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<START> Hub Group, Inc. Schedules Fourth Quarter, Full Year 2011 Earnings Conference Call (Nasdaq: HUBG) will hold a conference call at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, January 26, 2012 to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2011 results. The results will be announced via press release prior to the call on January 26, after the market closes. Hosting the conference call will be David P. Yeager, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Terri A. Pizzuto, Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This call is being webcast and can be accessed through the Investors link on Hub Group's Web site at www.hubgroup.com. The webcast is listen-only. Those interested in participating in the question and answer session should follow the telephone dial-in instructions below. To participate in the conference call by telephone, please call ten minutes early by dialing (888) 679-8018. The conference call participant code is 44109733. Participants may pre-register for the call at https://www.theconferencingservice.com/prereg/key.process?key=PX3PNJTNA. Pre-registrants will be issued a pin number to use when dialing into the live call which will provide quick access to the conference, bypassing the operator. The call will be limited to 60 minutes, including questions and answers. An audio replay will be available through the Investors link on the Company's Web site at www.hubgroup.com. This replay will be available for 30 days. ABOUT HUB GROUP: Hub Group, Inc. is a leading asset-light freight transportation management company providing comprehensive intermodal, truck brokerage and logistics services. The Company operates through a network of offices and independent agents throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. CERTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Statements in this press release that are not historical, including statements about Hub Group's or management's intentions, beliefs, expectations, representations, projections, plans or predictions of the future, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and subject to risks. Such statements should be viewed with caution. Actual results or experience could differ materially from the forward-looking statements as a result of many factors. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include the factors listed from time to time in Hub Group's SEC reports including, but not limited to, our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and our reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, 2011, June 30, 2011 and September 30, 2011. Hub Group assumes no liability to update any such forward-looking statements.

Was Rick Santorum good? Or was he lucky? Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Event, Monday March 7, 2011 in Waukee, Iowa. (Steve Pope - GETTY IMAGES) Much of the punditry on Rick Santorum's strong finish in Iowa is attributing his late success to his social conservatism, or the endorsements of major evangelical leaders, or his dogged commitment to retail politics. In other words: Santorum finished in the top three because he did something important right. But there's a simpler explanation, too: Santorum finished in the top three because he was lucky. Santorum's surge followed a pattern we've seen over and again in the Republican primary. The difference is that Santorum's surge translated into votes. But that was the result of good timing. By the time Iowa's Republicans turned their attention to Santorum, they were out of viable not-Romneys. Viewed that way, however, Santorum's surge doesn't prove he was an unusually effective campaigner, or that his ideas were appealing. If anything, it proves the opposite. Back in October, Ron Brownstein argued that the Republican primary had become "two races running along parallel but very distinct tracks." One track was the non-Tea Party primary. These were the 50 percent of Republicans who told pollsters they were either "neutral" or "negative" on the Tea Party. The other was the Tea Party primary, composed of the 50 percent of Republicans who told pollsters they were sympathetic to the Tea Party. If you looked at the polls, Brownstein said, the non-Tea Party Republicans were coalescing around Mitt Romney. The Tea Party Republicans were searching desperately for an alternative to Romney. Before Santorum took the lead in the Tea Party primary, Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul topped the polls. But for various reasons, each of them proved ultimately unacceptable. Huckabee and Trump passed on the race. Perry oscillated between saying the wrong thing and forgetting what he meant to say altogether. Cain was accused of serial sexual harassment. Gingrich turned out to be, well, Gingrich. Paul proved too extreme for most of the Republican Party to accept. That left Santorum and Jon Huntsman. And Huntsman wasn't competing in Iowa. So it really left Santorum. And it left him at the exact right moment - with enough time for his surge to build momentum, but not so much time that he came under real scrutiny or had to deliver high-stakes debate performances or withstand attacks from Romney's super-PACs. Santorum might just have been the next not-Romney, but he was the not-Romney at the moment that being the not-Romney actually mattered. Viewed that way, however, Santorum's finish doesn't say much about his ideology, or his campaign skills, or his endorsements. Quite the opposite, in fact. In a race where a large number of anti-Romney voters were desperate to find a candidate, Santorum was unable to attract significant support until the very end, when the anti-Romney vote literally had nowhere else to go. If he had been a better candidate, he would have crested earlier. Related stories: Santorum's fiscal policy more conservative than Romney's Santorum and Medicare: Last Ryan-backer standing? Dated Bachmann, Perry, Cain, Gingrich, Paul and Santorum; settled for Romney

68 years for man after Va. detective's killing VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - A man will spend 68 years in prison for his role in the slaying of an undercover Virginia Beach police detective. Media outlets report that 30-year-old Marshall Demetrius Moyd was sentenced Wednesday in Virginia Beach Circuit Court. A jury convicted Moyd last October on first-degree murder and weapons charges. Prosecutors say Moyd arranged a drug deal with undercover Detective Michael Phillips on Aug. 7, 2008. Co-defendant Ted Vincent Carter fatally shot the officer. Carter pleaded guilty to capital murder in 2010 and is serving a life sentence without parole.

UK heading for first double-dip recession since 1975 Unemployment is already at a 17-year high of 2.68m, or 8.4pc. Confirmation that the British economy is shrinking for the first time since the weather-affected 0.5pc contraction in the final quarter of 2010 sparked a rash of warnings of a second recession. George Buckley, UK chief economist at Deutsche Bank, noted that a double-dip would be the first since 1975. He added that the UK is facing seven lost years, with the economy still 3.8pc below its early 2008 peak and the recovery on course to be the slowest in over a century. He said: "If the recovery continued at this pace, then it would take until the end of 2014 before GDP reached its peak again." Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the collapse in growth was "a damning indictment of George Osborne's failed economic plan." Mr Osborne refused to budge on austerity, though, blaming the eurozone. "These are disappointing figures but they are not entirely unexpected," he said. We have got the right plan, we have got to stick to it but we have got to accept that Britain's problems have been made worse by the situation in the eurozone. While the Treasury intends to stick to its guns, the Bank indicated it is planning more quantitative easing (QE) next month. Minutes from the Bank's rate setting meeting said: "For some members, the risks of undershooting the [inflation] target meant that a further expansion of asset purchases was likely to be required." The Bank has already injected £275bn into the economy through QE. Economists expect another £50bn to £75bn in a fortnight's time. According to the ONS, manufacturers bore the brunt of the quarterly slump, declining 0.9pc - the steepest fall since the start of the recession in 2008. However, some hope was offered by an improvement in the CBI industrial trends survey for January. Although orders remained below normal, economists said the data suggested the deterioration in the industrial sector had "troughed."

Romney backer crashes Gingrich event with Freddie Mac attack While Newt Gingrich largely avoided attacking Mitt Romney at a campaign event here Tuesday, the ongoing back-and-forth between the two men still played out away from the stump, as a Romney surrogate mixed it up with Gingrich's spokesman. Rep. Connie Mack, a Republican from Fort Myers and a Romney backer, showed up at Gingrich's event and started talking to reporters about Gingrich's dealings with Freddie Mac, the federally-backed mortgage guarantor that is a focus of scrutiny in the race. Gingrich's consulting firm was paid handsomely by the organization, which many Republicans blame for the housing crises. The former House speaker insists he did no lobbying for Freddie Mac, that the firm was interested in his historical knowledge. Gingrich's former consultancy, the Center for Health Transformation, released one of its contracts with Freddie Mac on Monday, but it revealed little about Gingrich's activities on behalf of the mortgage giant. "I think the people in the state of Florida had their homes devalued or lost their homes, they want to know what the relationship was and I think they deserve that answer," Mack told reporters. Gingrich's spokesman R.C. Hammond, who had been hovering nearby, interjected, "What hasn't he said so far?" Mack said, "He hasn't said anything." Hammond responded that Gingrich released the contract, and Mack noted it was only for one year. "Let me ask you a question," Mack said. Twenty-five thousand dollars a month for historical work. You think anybody's buying that? Nobody's buying that. Hammond replied, "Freddie seemed to be." "Well, they're paying him," Mack said.

Boston Bruins Goalie Tim Thomas Skips White House Visit to Make Political Statement Larry Downing / Rueters U.S. President Barack Obama poses with a team jersey as he welcomes the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup champions Boston Bruins to the East Room of the White House. You can look at Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas" decision to snub a White House visit one of two ways: a profound American statement of freedom of speech, or a show of selfishness for making a team event about himself. No matter your view (and don't worry, there are thousands who fall into either side of the camp), when the Stanley Cup-winning goalie of the Bruins - and one of only two Americans even on the team during last year's championship run - was the only player not to show for the customary congratulatory White House event with President Barack Obama, he got people talking. And he didn't explain himself right away, either, instead waiting until later in the evening to use his Facebook page to explain the decision: I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People. This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government. Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL. This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. MORE: Bruins Goalie Tim Thomas Reflects NHL goalies can decorate their masks in individualistic ways and Thomas hasn't been shy about politics, putting the Tea Party slogan "Don't Tread on Me" on his mask. Many Facebook fans and sports pundits have called his act a strong stand for what he believed in, while others criticized his "me-first" attitude. Others questioned if he could have been more effective in getting across his views on the government had he actually shown up at the White House, spoken with Obama and expressed his point of view. President Obama, it seems, took it all in stride, even saying the cup was won by defense as much as offense and "Tim Thomas posted two shutouts in the Stanley Cup Finals and set an all-time record for saves in the postseason, and he also earned the honor being only the second American ever to be recognized as the Stanley Cup playoffs MVP." There was no official statement from the White House, but Thomas himself became a key topic during the event, forcing his teammates to field endless questions as to why he wasn't there and taking the focus away from the win and onto the absence. At least he made his point. PHOTOS: The Vancouver Hockey Riots MORE: Vancouver Riots: Hockey Fans Stick It to Their Own City

UK Police: Ritual Killing Possible in Horse Death British police say the mutilation and brutal death of a horse may have been the result of a pagan ritual. The body of a 2-year-old stallion named Erik was found earlier this month near the village of Stithians in western England. The horse had had its genitals cut off, an eye cut out and its teeth removed. The animal's disturbing death led to speculation in the British media that the horse had been killed as part of some kind of ritual. Local police said Wednesday that a lot of the information about the horse's death "is unfortunately speculation." But Inspector Chris Strickland says his force is investigating the ritual killing angle "because I can't see any other real motive for doing it."

A Standoff Between Two Species of Millipedes on Tasmania On the Australian island of Tasmania, two species of millipedes maintain a mysterious standoff, according to a new study - separated by a 140-mile boundary they rarely cross. The boundary, just a few hundred feet wide in most places, is especially unusual because borders between species usually follow a natural geographic divide, like a ridgeline, said the study's author, Bob Mesibov, a millipede specialist at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania. By contrast, this one cuts through hills and rivers. "It didn't follow a natural boundary in the geography at all," said Dr. Mesibov, who discovered and named both species in 2010. He describes his findings in the journal Zoo Keys. Dr. Mesibov spent two years mapping the species" range. The work involved more than 100 days in the field and visits to 350 sites in northwestern Tasmania. Abundant in their own territories, the two species of millipedes are difficult to tell apart. "They look like sister species," Dr. Mesibov said. It is not yet known how the millipedes maintain such a tight boundary over such a long stretch. That is research that Dr. Mesibov is leaving to other biologists, but he suspects that the two species have a biological arrangement. "It has nothing to do with the environment," he said. It's like a political thing between these two species. Meanwhile, he has gone back to his regular work of discovering millipede species. So far, he has named more than 100.

Have a delicious New Year: The best foodie events in 2012 Le Cordon Bleu School Christmas dinner not all it should have been? Well, you're in luck: Le Cordon Bleu, the French cookery school par excellence, is opening a vast new "international flagship institute" in London's Bloomsbury Square on 13 January, recognition, says the institute, that the UK now leads the way in the culinary arts. Pitt Cue Co London's meat vans are losing their wheels at a rate of knots in 2012. Meatwagon, of lovely burgers fame, found a permanent perch late last year, and now Pitt Cue Co, the barbecue shack that wowed us on London's Southbank, has graduated to a full bricks-and-mortar restaurant on Newburgh Street, Soho. Fish: Recipes from the Sea cookbook From the publishers of the Silver Spoon Cookbook, the much-cooed-over Italian cookery bible, comes a new one - this time dedicated to all things seafood. Weighing in at 200 recipes, it's much slimmer than its beefy older cousin, but no less accessible or instructive. Donostia Basque tapas makes its way to Marylebone in February. Former head chef at Barrafina, Tomasz Baranski, will be serving up some regional crackers including pil-pil cod and stuffed squid in ink alongside a range of smaller pintxos, from his new restaurant in London's Seymour Place. Jamie Oliver Manchester Jamie Oliver has delayed the opening of his first restaurant in Manchester a couple of times already but it seems, all things being well, the King Street joint will open its doors this month. Zorokovich 1917 vodka After finding out he came from a long line of vodka brewers back in the Ukraine, Londoner Dan Edelstyn decided he'd reprise the tradition and kick-start the long dead brand. So Zorokovich 1917 Vodka was (re) born. A film documenting his efforts won plaudits at the BFI Festival in October, and will be shown as part of theTrue Stories series of programmes on Channel 4 this spring. Lords of the Manor Greedy gourmands take note, the last in a series of five-course wine and food feasts will be taking place on 15 March at the Michelin-starred restaurant at the Lords of the Manor hotel in the Cotswolds. The theme this time is the wines of the Rhone valley. Fiona Cairns online shop She was responsible for the third most praised thing at the Royal Wedding after that dress and Pippa Middleton. Come April you can have your very own Fiona Cairns wedding cake, which you can order from her new online shop. Tony C's cocktails Want to learn how to whip up a cocktail like Tony Conigliaro? The owner of 69 Colebrook Row, the Islington cocktail bar recently voted as one of the top 50 in the world, is running complimentary mixlogy classes throughout April in conjunction with Beefeater 24. If you prefer drinking, rather than making, them - head to the Hippodrome Casino, which opens in April, and try out Conigliaro's drinks menu. Mugaritz cookbook The eponymous cookbook from Mugaritz, the Spanish restaurant rated third in the respected San Pellegrino restaurant top 50, doesn't promise to get you cooking like its double Michelin-starred chef and author, Andoni Luis Aduriz - but if you're a serious about you're home cooking you'll want it on shelves in 2012, even if it is just to show off to your friends. Lima London South American food is set to be huge this year and, if the hype is to believed, top of the tree is likely to be Lima, the new Peruvian restaurant opening it's doors in mid May in London's Fitzrovia. Heading up chef Virgilio Martinez's menu will be pisco soups and ceviche. Taste festivals Taste of London is to food what the Frieze Art Fair is to art. The showcase of the city's finest food and restaurants even sits on the same Regent's Park site as the art beano, too. It runs from 21 to 24 June, then it's on to Taste of Edinburgh, which runs from 6 to 8 July. The Diamond Jubilee Dust down your royal wedding bunting and get the trestle table out for the street party. It's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - and we all get an extra bank holiday on 5 June. To celebrate, royal grocers Fortnum and Mason are getting into the spirit with a range of special jubilee foods fit for Her Maj. Particularly fine are the jubilee champagne truffles. Gooseberry season Juicy, tart and full of fibre and vitamin C, gooseberries are a summer treat we too often overlook in Britain. So get picking come July and get that gooseberry fool on the go. Olympics Restaurateurs are rubbing their hands at the expected 70 per cent pick-up in trade from the Olympics, which roll into town on 27 July. Good news for hard-pressed restaurants; not so good if it's your birthday in late July. If you do want to eat out then, get on the phone now. Grouse shooting season The grouse shooting season kicks off with a quite literal bang on the "glorious 12th." So expect the game bird to be in the butcher's window and on restaurant plates the week after. Try them simply roasted with bread sauce and a few fried breadcrumbs. Abergavenny Food Festival The Brecon Beacons will be alive with foodies a-munchin' and chefs a-cookin' over the weekend of the 15 and 16 September as the Abergavenny Food Festival gets underway with samplings, workshops, and, if past years are to go by, no small amount of alcohol "tasting." Foraging courses Although a big trend in the past year or two, some have dismissed foraged food as a bit of a fad. Maybe so, but one thing you cant deny: it's incredibly environmentally friendly. So why not learn how to tell a morel from an ink cap or from a death cap mushroom with a course from Sustainability Centre in Hampshire on 15 September. Sloe season Get delving into those hedgerows, it's sloe season, the essential precursor to sloe gin season. If gin's not your thing, check out some jam recipes, just don't miss out on these autumnal treats. Taste of Christmas Food Fair Get into the festive spirit a little early this year with the Taste of Christmas Food Fair at the Excel Centre in London's Victoria Dock from 30 November to 2 December. Last year's saw numerous stars of the culinary firmament - Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Michel Roux to name but three - showing off their skills down in the docklands, so you can expect some equally big names this year, too. BBC Good Food Show winter 2012 Starting on 28 November, but running through to the first few days of December, Good Food magazine's seasonal expo opens once again. Last year's beano featured live MasterChef and demos from the likes of Rick Stein and Rachel Allen. Expect similar treats to be found in the halls of Birmingham's NEC. There's also a spring show at Bluewater, Kent (12-15 April); a summer show in Birmingham (17-17 June) and a Good Food Scotland event at Glasgow's SECC (19-21 October). St Austell Brewery's Beer Festival The Cornish brewery throws open the doors of its Victorian cellars in mid-December for its annual Celtic beer shindig. Raise a glass of one of the 150 ales on offer and nibble on some Cornish pub food, and you'll be helping raise money for the brewery's charitable trust.

Nightshift at the shipyards of Dhaka Workers work at a shipbuilding yard next to the Buriganga River in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka January 10, 2012. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj More about: Dhaka, India, The world of work

Falcons beat Bucs, 45-24, clinch NFC's No. 5 seed Jan 1 08:29 PM US/Eastern ATLANTA (AP) - Julio Jones caught two touchdown passes in a span of 26 seconds, Michael Turner ran for two scores and the Atlanta Falcons used a team-record 42 first-half points to cruise to a 45-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday to clinch the No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs. The Falcons (10-6) and Detroit (10-6) are the NFC wild-cards. Atlanta, which beat Detroit on Oct. 23, won the tiebreaker with the Lions for the more favorable seeding. The Falcons will play at the winner of Sunday night's Dallas-New York Giants game in the first round of the playoffs. Josh Freeman threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in the first half as the Buccaneers (4-12) closed their season with their 10th straight loss, leaving the status of coach Raheem Morris in doubt.

Words & Ideas - latimes.com Words & Ideas Compiled by Liesl Bradner. David Marin: The author discusses and signs "This Is Us: The New All-American Family." Vromans Bookstore, 3729 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. 3 p.m. Jeff Garlin: The actor, comedian and author discusses and signs "Curbing It," about how he dedicated an entire season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to making over his lifestyle. Book Soup, 8818 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. 4 p.m. Brian Herbert: The author signs "Sisterhood of Dune," the 12th novel set in Frank Herbert's classic science fiction universe. Mysterious Galaxy, 2810 Artesia Blvd., Redondo Beach. 2:30-4 p.m. Free. The New Short Fiction Series: The 16th season begins with Elizabeth E. King reading from "Real Conversations With Imaginary Friends." The Federal Bar, 5303 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 7 p.m. $10 advance, $15 at the door. Big Boy: The radio personality will be signing his weight-loss story, "An XL Life." Eso Won Books, 4331 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles. 7-9 p.m. Ed Kovacs: The writer discusses and signs his thriller "Storm Damage." Book Soup, 8818 W Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. 7 p.m. Lisa Niemi Swayze: The wife of Patrick Swayze discusses her book "Worth Fighting For." Barnes & Noble, 189 Grove Drive, The Grove, Los Angeles. Wristband event. Susan Sherman & Adrienne Sharp: The authors discuss their books "The Little Russian" and "The True Memoirs of Little K," Stories, 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. 7:30 p.m. Tom Zoellner: The author and fifth generation Arizonan discusses and signs "A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America." Ellis Avery: The author discusses and signs the love story "The Last Nude." Howard Gordon: The executive producer of "24" and co-creator of "Homeland" discusses and signs his latest book, "Hard Target." This is a wristbanded event. Rashad Harrsion: The author will be signing his debut historical novel, "Our Man in the Dark" about a worker in the civil rights movement leading up to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Boy has 'parasitic twin' living inside him Surgeons in Peru have removed a "parasitic twin" from inside a three-year-old boy's stomach. Isbac Pacunda was taken to hospital after complaining of stomach pains, where doctors discovered the 25cm fetus lodged in his abdomen. Doctor Marco Antonio Flores said: "Through giving him an ultrasound scan, we realised that he had bones inside, a humerus, a femur, a backbone. Then we did an ultrasound that confirmed the diagnosis. Pacunda will now undergo a complicated surgical procedure to remove the so-called parasitic fetus, which has been living of his blood supply but has no brain, heart or lungs. Obviously it is a risky operation. You have to take a lot of care. You have to have experience in this sort of operation, because this involves the separation of a fetus that has been inside a body for more than three years and removing it from the person that has hosted it. This sort of fetus is called a parasitic fetus," said Flores. The condition is said to occur in around one in 500,000 births.

Employers Face IRS Crackdown on Contractor Classification PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Using independent contractors reduces the paperwork, tax burden and hassles associated with hiring employees. Tax specialist Christopher Ezold warns that employers can expect changes in 2012. The IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor have agreed to an information sharing memorandum with 11 states to ensure that employers are not misclassifying employees as contractors. Regardless of these agreements, employers in all states will be subject to random audits throughout 2012. The IRS says it intends "to end the business practice of misclassifying employees in order to avoid providing employment protections." According to a GAO report, for example, officials from one region said, "Workers were misclassified as independent contractors at over 80 percent of the construction sites they inspected." At stake is $7 billion in taxes and penalties for misclassified workers that the IRS believes it can add to federal coffers during the next 10 years. "Regardless of current practices, employers need to carefully examine IRS guidelines on what constitutes an employee versus a contractor, and they must ensure that they meet the federal standard or face penalties and interest for failing to do so," says Ezold, a business attorney and tax partner with The Ezold Law Firm, P.C., a Philadelphia-based employment and business boutique. The cudgel in the new enforcement policy are the 100 investigators the IRS expects to hire. "For employers who have misclassified workers, there may be relief for companies that act promptly," says Ezold. The IRS has instituted the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program, offering partial amnesty to offenders. The IRS will waive fines and penalties for employers who erroneously classified employees as independent contractors. Those participating in the settlement program will pay slightly more than 1 percent for the wages paid to misclassified workers during the previous year. The IRS will also refrain from conducting audits on employers from previous years. "The clock is ticking for every employer who has misclassified contractors," says Ezold. Make sure you're in compliance; if not, it's worth examining the benefits of the partial amnesty program. The program has downsides that aren't published, so a thorough review is necessary. Delaying could cost you significantly more money down the road and added IRS scrutiny. For more information, contact Chris Ezold at 610-660-5585, cezold@ezoldlaw.com or visit www.ezoldlaw.com. SOURCE Christopher Ezold

Liz Claiborne changing name to Fifth & Pacific NEW YORK (AP) - Liz Claiborne Inc. is changing its name to Fifth & Pacific Cos. now that the clothing maker has sold its namesake brand and plans to concentrate on its Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and Kate Spade labels. The name change, which the New York company previously announced was coming, is just the latest step that Liz Claiborne is taking as it tries to become a more profitable business. In November the company completed the sales of its Liz Claiborne and Monet brands to J.C. Penney. Other fall deals included selling its Mexx business to a joint venture led by the private equity firm The Gores Group, and selling its Kensie and Dana Buchman brands. Liz Claiborne has said that it plans to focus on its Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and Kate Spade brands that appeal to well-heeled shoppers. Wealthier consumers are spending more freely than middle- and low-income shoppers as economic uncertainty continues to cast a shadow on U.S. consumer spending. In the third quarter, Liz Claiborne's net loss widened and its adjusted net income from continuing operations missed analysts' expectations. Third-quarter revenue slipped 9 percent. Liz Claiborne said Wednesday that its name change will likely take effect around May 15, when it will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the "FNP" ticker symbol. "While it's difficult to replace an iconic name like Liz Claiborne, we believe that Fifth & Pacific Companies telegraphs who we are today - taking inspiration from New York and California, while describing our reach and our potential," CEO William McComb said in a statement. McComb said Fifth & Pacific Cos. is now "financially stronger, with a healthy balance sheet and significantly reduced operating risk and complexity." The company's new corporate web site will be www.fifthandpacific.com.

Company Cautions Against Linking Well, Ohio Quakes Boos, applause and the occasional outburst marked a gathering of about 500 Ohio residents seeking explanations for a series of earthquakes that has hit their area since deep injection drilling came to town. At a news conference after the forum Wednesday, the company said voluntarily shut down an oil and gas wastewater well in Youngstown to study any links to the quakes urged caution in accepting a seismologist's finding that their injection well almost certainly caused the quakes. "It is in the best interest of the community to allow the research process to play out," said Vince Bevacqua, a spokesman for D&L Energy. The well that people are concerned about - rightly or wrongly - is offline and will stay offline until we have answers. Bevacqua said that the seismologist made his judgment from "an office in New York" and that no one has definitively proven the quakes are related to activity at the well. The company has commissioned a study and is depressurizing the well following the shutdown. In a state investigation into 11 earthquakes in the region this year, Columbia University seismologist John Armbruster said that the injection of thousands of gallons of brine wastewater daily into the injection well almost certainly caused the quakes. State officials said they believed the well activity caused pressure to build near a fault line and led to the seismic activity. Ohio State Representative Robert F. Hagan, front, speaks during a community forum to discuss recent seismic activity related to deep wastewater injection wells, in Youngstown, Ohio on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta) Close Armbruster's finding intensified the debate over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to extract natural gas from underground shale. The Youngstown well took wastewater from all sorts of drilling in the oil and gas industry. It is an injection well, not a well for extracting oil and gas. Bevacqua said the company hopes its own study will provide different feedback. The study has not been started yet and Bevacqua was not able to provide a timetable. Many residents who attended the Wednesday forum experienced the 4.0 magnitude New Year's Eve quake, which led to Gov. John Kasich calling a moratorium on injection drilling in the region. Several said fear and concern brought them out. "Your saltwater is radioactive poison!" shouted one participant. Retiree Bob Gray, a lifelong resident of Youngstown, said regulators who attended the event didn't provide satisfactory answers. "I feel like my intelligence has been insulted," said Gray, 70. He described the forum as "a dog and pony show." Gray and others questioned why wastewater from fracking is being shipped into Ohio for disposal when nearby Pennsylvania and New York don't want it. Pennsylvania drillers are recycling much of the water they use, but Ohio has a contract to accept a portion of the Pennsylvania wastewater. Bill Kinney, a petroleum executive representing the Ohio Oil & Gas Association at the forum, said the shipments aren't unusual. "There are all types of interstate commerce, that happens to be one of them," he said. Pennsylvania is not Afghanistan. It's the state next to us. Joseph Planey, 65, a Boardman resident who works as a consultant, said the public meeting was a good start. "More detail needs to be gotten into," he said. I think the depth of the problem can't be addressed in a two-hour meeting.

Australian Open: Andy Murray ups his game to reach fourth round Published on Saturday 21 January 2012 10:09 Andy Murray turned in a wonderful performance to sweep past Michael Llodra and move into the fourth round of the Australian Open today. This was the world number four at approaching his very best. He displayed all his variety to see off the one-dimensional Frenchman whose ploy to rush the net at every opportunity reaped little reward. Murray was asked plenty of questions by an opponent who certainly played his part in an entertaining encounter on Hisense Arena but always found the answers to advance 6-4 6-2 6-0 in one hour and 49 minutes. "There were a lot of fun rallies out there and I played well," he said. It was a fun tennis match which isn't normal at a grand slam. Asked what he planned to do by way of celebration, Murray joked: "I am going to go out and get hammered!" Llodra admitted beforehand his "only option" was all-out attack and, although he had his moments in the opening set, it was a ploy always seemingly doomed to fail. Even though Murray failed to capitalise on three break points in the opening game, two sublime backhand passes helped create three more chances at 1-1 and from the second he dispatched a mid-court ball past his opponent for a 2-1 advantage. A booming ace out wide denied Llodra an immediate riposte and another handed Murray a 3-1 lead. Llodra held another break point in the sixth game but again Murray served his way out of danger before a sumptuous backhand down the line off a Llodra lob paved the way for a 4-2 advantage. The Frenchman held and then, for a third time, threatened the Murray serve. He held three break points but, once more, the world number four escaped trouble to deny the 31-year-old the break his enterprising approach arguably deserved. Murray raced to 40-0 when serving for the set but found himself pegged back to deuce only to claim it with a backhand pass. Llodra's frustration increased when Murray turned on the style in the opening game of the second set, a raft of clever passing shots handing him a break to press home his advantage. And it got no better for the Frenchman when, having held for 1-2, he called a medical time out to have his right knee taped. By now Murray was going through his full repertoire of blistering passes, drop shots and disguised lobs and Llodra was having a hard time clinging on to his coat tails. He managed to remain just one break adrift, though, despite Murray drilling a short ball at his back when he could have gone either side - a shot which would, no doubt, have brought a nod of approval from Murray's new coach Ivan Lendl although the Czech may not have approved of the apologetic hug which followed. But Murray maintained his intensity, another break moving him 5-2 up and he held his nerve in a wonderful final game, which featured numerous enthralling rallies and finished with the Frenchman throwing his towel at his opponent in mock irritation, to establish a two-set advantage. Llodra is renown as one of the biggest jokers on tour with his his most notorious prank seeing him strip naked and hide in Ivan Ljubicic's locker at an event in Miami before jumping out to surprise the stunned Croatian. And he was starting to look exposed on Melbourne Park's second showcourt as Murray upped the ante further in the third. Three breaks saw him race into a 5-0 lead and he had no problems in serving it out to set up a fourth-round clash with Mikhail Kukushkin, who beat Gael Monfils in an extraordinary five-set encounter.

Iraqi deaths rise after U.S. withdrawal BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Deaths of Iraqis since the U.S. military withdrew in mid-December have reached one of the highest tolls for that amount of time in two years, statistics show. Security officials say 31 people, including eight police officers, were killed by a suicide car bomb near a funeral procession in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, bringing the number of Iraqis killed in attacks since mid-December to 434, The New York Times reported. The newspaper said the violence in the past five weeks has left Iraqis fearing their leaders, involved in a political fight with one another, aren't prepared to stop attacks without U.S. help. The attacks have targeted primarily Shiites and raised concerns about whether al-Qaida in Iraq has strengthened after being weakened in 2008. On its Web site, the group said it had put more emphasis on those with close ties to Iran, especially Iraq's Shiites, as it tries to reduce Iran's influence in Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal. But Iraqi security officials said they've been more successful recently in fighting insurgents. Acting Interior Minister Adnan al-Asadi told the Times when U.S. forces were in Iraq, they made it more difficult to battle al-Qaida. He said Americans "were slowing our operations. Sometimes we would arrest a bad guy, and they would get involved and say, 'That is our guy,' and they would have him set free. Asadi said even without U.S. support to Iraqi security forces in counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaida, Iraqis have been able to arrest a "large number" of leaders of the group, sometimes as many as 50 a day. The recent attacks, he said, were "just to prove that [al-Qaida is] still here." In the Friday attack, the suicide bomber targeted a funeral procession for a man, his wife and son -- all fatally shot a day earlier. The Times said a young boy also was killed Friday in Baghdad in an explosion near a soccer field.

Gingrich Turns Ex-Wife's Interview Into Attack on Media The most vibrant episode of tonight's Republican debate happened at the very beginning, as Newt Gingrich dismissed an explosive interview given by his ex-wife and accused the mainstream media of shielding President Obama. CNN moderator John King opened the forum by asking Gingrich about an interview that his ex-wife Marianne Gingrich gave to ABC News, in which she said the former House speaker wanted an "open marriage" with her in 1999. Gingrich turned the question around on King, blaming the mainstream media for detracting from the issues and earning a standing ovation from the audience. "I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office, and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate with a topic like that," Gingrich said to cheers. Every person in here knows personal pain. Every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things. To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary, a significant question in a presidential campaign, is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine. As King tried to point out that CNN didn't show the interview, Gingrich jumped in and said that "it was repeated by your network." "You chose to start the debate with it," he said. Don't try to blame it on somebody else. Gingrich has won support from Republican audiences by being openly skeptical of the media. In tonight's debate, he triumphed as he said, "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking the public." The other candidates -- only three others, now -- were asked if the matter was a valid campaign issue. Mitt Romney, the front-runner in the race, said simply, "let's get on to the real issues." Rick Santorum, though, said that "these are issues of our lives" and that "those are things for everyone in this audience to look at." The spotlight quickly turned to Romney, though, as he was pressed on his tenure at Bain Capital, but more aggressively his decision not to release his tax returns just yet. Romney was booed as he was asked whether he would release his tax returns for multiple years, as his father did. Maybe. I don't know how many years I'll release," he said before a few people in the audience began to heckle him and boo. And I'll release multiple years. I don't know how many years, but I'll be happy to do that," he said. Romney also argued that he should release his taxes at once instead of "drip by drip," so that Democrats don't "go out with another array of attacks" each time. Romney told reporters this week that he pays a 15 percent tax rate, a figure that is lower than what most Americans pay because most of his income comes from investments, not a salary. But at the debate in South Carolina, Romney said, "I pay a lot of taxes." "I'm honest in my dealings with people," he said. My taxes are carefully managed. Gingrich's camp, meanwhile, released his tax returns online during the debate. The candidates also got heated while discussing health care, an issue that has taken a back seat to other matters during the campaign. Santorum led the charge against Romney as he lambasted "RomneyCare" for being the starting point for Obama's health care program that is hated among many Republicans. Bluntly, Santorum said Romney's health care plan that was put in place in Massachusetts was the model that Obama used. He's going to have run against a president who's going to say: 'Well, look. Look at what you did for Massachusetts, and you're the one criticizing me? ... I used your model for it.' While the crowd responded warmly, signaling many conservatives' hesitance to embrace Romney, the former Massachusetts governor said his plan was "absolutely not" perfect but that "having been there, having been on the front lines," he'd know how to repeal Obama's plan. Santorum didn't buy it. "You do not draw a distinction that's going to be effective for us, just because it was at the state level, not the federal level," he said. But Santorum also didn't save his criticism just for Romney. He accused Gingrich of being late to back off his stance on the individual mandate, and he later argued that Gingrich would be a dangerous Republican nominee because he's unpredictable. As an example, Santorum cited Gingrich's comment that Santorum should drop out of the GOP race, even though the former Pennsylvania senator beat him in Iowa and in New Hampshire. "These are not cogent thoughts," Santorum said, adding that he feared a "worrisome moment that something's going to pop, and we can't afford that in a nominee." I'm steady. I'm solid. I'm not going to go out and do things that you're going to worry about," Santorum said. The candidates also debated economic proposals, and with it, the focus on Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. Romney has been criticized by Democrats and some GOP candidates alike for his role at Bain, being portrayed as a corporate raider who profited while people lost their jobs at companies in which the private-equity firm invested. Romney has defended his time there by saying that four major companies that Bain helped have created more than 100,000 jobs, including 10,000 jobs that were lost. Capitalism works. Free enterprise works," Romney said at the South Carolina debate, adding that it felt "kind of strange on a stage like this with Republicans having to explain" how private equity and capitalism works. Gingrich, who is gaining on Romney's lead in South Carolina, took a local angle as he tried to highlight Romney's time at Bain, saying that the company Georgetown Steel was hurt. "He cited his experience as a key part of his preparation for being president," Gingrich said. Those cases ought to be looked at. Thursday night's debate did see a new topic: SOPA, or the anti-piracy bill that has drawn outrage from Internet users who say that it would unfairly censor websites, and which got a swarm of media attention this week as popular sites went dark in protest. The mere mention of the topic drew boos from the crowd, and, perhaps not surprisingly, all of the candidates said they opposed the bill. Paul, who has championed the effort to kill the proposal, said he was glad the other candidates disapproved of it, because "Republicans have unfortunately been on the wrong side of this issue." By far, as has happened in most of the dozen-and-a-half debates, Gingrich won the most applause throughout. He did it with lines like this: "Elect us and your kids will be able to move out because they'll have work."

Amir Mirzaei Hekmati: Iran sentences American man to death in CIA case An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran. Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued. Under Iranian law, he has 20 days to appeal. The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of Iranian origin. His father, a professor at a community college in Flint, Michigan, has said his son is not a CIA spy and was visiting his grandmothers in Iran when he was arrested. Behnaz Hekmati, his mother, said in an email to The Associated Press that she and her husband, Ali, are "shocked and terrified" that their son has been sentenced to death. She said the verdict is "the result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair." His trial took place as the U.S. announced new, tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington believes Tehran is using to develop a possible atomic weapons capability. Iran, which says it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and research, has sharply increased its threats and military posturing against stronger pressures, including the U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's Central Bank in attempts to complicate its ability to sell oil. The U.S. State Department has demanded Hekmati's release. The court convicted him of working with a hostile country, belonging to the CIA and trying to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism, Monday's report said. In its ruling, a branch of Tehran Revolutionary Court described Hekmati as a mohareb, an Islamic term that means a fighter against God, and a mofsed, or one who spreads corruption on earth. Both terms appear frequently in Iranian court rulings. In a closed court hearing in late December, the prosecution asked for the death penalty for Hekmati. The U.S. government has called on Iranian authorities to grant Swiss diplomats access to him in prison. The Swiss government represents U.S. interests in Iran because the two countries don't have diplomatic relations. Hekmati is a dual U.S.-Iranian national. Iran considers him an Iranian since the country's law does not recognize dual citizenship. Similar cases against Americans accused of spying have heightened tensions throughout the years-long standoff over Iran's nuclear program. Iran arrested three Americans in July 2009 along the border with Iraq and accused them of espionage, though the Americans said they were just hiking in the scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region of northern Iraq. One of them was released after a year in prison, and the other two were freed in September in deals involving bail payments that were brokered by the Gulf sultanate of Oman, which has good relations with Iran and the U.S. On Dec. 18, Iran's state TV broadcast video of Hekmati delivering a purported confession in which he said he was part of a plot to infiltrate Iran's Intelligence Ministry. In a statement released the same day, the Intelligence Ministry said its agents identified Hekmati before his arrival in Iran, at Bagram Air Field in neighboring Afghanistan. Bagram is the main base for American and other international forces outside Kabul, the Afghan capital. It is not clear exactly when he was arrested. Iranian news reports have said he was detained in late August or early September. Hekmati's father said in a December interview with The Associated Press, that his son was a former Arabic translator in the U.S. Marines who entered Iran about four months earlier to visit his grandmothers. At the time, he was working in Qatar as a contractor for a company "that served the Marines," his father said, without providing more specific details.

Health chiefs aim to cure huge waiting list backlog Published on Friday 27 January 2012 12:05 The Evening News can also reveal that external auditors have been brought in to probe the health board's official figures on hitting Scottish Government waiting time targets for the length of time patients should wait for procedures. The exceptional measures come after concerns were raised about the way local queues were being tackled. NHS Lothian was criticised earlier this month after it emerged patients who were offered the option of surgery in England were taken off the government target list, even if they refused. As a result, the health board has now identified 2945 patients who have had to wait longer than three months to receive surgery. After a News investigation, it has confirmed it will bring in auditors to examine how the board failed to treat patients within the acceptable time period. The audit will also look at where cash was spent. Today, Jackie Sansbury, chief operating officer of NHS Lothian, insisted the recording of waiting lists had been overhauled and that the board had already published "open and transparent" updated figures this week. She said: "We have been absolutely rigorous around the recording of our figures since the allegations about waiting times came to light in October." The new measures to deal with the backlog are likely to be paid for by millions of pounds in extra funding from the Scottish Government. They will see operations carried out at evenings and weekends and patients sent to private hospitals. A disused operating theatre at the Western General will also be reopened and new specialist surgeons will be taken on. The extent of the backlog was detailed in a report to the NHS Lothian board this week. It showed that in October just 94 patients were on the official list of outpatients who had missed waiting time targets, while there were 750 on the inpatient list. In November - after the practice of removing patients was banned - there were nearly 1400 outpatients and 1550 inpatients waiting for surgery. Lothians MSP Sarah Boyack, who raised the issue with the Health Secretary at Holyrood, welcomed the moves. She told the Evening News: "I'm glad we've got the details of these waiting lists out into the open and that it's forced the issue of enough treatment being provided for patients in the Lothians. The report we discussed in parliament made it clear that patients must be given a reasonable offer and not bumped off the list if they can't make an operation in another city. The detail of this is crucial. The next phase will be seeing if the new resources being put in place will actually make a difference. Professor James Barbour, chief executive of NHS Lothian, added: "I welcome the support from the Scottish Government in terms of additional funding and the expertise they are giving us in recognition of our particular circumstances." for the length of time patients should wait for procedures.

As Top-Ranked Men's Teams Fall, Baylor Women Keep Winning Krista Pirtle of The Lariat at Baylor University will file reports about the top-ranked Baylor Lady Bears throughout the season for The Quad. As top seeds fell all over the country in men's basketball on Saturday, No. 1 Baylor Lady Bears" coach Kim Mulkey watched it all. She was front-row on her couch as first No. 3 Baylor, then No. 4 Duke, then-No. 1 Syracuse toppled as the afternoon progressed. Once Mulkey got in the locker room later that day, she said, she was more than ready to address her players before they played Kansas State, a game Baylor won, 76-41. Junior Brittney Griner grinned and nodded in response to her coach's pregame speech. "At home I watched the men, Duke and Syracuse all lose," Mulkey said. I got in that locker room, and I think I exploded on them before the game started. I said that you better defend and you better rebound. This season, the Lady Bears have done just that. Baylor leads the Big 12 conference in the rebounding margin, averaging 14.1 more than its opponent. This is helped by the offense crashing the boards and the defense watching its man instead of the ball, as the shot is fired toward the hoop. Defensively, the Lady Bears are the best in the nation at shutting down opponents, holding them to under 50 percent from the floor, since March 25, 2006. This leads to transition scoring, where Baylor leads the conference in scoring defense with 51.6 points per game. On offense, Baylor averages a scoring margin of 30.1 points per game. It is No. 3 in the country in scoring offense with an average of 82 points a game. And the Lady Bears have the top R.P.I. for having the strongest schedule in the nation. How does Baylor keep playing hard when its opponent is so far behind? "You have to have a "you can't stop me" mentality," Griner said. Griner is not the only one with that attitude. The offense does not cling to post entry for Griner. Every player on the court for Baylor is capable of creating offense and scoring. "They seemed more composed and they make up for mistakes athletically at least today," Kansas State Coach Deb Patterson said after the game. They made up for mistakes at a higher level than they did a year ago as a team. Honestly, I didn't feel as though they relied on Griner as much. They were much more comfortable distributing the ball, having some balance, and then just killing you for five possessions in a row. With depth and confidence, Baylor does not look to peak now, but to improve for the Final Four in Denver. "Just keep winning," Mulkey said. Just keep piling up wins and see how much better we can get.

England announce pre-Euro 2012 friendlies England will face Norway and Belgium in their final two friendlies before Euro 2012. Fabio Capello's men will head to Oslo to take on Norway on Saturday, May 26 in the same Ullevaal Stadion in which they famously lost to the Scandinavians in 1981, prompting Bjorge Lillelien's memorable commentary that ended with the immortal line: "Your boys took a hell of a beating." Seven days later, on June 2, England entertain a Belgium side that could contain Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany and Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen, in their final warm-up game before heading to their base in Krakow ahead of the opening Euro 2012 encounter with France in Donetsk on June 11. It will be the 21st meeting between the two nations with England losing just once, and their first encounter at Wembley since 1964. "Since the draw in December we have been able to work towards these matches and the appropriate opposition, and I'm very happy with these two games," said coach Fabio Capello. In the draw we face one of the hosts, Ukraine, which will be a difficult atmosphere to replicate, but looking at the styles of France and Sweden I feel these games are a good preparation for us. No kick-off times have been confirmed as yet and ticket information will be released in due course.

COL BKB: Nebraska 70, Indiana 69 LINCOLN, Neb., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Two free throws by Jorge Brian Diaz with 11 seconds to play Wednesday gave Nebraska a shocking 70-69 victory over No. 13 Indiana. The Hoosiers lost their third in a row and have dropped four out of seven since the start of Big Ten Conference action. Indiana held as much as a 13-point lead early in the second half but the Cornhuskers closed within one with 21 seconds remaining on a layup by Dylan Talley. Jordan Hulls then went to the foul line to shoot a 1-and-1 for the Hoosiers, but he missed the first attempt and Brandon Richardson rebounded for Nebraska. Hulls fouled Diaz in the act of shooting and Diaz made both free throws to account for the final score. Hulls missed two shots from the field in the final 4 seconds. Indiana fell to 15-4 for the season and to 3-4 in league play. Bo Spencer led the Cornhuskers (10-8, 2-5) with 23 points and Toney McCray had 11. Cody Zeller had 18 for Indiana.

"Alcatraz" Viewers Search Former Prison for High Tech Secret Room Alcatraz. Credit: Getty Images. The new Fox series "Alcatraz" has only been on the air for a week, but fans are apparently already going bonkers over the show. TMZ reports some are going on scheduled guided tours of the former prison that sits on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay and searching for a secret high tech room that only exists in the TV drama. A rep for the National Park Service says some fans have strayed into closed-off areas searching for a room that is described on the series as a "bat cave underneath Alcatraz." The National Park Service has now posted a sign that reads, "The TV Show "Alcatraz" is fictional, many areas it depicts are not real. Closed areas protect you, historic structures and nesting birds.

Tiger Woods will make 2012 PGA Tour debut at Pebble Beach Tiger Woods, who had previously announced he would skip the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla this year, instead will make his 2012 PGA Tour debut Feb. 9-12 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Woods played at Pebble Beach in the 2010 U.S. Open and tied for fourth, but he hasn't played the annual Pebble Beach event since 2002, when he tied for 12th. Woods announced his plans for Pebble Beach on his website Monday. More often during the last decade, Woods has started his PGA season at Torrey Pines, but in November Woods said he would skip Torrey Pines this year to play in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. Woods has won the Farmers Insurance Open six times and also won the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Woods told reporters late last year, when he made the decision to skip Torrey Pines, "I've always enjoyed playing in HSBC events around the world, so I have been interested in including the Abu Dhabi event in my schedule for some time." When Woods last played the Pebble Beach tournament, the field was 180 players, leading Woods to complain that greens had become bumpy and the long rounds were wearing. The field is now 156. A new course has been added to the three-course rotation since that time, the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, which replaced Poppy Hills. On his website Woods said, "I've never played Monterey Peninsula and am looking forward to it. From all I've heard, it's a wonderful course and the greens are fast. Woods finished the 2011 season in an upbeat fashion, winning his own tournament at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. The victory ended a two-year winless streak. I have a lot of good memories at Pebble. It will be fun going back," he said on his website. Of his many memorable career performances, two came at Pebble Beach. In 2000 he holed out for eagle on the 15th hole and birdied two of the final three holes to surge past Matt Gogel and that summer he went back and won the U.S. Open by a staggering 15 strokes at Pebble. AT&T was one of the corporate sponsors to drop Woods in 2009 when information became public about several extramarital affairs Woods had engaged in that eventually resulted in his divorce from Elin Nordegren. AT&T, though, still is the title sponsor of the AT&T National, a PGA Tour event in suburban Washington, D.C., that has the Tiger Woods Foundation as a charitable beneficiary. The PGA Tour arrives in California Jan. 19-22 with the Humana Challenge in La Quinta, played at the Palmer Private Course at PGA West, the Nicklaus Private Course at PGA West and La Quinta Country Club. Last week, Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman entered the event. diane.pucin@latimes.com twitter.com/mepucin

Triple killing sparked by teen feud? PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- A 30-year-old Philadelphia man was charged Wednesday with shooting four teenagers who had a beef with his stepsons, killing three of them, authorities said. A federal marshal said Axel Barreto was tracked to a Knights Inn in Bensalem, a Bucks County suburb, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. He was arrested Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the shootings. Investigators said what became a triple homicide started as a school and Facebook feud between a group of teenagers and Barreto's three stepsons. Seven teens drove to the Juniata Park neighborhood Tuesday night planning a physical fight, and Barreto allegedly came out of his house and fired 10 to 12 shots into their car. Joshua Soto, 14, and Javier Orlandi, 16, died almost immediately. Two boys were taken to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Dante Lugo, 14, died late Wednesday. The 16-year-old who drove the group was in stable condition with a wound in the neck. Philadelphia Homicide Capt. James Clark said the teens apparently did not bring any weapons with them. He said Barreto fired wildly into the car, and there easily could have been more deaths. With 324 homicides in 2011 -- 20.7 for every 100,000 residents -- Philadelphia had the highest homicide rate in the nation among the 10 largest cities, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported Wednesday. The number of killings has dropped since hitting 392 in 2007.

Prince Harry gives rare interview about his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II Prince Harry salutes Chelsea Pensioners as he attends the Founder's Day Parade at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on June 9, 2011, in London, England. (CBS/AP) Prince Harry gave a rare interview about his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, saying that despite her age she continues to work hard and that she couldn't do her job without her husband Prince Phillip. Pictures: Prince Harry Pictures:Queen Elizabeth II "These are things that, at her age, she shouldn't be doing, yet she's carrying on and doing them," he said in an interview with The Radio Times published Tuesday. "Regardless of whether my grandfather seems to be doing his own thing...The fact that he's there - personally, I don't think that she could do it without him, especially when they're both at this age," Harry added. At 85, Elizabeth is Britain's second longest-serving monarch after Queen Victoria. Her 60th year on the throne, the Diamond Jubilee, will be celebrated this year in major events both in Britain and in Commonwealth nations around the world. Prince Phillip, who turned 90 last June, has supported the monarch in nearly all of her duties and overseas trips. While he had expressed a desire to scale down his royal engagements, last year the pair still made a historic trip to Ireland, hosted a state visit by U.S. President Barack Obama and visited Australia on a 10-day tour. Phillip suffered a health scare before Christmas, but has recovered after undergoing a successful coronary stent procedure. Harry's comments were part of a series of interviews conducted for an article on the queen published in the Radio Times.

Is America ready for a Mormon president? While the religion of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hasn't been much of a factor thus far in the Republican nomination for president, their Mormon beliefs face a different test with next week's primary in South Carolina. "It's going to be debated either publicly or privately in South Carolina in ways that it simply wasn't in Iowa and New Hampshire, so if there's going to be a place in America where this issue is going to cut politically, it's going to be South Carolina," said Major Garrett, congressional correspondent for National Journal, a CBS News partner. Special Section: Election 2012 For Romney, a newfound Southern comfort Huntsman surprised by his crowds A recent poll from the Pew Research Center said 56 percent of Mormons think Americans are ready to send a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the White House. However, 32 percent of respondents said they didn't think America was ready, and 12 percent said they didn't know. The Rev. Edward Beck, a Catholic priest, said a candidate's specific religion doesn't matter much to Americans. "Faith and values matter to people," said Beck. How you get there, I don't think, for most people it matters. It matters to some evangelical Christians, though. If you say that the Bible is not primacy for you and you have this Book of Mormon in there, well, they're suspect of that, evangelical Christians, because the Bible is everything for them. But a win for Romney in the Palmetto State would be a big coup for his campaign. "If he wins in South Carolina, I guarantee you the Romney campaign is going to say, 'We have dealt with this issue in a way that really doesn't need to be brought up any more,'" said Garrett. That may not be true, but that's what they're going to say. Above, watch the panel discuss Huntsman, Romney and how former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's Christianity affects his candidacy.

Off-Duty A.T.F. Officer Is Killed While Intervening After Robbery An off-duty special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was fatally shot on Saturday afternoon when he, along with at least one other law enforcement officer and a retired officer, tried to stop a robber who had just held up a pharmacy on Long Island, the authorities said. The robber was also killed, according to the Nassau County Police Department. Details of the shooting, which occurred outside Charlie's Family Pharmacy on Merrick Road in Seaford, remained murky on Saturday night as the authorities seemed unsure how it unfolded and who fired the fatal shots. The officer killed, John Capano, an explosives specialist who was in his 40s and had been a special agent for 23 years, was assigned to the bureau's Long Island office, said Joe Anarumo, a special agent with the bureau. He was married, lived in the Seaford area and had two teenage children. "Today, doing his job in an off-duty capacity, he intervened in an armed robbery and subsequently was shot," Special Agent Anarumo said, adding, "He was a hero." On Saturday, just before 2 p.m., a lone man walked into the drugstore and announced a robbery, said Officer Maureen Roach, a Nassau police spokeswoman. She did not say if the robber was armed. "He was demanding OxyContin and cash," said Lt. Kevin Smith of the Nassau County police, adding that he did not know how much was stolen. There were customers in the store at the time of the robbery, Lieutenant Smith said, though he said he did not know how many. A law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was unresolved, said the preliminary accounts indicated that after the robber left the pharmacy, he went to a parking lot, and people pointed him out as a suspect. Special Agent Capano then confronted the man. Somehow in the struggle between Special Agent Capano and the robbery suspect shots were fired, "and that is when the agent is shot," the official said. Next door to the pharmacy is a deli the official said was believed to be owned by a retired Nassau County police officer or detective. Some people from the pharmacy went into the deli next door and told the people there what had occurred. Also in the deli at that moment was an off-duty member of the New York Police Department, the official said. "They come out and see these guys struggling," the official said. The official said it was believed that either the retired Nassau officer or the off-duty New York officer shot at the struggling men. The suspect was hit by gunshots and was fatally wounded. It is not clear if Special Agent Capano was shot then or if he had been shot earlier in the struggle with the suspect. Ryan Lecertosa, 24, was on his way home when he drove past the pharmacy Saturday afternoon and heard several gunshots. He said he saw a large man in front of the shop with a blood-soaked shirt. "He was holding his chest, and then he collapsed," Mr. Lecertosa said, adding that the man was instantly surrounded by about six people.

Pycnogenol® (French Maritime Pine Bark Extract) Shown to Improve Visible Signs of Aging in New Clinical Trial HOBOKEN, N.J., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Human skin is the body's first line of defense and often mirrors the health, nutritional status and age of a person. Over time, skin shows signs of aging due to the gradual breakdown of collagen and elastin. However, skin can be rebuilt and made healthier no matter one's age. Natural supplement Pycnogenol® (pic-noj-en-all), an antioxidant plant extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree, was found to improve skin hydration and elasticity in women in a clinical trial published this month in Skin Pharmacology and Physiology. The study was conducted at the Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine (IUF) in Dusseldorf, Germany and examined 20 healthy women, aged 55 - 68 years. Participants were given 75 mg of Pycnogenol® per day, over a period of 12 weeks. Skin hydration, skin elasticity and skin fatigue were assessed by non-invasive biophysical methods at trial start and after six and 12 weeks. In addition, at the beginning and again after 12 weeks of Pycnogenol® supplementation, each time, a biopsy was obtained to assess gene expression of HAS-1 and COL1A1 and COL1A2. The study found that: Pycnogenol® elevated COL1A1 by 29 percent and COL1A2 by 41 percent and increased hyaluronic acid production in skin by 44 percent Pycnogenol® enhanced skin elasticity by 25 percent, in addition to skin hydration by eight percent, and was especially noticeable in women who had dry skin from the start, with an increase of 21 percent Pycnogenol® decreased skin fatigue considerably Pycnogenol® reduced skin wrinkles by three percent and increased skin smoothness by six percent To date, Pycnogenol® is the only natural supplement that stimulates hyaluronic acid production in human skin. And, we are encouraged by the molecular evidence confirmed in this study that shows nutritional supplementation with Pycnogenol® benefits human skin," explains Dr. Jean Krutmann, the lead researcher from the Leibniz Research Institute in Dusseldorf, Germany. Study results confirmed Pycnogenol® improved skin at a physiological and molecular level. Pycnogenol® increased hyaluronic acid in women by 44 percent after 12 weeks of supplementation. Hyaluronic acid binds large quantities of water in the skin and in other tissues, such as cartilage. An increased amount of hyaluronic acid explains the increased skin hydration, higher elasticity and overall smoother skin appearance found in women taking Pycnogenol®. "This exciting and technically advanced investigation with women representing actual consumer profiles greatly supports our efforts for targeting the skin beauty category for both dietary supplements and functional foods," says Victor Ferrari, CEO of Horphag Research, exclusive worldwide suppliers of Pycnogenol®, who welcomes the publication. According to Ferrari, beauty from within has been a driver in Horphag's business for the last several years, with Asian markets providing numerous Pycnogenol® products in the skincare field. This study joins a sizable and largely expanding portfolio of already established skin research on Pycnogenol®. It confirms previous indications that Pycnogenol® improves human skin conditions, including promoting glowing skin and reducing the appearance of over-pigmentation and skin inflammation, resulting in a more even complexion. About Pycnogenol® Pycnogenol® is a natural plant extract originating from the bark of the maritime pine that grows along the coast of southwest France and is found to contain a unique combination of procyanidins, bioflavonoids and organic acids, which offer extensive natural health benefits. The extract has been widely studied for the past 40 years and has more than 280 published studies and review articles ensuring safety and efficacy as an ingredient. Today, Pycnogenol® is available in more than 700 dietary supplements, multi-vitamins and health products worldwide. For more information, visit www.pycnogenol.com. About Horphag Research (USA) Inc. Horphag Research (USA) Inc., based in Hoboken, New Jersey, is the North American distributor for Pycnogenol® (pic-noj-en-all) brand French maritime pine bark extract on behalf of Horphag Research. Pycnogenol® is a registered trademark of Horphag Research Ltd., Guernsey, and its applications are protected by U.S. patents #5,720,956 / #6,372,266 and other international patents. Horphag Research Ltd. Is the recipient of the 2008 Frost & Sullivan North American Health Ingredients Excellence in Research Award. Horphag Research (USA) has the exclusive rights to market and sell Pycnogenol® in North America and benefits from more than 40 years of scientific research assuring the safety and efficacy of Pycnogenol® as a dietary supplement. For more information about Pycnogenol® visit www.pycnogenol.com. SOURCE Horphag Research (USA) Inc.

Progress made in Greek debt talks, negotiators say January 21, 2012 -- Updated 1637 GMT (0037 HKT) A deal on restructuring Greek debt must be reached in order for Greece to receive further bailout funds from the EU and IMF. Progress has been made, a spokesman for private investor negotiators says Talks in Athens hinge on a plan that cuts the value of Greek government bonds in half The deal would mean losses for the private sector but give Greece breathing space Greece needs the deal in place to get more European bailout funds Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Talks on restructuring Greek debt continued Saturday, with negotiators reporting some progress made toward reaching a deal with the nation's private creditors. The negotiations with Institute of International Finance (IIF), which represents the private sector investors who own Greek government bonds, began Wednesday. IIF spokesman Frank Vogl said Saturday: "Progress was made late yesterday and we believe this is now a very important moment." The talks in Athens hinge on a plan that cuts the value of Greek government bonds in half. The deal would result in significant losses for the private sector, which holds over €200 billion of Greece's €350 billion debt load. But a restructuring of Greek debt would also provide much-needed breathing room for the nation at the center of Europe's debt crisis. Two senior negotiators, Charles Dallara and Jean Lemierre, said Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos had been involved in the negotiations. "Now is the time to act decisively and seize the opportunity to finalize this historic deal and contribute to the economic stability of Greece, the Euro Area and the world economy," their statement said. Dallara and Lemierre left Athens Saturday but a team of experts and Greek government representatives continued to hold discussions, IIF spokesman Vogl said. The deal is a key condition for Greece to receive additional bailout funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Without additional financial support, Greece may not be able to make a €14 billion payment it owes on bonds coming due March 20. Under terms negotiated in December, the private sector agreed to voluntarily write down the face value of Greek government bonds by 50%. In exchange, investors would be given securities with longer maturities and lower interest rates. But the talks broke down last week amid calls for the private sector to take larger write downs. Even a 50% reduction would result in lower interest rates, forcing bondholders to take even bigger losses. The negotiations have also been hampered by disagreements over the stipulation that private sector investors voluntarily accept the write downs. This is important because a non-voluntary write down could trigger insurance contracts called credit default swaps, a development that could roil the financial system. CNN's Ben Rooney and Per Nyberg contributed to this report. January 13, 2012 -- Updated 1702 GMT (0102 HKT) January 14, 2012 -- Updated 1156 GMT (1956 HKT) European markets have been given a final-hour fright upon reports of an imminent downgrade for eurozone countries by ratings agency S&P. January 13, 2012 -- Updated 1048 GMT (1848 HKT) The European Union is "shooting itself in the foot" by keeping Turkey at bay, the country's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek says. January 13, 2012 -- Updated 1549 GMT (2349 HKT) January 13, 2012 -- Updated 1523 GMT (2323 HKT)

House votes on permanent electronic duck stamp WASHINGTON (AP) - The e-Duck Stamp would become a permanent part of federal law under legislation passed by the House Monday. Since 1934, migratory waterfowl hunters over the age of 16 have been required to buy the federal migratory bird hunting and conservation stamps, or duck stamps, at post offices or sporting goods stores. But four years ago, eight states joined a pilot program allowing them to sell temporary duck stamps through the Internet. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said that program has been a success and it was time to make it federal law. The bill passed 373-1. If passed by the Senate, it would give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authority to make that program permanent and extend it to all states. The electronic stamps are valid for 45 days, giving hunters and other purchasers time to get their actual stamps through the mail. The program also makes it easier for hunters to go online to buy their federal stamps and state hunting licenses at the same time. The stamps now cost $15 a year, with 98 percent of the revenues going to buy or lease wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Migratory Bird Conservation Fund has received more than $800 million since 1934, putting 5.3 million acres of wetlands under the refuge system. The program currently generates about $25 million a year. The stamps also give birders and other non-hunters free access to the nation's 553 wildlife refuges. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sponsors a contest every year where wildlife artists from around the country vie to have their entry selected as the design for the stamp the next year.

Obama turns to roots as key year dawns US President Barack Obama opened a landmark year on Sunday by paying homage to his roots as he wraps up his vacation in his native Hawaii. Obama visited the graveyard of his grandfather, a World War II veteran, in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, and then viewed an exhibition of his late mother's anthropological field work in Indonesia. The new year 2012 will be a crucial one for Obama -- he will either win a second White House term in November or go down in history as a one-term president. Obama took his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha to visit the gravesite of his grandfather Stanley Dunham, who is credited with playing a major role in bringing him up as a boy in Hawaii. Then Obama called in at the East West Center, a Hawaii think-tank dedicated to US links with Asia and policy towards the region, to see the exhibition of his mother's field work. The exhibit of Ann Dunham's work includes a collection of textiles, ceramics, and basketry made in the villages of Indonesia. Obama spent four years as a boy living in Indonesia with his late mother, who died of cancer in 1995. The president and his family are expected to leave Hawaii after their annual Christmas and New Year vacation on Monday.

Sony Adds Ultra-high-speed Interface Compatibility to Its Line of SD Media PARK RIDGE, N.J., Jan. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- At CES 2012, Sony announced it is expanding its line of SD cards with a new flagship series designed for ultra-high speed interface (UHS-I) compatibility, giving DSLR users superb speed and high performance. The new cards are available in capacities of 32GB (SF-32UX), 16GB (SF-16UX) and 8GB (SF-8UX). The new cards offer significantly higher transfer speeds up to 94MB/s (read) and 45MB/s (write, for SF-8UX, write speed is 22MB/s), ideal for the burst shooting and HD video modes of today's DSLR cameras and HD camcorders (based on Sony tests and dependent on host hardware). They can also realize rapid data rates when transferring content - even large, high-resolution HD files - back to their PCs. And when used with non-UHS-I supported hardware, the new Sony cards will still maintain Class 10 speed. "Today's advanced shooter never wants to miss the big moment, and that requires cards with fast, reliable and secure data transfer and storage capabilities," said Viviano Cantu, Director of Consumer Media for Sony Electronics. These cards represent the top of the line for our SD media, and are designed to give users total peace of mind. The new cards have been subjected to Sony testing, in order to achieve high levels of reliability and data integrity. Additionally, the new cards are water-resistant, and are designed to perform under a wide range of operating temperatures. Users can also shoot with ease knowing their photos and videos are protected thanks to Sony's File Rescue Software which can help recover photos and videos that may have been accidentally damaged or deleted. The Sony UHS-I series of cards will be available in March, starting at prices of $44.99.

Oakland Raiders fan falls from bleachers after game OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) - A football fan fell from bleachers at an Oakland Raiders game on Sunday as he tried to attract the attention of players leaving the field after a game against the San Diego Chargers, the team said. Juan Salceto, 17, was leaning over a railing on the first deck of seats at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum shortly after the game ended when he slipped and fell, according to a Raiders team representative who asked not to be named. Salceto was trying to get the attention of Oakland players as they walked from the field to a tunnel leading to the team locker room, the representative said. His fall was partly broken by a tarp covering the walkway, and the ground was soft dirt, the representative said. "He never lost consciousness and there was no apparent trauma," the representative said. We have been advised that the fan will be absolutely fine. Emergency responders were nearby when the fall occurred and transported the man to Highland Hospital, Captain Stephen Glatstein of Paramedics Plus said. Glatstein said the fan fell 15-20 feet. The team representative had put the distance fallen at around 10 feet. The Oakland Raiders lost 38-26 to the San Diego Chargers. Reporting by Emmett Berg; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Cynthia Johnston

BP sues Halliburton for full cost of Gulf disaster British oil giant BP is pushing US energy services firm Halliburton to pay for all the costs BP incurred in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst environmental disaster in US history. In a US federal court filing, BP said that it was seeking full repayment of damages from Halliburton, alleging it fraudulently putting a defective cement seal on a deepwater well, causing a deadly explosion and pollution of the Gulf and neighboring states. BP filed suit Monday with the US district court in New Orleans seeking damages from Halliburton including "the amount of costs and expenses incurred by BP to clean up and remediate the oil spill" and "all other costs and damages incurred by BP" related to the Deepwater Horizon rig blowout and resulting oil spill. The latest court filing marked an expansion of the scope of BP's April 2010 lawsuit, in which the British company had sought reimbursement from Halliburton "for all or a part of the damages, costs and expenses." BP has spent more than $40 billion on the disaster and could still be liable for billions in fines, compensation and restoration costs. A BP spokesman declined to comment on the case. In October the US government slapped BP, Transocean -- the Swiss owner and operator of the drilling rig -- and Halliburton with citations for violating oil industry regulations in what is expected to lead to massive fines. Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that US prosecutors are readying criminal charges against BP employees, which would be the first criminal charges over the disaster. The explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010, killed 11 people, and the Macondo well gushed oil into the ocean for 87 days, blackening the southern US shoreline and crippling the local tourism and fishing sectors. By the time the well was capped, 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil had spilled out of the runaway well 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. BP alleges that Halliburton used defoaming and dispersant additives that should not be used with foamed cement slurry it used to seal the bottom of the Macondo well, and the contractor failed to inform BP of problems with the slurry, both before and after the incident. "Halliburton's knowing misrepresentations were a cause-in-fact and also a legal cause of BP's injuries," the British firm said in its April lawsuit.

Fed Chairman Bernanke to lecture students WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will give a series of four lectures to college students at George Washington University in March, the central bank said on Thursday. It was the latest in a series of steps, including periodic press conferences, to improve the central bank's communication and bolster its image after a series of political attacks on the institution. The lectures are scheduled for March 20, 22, 27 and 29 and will begin at 12:45 p.m. Whether what he says will be relevant to the outlook for monetary policy remains to be seen. On Wednesday, the Fed said it would not likely raise interest rates, currently near zero, until at least late 2014. Bernanke also signaled he is considering another round of monetary stimulus to support a weak recovery. Reporting By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Andrew Hay

2012 Mazda3: It's light, not lite The best small cars under that marketing regime were those that helped improve sales-fleet fuel economy without costing manufacturers much money or offering the consumer anything except a few more miles per gallon. Even Japanese automobile manufacturers, specialists in the production of high-quality small cars, hedged their bets when it came to the U.S. market. More costly, advanced small models were kept overseas. Less-expensive small cars were built in or shipped to the United States - the theory being that selling small cars in the Land of Big Wheels was the wrong road to business success. Subsequent global economic troubles and worldwide concern about fossil-fuel sourcing and costs have changed all of that. We're now in the middle of a small-car war, with combatants including every global automaker. The objective is to deliver compact cars, subcompact cars and mini-cars with all the comfort and safety found in larger models, but with substantially better fuel economy. That's fuel economy with a twist. The current real-world standard is about 40 miles per gallon on the highway in small cars that can get you a speeding ticket - or take you to jail, a hospital or a grave - as fast as the fastest gas guzzlers. It is an engineering feat hailed by automotive enthusiasts and engineers and condemned by environmentalists, who want more attention paid to fuel economy and less to performance. But small, fast and frugal is a trend on ample display at the 2012 Washington Auto Show, now underway at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and at other U.S. and global automotive displays this year. A leader in that race is this week's subject automobile, the 2012 Mazda3 with Skyactiv technology, also on display in Washington. It is a motorized contradiction in terms. Despite a modest facelift for the new model year, it retains all the humility of a car best parked in the driveway of a convent or rectory, particularly the five-door hatchback i Touring model driven for this column. But don't let its looks fool you. The Mazda3 is addictive, arguably as much fun to drive as a more powerful and expensive automobile. It is engineering magic performed with lightweight materials - aluminum, plastics and composites - and a low-weight, low-friction design of engine and transmission components. The low-weight, low-friction approach - Mazda's patented "Skyactiv" engineering - reduces fuel consumption without a commensurate reduction in engine performance. The result is a small, fast front-wheel-drive car with a 2-liter in-line four-cylinder engine that delivers 155 horsepower and 148 foot-pounds of torque in the i Touring version. That's a lot of oomph in a car with a curb weight of 2,896 pounds. That might also be a lot of worry about safety in a tiny speedster. But Mazda's engineers clearly anticipated that concern, loading the Mazda3 with enough side and head air bags to earn a five-star federal frontal crash rating and four-star ratings for side and rollover crashes. Translation: Your chances of walking away from a crash in a Mazda3 are as good as walking away from anything else, assuming you hit something of similar mass and structure.

Documentary From Emad Burnat's Camera Competes at Sundance Emad Burnat, a farmer and videographer, with his son Gibreel near the wall of separation in the West Bank. BILIN, West Bank - Emad Burnat was born to the land and, like generations of his family in this hilltop West Bank village, he has eked out a modest living from its rocky soil. But six years ago, at the birth of a son, he was given a video camera and turned unexpectedly into the village chronicler. There was a great deal to record. Israel was building a separation barrier on village land that included some of his family's own. The rationale behind it was to stop suicide bombers, but the move confiscated most of the village's arable land and allowed for the expansion of an enormous Israeli settlement. Bulldozers uprooted centuries-old olive trees while settlers drove up with furniture and mobile homes. Villagers stood in the way; soldiers arrested them. Mr. Burnat was there, day in, day out, filming with his new camera. Now, working with an Israeli filmmaker, Guy Davidi, Mr. Burnat has taken his years of video and turned them into a compelling personal tale. The film, "Five Broken Cameras," won two awards in November at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, including the Audience Award, and is one of about a dozen films competing at Sundance this week in the World Documentary category. As Bilin became the center for Palestinian popular resistance - weekly demonstrations joined by Israeli and foreign activists, and a partial Supreme Court victory forcing the barrier to be moved and some land returned - Mr. Burnat's images became crucial. They were used not only by journalists but by those fighting charges in Israeli military courts. Accusations of assault were sometimes countered with a common refrain: let's go to Emad's videotape. The new documentary intersperses scenes of villagers fighting the barrier with Mr. Burnat's son Gibreel's first words ("cartridge," "army"), undercover Israeli agents taking away friends and relatives, and Mr. Burnat's wife, Soraya, begging him to turn his attention away from politics and be with his family. Over six years, Mr. Burnat went through five cameras, each broken in the course of filming - among other things, by soldiers" bullets and an angry settler. At the start of the film, Mr. Burnat lines up the cameras on a table. They form the movie's chapters and create a motif for the unfolding drama - the power of bearing witness. Mr. Burnat never puts his camera down and it drives his opponents mad. "Tell him if he keeps filming I will break his bones!" a settler declares to a soldier. Mr. Burnat keeps filming. The settler approaches him and, as the camera rolls, throws it to the ground, breaking it. The screen goes blank. "When I film, I feel like the camera protects me," Mr. Burnat says in his soft-voiced narration of the movie, making a point familiar to all journalists. But it is an illusion. In one scene, soldiers come to Mr. Burnat's house ("Now it's my turn," he says into the camera) to arrest him on charges of throwing stones and assaulting a soldier - charges he denied and of which he was later exonerated, according to an army spokesman. He films the soldiers" entry into his house and their surreal assertion that he must turn off his camera because he is in a "closed military area." "I am in my own home," he replies. He spends three weeks in prison and six weeks under house arrest. It takes three years for the case to be dismissed. A subtheme of the film is the activism of Mr. Burnat's two close friends, Adeeb and Bassem Abu Rahma, who were cousins. Bassem was nicknamed "Phil," the Arabic word for elephant. Both were playful, big-hearted guys at the front of the demonstrations. Phil was killed at a demonstration in 2009, and Mr. Burnat originally thought of making the movie about him. But Mr. Davidi and an Israeli organization called Greenhouse, which pairs regional filmmakers with European mentors and is financed by the European Union, persuaded Mr. Burnat to place himself at the center of his story. It was a crucial move that gave the film its power and intimacy. But it did not come naturally. "It was a very difficult decision to make such a personal film," Mr. Burnat, 40, said as he sat in the garden of his home. Gibreel, now 6, and his older sons were wandering in and out, and the high-rises of the Modiin Illit settlement could be seen in the distance. I was uncomfortable about showing footage of my wife. This may be normal in Europe, but here in Palestine you have to answer many questions. I have so far avoided showing the film here.

U.S. CO2 emissions to stay below 2005 levels as coal use shrinks Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:23am EST NEW YORK - U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions will be 7 percent lower than their 2005 level of nearly 6 billion metric tons in 2020 as coal's share of electricity production continues a steady descent over the next two decades, according to new government data. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released an early version of its annual energy outlook on Monday, which predicted a slowdown in growth of energy use over the next two decades amid economic recovery and improved energy efficiency. The report highlights the fact that carbon-intensive coal generation will see a major decline in the power sector in the coming decades, which will ensure energy-related CO2 emissions will not exceed 2005 levels at any point before 2035. The report also showed that emissions per capita would fall an average of 1 percent per year from 2005 to 2035 as the new federal standards, state renewable energy mandates and higher energy prices would temper the growth of demand for transportation fuels. "Over the next 25 years, the projected coal share of overall electricity generation falls to 39 percent, well below the 49-percent share seen as recently as 2007, because of slow growth in electricity demand, continued competition from natural gas and renewable plants, and the need to comply with new environmental regulations," it said. The retirement of old, inefficient coal-fired power plants will outpace new construction, and the report added that gas-fired plants - which are cheaper to build - will generate 13 percent more power in 2012 than they did last year. Meanwhile, the share of electricity generation from renewable fuels is expected to grow from 10 percent in 2010 to 16 percent by 2035, according to the EIA. The Obama Administration has set a target under the U.N. for the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Congress has not been able to pass comprehensive energy and climate change legislation that would help ensure the target is met, but the administration hopes a combination of federal regulations and state emission-reduction programs can achieve the cuts. The report said that the U.S. will remain an importer of oil while it becomes for the first time a net exporter of natural gas within the next 25 years. The agency cautioned that the results of the outlook may change when it publishes the final annual energy outlook in April this year. Reporting by Valerie Volcovici

Over 100 dogs in U-Haul prompts review of Long Beach rescuers Long Beach animal control officials had received three complaints about a well-known dog boarding facility in the days before the operators were arrested and charged with 128 counts of animal cruelty in Tennessee, officials said. Bonnie Sheehan, 55, and Pamela A. King-McCracken, 59, were arrested Tuesday after they were stopped by a state trooper in Tennessee, authorities said. The women were driving a U-Haul truck that was pulling a minivan east of Memphis. Authorities found 21 dogs inside the minivan and at least 107 others were discovered in the back of the U-Haul without any food or water amid unsanitary, dangerous conditions. Sheehan and King-McCracken, who have operated Hearts for Hounds in Long Beach for years, left the city on Sunday, headed to Virginia for a dog auction. The animal care office had received three complaints in the days before they left, said John Keisler, acting manager of Long Beach Animal Care Services. The first one was on Thursday regarding noise and foul odors. Officers inspected the facility and were planning to deliver a notice to comply Tuesday. But on Sunday, the office received an anonymous call about a dead animal thrown in the trash, according to Keisler. An officer responded but found no dead animal. After the officer left, the office received another call saying that the women were packing animals into a truck. The same officer responded again, Keisler said, but it's unclear whether she saw dogs being loaded inside the U-Haul. Now, city animal control officials are reviewing their response to the complaints. "We're taking a look specifically at what she saw when she was there," Keisler told The Times. There's conflicting reports. We want to get it right. Good Samaritan shot trying to stop Lynwood robbery has died Condoms in porn: Moving industry out of state could be difficult Robert Lopez Photo: Animal control officers round up dogs that were being transported by two Long Beach women. Credit: Kyle Kurlick / Associated Press

Sheriff: Suicidal Ariz couple wanted deputies dead Sheriff: Suicidal Ariz couple wanted deputies dead - US news updated 2 hours 23 minutes ago YUMA, Ariz. - An Arizona couple who committed suicide last month planned to lure sheriff's deputies to their remote, desert home and kill as many as possible before ending their own lives, a top local law enforcement official said, as an eerie series of videos the couple made was released this week. Yuma County investigators found elaborate plans, both in writing and in video, in a blast-protected area after Jesse Lee and Diedre Firestone's Dome Valley home exploded Dec. 23 while surrounded by officers. They had planned to blow up the house as a SWAT team entered, Capt. Eben Bratcher told the Yuma Sun (http://bit.ly/AqdfFB). The couple's bodies were found in the home two days after the explosion. One deputy suffered minor injuries when the blast knocked him down. "The motive behind their plan is not known, but it was clear they fully intended to murder as many deputies as possible prior to taking their own lives," Bratcher told the newspaper. These people absolutely had a plan, and I think they wanted to die and make as big of a scene as they could possibly make. In one of the videos released to the Yuma Sun, the couple are seen sitting on their balcony, calmly discussing what was about to happen while waiting for deputies to respond. In another, Jesse Firestone, 65, shows a .357 magnum rifle he planned to use and the hole in the front door of the home he was going to fire through. He even mentions some sheriff deputies by name, saying "it's nothing personal. Anyway - adios. Footage also shows a shrine the Firestones called the "Church of Death," which features a bible, two binders with hand-made covers entitled the "Firestone Gospel," and a picture of Osama bin Laden. What is not known and may never be is if the explosion actually happened prematurely or if the Firestones changed their minds and decided not to go through with their plans, Bratcher said. "This could have ended up horribly, and we are grateful none of our guys were seriously injured," Bratcher said. It was one of those things you wouldn't have ever expected to happen in Yuma. It is insane. You read about this type of thing in the paper happening somewhere else. Authorities drove to the home on the afternoon of Dec. 23 after a man called the sheriff's office and said he had just shot his ill wife. The man opened fire on arriving officers, and that's when the house blew up. Before sheriff's officials arrived, Jesse Firestone in a video is seen standing inside his home using a cell phone to call 911 to report that he had just mercifully shot his wife, which was how they planned to lure deputies to their residence. According to that video, Diedre Firestone, 45, had been suffering from "self-diagnosed" breast cancer for the past 10 months, but refusing to get treatment. "I got to go kill my dogs now," Jesse Firestone is seen saying before he hangs up the phone. It took two days for a bomb squad to enter the home. They found the main bedroom and living room heavily damaged from the explosion and subsequent fire, with the roof caved in. They also located 15 five-gallon propane bottles near the two bodies. Two propane bottles appear to have bullet holes in them, possibly indicating the explosion was intentional. Information from: The Sun, http://www.yumasun.com

Tom Cruise rings in New Year at top of box office Tom Cruise's latest "Mission: Impossible" film topped the North American box office for a second week, ringing up $38.2 million over the long New Year weekend, industry data showed Tuesday. "Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol," the actor's fourth outing in the action film series, made $29.4 over three days to Sunday, and the rest Monday, bringing its total take so far to $141.2 million, Exhibitor Relations said. In second was "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," a sequel to the 2009 film about the detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It took in $20.9 million on the third weekend since its release, or $26.9 including Monday. In third place with $16.4 million for Friday to Sunday, or $21.5 million over four days, was "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," the third animated film about the adorable singing critters. Fourth place went to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," Hollywood's adaptation of the wildly popular Stieg Larsson novel, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara -- which took in $14.8 million or $19.2 million including Monday. Steven Spielberg's "War Horse," about the bond between a boy and his horse during World War I, cantered into fifth place with $14.4 million, or $18.1 including the extra day. Family film "We Bought A Zoo" starring Matt Damon finished in sixth place, taking in $13.2 million, or an even $17 million over the extended weekend. Another Spielberg film, "The Adventures of Tintin," about an intrepid Belgian boy reporter, was seventh with $11.4 million, or $15.4 million with Monday's takings as well. Star-studded holiday romance "New Year's Eve" earned $6.3 million (or $7.6 million) for eighth place, while thriller "The Darkest Hour" took ninth place with $4.2 million ($5.2 million including Monday). Rounding out the top 10 was "The Descendants" starring George Clooney, which grossed $4 million, or $4.3 million including that lucky extra day before filmgoers headed back to work after the holiday.

Oil gives up gains after US GDP lags estimates Jan 27 10:33 AM US/Eastern NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices are flat with a report showed the U.S. economy grew at a slightly slower than expected pace in the fourth quarter. The Commerce Department said Friday that the economy grew at a modest 2.8 percent in the final three months of last year. While that is the fastest growth in 2011, economists expected 3 percent growth. Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 5 cents at $99.65 in early trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price had risen above $100 a barrel earlier as the market continues to await the outcome of gamesmanship between Iran and Western nations. Brent crude for March delivery rose 55 cents to $111.40 on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Google pockets money from illegal Olympic ticket touts Google has said that it was not responsible for the actions or able to monitor the activities of every company which advertises with it. However, despite now removing the adverts, it took a week for Google to do so after the Metropolitan Police asked the search engine to take them down. A spokesman for the company said: "We have a set of policies covering which ads can and cannot show on Google. These policies and guidelines are enforced by both automated systems and human beings. When we are informed of ads which break our policies, we investigate and remove them if appropriate. For example, working with the police, we have recently taken down a number of violating Olympics ads. Our aim is to create a simple and efficient way for legitimate businesses to promote and sell their goods and services whilst protecting them and consumers from illicit activity. We are continuously investing in ways to improve our systems. Web security experts have warned internet users to be careful about clicking on adverts on the search engine, as increasing numbers of dubious companies are making their way to the top of the rankings. "Relying on an automated process is remarkably lax and typing key words into Google can show up illegal sites quite quickly," online security adviser, Reg Walker, told the BBC. We carried out an experiment around six months ago trying to knock a ticket scam site off the top of the Google AdWords results and we went up to £28 per click and we still couldn't shift it from the top. He is also critical about how the search giant removes adverts from unlawful services. "There's an automated complaint form, which gets an automated reply, which lets you know you're in a queue, and eventually a human being will get around to scrutinising it and do something about it," he said. The site could stay up for days, weeks, or possibly even months.

Nick Clegg warns against 'needless rivalry' in Europe

Transparency Life Sciences, LLC Launched as World's First Drug Development Company Based on Open Innovation NEW YORK and PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Transparency Life Sciences, LLC (TLS) the world's first drug development company based on open innovation, announced its official launch today with the introduction of a prototype of the company's crowdsourced web platform that allows patients, physicians, researchers and other stakeholders to contribute to the design of clinical studies. The goal of the new company is to develop therapies for significant unmet medical needs by acquiring promising drug compounds and testing them in clinical trials that leverage 21st century information technology to achieve unprecedented productivity. Tomasz Sablinski, M.D., Ph.D., founding CEO of TLS, highlighted the company's distinctive approach in a talk yesterday at the Patient Centricity in Clinical Trials conference in Philadelphia. "The communications and information revolutions have transformed nearly everything around us, yet the design and execution of clinical trials have changed little in the past 40 years," noted Dr. Sablinski. Transparency Life Sciences intends to use its own pipeline of compounds to demonstrate that an open innovation approach to drug development can deliver high quality results that facilitate regulatory review and are more patient-centric. And we believe that our approach can accomplish this faster and at a much lower cost than conventional clinical studies. Transparency's game-changing approach is based on three principles. First, collaborative intelligence, also known as crowdsourcing, will be employed for the clinical protocol design phase, with the participation of medical experts, front-line physicians, patients and others, resulting in protocols that are focused on parameters most relevant to clinical decision-making and practice. Second, Transparency is leveraging contemporary health information and communications technologies to implement patient-centric clinical trials that will reduce burdens on subjects and sponsors, and enhance data quality. Third, consistent with its name, TLS intends to be a leader in demonstrating how transparency throughout the clinical trial process can enhance drug development. "Drug development has reached a crisis point, with clinical studies too often designed to meet commercial rather than patient needs, which we believe is one key factor underlying their unsustainable cost structure," Sablinski continued. We expect to achieve much greater efficiency in our patient-centric trials by harnessing the power of crowdsourcing, advances in telemedicine and full data transparency. We think our approach is very much in-line with current FDA thinking, and we are encouraged by the enthusiastic response we have received to date from a broad range of drug development experts. Sablinski added, "Our strategy is first to demonstrate the value of our innovative platform with repurposed off-patent compounds to take advantage of their extensive safety records. Once having demonstrated the feasibility of our approach, we expect to access the many opportunities that exist to develop distressed drug assets that have been stalled primarily for non-scientific reasons. Clinical protocols for Transparency's first three repurposed compounds are now available for collaborative input on the TLS crowdsourced web platform. The first is for the widely used anti-hypertensive drug lisinopril, which animal studies suggest may have efficacy in treating multiple sclerosis (MS). Transparency is in late-stage negotiations for an exclusive option to license lisinopril for development as a new treatment for MS. Second is the Phase II protocol design for sulodexide, a heparin-like compound that has demonstrated potential in animal models of peripheral vascular disease. The third protocol is for a Phase Il trial of low-dose naltrexone as a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel disease. In 2008, the pharmaceutical and biotech industry spent an estimated $35 billion on clinical trials, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, NIH and other sources. Annual compound growth in expenditures exceeded 9% between 2004 and 2008, making clinical trials the fastest growing cost-related barrier to getting new drugs to market. "We've reached a tipping point in the biopharmaceutical industry, in which gains in productivity can only be achieved through completely new approaches to clinical drug development," said David Nicholson, Ph.D., formerly Senior Vice President and Head of Worldwide Licensing and Knowledge Management at Merck. Transparency is addressing a critical point in the drug pipeline with breakthrough innovation that has great promise. "Our research at the Tufts Center highlights the urgent need to remove bottlenecks and inefficiencies in clinical development and to reduce the high and rising cost of R&D," added Kenneth Getz, a Senior Research Fellow and Research Assistant Professor at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. Bold new approaches are needed to upend the long-outdated pharmaceutical R&D paradigm. Virtual and open innovation strategies, like that proposed by Transparency Life Sciences, hold great promise in bringing drug development into the 21st century. Transparency Life Sciences' founding team is composed of experienced executives from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and high technology industries. The company has assembled a world-class advisory board with expertise in crowdsourcing, technology and online media. Dr. Sablinski's talk, Leverage Crowdsourcing, Telemedicine and Transparency to Conduct Patient-Centric Trials was presented at the Patient Centricity in Clinical Trials conference, being held January 30-31, 2012, in Philadelphia, PA. For more information, visit www.cbinet.com/conference/pc12013 About Transparency Life Sciences Transparency Life Sciences (TLS) is the world's first drug development company based on open innovation. TLS acquires promising drug compounds for significant unmet medical needs and tests them in clinical trials that leverage crowdsourcing methods, advances in telemedicine and data transparency. The company expects to realize significantly reduced costs and clinical timelines. To learn more about TLS, visit the company's prototype crowdsourced web platform at http://transparencyls.com/. SOURCE Transparency Life Sciences, LLC

El Salvador Massacre Apology on 20-Year Peace Mark El Salvador's president has formally apologized for the 1981 El Mozote massacre and acknowledged the government's responsibility for killing 936 civilians in a counterinsurgency operation. President Mauricio Funes says the army committed "the biggest massacre of civilians in the contemporary history of Latin America." Funes was elected on the ticket of the former leftist rebels. He was a journalist at the time and did not take part in the country's 12-year civil war. Funes spoke Monday on the 20th anniversary of the 1992 peace accords that ended the conflict. He asked forgiveness on behalf of the government from the relatives of the estimated 75,000 people killed and 12,000 disappeared in the conflict.

SPX Announces Definitive Agreement to Sell its Service Solutions Business to Robert Bosch GmbH for $1.15 Billion CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SPX Corporation (NYSE: SPW) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Service Solutions business to Robert Bosch GmbH for $1.15 billion in cash. This sale is subject to normal closing conditions, regulatory and other approvals and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2012. Upon completion, SPX expects to record an after-tax book gain of approximately $450 million dollars or $8.65 per share. "The sale of Service Solutions represents the latest significant development in the transformation of SPX," said Chris Kearney, SPX Chairman, President and CEO. This divestiture narrows our strategic focus and enhances our ability to build out our Flow Technology segment. Flow Technology is the foundation of our company and we now expect that segment to represent more than 50 percent of our revenue going forward. Kearney also said, "We anticipate after-tax proceeds of approximately $1 billion which will significantly increase our liquidity and financial flexibility. With respect to capital allocation, we plan to commit approximately $350 million to debt reduction, including the funding of our 2013 debt maturities, and de-lever into our target gross leverage range of 1.5 to 2.5 times during 2012. We also intend to enter into a plan, subject to the terms of our credit agreements, to repurchase a minimum of $350 million of equity. After these actions, we expect to have approximately $1.5 billion of liquidity in 2012 and will evaluate additional strategic acquisitions and/or share repurchases consistent with our capital allocation methodology. David Kowalski, SPX segment president said, "We are proud that we transformed Service Solutions from a domestic hard tool manufacturer into a global supplier of diagnostic solutions, hard tools and repair information services. Bosch is dedicated to the automotive service sector and has strong relationships with vehicle original equipment manufacturers worldwide. We believe Service Solutions is a very good strategic fit with Bosch. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC acted as a financial advisor to SPX on the Service Solutions transaction. 2012 Financial Reporting Management expects the sale of Service Solutions, subsequent uses of capital and other potential actions related to this divestiture to have a material impact on its 2012 financial results. Additionally, management cannot at this time accurately predict the timing of the completion of this divestiture or the planned uses of capital because of the required regulatory reviews and other conditions. In conjunction with this transaction, management is also reassessing its global initiatives and cost structure, which could result in additional actions in 2012. Due to these factors, SPX is withdrawing its 2012 guidance. Rather than issue revised guidance, SPX will provide a pro forma modeling framework for 2012 earnings from continuing operations to assist analysts and investors. This information will be included in the webcast slide presentation referred to below. SPX plans to begin reporting Service Solutions as a discontinued operation in Q1 2012 and will no longer report the Test and Measurement segment. The other businesses previously included in the Test and Measurement segment will be reported in the Industrial Products and Services segment beginning in Q1 2012. SPX management will hold a conference call at 9:00 am Eastern time on Tuesday, January 24, 2011 to discuss the details of this announcement. Those interested in participating in the conference call should dial in five minutes prior to the start of the call. The call will be simultaneously webcast via the company's website at http://www.spx.com/ and the slide presentation will be available in the Investor Relations section of the site. Dial in: 1-866-510-0707 From outside the United States: +1 617-597-5376 Participant code: 76704469 The replay of the web cast will be available on SPX's website through Tuesday February 7th. A replay of the call will be available by telephone through Tuesday January 31st. To listen to a replay of the call Dial in: 888-286-8010 From outside the United States: +1 617-801-6888 Participant code: 86045493 About SPX Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, SPX Corporation (NYSE: SPW) is a global Fortune 500 multi-industry manufacturing leader with over $5 billion in annual revenue, operations in more than 35 countries and over 18,000 employees. The company's highly-specialized, engineered products and technologies are concentrated in three areas: Flow Technology, infrastructure, and vehicle service solutions. Many of SPX's innovative solutions are playing a role in helping to meet rising global demand for electricity, processed foods and beverages and vehicle services, particularly in emerging markets. The company's products include food processing systems for the food and beverage industry, power transformers for utility companies, cooling systems for power plants; and diagnostic tools and equipment for the automotive industry. This description of SPX does not contemplate the pending sale of the Service Solutions business. For more information, please visit www.spx.com. Certain statements in this press release, including any statements relating to consummation of the contemplated transaction or intentions relating to use of capital, may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are subject to the safe harbor created thereby. Please refer to our public filings for a discussion of certain important factors that relate to forward-looking statements contained in this press release. The word "expect," "believe," "planned" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Statements in the press release speak only as of the date of this press release, and SPX disclaims any responsibility to update or revise such statements. SOURCE SPX Corporation

Adele to Perform at the Grammys January 31, 2012, 11:39 am Adele will perform at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, making her first appearance since undergoing throat surgery last fall, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday. "It's an absolute honor to be included in such a night, and for it to be my first performance in months is very exciting and of course nerve-racking," the British singer and songwriter said in a statement. Adele is widely expected to be a big winner at this year's Grammy Awards, after having the biggest selling album of last year, "21," (XL/Columbia) and dominating the charts in 2011 on both sides of the Atlantic with her singles "Rolling in the Deep," "Someone like You" and "Set Fire to the Rain." But her voice - with its raspy soulful timbre always on the point of breaking - suffered from the strain of touring and she was forced to cancel a sold-out United States tour to undergo surgery in November to stop bleeding in her larynx. Until this week, it remained unclear whether she would be able to perform at the awards ceremony, which will be broadcast on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Two rashers of bacon a day increases cancer risk by 20% Published on Friday 13 January 2012 00:31 Eating two rashers of bacon a day can increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 19 per cent and the risk goes up if a person eats more, experts have said. Eating 50 grammes of processed meat every day - the equivalent to one sausage or two rashers of bacon - increases the risk by 19 per cent compared to people who do not eat processed meat at all. For people consuming double this amount of processed meat (100g), the increased risk jumps to 38 per cent, and is 57 per cent for those eating 150g a day. However, experts cautioned that the overall risk of pancreatic cancer was relatively low - in the UK, the lifetime risk of developing the disease is one in 77 for men and one in 79 for women. Nevertheless, the disease is deadly - it is frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage and kills 80 per cent of people in under a year. Only 5 per cent of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis. The latest study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, is from researchers at the respected Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. They examined data from 11 studies, including 6,643 cases of pancreatic cancer. They found inconclusive evidence on the risks of eating red meat overall compared to eating no red meat. They found a 29 per cent increase in pancreatic cancer risk for men eating 120g per day of red meat but no increased risk among women. This may be because men in the study tended to eat more red meat than women. They concluded: "Findings from this meta-analysis indicate that processed meat consumption is positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk. Red meat consumption was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in men. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings. The study adds to understanding about the risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer. Overall, smoking is thought to account for around a third of all cases of the disease, and smokers have a 74 per cent increased risk of developing it compared to non-smokers. Associate professor Susanna Larsson, author on the study, said: "Pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates. So as well as diagnosing it early, it's important to understand what can increase the risk of this disease. If diet does affect pancreatic cancer then this could influence public health campaigns to help reduce the number of cases of this disease developing in the first place. Around 8,090 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK in 2008 - 3 per cent of all cancer cases - and around 7,780 people died from it. Sara Hiom, director of information at Cancer Research UK, said: "The jury is still out as to whether meat is a definite risk factor for pancreatic cancer and more large studies are needed to confirm this. But this new analysis suggests processed meat may be playing a role.

Obama Political Advisor: Romney Is "The 25 Percent Man" One of President Obama's chief political strategists tried to coin a new nickname for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, thrashing his political positions and what he says the GOP candidate stands for. David Axelrod called Romney the "25 percent man" during a conference call with reporters Wednesday, referring to the vote total Romney won in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, and the fact he hasn't been able to cross that threshold in national polls or individual states. "He entered as a weak frontrunner and leaves a weak frontrunner," Axelrod said of Romney's narrow win in Tuesday's caucus. Romney beat out former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum by only eight votes in the contest. In a theme expected to continue into the general election if Romney becomes the Republican nominee, Axelrod painted Romney as beholden to big business and out of touch with American voters. "His economic vision isn't the vision of Americans," Axelrod said. At every turn, Gov. Romney stands for an economy rigged against everyday people... Romney symbolizes what concerns most people about this economy. Though he has engaged with other Republicans, Romney's campaign has generally employed what has been seen as a general election strategy, lashing out at the president an array of issues. During his Iowa victory speech in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Romney accused Mr. Obama of being "in over his head." His camp continued attacking the administration Wednesday after the president made a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau was born out of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul bill Senate Republicans had stalled the nomination to protest the bureau. The administration's move put Romney on the attack again. "This action represents Chicago-style politics at its worst and is precisely what then-Senator Obama claimed would be "the wrong thing to do. Sadly, instead of focusing on economic growth, he is once again focusing on creating more regulation, more government, and more Washington gridlock," Romney said in a statement. The Obama campaign wasted no time firing back. "Governor Romney has made clear he has not learned the lessons of the economic crisis, instead, he's giving the most irresponsible financial actors a bright green light to pursue profit at any cost to communities across America," Obama for America Press Secretary Ben LaBolt said in a statement. Axelrod said while Romney has been attacking the president publicly, privately he has been behind attacks on former frontrunner Newt Gingrich. He charges that Romney called in "the Air Force to carpet bomb" Gingrich and that Santorum's strong Iowa showing means he'll be next. Throwing back to a metaphor he used to describe Newt Gingrich's rise in December, Axelrod said that Santorum is like a monkey that has climbed to the top of a pole and that now, his backside is exposed. America will judge whether they like the view, Axelrod said. Romney will give them a good view. The negative ads Axelrod describes have been funded by Political Action Committees known as "Super Pacs." While the Romney campaign denies direct involvement with the groups, Axelrod said they're tied together. Though he pointed to the battle between Republicans, Axelrod spent most of his time focusing on Romney, claiming diverging positions on issues would ultimately benefit the president's bid for a second term. "There's a real sense that people don't know where Gov. Romney stands today or where he stands tomorrow," Axelrod said. That's why he's stuck at a quarter of the vote.

St. Louis Cardinals to visit White House January 10, 2012 -- Updated 0010 GMT (0810 HKT) The St. Louis Cardinals celebrate after defeating the Texas Rangers 6-2 to win the World Series in October. St. Louis Cardinals baseball team will visit the White House on January 17 They'll meet with President Barack Obama to mark their World Series win President will visit military medical center before meeting Cardinals (CNN) -- The St. Louis Cardinals will visit the White House on January 17 to commemorate their victory in the 2011 World Series. The Cardinals won the baseball title in October in a seven-game series against the Texas Rangers. The victory gave the team their 11th World Series Championship and capped off manager Tony La Russa's career. He retired just three days after the win. The long career of Tony La Russa The White House said in a statement that the Cardinals will visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to thank wounded service members for their service before the event. The president will also recognize various community service projects performed by the team, according to the statement .

Mississippi State's Fletcher Cox Declares for N.F.L. Draft Mississippi State defensive tackle Fletcher Cox is skipping his senior season and declaring for the N.F.L. draft. Cox is considered one of the country's best defensive line prospects and is projected by N.F.L. evaluators as a second-round pick, though some analysts believe he could be selected late in the first round. Cox, who is 6-foot-4 and 295 pounds, was the only player from Mississippi State to be a first-team all-Southeastern Conference selection this season. Cox, a third-year junior, finished a dominant season with 14 ½ tackles for loss and 5 sacks. "God works in many ways," Cox said in a telephone interview. He answered my prayer and I knew deep down in my heart it was time for me to go. Cox played both defensive tackle and defensive end at Mississippi State, but said he expected to be evaluated as a tackle by N.F.L. teams. The ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay currently has Cox ranked as the 20th best player in the draft and the second best defensive tackle available behind Penn State's Devon Still. Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen lauded Cox for his commitment to the program. When Mullen was hired in December 2008, Cox was the program's top committed recruit. "He never wavered for a day," Mullen said. He recommitted to me when I got the job and has been a leader since that day. Cox has been a linchpin of Mississippi State's resurgence under Mullen, acting as the defensive anchor for a program that won back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 2000. Cox led Mississippi State to a 7-6 record this season and was dominant in its Music City Bowl victory over Wake Forest last week, with a sack and seven tackles, including two for loss. "He's a great kid and worked hard in his time here," Mullen said in summing up Cox's career. This will be a huge loss for us. Mississippi State could also lose its other top defensive player, cornerback Johnthan Banks, who led the Bulldogs in interceptions this year with five. Banks does not project as highly as Cox, who said he would stay on campus and prepare for the draft with the Bulldogs" strength coach, Matt Balis. "My emotions are that this shows that hard work pays off," Cox said. "Coach Mullen always told me that I'd play in the N.F.L. I said, "Yes, sir, that's something that I want to do." To be able to play in the N.F.L., that's something that a lot of people don't get to do.

Burma to cut prison sentences Burma's government has announced it will cut the sentences of some prisoners and commute some death sentences to life imprisonment, citing humanitarian grounds. State media on Monday said president Thein Sein had signed a clemency order to mark the country's 64th anniversary of independence. But it was unclear whether any of Burma's political prisoners would be included in the move. The issue of political prisoners and the country's harsh penal system is a significant stumbling block in relations between Burma and key western countries. In the first visit to Burma by a US secretary of state in five decades, Hillary Clinton last month signalled that Burma would have to make more progress on human rights before full relations could be restored. The US maintains economic sanctions that prevent its companies from operating in the country, although a handful have exemptions from their longstanding involvement in Burma. Thousands of Burmese prisoners were released in two amnesties in May and October 2011, as part of a government effort to open up the country after decades of isolation. But only several hundred of those released were political activists. Estimates vary of the exact number of political detainees in Burmese jails. Human rights groups put the number of political prisoners at 1,200 to 1,600 of an estimated total 200,000 or more people serving sentences in prison and labour camps throughout the country. Under Monday's clemency order, some death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment, while some prisoners serving sentences between 21 and 30 years will have their terms cut to 20 years, while some 20-year terms will be cut to 15 years. Human rights groups dismissed the latest government move as almost meaningless. It's rather typical of the government to keep playing these games with prisoners, both common criminal and political. This announced clemency is no different from previous ones in which thousands of prisoners are set free or have sentences reduced while only a handful are political activists," said David Mathieson, Burma researcher with Human Rights Watch. Many leaders of the so-called 88 Generation Students Group, which led the 1988 protests that triggered a bloody crackdown by the military-led government, remain in jail serving long sentences. However, some western diplomats in Rangoon and Bangkok welcomed the clemency move, saying it reinforced hopes that the government would release more political detainees in the coming months. Mr Thein Sein has initiated various reforms in the economic sphere and reached out to the opposition National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The clemency order follows confirmation on Friday that Burma will hold a by-election on April 1 for 48 seats in its 664-seat parliament. Most of the 48 seats were vacated by MPs who became cabinet ministers after the 2010 general election. Ms Suu Kyi and her NLD party have said they will contest every one of the 48 seats. The NLD boycotted the 2010 vote in protest over restrictions that prevented her from standing, but those restrictions have now been lifted.

What does Egypt's parliament look like?

Picasso Works Stolen From Greece's Largest Art Museum Image Credit: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images ABC News" Carlos Boettcher reports: Thieves executed a brazen early-morning burglary of Greece's largest art museum Monday, making off with three works, including one by the 20th-century master Pablo Picasso. The burglars were able to take advantage of the National Art Gallery's soft security, which was short-staffed because of striking workers, officials said. Greece, beset by riots, strikes and economic pressure, has had to make numerous cuts in the public sector, including museum security. The heist was successful thanks to a combination of planning, patience and timing, officials said. Alarms were intentionally set off numerous times Sunday, leading the guards to disable at least one of the alarms, providing the thieves easy entrance through a balcony door. With the alarm disabled, the thieves entered the museum and worked quickly, stripping paintings from their frames and absconding with the cubist female bust by Picasso, a 1949 gift to Greece in memory of World War II. They also took an oil painting by the Spanish artist, an oil painting by 20th-century master Piet Mondrian and a pen-and-ink drawing by Italian 16th-century painter Guglielmo Caccia, officials said. An attempt to steal a fourth work - also by Mondrian - was abandoned after a sensor was triggered in an exhibition space, bringing the attention of the guard. The guard saw only the back of a man running away, with no further identification or clues on the thieves. The heist reportedly took no longer than 7 minutes. Museum officials were unable to estimate the total cost of the stolen works. Art thieves regularly target Picassos because of the extreme value and cachet of the works. Since 2006, five Picassos have been stolen from museums around the world, including a 2010 burglary in Paris where more than $120 million worth of art was stolen overnight. Less than 10 percent of stolen art is ever recovered and authorities know little about what exactly happens to such works after the theft. The value on the paintings is so great that cash transactions are unwieldy if not impossible. Despite the Hollywood image of Swiss bank transactions and numbered accounts, it is assumed that much stolen art is used as collateral in other criminal enterprises. Shipments of drugs or weapons can be secured using stolen art, a marker more valuable than any casino chip. Greek police are continuing their investigation. The museum will remain closed for refurbishment; it is unclear whether the security will be upgraded as well. The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Demolition no barrier to late arrival of new fence RESIDENTS close to a derelict building scheduled for demolition have been left "gobsmacked" after council chiefs installed a steel fence around the property. The city council was asked to replace the fence three years ago after the existing one was removed due to a crash but said there was no cash left in the budget. The building in Oxgangs Crescent, which was previously surrounded by a fence because of a steep drop from street level, has since been emptied and condemned to make way for new homes. So local residents were puzzled when city workmen installed the solid 60ft long structure on Thursday. It is understood that the housing group Dunedin Canmore had asked the council for temporary security fencing at the perimeter until the demolition, but that an apparently permanent one, set into concrete, was installed instead. Maureen Jarvis, of the Oxgangs Central Residents Association, said the new addition to the area has raised a few eyebrows. She said: "There used to be a fence on the edge of the 8ft drop but it was knocked over. We did ask about three years ago if it could be replaced, but didn't hear back about it until Thursday, when it suddenly appeared. The shops are all closed, the residents are all gone and it's due to be flattered. Who would build a new fence on an area that's going to be demolished? We're a bit gobsmacked. Another local resident, Peggy Wright, said the blunder echoed a recent episode in which a Lothian Buses shelter was built in a quiet crescent estate, where buses no longer stopped. She said: "Some of the residents up the hill wanted a bus stop for the No 5 for ages, but then Lothian Buses changed the route to miss out this street. Then a couple of weeks later a bus shelter appeared where there were no longer buses. It was a lovely shelter but it's a bit underused, as you might expect. The 1960s low-rise block, which had six shops on the ground floor with flats above, stands in the way of the fourth and final stage of a major redevelopment scheme, which is being run by Dunedin Canmore Housing Association and will provide 250 new homes. The site is part of the same project hit by what is believed to have been a deliberate fire in November 2008, which caused £5 million worth of damage. Councillor Jason Rust said confused residents had been in touch to complain about the recent arrival. He said: "Residents will feel quite outraged that they asked for this fence and time and time again told there was no budget for it. Now the shops are scheduled to be demolished it seems somewhat unbelievable that what appears to be a permanent fence has been erected. A spokesman for the council insisted the structure is temporary and will be removed when the building is demolished.

Report: Iowa results show Santorum with 34-vote lead Results will boost Rick Santorum's campaign, spokesman says Santorum had a 34-vote advantage over Mitt Romney in Iowa, a newspaper reports Romney was thought to have won the caucuses by eight votes The certified results are to be released Thursday morning (CNN) -- Rick Santorum finished the Iowa Republican caucuses 34 votes ahead of Mitt Romney, but results from several precincts are missing and the full actual results may never be known, according to a report published Thursday by the Des Moines Register. The new numbers show 29,839 votes for Santorum and 29,805 votes for Romney, according to the newspaper. Certified results of the caucuses are scheduled to be formally released by the Iowa GOP at 9:15 a.m. The initial returns from Iowa gave Romney a razor-thin 8-vote margin of victory over Santorum, reinforcing the former Massachusetts governor's frontrunner status and giving him a major momentum boost heading into the New Hampshire primaries. Romney went on to win New Hampshire easily, allegedly making him the first non-incumbent Republican in modern history to win the first two contests of the cycle. Now history is being rewritten, casting a shadow over the first-in-the-nation caucuses and potentially shaking up the GOP race two days before the critical South Carolina primary. News of the new results is "very exciting," Santorum campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN. The narrative for a long time has been that Mitt Romney was 2-0. ... If these results are true and Rick is ahead by 34 votes, then that's not the narrative anymore. There have been two states, two different victors. Romney's 8-vote win was seen as "a huge victory," Gidley said. By that standard, I guess 34 votes is just about a landslide in Iowa. The Des Moines Register reported Thursday that while Santorum now has a slight advantage, results from eight precincts were missing and will never be recovered and certified. There are "too many holes" in the certified totals to know the victor for certain, the newspaper stressed. Officials discovered inaccuracies in 131 precincts, although not all the changes affected the two leaders, the Register said. "It's a split decision," Chad Olsen, the Iowa Republican Party's executive director, told the Register. Romney said in a written statement Thursday morning that the new results show a "virtual tie" between the two. "The results from Iowa caucus night revealed a virtual tie," Romney said. I would like to thank the Iowa Republican Party for their careful attention to the caucus process, and we once again recognize Rick Santorum for his strong performance in the state. "The Iowa caucuses, with record turnout, were a great start to defeating President Obama in Iowa and elsewhere in the general election," Romney added. One week after Iowa's January 3 caucuses, Romney won the New Hampshire primary with nearly 40% of primary votes. In that contest, Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, finished in fifth place with 9%. The South Carolina primary is scheduled for Saturday. Romney currently appears to be clinging to a dwindling lead there over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. A Republican debate will be held Thursday night in Charleston, South Carolina. "The bottom line is, it's really going to make a boost to our campaign today and remind people just that we've been able to tackle and take on Mitt Romney head-on," Gidley said. We are the alternatives to him, and we plan on taking this into South Carolina and beyond and showing folks that we've got the message and the messenger that can beat the guy who's just writing checks, trying to buy a state. Gidley said he can "understand how the Romney campaign is out there trying to marginalize the victory. I can understand he doesn't want that narrative out there, but it's a big win for our campaign and we're really excited about it. CNN's Candy Crowley said she doesn't believe the Iowa development will change the big picture for the prospective nominees. "I think it does give Rick Santorum bragging rights," she said. Any time you can grab the headlines, that's a good thing. But, she said, the results are not that different from the close margin seen just after the caucuses. However, she said, it could "change history" and throw into doubt the claim that Romney was the first non-incumbent Republican in modern history to win both Iowa and New Hampshire.

Miller in title talk after Cardiff blitz Reading Kenny Miller claimed Cardiff City can win the Championship, and his team-mates backed up his words with immediate actions in a first-half blitz to sink Reading and move closer to the top of the division. The Royals arrived in south Wales having won their last four Championship matches, but the visitors were swept aside by three goals inside 36 glorious minutes for the Bluebirds, who now leap into third spot. The Cardiff manager, Malky Mackay, said: "Some of the passing, movement and chances in the first half were sublime. I'm delighted with the way we played especially on the back of a tough game on Saturday. In fact, I thought we grew as the game went on. We want to be as high up the league as we can. Joe Mason drilled a low right-footed shot past the Reading goalkeeper, Adam Federici, and into the bottom corner to open the scoring. Cardiff doubled their advantage with a hotly-disputed second when Aron Gunnarsson headed Peter Whittingham's corner in from inches rather than yards. But Federici's appeals for a foul on his goal-line were waved away. Yet things were still to get worse for the Reading keeper as Whittingham's excellent pass found Miller who toe-poked home from 10 yards. Gunnarsson said: "It was comfortable, but we made one mistake and they were back in the game. We ground out the win in the second half and it's a good result for us with other teams losing. It's fantastic and we have to keep going. We need to keep believing in ourselves as it was a brilliant team performance. We want automatic promotion. We don't want to be in the play-offs. Reading did grab a consolation on the stroke of half-time through the ex-Cardiff winger Jobi McAnuff. The Reading manager, Brian McDermott, said: "We didn't perform and that is the disappointing thing for me." Cardiff City (4-5-1) - Marshall; Blake, Hudson, Turner (Gerrard, 87), Taylor; Cowie, Whittingham, Gunnarsson, Mason (Gestede, 76), Ralls; Miller (McPhail, 87). Substitutes not used Heaton (gk), Conway. Reading (4-4-2) - Federici; Cummings, Pearce, Gorkss, Harte, Kebe, Karacan 7 (Robson-Kanu, 61), Leigertwood, McAnuff, Hunt, Church (Le Fondre, 61). Substitutes not used Andersen (gk), Tabb, Mills. Referee C Foy (Merseyside).

French parents win case over son's 'demonic' name A court in France on Thursday rejected a prosecutors' request for a couple to be barred from naming their son Daemon after a character in television series "The Vampire Diaries." Prosecutors had brought Lionel and Blandine Defontaine, from Busigny in northern France, to court under a French law that prevents parents from giving names that would be "contrary to the interests of a child." The parents, both fans of the series, had chosen to name their son, born on November 3, after the vampire character Damon -- adding the "e" to produce a French version of the name. They said they simply liked the sound of the name and denied it had any Satanic connotation. The same law had previously been used in 1999 to try to prevent parents Alain and Sophia Renaud from naming their daughter Megane, with prosecutors saying the name sounded too much like that of a popular French car, the Renault Megane. An appeals court in 2000 allowed the girl to keep her name.

Chevron warns on Q4 profit, shares drop (Reuters) - Chevron Corp (CVX.N) warned that fourth-quarter profit would be significantly below the previous quarter, with production still falling short of prior expectations and its refining operations about breaking even. Shares of the second-largest U.S. oil company fell more than 2 percent in after-hours trading to $105.21, or about $5 below the record high they hit last week. Chevron said "upstream" earnings from oil and gas production would be comparable to the $6.2 billion in the third quarter, but only before accounting for foreign-exchange impacts. "Full third quarter earnings included foreign exchange gains of nearly $450 million, compared to a loss anticipated in the fourth quarter," Chevron said in its quarterly interim update. Analysts had previously been looking for an overall fourth-quarter net profit of $6.6 billion, or $3.33 per share, according to the average on Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. This compared with $5.3 billion a year before and $7.8 billion in the third quarter of 2011. Chevron's international oil-equivalent production rose to 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first two months of the quarter from an average of 1.94 million for all of the third quarter, the company said on Wednesday. But U.S. production in October and November fell to 660,000 bpd from 662,000 in the third quarter, it said. In total, Chevron had 2.64 million bpd of oil-equivalent production for the first two months of the quarter, up from 2.60 million in the third quarter but sharply below its full-year 2011 forecast of 2.73 million bpd. The only period in 2011 that Chevron has topped the annual estimate was the first quarter. On the refining side, Chevron said Gulf Coast margins fell "substantially" in the fourth quarter from the three months before, citing industry figures showing they had been cut in half. Downstream margins were also weaker outside the United States. On top of that, U.S. refinery input fell by about 180,000 bpd to 717,000 bpd, largely because of a major turnaround at its refinery in Richmond, California. So downstream earnings overall were expected to be near breakeven, Chevron said, without the help of a $500 million gain recorded the previous quarter from its sale of its UK refinery. In addition, the San Ramon, California-based company said total net charges for the fourth quarter would be "notably higher" than its general guidance range of $250 million to $350 million. Chevron will report earnings on January 27. Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Bernard Orr

Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier speak Mandarin Sunday's Wizards game was, as I've noted, a celebration of the Chinese New Year. And while the Wizards lost the game, there were several all-time highlights, featuring Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier sprinkling Mandarin expressions into their Comcast SportsNet broadcast. Hard to put together a minute long video package much better than this one. Thanks to CSN's Web folks for the efforting.

Four Door Media Licensed to Build Mercedes-Benz SL550 LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., Jan. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Door Media, Inc. announced today the signing of a licensing agreement with Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH to build a unique version of the Mercedes-Benz SL550, among the most exciting, recognizable and desirable automobiles on the marketplace today. Four Door Media is now authorized internationally to produce its SL550 and such upcoming products as the Mercedes-Benz C300 with the function and size of a sophisticated computer mouse. Four Door Media designs car-shaped, wireless and wired optical computer mouse products, Road Mice™, in the shape of iconic automobiles. After nearly two years since the beginning of discussion and development, "Four Door Media is proud to be partnered with a company of such high esteem as Mercedes-Benz," says Jim Markey, President and co-founder of Four Door Media, Inc. With this new agreement, Four Door Media will develop and market beautiful high quality Mercedes-Benz automobile replicas that function as high quality computer mice. A direct descendant of the legendary 300SL "Gullwing" of the 1950s, the SL550 as built by Mercedes-Benz is a remarkable 382-horsepower roadster of amazing grandeur and distinction. The Road Mice version, while being far more affordable - at suggested retail of just $49.95 in the U.S., represents a whopping saving over the base 2012 full-size model - is an OPTICALLY-guided, exquisitely formed luxury mouse that provides Teutonic automotive thrills on the everyday desktop. In addition, these Mercedes Road Mice, like all Road Mice products, will be built "featuring HP™ Technology" inside for unmatched accuracy and reliability. "Among the challenges we face is letting our customers know this is more than just a cleverly designed reproduction of their favorite car," says Markey. It is also a fully functional and useful computer tool. We're excited that our initial achievements give us the opportunity to expand the Road Mice fleet with yet another one of the most prominent automakers in the industry. This agreement comes on the heels of the tremendous recent sales success of existing Road Mice products, including a variety of sleek models in the iconic forms of cars from many renowned automotive brands. Manufacturers worldwide are working with us because they are confident that Four Door Media will protect their designs and replicate their automobiles using true craftsmanship and a keen eye for detail. For more information about the company and its products visit www.RoadMice.com. Road Mice is appearing at CES this week and is located at booth #26411 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Ground Level. To book an appointment please email Kimberly.Stirdivant@Fleishman.com. SL550 Road Mice™ Specifications Overall length: 12 cm/4.7 in Overall height: 4.5 cm/1.77 in Overall width: 5.8 cm/2.28 in Wheelbase: 6.8 cm/2.68 in Curb weight: 100 g/3.5 oz (incl. batteries & USB receiver) Radio spectrum: 2.4 GHz auto sync Precision accuracy: 650/1250/1750 dpi resolution Headlamps: Warranty: 2 year, unlimited mileage Instrumentation: Low battery indicator Fuel capacity: AAA 1.5-volt x 2, first fill-up included About Four Door Media Four Door Media is a specialized electronic product and entertainment company that creates, manufactures, markets and distributes computer based products and accessories that entertain, promote and educate. Current Road Mice™ products are internationally licensed from multiple automakers based in the United States, Europe and Japan. All Road Mice™ models are PC and Mac compatible and are suitable for both desktops and laptops. Each car features an individual (VIN) serial number, and owners are encouraged to visit the Road Mice™ Title and Registration page to register and activate their product warranty. In addition they will receive a unique title and pink slip, all free of charge. Road Mice™ are available at retailers nationwide including: Sky Mall, Toys-R-Us, Office Max, Amazon, Fry's Electronics, Canadian Tire stores and Car Toys and on the web at sites including www.roadmice.com, www.carmouse.com, and www.bestbuy.com. Suggested U.S. retail prices range from $39.95 to $49.95 with a one- or two-year limited warranty, depending upon specific model. Prospective resellers and licensors are encouraged to visit: www.fourdoormedia.com or call (949) 715-0379 for more information. SOURCE Four Door Media, Inc.

Van Halen Plays Mini-Gig at Cafe Wha? David Lee Roth, left, and Eddie Van Halen trade licks at Van Halen's promotional set at Cafe Wha? on Thursday night. As press briefings go, it rocked. On Thursday night, Van Halen took to the stage of the venerable Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, capacity 250. "Last time I stood on a stage this low, we had to have the car back by midnight," said the singer David Lee Roth. The objective was to prove Van Halen is alive and amicable for an arena tour that starts Feb. 18 in Louisville, Ky.,after the Feb. 7 release of a new album, "A Different Kind of Truth." It's to be Van Halen's first full album with Mr. Roth as lead singer since the band fired him in 1985, although they have done previous reunion tours. There was no formal announcement at Cafe Wha?, just a blast of Eddie Van Halen's guitar, a rumble from Alex Van Halen's drums, and a motormouthed Mr. Roth declaring, "It's like climbing into a rocket in here, and it's a rocket that comes from way, way back in our past all the way into what the future's going to look like according to - Welcome to Occupy Van Halen." .That introduced an hourlong set from a grinning band, reclaiming its oldies and introducing a new song announced by Mr. Roth as "She's the Woman." Nearly all the audience was "the world's press, the world's media," Mr. Roth said, along with record-company staff. Jimmy Fallon and Kirk Douglas, the Roots" lead guitarist, were also spotted in the narrow, packed basement club. From the Rolling Stones to Kanye West, a big act in a small room has proved a surefire attention-getter. Leaking the location so that fans cluster outside is part of the plan. But there was another reason for choosing Cafe Wha? instead of a club or theater that could have accommodated more fans. In the club's 1960s heyday, when Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix performed there, Cafe Wha? was owned by Manny Roth, David Lee's uncle, who sold it in 1988. Now 92, Manny Roth beamed in the audience while David Lee Roth reminisced about his first visit to the club, in 1961. "It took us 50 years to get this gig," the singer said. It was easier getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Van Halen didn't play like an arena band concerned with lighting cues and special effects; for the night, it was a club act treating songs like jams. "We used to play gigs like this five nights a week, and we used to do five 45-minute sets a night," Mr. Roth said during "Dance the Night Away." Van Halen is still one of the most limber bands in hard rock, with a higher center of gravity than most. Alex Van Halen places the beat as much on cymbal and tom-toms as on bass drum; the band rides its bass riffs, now played by Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's son. Meanwhile, Eddie Van Halen's guitar is in constant, multiple-personality dialogue with itself; riffing power chords and then replying with leads that wriggle from the whammy bar, scamper in notes tapped on the fingerboard or screech from a scrape up a string. The 11-song set started with the Kinks song "You Really Got Me," stretched so that Mr. Roth and Eddie Van Halen could trade improvised vocal yowls and guitar squiggles. They were at it again in "Everybody Wants Some!!," with intergalactic siren noises from the guitar and jungle cackles from Mr. Roth, who also updated the lyrics to talk about texting and e-mailing a racy photo. In "Panama," Mr. Roth suddenly decided to do his impression of Jim Morrison singing "Stairway to Heaven," then called for a drink. "I've gotta have a double, I got a long drive home," he joked. For its mini-set, Van Halen stuck to staples like "Runnin" with the Devil," "Ain't Talkin" "Bout Love," "Panama" and a final "Jump." The new song fit right into the repertory, with a turbo-boogie riff, lusty lyrics and a cheerfully tangential guitar interlude. Mr. Roth, 57, showed some wear in his high notes, and he wasn't taking his shirt off for this gig; in fact, he was wearing overalls. But as the band socked its riffs and Eddie Van Halen filigreed them with virtuoso guitar, the songs were still testimonials to hyperactive teenage hormones and musicians who remember them. "I told you we was comin" back," Mr. Roth boasted during "Hot for Teacher," adding, "Say you missed us."

On Our Radar: Capsized Ship Stirs Environmental Worries January 17, 2012, 10:30 am With an estimated 2,380 metric tons of fuel on board, the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship is "an ecological time bomb," the mayor of the Tuscan island of Giglio says. The waters are treasured by divers. A Dutch salvage vessel is expected to start removing the ship's fuel within days; the process could take two to four weeks. Facing growing public protests about pollution, China's leaders are reaching for a remedy that they have otherwise shown little appetite for: letting the courts decide. One test case is collective litigation over cancer cases in a village where runoff from chronium mining has been a big problem. The Bulgarian government cancels an exploration permit that it had granted to Chevron allowing it to explore for gas through the controversial drilling process known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The company will be allowed to prospect for oil and gas only by using conventional drilling methods. Dismissing "certain people in the United States" who would "like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America," Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that foreigners should not be permitted to hijack the decision-making process on the country's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The 730-mile pipeline would carry crude from oil sands in Alberta to Canada's western coast.

What's eating Antony Worrall Thompson? Every little helps, so the supermarket chain says, but that doesn't mean helping oneself. Staff at Tesco in Henley-on-Thames called police after catching celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson apparently acting out his own festive recipe for Porridge - shoplifting cheese and wine no fewer than five times over the Christmas period. Mr Worrall Thompson, 60, repeatedly failed to scan items while using the self-service checkouts in a two-week spell from late December. After using a store CCTV camera to watch Worrall Thompson, staff challenged him last Friday as he left the store and then called the police. Mr Worrall Thompson was eventually released with a police caution, and yesterday posted a heartfelt statement on his website, apologising for his actions: "I am of course devastated for my family and friends, whom I've let down, and will seek the treatment that is clearly needed," the chastised chef said. I am not the first and I certainly won't be the last person to do something without rhyme or reason - what went through my head, only time will tell. Of course, I must also apologise sincerely to Tesco, with whom [I've] had a long and genuine working relationship, and to all the staff at the Henley branch, many of whom I got to know over the years. I am so sorry for all my recent stupid and irresponsible actions. Hopefully in the future I can make amends. Mr Worrall Thompson is certainly not, as his statement suggests, the first person whose nimble fingers have landed them in hot water for no clear reason. The possible circumstantial and psychological causes for such seemingly unnecessary theft are manifold, from a "cry for help" to a quest for adrenalin. Whatever the explanation in this case, the past couple of years have not been vintage for the restaurateur. In 2009 he was forced to put his chain of six restaurants, pubs and cafes into administration, blaming his bank for being too cautious with credit, a topic on which he was particularly outspoken throughout the "credit crunch." He used his own funds to keep open two restaurants, in Kew and Windsor, and has since bought back and reopened the Greyhound, a gastropub in Oxfordshire, and the Windsor Larder, a delicatessen and cafe. Mr Worrall Thompson's background is both eminently respectable and financially comfortable. The chef, who was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon and now lives in High Wycombe, grew up with actor parents and has described his family as "posh, in a way." His godfather was Richard Burton, his father's understudy at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Little Anthony - full name Henry Antony Cardew Worrall Thompson - was sent away to boarding school at the age of three. His parents separated soon after and he was 21 before he saw his father again. He learned to cook at various restaurants in Essex - much to the horror of his grandmother, who apparently refused to write to him because she could not bring herself to write the word Essex on the envelope - before opening his first restaurant, Ménage à Trois, in London's upmarket Knightsbridge in the early 1980s. The boom in cookery programmes in the Nineties made him a household name, and he has since made appearances on Question Time, The Weakest Link and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! But his career has taken its toll on his personal life - something about which the three-times married father of four has spoken candidly. In 2003, he told a newspaper interviewer: "I've lost two wives to restaurants, and a fantastic Japanese American girl. I mean, some of it was my own fault - too much dabbling in other women. But it's like a drug: you finish work, you can't sleep because the adrenaline is rushing round, so you end up in a club. You're never at home. Things start to fall apart. A spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium said yesterday: "No one should feel they can get away with shoplifting or think it's a minor crime. When people take goods without paying the costs are felt by customers, who've budgeted carefully to treat themselves at Christmas. A Thames Valley police spokesman confirmed the arrest. "Thames Valley Police arrested a 60-year-old man following a report of shoplifting offences in Tesco," he said. The man has been issued with a formal caution. Tesco declined to comment. Both Tesco and Sainsburys yesterday refuse to divulge whether the introduction of self-service tills has led to a rise in shoplifting. Nimble fingers: the stars accused In December 2001, the American actress Winona Ryder was accused of shoplifting more than $5,000 worth of designer clothing in a department store in Beverly Hills, California. She was convicted of theft and shoplifting. Ryder paid a hefty fine, served 480 hours community service and stayed on probation until December 2005. Sue Terry, the mother of Chelsea and England football captain John Terry, was cautioned along with his mother-in-law in 2009 after stealing £1,450 of goods from a Tesco and a Marks & Spencer in Weybridge, Surrey. The items, found when they were arrested in the car park outside, ranged from pet food to watches and clothes. Peaches Geldof has faced four accusations of shoplifting, but has never been arrested for any of them. Last October, staff in a London branch of Boots said the socialite was caught trying to leave with £60 worth of make-up. In March, staff in a Camden clothes store accused Geldof after a dress went missing. In 2007 and 2008 she faced more accusations of stealing clothes.

Friends: US bomb plot suspect was radical, loner TAMPA, Florida - The Kosovo-born American citizen accused of plotting bomb attacks around Tampa was a loner who had grown increasingly radical in his Muslim faith and publicly railed against Jews and Christians in videos he posted on the Internet, according to relatives and friends. Sami Osmakac's life in the U.S. began about a dozen years ago, when he was 13 and his family immigrated to the U.S., according to a video he posted on YouTube. Those who know Osmakac said he mostly kept to himself in high school who loved rap music and rapped about bombs and killing in a song he made with a friend. As he grew older, they said, he grew increasingly confrontational: One Tampa-area activist said Osmakac physically threatened him, and Osmakac was jailed on charges that he head-butted a Christian preacher as the two argued over religion outside a Lady Gaga concert. Osmakac, 25, is now jailed on a federal charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and could face life in prison if convicted. U.S. authorities say he planned to use a car bomb, assault rifle and other explosives in an Islamist-inspired attack on various locations around Tampa, including a sheriff's office. His family in Florida has said the charges are untrue. Family members told the AP that Osmakac was born in the village of Lubizde in Kosovo, a tiny hamlet of scattered houses near the Cursed Mountains, a row of snowcapped peaks that divide Kosovo from Albania. The area is home to many adherents to Sufism, a mystical Islamic order whose members often pray over the tombs of revered saints. The Osmakacs are followers of a Sufi sect that has its own shrine just outside the village. Kosovo's tiny Roman Catholic minority also resides in the area, as the village next to Lubizde, Dedaj, is comprised entirely of Roman Catholic ethnic Albanians. Osmakac spent his early years in a home shared among his father and two uncles, but difficult living conditions and simmering ethnic intolerance sent the family searching for prosperity elsewhere. Osmakac's family, like many who fled, brought their traditional trade of baking to what are now Croatia and Bosnia, where many of his relatives have remained after Yugoslavia's break-up after a series of ethnic wars in the 1990s. Osmakac's immediate family was in Bosnia during the bloodiest of all those wars, which left more than 100,000 dead, and eventually fled to Germany and then the U.S. As a child, Osmakac was "a quiet and fun boy," said his aunt Time Osmankaj. She said his family regularly sent money home to relatives trying to eke out a living as the wars left those who remained extremely poor. Osmankaj said the family returned to Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, for visits during the summer months. But in recent years they noticed a change in Sami, who grew a beard, donned religious garments, and was frequently accompanied by two devout Muslims from Albania and two from Bosnia. He also began to shun his relatives during his trips to Kosovo. Kosovo: Fla. terror suspect met with radicals Family: Tampa terror suspect "quiet and fun" Alleged extremist terror plot foiled in Tampa His aunt said she learned of his last visit in October 2011 through neighbors and that she did not meet with him. Authorities in Kosovo have said he used those visits to meet with Islamic radicals there. Islam came to Kosovo with the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the 15th century, but it had not grown political until more recently. For instance, hundreds of Muslims have taken to the streets to protest a ban imposed by Kosovo authorities on wearing headscarves in schools. Protesters also have demanded that new mosques be built to accommodate a growing number of faithful after a Roman Catholic cathedral was built last year in the center of the capital, Pristina. The increase in religious tensions has raised concerns that U.S. soldiers serving as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping force could be targeted in attacks. Avni Osmakac told WTVT-TV in Tampa that his brother had tried to travel to Saudi Arabia last year so he could study Islam, but that he had problems with his visa and never got farther than Turkey. Sami Osmakac wanted to become an imam and teach Islam in the Middle East, his brother said. Osmakac's family had settled in Pinellas Park, Florida, where his father opened a bakery and bought a home. There, Osmakac attended at least two high schools and was mostly a loner, classmate Alan Stokling wrote in an email to the AP. "We were just the `ghosts' at Lakewood High School," he wrote. He was one of those government rebel types. ... All of our conversations consisted of him talking about how stupid everybody at the school was. Not just the students, but the teachers, the people who financed institutions like it. Stokling said the two did have something in common: a love of rap music. Stokling said Osmakac had a friend with a studio setup in his room and asked Stokling if he wanted to make a song together. Osmakac recorded his part - he was alone while recording - and Stokling recorded his section. The next day, Osmakac gave Stokling the CD. "Sami's part came on and he was talking about murder and bombing and stuff," Stokling recalled. I wasn't surprised by that. It wasn't anything different from regular hip-hop songs. What was different was the song's ending: Stokling said Osmakac rapped about killing Jews. "The weirdest ad libs I'd ever heard," Stokling said. They were so beyond the realm of what was accepted back then as far as what was a consistency in the realm of a rap song that it was comical. The two discussed religion only once, when Osmakac asked about Stokling's religion. When Stokling said he was a Christian, Osmakac "got kind of quiet then started laughing to himself under his breath in a smug fashion. In his own mind he seemed to be an elitist. That's the vibe I got from him. Osmakac's run-in with the preacher outside the Lady Gaga concert in April 2011 was far less subtle. According to police accounts of the fight, which the preacher recorded on video, Osmakac said, thumping his heart with his fist for emphasis: "My message is, if you all don't accept Islam, you're going to hell." At the mosque where Osmakac began worshipping in 2010, he mostly kept to himself. However, he occasionally had run-ins with other area Muslims. At the mosque, he and another man were cited for trespassing in November of that year after a heated discussion with Ahmed Batrawy, Vice President of the Islamic Society of Pinellas County. In another instance, he accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations of being an "infidel organization," said Hassan Shibly, executive director of the council's Tampa office. And Ahmed Bedier, a Muslim community activist and radio host, said Osmakac had threatened him because Bedier's organization encourages minorities to get involved in politics. "He thought I was taking people out of the faith," Bedier said. On at least one time, he got very close as if he was going to hit me, and someone held him back. Bedier reported Osmakac's behavior to authorities more than a year and a half ago. However, he said Osmakac's hatred was so overt that many people suspected he may have been a government informant. Bedier asked: "What terrorist goes on YouTube?"

Send in Questions for Melinda Gates January 1, 2012, 9:00 pm Melinda Gates will be traveling shortly to Bangladesh to look at maternal health, child health and women's issues (including family planning and reproductive health) - and she has agreed to answer your questions about these topics while she's there. So please post your questions for Melinda and me about these issues in the comments below, and we'll choose some and give you our best answers. Why these topics? They're among the most important challenges we face. Women continue to die needlessly in childbirth, especially in Africa and South Asia, when we know exactly how to save their lives. And infant mortality - especially neo-natal deaths - remain a huge problem in many countries. As for empowering women, this isn't just about justice; it's also often the most cost-effective way to save lives and benefit entire societies. These are issues that Melinda and the Gates Foundation have thought long and hard about, and that I've tried to popularize in my column and on Twitter and my Facebook page (and, of course, in "Half the Sky"). I also have lots of admiration for Bill and Melinda Gates. Until relatively recently, philanthropy tended to be about supporting art museums, universities and the symphony - all worthy causes, but also ones that disproportionately benefit those who are already better off. And much of that giving seems to me to be about networking, raising one's own status or getting one's grandchildren into the right university. Bill and Melinda helped refocus attention on the world's neediest citizens, and they also brought a tough-minded business-like focus on measurement, metrics and getting the most bang for the buck while saving lives. That's as important as the amount of money they've thrown at development problems. So post questions below for Melinda and me. Tough, skeptical questions welcome.

Ala. family lives amid rubble from April tornado (AP) - Geraldine Horton steps out of her apartment into a broken world that looks much as it did the day after a killer tornado plowed through town last spring. Buildings are sliced in two across the street from her home and next door; broken bricks litter her parking lot along with shoes, underwear, kitchen canisters and splintered lumber. A smoke detector beeps somewhere deep within the wreckage, its battery dying more than eight months after the twister. Horton, her husband Leon and their two teenage sons are one of only two families living in Graceland Apartments, both of whom moved in around New Year's. All but one of the 20 or so buildings in the complex were destroyed by a twister on April 27, and the families are living in the sole structure that survived. Man, it's still ugly. It really is," Horton said as she scanned the wreckage. It's got a sense of sadness to it. But it's all right. The tornado outbreak killed about 250 people in Alabama, including 52 in Tuscaloosa. The twister missed the University of Alabama campus but damaged or destroyed more than 5,000 businesses and homes in the city, displacing hundreds. While many have returned as rebuilding progresses across much of the area, the Hortons' situation shows that life is far from normal in some neighborhoods where the cleanup has lagged. The family signed a lease in December not realizing the City Council had voted to condemn the property two days before Christmas. "I know people think I'm crazy for living down here, but it's not where you live, it's how you live," said Horton, 53. As long as you live the way God wants you to live, or as close as you can to the way God wants you to live, things are going to turn out right. It's unclear how long the Hortons, who get by on government disability payments, can remain at the complex that shares a name with Elvis Presley's home in Memphis, Tenn. The couple has lived there on and off throughout 33 years of marriage. They were staying elsewhere at the time of the storm but came back after realizing a single building had survived. But the city is seizing the land through eminent domain. City leaders have talked of using the property for a new elementary school or a fire station, and workers stopped by last week with word that demolition will begin this week. I signed a year lease. I don't know what's going to happen," said Horton. Her family lacks cable TV but has everything else she needs - water, power, sewer service, and a roof over her family's head. Meredith Lynch, a spokeswoman for the city's incident command, said residents will be allowed to remain temporarily, but it's not clear what will happen as the work progresses. The complex is supposed to be demolished within four months, or by the first anniversary of the tornado, she said. "We know people are there," said Lynch. Tuscaloosa businessman Matt Leavell, who identified himself as owner of the property, said there are a lot of rumors going around about what will happen to it. "I have yet to be contacted as the owner of the property that the area has been condemned," he said in a Facebook message. To my knowledge we will just continue as normal until we hear differently. While tornado debris is gone across much of Tuscaloosa and many lots have been swept clean of debris, progress has been slower in the area called Alberta City, where the apartments are located in a part of town populated mainly by retirees, students and low-income residents. There, rubble still lines University Boulevard in some places, and repaired homes stand beside vacant houses awaiting demolition. Virtually abandoned and littered with storm debris, Graceland is deathly still aside from weeds and tornado debris that waves in a wintry breeze. It's so quiet at night Horton can hear traffic a couple blocks away. Yet Horton's apartment is comfortable, and the vacant, deteriorating apartment shells nearby are filled with memories of old friends and families. "When you look at it you can still feel some of the sadness, but it's not as overwhelming as it used to be right after the storm," she said. After the storm you came in here and were wondering, `What happened to that person, what happened to that person? You saw them again and felt much better knowing they made it out all right. Advocates say the tornadoes made it tougher to find affordable housing in the hardest-hit areas of Alabama since thousands of homes were destroyed, and Horton said she and her family felt fortunate find a nice, reasonably priced place in Tuscaloosa. The family needed a new place to live in December, so they returned to the apartments she considers home. Owners of the surviving building at Graceland Apartments had repaired what little damage there was, Horton said, and her family moved in over the New Year's weekend. The rent is cheap - about $50 less than previously, she said. While a pizza buffet, a tobacco shop and a convenience store are operating a few hundred yards away on a main drag through town, the only other people at Graceland are three residents who live beside the Hortons. Horton and her husband walked through the complex on a sunny afternoon last week, stepping past piles of bricks and concrete blocks topped by moldy mattresses and a fractured wooden crib. She's thinking of writing a book about her experiences but, for now, is just happy to have a home. Horton has adjusted to living amid the ruins. She has a hard time even imagining Graceland without the rubble. "It's going to be strange when they clean up all the debris and then you can't see anything," she said.

Coughlin Talks About Special Team Feeling Here's a partial transcript of Tom Coughlin's conference call with reporters on Monday. The full version is at Giants.com. The last question refers to how Ann Mara, the widow of Wellington Mara, interrupted a postgame interview by Terry Bradshaw on Fox, telling him he never picks the Giants. She poked a finger into his arm a few times, mostly jokingly (I think). Q: You seem to be having a really good time with this team. What is it about them that is registering with you? A: There's a great feeling. I talk a lot about spirit. I talk about emotions. I talk about vibes. I talk about feelings. I talk about an atmosphere that's been created by the cooperation between players and coaches and the harmony and the great feeling that exists. It's been that type of feeling that has sustained us really throughout the course of the year, but even more as I see people grow closer together. That naturally happens with success, but I'm talking about a real bonding and that's what I sense. That's what I feel - a very responsive team. On Saturday night they were locked in as well as any team that I've ever been associated with. You could hear a pin drop in the meeting rooms. We initially started off with special teams and then we go offense and defense. When I walk around and listen to the meetings you can literally feel and sense the focus and the concentration. Those are things that I appreciate. I understand young people and all that goes with that, but these guys have been able to really create a very strong business-like approach to what they're doing. Whether you use the word fellowship or whatever word you want to use, there's a strong, strong feeling among this group. It's been a great source of pride for all of us as coaches to be associated with this group of young men. Q: Did your heart skip a beat on the low snap on the last field goal? A: It was the weather and the snap but I thought Steve did a great job and he was so excited to tell Lawrence to keep his head down and make this field goal and we are going to the Super Bowl. He was all about that when he went about his business and he did make a very good catch and placement on that field goal and he did a very nice job the whole game with the ability to catch the wet ball in punting situations. We did punt 12 times and then when he was the holder, he did a very nice job with that as well. Q: What was the flight home like? A: The players were all excited and they continued to remain that way with their NFC Championship hats. The noise level was very loud as we came onto the plane, the stewardesses were cheerleaders decked out in Giants gear and as they were for two or three weeks in a row, they were in rhythm in their welcome of the team. It was a very excited group, it was a very happy group. The volume was really loud for quite some time and after that we settled in and tried to get some sleep. Q: Did you get a kick out of Ann Mara giving it to Terry Bradshaw after the game? A: I missed most of that, to be honest with you, because I was ushered over to the press conference side, but I did hear a little bit about that this afternoon. I know that in many ways, many times Mrs. Mara's attitude is reflective of the way that we would hope our team plays. She has great energy and tremendous interest and she is so interested in the team playing well and doing well. Extra point "Spirit" and "vibes" and "harmony" and "cooperation" are not the words that spring to mind to describe the other New York team this season, particularly the relationship between Mark Sanchez and Santonio Holmes.

UK animators in plea for tax breaks Animation UK, which represents producers including Aardman Animations and Astley Baker Davies, has written to George Osborne, Chancellor, warning him that Britain is losing its best animation talent, and calling for tax breaks before the industry is wiped out altogether. The sector is "not seeking handouts to get a competitive advantage," but needs to be able to compete with animators overseas, particularly Ireland and Canada, where tax breaks and funding supply up to 50pc of budgets and create "a distorted market place we cannot survive in," it said in a letter to be delivered to the Treasury today. "We are looking for a fiscal environment that allows us to compete on a level playing field with the rest of the world," it said. We've seen a UK industry that produced 83pc of its content in England slip to less than 23pc in the five years up to 2008. We have moved from world leaders to an industry in crisis in just a decade... we are losing our talent pool, intellectual property is held outside the UK, and all associated revenues are supporting economies outside the UK. In addition to the lure of the animation industries in Canada and Ireland, countries like Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates have approached British animation houses with offers of free facilities, golden handshakes and tax holidays if they move wholesale. "We don't want to leave the UK, but when you consider production costs, it's very tempting," said Oli Hyatt, chairman of Animation UK and co-founder of Blue-Zoo. Last year, Aardman warned it may have to halt UK production of its famous stop-frame animations because of costs.

Dotcom dilemma for world bodies International internet regulators are trying to reassure world bodies such as the UN and the IMF about an expansion of website address names that they say threatens their online identities. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has just begun accepting applications for a vastly expanded range of domain names - the .com or .org type code that appear at the end of internet addresses. The UN and IMF are among 26 organisations to have complained that their domain names could be seized by so-called "cybersquatters" who apply for the ownership of addresses wth the aim of selling them on. ICANN, which is a non-profit body based in California, says international organisations" identities are normally protected by treaties and have the same security as trademarks. However, a number of big private corporations are also worried and the dispute looks set to rumble on. More about: Computers, Electronics, Internet

Live Blogging the Iowa Caucuses January 3, 2012, 6:03 pm Welcome to FiveThirtyEight's live blog of the Iowa caucuses. The real action will not get underway until 8 p.m. New York time, when caucuses convene around the state - and it is likely to be at least another hour or so after that before we start seeing the first results. However, we will be entertaining you with various statistically-driven observations before then, including data from entrance polls. My updates will appear below, and also on the live Iowa caucus dashboard, which brings together updates and analysis from me and the Times political unit. Live Dashboard

"We Bought a Zoo" - Review - NYTimes.com Cameron Crowe may be the last of the Hollywood romantics. He's best known for his stories about love and longing, for films that immortalize the moment when characters bare their hearts, as when John Cusack serenades a girl with a boom box in "Say Anything" and Renée Zellweger tells Tom Cruise he had her at hello in "Jerry Maguire." These are images of such excruciating sincerity that they invite, almost demand cynicism. Yet it's their openness that makes them work. And while his films depend on the familiar image of the couple in love, these are relationships that exist within a larger tribe, a band, a family and now, with "We Bought a Zoo," a menagerie. What Mr. Crowe's films also share is his delicate touch with actors. Ms. Zellweger has never been better than in "Jerry Maguire," which found both Mr. Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. at their most appealing. Matt Damon, the star of "We Bought a Zoo," is a stronger actor than those with whom Mr. Crowe often works, and the combination might initially seem off. Mr. Crowe leans toward lightness while Mr. Damon, who can do glib as well as the next star, likes to roam around in the shadows, so that even his comedies carry a sting (as with "The Informant!"). But this seriousness, which complicates his boyishness with pathos, gives ballast to a movie that might have drifted along on charm. When "We Bought a Zoo" opens, his character, Benjamin Mee, is struggling to hold on to his family and his Los Angeles journalism career after the recent death of his wife, Katherine (Stephanie Szostak). Benjamin has yet to get a grip on being a single parent to 14-year-old Dylan (Colin Ford) and 7-year-old Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones, a natural), but he seems strangely at ease, whether he's fumbling with school lunches or warding off predatory moms bearing trays of condolence lasagna. He's so self-assured that when his editor doesn't respond to his story pitches, Benjamin just up and quits with a smile. The confidence with which Benjamin breezes out the door (in a job-shedding profession like journalism, no less) immediately signals that you're not in Kansas anymore, or anywhere resembling the real world. He rationalizes that it's for the good of his children, who are the same two reasons most people would cling to their jobs. In classic movie logic, he doesn't agonize about how he'll keep his children housed, fed and clothed; he doesn't even scramble for new work. Instead, he sells their home and buys a picturesquely dilapidated house with mountain views that not only comes with a lion, tigers and bears, but also a lovely zookeeper, Kelly Foster (an appealing Scarlett Johansson). The zoo, to judge by the shy glances, is more of an ark. There are complications, though this being a Cameron Crowe movie they're soon worked out. The zoo, having fallen into disrepair, has been closed and is being kept going by the sheer good will of employees like Kelly. Benjamin starts writing checks and, with the help of the staff (the cast includes Patrick Fugit and Angus Macfadyen), the zoo squeaks and roars back into shape. The enclosures are repaired and expanded, the bills and employees paid. Little Rosie takes to her new home swimmingly even as Dylan sulks and stomps about, initially unreceptive to Kelly's attentive cousin, Lily (Elle Fanning). Benjamin, meanwhile, continues to keep it together, his facade of confidence occasionally dinged by a bit of slapstick, child trouble and some palpably anguished nights. "We Bought a Zoo" is based on a nonfiction book of the same title that chronicles how the British journalist Benjamin Mee together with his family bought a closed zoo that they rehabilitated, renamed and reopened in 2007. Mr. Mee's mother, Amelia, was in on the family's grand adventure as was Mr. Mee's wife, Katherine, who died shortly after. In the movie, the brutality of illness and death remains safely off-screen when it comes to people and animals alike. Instead, Mr. Crowe makes the escalating tension between Benjamin and Dylan the story's soft center - a miscalculation. Dylan's petulance registers as generically adolescent rather than anguished, and his company wears thin, partly because Benjamin's doesn't. The creaks, groans and clichés of the screenplay, which was written by Aline Brosh McKenna ("27 Dresses") and reworked by Mr. Crowe are, however, finally outstripped by the attractiveness of the performers, those with two legs and more, and especially by the tenderness that Mr. Damon brings to his role. Mr. Crowe doesn't linger over Benjamin's despondency. Rather, he gives it gentle due in passages that remind you that there's often a strain of melancholia in this director's work, a sadness that suggests that Mr. Crowe intimately knows the darkness and uses his movies as a way to resist (or deny) it. Whatever the case, you may not buy his happy endings, but it's a seductive ideal when all of God's creatures, great and small, buxom and blond, exist in such harmony. "We Bought a Zoo" is rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. A dead mother and a dying animal. Opens on Friday nationwide. Directed by Cameron Crowe; written by Aline Brosh McKenna and Mr. Crowe, based on the book by Benjamin Mee; director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto; edited by Mark Livolsi; music by Jónsi; production design by Clay Griffith; costumes by Doborah L. Scott; produced by Julie Yorn, Mr. Crowe and Rick Yorn; released by 20th Century Fox. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. WITH: Matt Damon (Benjamin Mee), Scarlett Johansson (Kelly Foster), Thomas Haden Church (Duncan Mee), Patrick Fugit (Robin Jones), Colin Ford (Dylan Mee), Elle Fanning (Lily Miska), Maggie Elizabeth Jones (Rosie Mee), John Michael Higgins (Walter Ferris), Angus Macfadyen (Peter MacCready), Peter Riegert (Delbert McGinty), Stephanie Szostak (Katherine Mee) and J. B. Smoove (Mr. Stevens).

N.Y. school to review environmental tests in medical mystery School will review environmental tests in the area Activist Erin Brockovich is looking into a 1970 train derailment (CNN) -- A school system in upstate New York, where more than a dozen female high school students are suffering from uncontrolled verbal outbursts and twitching, said it has hired a company to review environmental testing within the school and community. The development comes as famed activist Erin Brockovich and other environmentalists are looking into whether a chemical that spilled in a 1970 train derailment about four miles from the school has anything to do with the girls' mysterious behavior. One of Brockovich's associates walked the grounds of Le Roy Senior High School on Saturday and traveled to the derailment site. The Le Roy Central School District said it wanted "sound advice" from professionals on the situation, "void of self-interest." "Our community has suddenly found itself at the center of national attention due to the students who have been exhibiting neurological symptoms," Superintendent Kim M. Cox said in a statement released Friday. This has led to much speculation, conjecture and misinformation in the national media and consequently within our community. Cox said the school district is working with local, state and federal health and environmental agencies. A statement posted earlier on the school's website said, in part, "The medical and environmental investigations have not uncovered any evidence that would link the neurological symptoms to anything in the environment or of an infectious nature." The mother of one affected girl said she doesn't think enough testing has been done. Health officials say the girls' symptoms are consistent with "conversion disorder." Brockovich told HLN's "Dr. Drew" on Friday night that she will try to corroborate a note she said one of the affected family members received about the derailment. "The contaminated rock, fill and soil was used to build the new school," Brockovich said of the note. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one ton of cyanide crystals spilled onto the ground in the Dec. 6, 1970, derailment. About 30,000 gallons of Trichloroethene (TCE), a potentially harmful contaminant, also were released from two ruptured tank cars, the agency said. "I have read and been involved in cases that we have had that TCE can be associated with neurological disorders," Brockovich told HLN. The first significant cleanup and remediation did not start for 20 years, she said, adding she was worried about the chemical getting into bedrock and groundwater supplies. The TCE may have reached the school grounds, she said. The EPA's Superfund website provides a progress report of the cleanup done in the area over the past 20 years. "Drinking wells in the area were found to have TCE contamination," the EPA said. Sampling of private wells between 1990 and 1994 detected TCE in approximately 50 wells located east or southeast of the site. The EPA installed water-treatment systems at 37 locations where TCE levels were high. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation selected soil vapor-extraction and bedrock vapor-extraction to address the source of the contamination. "A water-line extension was selected to provide a safe, potable water supply to all affected residents and businesses," the EPA said. Robert Bowcock, an environmental water specialist associated with Brockovich, went to the derailment site Saturday and took water samples to test for contaminants. He also took water samples from wells at private residences. An HLN producer saw several dozen drums in a fenced-off area at the derailment site, but it was not clear what they may contain. One was rusted and had dirt-like material inside. Brockovich gained fame after the 2000 movie bearing her name and starring Julia Roberts in the title role. It told the story of how she, as a file clerk at a law firm, established that a toxic chemical from a compressor station leaked into the groundwater of a nearby California town, according to a biography posted on Brockovich's website. Medical experts, meanwhile, continue to investigate the girls' symptoms, which in some cases, include stuttering. During an interview with CNN's Jason Carroll, Thera's symptoms were apparent: She was twitching uncontrollably, flailing her left arm and jerking her head to one side. Thera said she also faints and has seizures. "I don't think that all physical aspects of this have been exhausted; not enough testing has been done," Thera's mother, Melissa Phillips, said. She ruled out a laundry list of factors to reach her diagnosis, including infections, drug use, food allergies and vaccine reactions, specifically Gardasil. HLN's Liz Flynn reported from Le Roy, New York. CNN's Laura Dolan, Maggie Schneider and Jason Carroll also contributed to this report.

The biggest screen stars - Telegraph In his poem that begins "Look at the stars!," Gerard Manley Hopkins speaks of the night sky as "grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies." Hopkins, that sharpest of observers, had seen something of the stars, in rural Lancashire and Wales. Today, what with light pollution in cities and cloudy skies, we often live as if the stars did not exist. But, abroad, on holiday, we suddenly see them and are astonished. How bright and close and packed together they seem. No wonder every great civilisation, from Babylon to Athens, studied their motions with care. The new ignorance of the night sky is beginning to give way to a newer curiosity. Dark skies, free from light pollution, are proving a tourist attraction. In 2009, Britain's first "Dark Sky Park" was declared in Galloway. Exmoor is soon to have its own. Both locations benefit from more cloudless nights than other dark regions, such as the Scottish Highlands. North Norfolk is another favoured post. But even in London and suchlike conurbations, the stars do make sudden, exhilarating appearances. This week, between the storm fronts, the blue-white of bright Venus, the warmer orange of Mars and the crooked belt of Orion have glittered in the chill dark over the rooftops. In today's Weekend section, Sir Patrick Moore and Adrian Berry explain some of the highlights of January's sky. To view it, you need no licence - yet.

Two men convicted with Lawrence murder LONDON - A court on Tuesday convicted two men of the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, a landmark case that exposed racism in the London police and led to a change in the law allowing suspects to be tried twice for the same crime. The 18-year-old school student was stabbed to death at a bus stop in southeast London in an unprovoked attack by a gang of white youths shouting racist abuse. IN UK Politics & Policy Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, were found guilty after a six-week trial that hinged on new scientific evidence presented by prosecutors. Lawrence's mother Doreen and father Neville wept as the verdicts were delivered at the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, the Press Association reported. Dobson protested his innocence as he was led from court saying: "You have condemned an innocent man here, I hope you can live with yourselves." The case became a catalyst for change after London's Metropolitan Police botched the initial investigation into Lawrence's death. A 1999 report by senior judge William Macpherson said the murder had exposed "institutional racism" in the force and also accused officers of incompetence and a failure of leadership. Since then, the police have overhauled their policies on racism and tried to recruit more officers from ethnic minorities, but the Lawrence case still weighs heavily on the force. The impact of the Macpherson inquiry was felt across the public sector, with all bodies being required to put in place policies to prevent and address racism. The Lawrence case also helped end the judicial doctrine of double jeopardy, which had previously prevented suspects from being tried twice for the same crime. One of the defendants, Dobson, had been acquitted of the murder in 1996 when a private prosecution brought by the teenager's parents collapsed. The Court of Appeal quashed that acquittal in May 2011 and said Dobson could stand trial again, a decision made possible after double jeopardy was scrapped in 2005. The trial of Dobson and Norris, which began in November 2011, hinged on new forensic evidence linking the two men to the murdered teenager. Prosecutors said textile fibres, blood and hair belonging to Lawrence had been found on clothing seized from the defendants. The defence argued that the clothes were contaminated during the police investigation because officers did not store them properly.

Iowa GOP to Announce Final Caucus Results. Will It Matter If Santorum Won? On Thursday morning, we'll finally know who won the Iowa caucuses. Since Mitt Romney edged Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes on caucus night two weeks ago, Iowa's counties and precincts have submitted forms to document their vote totals to the Iowa Republican Party, which has been helping them prepare the official precinct counts. On caucus night, precinct officials phoned in results to an automated system after they'd counted the votes by hand. As the last precincts reported their votes, the tally swung back and forth into the wee hours of Jan. 4. But Thursday's results are final, and Santorum could be crowned Iowa's real winner. An anonymous campaign source told The Washington Examiner Monday that Santorum led by around 80 votes at the time. The Iowa GOP will announce the final results at 9:15 a.m. ET on Thursday. By now, though, it may not matter whether Santorum officially won. The candidate and major media outlets have already declared Iowa an effective tie, and Iowa does not award delegates to any candidate. Unlike for most states, Iowa's delegates to the Republican National Convention are free to support whichever candidate they choose, and the state will not select those delegates until June. If Santorum wins Iowa in the official count, the boost will be emotional and psychological. That could help him as he heads into the South Carolina primary this Saturday if it legitimizes him in the eyes of any on-the-fence South Carolina voters. But it will not likely help him to raise money: While Santorum raised a flood of cash after his strong Iowa showing, he's already missed out on any extra donations he would have attracted in the following days, had the Iowa GOP announced him the winner in the early morning hours of Jan. 4. A few days before South Carolinians vote, attention has already turned to the next result.

Washington's most powerful; secondhand smoke debate Tom Park and Laurie Park at their condo at The Velocity in Capitol Riverfront. The Capital Riverfront Business Improvement District released its annual report yesterday. (Jay Premack - 2010 WASHINGTON POST FILE PHOTO) If you had one local story to share with others, what would it be? The Capital Riverfront Business Improvement District released its annual report yesterday, including plans for a new 3-acre park and more office space for the area between Navy Yard and South Capitol Street. The Hill is Home Claiming it's making their living situation unbearable, some local condo residents are taking their neighbors to court over secondhand smoke. A newly released graphicby the Immigration Policy Center gives a fascinating visual representation of the District's immigrant population. DCentric Political movers and shakers dominate GQ's list of the "50 most powerful people in Washington," though journalists, a chef and a local athlete also make the cut.

State of the union address: excerpts hint at campaign to come Barack Obama will use his annual state of the union speech to launch his 2012 re-election campaign, portraying himself as the champion of working-class America against the small, wealthy elite he claims is protected by the Republicans. As the Republicans tore strips off one another over tax and wealth this week in Florida, the president will argue in his televised address to the nation that America is a land of opportunity and everyone deserves a fair chance, not just a privileged few. He will warn that, in the months left before the election, he will seek to work with Congress, but if Republicans engage in "obstructionism," as the White House claims they did throughout last year, he will confront them and, if necessary, bypass them. In excerpts released in advance by the White House, Obama used some of his starkest language yet in trying to draw a distinction between Democrats and a new generation of Republicans who have shifted to the right, influenced by the Tea Part movement. His words will open him up to accusations from the Republicans currently vying for their party's nomination that he is an advocate of 'class warfare'. The Republican chosen to make the response, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, also issued excerpts of the rebuttal in advance. His speech will say that Obama's blaming of Republican obstructionism were unfair and untrue. The Republicans, "have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements, and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down nearly time and again by the president and his Democrat Senate allies," Daniels will say. Daniels is to accuse Obama of sowing discord with his message of a wealthy elite and a working-class barely getting by. "No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, in excerpts from his speech released in advance. In one strikingly partisan passage, to be delivered in front of both the Senate and the House, Obama said the defining issue of the present time is how to keep the promise of America alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. In a reprisal of his speech to the Democratic convention that first thrust him into the public eye in 2004, in which he said there were no red states or blue states, he will say: "What's at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them. He will set out his priorities not only for the coming year but for a second term, mainly to boost jobs through rebuilding the manufacturing base, developing the new energy sector and improving education. Obama, whose approval ratings have improved marginally this month after being in the dangerously-low 40s, is to take the state of the union message on the road Wednesday with a lengthy trip through the swing states that will determine on November 6 whether he will go down in history as a one-term president or is given another four years. In spite of White House insistence that this is not a campaign trip but an official one, he will take in Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan - all toss-up states. He will promise help for people struggling with the collapse of the housing market and for students in higher education. Think about the America within our reach: a country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we're in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren't so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded," he will say, according to the excerpts released today. Obama, in a direct warning to the senators and members of the House sitting in front of him, will say: "As long as I'm president, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place. In a nod in the direction of the strong public hostility towards banks and Wall Street, he will say: "No, we will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phoney financial profits. Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values. In words that could have been written by the Occupy Wall Street movement, he will say: "Let's never forget: millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that do the same. It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: no bailouts, no handouts, and no cop-outs. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody. With huge disappointment over his presidency so far among Latino voters, who could hold the key to the election, Obama will again repeat his promise, so far unfulfilled, to introduce immigration reform. There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living shadow lives in America, mostly Latinos, many of them exploited financially by ruthless employers. In Florida, Mitt Romney, one of the Republican contenders to take on Obama, is facing a series of questions about his tax affairs after publication of his returns revealed that he paid a much lower rate on his multimillion-dollar income than the average American. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are accused of contributing to the housing market collapse - an emotive issue in Florida, a state which has been blighted by lost homes and where the next Republican primary takes place on January 31.

Montana teacher found dead, 1 in custody January 13, 2012 -- Updated 1842 GMT (0242 HKT) Sidney Public Schools says it learned Sherry Arnold was dead on Friday morning The FBI says a man is in custody and another "is being questioned" in her case Arnold was last seen six days ago while out on a morning run (CNN) -- A 43-year-old Montana schoolteacher last seen six days ago while out on a morning jog has been found dead, her school said Friday. Sidney Public Schools, where Sherry Arnold had worked as a math teacher at Sidney High School, announced on its website that the school district learned of her death around 9:30 a.m. Friday. No other details were immediately available. Law enforcement officers have taken "one adult male into custody, and another adult male is being questioned" in relation to Arnold's case, the FBI said Friday in a statement. "The investigation to determine what happened to Ms. Arnold continues," the federal agency said. Arnold went running around 6:30 a.m. last Saturday around her small town in eastern Montana but never returned home. Other than one of her running shoes that was found along her route, authorities had not indicated -- until Friday -- that there's been any sign of her.

Syria rejects Arab troops proposal Syria on Tuesday ruled out any deployment of Arab troops as proposed by Qatar to halt 10 months of deadly unrest, as army defectors urged the UN Security Council to intervene. "Syria rejects the statements of officials of Qatar on sending Arab troops to worsen the crisis... and pave the way for foreign intervention," the foreign ministry said. The Syrian people refuse any foreign intervention in any name. They will oppose any attempt to undermine the sovereignty of Syria and the integrity of its territory," it said in a statement. "It would be regrettable for Arab blood to flow on Syria's territory to serve known (interests)," the ministry added, without elaborating. In an interview with US television aired at the weekend, Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, said he favoured sending Arab troops to Syria to "stop the killing." From its base in Turkey, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) called on the 22-member Arab League to "quickly transfer the case of Syria to the UN Security Council," in a statement signed by its leader Riyadh al-Asaad, a dissident colonel. The United Nations has pledged to assist the Arab mission deployed in Syria since last month, saying Monday it would start training the bloc's observers within days. But the defector force is seeking much bolder action from the world body and urged the international community to "act quickly against the regime through Chapter 7 of the UN charter to maintain peace." The Security Council's robust Chapter 7 provision allows for UN-backed forces to initiate military action, not simply respond when attacked. UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday said "the situation in Syria has reached an unacceptable point," and urged the Security Council to respond with "seriousness and gravity and in a coherent manner." But tough action by the council has been repeatedly blocked by Damascus allies China and Russia, which vetoed a Western draft UN resolution in October that would have condemned Assad's regime. Russia, which has accused the West of eyeing Libya-style regime change in Damascus, on Monday distributed its second draft resolution that blames both sides for the crisis and opposes strong UN action, Western diplomats said. France on Tuesday dismissed the Russian draft, saying it fell "very far from responding to the reality of the situation in Syria." Leading Western powers have so far ruled out military intervention like that waged against Moamer Kadhafi's regime. Syria's 'warning against the deployment of Arab troops comes amid signs of stronger coordination between the military and political opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The Syrian National Council, an umbrella group, said it had opened a liaison office and hotline with the FSA to follow political developments on the ground. The FSA claims to have gathered some 40,000 fighters under its command since an anti-regime revolt broke out in Syria in mid-March. The crackdown on dissent has since cost more than 5,000 lives, the United Nations estimates. A media adviser to a top Syrian army defector, General Mustafa Ahmad al-Sheikh, said last week that a special council is being set up to oversee all military operations. Assad's regime was also hit on Monday by the defection of a leading MP, Imad Ghaliun, who announced he was going into exile, along with an opposition figure who heads Syria's largest tribe, Nawaf al-Bashir. In fresh violence on Tuesday, 11 civilians were killed, including eight who died in a minibus explosion in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A senior military official in Israel, meanwhile, said his country had serious concerns about what will happen to "huge stockpiles" of chemical and biological weapons if the Assad regime collapsed. The question is when, not if. And the big question is what's going to come the day after," said Major General Amir Eshel, head of the Israeli military's planning division. "The immediate concern is the huge stockpiles of chemicals, biologicals (weapons), strategic capabilities that are still going into Syria, mainly from eastern Europe," Eshel said.

Gary Dobson and David Norris' sentences restricted by law of 1993 Stephen Lawrence's killers would have faced double the amount of time behind bars if they had carried out the racist murder today, the Old Bailey trial judge said. Mr Justice Treacy told Gary Dobson and David Norris: "In modern times an adult committing this crime would be facing a life sentence with a starting point for a minimum term of around 30 years." But the judge was restricted by having to apply the law as it was at the time of the attack in 1993, a decade before tougher sentencing rules were brought in and when both men were still juveniles. Dobson was given at least 15 years and two months behind bars while Norris was told he must serve at least 14 years and three months before being considered for release. Michael Turner QC, vice-chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, warned against saying the tariffs, the minimum time they must spend in prison, were too light. "Undoubtedly it would be higher now, but the judge has stuck really closely to the guidelines," he said. What I would be concerned about from the public's point of view is that, if we start saying these sentences are woefully low, the implication is that the judge has taken some kind of sympathy with the murderers and he has not at all. He described Mr Justice Treacy, a member of the Sentencing Council which sets guidelines for judges, as "a very solid, safe pair of hands." Mr Turner added that, if they are released, both men would be on a life licence and would be sent back to prison for any breach of their conditions or if they committed any other crimes. "Given who they are, I would be surprised if they managed to survive particularly long out on a life licence," he said. He added that judges "don't have a huge deal of discretion" in sentencing and their hands were tied by both statutory law and common sense. While judges had some discretion and could decide how much significance they should attach to the fact that the killers evaded justice for almost 19 years, he urged against "retrospective sentencing." Defendants should be sentenced according to the law as it stood when they committed the crime, he said. Mr Turner also urged Parliament to "stop interfering in the sentencing process" by proscribing minimum terms by statute, adding that deterrent sentences do not work. "If the sentence for parking on a double yellow line was life imprisonment, that will work," he said. But it does not for murder. Murderers are either terrorists, in other words professional killers, who would like to be hung so they can be martyrs, or one of the vast majority who are not thinking about it (sentencing) at all. He went on: "If racism is endemic within society, it's not going to be cured by racist murderers being sent away for life." As they were sentenced as juveniles, Dobson and Norris will technically be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure, the form of murder sentence for under-18s. Previously, the Home Secretary was responsible for determining the minimum term for offenders under this sentence. But the law was changed in 2000 after a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of James Bulger's murderers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. The trial judge now carries the responsibility for setting the minimum term for juvenile murderers.

Black Hollywood Weighs Whether to Support Obama a Second Time When Mattie Lawson's husband, Michael, suggested in 2003 that they consider hosting a political fundraiser at their lavish Los Angeles estate for a new up-and-comer in the field, she immediately said no. The prominent African-American couple - he a recently retired partner in the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, she a major philanthropist and member of many boards - have long been considered two of the most powerful political brokers in California, with a reputation for choosing winning candidates. Their regular guests include Magic Johnson and his wife, Cookie; Diahann Carroll; Angela Bassett; Courtney Vance; and many others. But they'd never opened up their newly remodeled $8 million-plus Hancock Park mansion, formerly owned by boxing legend Muhammad Ali and decorated with Tiffany chandeliers and silk wallpaper. And Mattie wasn't sure she wanted to go that route. "I had no idea how to say Barack Obama and wasn't very interested in learning at that point," says Mattie with a laugh, sitting in the comfortable sunroom of the estate. That changed after she agreed to speak with then-State Senator Obama - over Skype. Since then the couple has raised nearly $2 million for Obama's various campaigns. Now the preparations are underway to do it again, starting with a luncheon at the Lawsons" home the first week of February, followed by numerous other events before Election Day rolls around, including a spring appearance by the president. It's an important set of fundraisers, given the crucial role of African-American financial support - and votes - in Obama's 2008 victory. But it is also an effort filled with challenges. As one member of the Congressional Black Caucus put it, "Last time around it was enough that he was a smart black man with a beautiful family running for president." This time, he'll have to contend with some disappointment in his record among African-Americans, including grumbling from leaders such as Cornel West and Tavis Smiley about what they see as Obama's lack of attention to the needs of minorities and the poor. Michael and Mattie Lawson., Joe Pugliese for Newsweek Actor Samuel L. Jackson, an early supporter of the president, freely admits his ambivalence. "Some days I agree with Dr. West and what he says about the president not dealing enough with the plight of the poor," says Jackson. Then I think about how they won't give him credit for anything... The president got about a week of moderate applause for capturing the most-wanted man in the world. You ask me, he should have put that motherfucker on ice and defrosted his ass Nov. 1. Still, former ambassador Andrew Young believes attitudes will change when the Republican candidate is clear. "Black voters will see at some point soon that this is far worse than 2008 and John McCain," says Young. Obama's rivals this time are talking about taking us all the way back to a period that really wasn't good for black people in any way. The money will come when they understand we can't go back. Other big names in black Hollywood are actively throwing their support Obama's way. "I will be there again just like I was in 2008," says actress, dancer, and Grey's Anatomy director Debbie Allen. Are things exactly the way I'd like them to be or need them to be? No, but he can get us there if he's given the time he needs to do it. Will Smith, along with his wife, Jada, and manager, James Lassiter, as well as Kerry Washington, Tracy Morgan, and Jay-Z say they'll be back on the Obama election train as well. Response to the Lawsons" upcoming luncheon, which will feature the first lady, is coming in quickly from Hollywood and beyond, suggesting a sold-out crowd of 250 shelling out $10,000 for a photo op with Michelle Obama or $35,800 for a luncheon with celebrity co-hosts Pauletta Washington (Denzel's wife) and LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Samuel's wife). Guests will include Hollywood faces but many others as well. "Contrary to popular belief," explains Mattie Lawson, "the majority of African-Americans with money aren't athletes, singers, or rappers." Lawson adds that the RSVPs come in briskly when the first lady makes an appearance. "The men call back particularly fast when the first lady is the main attraction," Lawson says, laughing. They love her - as they should.

November trade deficit hits $47.8 billion WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. trade deficit widened in November for the first time in five months, largely because of a spike in the price of imported oil. Still, exports fell for a second straight month, a sign that Europe's slowdown has begun to affect the U.S. economy. The trade gap rose 10.4 percent to $47.8 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday. Overall exports dropped 0.9 percent to $177.8 billion. But American exports to Europe fell more sharply - nearly 6 percent. Many economists say Europe may already be in a recession, which would cut demand for American-made goods. Europe buys roughly one-fifth of U.S. exports. Falling exports weakens growth because it means less production at factories and weaker revenue for U.S. companies. "The decline in our sales to Europe was fairly large and may be the start of a longer-term trend in declining exports to the Continent," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. Higher oil prices were the main reason the deficit widen. The price of oil rose above $100 per barrel in November. It had been as low as $75 per barrel in the previous month. The trade deficit hit a 2011 peak of $52.1 billion before it fell for four straight months. That helped boost economic growth because foreign nations were buying more American goods. Exports hit an all-time high of $180.6 billion in September, reflecting healthy sales of American-made cars and trucks in foreign markets. Higher exports lead to more U.S. jobs and higher consumer spending, which boosts economic growth. A weaker trade deficit will subtract from growth in the final three months of the year. Many economists had expected growth to be strong after seeing more hiring, an increase in inventory growth and faster production at U.S. factories. "The widening in the U.S. trade deficit in November ... is perhaps the first real sign that the crisis in Europe and the more general global slowdown is starting to take its toll on the U.S.," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics. Through 11 months, the 2011 deficit is running at an annual rate of $559.4 billion, 11.9 percent above the 2010 deficit of $500 billion. For November, the deficit with China dropped 4.3 percent to $26.9 billion. But for the year, the imbalance with China climbed to $272.3 billion. That's on track to surpass last year's record of $273.1 billion. Auto imports rose to $22.3 billion. But consumer goods fell to $42.5 billion, reflecting declines in household goods, clothing and televisions. The drop in exports covered a number of manufacturing categories. Sales of commercial aircraft, U.S.-made cars and machinery were all down.

Warning over 'grade inflation' as first-class degrees double But other academics warned that more radical reform was needed. Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said grades had been inflated to such an extent that a "starred first" was required to mark out the most exceptional talent. Employers said that so many people were leaving university with top degrees that companies had been forced to introduce increasingly sophisticated systems to screen job applicants. Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruitment, said: "Over the past decade, employers have become less confident that the degree class in itself tells them what they need to know. Employers see the growth in academic success rates, coupled with the expansion of higher education, and are driven to develop sophisticated assessment tools that give them better insights into the capability and potential of candidates who apply to work for them. To some extent, it is an indication that the degree class isn't regarded now as being the most accurate measurement of what somebody has achieved. According to figures, almost 15.5 per cent of students left UK universities last summer with a first-class degree - 53,215 of those passing their course. Almost two-thirds of students - 64 per cent - gained either a first or 2:1. It represented a 14 per cent rise in the number of firsts in just one year, far outstripping the five per cent increase in the overall student population. In total, the number of firsts has increased by 45 per cent since 2007, when just 36,645 students were awarded the best degree grades. A decade ago, some 23,700 students - or nine per cent of the year group - gained a first-class honours degree. An analysis of data released by individual universities last year suggested the proportion of top degrees had soared since the 70s and 80s. The percentage of Cambridge finalists receiving firsts rose from 13 per cent in 1980 to 23 per cent in 2010. Those receiving third class degrees in the same period tumbled from 12 per cent to 3 per cent, while 2:2s fell from 42 per cent to 22 per cent. At Warwick just three per cent of candidates received firsts in 1980. By 2010 the figure was 23 per cent. At Exeter, the percentage of firsts has risen from four per cent in 1980 to 19 per cent in 2010, while at St Andrews firsts rose from seven per cent in 1980 to 20 per cent in 2010. Mike Harris, head of policy development at the Institute of Directors, said: "The increasing proportion of students being awarded top degrees can make it more difficult for employers to distinguish between the outstanding and the good. However, it is important to remember that while a degree classification can be a starting line for recruitment, it's rarely the finishing post. A degree is an indicator of calibre, not the final word - factors such as work experience and wider employability skills are often far more important to employers. David Willetts, the Universities Minister, said individual institutions were responsible for degree grades, but insisted that "the whole system of degree classification does need reform." "That is why our white paper proposes that most institutions should develop Higher Education Achievement Reports for all their undergraduates from 2012," he said. This will be a more useful measure of performance. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, insisted that the year-on-year rise in firsts was small, adding: "A-level performance has also improved in recent years, so it is unsurprising that degree results would also show an improvement." However, it has been clear for some time that the current degree classification system is a blunt instrument for assessing achievement, hence Universities UK's support for the ongoing trialling of the Higher Education Achievement Report.

Boxing: Amir Khan granted rematch by WBA World Boxing Association vice president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza has confirmed they have granted Amir Khan a rematch against Lamont Peterson. Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, reported overnight that the governing body had notified him of their "official decision" to order a rematch following the controversial bout last month and Mendoza confirmed the news this afternoon. Khan lost both his WBA and IBF titles in a split-decision defeat in Peterson's Washington DC hometown on December 10. And Mendoza told Press Association Sport today: "I can confirm there we have ordered a direct rematch. We will issue a press release very soon. Schaefer told RingTV he was informed by the body last night. "I just received, half an hour ago, a letter from the WBA on their official decision that they are going to order an immediate rematch," he said. Peterson's trainer and manager Barry Hunter this week accused Khan of using "foul tactics and false accusations" to discredit the new champion. Khan has publicly aired several grievances, from referee Joe Cooper's decision to dock the Englishman two points to the judges' decisions and alleged discrepancies with the scorecards. Khan then reignited the issue last week by questioning the role of the then-unidentified Mustafa Ameen at ringside.

David Hockney-mania overloads Royal Academy website According to reports, both options for booking tickets have been struggling since early this morning, meaning that some art-lovers keen to secure a ticket ahead of the opening on Saturday have so far been left disappointed. Three days before The Real Van Gogh: The Artist And His Letters opened, most of the programme of lectures surrounding the exhibition had sold out and there had been a 'heavy' amount of pre-bookings, the Evening Standard reported in 2010. Today, the Royal Academy booking website has been loading extremely slowly with several of the dates in January already sold out. The booking telephone number has been engaged all morning. Admission to the exhibition is being limited to prevent overcrowding and earlier in the month the Royal Academy said booking was "advisable" if visitors wanted to avoid long queues. The exhibition is already being called one of the most ambitious shows in the Royal Academy's history. It will feature over 150 works, including films, by the Yorkshire artist, most of which have been made especially for the exhibition. Hockney, 74, accepted the Order of Merit from the Queen earlier this month. Tickets to the show can also be bought from the Royal Academy ticket desk. The exhibition opens on Saturday January 21 and runs until April 9. See www.royalacademy.org.uk / 08442090051

Dior: Holding Couture to the Light At 2:30 p.m. Monday, I arrived at Dior, on Avenue Montaigne. Whenever couture is shown in the house, in the grand salons on the third floor, an enormous throng of spectators and paparazzi gathers outside. It sounds far more glamorous than it really is. As I reached the main door, a black-suited security guard bellowed at people to clear the area so a guest's car could pull up. A Dior show, though, has a ritual element of pomp when Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, arrives with members of his family, and a black leather-clad Peter Marino, the architect for LVMH and Dior, among other companies. It's like the procession of a Mass. The show started around 3, with models drifting through the creamy gray rooms in full-skirted dresses and coats of delicately embroidered silk organdy. The palette of black, white, Dior gray with drops of red, deep purple and lavender was as restrained as the designs. Embroidery was limited to a negative tracing of roses - white on sheer black silk, say - or several lines of script. It was Bill Gaytten's idea to expose, like an X-ray or blueprint, the skill of the Dior ateliers, which he took over after John Galliano was fired. This blueprint idea wasn't original; several years ago, Mr. Galliano did a spare, semi-transparent collection that captured the influence of photographers, like Lillian Bassman, and fashion illustrators. Mr. Galliano's fantasies eventually had their whispering detractors, and perhaps Mr. Gaytten, his former right-hand, has gone too far in the opposite direction; some of the dresses, despite being transparent, had a certain first communion look. Yet, outside of a couture workroom, you would never find this degree of lightness, both in technique and sensibility. Not in ready-to-wear. And even at some couture houses, there is a tendency to keep adding stuff or making constructions that look hard and aging. Mr. Gaytten didn't do that. He really did expose the essential skills of the house. In the long run, though, Dior needs a designer with real, imaginative weight. And there is little sense of when someone will be.

When Kevin Darley picked up a passenger as well as the German Derby Back in 1999 Kevin Darley got go the surprise of his life after winning the German Derby on Belenus when ex-jockey Mario Hofer jumped on behind him as the horse paraded in front of the grandstand at Hamburg. "My biggest concern was that the big cigar he was smoking at the time would burn a hole in the back of my head," Darley recalled on Monday. Of course it now raises the prospect of copycat celebrations. Sir Michael Stoute did not have a Group One winner last year and if that has been getting to him, whose to say he will not give it a try if he wins this year's Derby?

Insurer Aon to move headquarters to London CHICAGO, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Insurance giant Aon is moving its headquarters to London to get closer to the action, the company said Friday. The insurance firm that operates 500 offices with 61,000 employees worldwide, said London provided better access to emerging markets and to Lloyd's. Aon said the London market was "one of the key international hubs of insurance and risk brokerage." Aon said it was not abandoning Chicago, where it has 6,000 employees. The firm said it would keep its U.S. headquarters in the Windy City and will move an additional 750 jobs into the city's downtown Aon Center. The insurer said it would be adding 1,000 jobs in the United States this year. "The move will not cause job loss in either Chicago or the United States," Aon said. Aon said it will change its jurisdiction of incorporation from Delaware to England.

A Recipe for Simplifying Life: Ditch All the Recipes What's the first step toward cooking and eating better this year? Perhaps you should start by learning how to boil water. While that may not sound like much of a cooking technique, you will gain a new appreciation for the hidden potential of boiled food after reading the new book "An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace," by the chef and food writer Tamar Adler. Placing a pot of water on a hot burner allows us to "do more good cooking than we know," she writes. Ms. Adler waits for a rapid boil and adds surprisingly large handfuls of salt, tasting until it's reminiscent of ocean water. People concerned about sodium can use less. From that simple starting point, several meals can be created, from pasta adorned with gently cooked vegetables to a chicken, simmered and skimmed, cut up and served with a fresh salsa verde. The chicken leaves behind yet another flavorful dish: richly flavored broth, to be eaten hot with vegetables or added to other dishes the rest of the week. To listen to Ms. Adler talk about cooking is to be drawn into a rhythmic dance where each step - from washing and chopping vegetables to cooking and seasoning the meal - flows effortlessly into the next, guided by the food itself, as well as by our own basic instincts about what tastes good. A chapter called "How to Have Balance" focuses on bread; "How to Live Well" is devoted to beans. Her message is that cooking does not have to be complicated, and all anyone needs are a few basics to get started. In instructing readers on the art of intuitive cooking, Ms. Adler offers not just cooking lessons, but a recipe for simplifying life. "There is this sense that to cook well means to be struck with inspiration," said Ms. Adler, 34, whose credentials include stints at the restaurants Prune, in New York, and Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, Calif. We think everything is supposed to be extraordinary. "But in European and Asian food culture, food is simply supposed to be good and nourishing and enjoyable" - and, she added, far less stressful. Why are so many of us intimidated by cooking? It may be that this convenience-food generation never got to see our mothers and grandmothers boiling and roasting meals without a recipe, turning the leftovers into hash or stew. Instead we are guided by cooking shows that celebrate the elaborate preparations and techniques that Ms. Adler calls "high-wire acts." "Anybody who grew up with a lot of home cooking around them knows that you can have eggs for dinner or that lentils can become pancakes tomorrow," she said. But sometimes we just don't know that we can do that because they don't do that on TV. One of her most important lessons is that we need to spend less time thinking about food and more time just enjoying it. Her suggestions about how to prepare vegetables contradict much of what we have been taught, or think we have. For instance, while most of us stock our crispers with fresh vegetables and then spend the rest of the week racing to eat them before they turn brown, Ms. Adler buys up basketfuls of whatever vegetables are in season, and as soon as she gets home she scrubs off the dirt, trims the leaves, chops and peels, and then cooks and prepares all the vegetables at once - washing and separating lettuce leaves; drizzling cauliflower, beets and carrots with olive oil and roasting them in separate pans. Beet greens are sautéed, and chopped stems and leaves are transformed into pesto. Many people, myself included, have long believed that vegetables are best if they are cooked just before they are served. But cooking vegetables as soon as you buy them essentially turns them into a convenience food, allowing them to keep longer and creating a starting point for a week's worth of meals. "We're told that things need to be fresh," Ms. Adler said, but too often "we all end up watching our food go bad, and then it doesn't matter if it was fresh, because we didn't get to eat it." Watching Ms. Adler cook vegetables is inspiring. You can see her routine in two videos titled "How to Stride Ahead" on her Web site, tamareadler.com. Roasted vegetables can be enjoyed immediately, but most will be refrigerated in jars for later in the week. Warmed to room temperature and drizzled with vinaigrette, they make a savory, earthy salad; or blended with broth and a splash of cream, they can be a hearty soup. For another meal, the cooked vegetables might be used in a frittata or a warm sandwich. Cooked greens can be turned into a bubbling gratin, roasted vegetables are added to risotto, and everything left over can become an end-of-the-week vegetable curry. The comforting lesson from "An Everlasting Meal" is that we already know plenty about feeding ourselves, and we don't need to complicate things by trying to create something extraordinary every time we cook. "I feel like people are being hit from all sides by a lot of confusing messages, and they are feeling like eating well is really hard," Ms. Adler said. This is not a question of expertise. Other than being an expert eater, which we all are by the time we start cooking, we're already experts at knowing when things are done or whether they need more seasoning.

Lakers don't get a day off The Lakers were due for a day off Saturday, having just played back-to-back road games against NBA powers before taking a charter flight that put them back in Los Angeles around 3:30 a.m. They didn't get it. Coach Mike Brown required his players to report to the team's practice facility, where they watched a replay of their 92-80 loss to the Orlando Magic from the previous day. Brown then conducted a light workout before calling players into a back room individually to further break down tape of their games. It's all part of the process of trying to learn under a new coach in a condensed season, which on days like Saturday can feel particularly painful. "I would have never done that in the past," Brown said of making his players work following a hectic few days. This is a different circumstance, so I required our guys to do it [Saturday] and at least not within earshot, I didn't hear one complaint. Fans continued to gripe about the Lakers' offense, last seen during a 108-99 victory over Houston on Jan. 3. That was the only time the Lakers have reached triple digits during a season in which they are averaging 92.9 points. They fell short of even that threshold during their two-game trip, which also included a 98-87 loss to Miami. But after reviewing a replay of the Orlando defeat, Brown said his team's offense wasn't as bad as it might have appeared. "We got great look after great look by moving the ball and moving bodies," he said, "so for the most part I was pleased with our offensive execution. We just have to step in and knock down some of the shots that we missed. The Lakers shot 42% against the Heat and 38.2% against the Magic, a big reason their road record dipped to 1-6. Now the Lakers return to Staples Center, where they are a far more palatable 9-1. They will play Indiana on Sunday and the Clippers on Wednesday during a brief homestand in a season that won't pause just because they could use extra practice time. "We're trying to make a lot of things happen in a very tight and compressed window," guard Derek Fisher said. We've done a decent job, but decent with this organization sometimes isn't good enough, so we have to figure out a way to be more than above average even in challenging circumstances. We have the right group of guys to figure it out and we'll just keep coming in here every day trying to get better. Brown apparently will make sure of it. No hard feelings Josh McRoberts fulfilled a dream when he joined his hometown Indiana Pacers before the 2008-09 season. The honeymoon lasted 2½ years. Indiana tried to trade the power forward for Memphis guard O.J. Mayo last season, but the deal was never consummated. McRoberts said the Pacers then told him they wanted to bring him back for this season but never called. "It kind of ended in a bad way in my opinion," McRoberts said, "but I'll always be thankful for the way that it started and the time that I spent there." McRoberts had his best NBA season with the Pacers last year, averaging 7.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 22.2 minutes. "I don't hold any grudges," McRoberts said. That's part of the business side of things and they're having a great season and I understand they felt like they needed to move in a different direction. It worked out well for both of us.

GOP ad hits and misses Campaign ads have been playing a role in American politics for more than two centuries now. And these days, they have a special kind of power. But what type of ads have been working in the presidential campaigning so far -- and which ones haven't? GOP pollster Frank Luntz, president and chief executive officer of Luntz Global, LLC, shared his analysis on "The Early Show." Check out his thoughts on several of the campaign ads below. "Serial Hypocrisy" by Ron Paul: This ad attacks Newt Gingrich by using press clips that make him appear hypocritical on key conservative issues. It tested well among both Republicans and Democrats. Luntz said on "The Early Show," "That is one of the most powerful, because it shows Gingrich at his worst. Makes him a Washington insider, which is exactly what Republicans don't want. ... What these voters are looking for is consistency and predictability, which is why Gingrich got hurt in the ad and Mitt Romney was attacked by the Obama campaign and he got hurt (by portrayals of a lack of) consistency. "Mitt vs Mitt" by the Democratic National Convention: This ad uses sound bites of Romney appearing to argue on both sides of several issues. It ends with a clip of Ronald Reagan laughing, saying ,"Here we go again!" This ad tested well among both voters from parties. "It made people laugh, which is a key to negative advertising," Luntz said. It can't make you angry at the people who ran it. You want to make it angry at the candidate. Romney has also been attacking Barack Obama, and that is one of the reasons he has actually done so well nationwide. He has gone ahead of Gingrich in most surveys because he is trying to bring the campaign to the Democrats, which is the second thing that caucus voters want, someone who can beat Barack Obama. "Bumps In The Road" by Mitt Romney: This early ad uses the image of Americans lying in a road as Obama's quoted "bumps in road" to a better economy to show how out of touch the White House is. This tested well among both parties. On "The Early Show" Luntz said of this ad, "It's trying to use the voices of people, and one of the hardest things in the campaign right now is credibility. Nobody trusts anything from anyone. And so you've got to use real people, real voices, real opinions. The language of some of the ads has not worked because it's come across as manufactured. If you feel like you came in a television studio, if someone put it together just slapped it together, it's not going to be effective. You got to have an authentic, genuine message. "Time to Get America Working Again" by Rick Perry: This was the first ad of hiss campaign, and it resonated strongly with voters in our focus group. This ad is two minutes long, split into two one-minute parts. Part one talks about what is going wrong in America, and part two talks about Rick Perry and why he is the man to fix it. "Two Different Plans" by Rick Perry: This ad attacks Romney's Social Security plan and contrasts it with his own, using Florida as an example. This dialed poorly among our group. "Now Is The Time For Action" by Herman Cain: This ad features Cain's chief of staff talking directly to camera about Cain, and then taking a long drag from a cigarette. This is among the worst dialed ads of the primary race thus far. When asked who is going to win in this caucus, Luntz said, "I'm not afraid to make predictions. This time, no way. Could be any one of three candidates. And we don't know who is coming in fourth and fifth. I don't remember any time like this. Mike Huckabee had a three-point lead, but clearly, he was surging. Rick Santorum is still back, and back in 2008, Barack Obama also was leading in the last poll. No one is leading this time.

Off-shore earthquake rattles Japan - UPI.com TOKYO, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Parts of Japan were shaken by a strong off-shore earthquake Sunday, seismologists said. The Japan Meteorological Agency measured it at a 7.0-magnitude, while the U.S. Geological Survey placed it at 6.8. No tsunami warning was issued, Kyodo News reported. The USGS said the quake was 216.6 miles deep and centered 307 miles south-southwest of Tokyo, 244 miles south of Shizuoka, 226 miles south of Hamamatsu and 150 miles southwest of Hachijo-jima on the Izu Islands. The 2:28 p.m. New Year's Day temblor rattled a wide swath of eastern and northeastern Japan, including downtown Tokyo, and Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures, the news agency said. Kyodo said there was no immediate word of the quake's impact on the country's nuclear reactors, including those crippled by the massive quake and tsunami last March.

What's He Got to Hide? Irada Humbatova/Reuters The case of two Swedish journalists imprisoned in Ethiopia sheds light on a harsh campaign of repression. IN a filthy Ethiopian prison that is overridden with lice, fleas and huge rats, two Swedes are serving an 11-year prison sentence for committing journalism. Martin Schibbye, 31, and Johan Persson, 29, share a narrow bed, one man's head beside the other's feet. Schibbye once woke up to find a rat mussing his hair. The prison is a violent, disease-ridden place, with inmates fighting and coughing blood, according to Schibbye's wife, Linnea Schibbye Steiner, who last met with her husband in December. It is hot in the daytime and freezing cold at night, and the two Swedes are allowed no mail or phone calls, she said. Fortunately, she added, the 250 or so Ethiopian prisoners jammed in the cell protect the two journalists, pray for them and jokingly call their bed "the Swedish embassy." What was the two men's crime? Their offense was courage. They sneaked into the Ogaden region to investigate reports of human rights abuses. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's increasingly tyrannical ruler, seemed to be sending a signal to the world's journalists: Don't you dare mess with me! So the only proper response is a careful look at Meles's worsening repression. Sadly, this repression is abetted by acquiescence from Washington and by grants from aid organizations. Those Swedish journalists will probably be released early because of international pressure. But there will be no respite for the countless Ethiopians who face imprisonment, torture and rape. I'm in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, and so is Meles. I've been pursuing him for the last few days, trying to confront him and ask him about his worsening pattern of brutality. He has refused to see me, so I enlisted my Twitter followers to report Meles sightings. I want to ask him why he has driven more journalists into exile over the last decade than any other leader in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York City. Meles has done genuine good in fighting poverty. He has some excellent officials under him, including a superb health minister, and Ethiopia's economy is making progress in health and agriculture. Ethiopia is full of aid organizations, and it has a close intelligence and military relationship with the United States government. Yet since 2005, when an initial crackdown left 200 protesters dead and 30,000 detained, Meles has steadily tightened his grip. A Human Rights Watch report this month noted that the government is forcibly removing tens of thousands of people from their rural homes to artificial villages where they risk starvation. Those who resist endure arrests, beatings or worse. "The repression is getting worse," notes Tamerat Negera, who fled to the United States after the newspaper he edited was closed down in 2009. His vision seems an attempt to root out any dissent. Meles has criminalized dissent, with a blogger named Eskinder Nega now facing terrorism charges, which could mean a death sentence. His true crime was calling on the government to allow free speech and end torture. Appallingly, the Meles regime uses foreign food aid to punish his critics. Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients of development aid, receiving about $3 billion annually, with the United States one of its largest donors. This money does save lives. But it also "underwrites repression in Ethiopia," in the words of Human Rights Watch. Families and entire areas of the country are deliberately starved unless they back the government, human rights groups have shown. In Ethiopia, the verb "to starve" is transitive. Look, I'm a huge advocate of smart aid to fight global poverty. But donors and aid groups need to ensure that their aid doesn't buttress repression. The Meles regime, run largely by a coterie from his own minority Tigrayan ethnicity, has been particularly savage in the Ogaden region, where it faces an armed uprising. When Jeffrey Gettleman, a colleague at The New York Times, went to the Ogaden in 2007, he found a pattern of torture and rape. The government then arrested Gettleman and two colleagues, detaining them for five days in harsh conditions. The two Swedish reporters illegally entered the Ogaden and met a rebel group to examine that human rights wasteland. In December, they were sentenced to 11-year terms. Steiner, Schibbye's wife, said of the harsh conditions: "Eleven years in an Ethiopian prison is equal to life, because you do not survive that long." Amnesty International says that in the last 11 months, the government has arrested at least 114 Ethiopian journalists and opposition politicians. It described this as "the most far-reaching crackdown on freedom of expression seen in many years in Ethiopia." Prime Minister Meles, you may have dodged me in Davos, but your brutality toward Swedish, American and Ethiopian journalists will not silence the world's media. You're just inviting more scrutiny.

Costa cruise hit rocks in 2005 - and firm tried to cover it up Italian magistrates will be asked to investigate claims that Costa Cruises, owner of the Concordia ocean liner which ran aground off the Italian coast 11 days ago, tried to cover up a similar incident in 2005, when their Fortuna vessel allegedly struck rocks near Sorrento. Roberto Cappello, who was working as an official photographer for the company at the time, said that the Fortuna appeared to hit rocks during a close approach to the coast near the southern port in May 2005. He said photographs he took showing the listing cabins and damage to the vessel were confiscated by company officials. His allegations will this week be passed to magistrates investigating the Concordia disaster, in which 32 people are feared to have died. Mr Cappello's claims came as divers recovered the bodies of two women from the capsized cruise liner, which is resting half-submerged near the port of Giglio island. That brings the number of bodies found to 15, with 17 others still missing. Experts are also expected to begin pumping fuel from the ship today in an effort to prevent an environmental disaster in the area. Costa Cruises has insisted that close sail-bys of the type that ended in tragedy at Giglio on 13 January have never been endorsed by the company. But the Concordia captain, Francesco Schettino, who is accused of abandoning ship ahead of his passengers and could be charged with manslaughter, has told the preliminary investigations judge, Valeria Montesarchio, that Costa Cruises encouraged passenger-pleasing close approaches "at Sorrento, Capri and everywhere" to "create publicity." The 2005 incident is said to have occurred on the Costa Fortuna liner that left Savona for Palermo on the 24 April. "The incident happened on the first Friday of May," said Mr Cappello. It was early in the evening, about 7pm. I was in my cabin. We were close, very close to the shore - about 200 metres - when we hit. There was a loud bang. At first I didn't know that the ship had hit rocks. The first thing we were aware of was the ship listing from left to right. Elsewhere on the ship I saw that plates had fallen from tables. People were obviously aware that something had happened and they were frightened but there wasn't an immediate explanation from officials. He said the ship appeared to zig-zag in the water "like a snake," but carried on at a slower pace and docked in Palermo. We were later told that the ship had hit a whale - really. You'd have laughed if the whole thing wasn't so serious and frightening," he said. Mr Cappello said that he went down into the keel where he saw and photographed a gash in the ship "the depth of arm and tens of metres long." He also saw that a propeller blade one the left side was broken. But when we disembarked, Costa Crociere (Cruises) officials made me hand over the files on my camera. I was basically threatened. They said that as someone on a contract with them I was obliged to hand over all the images in the camera or there would be trouble," he said, adding: "I believe the company knew about these close sail-bys and even encouraged them. But it's taken the deaths of many people for it to really be exposed. Carlo Rienzi, president of the national consumer group Codacons, which is leading a class action against Costa Cruises, is sending Mr Cappello's claims to Francesco Verusio, the Grosseto prosecuting magistrate who is heading the criminal investigation. A spokesman for Costa Cruises said that the company would not comment on any developments relating to the disaster during the judicial investigation.

'Declaration of War': Movie review War, by its very nature, doesn't give you weekends or nights off. There may be time between assaults, but the momentary cease-fires are unpredictable at best. So it is in "Declaration of War," a vibrant and heartfelt French film that captures the mood and the memories of young parents who found themselves in the trenches fighting for the life of their child. Though the names have been changed, this is a very personal story for the very personal filmmaker Valérie Donzelli, who directs, co-writes and costars with Jérémie Elkaïm. It is a fictionalized version of the real-life battles they waged against the cancer that threatened their infant son Gabriel and how that time tore at their relationship. This might have been too dreadfully sad if Donzelli weren't involved, but there is a sort of effervescence to her work that sweeps you up. As with her first film, 2009's "The Queen of Hearts," which turned her struggle with depression into a dramatic musical comedy, this too has a whimsical touch and a song. It doesn't mean she doesn't take things seriously, just that she chooses not to cut so deep as to lose sight of the amusements and ironies that surface in even the darkest times. The film is told in flashbacks so that you know that the baby survived, which actually allows you to experience their wartime without that shadow of fear that it will all end badly. For the couple, it is love at first sight at a packed party, when Romeo (Elkaïm) and Juliette (Donzelli) lock eyes across a crowded room, a moment broken only by her laugh and his smile when the peanut he tosses in her direction lands in her mouth. They are beautiful and playful, so entranced with each other it seems as if nothing can penetrate their world, including adulthood. Then Adam arrives, and nothing goes as they expected. He cries for hours on end, and soon whatever they thought they had with each other is harder to find, with 18-month-old César Desseix as young Adam a born heartbreaker with old soul eyes (Gabriel plays Adam at 8). With this, the story settles into the grim rituals that come with any disease, the round of doctors before you know exactly what fate has dealt you, the way complaints about a crying baby are dismissed. It takes months before anyone really listens, and when the diagnosis comes, it is deadly. Time slows and life is lived in hospitals. The filmmaker is clearly interested in exploring how crisis changes us, what it demands and how we react. The different ways in which Romeo and Juliette cope with Adam's situation, the frictions that arise with their families, the way in which relative strangers feel compelled to weigh in, is mined here in often unexpected, and comical, ways. Though it's tempting to think that there is little acting involved because the film hues so closely to Donzelli and Elkaïm's experience, that would be unfair to the lovely performances they deliver. If anything, when something hits so close to home, it requires a measure of control to find the right balance for the character within that moment, and they do. This is a self-referential but not a self-indulgent film. The tone is a result of the kind of freedom the filmmaker encourages -- at times it's as if she's told director of photography Sébastien Buchmann, "just have fun with it." There is a mix of dialogue and voice-over narration -- someone else occasionally chiming in to offer an opinion or an assessment. The line between real and surreal is often crossed, perhaps never better than after getting bad news Juliette turns to walk away, alone, dejected, until something breaks and she starts running down the hospital corridor. The film speeds up too, capturing the movement in frenetic ways so that you sense the frustration and the fight vibrating through every frame.