Cause sought for deadly Fla. highway pileup

Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least 9 people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least 9 people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

A fireman sprays the interior of a burned vehicle that was involved in a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Debris and wreckage lie along the highway after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Aerial view of Interstate 75 in Gainesville, Fla. where according to Florida Highway Patrol at least 9 people have died as a result of multiple crashes Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 involving 4 commercial vehicles and at least 10 passenger vehicles. The majority of the accidents happened in an area adjacent to where a brush fire was burning and producing heavy smoke. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Rob C. Witzel)

Officials work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 at Paynes Prairie on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, south of Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Matt Stamey)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) ? Authorities in Florida were trying to determine Monday what caused the horrific pileup on Interstate 75 south of Gainesville, where a long line of cars and trucks collided one after another on a dark highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were blinded.

At least 10 were killed in the early Sunday pileup and another 18 were hospitalized.

All lanes of I-75 reopened late Sunday, but authorities closed the highway again early Monday due to poor visibility caused by fog and smoke.

Steven R. Camps and some friends were driving home hours before dawn Sunday when they were suddenly drawn into the massive wreck.

"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," the Gainesville man said hours later. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."

The interstate had been closed for a time before the accidents because of a mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. The decision to reopen it early Sunday will certainly be a focus of investigators, as will the question of how the fire may have started.

The pileups happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75. When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile.

At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames.

Hours later, twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage. Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.

Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and urged Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area, just south of Gainesville.

A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.

"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.

Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to him when another vehicle hit that man's car.

The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.

"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

Authorities had not released the names of victims Sunday evening, but said one passenger car had four fatalities. A "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup, police said.

All six lanes of the interstate were closed most of Sunday as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames. Some traffic was being diverted onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Lt. Patrick Riordan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, said. The northbound lanes were reopened at about 5:30 p.m.

At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved, police said. Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service, Ludie Bond, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.

Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.

Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.

In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

___

Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Deadly%20Interstate%20Crash/id-cd4a908ef1cd47d9a6a1899924366223

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Nokia teases February 8th for Symbian Belle update

Looks like Nokia Vietnam wasn't keeping its powder dry when it threw up a page (subsequently pulled) promising an update to Symbian Belle for February 8th. Still, that didn't stop us taking some screenshots of the promised update on its Facebook page, which (electronically) translates to:

"After the holiday, Nokia is good news in ne :) You ready to update Symbian Belle Anna my Nokia phone on 8 / 2 home."

Which just about says it all, really.

[Thanks, Nano]

Nokia teases February 8th for Symbian Belle update originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Nokia Power User  |  Nokia (Facebook)  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/30/nokia-teases-february-8th-for-symbian-belle-update/

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Boatright attorney blasts NCAA after probe (AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. ? A lawyer representing the mother of Connecticut guard Ryan Boatright says the family is considering legal options after the NCAA detailed its investigation into the freshman's eligibility.

The NCAA has cleared Boatright to play, but said Saturday he and his mother had accepted more than $8,000 in impermissible benefits from at least two people.

Attorney Scott Tompsett issued a statement Sunday calling the NCAA's news release false and misleading. He said the people providing the benefits were friends of the Boatright family and had "no expectation of repayment or reciprocation."

Boatright has missed nine games this season as a result of the investigation, including a six-game suspension to start the season, and is repaying $4,500 in benefits.

The 6-foot Boatright was back in uniform Sunday as UConn hosted Notre Dame.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_uconn_boatright

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Private investors near deal on Greek debt (AP)

ATHENS, Greece ? A disorderly and potentially devastating Greek debt default is looking much less likely.

Greece and investors who own its bonds have reached a tentative deal to significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed euro130 billion bailout.

Negotiators for the investors announced the agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week. If the agreement works as planned, it will help Greece remain solvent and help Europe avoid a blow to its already weak financial system, even though banks and other bond investors will have to accept multibillion-dollar losses.

Still, it doesn't resolve the weakening economic conditions in Greece and other European nations as they rein in spending to get their debts under control.

Under the agreement, investors holding euro206 billion in Greek bonds would exchange them for new bonds worth 60 percent less.

The new bonds' face value is half of the existing bonds. They would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent. The existing bonds pay an average interest rate of 5 percent, according to the think tank Re-Define.

The deal would reduce Greece's annual interest expense on the bonds from about euro10 billion to about euro4 billion. And when the bonds mature, instead of paying bondholders euro206 billion, Greece will have to pay only euro103 billion.

Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least euro120 billion, the bonds held by banks, insurance companies and hedge funds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other countries that use the euro, which could also lose value in the event of a full-fledged Greek default. This is the scenario analysts fear most and why they hope investors will voluntarily accept a partial loss on their Greek bonds.

The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, euro130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund. Besides restructuring its debt with private investors, Greece must also take other steps before getting aid. It must cut its deficit and boost the competitiveness of its economy through layoffs of government employees and the sale of several state companies, among other moves.

Greece faces a euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.

The country got its first bailout in May 2010 when the EU and the IMF signed off on a euro110 billion aid package, most of which has already been disbursed.

Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 160 percent of the country's annual economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade. Without a deal, analysts forecast that ratio ballooning to 200 percent by the end of this year as the Greek economy falters.

Meanwhile, Greece's public creditors ? the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank ? are baffled by the government's repeated failure to meet deficit targets. They want more government wage cuts. That is meeting resistance by Greek politicians afraid of losing an election tentatively scheduled for the spring. But those same politicians also worry that the nation will be denied a second bailout if doesn't reduce its deficit.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Saturday night asked those who oppose structural changes to reconsider their stance.

"The coming days will be decisive for the next decade ... We must answer to tough dilemmas and we must do so with foresight and a sense of responsibility and not hide behind each other," he told reporters after meeting with the public creditors.

In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, Greece's problems will not be fixed simply by cutting government spending. In order to bring its debts to a more manageable level, the country must also find ways boost economic output, which would enable it to collect more taxes.

If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.

Sarah Ketterer, co-manager of Causeway International Value Fund, a $1.4 billion mutual fund that invests in European stocks, said the region's markets have rebounded this month largely on expectations that negotiators would reach a deal along the lines of the one being finalized now.

Any last-minute breakdown in the talks could trigger a sharp decline in European markets, she said. But a rally is unlikely if negotiations succeed.

"The equity markets have ... largely already discounted this, and you can see that in the confidence that has returned in European equities since the end of December, and especially for financial stocks," Ketterer said.

She said there "really was no other option" than reaching a deal for bondholders to take a haircut of 50 percent or more.

Ketterer said a Greek deal could help restore bond market confidence. That would help Italy manage its own debt crisis ? one that Ketterer views as more critical than Greece's because of Italy's greater size.

The investors who own Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.

___

AP personal finance writer Mark Jewell in Boston, Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis

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Roleplayer Wanted

Thanks for taking your time to read this, I've been waiting for you.

The term epic has became popular a few years ago and nowadays its over used. In regards to collaborative storytelling, an epic requires ambition and planning, and since it's not a one man enterprise all parties involved should have these qualities/skills.

You could reply to this saying yes, I'm ambitious and I can plan stuff but how about we have a one on one and we see if you really are?

What to roleplay then? I play pretty much anything so I think it would be easier to tell you what I don't do.

Cliches. I've rped a whole lot, so sometimes are plain boring to me because I've done them before. However if you have a fresh new approach to old ideas we can give them a try. Ideas like Underworld, High Fantasy Kingdoms and Highschool.

Twilight. I wasted hours of my life I'm not getting back reading that crap, luckily I didn't read the whole trilogy. I do understand the appeal though, to be loved and protected by something dangerous. We could do that, but no Twilight.

Zombies stink and I'm too much of a chauvinistic womanizer to play m/m, f/f is okay though. *Shrugs* I'm honest about it.

The more the parties involved communicate with each other and the more they know about each other the smoother the RP goes. So feel free to send me a PM and we can move to IMs and talk things out.

Maybe this thread can tell you more about me, if you are interested.
http://www.roleplaygateway.com/introduction-invitation-t67306.html

Thank you for reading.

Insert Kick Ass Signature.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Npupiw0JXqQ/viewtopic.php

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Chevron 4Q profit down 3 pct. on refinery decline (AP)

NEW YORK ? Chevron Corp. said Friday that its profit slipped by 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter as its refineries struggled to pass on the higher cost of crude oil.

The San Ramon, Calif., oil giant on Friday reported net income of $5.12 billion, or $2.58 per share, in the final three months of 2011. That compares with $5.3 billion, or $2.64 per share, in the same part of 2010. Revenue increased 11.9 percent to $60 billion.

The net income fell short of Wall Street forecasts of $2.86 per share, according to FactSet. Shares dropped $3.26, or 3.1 percent, to $103.33 in morning trading.

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon Mobil Corp., said that oil and natural gas production declined in the quarter due to a rash of slowdowns in its global operation. Production fell for the entire year as well, though the company says it should rebound slightly in 2012.

Production from Chevron wells dropped, from the U.S. to Kazakhstan. One of the biggest concerns for the company going forward is its operation in Brazil, where an offshore oil leak put Chevron in the crosshairs of the Brazilian government.

Regulators in Brazil forced Chevron to shut down one of its offshore production wells in December, and prosecutors are seeking $10.6 billion in damages. Chevron also has voluntarily suspended plans to further explore the country's oil-rich offshore region.

Profits from Chevron's exploration and production business increased, despite weaker production, as the company sold oil at higher prices. International natural gas prices also rose in the quarter.

Chevron's refining business struggled, however, as falling prices for retail gasoline and other fuels made it harder to pass along higher oil costs to customers. Chevron's U.S. refining operations lost $204 million from October to December, compared with a profit in the 2010 quarter. International refining profits fell by 46.4 percent.

For the full year Chevron earned $26.9 billion, or $13.44 per share, compared with $19 billion, or $9.48 per share in 2010. Annual revenue increased 23.3 percent to $253.7 billion.

Earlier in the week, ConocoPhillips reported a 66 percent increase in quarterly earnings, though much of that came from the sale of a pipeline and other assets. Occidental Petroleum Corp. reported a 35 percent jump in quarterly profits as it increased production and sold crude oil for higher prices.

ExxonMobil releases its fourth-quarter and annual financial results on Tuesday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_chevron

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Sundance doc examines costs of US war on drugs (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? Eugene Jarecki's documentary at the Sundance Film Festival looks at the cost of America's war on drugs ? its social and human as well as financial cost.

With "The House I Live In," the filmmaker takes a close-up look at the results of U.S. drug policy.

Jarecki said he was moved to explore the issue because, while his parents escaped persecution in Nazi Germany, he sees another kind of Holocaust taking place in poor communities hit by harsh drug laws and mandatory minimum sentences.

The film includes interviews with inmates, dealers, narcotics officers, judges, professors and historians.

Jarecki argued that American drug laws have targeted minorities since the 1800s, and the lack of opportunities that continue to exist in poor and minority neighborhoods create an environment in which drug use and sales seem like a viable choice.

"To go down to a drug corner in the inner city is the rational act of somebody going to work in the only company that exists in a company town," said journalist and creator of HBO's "The Wire" David Simon, who is featured in the film.

Jarecki said that in communities plagued by unemployment, violence, absentee parents and overcrowded schools, people often turn to drugs to self-medicate, then find themselves addicted.

"Now you've got that dangerous cocktail of a user who's also a seller, and so many of the people I talked to are that," he said. "What they are not is violent. What they are not is a threat to you and me. And we are putting them away for sentences that are worse than the sentences we give to people who are violent." He said the United States is "the world's largest jailer."

He attributes the problem in part to fear-mongering by politicians wanting to appear tough on crime, so they target drug users and sellers with hefty prison sentences. But that cycle of incarceration creates more poverty, more absentee parents, more unemployment and more pain from which to escape.

Jarecki's other documentaries include "Freakonomics" and "Why We Fight," which won the Grand Jury prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Awards for this year's festival will be presented Saturday. Sundance continues through Sunday.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.

___

Online:

www.thehouseilivein.org/

www.sundance.org/festival

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_en_mo/us_film_sundance_war_on_drugs

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Hacker group Anonymous targets Mexican websites (Reuters)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? The activist hacker group Anonymous attacked three Mexican government websites on Friday in protest at a proposed bill that seeks to toughen local laws about online file-sharing.

The affected sites belong to the Interior Ministry, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The homepage of the Interior Ministry remained offline by mid-afternoon.

"We demand the Mexican government not continue with this law because they will take away our freedom of speech and file sharing," Anonymous said in a video posted on Youtube ahead of Friday's action.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/tc_nm/us_mexico_hackers

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Cruise ship captain says he was told to perform fatal maneuver

Divers find the body of a woman in the ship as pressure grows to speed up the salvage operation. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Updated at 4:00 p.m. ET: GIGLIO, Italy --? The operators of the Costa Concordia faced questions over their share of the blame for the shipwreck, as divers recovered another body from the stricken liner Sunday, bringing the known death toll to 13.

Captain Francesco Schettino is accused of steering the cruise ship too close to shore while performing a maneuver known as a "salute" in which liners draw up very close to land to make a display.

Schettino, who is charged with multiple manslaughter and with abandoning ship before the evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew was complete, has told prosecutors he had been instructed to perform the maneuver by operator Costa Cruises.

Prosecutors say he steered the massive ship within 150 meters of the Tuscan island of Giglio, where it struck a rock that tore a large gash in its hull, letting water flood in and causing the 114,500-ton ship to capsize.

It is now lying on its side on an undersea ledge, half-submerged and posing a growing environmental threat with the risk that it could slide into deeper waters.

As the days have passed, there have been growing questions about the ultimate responsibility for the accident, which Costa Cruises has blamed on "unfortunate human error" and placed firmly on the shoulders of the captain. It has suspended Schettino and will not be paying his legal fees.

Costa chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi has said that ships sometimes engage in "tourist navigation" in which they approach the coast but that this is only done under safe conditions and he was not aware of any riskier approaches so close to the shore.

Costa is a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise line operator.

According to transcripts of his hearing with investigators leaked to Italian newspapers, Schettino told magistrates Costa had insisted on the maneuver to please passengers and attract publicity.

"It was planned, we were supposed to have done it a week earlier but it was not possible because of bad weather," Schettino said, according to the Corriere della Sera daily.

"They insisted. They said: 'We do tourist navigation, we have to be seen, get publicity and greet the island'."

He said he had performed similar maneuvers regularly over the past four months on the Costa Concordia and on other ships in the Costa fleet along the Italian coast line which is dotted with small islands that are popular with tourists.

"But we do it every time we do the Sorrento coast, Capri, we do it everywhere," he said.

Foschi, who visited Giglio Sunday, declined to respond to Schettino's latest comments.

"As an investigation by magistrates is currently underway, we cannot give out any information," he said.

Seemingly minute shifts in the position of the cruise ship that partially sank in an Italian port is hampering the underwater search for 21 passengers and crew missing for more than a week. NBC's Michelle Kosinki reports from Giglio, Italy.

Identifying victims
As the search continued into a ninth day, divers found the body of a woman on a submerged deck near the bow of the vessel, bringing the total number of known dead to 13, only eight of whom have been identified.

Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than the 20 previously announced.

Civil protection official Francesca Maffini told reporters the victim found on Sunday was wearing a life vest and was found in the rear of a submerged portion of a ship by a team of fire department divers. The unidentified body was being removed from the ship.

Earlier, Italian authorities raised the possibility that the real number of the missing was unknown because some unregistered passengers might have been aboard. As of Sunday, 19 people are listed as missing, but that number could be higher.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But in addition to the body recovered on Sunday, the body found on Saturday and those of three men found a few days earlier, have yet to be identified, because the corpses were badly decomposed after so much time in the water. Gabrielli said they have identified the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national.

Until Sunday, authorities had said that 20 people are still missing.

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of passengers as the ship began heavily listing.

Broken black box
Meanwhile, police divers, carrying out orders from prosecutors investigating 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.

Italian newspapers have also published photographs of the Costa Concordia apparently performing the "salute" close to other ports including Syracuse in Sicily and the island of Procida, which is near Naples and Schettino's hometown of Meta di Sorrento.

Schettino said the fatal maneuver was originally intended to bring the ship half a mile from the shore, "but then we brought it to 0.28" (of a nautical mile), he said.

Investigators have said the actual point of impact was much closer to the shore but establishing the exact sequence of events could be complicated by problems with the recording equipment used to track the ship's progress.

Schettino said the black box on board had been broken for two weeks and he had asked for it to be repaired, in vain.

In the hearing, Schettino insisted he had informed Costa's headquarters of the accident straight away and his line of conduct had been approved by the company's marine operations director throughout a series of phone conversations.

As soon as he realized the scale of the damage, he called Roberto Ferrarini, marine operations director for Costa Cruises.

"I told him: I've got myself into a mess, there was contact with the seabed. I am telling you the truth, we passed under Giglio and there was an impact," Schettino said.

"I can't remember how many times I called him in the following hour and 15 minutes. In any case, I am certain that I informed Ferrarini about everything in real time," he said, adding he had asked the company to send tug boats and helicopters.

He acknowledged, however, not raising the alarm with the coastguard promptly and delaying the evacuation order.

"You can't evacuate people on lifeboats and then, if the ship doesn't sink, say it was a joke. I don't want to create panic and have people die for nothing," he said.

Costa Cruises Chief Executive Pier Luigi Foschi says Schettino delayed issuing the SOS and evacuation orders and gave false information to the company headquarters.

"Personally, I think he wasn't honest with us," Foschi told Corriere della Sera Friday. He said the first phone conversation between Schettino and Ferrarini took place 20 minutes after the ship hit the rock.

As the death toll rises from the Costa Concordia, the ship's captain is fighting back against allegations that he abandoned his post. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Documents from his hearing with a judge say he had shown "incredible carelessness" and a "total inability to manage the successive phases of the emergency."

Taped conversations show ship's officers told coastguards who were alerted by passengers that the vessel had only had a power cut, even after those on board donned lifevests.

According to transcripts of his questioning by prosecutors leaked to Italian media, he said that immediately after hitting the rock he sent two of his officers to the engine room to check on the state of the vessel.

Holding out hope
Meanwhile, family members of a couple from the state of Minnesota still missing after last week's cruise ship wreck say they've been meeting in Italy with rescue workers.

In an email statement sent Saturday night to news organizations, relatives of Jerry and Barbara Heil say the captain in charge of the operation indicated he wasn't ready to give up hope that the missing can be found.

The family members say they and relatives of others missing from the Costa Concordia accident were taken out near the ship and allowed to place flowers in the water honoring their loved ones. They say the workers stopped what they were doing and saluted during the tribute.

The Heil family says it's grateful for the efforts from the workers trying to find the missing.

The search had been halted for several hours early Sunday, after instrument readings indicated that the Concordia has shifted a bit on its precarious perch on a seabed just outside Giglio's port. A few yards away, the sea bottom drops off suddenly, by some 65-100 feet, and if the Concordia should abruptly roll off its ledge, rescuers could be trapped inside.

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.

Environment experts have warned that contamination of the pristine waters around Giglio, which is in the middle of a national marine park, is already under way and it is imperative to start recovering the fuel oil as soon as possible.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/22/10210202-cruise-ship-captain-says-he-was-told-to-perform-fatal-maneuver

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Gail Dunn, Women's Automotive Connection: Starting A Business ...

Have you heard that joke about women drivers? Your first reaction is probably, "Which one?" Women often get a bum rap when it comes to automotive issues. So after spending much of her career in the auto industry, watching women being taken advantage of by mechanics and car salespeople, Gail Dunn decided to take matters into her own hands.

At the age of 62, with 15 years of experience working around cars, Dunn set out to educate drivers, one oil change at a time, through the Women?s Automotive Connection. A former business consultant, experienced estimator and longtime manager of a body shop, Dunn had built a reputation for herself in the industry as a no-nonsense advocate for her customers' needs -- traits she now relies on as her own boss.

Founded in 2007, Atlanta-based Women's Automotive Connection provides automotive advice, assistance and service to those without the time or expertise to address problems related to the maintenance and repair of their vehicles. But Dunn's greater mission revolves around her greatest passion -- to teach car owners about the games some of the dishonest people in the automotive industry play in an effort to "relieve" car owners of their money, and to build a fleet of astute, competent customers. And the boys are starting to notice too.

What was your career background prior to starting the Women's Automotive Connection?

I was a consultant in organizational development. I basically fixed broken companies. But I got to a point where I was working 80 hours per week and didn't want to do that anymore.

What led you to decide to start your own business, post retirement?

I knew I would get bored, because I had retired once before and that's exactly what happened. And I realized I didn't want to work for somebody else anymore. The easiest thing was to be on my own, and it sounded great to be able to make my own schedule and my own decisions.

One of the major goals of the Women's Automotive Connection is to help women feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about the auto-repair process. What are some of the negative repair experiences you encountered personally ? and that you saw other women encounter -- prior to starting the company?

My own short story is that I had a '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee that wouldn't start. At the time, I was managing a body shop at a dealership. I looked at it and knew exactly what it needed. I went in on a Monday morning and told them I needed a fuel pump put in a Jeep and just left the car there. Later, someone brought my car over, and I asked what I owed them. They told me I didn't need what I said I needed and charged me for a completely different repair. Obviously, two days later, it once again wouldn't start. So, I bought my own fuel pump and had one of the guys at my body shop put it in.

It made me angry, because they thought they knew more than I did. A lot of shops do this: They put a band-aid on a problem instead of fixing it. I think a lot of people -- both women and men -- have similar experiences with car repairs. A lot of my clients have had experiences like mine where the shop tells them they need more than they think they do, and it becomes too much of a guessing game. And then they'll just agree to it, even if it's not the repair they need.

And what is the overarching mission of the Women's Automotive Connection?

Primarily we're here to assist people in buying, selling and repairing vehicles. But we want to educate. We do automotive boot camps. And I have a weekly podcast called "Garage Gab." I educate women and the public on the games people play when they try to, as I call it, "relieve you of your money." And I don't mind spending money if it's necessary, but if someone is ripping me off, I'm going to get upset.

I have a lot of fun at the boot camps, and think it's amazing the questions people ask. There are a lot of basic things people don't know about vehicles. Once they learn them, they are capable and competent and able to deal with the automotive industry without being taken advantage of.

I think the whole country realizes there is a lot of game-playing going on in the auto industry, whether related to buying or repairing. The honest brokers get upset because the whole industry gets a bad name thanks to those who are dishonest. I want to educate people about the process, but also find honest repair shops I can refer my clients to so they know it will be done right the first time and that someone will take responsibility for the work they do.

And which types of services do you offer your customers?

It varies. I offer consultations to clients over the phone to help them get to the right shop. I also do some brokering to connect people to the right car for them. As mentioned, I also offer educational automotive boot camps and do the weekly car repair podcast.

Everything I do is about giving people the education they need to find honest mechanical shops and brokers. In terms of figuring out who is honest, I have my ways. One of the things I will tell people who call from other cities for help with choosing a shop is to go to that shop, get an oil change and sit in the waiting room to see how customers are treated. I think people are afraid to challenge a mechanic or technician. They automatically think the mechanic knows more than they know. But customers who educate themselves often know as much as any mechanic.

Have you found that a lot of your customers come in with similar issues? What are some of the most common ones?

The biggest issue on new cars that really bothers people is the "check engine" light. That light has nothing to do with your engine and everything to do with your emissions. People see that light on the dash and panic. Then they go to a mechanic and pay a lot of money for something they probably didn't need. The light might just mean something simple -- like they didn't tighten their gas cap.

Have you attracted male customers too?

A lot of men come to me. I've been involved in the Chamber of Commerce for a while now and know a lot of the men there who have become customers. They realize they don't know a lot about modern cars either. Cars today are basically rolling computers. It's funny in a way, because the men who come to me as customers would rather ask me for help than admit to another man that they don't know the answer. I've been able to get so many male customers because the ones I help become big fans of mine and then tell their other friends.

I would say the ratio of male to female clients is probably 50/50. That's not what I intended, but it's what ended up happening. Actually, I've learned that guys get treated the same way women get treated when they go in for repairs or to buy cars.

Have you discovered specific entrepreneurial challenges related to starting a business after age 60 that younger entrepreneurs might not face?

It's hard to say, because I didn't start a business when I was younger. But I find that my age has actually been a help to me. At my age, people look at me and understand I have experience. I don't know that someone much younger starting a business like this would have the same credibility. Sometimes this gray hair I have is a sign of experience and maybe a little wisdom. And that works in my favor.

In general, I don't think there have been any real challenges that I couldn?t overcome. My biggest challenge was getting people to understand what I did. But the uniqueness of it has given me some extra visibility that the rest of the world doesn't have.

When people get older, their focus changes from "I want everything" to "I want to see how I can help other people." A lot of people I know who are running businesses over 50 or 60 really are there to try to help other people.

Entrepreneur Spotlight

Name: Gail Dunn
Company: Women's Automotive Connection
Age: 66
Employees: 2
Founded: 2007
Website: www.womensautomotiveconnection.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/gail-dunn-womens-automotive-connection_n_1183719.html

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Military: Filipino rebels kill 100 troops in 2011 (AP)

MANILA, Philippines ? Communist guerrillas killed about 100 government troops and police and waged 447 attacks last year despite a continuing decline in their 43-year insurgency, the military said Sunday.

The attacks by New People's Army guerrillas included 31 assaults on mining firms, banana plantations and other businesses that damaged $27 million (1.2 billion pesos) worth of equipment and property, military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos said. The rebels earned nearly $7 million (300 million pesos) from extortion in 2011, he said.

Although the Marxist insurgency, one of Asia's longest-running, remains the Philippines' leading security threat, rebel attacks have declined in recent years. The number of armed rebel fighters dropped 7.8 percent last year to 4,043, Burgos said.

The 447 rebel attacks last year were 11 percent fewer than in 2010 and consisted mostly of small assaults on remote detachments, killings, kidnappings, bombing and arson conducted as part of extortion demands, Burgos said. He said only 69 were major assaults, including simultaneous attacks in October on three nickel mining complexes in southeastern Surigao del Norte province that involved more than 200 guerrillas.

About 100 soldiers and troops were killed in rebel assaults last year, down from 184 in 2010, he said.

The Maoist rebels' reliance on extortion from businesses and even poor villagers reflects a decline in their support from communities, Burgos said.

President Benigno Aquino III has opened peace talks with the rebels but the negotiations have been stalled for months over a guerrilla demand for officials to release more jailed rebels. Norway, which has been brokering the talks, has tried but failed so far to bridge the differences.

Political analyst Ramon Casiple said it is much harder now for the rebels to win political support from the people under the popular Aquino, son of revered pro-democracy figures, than in the time of disgraced leaders like former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has been detained for alleged corruption, and the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was accused of plunder and massive human rights violations.

"The rebels are dealing with a government that they cannot isolate politically like Marcos," Casiple said. "It's also a political conflict, a battle for hearts and minds."

The Maoist rebels did not immediately comment on the military statement, but have disputed such claims in the past as propaganda amid escalating rebel attacks.

The Communist Party of the Philippines last month dismissed as "annual year-end empty bragging" an announcement by officials that the military had cleared 23 provinces of communist insurgents, and threatened more attacks in coming months.

The rural-based insurgency has endured amid widespread poverty, landlessness and faulty governance in the country's poorest regions. Clashes have killed an estimated 120,000 combatants and civilians.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_communist_rebels

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Honey Boo Boo Child on Dr. Drew?s Lifechangers

Dr. Drew Takes A Sip of Honey Boo Boo Child’s Go-Go-Juice on “Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers” airing February 2nd at 3:00pm on The CW

Source: http://www.celebritymound.com/honey-boo-boo-child-on-dr-drews-lifechangers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=honey-boo-boo-child-on-dr-drews-lifechangers

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Santorum already eyeing next stop: Florida (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? With the race here seemingly between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, Republican rival Rick Santorum is bracing for a setback and looking ahead to the next contest: Florida.

Santorum planned to visit polling locations in South Carolina and attend an evening rally in Charleston on Saturday before his campaign moved South. Santorum's advisers said he would have no reason to exit the four-man race for the GOP nomination after voting ends and those allies note he went into primary day the top vote-getter in Iowa's leadoff caucuses and besting Gingrich in New Hampshire.

Romney and Gingrich were battling for the top spot in South Carolina and Santorum was looking to post an acceptable showing. During campaign stops on Friday, he cast himself as a Goldilocks candidate: just right when compared to Gingrich's "too hot" rhetoric and Romney's "too cold" personality.

Santorum also looked to disqualify the fourth candidate in the race, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Santorum said there were three candidates who could capture the GOP nomination and cast libertarian favorite Paul as a gadfly annoyance.

As voting opened, Santorum planned to stop by polling locations in Chapin and Greenville. He also planned an election night party at The Citadel in Charleston.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_santorum

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Crash with Charter Communications van leads to DWI | The Austin ...

Published 11:15am Friday, January 20, 2012

A 21-year-old Austin man was arrested and is in the hospital after colliding with a Charter Communications van Thursday morning.

Tyler Naatz was arrested on DWI after his white Chrysler 300 slammed sideways into a Charter van at the 1900 block of Sixth Avenue NW at 12:09 a.m. Thursday, according to Police Chief Brian Krueger.

Krueger said the Charter employee was at his own home working on his computer when he heard a loud crash. The employee went outside and saw Naatz?s car sideways in the street. Naatz?s car had severe damage to the driver?s side door, while the Charter van sustained damage on its front and rammed into a utility pole, which snapped off at its base. Krueger said the van was legally parked before the accident took place.

The employee didn?t see anyone around at first and called police, according to Krueger. When police arrived, they found Naatz, who had a strong odor of alcohol coming off him.

Naatz was arrested for fourth-degree DWI and transported to Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin. Formal charges are pending with the Mower County Attorney?s office.

Source: http://www.austindailyherald.com/2012/01/20/crash-with-charter-communications-van-leads-to-dwi-charge/

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Artificial Testicle Could Treat Male Infertility (LiveScience.com)

Researchers in California hope to become the first in the world to build an artificial testicle that produces human sperm. Such a device could allow infertile men to conceive children.

While recent studies have shown it's possible to treat infertile male mice by producing sperm using stem cells from the mouse, the same has not been done for humans, said researcher Dr. Paul Turek, director of the Turek Clinic, a men's health medical practice in San Francisco.

Using a newly received government grant, Turek and his fellow researchers hope to develop a human "sperm-making biological machine," he said.

Unlike a non-sperm-producing prosthesis ? a saline-filled implant for men missing a testicle ? the device will not be designed to resemble a testicle. ?? Instead it will most closely resemble a cylindrical bag a few inches long, Turek said, creating a final product that looks something like a transparent, over-sized Tootsie Roll.

Recreating the testicle

Others have tried to grow sperm from cells in lab dishes, but the cells wouldn't go through all the necessary steps, Turek said. Normally cells in the testicle go through about 12 stages on their way to becoming functioning sperm, but in a dish they stop at stage 9 or 10 ? only within the highly specialized environment of the testicle can they complete the process.

Turek said he and his colleagues want to "re-create the testicle in an artificial environment, with all of its components."

To make their artificial testicle, the researchers will first focus on growing cells that normally nurture sperm during their development, including cells called Sertoli cells. Then the researchers will add embryonic stem cells, which can turn into virtually any cell in the human body. These stem cells will be "fortified" with genes to steer them down the right path, so that the stem cells develop the properties of sperm precursor cells, Turek told MyHealthNewsDaily.

In essence, the researchers are hoping re-create the environment within the seminiferous tubules, the structures in the testes where sperm are formed.

The artificial testicle would likely last only as long as it takes to go through one cycle of sperm production, about 70 days, Turek said. After that, another one would have to be created.

Ambitious project

"It's an ambitious project," said Kyle Orwig, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh who studies ways to restore male fertility."But it would be fantastic if it happened. It would be a major impact on the fertility field."

No one has yet tried to create sperm by re-creating the "home" of sperm cell production and adding stem cells, Orwig said.

It eventually might be possible to use the model to produce sperm for men who are infertile.

To do this, the researchers probably would use adult stem cells from the patient rather than embryonic stem cells. Such cells could be taken from the patient's skin, and researchers would have to "turn back the clock" so the cells ?could develop into sperm. But whether this could work remains to be seen, Turek said.

Turek and his colleague Dr. Constance John, chief executive of MandalMed Inc., a biotech company in San Francisco, received a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Such grants are typically less than $500,000, Turek said.

Turek hopes to complete the artificial testicle in five to seven years.

Pass it on: Researchers are starting a project to create an artificial human testicle that can produce sperm.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience.Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner. Find us on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120119/sc_livescience/artificialtesticlecouldtreatmaleinfertility

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EU Internet czar tweets against SOPA

BRUSSELS (AP) ? The European Union's Internet czar on Friday added her voice to resistance to the Stop Online Piracy Act, in an unusually open comment on pending U.S. legislation.

"Glad tide is turning on SOPA: don't need bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net," Neelie Kroes, the EU's Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, said in a Twitter message.

The piece of legislation, currently in the House of Representatives, would allow the U.S. Justice Department to target legitimate sites where users share pirated content.

Outrage over SOPA earlier this week triggered a one-day blackout by Wikipedia's English-language service and other popular websites and sparked growing scrutiny of the bill.

The EU is also working to tackle online piracy, but is trying hard to do so without restricting Internet freedom.

"Speeding is illegal too: but you don't put speed bumps on the motorway," Kroes said in a second tweet.

The EU usually avoids openly criticizing pending legislation in the U.S, one of its biggest political allies and trading partners. But politicians on different sides of the Atlantic often don't see eye to eye when it comes to regulating the Internet.

The Commissioner's spokesman defended Kroes's comments, pointing to the widespread criticism of the bill.

"It shows that people do have very serious concerns about their access to the Internet and it shows that in addition to enforcement, which is very important, we need to be increasing the number of legal content offers that are available online," Ryan Heath told reporters.

He added that the EU already has legislation in place to fight online piracy and is currently working on an overhaul of it's rules for intellectual property rights in an effort to make it easier to obtain the rights to distribute content online legally.

Kroes, one of the most outspoken commissioners who imposed massive fines against Microsoft during her time as the EU's antitrust regulator, has embraced new media.

Also on Friday, she asked her more than 32,000 followers on Twitter to comment on the shutdown of popular file-sharing site Megaupload.com on her department's Facebook page.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-20-EU-EU-SOPA/id-635b164398f04f419b42612d0f843765

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BREAKINGVIEWS-Samsung's $41 bln binge may shake Apple's tree

Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:54am GMT

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

By Wayne Arnold

HONG KONG, Jan 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Samsung?s (005930.KS) $41 billion investment splurge should ring alarm bells at its competitors. At least half of the Korean conglomerate?s planned outlays will probably go to expanding its global lead in smartphones and the chips and screens that drive them. It?s a bold bet in a slowdown, if its bet pays off Samsung could lengthen its lead over the likes of Apple (AAPL.O).

Samsung Electronics hasn?t announced just how much it plans to invest from the parent group's big number. But if history is any guide, its share should be at least $21 billion for expanding production and R&D. Relative to forecast annual revenue, that?s about 26 percent more than what Apple plans to invest this year. Competitors should worry, because chances are Samsung won?t put that into microwaves and dishwashers, but rather into its more profitable smartphones and flash memory.

Korea's tech companies have made great strides against Japanese and U.S. rivals. A falling currency -- the won has weakened 60 percent against the yen over 20 years -- helped the likes of Samsung break into the global consumer electronics market. Now, the company is the world?s largest maker of televisions, memory chips and smartphones. It leads the market for flash memory drives and state-of-the-art digital screens, so it not only competes with Apple but supplies it with parts.

Spending 13 percent of revenue on capex and R&D may seem risky in a slowing global economy, but Samsung can afford it. It has an estimated $10 billion in net cash on the balance sheet according to Daiwa, and forecast EBITDA of $29 billion for 2012. The company?s plans to take advantage of low U.S. interest rates to borrow $1 billion in five-year bonds shows it is considering building a more aggressive balance sheet.

The big risk is that in such a fickle, fashion-driven market as smartphones, even big investment budgets can go into the wrong ideas. Ask Motorola, Nokia or Research In Motion. But given that the smartphone market is still forecast to grow by 34 percent this year, Samsung deserves the benefit of the doubt.

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CONTEXT NEWS

-- South Korea?s largest conglomerate, the Samsung Group, said Jan. 16 it would increase investment by 12 percent in 2012 to a record 47.8 trillion won (roughly $41.6 billion). It didn't provide a breakdown of its investment plans by business division, but said it is looking to expand investment into new growth areas despite heightened uncertainties stemming from the global economic downturn.

-- Samsung said it would spend 31 trillion won on facilities investment, an 11 percent increase from last year, while outlays for research and development would rise 13 percent to 13.6 trillion won. The group, which spent 42.8 trillion won last year, said the remainder will go toward other investment tools, such as stake purchases.

-- Samsung Electronics Jan. 15 its U.S. operation was considering selling around $1 billion in bonds, its first major overseas debt sale in more than a decade, to fund operations at a chip plant in Austin, Texas. Samsung, which supplies semiconductors to Apple's iPhone and iPad tablet, has sent requests for proposals to banks for the potential sale of five-year bonds, a Samsung spokesman said.

-- Reuters: Samsung Group plans record $41 bln investment in 2012 [ID:nL3E8CH02B]

-- Reuters: Samsung plans $1 bln debt sale to fund U.S. chip plant [ID:nL3E8CG0DM]

RELATED COLUMNS

Dialling for dollars [ID:nL5E7M3274]

Seoul sacrifice [ID:nL4E7M231B]

Wages of war [ID:nS1E78M0UN]

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

-- For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on [ARNOLD/]

(Editing by John Foley and David Evans)

((wayne.arnold@thomsonreuters.com)) Keywords: BREAKINGVIEWS SAMSUNG/

(C) Reuters 2011 All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing, or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/UKmedia/~3/ixlJiXV8CJw/idUKL3E8CI4G020120118

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Snooki: Trump for president, please

If you're unenthusiastic about the options available for the 2012 presidential nomination, Snooki feels your pain.

As she relayed at a recent press conference - for the launch of Team Snooki Boxing, the Huffington Post tells us - she's unimpressed. The guy she wants to put her "Jersey Shore" influence behind (millions of people do watch her pickles-and-booze-fueled antics on the reality show, after all, although less at the start of the fifth season than usual) isn't even a contender.

Not at the moment, anyway.

"I thought Trump was gonna run," Snooki told reporters. "But he's not, right? I would endorse him and vote for him."

The enterprising reality star shouldn't give up hope just yet: At the end of December, Trump changed his voter registration from Republican to "unaffiliated," thereby "[preserving] his right to run for president as an independent if he's not satisfied with who the Republicans nominate."

Now that she's come out as a clear supporter, maybe that's all Trump needs to hop in the election game.

Source: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/18/snooki-trump-for-president-please/

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Review: Mujjo capacitive touchscreen gloves for iPhone and iPad

“Mujjo capacitive touchscreen gloves are amust-have for any serious iPhone or iPad user caught in a cold, wintery climate.” Why have I instantly fallen in love with Mujjo’s capacitive touchscreen

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/yHh1aaiooJY/story01.htm

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US wants effective Alzheimer's treatment by 2025 (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The government is setting what it calls an ambitious goal for Alzheimer's disease: Development of effective ways to treat and prevent the mind-destroying illness by 2025.

The Obama administration is developing the first National Alzheimer's Plan to find better treatments for the disease and offer better day-to-day care for those afflicted.

A newly released draft of the overall goals for that plan sets the 2025 deadline, but doesn't provide details of how to fund the necessary research to meet that target date. Today's treatments only temporarily ease some dementia symptoms, and work to find better ones has been frustratingly slow.

A committee of Alzheimer's experts began a two-day meeting Tuesday to help advise the government on how the eventual plan, expected by spring, could meet those goals.

Families have been "reminding us of the enormity of our task, perhaps most important the meaningfulness of it," said Dr. Ron Petersen, an Alzheimer's specialist at the Mayo Clinic, who chairs the committee.

But hanging over the meeting is the reality of a budget crunch. It's not clear how much money the federal government will be able to devote to Alzheimer's, and states have seen their Alzheimer's budgets cut.

"We're not going to fix this without substantial resources," said David Hoffman of the New York State Department of Health, who oversees that state's Alzheimer's programs. "In New York, we're hanging on by our nails."

An estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's or similar dementias. It's the sixth-leading killer, and is steadily growing as the population rapidly ages. By 2050, 13 million to 16 million Americans are projected to have Alzheimer's, costing $1 trillion in medical and nursing home expenditures.

The national plan is supposed to tackle both the medical and social aspects of dementia, and advocacy groups had urged that it set a deadline for progress.

Among the draft's other goals:

_Improve timely diagnosis. A recent report found as many as half of today's Alzheimer's sufferers haven't been formally diagnosed, in part because of stigma and the belief that nothing can be done. Symptomatic treatment aside, a diagnosis lets families plan, and catching the disease earlier would be crucial if scientists ever found ways to slow the disease's progress.

To do that, the draft suggests starting with a national public awareness campaign so more people know the early warning signs of dementia ? and to include memory assessment tools in the annual Medicare wellness visit.

_Improve support and training for families so they know what resources are available for patients and what to expect as dementia worsens.

A caregiver-training program in New York has shown that families taught how to handle common dementia problems, and given support, are able to keep their loved ones at home for longer. Hoffman said such training programs are far cheaper than nursing homes.

Alzheimer's sufferers gradually lose the ability to do the simplest activities of daily life and can survive that way for a decade or more. In meetings around the country last summer and fall, families urged federal health officials to make sure the national plan addresses how to help patients live their last years at home without ruining their caregivers' own health and finances.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_he_me/us_med_alzheimer_s_plan

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Immigration courtrooms silent during ICE review

In this Jan. 4, 2012 photo Jesus Gerardo Noriega, front, poses for his picture at the family home in Aurora, Colo. Jesus, 21, faced deportation last year after he was arrested for driving with no license plate light. Noriega's family brought him to the United States from Mexico when he was 9. His parents and three brothers live here legally, and he graduated from high school here. He learned in December that the case against him was being closed. U.S. prosecutors in Denver and Baltimore are reviewing thousands of deportation cases to determine which illegal immigrants might stay in the country. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

In this Jan. 4, 2012 photo Jesus Gerardo Noriega, front, poses for his picture at the family home in Aurora, Colo. Jesus, 21, faced deportation last year after he was arrested for driving with no license plate light. Noriega's family brought him to the United States from Mexico when he was 9. His parents and three brothers live here legally, and he graduated from high school here. He learned in December that the case against him was being closed. U.S. prosecutors in Denver and Baltimore are reviewing thousands of deportation cases to determine which illegal immigrants might stay in the country. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

In this Jan. 4, 2012 photo, Jesus Gerardo Noriega, front, poses with his parents and brothers at the family home in Aurora, Colo. Jesus, 21, faced deportation last year after he was arrested for driving with no license plate light. Noriega's family brought him to the United States from Mexico when he was 9. His parents and three brothers live here legally, and he graduated from high school here. He learned in December that the case against him was being closed. He is pictured with brother Brian, mother Aracely, father Ricardo, and brothers Erick and Ricardo Jr. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

DENVER (AP) ? In a trial of a politically divisive program, U.S. prosecutors in Denver and Baltimore are reviewing thousands of deportation cases to determine which illegal immigrants might stay in the country ? perhaps indefinitely ? so officials can reduce an overwhelming backlog by focusing mainly on detainees with criminal backgrounds or who are deemed threats to national security.

Federal deportation hearings for non-criminal defendants released from custody were suspended Dec. 5 for the review and resume this week. Similar reviews are planned across the country to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target deportations of illegal immigrants with criminal records or those who have been deported previously.

While the immigration courtrooms in Denver have fallen silent, prosecutors had time to examine case files, check residency history ? such as whether someone was brought to the country as a child ? as well as criminal history.

In Denver, 25 ICE prosecutors and three managers spent their work days during most of December and early this month poring over as many files in their case load as possible, ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said.

"They come in on weekends," Gonzalez said. "They're looking at every case."

Officials have not released information on how many cases will be placed on low priority based on the review. When they're finished, cases of those here illegally but deemed not a threat to public safety or national security will be placed on administrative hold and the numbers will be released.

Citing tight budgets, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced this summer that nearly 300,000 deportation cases would be reviewed to determine which could be closed through "prosecutorial discretion." Republicans have decried the policy as a back-door way of granting amnesty to people who are living in the U.S. illegally.

"We simply cannot adjudicate all these cases that are pending," said spokeswoman Gonzalez. Some cases in Denver date to 1996, she said.

"It's a holiday for anybody in the country illegally," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes the initiative. "They're doing this with the intention of dismissing as many of them as they possibly can."

Several attempts at immigration reform have failed in recent years, including the so-called DREAM Act, which would have allowed some young illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to earn legal status if they went to college or joined the military.

In June, ICE director John Morton announced that prosecutors and immigration agents would consider a defendant's length of time in the country, ties to the community, lack of criminal history and opportunity to qualify for some form of legal status in deciding whether to press for deportation.

Denver has about 7,800 deportation cases pending, while Baltimore has about 5,000. Hearings and deportations involving criminal immigrants continued in both Baltimore and Denver. The suspended hearings dealt only with non-criminal defendants.

Before expanding the program, officials will examine the effect of the review on caseloads. They are also seeking to balance hearing high priority cases with those in which a person might have a strong case but has waited years for a hearing because of the backlog, said former Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner Dorris Meissner.

Those who offered prosecutorial discretion don't have to accept, and can insist on having their case heard by a judge.

"Everybody thinks that people just want to have their case dismissed," said Meissner. "If they accept prosecutorial discretion, it's true they don't go before a judge and they don't get deported, but their case is in limbo."

For some, word that their cases have been postponed brings relief ? but not closure. They're still in the country illegally.

Jesus Gerardo Noriega, 21, of Aurora, Colo., said he learned in December his case was being closed.

"I'm happy that I don't have to show up in court every six months so they don't deport me," Noriega said. But, he added: "I'm in limbo. I can't do anything."

Noriega's family brought him to the United States from Mexico when he was 9. His parents and three brothers live here legally, and he graduated from high school ? but only applied for a work visa last year. He faced deportation after being arrested in April 2010 for driving with no license plate light.

Deportation cases have risen sharply since 2007, when Homeland Security began using fingerprints collected from those held in local jails to identify and deport criminals and repeat immigration violators. Those cases increased from about 174,000 in 2007 to about 298,000 in 2011, according to figures compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group affiliated with Syracuse University.

Immigrant advocates have blasted the fingerprint program, called Secure Communities, for subjecting people to deportation after minor traffic infractions or misdemeanors. Some state laws require police to notify ICE of suspected illegal immigrants.

But advocates say they welcome the federal review as a way to deal with a sluggish immigration court system where cases can linger for years.

"The courts are a mess," said Susan Barciela, Miami-based policy director for Americans for Immigration Justice. "The volume keeps getting bigger and people's rights are being violated."

During the pilot program, Denver and Baltimore immigration judges were assigned to hear detainee cases elsewhere.

"The immigration courts are empty," said Denver immigration attorney Hans Meyer of the scene in December and early this month. "It's a pretty busy place, so it's kind of strange."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-16-Deportations%20Suspended/id-071811c0db084c9ebb93b60abe2c9cc9

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