Oil prices dip below $99 a barrel (AP)

NEW YORK ? Oil prices ended lower Monday on concerns that the U.S. economy could slow, and investors' worries eased about supply disruptions in the Persian Gulf.

Benchmark crude fell by 78 cents to finish at $98.78 per barrel in New York on Monday. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oils that are imported by U.S. refineries, lost 71 cents to end at $110.75 per barrel in London.

The Commerce Department said Americans kept a tighter grip on their wallets in December. Consumer spending was flat, even though incomes rose by the most in nine months. The economy relies heavily on consumer spending, and analysts say the economic recovery could stall and energy demand may stay weak if spending doesn't pick up.

Meanwhile, Iran welcomed international weapons experts into the country in hopes of refuting claims that it is building a nuclear weapon. That eased concerns about possible military action in the region. Still, Europe plans to embargo Iranian oil this summer to pressure Iran about its nuclear program. If that happens, Iran says it could retaliate by blocking passage through the Persian Gulf, where tankers carry one-sixth of the world's oil exports.

The U.S. is ready to implement sanctions on Iran's central bank that will make it harder for Iran to sell oil.

Gasoline pump prices rose by a penny on Monday to $3.43 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular is 15.3 cents higher than it was a month ago and 33 cents higher than it was last year.

In other energy trading, heating oil fell 2 cents to finish at $3.05 per gallon and gasoline futures fell 6 cents to end at $2.87 per gallon. Natural gas futures fell 4 cents to end the day at $2.71 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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

a christmas carol arkansas football player dies anne mccaffrey anne mccaffrey amazon promotional code artificial christmas trees bean bag chairs

Could the GOP impeach Obama for ending the Bush tax cuts? (The Week)

New York ? Though liberals are scoffing, that's the threat from Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who has essentially been setting the GOP's tax policy

Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, raised plenty of eyebrows on Saturday with an interview he gave to National Journal, in which he said that if President Obama is foolish enough to let all the "Bush tax cuts" expire at the end of the year, "Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach." The anti-tax activist holds a lot of sway over the GOP, with almost all House Republicans and every GOP presidential candidate signing his no-tax pledge, but impeachment is reserved for "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors," notes Tanya Somanader in Think Progress. So "suggesting Republicans impeach the president over tax cuts is wildly outlandish." Right?

There's no way the GOP's that crazy: Norquist is just plain "nuts," says Nicole Belle in Crooks and Liars. And even with "idiots and clowns" running the Grand Old Party these days, "there's no way that the Republicans will go down this route." Impeaching over tax policy stretches the Constitution to the breaking point, and won't win any favors with voters, either. "You may think you rule Washington," Grover, but this idea is "just delusional."
"Norquist threatens impeachment if Obama does not extend Bush tax cuts"

Norquist was only speaking figuratively: I imagine these impeachment musings are just one of those "brief bouts of hyperbole" Norquist indulges in when he strays from his laser focus on "tax sanity," says Jazz Shaw in Hot Air. If he was seriously suggesting impeachment for "allowing a legally passed set of tax cuts with a built in expiration date to lapse," somebody needs to press him on it. But either way, Norquist should probably stick to pushing lower taxes and spending.
"Norquist: Impeach Obama over taxes?"

Never underestimate conservative activists: I have to admit I'm "a little less sanguine than most people when I hear that Grover Norquist is going on about" impeachment, says Charles Pierce in Esquire. Conservatives Republicans have been "thinking, and then acting on, the unthinkable" for years. And remember, they impeached Bill Clinton on almost equally dubious grounds, because they had the votes. So "if you don't think they won't try this farce again, elect them majorities in both houses and see what happens."
"The Grover Norquist 'impeach Obama' fantasy"

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get 4 Free Issues of The Week

Other stories from this topic:

Like on Facebook?-?Follow on Twitter?-?Sign-up for Daily Newsletter

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20120130/cm_theweek/223834

leftover turkey recipes leftover turkey recipes hugo hugo the muppets percy harvin percy harvin

Russia invites Syria's gov't, opposition for talks

MOSCOW (AP) ? Russia's Foreign Ministry says it has invited Syrian authorities and opposition for talks in Moscow.

The ministry said in a statement Monday that Syrian authorities have already agreed to come. The ministry is hoping that opposition leaders will send their reply in the coming days. The opposition has balked at holding talks with the regime, saying the violence must end first.

The U.N. estimates about 5,400 people have been killed in 10 months of violence.

The ministry said the Syria talks need to be conducted "as soon as possible" to stop violence in the country.

Russia, Syria's longtime ally has been backing the regime of President Bashar Assad although Moscow has also talked to Syrian opposition leaders in the past months.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-30-ML-Syria/id-ecf8907e671140169cb1ce2cb7e5c05c

jeffrey eugenides jeffrey eugenides volcker rule matthew stafford brady quinn brady quinn nick fairley

Gingrich brands rival Romney with `liberal' tag (AP)

LUTZ, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich is calling GOP president rival Mitt Romney a "pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase liberal."

Gingrich made the comments outside a church in Lutz., Fla., two days before the pivotal presidential primary.

Gingrich is trailing Romney in Florida and has been labeling the former governor a Massachusetts moderate. Now Gingrich is adding the liberal tag to his criticism of his 2012 rival.

Gingrich also went after Romney during two television interviews Sunday morning. He said Romney "has a basic policy of carpet bombing his opponent" and that the "old establishment" in the party is trying to block Gingrich's path to nomination.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich

jason mayhem miller margarito margarito horton hears a who horton hears a who cotto margarito chicago bears

Italian islanders worry about their future (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Residents of the Italian island of Giglio held a strategy meeting Monday as fears mounted about threats to the environment and their prized tourism industry from the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship lying off the coast.

Officials have ruled out finding anyone else alive more than two weeks after the ship hit a reef. Worries are now focusing on the impact the disaster could have on the pristine Tuscan region, especially if tons of fuel and chemical pollutants spill from the ship.

Ahead of the closed-door meeting, some residents hung a banner demanding the removal of the half-submerged ship, which threatens some of the most unspoiled waters in the Mediterranean and a sanctuary for dolphins and other marine life.

About 500,000 gallons (2,400 tons) of heavy fuel and other pollutants are in danger of leaking out of the ship, threatening the livelihoods of local fishermen and residents who depend on tourism.

"They need to get a move on. We are moving toward the tourist season," said Antonia Rum, a resident heading into the gathering of more than 200 people.

"Let's hope we are able to solve everything without pollution," said Giuseppe De Politi, a Giglio fisherman. "That's the main worry."

Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 when the captain deviated from his planned route and struck a reef, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship. More than 4,200 passengers and crew were on board. Seventeen bodies have been recovered, while 16 people are listed as missing, with one body not yet identified.

The gathering of residents came a day after Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's national civil protection agency, said it could take a full seven-to-10 months to remove the massive ship, which is 950 feet (290 meters) long and 115 feet (35 meters) wide. That means the damaged ship, or at least parts of it, will still be off the coast for most, if not all, of the summer tourist season.

One of the residents at the meeting, Fabio Agugliari, expressed the determination to defend the island and its "treasures." Another, Alvaro Andolfi, said residents are mainly demanding transparency from Gabrielli.

"We want him to tell us how it happened that it's going to take a year to remove this ship, what they are doing and how the plans to remove the fuel are proceeding," Andolfi told reporters after the meeting.

The harbor at Giglio, which usually accommodates dozens of private and tourist boats, is now off-limits to any vessels except rescue boats and two ferry companies that connect the island to the mainland.

Lawmaker Angelo Bonelli, with the Greens party, said a 10-month removal process was a huge time span in which oil, solvents and the corrosion of the ship could "provoke a real disaster."

"We have the impression that there is underestimation of the enormous environmental, touristic and economic damage that will take place if the ship stays in its place for more than a year," he was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

The prospects of a quick solution were further dampened Monday by bad weather, which prevented crews from starting to pump oil from the ship. Authorities set off another blast in an underwater compartment of the ship, hoping to find more bodies, but held off on removing fuel.

Despite the rough seas, other workers labored to collect tons of ship debris ? chairs, furniture, luggage ? floating in the surrounding waters or on the shore.

Experts say it will take a month to remove fuel from the 15 tanks that account for more than 80 percent of all the ship's oil. The next job would be to target the ship's engine room, which contains nearly 350 cubic meters of diesel, fuel and other lubricants.

Only once the fuel is pumped out can work begin on removing the ship, either floating it in one piece or cutting it up and towing it away. That operation will involve large barges, cranes and other commercial salvage equipment.

"They say there is not going to be any environmental damage, but we are not stupid. The damage to the environment is strong," said Riccardo Vicchianti, son of a Giglio resident. "If I think of just one cabin, it's like throwing a whole bar into the sea ... imagine a floating town!"

___

Gera reported from Rome.

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

gabrielle giffords juliette lewis nancy pelosi nancy pelosi joan rivers chelsea handler mitch daniels

I Watched Every Spielberg Movie

A video essay called ?The Faces of Spielberg? got a lot of attention recently. It?s a fun viewing experience, and the essayist makes his point intelligently and elegantly. Still, I couldn?t understand, watching it, why a propensity by a highly commercial filmmaker to include in his films religiously lit close-up shots of the human face looking up in wonder would be considered anything more than axiomatic. (One could do a much more, uh, interesting essay on ?The Faces of David Lynch? in a few hours.) In Spielberg?s hands, this kind of shot is a time-tested way to tell us, the audience, that he?s about to show us something wondrous. It works, of course. But it should be taken for what it is?an achievement in emotional manipulation, not great art.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5f6aae03580e76ac197a98e64851b563

frank gore injury makana makana gloria cain gloria cain kandi burruss occupy portland

Romney not taking any chances ahead of Fla. vote

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, in Pompano Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, in Pompano Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with his wife Callista, campaign at The Villages, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lady Lake, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Audience members listen as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, in Pompano Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Residents arrive in golf carts for a campaign event by Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, at the The Villages, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lady Lake, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Mitt Romney isn't taking any chances.

A day before voting begins in Florida's Republican primary, Romney is running?ahead of rival Newt Gingrich in polls.?The former Massachusetts governor earned positive reviews during two debates. And Romney has put the former House speaker on the defensive over ethics and Freddie Mac.?

"It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," Gingrich is complaining.?

But instead of stepping back and refocusing on President Barack Obama ? as he?did in Iowa when it became clear that Gingrich had lost?? Romney?is ratcheting up his rhetoric and continuing his attacks until the very end. He hopes to close the Florida campaign strongly to push Gingrich as far back as possible.

?"His record is one of failed leadership," Romney said of Gingrich?Sunday night?at a rally in Pompano Beach, in South Florida. And Romney challenged Gingrich to "look in the mirror" to figure out why the former House speaker has fallen back in Florida.

"His record is one of failed leadership. We don't need someone who can speak well perhaps or can say things we agree with, but does not have the experience of being an effective leader," he said.

Aides say Romney's attacks are partially a response to increasingly angry rhetoric from Gingrich, who on Sunday called the former Massachusetts governor "somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal."?Gingrich also accused Romney of lying. "I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said.

Romney's campaign on Sunday fired back immediately, starting with the candidate and continuing?with statements from top surrogates who cast Gingrich's assault as an unfair attack on Romney's character.

"Mitt Romney is man of impeccable character," said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. "It offends me that Newt Gingrich would attack the character of Mitt Romney."

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called the attacks "over the line."

Romney's supporters particularly defended his anti-abortion credentials following Gingrich's attack. Gingrich allies are also running radio ads attacking Romney's record on the issue.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi called Romney a "champion for pro-life values" as she introduced him at the rally.?Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen offered a similar defense during an earlier rally with the Cuban American community in Hialeah.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, who just last weekend was staggered by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state's caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

To hang onto his lead,?Romney continued to paint Gingrich as part of the very Washington establishment he condemns and someone who had a role in the nation's economic problems.

"Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you're selling influence in Washington at a time when we need people who will stand up for the truth in Washington," Romney told an audience in Naples.

Gingrich's consulting firm was paid more than $1.5 million by the federally-backed mortgage company over a period after he left Congress in 1999.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, skipped campaigning to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized. He planned to campaign in Missouri and Minnesota early this week.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable to his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa's leadoff caucuses Jan. 3. Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates. But his support dropped in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a "super" political action committee run by former Romney aides.

But Romney aides say they made the mistake of assuming Gingrich could not rise again as he did in South Carolina. Romney appears determined not to let that happen again.

Romney has three events scheduled across the state Monday. He planned events in Jacksonville and the Tampa area. Gingrich has five planned events.?

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-30-GOP-Campaign/id-89d0d4ba3ddf44ebbcd52393f0baf316

craigslist nc chronicle baked alaska baked alaska battlefield 3 release battlefield 3 release battle field 3

Keystone to be linked to U.S. highway bill: Boehner (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republican lawmakers will try to force the Obama administration to approve the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline by attaching it to a highway bill that Congress will consider next month, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday.

President Barack Obama earlier this month denied TransCanada's application for the oil sands pipeline, citing lack of time to review an alternative route within a 60-day window for action set by Congress.

Republicans have since been looking for a vehicle to resurrect the $7 billion project, and Boehner said that would be a House Republican energy and highway bill.

"If (Keystone) is not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it will be part of it," Boehner said on ABC's "This Week" news program.

Environmentalists and some Democrats oppose Keystone, citing higher greenhouse gas emissions, while most Republicans say it would create needed jobs.

Republicans in the Senate also plan to introduce a Keystone bill. Some Senate Democrats back the pipeline, but its passage is not guaranteed in the body.

Parts of the House Republican plan, such as opening up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, stand little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.

Attaching Keystone to a pending deal to extend payroll tax cuts for workers, which has greater bipartisan backing than the highway bills, is another vehicle Republicans are considering.

(Reporting By Kim Dixon; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_keystone

rosie o donnell st nicholas st nicholas mindy mccready mindy mccready cliff harris cliff harris

Steve Jobs, Superhero

When I was a kid, I read tons of superhero comic books. I fantasized about superpowers, but the storylines about heroes with massive Achilles? heels really held my attention the most. They saved the world but had screwed up personal lives, made lots of mistakes, and often acted like complete assholes. In retrospect, I related to their flaws. And, probably not coincidentally, my favorite characters exhibited core weaknesses I had experienced: Spider-Man (immaturity), Iron Man (overconfidence/hubris), and Wolverine (rage). Ironically, when the character?s weakness comingled with the superpower, it would often spur them to succeed against impossible odds.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/q5ZmDhTBLPE/

joe namath tampa bay buccaneers nflx leprosy right to work birdman whip it

Iran says oil could reach $120 to $150 per barrel (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? The head of Iran's state oil company said Sunday that the price of crude will reach $120 to $150 per barrel, as officials in Tehran prepare to discuss a ban on crude sales to European Union countries in retaliation for an EU embargo.

Head of the National Iranian Oil Company Ahmad Qalehbani also said that Tehran would expand its capacity to refine crude domestically, instead of selling it on international markets.

The EU announced an embargo on Iranian oil last week to pressure Tehran on its controversial nuclear program.

The embargo is set to go into effect in the summer, but Iran says that it may cut the flow of crude to Europe early.

Iran says the EU accounts for only 18 percent of its output and that it can find new customers. It says the embargo will hurt the West more than Iran, in part by causing a spike in prices.

"It seems we will witness prices from $120 to $150 in the future," Qalehbani was quoted as saying by IRNA. He did not give a time frame for the prediction, nor any other details.

The price of benchmark U.S. crude on Friday was around $99.56 per barrel.

Qalehbani also said that Iran could find other customers for its crude in the short term, while in the longer term expanding its refining capacity to turn the crude into other petroleum products.

"The sale of some 18 percent of Iranian oil, to a market other than the EU, is quite possible. But our long term idea is to increase refining capacities to produce valuable products," he said.

Qalehbani's statement came as Iranian oil officials prepare to debate a ban on crude sales to European Union countries.

Many Iranian lawmakers and officials have called for an immediate ban on oil exports to the European bloc before the EU's ban fully goes into effect in July. They say this will hurt Europe before it can find alternative suppliers.

It also coincided with a visit by a U.N. nuclear team expected to focus on Iran's alleged attempt to develop nuclear weapons.

The United States and its allies argue that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons technology, while Tehran says the program is for purely peaceful purposes.

With some 3.5 million barrels of crude production, Iran is the second largest OPEC producer.

Some 80 percent of the country's foreign revenue comes from exporting around 2.2 million barrels of oil per day.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_oil

ted kennedy warren zevon caroline kennedy caroline kennedy day of rage sportscenter pay per view

The working class rises up across Latin America (The Christian Science Monitor)

Mexico city; and Santiago, chile ? When parking attendant Hugo Enrique Vera was beaten by a wealthy client in Mexico, allegedly for refusing to show the man where to find the jack in his car, the surveillance camera captured a stereotype dating to colonial times: The wealthy resident asserts authoritarian control over the worker, who takes the beating without question.

But there was a twist: Mr. Vera filed a criminal complaint and condemned his perpetrator on national news, unleashing a charged debate about callousness toward the working class.

For two decades, social movements in Latin America have centered on indigenous rights. Today the indigenous have earned new political representation, and open mistreatment will draw complaints.

Yet daily life across Latin America is replete with symbols of stubborn class inequality that go unchallenged, such as condominium buildings that have separate elevators for domestic workers.

RELATED: Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz.

Such constant reinforcement of status differences helps to cement class privileges in what the United Nations has said is the world's most unequal region.

While maids in crisp uniforms and parking valets at every urban venue aren't about to disappear, they and other la-borers are increasingly better-educated and aspire to move into the middle class.

Less tolerant of abuse and discrimination, these maids and nannies, doormen and gardeners are demanding more pay and benefits and a baseline of respect.

"There's democratization in the political arena, participation, and citizenship rights ... [and] moderate economic development. So in this context, citizens start feeling they have the right to be seen as what they are ? citizens," says Florencia Torche, a sociology professor at New York University and Catholic University in Santiago, Chile.

An apology is offered

The parking attendant controversy, which went viral on YouTube and drew a public apology by perpetrator Miguel Sacal, wasn't an isolated event. Last summer, Mexicans were outraged after two upper-middle-class women in a rich district of Mexico City were caught on video calling a police officer a "crappy wage slave." The daughter of the leading presidential candidate caused an uproar in December after retweeting a message calling her father's opponents "a bunch of idiots who are part of the prole," a reference to the proletariat, or poor people.

"There is less tolerance for discrimination by society," says Ra?l Villamil Uriarte, an anthropologist at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City. In the case of the parking attendant who brought attention to his own case, he adds, the classic "victim" devictimized himself.

Changes in the maid's quarters

Nowhere is more change taking place than in the domestic sphere. While in the United States only the wealthy can afford live-in nannies and daily housecleaning, in Latin America, maid's quarters are ubiquitous, even in the homes of the middle class.

But newer apartments increasingly are built without such spaces ? reflecting upheaval in the structure of the home.

In Chile, maids and nannies are demanding bigger salaries and more benefits and insisting on living with their own families, says Monica Escandon, who runs the nanny and maid service Nana.cl in Santiago. "[Domestic workers] know that their work has a high value and that they are necessary, especially for young couples who both work," she says.

Salaries have risen to at least $500 a month for a nanny who works five days a week and as much as $800 a month for a live-in maid, she says. Employers are also responsible for taxes, food, and transportation. As in the US, wealthier Latin Americans now hire immigrants from poorer countries like Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay to get the same amount of work for lower prices.

The rising wages and greater emphasis on professionalization is resulting in greater respect. When a popular gossip magazine in Colombia recently ran a picture of servants in uniform standing behind their wealthy employer, the depiction set off a storm of rebuke.

In Chile, meanwhile, a country club last month barred nannies from entering the pool with their young charges and said they had to wear their uniforms while on the premises. The club owners have faced a barrage of recriminations, with critics calling them snobs and classists.

RELATED: Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz. 

'Respect comes first'

Fighting back has come later for the working class in general than it did for the indigenous, says Christopher Sabatini, editor in chief of the policy journal Americas Quarterly in New York. For one thing, the working class did not have the advantage of identifying along ethnic and geographical boundaries.

But economics and the democratizing influence of social media have given them an edge: With positive economic growth across Latin America, poverty falling, more access to credit, and many entering the middle class ? 56 million households have joined the middle class in Latin America in the past decade and a half, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ? class is less static than it once was.

"The rigid status hierarchies of the past are starting to clash with notions of quality of opportunities," says Mr. Sabatini.

Pilar Montes, a maid who works in the upscale Santiago district of Las Condes, says that if she were mistreated, "I'd be out the door in a flash. Respect comes first."

Ms. Montes travels more than two hours each way to work for $700 a month ? better pay than she earned previously as a waitress, saleswoman, or cook. But she says she would discourage her children from choosing a similar career. They are all in school, with one studying accounting and another starting nursing school. "One has to keep moving up," she says.

That sentiment is reflected in data from Brazil, where 39 million people joined the middle class between 2003 and 2011. The government's economic research institute, IPEA, said in a May 2011 report that while domestic workers remain underpaid and undereducated, they are improving slowly on both fronts.

That fact might be behind a shift that shows that young people under 30 made up a smaller share of domestic workers in 2009 than they did in 1999, indicating that fewer young people are entering the field.

Marcelo Neri, an economist at the Getu?lio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, says that the income of domestic workers increased 5.05 percent per year from 2003 to 2009, compared with 1.16 percent for employers; those receiving social security rose from 20 percent in 1995 to 31 percent in 2009. And they are not alone: From construction workers to waiters, all groups have seen improvement in their lives, from better pay to more respect.

Discrimination persists

The working class is still vulnerable. Arturo Alvarado, a sociologist at the College of Mexico in Mexico City, says that discrimination will persist as long as there is a supply of low-skilled labor working without proper contracts.

He says workers in many offices in Mexico must be submissive just to keep their jobs. But he agrees that changes are afoot.

Ms. Torche sees it as a longer-term dynamic toward more egalitarianism, but that it is fraught with contradictions, especially because political inclusion has outpaced economic equality.

"It is not going to be linear," she says. "[But] we have more political and economic integration and educational expansion. Many more people are exposed to the educational system and are learning what they deserve as citizens of a nation....

"Low-qualification labor is becoming scarce," she adds. "The Latin American elite will have to get used to it."

Get daily or weekly updates from CSMonitor.com delivered to your inbox. Sign up today.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20120128/wl_csm/453460

the walking dead season 2 milwaukee brewers will power will power indy 500 martin luther king memorial walking dead season 2

IMF leads global push for euro zone to boost firewall (Reuters)

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) ? International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde led a global push on Saturday for the euro zone to boost its financial firewall, saying "if it is big enough it will not get used."

Lagarde, supported by the British finance minister, George Osborne, said the IMF could boost its support for the euro zone but pressed its leaders to act first. Some attendees at the Davos Forum still doubted the viability of the currency union.

Countries beyond the 17-country bloc want to see its members stump up more money before they commit additional resources to the IMF, which this month requested an additional 500 billion euros ($650 billion) in funding.

"Now is the time - there has been a lot of pressure building in order to see a solution come about," Lagarde told a Forum panel discussion on the economic outlook from which euro zone leaders - most notably Germany - were conspicuously absent.

"It is critical that the euro zone members develop a clear, simple firewall that can operate both to limit the contagion and to provide this sort of act of trust in the euro zone, so that the financing needs of that zone can actually be met," she said.

Lagarde's comments rounded out a crescendo of calls at the Davos Forum for the euro zone to boost its financial defenses. The annual five-day conference began with German Chancellor Angela Merkel deflecting pressure to do so.

In a carefully worded keynote address, Merkel suggested doubling or even tripling the size of the fund may convince markets for a time, but warned that if Germany made a promise that could not be kept, "then Europe is really vulnerable."

On Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed Europe to make a "bigger commitment" to boosting its firewall.

Two bankers who attended meetings with Geithner at the Forum said on Friday the United States was looking for the euro zone to roughly double the size of its firewall to 1.5 trillion euros. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Treasury.

Osborne said the currency bloc must beef up its firewall before other countries increase their funding to the IMF.

"I think the euro zone leaders understand that," said Osborne, the only European minister on Saturday's panel discussion on the global economic outlook in 2012.

"There are not going to be further contributions from G20 countries, Britain included, unless we see the color of their money," he added, calling for the euro zone "to provide a significant increase in available resources."

MORE OPTIMISM...FOR SOME

Japanese Economics Minister Motohisa Furukawa echoed Osborne's comments, saying: "Without the firm action of Europe, I don't think the developing countries like China or others are willing to pay more money for the IMF."

On condition that the euro zone boosts its own defenses, he said Japan and other countries were willing to additional support via the IMF.

Lagarde said, however, that if the international lender's resources were boosted sufficiently, this would raise confidence to such a degree that they would not be needed.

"If it is big enough, it will not get used. And the same applies to the euro firewall for that matter," she added.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, speaking to the Forum by video link from Tokyo, said Japan was working with South Korea and India to reduce the risk of the euro zone crisis spreading to Asia.

"Japan stands ready to support the euro zone as much as possible," he added.

Mexico's central bank chief, Agustin Carstens, said on Friday he believed a consensus was building on boosting the IMF's resources to help European countries and others that might need aid from the global lender.

There has been a palpable sense of hope at the Davos Forum that the euro zone is pulling back from the brink of catastrophe, though business leaders are equally worried that Europe's woes will hold back a global recovery.

Osborne saw some signs of optimism.

"People have commented on the mood of this conference being quite somber but having been here for a couple of days people have also pointed out that actually people are slightly more optimistic at the end of the week than the beginning," he said.

However, Davos 2011 also ended on upbeat note about the euro zone and a feeling that worst of the crisis was over - only for the situation to deteriorate and financial markets to turn their fire on Italy, the bloc's third biggest economy.

"The euro zone is a slow-motion train wreck," said economist Nouriel Roubini, made famous by predictions of the 2008-09 global banking crisis.

He expected Greece, and possibly Portugal, to exit the bloc within the next 12 months and believed there is a 50 percent chance of the bloc breaking up completely in the next 3-5 years.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, said no matter how strong the euro zone's firewall is, the market will look at the nature of the economies it is protecting.

"If it is protecting insolvent economies...no matter how strong the firewall is, it won't survive," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_davos_economy_lagarde

arizona cardinals cake boss twin towers september 11 tennessee titans freedom tower freedom tower

Pelosi???s Attack on Gingrich Is a Political Ruse (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Nancy Pelosi made big news this week when the former House Speaker suggested in a CNN interview that she knows something about Newt Gingrich that could disqualify his candidacy. Her cryptic comment came only days before the critical Florida primary. Pelosi has since backed off from the suggestion, though she is still adamant Gingrich won't be the Republican nominee. What should be made of the House Minority Leader's claim?

If Pelosi did have some damaging information on Gingrich, she would not have made the veiled comment at this time. No one in Washington understands politics better than the former House Speaker. There is no plausible advantage for Pelosi, who is a Democrat, to show her "trump card" at this point of the campaign. If she did know something about Gingrich that the public don't, she would have kept it to herself until after Gingrich has won the nomination before exposing the damaging information.

Pelosi's veiled threat was either a complete exaggeration or a political ruse meant to influence the outcome of the Republican nomination contest. All indicators seem to point to the latter.

What politicians from both parties fear the most is a political survivor. Gingrich has demonstrated over and over again an ability to overcome political setbacks. After poor finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, not many insiders gave him a chance in South Carolina. Yet, he managed to beat Romney by a double-digit margin. This is something a shrewd politician like Pelosi would pick up on, and could be one of the motives behind the mysterious comment.

Moreover, President Obama and the Democrats have assumed all along that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee. A lot of opposition research has already been done on Romney. Obama's class-warfare theme is clearly meant to draw sharp contrasts between the president as the populist and the Bain Capital co-founder as the Wall Street elite. Romney may be the most formidable GOP candidate, but he also fits well into Democrats' campaign theme.

With most polls showing Romney surging in Florida, Pelosi may have just gotten her wish.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120128/pl_ac/10894735_pelosis_attack_on_gingrich_is_a_political_ruse

iowa caucus results sickle cell trait michigan football michigan football sugar bowl mild kidney failure presidential candidates

Top 20 Concert Tours from Pollstar (AP)

The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.

TOP 20 CONCERT TOURS

1. (2) Cirque du Soleil ? "Michael Jackson: The Immortal"; $2,168,255; $110.16.

2. (1) Kanye West / Jay-Z; $2,015,303; $118.98.

3. (3) Taylor Swift; $1,184,267; $69.27.

4. (5) Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band; $702,897; $70.41.

5. (6) Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $571,979; $51.82.

6. (7) Zac Brown Band; $514,314; $44.12.

7. (8) Sting; $475,037; $92.43.

8. (10) Guns N' Roses; $415,202; $52.44.

9. (13) Jeff Dunham; $316,251; $47.63.

10. (14) Paul Simon; $255,730; $77.51.

11. (12) Andre Rieu; $247,074; $81.84.

12. (15) Lady Antebellum; $244,691; $45.25.

13. (16) Judas Priest; $204,372; $53.47.

14. (17) "So You Think You Can Dance"; $201,206; $53.96.

15. (18) John Mellencamp; $169,771; $90.14.

16. (New) Avenged Sevenfold; $160,113; $39.09.

17. (New) The String Cheese Incident; $147,062; $39.19.

18. (19) "Scream Tour" / Mindless Behavior / Diggy Simmons; $133,881; $41.41.

19. (20) Mannheim Steamroller; $125,841; $56.44.

20. (New) Celtic Thunder; $118,704; $55.73.

For free upcoming tour information, go to http://www.pollstar.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_mu/us_top20_concert_tours

cheryl cole x factor freetown freetown nicole scherzinger modern family troy davis troy davis

NYC police chief apologizes for movie interview

NEW YORK (AP) ? New York's police commissioner apologized Wednesday for appearing in a documentary movie about terrorism that Muslim groups have criticized as inflammatory, and said his department acted wrongly when it later showed the film to counterterrorism trainees.

A spokesman for Raymond Kelly had previously denied the commissioner had any participation in the making of the "The Third Jihad," suggesting last year that footage of Kelly was lifted from another source.

But on Wednesday Kelly said he had sat for an interview in 2007 because the filmmaker had "bona fides" in television and with the White House. The movie later was shown on a continuous loop on the sidelines during New York Police Department counterterrorism sessions.

"While it never became part of the Department's curriculum, and was not authorized for any training, regrettably it was shown in a room where officers who were filling out paperwork or on break from actual training had an opportunity to view it over an extended period in 2010," Kelly said in a written statement.

Police stopped playing the film after one of the trainees complained, he said.

"I offer my apologies to members of the Muslim community, in particular, who would find the film inflammatory and its airing on Department property, though unauthorized, to be inappropriate," Kelly wrote.

Some Muslim groups reacted angrily at the news. The admission "marks the blatant bigotry and lack of transparency that permeates the NYPD's approach to New York's Muslim communities," the Muslim Civil Liberties Coalition said Wednesday.

On Tuesday Mayor Michael Bloomberg said police had used "terrible judgment" in showing the movie at its training sessions.

"The Third Jihad," produced by the conservative Clarion Fund, accuses some moderate Muslims of being more radical than they appear on the surface and uses vivid footage of bombings and terror attacks to illustrate the danger of radical Islam. Speakers interviewed in the film warn viewers repeatedly that Western civilization is under attack.

Nearly 1,500 police officers went through the training and may have seen the film, according to police documents obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank at New York University.

Muslim activists say they worry that the film teaches police officers to regard all Muslims as suspects. Last year an investigation by The Associated Press revealed the police department has operated a secret surveillance program targeting ethnic neighborhoods.

On Thursday activists planned to call for Kelly's resignation at an event outside New York's City Hall. Some of the activists were those singled out in the film.

The film's producer, Raphael Shore, issued a statement defending his work on Wednesday, saying, "Those that have blasted the film are attempting to stifle an important debate about the internal state of the Muslim community in America, and whether politicized Islam and indoctrination pose tangible security threats."

Kelly appears in "The Third Jihad" three times for a total of about 30 seconds, talking about prison converts, the Soviet Union and the threat of terrorists using nuclear weapons. Other people who appear in the documentary include former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was in office when Muslim extremists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne told reporters last year that he believed the footage of Kelly speaking was lifted from another source.

"The New York Police Department did not participate in its production," Kelly wrote in a March 7, 2011, letter to Majlis Ash-Shura of Metropolitan New York, a Muslim group.

Clarion Fund spokesman Alex Traiman said Kelly spoke on camera for 90 minutes and was fully aware of the movie's focus.

"The commissioner wasn't duped," Traiman said. "If he was unhappy with the line of questioning you'd think he would have broken off the interview before 90 minutes."

He accused Bloomberg and Kelly of bending to the will of Muslim activists.

"People don't want to deal with so much of that pressure; they prefer to cave in to it," he said.

The Clarion Fund, which is based in New York, has produced other movies about terrorism and Iran's nuclear program.

Shore used to work for Aish HaTorah, a network of Jewish education centers, but there is no other link between the two groups, Traiman said.

___

Associated Press reporters Tom Hays and Colleen Long contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-25-NYPD-Intelligence-Movie/id-9174cf6d4bb9487189e2d527334182b3

chris bosh world series october 28 2011 october 28 2011 miami hurricanes vlad the impaler michael lohan

La finance adversaire : quand Fillon flingue Hollande est-ce Sarkozy ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/la-finance-adversaire-qua_n_1233132.html

photos doomsday clock nate robinson sharia law sharia law new hampshire primary results ron paul

Man convicted in Travolta car theft ordered to pay (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? A man who stole John Travolta's vintage 1970 Mercedes-Benz convertible is serving a jail term and been ordered to pay the actor $50,000 in restitution, court records show.

D L Rayford Jr. was sentenced to serve 16 months in jail after pleading no contest to grand theft auto on Jan. 5, nearly three weeks before authorities announced his arrest on Wednesday. Rayford and Michael T. Green were arrested last month on suspicion of taking the car and each was charged with grand theft auto.

Travolta parked the convertible on a residential street in Santa Monica, Calif., for about 10 minutes in September when it was stolen. The Oscar-nominated actor had the car keys with him while he stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership and returned to find the car missing.

Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis said Travolta's car had been dismantled by the time it was recovered. Among the pieces recovered by authorities were seats, the speedometer, hubcaps and other assorted parts from the vehicle.

Lewis said authorities waited to announce the arrests because their investigation into Rayford and Green had been ongoing. He said Santa Monica Police were able to clear eight stolen car cases after their arrests.

Police recovered the pieces after arresting Rayford and Green, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of grand theft auto. Robert Conley, a public defender representing him, said he could not comment on the case.

An email message sent to Travolta's publicist Samantha Mast was not immediately returned.

Rayford, 52, has a previous conviction for robbery and Green, 58, have prior convictions, court records show. Green is due back in court on Feb. 8.

___

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

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_en_mo/us_john_travolta_mercedes_stolen

dancing with the stars elimination dancing with the stars elimination nexus prime nexus prime new iphone new iphone tmobile iphone

Apple CEO faces first test with cash mountain (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Apple CEO Tim Cook has a problem, a $98 billion problem.

Just 18 months ago, Apple's $46 billion mountain of cash - while huge by most standards - attracted only muted complaints from investors, who did call for a dividend or share buyback, but were mostly happy with the meteoric rise in the stock price.

But with the growing cash balance now a much bigger overhang on the stock, widely considered to be undervalued, investors are clamoring more vocally for Cook to put the money to work.

No one could have foreseen just how quickly that warchest would grow. Indeed, some analysts estimated Apple's cash holdings would increase to $65 billion at the end of 201l. That it has swelled nearly 50 percent above even those lofty projections is nothing short of awesome.

Apple now has about $104 in cash per share.

But to paraphrase rapper P. Diddy, with more money comes more problems. Apple's runaway success presents Cook with his first real public test as chief executive officer - figuring out what to do with the money.

Apple's cash balance is now a quarter of its $415 billion market capitalization and roughly equals California's 2012-2013 state budget. And even though $64 billion of Apple's cash is overseas - meaning it will have to pay a hefty tax to bring it into the United States - calls for a dividend on Wall Street grew louder after the company said on Tuesday it was in "active discussions" internally on what to do with the money.

Wall Street is strongly in favor of Apple returning the money to shareholders through buybacks or dividends, even if it is only a one-time deal. But the ultra-conservative company, which typically ignores Wall Street, gave no clues about that during its earnings call on Tuesday.

"They are clearly trying to signal that they are not ignoring the issue," said Michael Holt, an analyst with Morningstar. "It doesn't mean that a decision is imminent."

Others, however, are convinced a dividend will be paid this year.

"With Apple stating that it is 'actively' pursuing its options with regards to its cash balance, we believe the commentary may be setting itself up for a cash dividend in FY12," Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White said, raising his target on the stock to $666.

Katy Huberty, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, echoed White's view, saying: "Apple appears committed to making a decision on cash return in the near-term and we continue to believe a dividend makes the most sense."

Some big technology companies have started paying a dividend to help allay investor concerns about slowing growth by returning part of their ample cash holdings. Cisco Systems Inc began paying a dividend last year, while Microsoft Corp started in 2003.

FAR TOO MUCH MONEY

Apple stock gained 25 percent in 2011, adding about $77 billion to its market cap and it touched an all-time high of $454.45 on Wednesday. Some continue to bank on a share-price rise to as high as $700.

The company's core business is throwing off massive amounts of cash every quarter - Apple recorded a $16 billion increase in cash sequentially - in part because of its reluctance to pay a dividend or buy back stock and its limited acquisition history.

The company earned a mere 0.77 percent on its cash and investments in fiscal 2011, mostly due to its preference for safe, but low-yielding U.S. Treasury and agency debt.

This is a tad higher than the 0.75 percent it earned in fiscal 2010, but down from 1.43 percent in fiscal 2009, 3.44 percent in 2008 and 5.27 percent in 2007.

Fiscal prudence has long been part of Apple's mantra and the Cupertino, California-based company runs a tight ship with total revenue rising 66 percent in fiscal 2011, but operating expenses rising only 37 percent.

For now, Apple's Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, has veered away from his usual script, which was to tell Wall Street that Apple has always had internal discussions on the best use of its cash, with capital preservation being key.

He characterized these discussion as "active" on Tuesday.

"We recognize that the cash is growing for all the right reasons," Oppenheimer said, but added he had nothing to announce. "In the meantime, we're not letting it burn a hole in our pockets."

Oppenheimer also suggested that Apple might invest in its supply chain or make acquisitions. But Apple has typically preferred to acquire small companies, which has had little or no material impact on its results so far.

Apple's major expense last year was paying the lion's share to acquire - along with Microsoft and a few other companies - the patent portfolio of bankrupt telecommunications company Nortel for $4.5 billion.

Apple said it spent $4.3 billion in fiscal 2011 to acquire "property, plant and equipment," $3.2 billion in "acquisition of intangible assets" and $244 million in "payments made in connection with business acquisitions," according to its annual regulatory filing.

That is in sharp contrast to rivals such as Google Inc, which is acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in cash, and which completed 54 acquisitions during the first nine months of last year alone. The company's $44.6 billion warchest of cash and investments at the end of December was far lower than Apple's.

Google has also resisted pressure to announce a dividend or buy back stock.

Apple may do the same in the next few months, said Michael Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity.

"We believe Apple is likely to announce a dividend during 2012, potentially next quarter when crossing $100 billion in cash and cash equivalents," Walkley said. "We view this as very bullish for investors, as we believe a new group of investors seeking dividends would invest in Apple and drive shares higher."

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_apple_cash

taser gun patriots vs jets adventureland sean hannity kroy biermann nene leakes danny woodhead

Column: Balotelli not quite so funny anymore

By JOHN LEICESTER

AP Sports Columnist

Associated Press Sports

updated 10:44 a.m. ET Jan. 23, 2012

Suddenly, Mario Balotelli doesn't seem quite so amusing anymore.

One could fill pages, and many grateful newspaper hacks regularly do, with stories both real and surely imaginary about the insouciant playfulness of the striker whose goals are edging Manchester City ever closer to the English Premier League title.

A football millionaire with friends who let off fireworks in his bathroom, who has turned up for work wearing a woolly hat that looked like a chicken's comb and who was filmed struggling with the simple task of pulling on a vest is going to generate headlines and laughs.

This 21-year-old kid in a grown man's body excels at both.

Ho-ho, Mario. The question - "Why Always Me?" - that Balotelli had printed on his T-shirt when City thrashed Manchester United 6-1 in October must surely have been a joke, because his high jinks make the answer so obvious.

But there is nothing even remotely humorous about a player who stamps on an opponent's head. That would be an act of nastiness.

Only Balotelli can know if he is that, too. Because only he can be sure whether he deliberately or accidentally trampled Sunday on the right ear of Scott Parker, the Tottenham midfielder whose job of breaking up opposition attacks with his solid tackles puts him in harm's way and often leaves him face down in the grass.

The video replays looked bad but one can never be sure that they tell the whole story.

With City and Tottenham tied on two goals each and with just eight minutes left, Balotelli struck powerfully for goal. Parker bravely blocked the shot, the ball ricocheting off his thigh as he threw himself in the way of the City forward. In doing so, Parker also tripped, hit the deck and became entangled in Balotelli's feet, sending the Italian tumbling, too.

As Balotelli was falling, his right foot kicked downward and thudded, with the studs of his boot, onto Parker's head. Slow-motion replays clearly showed the sequence of events. It certainly looked vicious. But what the videos could not prove was whether there was intent from Balotelli.

City assistant manager David Platt said he had not seen the incident and so wasn't prepared to judge it.

"Different angles on TV can show different things," he said.

Which is true.

But professional footballers and their bosses have repeatedly shown that they cannot be relied upon for honesty in such situations. There's too much resting on football - money, pride, results, loyalty to club or country, even jobs - and win-at-any-cost deceit is too engrained in the modern game for those involved to confess on a regular basis when they or their players have sinned.

Thus, when Real Madrid defender Pepe issued a statement to say that his stamp last week on the hand of Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was "an involuntary act" we can only take his word for it, even if our eyes suggested something different.

Occasions when a coach acknowledges that a player was wrong and that a referee was right are sufficiently rare to be refreshing when they happen. That was the case on Saturday with Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Mick McCarthy.

"I don't have any complaints about the sending off," McCarthy said after Karl Henry was shown the red card for kicking backward into the Marc Albrighton's chest when the Aston Villa midfielder was on the turf. "I'm not excusing him at all because he's back-heeled him."

More often, coaches see only what they want to see. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was quick to condemn Balotelli, even though he, too, cannot have known whether his stamp on Parker was deliberate.

"It's not a nice thing to do, really, is it?" said Redknapp. "It's got no place in football."

Intentional or not, Balotelli was lucky. Referee Howard Webb had already shown him a yellow card for an earlier foul and could quite easily have decided that trampling on Parker was sufficiently dangerous and clumsy to warrant another. But Webb either did not see it or decided that Balotelli hadn't deliberately hurt Parker.

Balotelli, of course, then went on to score, a last-minute penalty he took with the unflappable cool of Clint Eastwood, winning the match for the City.

As is often the case when he scores, Balotelli didn't smile or celebrate, but instead simply stood rooted to the spot, arms out in the shape of a cross.

A mischievous and perhaps even lovable rascal enjoying the last laugh.

---

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at twitter.com/johnleicester

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

advertisement

More newsGiuseppe Cacace / AFP - Getty Images

Barca awaits Real Madrid again

Real Madrid probably will abandon its defensive strategy and go on the attack against Barcelona in the second leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Stefano Rellandini / Reuters

That's a reason?

??AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng is hurt again, and his girlfriend says it's because they have sex "7-10 times a week." Oh.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46101143/ns/sports-soccer/

scumbag steve scumbag steve day of the dead rocksmith blackbeard widespread panic widespread panic

'Winged' ancient Roman structure discovered

A recently discovered mysterious "winged" structure in England, which in the Roman period may have been used as a temple, presents a puzzle for archaeologists, who say the building has no known parallels.

Built about 1,800 years ago, the structure was discovered in Norfolk, in eastern England, just to the south of the ancient town of Venta Icenorum. The structure has two wings radiating out from a rectangular room that in turn leads to a central room.

"Generally speaking, (during) the Roman Empire people built within a fixed repertoire of architectural forms," said William Bowden, a professor at the University of Nottingham, who reported the find in the most recent edition of the Journal of Roman Archaeology. The investigation was carried out in conjunction with the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group.

The winged shape of the building appears to be unique in the Roman Empire, with no other example known. "It's very unusual to find a building like this where you have no known parallels for it," Bowden told LiveScience. "What they were trying to achieve by using this design is really very difficult to say."

The building appears to have been part of a complex that includes a villa to the north and at least two other structures to the northeast and northwest. An aerial photograph suggests the existence of an oval or polygonal building with an apse located to the east.?

The winged building
The foundation of the two wings and the rectangular room was made of a thin layer of rammed clay and chalk. "This suggests that the superstructure of much of the building was quite light, probably timber and clay-lump walls with a thatched roof," writes Bowden. This raises the possibility that the building was not intended to be used long term.

The central room, on the other hand, was made of stronger stuff, with its foundations crafted from lime mortar mixed with clay and small pieces of flint and brick. That section likely had a tiled roof. "Roman tiles are very large things, they?re very heavy," Bowden said.

Sometime after the demise of this wing-shaped structure, another building, this one decorated, was built over it. Archaeologists found post holes from it with painted wall plaster inside.

Bowden said few artifacts were found at the site and none that could be linked to the winged structure with certainty. A plough had ripped through the site at some point, scattering debris. Also, metal detecting is a major problem in the Norfolk area, with people using metal detectors to locate and confiscate materials, something that may have happened at this site.

Still, even when the team found undisturbed layers, there was little in the way of artifacts. "This could suggest that it (the winged building) wasn't used for a very particularly long time," Bowden said.

The land of the Iceni
Researchers are not certain what the building was used for. While its elevated position made it visible from the town of Venta Icenorum, the foundations of the radiating wings are weak. "It's possible that this was a temporary building constructed for a single event or ceremony, which might account for its insubstantial construction," writes Bowden in the journal article.

"Alternatively the building may represent a shrine or temple on a hilltop close to a Roman road, visible from the road as well as from the town."

Adding another layer to this mystery is the ancient history of Norfolk, where the structure was found.

The local people in the area, who lived here before the Roman conquest, were known as the Iceni. It may have been their descendents who lived at the site and constructed the winged building.

Iceni architecture was quite simple and, as Bowden explained, not as elaborate as this. On the other hand, their religion was intertwined with nature, something which may help explain the wind-blown location of the site. "Iceni gods, pre-Roman gods, tend to be associated with the natural sites: the springs, trees, sacred groves, this kind of thing," said Bowden.

The history between the Iceni and the Romans is a violent one. In A.D. 43, when the Romans, under Emperor Claudius, invaded Britain, they encountered fierce resistance from them.? After a failed revolt in A.D. 47 they became a client kingdom of the empire, with Prasutagus as their leader. When he died, around A.D. 60, the Romans tried to finish the subjugation, in brutal fashion.

"First, his (Prasutagus') wife Boudicea was scourged, and his daughters outraged. All the chief men of the Iceni, as if Rome had received the whole country as a gift, were stripped of their ancestral possessions, and the king's relatives were made slaves," wrote Tacitus, a Roman writer in The Annals. (From the book, "Complete Works of Tacitus," 1942, edited for the Perseus Digital Library.)

This led Boudicea (more commonly spelled Boudicca) to form an army and lead a revolt against the Romans. At first she was successful, defeating Roman military units and even sacking Londinium. In the end the Romans rallied and defeated her at the Battle of Watling Street. With the Roman victory the rebellion came to an end, and a town named Venta Icenorumwas eventually set up on their land.

"The Iceni vanish from history effectively after the Boudicca revolt in (A.D.) 60-61," said Bowden.

1. More science news from msnbc.com

   1. Tiny quantum dots could give big boost to solar power

      Itsy bitsy particles with a built-in charge could provide a big boost to the efficiency of solar cells, according to researchers aiming to take their innovation to market.

   2. Magic mushrooms trip up brain activity
   3. Dolphins talk in their sleep ? in whale songs
   4. If? you see a Bigfoot, should you shoot him?

But while they vanished from written history, archaeological clues hint that their spirit remained very much alive. Bowden and David Mattingly, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester, both point out that the area has a low number of villas compared with elsewhere in Britain, suggesting the people continued to resist Roman culture long after Boudicca's failed revolt.

This lack of villas, along with problems attracting people to Roman settlements in the area, "can be read as a transcript of resistant adaption and rejection of Roman norms," writes Mattingly in his book "An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire" (Penguin Books, 2007).?

There is "still a fairly strong local identity," said Bowden, who cautioned that while local people may have lived at the complex, the winged building is out of character for both Roman and Iceni architectural styles, a fact that leaves his team with a mystery.

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46102508/ns/technology_and_science-science/

jacksonville jaguars jacksonville jaguars iraq war over iraq war over maurice jones drew megyn kelly unclaimed money

Hackers bring first untethered jailbreak to iPad 2, iPhone 4S (Appolicious)

It finally happened: the latest and greatest of Apple?s iOS devices have been ?jailbroken,? or hacked and released from the control of Apple and the various wireless carriers who support them.

Jailbreaking refers to the process of hacking through the software controls on iOS devices; it?s also known as ?rooting? for other devices. In the case of Apple?s mobile offerings, jailbreaking offers several benefits that aren?t normally afforded to iPhone owners. Jailbroken iPhones or iPads can support any wireless carrier, access apps from non-iTunes app stores, and use Wi-Fi tethering with other devices without paying carriers for the service (although AT&T and the other carriers are trying to crack down on that one), among other things.

Apple actively fights against jailbreaking its devices in order to maintain their quality as well as Apple?s control over content distribution, and each new software update for the company?s iOS platform requires a new jailbreak. The latest, called Absinthe, works specifically for Apple?s latest-generation, A5 processor-sporting devices: the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.

As TechCrunch reports, the new jailbreak is known as Absinthe, and has been 10 months in the making for iPad 2 owners, as well as a three-month wait for owners of the iPhone 4S. The Absinthe jailbreak is also ?untethered,? which means that once it has been jailbroken, it stays jailbroken. A ?tethered? jailbreak, by contrast, reverts the iPhone or iPad to its non-jailbroken state every time the device is reset.

The Absinthe jailbreak was developed by Chronic Dev Team, a group of iOS hackers that has been behind several jailbreaks for iOS since the iPhone was first introduced back in 2007. Back in August, Apple gave an internship to 19-year-old Nicholas Allegra, a former member of Chronic Dev Team and a co-creator of the JailbreakMe.com website, to help it fight off future jailbreaks.

If you?re willing to forfeit your warranty and Apple support for your devices, you can get the new A5 jailbreak right here, along with all the benefits and drawbacks that go with it.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10836_hackers_bring_first_untethered_jailbreak_to_ipad_2_iphone_4s/44272363/SIG=13d1095tl/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10836-hackers-bring-first-untethered-jailbreak-to-ipad-2-iphone-4s

lytro camera lytro camera st. louis cardinals gaddafi bodyguards gaddafi bodyguards muammar gaddafi muammar gaddafi

Minn. bear delivers at least 2 cubs on Internet

ELY, Minn. (AP) ? A 3-year-old bear in Minnesota has given birth to two cubs before an Internet audience.

Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute, affiliated with North American Bear Center, said in a news release that Jewel gave birth in a den near Ely to the first cub at 7:22 a.m. Sunday, and a second at 8:40.

It's not the first time Rogers and his colleagues have monitored hibernating pregnant black bears.

In 2010, they recorded the birth of a bear named Hope in 2010. A Hunter killed Hope last year.

Jewel is the younger sister of Hope's mother, Lily.

Lily also gave birth last year to two cubs named Faith and Jason.

___

Online:

North American Bear Center: http://www.bear.org

___

Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-22-US-Internet-Bear-Sister/id-235fdb6533214241a5273199a71fc42b

2013 ford fusion lsu football lsu football bcs jay z glory alabama crimson tide barry larkin

Ship search finds 12th body, captain's documents

An Italian fireman descends from an helicopter to the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

An Italian fireman descends from an helicopter to the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

A woman checks if her clothes are dry as the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen in background, off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain, Capt. Francesco Schettino, who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia lays off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

An Italian Coast Guard boat patrols the area around the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Fuel spilling experts work on the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

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

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

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

Early Sunday, instruments monitoring any movement of the Concordia indicated that vessel had shifted slightly, so search efforts were suspended for the night, Italian state radio reported.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-21-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-5babbe3aff9048afa65f7d6befb715f5

gloria allred black friday ads 2011 black friday ads 2011 pacquiao vs marquez pacquiao vs marquez junior dos santos junior dos santos