kruger and Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 29-yard field goal.

Late in the first quarter, the Ravens changed tactics after Webb did pick off a pass intended for Julian Edelman at the Baltimore 30. Flacco rolled right on first down and threw deep down the sideline to a wide-open Smith. Had the pass not been short, Smith likely would have sprinted into the end zone. Instead, it was a 42-yard gain, not bad at all given Baltimore's previous ineptitude with the ball.

Cundiff's 20-yard field goal momentarily tied it.

Brady, perhaps peeved by his poor throw that Webb picked off, hit two passes for 29 yards on a 75-yard drive to make it 10-3. BenJarvus Green-Ellis rushed for 36 yards on that series, and also drew a personal foul against Webb, who ripped off the running back's helmet on a short rush. Green-Ellis surged into the end zone from the 7, then pointed to the patch on his jersey honoring Myra Kraft, the late wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

Going back to the pass, the Ravens tied it on a 6-yard throw to Pitta ? yes, Baltimore has some dangerous tight ends, too ? that concluded an 80-yard march. Flacco opened the drive with a 20-yard completion to Evans and then Anquan Boldin escaped Arrington's attempted tackle to gain 37 more yards on a reception. Flacco was finding holes in New England's coverage, particularly when he moved out of the pocket.

New England's All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski made an error at the end of a 63-yard drive, failing to keep two feet in bounds on a catch. Gostkowski's 35-yard field goal made it 13-10.

Gronkowski left for a while with a left leg problem, but soon returned.

"It's a real credit to the players," Belichick said. "I am real happy they will get to play in this game."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_sp_fo_ga_su/fbn_afc_championship

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The Legal Profession Course ? The Brief

Today, we continue our coverage of our third year curriculum with a look at the Legal Profession course, the?year-long lecture series devoted to the discussion of contemporary?issues confronting lawyers and the practice of law. A quick note before we get started.?At the conclusion of?yesterday?s post,?I referred to this as a semester-long course. Last year, it was a semester-long.?This year, it is a full year in length.

Here are the nuts and bolts of the Legal Profession course:

Depending upon a student?s level of interest, the course can be worth one or two credits. There are twelve, two-hour sessions offered over the course of the year. One session is offered during each immersion (one in the fall, one in the spring) and all students are required to attend these sessions. After that, if the student wishes to earn only one credit for the course, he/she must attend four of the remaining ten sessions. If the students intends to earn two credits for the course, he/she must attend eight of the ten remaining sessions. In addition, students are required to submit a ten page paper on any topic that has a direct relationship to the legal profession. This course is graded pass-fail.

Here?is the?list of topics from this year?s course:

Alternative Business Systems for Law Firms (Required ? Fall Immersion)
The Lawyer in a Global Market (Required ? Spring Immersion)
The Electronic Lawyer
White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyers
Life As Legal Aid Lawyer
The Perfect (And Not-So-Perfect) Associate
Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System
The Lawyer Entrepreneur
Professional Identity
Social Science Skills for Lawyers
The Future of Law Practice
On Having Influence

We asked Jim Moliterno, the professor who?leads/designs?this component of the third year, a few questions about this course:

What is the purpose of the Legal Profession course?

There are critical topics regarding the legal profession that do not fit neatly anywhere else in the curriculum.? The Legal Profession course exists to expose the students to these topics.? Examples of the topics include the economic systems of the legal profession, its culture, its current events and trends and challenges.

What topics did/will you cover during this year?s program?

The topics include The Future of Large Law Firms, The Perfect Associate, Lives and Work of White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyers (same for Legal Aid Lawyers),? Lawyers as Entrepreneurs, Lawyers in the Global Legal Economy, On Having Influence, Women?s Issues in the Legal Profession, The Electronic Lawyer (Note: A full list of the topics can be found above).

?What do you hope students get out of these discussions?

I hope the sessions assist students in becoming ?of the legal profession.? The 3L curriculum is in part designed as a transition year between the role of student and the role of lawyer. One piece of that is the sense of belonging to the legal profession. I hope students leave the Legal Profession sessions feeling more like they have a stake in the future of the legal profession, more like they will have some role in its future development, and more like they should care about the health of the profession beyond their own practice area.

How do you feel it fits within the larger context of the third year?

As the students experience the role of lawyer in the immersions, clinics, externships, and practicum courses, the Legal Profession course gives them a place in the 3L curriculum to pause and reflect on the context of their experiences.

Tomorrow, we will discuss the law-related service component of the third year. This component?requires all students to complete at least forty hours (40) of legal service to the public and/or service to the legal profession during their third year.

Click here to see all our blog coverage on the third year

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Source: http://wlulaw.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/the-legal-profession-course/

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Ship search finds 12th body, captain's documents (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Divers plumbing the capsized Costa Concordia's murky depths pulled out the body of a woman in a life vest Saturday, while scuba-diving police swam through the captain's cabin to retrieve a safe and documents belonging to the man who abandoned the cruise liner after it was gashed by a rocky reef on the Tuscan coast.

Hoping for a miracle ? or at least for the recovery of bodies from the ship that has become an underwater tomb ? relatives of some of the 20 missing appealed to survivors of the Jan. 13 shipwreck to offer details that could help divers reach loved ones while it is still possible to search the luxury liner. The clock is ticking because the craft is perched precariously on a rocky ledge of seabed near Giglio island.

"We are asking the 4,000 persons who were on board to give any information they can about any of the persons still missing," said Alain Litzler, a Frenchman who is the father of missing passenger Mylene Litzler. "We need precise information to help the search and rescue teams find them."

The death toll rose to at least 12 Saturday after a water-logged body was extracted from a passageway near a gathering point for evacuation by lifeboats in the rear of the vessel, Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said. It was not immediately clear if the woman was a passenger or crew member. A female Peruvian bartender and several adult female passengers were among the 21 people listed as missing before the latest corpse was found.

Relatives of the bartender and of an Indian crewman, along with two children of an elderly couple from Minnesota who are among the missing, boarded a boat Saturday to view the wrecked Concordia Saturday, said a maritime official, Fabrizio Palombo.

Family members tossed flowers near the site while islanders standing on the rocky edge of the island also strew bouquets on the water in a tribute to the victims.

Another Coast Guard official, Cosimo Nicastro, said the woman's body was found during a particularly risky inspection.

"The corridor was very narrow, and the divers' lines risked snagging" on furniture and objects floating in the passageway, Nicastro said. To help the coast guard divers reach the area, Italian navy divers had preceded them, setting off charges to blast holes for easier entrance and exit.

Meanwhile, police divers, carrying out orders from prosecutors investigating Captain Francesco Schettino for suspected manslaughter and abandoning the ship, swam through the cold, dark waters to reach his cabin. State TV and the Italian news agency ANSA reported that the divers located and remove his safe and two suitcases. His passport and several documents were also pulled out, state media said.

Searchers inspecting the bridge Saturday also found a hard disk containing data of the voyage, Sky TG24 TV reported.

Three bodies were found in waters around the ship in the first hours after the accident. Since then, divers have gone inside the Concordia to recover all the remaining victims, who were apparently unable to escape the lurching ship during a chaotic evacuation launched almost an hour after the liner hit a reef.

Some survivors who couldn't board lifeboats waited for hours aboard the capsizing craft for rescue by helicopters while others jumped into the water and swam to safety.

The last survivor, found aboard 36 hours after the crash, was an Italian crewman who broke his leg in the confusion and couldn't leave the ship.

The Concordia hit the reef, well-marked on maritime and even tourist maps, while most of the passengers sat down to dinner in the main restaurant, about two hours after the ship had set sail from the port of Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Costa Crociere, the ship's operator and subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said the captain had deviated without permission from the vessel's route in an apparent maneuver to sail close to the island of Giglio and impress passengers.

Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying Coast Guard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel. He has said he coordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.

The effort to find survivors and bodies has postponed an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia's tanks; specialized equipment has been standing by for days.

Light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized ship, was spotted in nearby waters, authorities said Saturday.

But Nicastro said there was no indication that any of the nearly 500,000 gallons (2,200 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship's double-bottomed tanks, seen as a risk if the ship's position changes. He said the leaked substance appears to be diesel, which is used to fuel rescue boats and dinghies and as a lubricant for ship machinery.

There are 185 tons of diesel and lubricants on board the crippled vessel, which is lying on its side just outside Giglio's port. Nicastro described the fuel in the sea as "very light, very superficial" and appearing to be under control.

But an official leading rescue, search and anti-pollution efforts for the ship suggested that the luxury liner would have leaked contaminants on board when it tipped over.

"We must not forget that on that ship there are oils, solvents, detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs," Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, told reporters in Giglio.

Gabrielli was referring to the roughly 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew who were aboard the cruise liner when it ran into the reef and, with seawater rushing into a 230-foot (70-meter) gash in its hull, listed and fell onto its side. "Contamination of the environment, ladies and gentlemen, already occurred" when the liner capsized, Gabrelli said.

Vessels equipped with machinery to suck out the light fuel oil were in the area. Earlier on Saturday, crews removed oil-absorbing booms used to prevent environmental damage in case of a leak. Originally white, the booms were grayish.

Schettino, is under house arrest for investigation of alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all were evacuated.

The search had been suspended Friday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears the ship could roll off a rocky ledge of sea bed and plunge deeper into the pristine waters around Giglio, part of a seven-island Tuscan archipelago.

___

D'Emilio reported from Rome. Colleen Barry contributed from Milan and Andrea Foa from Giglio.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects misspelling 11th and 16th paragraphs. AP Video. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)

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

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