21 missing Pakistani policemen found shot dead

Pakistani volunteers carry a wounded bus passenger following a blast in Karachi, Pakistan on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. The blast that ripped through the bus set the vehicle on fire and reduced it to little more than a charred skeleton, killing scores of people and left many injured. Police were trying to determine whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or a gas cylinder, said police spokesman. Many buses in Pakistan run on natural gas. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Pakistani volunteers carry a wounded bus passenger following a blast in Karachi, Pakistan on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. The blast that ripped through the bus set the vehicle on fire and reduced it to little more than a charred skeleton, killing scores of people and left many injured. Police were trying to determine whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or a gas cylinder, said police spokesman. Many buses in Pakistan run on natural gas. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Pakistani volunteers carry a wounded passenger following a blast in Karachi, Pakistan on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. The blast that ripped through the bus set the vehicle on fire and reduced it to little more than a charred skeleton, killing scores of people and left many injured. Police were trying to determine whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or a gas cylinder, said police spokesman. Many buses in Pakistan run on natural gas. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Pakistani volunteers help a critically injured passenger on his way to a hospital following a blast in Karachi, Pakistan on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. The blast that ripped through the bus set the vehicle on fire and reduced it to little more than a charred skeleton, killing scores of people and left many injured. Police were trying to determine whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or a gas cylinder, said police spokesman. Many buses in Pakistan run on natural gas. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Twenty-one tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region early Sunday, government officials said.

Officials found the bodies shortly after midnight in the Jabai area of Frontier Region Peshawar after being notified by one policeman who escaped, said Naveed Akbar Khan, a top political official in the area. Another policeman was found seriously wounded, said Khan.

The 23 policemen went missing before dawn Thursday when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in Frontier Region Peshawar. Two policemen were also killed in the attacks.

Militants lined the policemen up on a cricket pitch late Saturday night and gunned them down, said another local official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for the past few years. The tribal region is the main sanctuary for the Taliban in Pakistan.

On Saturday, an explosion ripped through a passenger bus at a terminal in the southern city of Karachi, killing six people and wounding 52 others, some of whom were in critical condition, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at the hospital where the victims were being treated.

Police were trying to determine whether the blast, which reduced the bus to a charred skeleton, was caused by a bomb or a gas canister that exploded, said police spokesman Imran Shaukat. Many buses in Pakistan run on natural gas.

Karachi has a long history of political, ethnic and sectarian violence. It is also believed to be home to many Taliban militants who have fled U.S. drone attacks and Pakistani army operations in the country's northwest.

Also Saturday, a government official said authorities are investigating allegations that cough syrup has killed 33 people over the past three days in eastern Pakistan, the second time in recent months medicine is suspected of causing multiple deaths.

The deaths occurred in the city of Gujranwala and nearby villages, said local official Abdul Jabbar Shaheen. Another 54 people thought to have consumed the syrup are also being treated at city hospitals. Officials believe the victims drank the syrup to get high, he added.

Tests show the victims' stomachs contained dextromethorphan, a synthetic morphine derivative used in cough syrup that can have mind-altering effects if consumed in large quantities, said Shaheen. Investigators are trying to determine if the victims drank too much syrup, or whether there was a problem with the medicine itself, he said.

Twenty-three people died in the nearby city of Lahore in November after drinking bad cough syrup sold under the brand name Tyno. They were also described at the time as people who consumed the drug to get high.

Shaheen said the cough syrup involved in the incidents in and around Gujranwala was not sold under a single brand. He said some people in the city make cough syrup to sell specifically to drug addicts, and officials are trying to arrest them.

Officials temporarily closed one Lahore-based pharmaceutical company whose cough syrup was found in the possession of some affected in Gujranwala. They are investigating whether it caused any of the deaths, said Shaheen.

_____

Associated Press writers Adil Jawad in Karachi, Pakistan, and Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-29-Pakistan/id-1a096737f9e448a4bcf09db626c51766

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Former President Bush Released from Intensive Care

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Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/258600

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Republicans Set to Cave? (Powerlineblog)

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High court declines to stop provision covering contraceptives in health care law

By Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court declined Wednesday to put a temporary hold on a controversial provision in the new health care law requiring employers to provide health insurance coverage for contraceptives.

Two businesses challenging the act -- the nationwide chain of 500 Hobby Lobby Stores and Mardel, a chain of Christian bookstores -- contended that the law violates their religious freedom. Their legal battle is continuing over the merits of their claim. In the meantime, they asked the US Supreme Court to put a temporary hold on the law, which takes effect January 1, 2013.

On Wednesday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles emergency appeals from the courts where the companies are based, declined to grant an injunction.

In a brief written opinion, she said the Supreme Court has never addressed similar freedom-of-religion claims brought by for-profit corporations objecting to mandatory provisions of employment benefit laws.

"Lower courts have diverged on whether to grant temporary injunctive relief to similarly situated plaintiffs," she said, "and no court has issued a final decision granting permanent relief with respect to such claims."

If the two companies ultimately lose in the lower courts, the justice said, they can still appeal to the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for members of the family that owns the two businesses, based in Oklahoma, told the court that the law will expose them to "draconian fines unless they abandon their religious convictions."?

While they do not object to the provision of insurance coverage for all contraceptives, they do object to coverage for "certain drugs and devices that they believe can cause abortions," their lawyers said.

Dozens of similar lawsuits over the contraceptive provision are working their way through the federal courts.? The Obama administration has delayed enforcement of the requirement until August for qualified religious institutions, and some will be eligible for a permanent exemption.

But no such delays have been granted to businesses that object to the law's requirements on religious grounds.

Source: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/26/16171443-scotus-declines-to-stop-provision-covering-contraceptives-in-health-care-law?lite

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'Django Unchained': Jamie Foxx Becomes A Superhero

Foxx and co-star Kerry Washington talk to MTV News about Quentin Tarantino's 'epic, cowboy Western.'
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Leonardo DiCaprio in "Django Unchained"
Photo: Columbia Pictures

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699390/django-unchained-jamie-foxx.jhtml

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US rejects No Child Left Behind waiver for Calif.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP file

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan offered states waivers last year, saying No Child Left Behind forced school districts 'into one-size-fits-all solutions that just don't work.'

By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

California has become apparently only the second state ? and by far the largest ? to be denied a waiver of requirements of the No Child Left Behind education program, state officials said.

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have won waivers from provisions of the 2001 law, one of the signature achievements of the administration of former President George W. Bush, while nine other states and Puerto Rico have received conditional approval or have applications pending, according to the U.S. Education Department.

The agency doesn't publicize which states have been turned down, but Iowa is the only other state to have publicly acknowledged that it has been rejected.

---

California officials got the news Friday by telephone, The San Jose Mercury News reported, quoting Michael Kirst, president of the state Board of Education.

Kirst told the Mercury News that California's unwillingness to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores was what sank the state's request.

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

The denial wasn't a surprise ? Kirst and state school Superintendent Tom Torlakson warned local administrators in an open letter Friday (.pdf) that federal officials had indicated that California's request would be turned down.

No Child Left Behind

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have won waivers from the 2001 No Child Left Behind law. Nine states (in addition to the Puerto Rico) have received conditional approval or have requests pending:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- North Dakota
- Texas
- West Virginia

Two states are known to have been rejected:
-California
- Iowa

Five states haven't requested waivers or have withdrawn their requests:
-Montana
- Nebraska
- Pennsylvania (plans to request a waiver at a later date)
- Vermont
- Wyoming

Sources: U.S. Education Department; California Education Department; San Jose Mercury News; State of Iowa

"It is disappointing that our state's request ? which enjoyed such strong support from parents, teachers, administrators, and education advocates across California ? has apparently been rejected," Torlakson said in a separate statement.

Authorization for No Child Left Behind ? formal title: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA ? expired in 2007, and Congress hasn't acted to rewrite or refresh it. Last year, the Education Department told the states that they could apply for waivers pending a new law because the current law was "forcing districts into one-size-fits-all solutions that just don't work," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said at the time.

In the meantime, the old law continues to impose student test score standards that keep rising every year, to the point that many states say they're unrealistic in 2012. Critics contend that the law locks states into inflexible standards focused solely on reading and math, neglecting subjects like social studies, the arts, health and physical education.

Majority of states lining up to ditch No Child Left Behind

The old standards require a 100 percent rate of proficiency on standardized reading and math tests by 2014. The penalty for falling short is loss of federal funding for schools serving low-income children.

"On behalf of millions of parents, teachers, administrators and community members who fight for all children every day, we urge you to join us in prioritizing education by coming together to reauthorize and fix No Child Left Behind. We've waited long enough," Betsy Landers, president of the National PTA, wrote in an open letter to President Barack Obama last month.

Torlakson agreed, telling state educators: "The appropriate solution is for Congress to reauthorize the ESEA, replace its inflexible requirements with provisions that accommodate the differences in state policy approaches, and give districts adequate flexibility to improve student achievement."

But that doesn't appear likely to happen any time soon, with Congress transfixed by the looming "fiscal cliff" and immigration reform.

"At the moment, it's unclear if there is a real commitment and consensus in Congress for reauthorizing," Duncan told the Council of Chief State School Officers in a speech last month. "I wish there was a clear commitment and consensus."

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/26/16171331-us-turns-down-no-child-left-behind-waiver-for-california?lite

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Kindness key to happiness and acceptance for children

Dec. 26, 2012 ? Children who make an effort to perform acts of kindness are happier and experience greater acceptance from their peers, suggests new research from the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Riverside.

Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, a professor in UBC's Faculty of Education, and co-author Kristin Layous, of the University of California, Riverside, say that increasing peer acceptance is key to preventing bullying.

In the study, published December 26 by PLOS ONE, researchers examined how to boost happiness in students aged 9 to 11 years. Four hundred students from Vancouver elementary schools were asked to report on their happiness and to identify which of their classmates they would like to work with on school activities. Half of the students were asked by their teachers to perform acts of kindness -- like sharing their lunch or giving their mom a hug when she felt stressed -- and half were asked to keep track of pleasant places they visited -- like the playground or a grandparent's house.

After four weeks, the students again reported on their happiness and identified classmates they would like to work with. While both groups said they were happier, kids that had performed acts of kindness selected higher numbers of classmates to work with on school activities.

"We show that kindness has some real benefits for the personal happiness of children but also for the classroom community," says Schonert-Reichl, also a researcher with the Human Early Learning Partnership at UBC.

According to Schonert-Reichl, bullying tends to increase in Grades 4 and 5. By simply asking students to think about how they can act kindly to those around them, "teachers can create a sense of connectedness in the classroom and reduce the likelihood of bullying."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Kristin Layous, S. Katherine Nelson, Eva Oberle, Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, Sonja Lyubomirsky. Kindness Counts: Prompting Prosocial Behavior in Preadolescents Boosts Peer Acceptance and Well-Being. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (12): e51380 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051380

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/OaFqcX9fQ4c/121226223051.htm

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Hawaii lieutenant governor picked to fill Inouye's Senate seat

HONOLULU (AP) ? Hawaii Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz on Wednesday was appointed the state's next U.S. senator, bucking the dying wishes of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye to win the support of Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

Schatz, a 40-year-old former nonprofit CEO who ran with Abercrombie for the state's top two offices in 2010, beat out U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and Esther Kiaaina, a deputy director in the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The three candidates were selected by state Democrats earlier in the day.

The White House said Schatz would fly to Washington on Wednesday night aboard Air Force One, which was bringing President Barack Obama home early from his Christmas vacation as Congress considers what to do about the so-called fiscal cliff.

Four days after eulogizing Inouye in the courtyard of the Hawaii Capitol, Abercrombie said he had to consider more than just Inouye's wishes in filling his seat.

"Of course Sen. Inouye's views and his wishes were taken into account fully, but the charge of the central committee, and by extension then myself as governor, was to act in the best interests of the party ... the state and the nation," Abercrombie said.

"The law makes explicitly clear, as do the rules of the Democratic Party, that while everyone's voice is heard and everyone's view is taken into account, nonetheless, no one and nothing is preordained."

Under state law, the successor had to come from the same party as the prior incumbent.

Inouye, by far Hawaii's most influential politician and one of the most respected lawmakers in Washington after serving five decades in the Senate, died last week of respiratory complications at the age of 88. He sent Abercrombie a hand-signed letter dated the day he died, saying he would like Hanabusa to succeed him, calling it his "last wish."

"While we are very disappointed that it was not honored, it was the governor's decision to make," Jennifer Sabas, Inouye's chief of staff, said in a statement. "We wish Brian Schatz the best of luck."

Inouye would be "very happy" with the choice, Hawaii Democratic Party chairman Dante Carpenter said. Schatz has less experience than some older politicians in the Senate but he will be building seniority, which is "critical" to the state of Hawaii, he said.

"In the words of Sen. Dan Inouye ? invoked more than once ? seniority in the United States Congress is everything," Carpenter said.

Selecting Hanabusa, 61, would have required a special election in Hawaii's 1st Congressional District. Last time that happened, Hanabusa lost to Republican Charles Djou because of a winner-take-all format that split votes between Democrats.

Abercrombie said the possibility of a special election was a factor, as well as Hanabusa's "key position" on the House Armed Services Committee. The governor said she was on her way toward establishing a senior position on that panel, and it's important for Hawaii ? with its four-member delegation ? to establish seniority in both chambers.

Schatz will serve until an election is held in 2014. He said he will run for re-election to try to keep the Senate seat until 2016 ? the end of Inouye's original term ? and would run again for Senate in 2016 if given the chance.

"I can assure you this: I will give every fiber of my being to doing a good job for the state of Hawaii," Schatz said at a news conference. "We have a long and perhaps difficult road ahead of us, but we can succeed if we work together. I understand the magnitude of this obligation and this honor, and I won't let you down."

Hanabusa congratulated Schatz in a statement.

"Having served as chair of the Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee when the succession law was passed, I fully respect the process and the governor's right to appoint a successor," she said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had urged Abercrombie to name Inouye's successor before the end of the year. Schatz said he will be prepared to be sworn in on Thursday. That would make him Hawaii's senior senator heading into the new Congress, which begins Jan. 3.

Sen. Daniel Akaka is retiring at the end of this Congress, after 22 years in the Senate. Democratic Rep. Mazie Hirono was elected in November to succeed him.

Schatz, 40, is a former state representative and a former chairman of the state Democratic Party. He also was a leader of President Barack Obama's campaign in Hawaii in 2008.

Even before winning the 2010 general election, Abercrombie expressed faith in Schatz, saying he would put him in charge of attracting more private and federal investment in Hawaii. Other responsibilities included leading the state's clean energy efforts and Asia-Pacific relations.

In making his case before the party's central committee earlier Wednesday, Schatz said that if he was appointed, he would strive to make serving in the Senate his life's work.

First in line to replace Schatz as lieutenant governor is Senate President Shan Tsutsui, who said he planned to discuss the prospect with his family before deciding.

___

Becky Bohrer can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bbohrerap .

___

Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hawaii-lieutenant-gov-picked-fill-senate-seat-000914007--election.html

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Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5

Acronis Backup & Recovery stores and recovers drives, partitions, folders, and files in more different ways than any other software I've ever seen, and, if you're willing to learn to navigate its complex menus and obscure options, you may never want anything else. I'm deeply impressed by its corporate-level power and versatility, by its ability to back up and restore anything from individual files to images of whole drives, and to back up to any imaginable location. I'm less impressed by its interface and ease of use, but its power and range are enough to make it our Editors' Choice for local backup software. That doesn't mean it's perfect, and you'll find plenty of complaints about it in the rest of this review, but it's the one backup app that has all the features needed for today's hardware and software, and, as a bonus, it has a distinct speed advantage over its rivals.

Installation and Getting Started
You'll get an idea of Acronis's range of features when you watch it being installed, and adding command-line tools and background services together with the main application and an emergency-disk builder utility. And you get an idea of the technical savvy that went into the program when you find that, unlike most other backup apps, Acronis doesn't require you to reboot after installing. When you first start up the app, it prompts you to create emergency boot media, a process that presents you with many expert-level options to choose among, including the options to create 64-bit media with up-to-date UEFI boot-loader support or traditional 32-bit media for widest compatibility with older systems. The Backup & Recovery app itself has a spacious clean-looking interface, but I found that the clean look tended to mask the often confusing details behind it.

Backing Up
Like Paragon Backup & Recovery, Acronis supports backups on local disks, network locations, FTP and SFT servers, but Acronis, unlike Paragon, also offers its own proprietary online backup service. The online service offers a 60-day free trial so you can test whether you like it before paying for it. I thought I had enough experience with online services to set up an online backup to Acronis's service without reading the downloadable manual for the service, but after two or three failed attempts to setup an online backup job, I gave in and downloaded the manual, as Acronis had recommended, and I think you should too, because Acronis's interface doesn't make things easy.

Instead of managing the whole process by following links from a single dialog box with a clear workflow to follow, I had to go to one dialog where I created an online "Vault" and then navigate to a different dialog where I could, after some effort, set up that Vault as a destination for a backup job. It would have made more sense to let me create a Vault as part of the same process of creating a backup job, but that wasn't an option. Fortunately, it's much simpler to create a backup job that saves the backup to a local or network disk?you specify the backup location from the same menu where you set up all the other details of the job.

When selecting partitions or folders that I wanted to back up, I had to work my way through menus that were sometimes less informative than they could have been. For example, my desktop machine uses an SSD for its boot drive, a traditional disk for data partitions, and a USB 3.0-attached disk for local backups, but Acronis's main "What to backup" menu listed them only as Disk 1, Disk 2, Disk 3, without even showing their manufacturer or part number so that I could guess which was which. Worse, if I wanted to see what was on each disk, I couldn't simply click on the disk name. Instead, I had to click a separate "Items to back up?" item that opened a two-pane tree-structured list of partitions, folders, and files on each.

This tree-structured list of partitions, folders, and files caused some problems of its own. For example, if I wanted to select individual files to back up or restore within a folder, I couldn't simply click the folder name in the right pane of the two-pane interface. I had to find the same folder in the left pane and click on it there before the right-pane would show a list of files. I know that other apps use a similar interface, but Windows Explorer doesn't force you to switch between panes when you want to view the contents of a folder.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/5vXU3OKAWjY/0,2817,2366426,00.asp

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Bing Updates Its Image Search Results With Enhanced Photo Viewer, Speed Improvements

Microsoft updated Bing's image search results pages with larger thumbnails and less white-space earlier this year and today, the company is taking this one step further by also introducing a new way to explore imagery on Bing. Instead of loading the actual page with the image after you click on a thumbnail, Bing now brings up a large image viewer that, as the company says, places "the image center stage."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/FDP9vEjXa6E/

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Boehner holds troops in line on "fiscal cliff" deal talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A deal to avert a "fiscal cliff" of U.S. tax hikes and spending cuts looked closer on Tuesday after House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner kept the support of his Republican colleagues for compromises in talks with President Barack Obama.

Despite concerns of a revolt by Republicans in the House, Boehner emerged from a meeting with his members unscathed and pledged to press forward on negotiations with the White House. Boehner's concession last week to consider higher tax rates on the wealthiest Americans - an idea long fought by his party - signaled that a deal was possible ahead of a year-end deadline.

Republican Representative Darrell Issa, a key committee chairman, said House Republicans "were supportive of the speaker. ... I saw no one there get up and say, 'I can't support the speaker.'" Boehner is the top Republican in Congress.

Boehner told reporters after meeting his caucus - which includes a core of fiscal conservatives aligned with the Tea Party movement opposed to tax hikes - that Obama's latest offer on taxing the wealthiest Americans is "not there yet," but he remained hopeful of an agreement.

In a major concession to Republican demands, Obama on Monday offered to set a $400,000 threshold for incomes that would face tax increases with the expiration at the end of the year of low tax rates enacted under former President George W. Bush.

Obama had previously insisted on setting the threshold at $250,000. Boehner has been seeking a level of $1 million. Analysts said the two may compromise on $500,000.

Obama and Boehner are working to avert steep tax hikes and deep spending cuts set to begin taking effect next month. Known as the "fiscal cliff," the measures could trigger another recession, economists warn.

As negotiations have largely overcome ideological differences and turned to increasingly narrow disagreements over numbers, markets turned upward on hopes of a deal.

World shares moved toward a three-month high on Tuesday and weakened appetite for safe-haven bonds and the dollar. The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of 30 major U.S. industrial stocks was up less than 1 percent. The gain followed a steep rally in the previous session.

'PLAN B'

As both parties tried to digest details of a possible agreement, Boehner put forward what he called "Plan B" legislation. If brought to the House floor, the bill would let Republicans show that they worked to keep income tax rates low on most Americans. For weeks they have feared a public backlash against them if tax rates rise on January 1.

Boehner said a vote on a Republican bill along these lines could come as early as this week in the House.

Obama could face unrest from rank and file fellow Democrats. Liberal Democrats are likely to oppose a key compromise he has offered to permit shrinking cost-of-living increases for all but the most vulnerable beneficiaries of the Social Security retirement program.

The president's proposal calls for using a different formula, known as "chained Consumer Price Index," to determine the regular cost-of-living increases and essentially reduces benefits.

Obama on Monday conceded allowing the extension of low income tax rates begun during the Bush administration for incomes up to $400,000 per household. He had previously insisted setting that cut-off at $250,000.

Boehner had earlier conceded to agreeing that Bush-era tax rates can expire for the wealthiest Americans, after opposing for months tax rate increases of any kind. He proposed setting a $1 million income threshold for raising rates.

Some analysts expect a compromise could come at $500,000. "That still looks like a safe bet," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group.

Obama also moved closer to Boehner on the proportion of a 10-year deficit reduction package that should come from increased revenue, as opposed to cuts in government spending. Obama is now willing to accept a revenue figure of $1.2 trillion, down from his previous $1.4 trillion proposal.

Boehner's latest proposal calls for $1 trillion in new tax revenue from higher tax rates and the curbing of some tax deductions taken by high-income Americans.

Missing from Obama's latest offer was any extension of the so-called "payroll tax holiday" that ends on January 1, bringing an immediate tax increase on wage earners.

A Republican aide who asked not to be identified said that "conceptually" there was agreement to make permanent changes in the tax code, with some of those changes taking effect at the start of 2013 and others at the beginning of 2014.

A thorough cliff-avoiding agreement could immediately substitute more targeted spending cuts for the indiscriminate slashing of programs known as "sequestration."

Possible plans to produce cuts in spending for Medicare and Medicaid, the government health insurance programs for seniors and low-income Americans respectively, remained to be discussed.

Boehner and Obama have made headway on the politically explosive question of the president's ability to avoid constant battles over raising the nation's debt ceiling, which controls the level of borrowing by the government. Boehner is ready to give Obama a year of relative immunity from conservative strife over the debt ceiling, while Obama is pushing for two years.

(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Kim Dixon and Fred Barbash; Writing by Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hopes-rise-fiscal-cliff-deal-obama-boehner-meet-030313778--business.html

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NRA Facebook page goes dark, Twitter quiet

9 hrs.

Suzanne Choney , NBC News

The National Rifle Association's?main?Facebook page isn't accessible, and its Twitter account is quiet three days after the?shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Only?a Facebook page for the NRA?blog remains posted. The last item shared?at 6:30 a.m. Friday (before the school?shootings)?was?about the "Friends of NRA" TV show that will start a third season soon.

The blog is described as being an "official?inside look at the NRA's Programs including Shooting Championships, National Firearms Museum, Law Enforcement Division, Education & Training and more." (The NRA's Web blog is here.)

On Twitter, Friday was also the last day the NRA tweeted, at 6:36 a.m.: "10 Days of NRA Giveaways???Enter today for a chance to win an auto emergency tool!"

The day before, Dec. 13, on Twitter, the NRA said: "Did you hear? Our #facebook page reached 1.7 million 'likes'?today! Thanks for being a friend!" and this photo was posted by the organization:

But those 1.7 million likes, tied to the NRA's main Facebook page, could not be?seen as of Monday.

NBC News contacted the NRA for comment about its Facebook page removal, and will update this post if we hear back.

It it does not appear that?Facebook?itself took any action, one way or another, regarding the NRA page. When asked, a?Facebook spokesperson told NBC News the social network had no?comment.?

Online, the NRA's?news?site?continues to be viewable???but without any news of Friday's horror. On the site, among the "top stories"?viewers will find "Homefront Hugs USA Urges Volunteers to Make a Difference in a Soldier's Life," "Fast & Furious Gun Buyer Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison" and "Illinois Concealed Carry Ban Ruled Unconstitutional." All were apparently posted before the shootings.

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, Digital?Life and InGame on?Facebook,?and on?Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/nra-facebook-page-goes-dark-twitter-quiet-1C7649063

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Ask an Expert: All About Buying Your First Home

Victor Ciardelli

Hi everyone, I'm Victor Ciardelli. I'm the President and CEO of Guaranteed Rate, the nation's second largest independent mortgage company. I founded Guaranteed Rate in 2000 with the vision of providing low-rate, low-fee mortgages to consumers with exceptional personalized service. We've funded over $44 billion in mortgages and are on pace to more than double loan funding volume year over year. Today I'm lending my expertise on one of life's biggest (and scariest) decisions: buying your first home. I'm here for the next hour?ask away!

Guaranteed Rate is an equal opportunity lender, NMLS ID #2611.

Have an expert you'd like to see participate? Email us.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Out_NKTQOt8/ask-an-expert-all-about-buying-your-first-home

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Source: http://www.wallpaperoo.com/cars/ford-fiesta-zetec-s-13-15-134676

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NBC's Engel released after kidnapping in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) ? NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his production team were released unharmed Tuesday after being held captive for five days inside Syria by an "unknown group," the network said.

Engel, 39, has been reporting on the Syrian civil war, which has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011.

"After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed," NBC said in a statement. "We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country."

The Syrian government has made it difficult for foreign journalists and citizens to report on what is happening in Syria.

Those journalists whom the regime has allowed in are tightly controlled in their movements by Information Ministry minders. Other foreign journalists sneak into Syria illegally with the help of smugglers.

Several journalists have been killed covering the conflict. Among them are award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier, photographer Remi Ochlik and Britain's Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin. Also, Anthony Shadid, a correspondent for The New York Times, died after a severe asthma attack while on assignment in Syria.

Engel joined NBC in 2003 and was named NBC's chief foreign Correspondent in April 2008. He previously worked as a freelance journalist for ABC News, including during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He has lived in the Middle East since he graduated from Stanford University in 1996, according to his biography from NBC. He speaks and reads fluent Arabic.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nbcs-engel-released-kidnapping-syria-101104055.html

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Travel costly but worth it for small businesses | TribLIVE

By Rhonda Abrams

Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 12:01?a.m.
Updated 3 hours ago

Business travel is an often-neglected aspect of small-business life, and most entrepreneurs don?t travel enough.

Nothing beats the power of a face-to-face meeting for closing a deal or maintaining an ongoing client relationship. Business travel can be expensive, especially on a small-business budget, but I?ve got tips to save you money.

1. Travel early in the year. January and February are often a less expensive time to travel with a couple of exceptions.

2. Use alternate airports. Going to Miami, Washington or San Francisco? Check prices to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Baltimore; or San Jose and Oakland, Calif., instead. Lower-cost airlines often run flights from secondary airports, driving prices down on all airlines.

3. Shop prices on the Internet,but also call hotels directly. Often, the lowest rate ? especially at the last minute ? can be obtained by checking with the hotel.

4. Get a credit card that gives you miles, and pay business expenses with that card.

5. Try moderately priced, business-oriented motels. Many hotel chains are specifically aimed at road warriors ? entrepreneurs, salespeople, consultants. These hotels provide a lot of stuff free: Wi-Fi, breakfast, parking, sometimes even free appetizers and drinks in the early evening.

6. Use your own cellphone in the United States. Hotel phones can be costly, even for local calls.

7. Use smartphone apps to connect when you?re outside the United States. You can call or text back home free.

It?s tough to build, maintain and deepen professional relationships from a distance. Travel is the way to build those bridges.

Rhonda Abrams is president of The Planning Shop and publisher of books for entrepreneurs.

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Source: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/3131943-74/travel-business-entrepreneurs

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With $8M From Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs; Urban Compass Wants To Build A Hyper-Local, Human-Powered Database

If there are a lot of companies out there chasing down the holy grail of location services,?Urban Compass, a startup still in stealth mode, believes it could be the one of the lucky ones that might just find it. Urban Compass is co-founded by Ori Allon, a superstar engineer who?s been thinking about search and discovery for years already, having already sold businesses to Google and Twitter; and Robert Reffkin, a superstar ex-Goldman Sachs banker. Before they’ve even launched a product, though, their company has already managed to catch the eye (and faith) of several top-shelf investors. Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs, Thrive Capital, the CEO of American Express Kenneth Chenault, SalesForce.com’s CEO Marc Benioff and ZocDoc’s CEO Cyrus Massoumi, have come together to give Urban Compass $8 million in seed money, one of the highest publicly-disclosed seed rounds of 2012, which is now being used to track down the best talent to build its product. Location, location, location There have been some notable advances in the world of hyperlocal services from the likes of Google (mapping data matched up against local services), Yelp (user-generated reviews), Foursquare (turning hyperlocal into a social network) and more.?But to date, no single company has owned the space, in the same way that Google has come to dominate search, or Facebook social networking. Part of the reason for that might be because no single company has been successful enough in personalising recommendations in the way that you would expect something “hyperlocal” to do. Or, in the words of Ken Howery, a partner at Founders Fund, “The mobile/hyperlocal guys out there (e.g Google, FourSquare)?know where you have been, but don’t really know who you are as a person and don’t do a great job at making quality recommendations to you for important, complex decisions.” The approaches to hyperlocal services can vary but the goal is the same: it’s about giving people the most informative and accurate information about where they are, where they want to go, and where they should be — and then converting that into a business that makes money, without upsetting too many privacy advocates in the process. Urban Compass promises an approach different from everything that has been tried so far. Not a whole lot is known yet about Urban Compass, and an interview with the two co-founders, Ori Allon and Robert Reffkin, yielded little in the way of details. Here is

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

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Chinese State TV Uses Anime to Fire Broadside at Japan

HONG KONG ? With Sino-Japanese relations in a tailspin in recent years, China Central Television has been constantly running news items censuring what it dubbed as Japan?s lurch towards right-wing conservatism. But the state broadcaster?s latest effort yesterday has surprised many with the way the critique was done ? with the help of a sequence off a Japanese manga film.

In an analytical piece examining Japan?s post-election political landscape, CCTV-13 criticized the country?s parliament as filled with scions of long-established political clans ? a thinly-veiled rebuke against the poll winners, the Liberal Democrats, and its China-bashing premier-in-waiting Shinzo Abe, whose grandfather, father and father-in-law have all served as either government ministers or lawmakers.

Beginning the five-minute piece ? which is available here (in Chinese only) ? was a sequence off the 2002 manga movie Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street, in which one of the film?s child detectives, surveying a ballroom filled with the young children of Japan?s political elite, spoke of how the gathering ?was what led to a corrupted future.? ?It?s because of this politics of inheritance which led to human beings repeating its mistakes in history,? continued the character Anita Hailey.

STORY: 'V for Vendetta' Aired Uncut on Chinese State TV

The piece then followed the snippet with more conventional infographics ? which outlined how 75 of the 480 members sitting at the outgoing Diet were offspring of past political heavyweights ? and interviews with independent candidates and members of the public.

Chinese netizens have praised this new approach from breaking with the usual stern and solemn practice employed by the state broadcaster. Writing under the moniker of ?Broken Bridge?, a blogger said this ?eye-opener? is probably a sign of China Central Television?s attention in using popular culture in its work.

The Detective Conan films are adaptations of a Japanese comic revolving around the travails of a group of young crime-solvers, and are very popular in China. The Phantom of Baker Street, which is released on DVD in the U.S., is about a conspiracy hatched to maim Japan?s political establishment by trapping the children of its leaders in an ark, with them facing certain death unless the protagonists could resolve a complex electronic game.

The network?s use of anime to back its political rhetoric followed swiftly after the screening of an uncensored version of V for Vendetta on its movie channel on Friday evening ? a move which led to speculation about ideological shifts in both the station?s output and also the ruling administration headed by the newly-installed Chinese Communist Party general secretary, Xi Jinping.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/television/~3/GLD1FChoQCM/story01.htm

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Cultivating Friendships | Noomii Blog

?I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.? Brene Brown

image via creative commons D Sharon Pruitt

My oldest and best friend, Melissa, and I met in Grade 7. We shared a double-desk, passed notes, and got to know each other like two young girls do. More than 20 years later, we laugh about our banter, small fights and marvel about the light and beautiful connection that we have managed to maintain throughout marriages, divorces, children and across continents.

What are the most important things in your life?

Considering the most the meaningful things in our lives, friendships top the list. Brene Brown aptly describes the connection that friendships provide: the strength and nourishment we get from the unconditional love of truly deepened friendships.

Ze Frank?s video about friendship is poignant and touching, a call to action for both parties dedication co-creation of the relationship:

How much attention do you pay to these relationships in your life? Built on reciprocity: mutual sharing and disclosure, much like other romantic and familial relationships, friendships require the same tending if to varying degrees.

Friendships fade out happens for a number of reasons, but given the importance and what you get from these relationships, will they fade out because of lack of attention? Decide whether leaning back into the love of your friendships is valuable enough to invest yourself in.

What will you invest in your relationships?

?

Source: http://www.noomii.com/blog/4440-cultivating-friendships

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Herman Miller Chair Presented To President

JAT Holdings, the Sri Lankan distributor of Herman Miller, the world?s leading office chair manufacturer from the US, presented President Mahinda Rajapaksa with a Herman Miller Aeron chair at Temple Trees last week for use in his office. The Posture Fit feature is what makes the Aeron the most comfortable to sit in even for extended hours. It supports the way one?s pelvis naturally tilts forward since it helps the spine stay aligned thereby avoiding back and neck pain. A chair should conform to the contours of the user and relieve the pressure points and heat build-up that cause aches, pains and fatigue which most people associate with desk jobs. The Pellicle material which is a specially woven seat and back suspension material developed for Aeron by Dupont does what cushions cannot. It conforms to one?s body contours and cradles it; maintaining even pressure across one?s body preventing perspiration build-up at the same time. It also assists with body movement and blood circulation bringing down the heart rate of the user.

?

?

Aelian Gunawardene Managing Director of JAT Holdings is seen here presenting the benefits of Herman Miller to the President.

Source: http://www.ceylontoday.lk/22-19963-news-detail-herman-miller-chair-presented-to-president.html

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Guess what dolphins and crickets have in common

Dolphins and crickets might have more in common than you think.

A large group of insects that includes crickets and katydids is believed to share a hearing feature with toothed whales like dolphins, according to a new study.

For insects in the Ensifera group, sound is known to be detected by eardrums on the front legs. Researchers looking at the Auckland tree weta, a species in this group, then discovered that noise passes through a sound-transmitting lipid (a compound that includes oils and fats) to get to the insect's hearing organs.

"The discovery is interesting as previously only toothed whales were known to use this hearing system component, the lipid. There are many similarities in the use of lipids to amplify the sounds and help both animal groups to hear," researcher James Windmill, of the University of Strathclyde, said in a statement.

"We

1. Science news from NBCNews.com

   1. Ancient copy of Ten Commandments goes digital

      The Cambridge Digital Library has just made available thousands of pages from fragile religious manuscripts for Internet users' perusal, including a 2,000-year-old copy of the Ten Commandments, known as the "Nash Papyrus."

   2. Solving a 100-year-old scientific hoax
   3. Alan Alda and kids ask: 'What is time?'
   4. First cheesemakers date back 7,500 years

don't know why animals who are so far apart in evolutionary terms have this similarity, but it opens up the possibility that others may use the same system component," Windmill added.

In their new research, Windmill and colleagues looked at the tree weta's ears with a new tissue analysis and three-dimensional imaging techniques. In doing so, they discovered a tiny organ in the insect's ears (they named it the olivarius), where the lipid seems to be made. Though the researchers focused on the Auckland tree weta for their study, they believe the entire class, including crickets and katydids, shares this feature.

A study detailed in the Nov. 16 issue of the journal Science found the ears of the South American katydid Copiphora gorgonensis, which are located on their legs, look a lot like human ears. For people, the eardrum vibrates when sound waves hit it. Then tiny bones called ossicles transmit and amplify these vibrations so they can be transmitted to the cochlea, a fluid-filled coil that houses thousands of hairlike cells that send the vibrations to the brain for processing. Similarly, katydids have dual eardrums that transmit vibrations to a plate that works like a lever, increasing the force so the vibrations can be sent to a fluid-filled vesicle that acts like a simplified cochlea, the researchers found.

The new study was detailed online last week in the journal PLoS ONE.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter@livescience. We're also onFacebook &Google+.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50216127/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Top 9 Causes Of Pre-Wedding Jitters | World of Psychology

This guest article from YourTango was written by?Ashley Seeger.

Are you feeling anxious about your upcoming wedding? Sick to your stomach? Having bad dreams? Does the sight of the dress fill you with dread? Feeling like you may have made a mistake saying ?yes? or proposing?

If you answered yes, you are experiencing pre-wedding jitters. This is your subconscious telling you that something is not right and you need to listen to it. It may be that you are nervous about your own ability to be a husband or wife, anxious that your fianc? can?t be the spouse you need or both.

Having wedding jitters does not mean that the marriage is doomed or that it is time to call off the wedding. But all jitters mean that an intervention is needed. Something is making you anxious and you need to understand what it is.

We all have an internal compass that guides us in our life and when we go against it, there is a reaction. At first, you feel a gentle tugging at the back of your brain; something does not feel right. You feel ?off.? If you pay attention to this feeling, the cause or causes will slowly become clear. But if you don?t pay attention, your subconscious will get louder and louder and the bad feelings begin to turn to physical symptoms ? you may have bad dreams, difficulty sleeping, stomach issues, illness or even injuries.

I have worked with many brides and grooms who have had jitters and some that have had physical symptoms of anxiety and stress about their upcoming nuptials. The work is focused on finding the cause of their ?jitters? so they can clearly see what action is needed.

I have outlined my own list of the main causes for wedding jitters. I hope it will help you to begin to understand where your anxiety comes from so that you can begin to take action and have the wedding and marriage you want.

1. The wedding day. Sometimes it is the wedding day itself that is the cause of anxiety. Having one?s entire family together for a day or weekend can cause a great deal of anxiety especially when there are divorces, step-parents, estranged family members or just one particularly difficult family member. For other brides or grooms, wedding-day stress is about being in the spotlight.

One bride I know, who was anxious about being at the center of attention, decided to get rid of the aisle at her wedding. She and her fianc? walked together into the middle of the cocktail reception and said their vows surrounded by friends and family. Your wedding does not have to be conventional ? you can set it up so that it works for you.

In all instances, I believe that getting support for your wedding day is essential. A counselor or wedding planner can help you create a plan for dealing with difficult family members and organize your day so that you feel safe and connected with your spouse.

2. Becoming a ?wife? or ?husband.? Our parent?s marriage is our blueprint for our own marriage. We learn from them how to argue, how to ask for our needs and how to negotiate power in an intimate relationship. Some of us did not get an ideal blueprint to follow; we come from broken homes, homes filled with anger, violence, shame or neglect or homes where there is little or no emotional intimacy.

Sometimes, when we become engaged the fear that we will become just like our mom or dad is overwhelming. It is important to remember that you do not have to mirror your blueprint. You can choose any type of relationship you want. But, if you do not actively choose a different way of connecting or expressing anger, you will go on autopilot and fall back on familiar behaviors.

If this sounds like what you are feeling then what you need is to gain an understanding of your past so you can clearly define your future. Get support around understanding your own blueprint so you can then decide what you want to keep and what pieces of your parent?s marriage you want to get rid of. Once you have this, you and your fianc? can openly discuss your plan, goals and dreams for the marriage.

3. What is the plan? Have you talked through the BIG items with your intended? A few of these big items include: do we want kids and when; where do we want to live; how much money do we plan to make; how will we budget; how much time will we spend with our extended families; who is staying home with the kids; how ambitious are we individually and how are we going to make room in the relationship for this ambition.

When you talk through all of these questions, a picture or plan for your marriage emerges. Many couples don?t discuss their overall plan before they get married because they either don?t know how to or because they already know there is a conflict and they don?t know how to find a resolution.

If you have not discussed the big questions with your fianc? this may be a source of your wedding jitters. There can be the illusion that these conflicts will all ?work themselves out.? I will tell you from personal as well as professional experience that they don?t. But I do know that your anxiety will be greatly relieved by beginning this conversation. Consider finding a workbook or a couples counselor who can guide you through this discussion, help you set goals for yourselves and teach you the communication skills you need to negotiate when your desires or needs differ.

4. Violence or the threat of violence. Violence is never OK. It is never, ever, ever, ever OK.?If there has been violence, threats of violence or shaming or controlling behavior in your relationship, you need to seek the support of a therapist to better understand the dynamics of the abuse and why you choose to stay.

If you are questioning the relationship because there has been abusive behavior in the past, please listen to your instincts. Slow things down and find some support. Abuse rarely only occurs once. It is a pattern of behavior that cycles through wonderful times and then abusive or controlling times. It will happen again unless there is an intervention.?

Contributed by YourTango.com, an online magazine dedicated to love, life and relationships. From dating to marriage, parenting to empty-nest, relationship challenges to relationship success, YourTango is at the center of the conversations that are closest to our over 3 million readers' hearts. With daily contributions from our Experts, we have a little something for everyone looking to create healthier lives. We're excited to offer our contributions to the PsychCentral community, and invite you to visit us on YourTango.com.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by YourTango Experts (or subscribe to their feed).

????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 14 Dec 2012
????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.

APA Reference
Experts, Y. (2012). Top 9 Causes Of Pre-Wedding Jitters. Psych Central. Retrieved on December 17, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/16/top-9-causes-of-pre-wedding-jitters/

?

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/16/top-9-causes-of-pre-wedding-jitters/

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Confusion on Internet Future After UN Treaty Split | SecurityWeek.Com

WASHINGTON - The freewheeling, unregulated Internet seemed to survive a push for new rules at a UN treaty meeting, but the collapse of talks leaves unanswered questions about the Web's future.

A total of 89 countries endorsed the global treaty on telecom regulations at the UN's International Telecommunication Union gathering in Dubai on Friday, but the United States and dozens of others refused to sign, saying it opened the door to regulating the Internet.

ITU chief Hamadoun Toure insisted that the treaty had nothing to do with the Internet, despite what he called "a non-binding resolution which aims at fostering the development and growth of the Internet."

"This conference was not about the Internet control or Internet governance, and indeed there are no provisions on the Internet," the ITU secretary-general told participants at the signing ceremony.

But James Lewis, who follows Internet governance at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said backers of the treaty distorted the facts.

"They were lying," he said. "It was totally about the Internet."

Lewis told AFP the ITU lost credibility because "they swore up and down there wouldn't be a vote, that a decision would be by consensus, and then they took a vote."

The outcome underscored a deep divide between the US and its allies, which seek to keep the Internet open and unregulated, and authoritarian regimes that want to impose controls over online use and content.

Russia, China and Saudi Arabia have been among countries seeking such changes.

Still, Lewis said the World Conference on International Telecommunication, organized by the ITU in Dubai, failed to wrest control of the Internet addressing system from the global nonprofit group called ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

It remains unclear, said Lewis, whether the treaty can even become effective without a majority of the 193 ITU members endorsing it.

"The ITU has to suspend consensus rules to say this treaty is to take effect, and then it becomes an issue for the lawyers," he said, adding that the matter could end up before the UN Security Council.

US officials, who led opposition to new Internet rules, said the document adopted in Dubai will have little immediate impact.

Countries can exercise control of online activity within their borders, but Washington and others objected to a treaty that would legitimize new Internet controls under UN auspices.

The head of the US delegation, Terry Kramer, walked out of the hall as the signing started after protesting that the treaty was "seeking to insert governmental control over Internet governance."

That position drew praise from lawmakers and activists back home.

House Cybersecurity Caucus co-chairs Jim Langevin and Michael McCaul said the treaty, if implemented, "would result in a significant setback for anyone who believes free expression is a universal right."

Google, another critic of the conference, said that many governments taking part in Dubai proved they wanted increased censorship.

"What is clear from the ITU meeting in Dubai is that many governments want to increase regulation and censorship of the Internet," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

"We stand with the countries who refuse to sign this treaty and also with the millions of voices who have joined us to support a free and open Web."

Kieren McCarthy, general manager of the Global Internet Business Coalition, called the outcome in Dubai "a humiliating failure" for the UN agency.

"The collapse will come as a severe embarrassment to the ITU," McCarthy said in a blog post. "Efforts to bring its core telecom regulations into the Internet era had exposed the organization to modern realities that it was incapable of dealing with."

Milton Mueller, an Internet governance specialist at Syracuse University, said it's not clear if the new language is a threat to a free Internet.

"While I didn't like the resolution nor did most Internet rights advocates, I doubt if its passage would in itself be able to do much harm," he said.

But Mueller said the diplomatic efforts were complicated by concerns in some countries -- mainly with "bad" human rights records -- who object to US sanctions that can cut off access to certain Internet services such as those from Google.

"Weird and ironic, in that it is the pro-human rights nations that are using denial of access to Internet services as a form of policy leverage, and the anti-human rights nations that are claiming a universal right of Internet access," Mueller said.

Source: http://www.securityweek.com/confusion-internet-future-after-un-treaty-split

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China detains 93 for doomsday rumors: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have detained 93 people accused of spreading doomsday rumors and arrested a man who slashed 23 children at a school after he was "psychologically affected" by such predictions, the Xinhua state news agency reported on Monday.

The 93 people, from seven provinces, include members of the banned "Almighty God" cult, Xinhua said, adding that they were detained for "handing out leaflets about the apocalypse and spreading rumors".

"These cult members recently latched on to the Mayan doomsday scenario to predict the sun will not shine and electricity will not work for three days beginning on December 21," Xinhua said, citing the public security bureau of Xining, capital of the southwestern province of Qinghai.

China has launched a crackdown on the "Almighty God" group, which has also called for a decisive battle" to slay the "Red Dragon" Communist Party.

China's Communist Party brooks no challenge to its rule and is very keen to maintain social stability. But it has struggled to clamp down on rumors, which often spread quickly on the Internet.

In a separate report, Xinhua said police in Henan province arrested a man, identified as Min Yongjun, after he slashed 23 children at an elementary school and an adult at her home near the school.

"Initial police investigation found Min, a long-term epilepsy sufferer, had been strongly psychologically affected by rumors of the upcoming end of the world predicted by ancient prophecy," Xinhua said.

Min was arrested on a charge of suspicion of jeopardizing public security, Xinhua said.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-detains-93-doomsday-rumors-xinhua-111231496.html

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No. 6 Louisville rallies, downs Memphis 87-78

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) ? Chane Behanan scored 22 points and No. 6 Louisville rallied from 16 points down in the first half to beat Memphis 87-78 on Saturday.

Louisville (9-1) trailed 25-9 in the first half before pulling out its fourth straight win in this rivalry with a team the Cardinals have played in three conferences. The Big East will be the fourth when Memphis joins in July.

Russ Smith scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half for Louisville. Peyton Siva added 19 points, and Luke Hancock had 11.

Memphis (6-3) had five players foul out, helping Louisville to a huge edge at the free-throw line. The Cardinals were 38 of 46; the Tigers 14 of 20.

Joe Jackson led Memphis with 23 points and eight assists, and Tarik Black added 21 points. Geron Johnson added 12 and D.J. Stephens 10.

These teams have been rivals for decades dating to when both belonged to the Missouri Valley Conference, then the Metro Conference and most recently Conference USA between 1995 and 2005. They're due to be back in the same league starting in July for at least a season in the Big East, if Louisville doesn't bolt early for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Memphis called for a "blue-out", and fans responded. They also spent much of the game on their feet, booing or cheering every call and basket. The foul disparity was such that fans stood and cheered the Big East officiating crew derisively when Hancock was called for a foul with more than 6 minutes left

The Tigers outshot Louisville 51.8 percent (29 of 56) to 42 percent (21 of 50) and outrebounded the Cardinals (34-28). They just couldn't overcome the difference at the free throw line.

Memphis led 54-44 on a dunk by Johnson with 12:25 left. That's when the Cardinals took control scoring 13 straight points, and Hancock hit a pair of 3s and Behanan added another. Kevin Ware hit a pair of free throws to cap the spurt and put Louisville up 57-54 with 9:58 left.

The Tigers could get no closer than five in the final minute as Louisville sealed the win hitting 10 of 12 at the free throw line down the stretch.

Memphis now is 0-11 against ranked teams under coach Josh Pastner, even though it looked like this would be the day the Tigers would finally give their young coach his signature win leading 35-28 at halftime.

Louisville jumped out 5-1 before Jackson got Memphis going by hitting a 3, and the Tigers wound up hitting 13 of 22 in building a 16-point lead. Stephens even stepped out and hit a 3-pointer, which put Memphis up 25-9 with 10:05 left. Memphis kept the Cardinals off balance by switching up defenses from its usual man to man, and the Cardinals wound up shooting 8 of 24 through the first 10 minutes.

Louisville also lost Smith for part of the first half when he hurt his left ankle when he collided with Stephens near the Tigers' bench with 6:02 left. Smith laid on the floor and rolled around for a couple minutes before being helped to the bench, unable to put his foot on the floor. But he was back late, though he shot only 1 of 8 from the floor missing all four of his 3-pointers.

The Cardinals took advantage of Memphis turning it over 24 times, turning those into 29 points.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-6-louisville-rallies-downs-memphis-87-78-221922706--spt.html

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