TiVo Premiere Elite

The TiVo Premiere Elite ($499.99 list) is the souped-up version of the TiVo Premiere DVR ($299.99, 3.5 stars), with a 300-hour HD video capacity and two more TV tuners for the ability to record four simultaneous programs. Like the TiVo Premiere XL, the Premiere Elite is THX certified and comes with an upgraded remote (but not the slide-out QWERTY model). It?s a definite upgrade for current TiVo users, but is it compelling enough to bring more TiVo users into the fold? The outlook isn't so good, compared to DVRs from cable companies, which continue to improve over time.

Design and Features
The TiVo Premiere Elite looks almost identical to the previous TiVo Premiere, built into the same style chassis as the previous model. There are a few differences from the previous version, though. There are four lights, which glow red to show that each of the four tuners are recording a program. You can record up to four programs simultaneously, which are decoded by the mutli-stream CableCARD the TiVo Premiere Elite now requires. Previous models allowed you to record over the air HDTV broadcasts in addition to digital cable, but the Premiere Elite is a strictly digital cable-only model; TiVo has removed the RF tuner and its connector to make room for the added digital tuners. Over-the-air HDTV viewers will want the regular Premiere or Premiere XL.

If you?ve set up a TiVo HD or previous TiVo Premiere before, you know the drill: Call your cable company to get a multi-stream CableCARD, either wait for the tech to show up or install the CableCARD yourself, and hope it pairs up successfully. Once activated in your TiVo Premiere Elite and once the DVR is hooked up to your home Internet connection, the DVR will download the program guide and take you through the rest of the setup. The TiVo Premiere Elite has an Ethernet port, but you?ll need to buy a TiVo WiFi adapter ($60-$90) if you don?t have a wired connection in your TV room. All the same features are here: TiVo Search; links to Netflix, Blockbuster, Hulu Plus, Pandora, You Tube, and Amazon Instant Video; and the trademark beeps and boops from the TiVo interface. Think of the current group of TiVo DVRs as a mash-up of a cable DVR and the sort of streaming media set top box like the Apple TV ?($99, 4 stars) or the Roku LT ($49, 4 stars).

The TiVo Premiere Elite comes with a 2TB hard drive, which is good for up to 300 hours of HD video, which is an increase from 45 hours for the TiVo Premiere, and 150 hours for the TiVo Premiere XL. Like the TiVo Premiere XL, the Premiere Elite comes with the TiVo Glo remote, not the keyboard-equipped TiVo Slide ($60). The TiVo Slide is a better fit for the DVR junkie who needs to search for programming with the on-screen interface. Truly hardcore TiVo users can download the free TiVo app for their handheld device like an iPad, iPhone, or Android phone: The app replicates the search and remote functions on your handheld, including managing the recorded programs list on your TiVo Premiere Elite. The touch-screen keyboard on your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S II will be handier than using the on-screen keyboard and TiVo Glo remote on your HDTV. However, you can?t view live TV or the recordings from your TiVo on your iPad/iPhone/Android device. You?ll still need to use a separate place-shifting device for remote viewing over WiFi or 3G.

Competitors From the Cable Company and Elsewhere
The cable companies have caught up to and some cases surpassed TiVo. TiVo?s interface now mostly takes advantage of the extra real estate and resolution of a HDTV screen, though there are still elements in standard definition. The user interface screens on digital cable DVRs like those from Verizon FIOS are fully HD optimized.

More pressing are features like FIOS? DVR apps and Cablevision/Time Warner?s viewing apps on devices like the iPad and Android smartphones. On the FIOS side, the DVR Manager app gives you listings of what?s scheduled and already recorded on your home DVRs, regardless if you?re home or on a 3G network. Need more room to record the next American Idol on your home DVR, but you?re in Des Moines? No problem with FIOS or the other cable companies, just delete those old episodes of Pan Am. In the TiVo app, you have to be physically in range of your home Wi-Fi network to see the recorded list and manage recordings, which means you can only schedule future recordings remotely, not delete existing programs. On the Time Warner and Cablevision side, things are even better when you consider that the TWC app and Optimum app allow you to view live TV as well as on-demand videos on your iPad on your home network. TiVo users need a place-shifting device like a Slingbox to do the same thing, even in your own home. Multi-room viewing was once unique to TiVo, but Cable DVRs now support multi-room viewing, letting you view programs recorded in the living room while you?re in the bedroom.? And with TiVo, there are issues with multi-room viewing and copy-protected content, which could apply to many of the programs you're recording.

Last I checked, most cable companies even let you exchange a broken DVR for free even if the DVR itself is 5 years old. Unfortunately, the TiVo DVR warranty only lasts one year for parts, 90 days for labor, with an option for 2-years parts/labor for $30 and 3 years for $40.? Last, but not least, you?ll still need to subscribe to TiVo, which added to the monthly rental for the CableCARD, equals or surpasses the monthly rental fee for a cable company DVR. TiVo curently charges $19.95 a month, so if you add the $2-5 monthly rate for the CabelCARD, you may pay less in fees on a cable company DVR. Sure, you can purchase a lifetime subscription for $499.99, but that's per TiVo DVR, and is subject to the continued good health of TiVo Inc. If you want Netflix or You Tube on your HDTV as well and your HDTV doesn't already support it, check if there?s a free HDMI port on your TV, then get an Apple TV or Roku; it?s less than $100, and you won?t need to pay a monthly fee to Apple.

The TiVo Premiere Elite is an improved device for an ultimately shrinking market: the hardcore TiVo user. It will give the TiVo fan a lot to crow about while recording 300 hours of HD on four channels simultaneously, but the DVR is unlikely to add brand new customers to the TiVo fold. It's so tied to digital cable that it is unlikely to sway the non-TiVo user from renting a much more convenient and similar HD DVR for much less money. Why buy a TiVo DVR when the cable company DVR is the same amount of money or less, and lets you better manage it with your smartphone or tablet? Five years ago, TiVo had a perceptibly insurmountable lead on the competition. Now that gap is bridgeable by a toddler in brand new shoes.

More Digital Video Recorder reviews:
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??? TiVo (for iPad)
??? Monsoon Multimedia Vulkano
??? Dish Network ViP922 SlingLoaded DVR
??? TiVo Premiere
?? more

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St. Louis hosting 1st big parade on Iraq War's end

Stephanie King holds a picture of her uncle, Col. Stephen Scott who was killed in Iraq in 2008, as she prepares to participate in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in St. Louis. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the U.S. since the last troops left Iraq in December. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Stephanie King holds a picture of her uncle, Col. Stephen Scott who was killed in Iraq in 2008, as she prepares to participate in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in St. Louis. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the U.S. since the last troops left Iraq in December. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Participants in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans make their way along a downtown street Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in St. Louis. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the U.S. since the last troops left Iraq in December. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Spectators cheer and wave as they watch a parade to honor Iraq War veterans pass Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in St. Louis. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the U.S. since the last troops left Iraq in December. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Maj. Rich Radford, who became a symbol of the parade to honor Iraq War veterans thanks to a photo of his young daughter taking his hand while welcoming him home from his second tour in Iraq in 2010, smiles before the start of the parade Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in St. Louis. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the U.S. since the last troops left Iraq in December. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Army Sgt. 1st Class Randy Jemerson, a veteran of two tours in Iraq, takes a picture of a staging at the start of a parade to honor Iraq War veterans Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in St. Louis. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the U.S. since the last troops left Iraq in December. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.

The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation's first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.

"It's not necessarily overdue, it's just the right thing," said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.

Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including "Welcome Home" and "Thanks to our Service Men and Women." Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.

Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands ? even the Budweiser Clydesdales ? joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.

That was the hope of organizers Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum. Neither man has served in the military but came up with the idea after noticing there had been little fanfare for returning Iraq War veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases. No ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations.

Appelbaum, an attorney, and Schneider, a school district technical coordinator, decided something needed to be done. So they sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. The grassroots effort resulted in a huge turnout despite raising only about $35,000 and limited marketing.

That marketing included using a photo of Radford being welcomed home from his second tour in Iraq by his then-6-year-old daughter. The girl had reached up, grabbed his hand and said, "I missed you, daddy." Radford's sister caught the moment with her cellphone camera, and the image graced T-shirts and posters for the parade.

Veterans came from around the country, and more than 100 entries ? including marching bands, motorcycle groups and military units ? signed up ahead of the event, Appelbaum said.

Schneider said he was amazed how everyone, from city officials to military organizations to the media, embraced the parade.

"It was an idea that nobody said no to," he said. "America was ready for this."

All that effort by her hometown was especially touching for Gayla Gibson, a 38-year-old Air Force master sergeant who said she spent four months in Iraq ? seeing "amputations, broken bones, severe burns from IEDs" ? as a medical technician in 2003.

"I think it's great when people come out to support those who gave their lives and put their lives on the line for this country," Gibson said.

With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed ? suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming. In New York, for example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said there would be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.

But in St. Louis, there was clearly a mood to thank the troops with something big, even among those opposed to the war.

"Most of us were not in favor of the war in Iraq, but the soldiers who fought did the right thing and we support them," said 72-year-old Susan Cunningham, who attended the parade with the Missouri Progressive Action Group. "I'm glad the war is over and I'm glad they're home."

Don Lange, 60, of nearby Sullivan, held his granddaughter along the parade route. His daughter was a military interrogator in Iraq.

"This is something everyplace should do," Lange said as he watched the parade.

Several veterans of the Vietnam War turned out to show support for the younger troops. Among them was Don Jackson, 63, of Edwardsville, Ill., who said he was thrilled to see the parade honoring Iraq War veterans like his son, Kevin, who joined him at the parade. The 33-year-old Air Force staff sergeant said he'd lost track of how many times he had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a flying mechanic.

"I hope this snowballs," he said of the parade. "I hope it goes all across the country. I only wish my friends who I served with were here to see this."

Looking at all the people around him in camouflage, 29-year-old veteran Matt Wood said he felt honored. He served a year in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard.

"It's extremely humbling, it's amazing, to be part of something like this with all of these people who served their country with such honor," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-Iraq%20War-Parade/id-b5b9b72623cc40b3a9f374a9ba1867c7

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SUMO-snipping protein plays crucial role in T and B cell development

Saturday, January 28, 2012

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

"This research extends the activity of SUMO and the Sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 1 (SENP1) to the field of immunology, in particular the early lymphoid development of T and B cells," said the study's senior author, Edward T. H. Yeh, M.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Cardiology.

SUMO proteins, also known as the small ubiquitin-like modifiers or Sentrin, attach to other proteins in cells to modify their function or to move them within a cell. SENP1 is one of a family of six proteins that snips SUMO off of SUMO-modified proteins. SUMOylation (SUMO modification) of proteins has been implicated in development of cancer, heart and neurodegenerative diseases, among others.

The team first analyzed the role of SENP1 in the development of lymphoids in mice and found it is heavily expressed in precursor cells, the early stages of B and T cell development.

Working with genetically modified mice they developed that lack SENP1 gene expression, Yeh and colleagues found the mouse embryos had severe defects in their T and B cells, white blood cell lymphocytes that identify and fight infection.

SUMO pins STAT5 in the nucleus

Subsequent experiments led them to STAT5, a transcription factor known to play critical roles in the development and function of immune cells. Transcription factors work in the cell nucleus, activating gene expression by connecting to a gene's promoter region.

"STAT5 works in a cycle, moving from the cytosol of a cell into the nucleus to activate genes and then back out to the cytosol," Yeh said. "We found that when STAT5 is SUMOylated in the nucleus it gets trapped there when there's no SENP1 to remove SUMO."

The team found that SUMO muscles in on two other signaling events that govern STAT5 activity - phosphorylation and acetylation.

SUMO inhibits STAT5 signaling

STAT5 is activated in the cell cytosol when the JAK tyrosine kinase attaches a phosphate group at a specific site on the STAT5 protein. This transformed STAT5 crosses the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to transcribe genes.

The team found that SUMO attaches to STAT5 close to its phosphorylation site and that cells lacking SENP1 have increased SUMOylation and decreased phosphorylation.

SUMOylation vs. acetylation

In addition to phosphorylation, acetylation of STAT5 has been shown to be essential for STAT5 to cross the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to enhance gene transcription. Yeh and colleagues found that SUMO competes directly with acetyl groups for the same binding site, inhibiting acetylation.

"Without SENP1 to remove SUMO, STAT5 can't be acetylated or phosphorylated and can't be recycled for use again," Yeh said. "We discovered that SENP1 controls lymphoid development through regulation of SUMOylation of STAT5."

Since Yeh's lab discovered SUMOylation in 1996, SUMO has been found to alter the function of thousands of proteins.

Yeh is hosting the 6th International Conference SUMO, Ubiquitin, UBL Proteins: Implications for Human Diseases Feb. 8-11 in the Dan L. Duncan Building at MD Anderson. Yeh organizes the meeting every other year.

"There used to be so little known about SUMO. Now, a protein is assumed to be SUMOylated until proved otherwise," Yeh said.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117155/SUMO_snipping_protein_plays_crucial_role_in_T_and_B_cell_development

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All You Need to Know about Investing That Will Assist You Grow ...

When you are looking to enter into the world of making investment, you may need to think about some points and carefully go over them. Among them is the sum of money you?re ready to invest. If you put your dollars on bonds, mutual funds, options, or stocks, you will need to have a certain amount so as to acquire a unit or build an account.

With regards to financial investments, two forms of units are commonly traded out there ? short-term as well as long-term investments.

The primary difference between the two is this: short-term investments are made to provide considerable returns in a relatively shorter period of time, whereas long-term investments are meant to reach maturity for many years or so and characterized by a slow but progressive increase in return.

If your primary objective as an investor is to boost your wealth or keep the purchasing power of your capital over time, then it?s essential that your investments must grow in value that at least keeps up with inflation rate. Having a diversed portfolio of equity shares and property investments is arguably a good long-term strategy when compared with having only fixed interest investments.

You must have an investment portfolio that is spread spanning different varieties of investment instruments so you can successfully decrease your risk. It is a classic the actual application of the old phrase ?Do not put all your eggs in just one basket.? The many investment products available these days are becoming more and more complex with huge and institutional investors increasingly try to outdo one another.

When you are an individual investor, you just need to invest on something you?re comfortable with and not to products that you do not comprehend. You have to be clear with your investment criteria since it is essential in evaluating your options. When you?re doubtful, the right course of action is to obtain helpful advice.

View this site and know more about investments for more suggestions about growing your money.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 4:50 pm by Fidel Forkey and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Source: http://centired.com/2012/01/all-you-need-to-know-about-investing-that-will-assist-you-grow-your-wealth-2/

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It?s About Time: HTC To Refocus Smartphone Efforts Around ?Hero? Devices

HTC has gotten to be remarkably good at churning out phone after phone these days, but it's gotten to feel like each new release is too little too soon. Thankfully, the godfather of Android hardware has come to its senses, as revealed by Mobile Today. According to HTC UK head Phil Roberson, 2012 is going to be all about giving their customers "something special." To that end, HTC plans to focus on a smaller number of "hero" smartphones and dial back their presence in the tablet market.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/u5EzhEq1BrM/

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Pentagon budget: top 3 winners and losers

As the Pentagon rolled out its budget preview Thursday, it stressed the tough work involved in cutting $487 billion over the next decade.?But in Pentagon parlance, the word ?cut? is a relative term. While the Defense Department?s base budget initially decreases from $553 billion this year to $525 billion in fiscal year 2013 ? more than its $480 billion base budget in 2008, when US troops were in the midst of two wars.?The budget will then rebound steadily to $567 billion in fiscal year 2017.?

With this in mind, here are the top three winners and losers:

- Anna Mulrine,?Staff writer

The Pentagon has made no secret of its plan to shift its attention toward the Pacific (read China) in the years to come. This is a boon for the US Navy, whose aircraft carriers and submarines will be key in any US military maneuvering that involves China, senior military officials stress. It is a change of fortune for a service branch that often felt marginalized amid the decade?s two large counterinsurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Indeed, despite some robust calls to reduce just one of the 11 aircraft carriers in the Navy?s fleet, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Thursday that this would not be happening. He cited the need for a Navy ?that maintains forward presence and is able to penetrate enemy defenses.?

What?s more, the Pentagon will be putting money into developing, for example, ?a new afloat forward staging base? and ?a design that will allow new Virginia-class submarines to be modified to carry more cruise missiles.?

The Pentagon is also currently working to develop an ?undersea conventional prompt global strike option? ? essentially arming submarine-based missiles with conventional warheads ? despite a Bush administration decision to scrap it amid concerns that they would be mistaken for nuclear missile strikes.

?Modernizing our submarine fleet will be critical to our efforts to maintain maritime access in these vital regions of the world,? Mr. Panetta said. One senior military official pointed to the Navy?s ?particularly useful role? in the seas around China, ?for the things we want to do in the future.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/cl3MMHOInKQ/Pentagon-budget-top-3-winners-and-losers

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Starbucks posts profit beat, sales jump (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Starbucks Corp's reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street's view after global economic worries failed to weaken demand for drinks and other products from the world's biggest coffee chain.

Based on its better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results, the company raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast to a range of $1.78 to $1.82 per share from $1.75 to $1.82.

Starbucks shares, up roughly 45 percent from a year ago and hovering near all-time highs, were off 1.1 percent at $47.79 in extended trading.

Global sales at cafes open at least 13 months jumped 9 percent, helped by an increase in customer visits and spending per transaction. That beat the 7.7 percent gain analysts, on average, expected, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Net income was $382.1 million, or 50 cents per share, for the quarter ended January 1. That was up from $346.6 million, or 45 cents, in the year earlier period.

Analysts, on average, were looking for a profit of 49 cents per share in the latest quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total revenue rose 16 percent to $3.4 billion.

(Reporting By Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; editing by Andre Grenon)

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

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Dems to Obama: Bring on 'Do-Nothing Congress' hit

CAMBRIDGE, Md. (AP) ? House Democratic leaders say they welcome a campaign by President Barack Obama against a "do-nothing Congress" even though they're part of it.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday it's not only okay for the president to adopt that strategy, she would encourage it. Democrats argue that Americans will then understand how Republicans are blocking the president's agenda. They say voters will also understand dysfunctional Senate rules that require 60 votes to move legislation.

But Democrats control the Senate and have 191 seats in the House. Voters who already hold Congress in low regard could send lawmakers from both parties packing.

Republicans counter that the election will be a referendum on Obama's economic record.

Democrats spoke at their annual three-day retreat in Maryland.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-26-Democrats-Do-Nothing%20Congress/id-db1058e1b9f44298aabc0c8aff420cef

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FACT CHECK: Obama pushes plans that flopped before

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Listen in back are Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, right. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Listen in back are Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, right. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? It was a wish list, not a to-do list.

President Barack Obama laid out an array of plans in his State of the Union speech as if his hands weren't so tied by political realities. There can be little more than wishful thinking behind his call to end oil industry subsidies ? something he could not get through a Democratic Congress, much less today's divided Congress, much less in this election year.

And there was more recycling, in an even more forbidding climate than when the ideas were new: He pushed for an immigration overhaul that he couldn't get past Democrats, permanent college tuition tax credits that he asked for a year ago, and familiar discouragements for companies that move overseas.

A look at Obama's rhetoric Tuesday night and how it fits with the facts and political circumstances:

___

OBAMA: "We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising."

THE FACTS: This is at least Obama's third run at stripping subsidies from the oil industry. Back when fellow Democrats formed the House and Senate majorities, he sought $36.5 billion in tax increases on oil and gas companies over the next decade, but Congress largely ignored the request. He called again to end such tax breaks in last year's State of the Union speech. And he's now doing it again, despite facing a wall of opposition from Republicans who want to spur domestic oil and gas production and oppose tax increases generally.

___

OBAMA: "Our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a government program."

THE FACTS: That's only half true. About half of the more than 30 million uninsured Americans expected to gain coverage through the health care law will be enrolled in a government program. Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, will be expanded starting in 2014 to cover childless adults living near the poverty line.

The other half will be enrolled in private health plans through new state-based insurance markets. But many of them will be receiving federal subsidies to make their premiums more affordable. And that's a government program, too.

Starting in 2014 most Americans will be required to carry health coverage, either through an employer, by buying their own plan, or through a government program.

___

OBAMA, asking Congress to pay for construction projects: "Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home."

THE FACTS: The idea of taking war "savings" to pay for other programs is budgetary sleight of hand. For one thing, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been largely financed through borrowing, so stopping the wars doesn't create a pool of ready cash, just less debt. And the savings appear to be based at least in part on inflated war spending estimates for future years.

___

OBAMA: "Through the power of our diplomacy a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran's nuclear program now stands as one."

THE FACTS: The world is still divided over how to deal with Iran's disputed nuclear program, and even over whether the nuclear program is a problem at all.

It is true that the U.S., Europe and other nations have agreed to apply the strictest economic sanctions yet on Iran later this year. But the global sanctions net has holes, because some of Iran's large oil trading partners won't go along. China, a major purchaser of Iran's crude, isn't part of the new sanctions and, together with Russia, stopped the United Nations from applying similarly tough penalties.

___

OBAMA: "Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values."

THE FACTS: Economists do see manufacturing growth as a necessary component of any U.S. recovery. U.S. manufacturing output climbed 0.9 percent in December, the biggest gain since December 2010. Yet Obama's apparent vision of a nation once again propelled by manufacturing ? a vision shared by many Republicans ? may already have slipped into the past.

Over generations, the economy has become ever more driven by services; not since 1975 has the U.S. had a surplus in merchandise trade, which covers trade in goods, including manufactured and farm goods. About 90 percent of American workers are employed in the service sector, a profound shift in the nature of the workforce over many decades.

The overall trade deficit through the first 11 months of 2011 ran at an annual rate of nearly $600 billion, up almost 12 percent from the year before.

___

OBAMA: "The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home."

THE FACTS: Obama is more sanguine about progress in Afghanistan than his own intelligence apparatus. The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan warns that the Taliban will grow stronger, using fledgling talks with the U.S. to gain credibility and stall until U.S. troops leave, while continuing to fight for more territory. The classified assessment, described to The Associated Press by officials who have seen it, says the Afghan government hasn't been able to establish credibility with its people, and predicts the Taliban and warlords will largely control the countryside.

___

OBAMA: "On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories."

THE FACTS: He left out some key details. The bailout of General Motors and Chrysler began under Republican President George W. Bush. Obama picked up the ball, earmarked more money, and finished the job. But Ford never asked for a federal bailout and never got one.

___

OBAMA: "We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation."

THE FACTS: With this statement, Obama was renewing a call he made last year to require 80 percent of the nation's electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2035, including nuclear, natural gas and so-called clean coal. He did not put that percentage in his speech but White House background papers show that it remains his goal.

But this Congress has yet to introduce a bill to make that goal a reality, and while legislation may be introduced this year, it is unlikely to become law with a Republican-controlled House that loathes mandates.

___

OBAMA: "Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households."

THE FACTS: It's true that a minority of millionaires pay a lower tax rate than some lower-income people. On average, though, wealthy people pay taxes at a much higher rate than middle-income taxpayers.

Obama's claim comes from a Congressional Research Service report that compared federal taxes paid by people making less than $100,000 with those paid by people making more than $1 million. About 10 percent of families with incomes under $100,000 paid more than 26.5 percent in federal income, payroll and corporate taxes. And about a quarter of millionaire taxpayers paid a rate lower than that.

___

OBAMA: "We can't bring back every job that's left our shores.... Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed."

FACT CHECK: Many of the jobs U.S. companies have created overseas won't return because they were never in the United States in the first place.

As Obama said in his speech, U.S. workers have become more productive and labor costs have fallen.

But there are powerful forces pushing the other way: Many of the overseas jobs in U.S. companies weren't transferred from the U.S. They were created in fast-growing markets in Latin America, Asia and elsewhere to serve customers in those markets. Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index now earn more than half of their revenue from overseas.

That has fueled more job creation abroad. U.S. multinationals cut more than 800,000 jobs in the United States from 2000 to 2009, according the Commerce Department. They added 2.9 million overseas in the same period.

___

OBAMA: "Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned doesn't know what they're talking about ... That's not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they've been in years."

THE FACTS: Obama left out Arab and Muslim nations, where popular opinion of the U.S. appears to have gone downhill or remained unchanged after the spring 2011 reformist uprisings in the Middle East. A Pew Research Center survey in May found that in predominantly Muslim countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan, views of the U.S. were worse than a year earlier. In Pakistan, a major recipient of U.S. foreign aid that went unmentioned in Obama's speech, just 11 percent of respondents said they held a positive view of the United States.

___

Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Anne Gearan, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Martin Crutsinger, Jim Drinkard, Dina Cappiello, Erica Werner, Andrew Taylor, Christopher S. Rugaber and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-25-US-State-of-Union-Fact-Check/id-7e14143245054ff6906a6d431fbc2f76

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UN rights chief: Charge or release Gitmo detainees

By msnbc.com news services

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

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

---

Pillay said that she is deeply disappointed the U.S. government has "entrenched a system of arbitrary detention."

She?said she also was "disturbed at the failure to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations, including torture, that took place."

Six trials in 10 years
Former President George W. Bush set up the camp at a U.S. naval base in Cuba after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to expel al-Qaida?following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Eight prisoners have died at Guantanamo, two deaths ascribed to natural causes and the rest classified as suicides, and many detainees have said they were tortured.

Only six trials have been completed in 10 years.

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

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

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

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

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10216541-un-rights-chief-charge-or-release-gitmo-detainees

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Iran says sanctions to fail, repeats Hormuz threat (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian politicians said on Tuesday they expected the European Union to backtrack on its oil embargo and repeated a threat to close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if the West succeeds in preventing Tehran from exporting crude.

A day after the EU slapped a ban on Iranian oil, Iran's tone appeared defiant, even skeptical, with Tehran insisting that, with the EU faced with its own economic crisis, it needs Iran's oil more than Iran needs its business.

The ban is expected to take full effect within six months.

"The West's ineffective sanctions against the Islamic state are not a threat to us. They are opportunities and have already brought lots of benefits to the country," Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi told the official IRNA news agency.

Speaking in London, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain Prince Mohammad Bin Nawaf said the region was witnessing "a very difficult and a very tense situation".

"We are seeing every day an escalation in the rhetoric and this definitely does not help in stabilizing the area," he told a briefing.

"I think the next couple of weeks will be very critical for the whole region. Hopefully, Iran will adhere to the proposals presented to them."

He said Iran's threats to block the strait of Hormuz would have grave consequences on the Islamic Republic and the region.

"It will be very difficult to maintain such a blockade against the export of oil but the ramifications of such a decision would be very grave and definitely would escalate the whole situation and God knows where it would lead.

"Definitely the Iranians will pay a very heavy price if they gamble and take such a decision," the Saudi envoy said.

The EU wants to press Iran into curbing its contested nuclear program and engage in talks with six world powers.

"The global economic situation is not one in which a country can be destroyed by imposing sanctions," Moslehi said.

A spokesman for the oil ministry said Iran had had plenty of time to prepare for the sanctions and would find alternative customers for the 18 percent of its exports that up to now have gone to the 27-nation European bloc.

"The first phase of this (sanctions action) is propaganda, only then it will enter the implementation phase. That is why they put in this six months period, to study the market," Alireza Nikzad Rahbar said, predicting the embargo could be rescinded before it takes force completely.

"This market will harm them because oil is getting more expensive and when oil gets more expensive it will harm the people of Europe," state TV quoted him as saying. "We hope that in these six months they will choose the right path."

EMBARGO PLANS

The embargo will not kick in completely until July 1 because the bloc's foreign ministers who agreed the ban at a meeting in Brussels were anxious not to penalize the ailing economies of Greece, Italy and others to whom Iran is a major oil supplier.

The strategy will be reviewed in May to see if it should proceed.

Iran, which denies international suspicions that it is trying to design atomic bombs behind the facade of a declared civilian atomic energy program, has scoffed at efforts to bar its oil exports as Asia lines up to buy what Europe rejects.

Iran's foreign ministry summoned the Danish ambassador on Tuesday to complain about the EU's "illogical decision", accusing Europe of doing the bidding of the United States.

Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament's energy committee, said that if Iran encountered any problem selling its oil, it would store it, adding Tehran retained its threat to shut the Gulf to shipping.

The United States, which sailed an aircraft carrier through the strait into the Gulf accompanied by British and French warships on Sunday, has said it would not tolerate the closure of the world's most important oil shipping gateway.

Fitch Ratings issued an assessment of the embargo's market impact saying it would likely cause an oil price increase.

"However, prices may not necessarily increase markedly from current levels as some of the risks related to the EU ban on Iranian oil appear factored in already," it said.

The embargo decision had no discernible impact on oil prices as it was a move that had been flagged well in advance and the threat to close Hormuz seemed remote. Brent crude down slightly at $110 per barrel on Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that the EU sanctions underlined the strength of the international community's commitment to "addressing the serious threat" presented by Iran's nuclear program.

"The United States will continue to impose new sanctions to increase the pressure on Iran," he said in a statement.

Washington applied its own sanctions to Iran's oil trade and central bank on December 31 and on Monday extended them to the third largest Iranian bank, state-owned Bank Tejarat, and a Belarus-based affiliate for allegedly helping Tehran's nuclear advance.

The EU sanctions were also welcomed by Israel, which has warned it might attack Iran if sanctions do not deflect Tehran from a course that some analysts say could potentially give Iran the means to build a nuclear bomb next year.

(Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul in London)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/wl_nm/us_iran

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Rep. Giffords to resign from Congress this week (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago that shook the country.

"I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice," the Democratic lawmaker said on a video posted without prior notice on her Facebook page.

"I'm getting better. Every day my spirit is high," she said. "I have more work to do on my recovery. So to do what's best for Arizona, I will step down this week."

Giffords was shot in the head and grievously wounded last January as she was meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz. Her progress had seemed remarkable, to the point that she was able to walk dramatically into the House chamber last August to cast a vote.

Her shooting prompted an agonizing national debate about super-charged rhetoric in political campaigns, although the man charged in the shooting later turned out to be mentally ill.

In Washington, members of Congress were told to pay more attention to their physical security. Legislation was introduced to ban high-capacity ammunition clips, although it never advanced.

Under state law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer must call a special election to fill out the remainder of Giffords' term, which ends at the end of 2012.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he saluted Giffords "for her service and for the courage and perseverance she has shown in the face of tragedy. She will be missed."

In a statement, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said that "since the tragic events one year ago, Gabby has been an inspiring symbol of determination and courage to millions of Americans."

Democratic officials had held out hope for months that the congresswoman might recover sufficiently to run for re-election or even become a candidate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Jon Kyl.

The shooting on Jan. 8, 2011, left six people dead, a federal judge and a Giffords aide among them. Twelve others were wounded.

A 23-year-old man, Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the shooting. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and is being forcibly medicated at a Missouri prison facility in an effort by authorities to make him mentally ready for trial.

In the months since she was shot, Giffords, 41, has been treated in Houston as well as Arizona as she re-learned how to walk and speak.

She made a dramatic appearance on the House floor Aug. 2, when she unexpectedly walked in to vote for an increase in the debt limit. Lawmakers from both parties cheered her presence, and she was enveloped in hugs.

More recently, she participated in an observance of the anniversary of the shooting in Arizona.

In "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," a book released last year that she wrote with her husband, the astronaut Mark Kelly, she spoke of how much she wanted to get better, regain what she lost and return to Congress.

She delivers the last chapter in her own voice, saying in a single page of short sentences and phrases that everything she does reminds her of that horrible day and that she was grateful to survive.

"I will get stronger. I will return," she wrote.

Giffords was shot in the left side of the brain, the part that controls speech and communication.

Kelly commanded the space shuttle Endeavour on its last mission in May. She watched the launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Kelly, who became a NASA astronaut in 1996 and made four trips into space aboard the space shuttle, retired in October.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_go_co/us_giffords_resign

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Yemen officials: Saleh to depart for Oman (AP)

SANAA, Yemen ? Outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave soon to Oman, en route to medical treatment in the United States, Yemeni officials said on Saturday, part of an American effort to get the embattled strongman out of the country to allow a peaceful transition from his rule.

Washington has been trying for weeks to find a country where Saleh can live in exile, since it does not want him to settle permanently in the United States. The mercurial president, who has ruled for more than 33 years, has repeatedly gone back and forth on whether he would leave.

The officials' comments Saturday suggested Oman, Yemen's neighbor, could be a potential home for him. Three officials said he would go, but they were divided on whether he would remain in exile in Oman or return to Yemen after treatment. His return, even if he no longer holds the post of president, could mean continued turmoil for the impoverished nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

After nearly a year of protests demanding his ouster, Saleh in November handed his powers over to his vice president and agreed to step down. A unity government between his party and the opposition has since been created. However, Saleh ? still formally the president ? has continued to influence politics from behind the scenes through his family and loyalists in power positions.

The U.S. does not want to take him in, concerned it would be seen by Yemenis as harboring a leader they say has blood on his hands for the killings of protesters. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates already have rejected Saleh, American officials said.

Senior ruling party figure Mohammed al-Shayef told The Associated Press that Saleh would travel "in the coming days" to Oman, then head to the United States for treatment of wounds he suffered in an June assassination attempt.

After treatment, Saleh would return to Yemen to head his People's Congress Party, said al-Shayef, who is also a prominent tribal leader. Another top party official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk of the plans, gave the same itinerary, though he said Saleh would pass through Ethiopia en route from Oman to the U.S.

Saleh himself has spoken in recent weeks of working as an opposition politician after he leaves the presidency.

However, an official in the prime minister's office said Saleh "is supposed" to return to Oman to stay after his U.S. treatment is completed.

The official said Saleh's powerful son Ahmed was currently in Oman, arranging a residence for his father. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk the press. It did not seem that Ahmed, who commands the elite Republican Guard that has been at the forefront of the crackdown on protests, would remain in Oman.

The unity government has been struggling to establish its authority in the face of Saleh's continuing strength in the country. Like Saleh's son Ahmed, Saleh's nephew also commands one of Yemen's best trained and equipped security forces, and the president's loyalists remain in place in the government and bureaucracy.

Saleh agreed to step down under a U.S.-approved and Gulf-mediated accord with the opposition in return for immunity for prosecution.

Yemen's parliament on Saturday approved the immunity law, a key step toward Saleh's formal retirement from his post.

The law grants Saleh complete immunity for any crimes committed during his rule, including the killing of protesters during the uprising against his regime. However, parliament limited the scope of immunity for other regime officials and excluded immunity for terrorism-related crimes.

Initially, the law would have similarly given complete immunity to everyone who served Saleh's governments throughout his rule, sparking a public outcry and a new wave of protests. In response, the law was changed to grant them immunity only on "politically motivated" criminal acts. That apparently would not cover corruption charges.

Most protesters have rejected the accord entirely, saying Saleh should not be given immunity and demanding he be prosecuted.

Human Rights Watch said Saturday in a statement that the law allows senior officials to "get away with murder" and "sends the disgraceful message that there is no consequence for killing those who express dissent."

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

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APNewsBreak: Afghan asylum bids hit 10-year high (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? More Afghans fled the country and sought asylum abroad in 2011 than in any other year since the start of the decade-long war, suggesting that many are looking for their own exit strategy as international troops prepare to withdraw.

From January to November, more than 30,000 Afghans applied for political asylum worldwide, a 25 percent increase over the same period the previous year and more than triple the level of just four years ago, according to U.N. statistics obtained by The Associated Press ahead of their scheduled publication later this year.

Many Afghans are turning to a thriving and increasingly sophisticated human smuggling industry to get themselves ? or in most cases, their sons ? out of the country. They pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to cross into Iran or Pakistan to more $25,000 for fake papers and flights to places like London or Stockholm.

Thousands of refugees also return each year, but their numbers have been dwindling as the asylum applications rise. Both trends highlight worries among Afghans about what may happen after 2014, when American and other NATO troops turn security over to the Afghan army and police.

The true numbers of people leaving is likely even higher ? since those who are successfully smuggled abroad often melt into an underground economy. Still, the jump in a rough indicator like asylum seekers suggests the total numbers are also on the rise.

Smuggling people out of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan is a $1 billion-per-year criminal enterprise, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimates. Those who pay to leave often face a risky journey and detention abroad because many developed countries now see many Afghans who flee as illegal economic migrants, not political refugees.

Still, the business finds an eager clientele in Afghans such as Ahmad, an unemployed 20-year-old in Kabul. He has agreed to pay a smuggler $400 to take him over the Iranian border, where he hopes to find work and save up to move on to Europe in a few years. He has no money, but his smuggler is giving him credit ? he'll have a month to pay up once he's in Iran.

"I don't think anything will improve in three or five years, so it's better to leave now," said Ahmad, who expects to leave for Iran within a few weeks. He asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of being arrested.

Ahmad's family fled to Iran during the Taliban's late 1990s rule and returned full of hope after the regime fell. But now, he sees no future in his homeland.

"If foreign troops leave, the situation will only get worse, not better," he said.

That's a view shared by many. Tajma Kurt, who manages an International Organization for Migration program helping Afghans who have returned home, says she's noticed a marked change in ordinary Afghans' outlook since roughly 2007, when the Taliban insurgency began to gain strength and violent attacks increased.

"Before, they were looking for a job, discussing buying a house or whatever," Kurt said. "Now, they are all thinking of leaving because the situation has deteriorated dramatically and they don't see that it's going to get much better."

Devastated by decades of war, Afghanistan is already the world's biggest source of refugees, with more than 3 million of its total population of 30 million still outside the country, most in Iran and Pakistan, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees and the Afghan government.

After the 2001 U.S.-led military intervention that toppled the Taliban, some 5.7 million Afghan refugees returned. The vast majority of those came back in the first five years. The numbers have since dwindled, with about 60,000 refugees returning last year, about half the number as the previous year.

As the pace of returns slowed, the number of Afghans seeking asylum abroad rebounded. In 2011, 30,407 sought asylum through November, the latest available figures.

Driving both trends is not only economic ambition but deep uncertainties about the country's future, says Abdul Samad Hami, deputy minister of Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation.

"Who knows what happens when foreign troops leave Afghanistan? Is it going to get better or worse? Who knows what happens with the foreign aid to Afghanistan ? going down or increasing?" he said.

Some Afghans fear that once most foreign troops leave, the Taliban will take over more territory and civil war could erupt along ethnic lines, as it did in the 1990s. Others worry the Afghan economy will collapse if foreign aid dries up.

The real number of Afghans leaving is unknown, but undoubtedly higher than the asylum figures. The country's foreign ministry recently said 50,000 Afghans illegally entered Greece in the past two years alone, many of them now stranded without passports or money to move farther into Europe. Most of those arranged their journey with smugglers.

For their money, many endure a perilous journey.

Esmat Adine nearly drowned after the overcrowded boat he was on sank off Indonesia late last year, killing at least 200 fellow asylum-seekers headed for Australia. He says he left his wife and infant son at home in Afghanistan and paid $5,000 to travel to Australia after the Taliban threatened to kill him for working with American aid workers. He flew from Kabul to Dubai, then boarded a plane to Jakarta, Indonesia. From there, he was taken to eastern Java and was packed onto the doomed boat.

When the vessel capsized, Adine managed to survive by swimming to a nearby island.

"I swam and swam until I reached the shore," Adine, 24, told The Associated Press in an Indonesian detention center, where he is awaiting a ruling on his legal status. "I thought of how my wife and children are counting on me, of how I must earn a good life in Australia, free from intimidation."

He says he still hopes to be able to enter Australia and send for his family.

Australia has vowed to crack down on asylum-seekers but has been forced to relax a policy of mandatory detention because its detention camps are dangerously overcrowded.

Hami, the Afghan refugee official, says the country has come a long way and if the transition goes smoothly, fewer people will want to leave. But he conceded that depends on whether the government can provide security and jobs.

"If the situation gets worse, people will go out. If the situation gets better, people will return."

___

Associated Press reporters Massieh Neshat in Kabul and Ali Kotarumalos in Indonesia contributed to this report.

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

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$35 Gadget Streams Video From iPad to TV Using AirPlay [Video]

The Raspberry Pi project is trying to offer you a thumb-drive sized PC for $35, which is amazing. Only, it just got more amazing, because it can use AirPlay to stream video from your iPad to your TV. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/q5p5TdS4TAM/the-35-raspberry-pi-can-stream-video-from-ipad-to-tv-using-airplay

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Swizz Beatz's Megaupload Shut Down By Feds

Action is among largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States, Department of Justice confirms in statement to MTV News.
By Rob Markman

Swizz Beatz
Photo: Johnny Nunez/ WireImage

Megaupload's problems continue to mount. On Wednesday, news broke that the popular file-sharing site had come under fire after Universal Music Group took issue with a promotional video featuring Universal Music Group artists like Kanye West, will.i.am and Diddy. Now, the site run by Swizz Beatz has been shut down.

On Thursday (January 19), the federal government took the action against Megaupload.com, and also arrested several members of the company, hitting them with multiple racketeering and copyright infringement charges, according to a statement issued to MTV News by the U.S. Department of Justice. A federal indictment alleges that the site, which allows users to transfer large files, has generated more than $175 million in criminal proceed and costs copyright-holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated movies, albums and other materials.

Swizz Beatz, Megaupload's CEO, was not charged in the indictment which was handed down on January 5, and as of now, it is unclear how the producer/rapper's involvement with the company will play into the case. The Associated Press reported that Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (also known as Kim Schmitz) was arrested Thursday in New Zealand along with three others.

The Department of Justice said that this is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States. The news broke a day after major websites like Wikipedia and Google protested against the U.S. House of Representatives' Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Senate's similar Protect IP act.

Representatives for Swizz Beatz had not responded to MTV News' request for comment at press time.

Related Artists

• Swizz Beatz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677579/swizz-beatz-megaupload-shut-down.jhtml

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Leap Second Granted Extra Time

Image: Tom Grill/Getty

From Nature magazine

Clocks around the world are routinely adjusted to keep them ticking in synchrony with the rising and setting of the Sun ? but is that effort just a waste of time? That was the issue under debate this week by the World Radiocommunication Assembly of the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, Switzerland.

Delegates from about 150 countries discussed whether to stop adding a second ? called a leap second ? to calendars every year or so, a practice that keeps atomic clocks in step with Earth's rotation and the position of the Sun in the sky. But participants reached a state of confusion, rather than consensus, so the decision about the leap-second's fate has been deferred to 2015.

Since 1972, international time zones have been defined against Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is based on signals averaged from around 400 atomic clocks. Leap seconds are added in at a rate of about one minute every 60-90 years. But nations disagree about whether the second is actually needed

Opening Thursday's debate was the US delegate, Paul Najarian, Director of Telecommunications and Standards at the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (America). Najarian pointed out some of the technical headaches that leap seconds cause: they cannot be preprogrammed into software, for example, because they are typically announced only six months in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in Frankfurt, Germany. Introducing them manually raises the risk of inconsistencies between computer systems, which can cause them to crash. To avoid the safety hazards associated with losing crucial time-keeping signals, most satellite navigation systems already maintain their own internal clocks, and they don't use the leap second.

But the British delegation leapt to the leap-second's defence. "The United Kingdom is strongly opposed to coming up with a new conception of time, without good reason," says Peter Whibberley, a physicist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.

Both sides had a handful of backers from other nations, but many of the delegates ? a mixture of government represenatives and technical experts ? were simply not prepared for the proposal, and said they needed more information before deciding.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on January 20, 2012.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=315b466afc7eba9101bacbcfa9653cb6

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School tells kids to wear purple for Ravens rally

Roland Park Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore is having a Ravens-sponsored rally today, as the team gears up for its AFC Championship game with New England. But students there should not plan to attend if they don?t buy some Baltimore Ravens gear. Because anyone who tries to show up in regular school clothes will be banished to the library.

At least that was the edict included in a notice sent by some Roland Park teachers this week, reports the Baltimore Sun. The notice reads:

?Students must wear purple or Ravens attire to attend, as there will be many TV cameras there,? one teacher wrote to parents in an email obtained by The Baltimore Sun. ?Not wearing purple or Ravens attire means making a choice not to attend.?

Another teacher emailed that ?students must wear purple in order to attend. If your child does not wear purple or you do not wish them to attend, I believe staff will supervise the students in the library.?

Students not wearing purple will be forced to weave blankets in the school sweat shop all day for 12 cents per hour!

It?s all part of the Ravens? Purple Friday Caravan Pep Rally, which will stop at a handful of area schools. But Melanie LeGrande, director of community relations for the Ravens, told the Sun that the team is not insisting on purple attire, and that they are ?concerned? that certain students might be barred from the rally. ?The Ravens are about inclusivity,? LeGrande said.

And I believe her. Proof of that is the continued employment of Joe Flacco.

Roland Park parent Mark Brody, a Steelers fan, is not amused.

?I like the town getting behind the team. I like Purple Friday,? Brody said. ?But this is about standing up for their right to just be themselves, to not have to pretend that you?re a Ravens fan to go to an event during the school day. I shouldn?t have to send my kid to school to have them sit in the library.?

The school is now saying that the teacher emails were ?a miscommunication.? No students will be barred from the rally for not wearing purple. And the only ones sent to the library will be those who show up late.

***
Purple Pride overzealous at Roland Park school, say some parents [Baltimore Sun]

Source: http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2012/01/20/baltimore-elementary-school-forces-students-to-wear-purple-during-ravens-rally-or-they-will-be-sent-to-the-library/related/

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D?claration de l'honorable Vic Toews, ministre de la S?curit? publique du Canada, ? propos du d?c?s du Dave Brolin de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada

17 janv. 2012 23h53 HE

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - 17 jan. 2012) - ? Au nom du gouvernement du Canada, j'aimerais offrir mes sinc?res condol?ances et sympathies ? la famille, aux amis et aux coll?gues de Dave Brolin d?c?d? aujourd'hui.

C'est une journ?e tr?s triste pour tous les Canadiens. La mort d'un membre de notre police nationale nous rappelle tristement les sacrifices et la bravoure des hommes et des femmes qui servent tous les jours pour prot?ger nos collectivit?s. ?

Suivez S?curit? publique Canada (@Safety_Canada) sur Twitter.

Source: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=1607924&sourceType=3

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ZTE reaches for the sky, aims to double phone shipments in 2012

Talk about a New Years Resolution: ZTE's head of handset strategy Lv Qianhao, in an interview with Reuters, mentioned that in 2012 his company expects to double the number of smartphone shipments made last year, as well as expand its Windows Phone efforts. While we're not completely certain as to what that specific number was, Lv stated that it far exceeded its target of 12 million. Regardless of how much it shipped last year, we can't imagine it would be terribly easy to double it, but it signifies ZTE's intent to grow and expand in markets like the US and China. This news seems to coincide with the company's plans to introduce high-end LTE-capable smartphones in the US market in the middle of this year. Does this mean the OEM will be pushing hard to gain more acceptance from stateside carriers? If it results in new top-notch devices coming into the market, then we sure hope so.

ZTE reaches for the sky, aims to double phone shipments in 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/17/zte-double-shipments-2012/

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