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Cyclists protest at budget cuts

Wisconsin governor faces threat of recall Scott Walker, Wisconsin's governor, faces the prospect of becoming only the third US governor in history to be recalled from office, with his opponents expected on Tuesday to submit enough signatures to force a referendum on his continued rule. Mr Walker prompted weeks of mass protests, including an occupation of the state capitol building, last year when he proposed scrapping collective bargaining rights for most public-sector workers in Wisconsin, a move he said was necessary to tackle a projected $3.6bn budget deficit. After the bill eventually became law, critics of Mr Walker vowed to remove him from office. They launched a drive last year to collect enough signatures to prompt a recall election, and are expected on Tuesday to present at least 720,000 names demanding a vote, well above the 540,000 needed. Mr Walker's budget proposal turned Wisconsin into the site of a national political tug of war, with liberals and small-government conservatives from across the US facing off in the Badger state. Barack Obama attacked the Walker plan as "an assault on unions," while John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, said Mr Obama's "own political machine" was helping to organise "Greece-like" protests in Wisconsin. The outcome of the recall effort - which also reflects the frustration of America's squeezed middle class - will be closely followed in Washington, where Wisconsin is expected to be a key battleground state for President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election. The issue of collective bargaining has caused political confrontations across the US Midwest, in a host of states that Mr Obama hopes to win to ensure his re-election. Voters in Ohio, a critical swing state, rejected a law that limited state workers" collective bargaining rights and forced them to pay more towards their healthcare and pension costs, in a referendum in November. In Indiana, the state legislature is considering contentious "right to work" legislation, which would make it illegal for work contracts to require employees to pay union dues. A similar proposal is likely to be tabled in Michigan later this year. In Wisconsin, Mr Walker's critics have widened the campaign beyond collective bargaining, saying he also has failed to live up to his self-promotion as a job creator and attacking him for joining other Republican governors in rejecting federal funding for building passenger rail infrastructure. The recall election, which is likely to be scheduled for the middle of this year, is forecast to cost Wisconsin $9m. "This selfish effort is expected to cost our local governments millions of dollars, but the Democrats continue to show that no price is too high for a grab at the governor's mansion," said the Republican Party of Wisconsin. The recall effort is also targeting Rebecca Kleefisch, Mr Walker's deputy, and four Republican state senators.

How Punjab governor's killer became a hero

CNN Iowa Insiders Survey: Will Iowa's evangelicals pick the GOP nominee? Michele Bachmann talks about her faith while campaigning in Corning, Iowa, in the last days days before the Iowa caucuses. Iowa evangelicals wield power in the GOP presidential selection process Bachmann, Perry and Santorum are favorites among social conservatives But their ability to consolidate power is questioned Washington (CNN) -- We all know about the power of born-again and evangelical voters in the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses. Four years ago, three out of every five Iowans who attended a GOP precinct caucus described themselves that way, and they handed Baptist minister and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee an upset victory over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum would like to repeat that trick again on Tuesday. Whether 60% of the 2012 Iowa GOP caucus vote will be made up of self-described born-again or evangelical voters again, and whether any one of those candidates will be able to scoop up almost half of them as as Huckabee did, remains to be seen. But even if Bachmann, Perry or Santorum can repeat Huckabee's feat, then what? New Hampshire's Yankee Republicans have been notoriously skeptical of what they perceive as holy rollers roaring out of Iowa. Huckabee could only manage a distant third-place finish with 11% of the vote in the 2008 Granite State primary. And when the 1988 Iowa caucuses elevated televangelist Pat Robertson with a second-place finish that year, he could only manage a fifth-place showing and 9% of the vote in the New Hampshire GOP primary. Both Huckabee and Robertson quickly headed to South Carolina to try to resuscitate their campaigns in its primary, but there were no revivals: Huckabee finished second there, and Robertson third. CNN surveyed 64 Iowa GOP insiders, including state legislators, local elected and party officials, veterans of previous caucus campaigns, and other party operatives, and asked them if a relatively strong showing by any of this year's more conservative trio could lead to a legitimate run for the GOP nomination by rallying the faith vote. And in the state that knows that vote well, there were doubters. If Bachmann, Perry or Santorum is able to finish in the top three in the caucuses, do you think that candidate will be able to consolidate the born-again/evangelical vote and become a significant factor in the GOP nominating contest? • Yes: 46% • No: 54% The Iowa GOP insiders' skepticism was informed in part at least by what happened four years ago. "Huckabee couldn't do it and he was a much better candidate," observed one Iowa GOP insider. Maybe Santorum or Bachmann or Perry could consolidate the religious vote for a while, allowed another GOP insider: "Be a significant factor in the GOP nominating contest? No, the Huckabee campaign confirmed this in 2008. RELATED: Two out of three think Romney will win RELATED: Some Iowa Republicans want more options And even several of those yeses were qualified. "Bachmann and Perry are finished, they just don't know it yet," said one Iowa GOP insider dismissively. Santorum could ride the wave for a while, but I doubt to the nomination. Another echoed, "Santorum could become the anti-Mitt, but (the) lack of a national organization and fundraising will be an impediment. He'd need to suddenly catch fire in South Carolina and he'll have a tough time with resources in Florida. The CNN Iowa GOP insiders were surveyed from the evening of December 27 through the morning of December 30. Most of the survey was conducted over the Internet; some interviews were conducted by phone. The Iowa insiders were given anonymity for their individual answers in order to encourage candid responses. And while some insiders were aligned with one or another of the presidential campaigns, more than two-thirds said they had not endorsed and were not working for any candidate in the race. Here are the names of the participants in the survey: Chad Airhart, Tim Albrecht, Bill Anderson, Lon Anderson, Becky Beach, Carmine Boal, Jeff Boeyink, Michael Bousselot, Danny Carroll, James Centers, Tim Coonan, Peter Cownie, Mikel Derby, Paula Dierenfeld, Brian Dumas, Ed Failor Jr., Susan Fenton, Brenna Findley, Christian Fong, Dave Funk, Tracie Gilbert, John Gilliland, Gary Grant, Pat Grassley, Adam Gregg, Sandy Greiner, Steve Grubbs, Chris Hagenow, Robert Haus, Erik Helland, Matt Hinch, Mark Hudson, Caleb Hunter, Stew Iverson, David Jamison, Eric Johansen, Jake Ketzner, Gary Kirke, Jeff Lamberti, Jill Latham, Don McDowell, Christopher McGowan, Bill Northey, Chad Olsen, Noreen Otto, Christopher Rants, Steve Roberts, Craig Robinson, Dave Roederer, Brett Rogers, Richard Rogers, Stacey Rogers, Nick Ryan, Renne Schulte, Rich Schwarm, Mike St. Clair, Suzan Stewart, Ted Stopulos, Cameron Sutton, Ed Wallace, Andy Warren, Nicole Woodroffe, Eric Woolson, Grant Young.

BBC News - Week in pictures: 21-27 January 2012

Holmes and Watson 'just good friends' The problem is, [the jokes] fuel the fantasy of the few into flames for the many. People presume that's what it is, but it's not. The actor, 35, said there was a huge amount of "weird fan fiction" on the internet, where people "write stories and do manga cartoons of what they think you get up to behind closed doors. Some of it's funny. Some of it's full-on sex. Downey Jr's portrayal of Holmes in the recent Hollywood films, the second of which has just been released, prompted a wave of speculation. In 2009, he raised the possibility that Holmes was a "very butch homosexual," and he has described the lead characters as "two men who happen to be room-mates, wrestle a lot and share a bed." Roger Johnson, the editor of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, said that in the original stories the Victorian detective is "essentially asexual with no erotic interest in women or men" and that Watson is "something of a ladies" man but a faithful husband to his wife." Mark Gatiss, co-creator of the BBC series, said: "We've had lots of fun with the notion that, in the 21st century, people naturally assume they are a couple. The stuff that people really enjoy is the relationship between them. The banter and the rows and the proper feeling between them, which really leaps off the screen. Freeman, 40, who plays Dr Watson, said he did not think there was anything sexual in the relationship. There are a lot of people hoping that our characters are rampantly at it. If you want to think that they are secretly at it, then you can, but we've never played anything like that.

Martha Graham Dance Company pitches cybercontest Jan 18 04:07 PM US/Eastern NEW YORK (AP) - The Martha Graham Dance Company wants to know: What are you thinking - or feeling? That's the question participants must answer in an online competition called "On the Couch: An Inner Monologue." The company has posted two videos on its website, one of a man and another of a woman performing the roles of patients at a therapy session. Participants must create their own videos to show what they feel while watching the dancers; it can be as simple as words on a screen. Call it free therapy - or an effort by the famed New York ensemble to draw new audiences in tough economic times. The winning entry will be showcased during Martha Graham performances in March. The submission deadline is Feb. 15. On the Couch: http://onthecouchcompetition.tumblr.com

JPMorgan's results drag down stocks Summary Box: JPMorgan's results drag down stocks Jan 13 06:15 PM US/Eastern FIRST UP: A rare disappointing earnings report from JPMorgan Chase, the country's largest bank, battered bank stocks and pushed the market lower. Among traders, the thinking was that if JPMorgan had trouble in the final quarter of 2011, the rest of the industry probably did, too. GALLIC SHRUG: Markets were little changed after France's finance minister confirmed that S&P had stripped the country of its AAA credit rating. The markets have been expecting a downgrade for months. NOT BAD SO FAR: Even with Friday's fall, the three major indexes posted gains for the second straight week.

New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who's accountable? The Navy's new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It's designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers. What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all. The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently. Although humans would program an autonomous drone's flight plan and could override its decisions, the prospect of heavily armed aircraft screaming through the skies without direct human control is unnerving to many. "Lethal actions should have a clear chain of accountability," said Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist and robotics expert. This is difficult with a robot weapon. The robot cannot be held accountable. So is it the commander who used it? The politician who authorized it? The military's acquisition process? The manufacturer, for faulty equipment? Sharkey and others believe that autonomous armed robots should force the kind of dialogue that followed the introduction of mustard gas in World War I and the development of atomic weapons in World War II. The International Committee of the Red Cross, the group tasked by the Geneva Conventions to protect victims in armed conflict, is already examining the issue. "The deployment of such systems would reflect ... a major qualitative change in the conduct of hostilities," committee President Jakob Kellenberger said at a recent conference. The capacity to discriminate, as required by [international humanitarian law], will depend entirely on the quality and variety of sensors and programming employed within the system. Weapons specialists in the military and Congress acknowledge that policymakers must deal with these ethical questions long before these lethal autonomous drones go into active service, which may be a decade or more away. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said policy probably will first be discussed with the bipartisan drone caucus that he co-chairs with Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). Officially known as the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, the panel was formed in 2009 to inform members of Congress on the far-reaching applications of drone technology. "It's a different world from just a few years ago - we've entered the realm of science fiction in a lot of ways," Cuellar said. New rules have to be developed as new technology comes about, and this is a big step forward. Aerial drones now piloted remotely have become a central weapon for the CIA and U.S. military in their campaign against terrorists in the Middle East. The Pentagon has gone from an inventory of a handful of drones before Sept. 11, 2001, to about 7,500 drones, about one-third of all military aircraft. Despite looming military spending cuts, expenditures on drones are expected to take less of a hit, if any, because they are cheaper to build and operate than piloted aircraft. All military services are moving toward greater automation with their robotic systems. Robotic armed submarines could one day stalk enemy waters, and automated tanks could engage soldiers on the battlefield. "More aggressive robotry development could lead to deploying far fewer U.S. military personnel to other countries, achieving greater national security at a much lower cost and most importantly, greatly reduced casualties," aerospace pioneer Simon Ramo, who helped develop the intercontinental ballistic missile, wrote in his new book, "Let Robots Do the Dying." The Air Force wrote in an 82-page report that outlines the future usage of drones, titled "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047," that autonomous drone aircraft are key "to increasing effects while potentially reducing cost, forward footprint and risk." Much like a chess master can outperform proficient chess players, future drones will be able to react faster than human pilots ever could, the report said. And with that potential comes new concerns about how much control of the battlefield the U.S. is willing to turn over to computers. There is no plan by the U.S. military - at least in the near term - to turn over the killing of enemy combatants to the X-47B or any other autonomous flying machine. But the Air Force said in the "Flight Plan" that it's only a matter of time before drones have the capability to make life-or-death decisions as they circle the battlefield. Even so, the report notes that officials will still monitor how these drones are being used. "Increasingly humans will no longer be 'in the loop' but rather 'on the loop' - monitoring the execution of certain decisions," the report said. Authorizing a machine to make lethal combat decisions is contingent upon political and military leaders resolving legal and ethical questions. Peter W. Singer, author of "Wired for War," a book about robotic warfare, said automated military targeting systems are under development. But before autonomous aerial drones are sent on seek-and-destroy missions, he said, the military must first prove that it can pull off simpler tasks, such as refueling and reconnaissance missions. That's where the X-47B comes in. "Like it or not, autonomy is the future," Singer said. The X-47 is one of many programs that aim to perfect the technology. The X-47B is an experimental jet - that's what the X stands for - and is designed to demonstrate new technology, such as automated takeoffs, landings and refueling. The drone also has a fully capable weapons bay with a payload capacity of 4,500 pounds, but the Navy said it has no plans to arm it. The Navy is now testing two of the aircraft, which were built behind razor-wire fences at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s expansive complex in Palmdale, where the company manufactured the B-2 stealth bomber. Funded under a $635.8-million contract awarded by the Navy in 2007, the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration program has grown in cost to an estimated $813 million. Last February, the first X-47B had its maiden flight from Edwards Air Force Base, where it continued testing until last month when it was carried from the Mojave Desert to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in southern Maryland. It is there that the next stage of the demonstration program begins. The drone is slated to first land on a carrier by 2013, relying on pinpoint GPS coordinates and advanced avionics. The carrier's computers digitally transmit the carrier's speed, cross-winds and other data to the drone as it approaches from miles away. The X-47B will not only land itself, but will also know what kind of weapons it is carrying, when and where it needs to refuel with an aerial tanker, and whether there's a nearby threat, said Carl Johnson, Northrop's X-47B program manager. It will do its own math and decide what it should do next.

Ford Posts Third-Straight Annual Profit DEARBORN, Mich. - The Ford Motor Company reported its third-consecutive full-year profit on Friday and the largest in 13 years, as strong sales in North America overshadowed higher commodity costs and losses in other parts of the world. The one-time gain, which eliminates most of a tax allowance created when the company was bleeding billions of dollars in 2006, indicates that Ford expects to continue earning substantial profits in the coming years, according to Ford's chief financial officer, Lewis W. K. Booth. By region, the company earned an operating profit of $6.2 billion for the year in North America but lost a total of $119 million in its Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. The net profit was equal to $4.94 a share, up from $1.56 a share a year earlier, when Ford earned $6.6 billion. The North American results mean 41,600 hourly workers in the United States will receive $6,200 in profit-sharing bonuses for 2011. It had $22.9 billion in automotive cash, up $5.6 billion for the year. Mr. Booth said the challenging economy in Europe and flooding in Thailand hurt fourth-quarter earnings. Commodity costs also ended up being higher than expected, he said. "The quarter was really driven by North America," he told reporters at Ford's headquarters on Friday. We saw the external environment deteriorate, and that really affected most regions other than North America. The accounting gain means that, on paper, Ford has recovered nearly all of the $30.1 billion it lost from 2006 through 2008. In the three years since, the company's profit totaled $29.5 billion. Ford created the tax valuation allowance in 2006, when Mr. Mulally joined the company as its performance was in a downward spiral and it mortgaged most assets to raise money. The losses meant Ford could no longer keep many deferred tax assets on its books, but after posting 11 consecutive profitable quarters it was able to release nearly all of that allowance. With the automotive market in the United States improving, Ford said it expected operating profit to increase in 2012 and for profit margins to be equal to or better than 2011. The company said it planned to contribute $3.5 billion to its underfunded pension plans, including $2 billion in the United States. Ford sold 11 percent more cars and trucks at American dealerships in 2011, with big gains for its redesigned Explorer sport utility vehicle and year-old Fiesta subcompact car. This year, it is bringing out revamped versions of the Fusion midsize sedan and Escape crossover vehicle, along with several plug-in vehicles and hybrids. Mr. Booth said Ford would be able to improve its performance in the years ahead not only by increasing sales but also by operating more efficiently, which is a central focus of its turnaround plan, known as One Ford. "We're really only at the beginning of getting the benefits of One Ford," Mr. Booth said.

Artist wins contest to design 50p Olympic judo coin

NYPD commissioner's son investigated over rape allegations, source says January 26, 2012 -- Updated 2129 GMT (0529 HKT) Prosecutors are looking into allegations that Greg Kelly, 43, committed the crime three months ago, a source says. The district attorney's office says it "will not confirm or deny an investigation" Kelly's attorney says he is aware the district attorney is investigating his client Kelly is currently a co-anchor on "Good Day New York" on the New York station WNYW New York (CNN) -- Prosecutors are investigating allegations that New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's son, who is a local television anchor in Manhattan, raped a woman three months ago, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Thursday. The official, who declined to be named citing the sensitive nature of the probe, said the Manhattan district attorney's office is currently handling the investigation of Greg Kelly, 43, due to the apparent conflict of interest with the New York Police Department. District attorney spokeswoman Joan Vollero said that her office "will not confirm or deny an investigation." Police spokesman Paul Browne declined to comment. The New York Times, citing a law enforcement official, reported that a woman and her sister reported the incident Tuesday night. After the alleged attack, a man presumed to be the boyfriend of the alleged victim sought out the elder Kelly at a public event, according to the initial source. The man said to the commissioner that his "son's ruining my girlfriend's life,'" the source said. Kelly asked 'What do you mean by that,' the source added. "But the person said there were too many people around, and so the commissioner told the man to write him a letter," the source said. It could not be confirmed if that occurred. Andrew Lankler, an attorney for the younger Kelly, who has not been charged with a crime, said he is aware the district attorney is investigating his client. He said the newsman is "cooperating fully." "We know that the district attorney's investigation will prove Mr. Kelly's innocence," Lankler added. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also weighed in Thursday, saying that "everyone has a right to have their complaints investigated." "I also point out that as far as I know, Greg Kelly has not been charged with anything ... so I don't know how that is going to turn out, but I think any questions you have are going to have to be addressed to the district attorney," he said. Kelly is currently a co-anchor on "Good Day New York" on the New York local Fox station WNYW, and was formerly the co-anchor of "FOX & Friends Weekend." He spent nine years as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps prior to his career in news. Kelly did not anchor the Thursday morning show. His station reported the allegation but declined to offer additional comment, referring press inquiries to Kelly's attorney.

Police told to reopen Chhokar case A police force has been told to reopen the investigation into the murder of an Asian man more than 13 years ago. The family of Surjit Singh Chhokar met with Scotland's top law officer today who confirmed Strathclyde Police have been instructed to carry out further investigations into his murder under double jeopardy legislation. Mr Chhokar was stabbed to death outside the home he shared with his girlfriend in Overtown, Lanarkshire, on November 4 1998. The murder, which has been dubbed "Scotland's Stephen Lawrence," sparked controversy after the failure of authorities to secure a conviction for his killing despite the arrests of three men and two subsequent trials. Today, the waiter's family met Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland and the Solicitor General Lesley Thomson to ask for a reopening of the case. Reform of Scotland's centuries-old double jeopardy law, which came into force at the end of last year, means the men originally accused of the murder could face a retrial. Speaking after the meeting at the Crown Office in Edinburgh, the family's solicitor said there are "significant hurdles to cross." Aamer Anwar, speaking on behalf of the Chhokar family, said: "Thirteen years ago as Surjit's family began their struggle for justice, every step required their sacrifice and suffering. Surjit was described as Scotland's Stephen Lawrence, so when two of Stephen's killers finally faced justice because of the double jeopardy law, the Chhokar family dared to hope that that justice was still possible for Surjit. The Lord Advocate and Solicitor General have taken important steps today, but there are significant hurdles to cross. The family believe there is a determination to fight for justice. He added: "Today is a second chance for the Crown Office to do the right thing but also to show there has been a positive change 13 years later. Surjit's family will only ever be at peace when there is justice. It is now up to the Lord Advocate and Strathclyde Police to do all that is possible. The Solicitor General said: "The prosecution service is committed to make use of the powers under the new Double Jeopardy legislation. The Scottish Parliament, in passing the Act, has clearly stated that the passage of time since an acquittal should be no protection for those for whom there is new and compelling evidence of guilt. We hope that our commitment to the new legislation will give reassurance to victims and their families. Last week, Mr Chhokar's sister, Manjit Sangha, told a press conference at the Scottish Parliament of her hopes the change in the law would mean that the murder investigation could be reopened. She said: "People will have forgotten Surjit's name, yet the darkness of his murder still shadows our lives. The recent changes in the law once again gave us hope.

The Real Legacy of Newt Gingrich DO you think that after all is said and done, Newt Gingrich will just go down in history as the politician who conclusively proved that voters don't care about a candidate's sexual misbehavior? From top, Joe Raedle/Getty Images; Alan Mothner/Associated Press; Bud Skinner, Atlanta Journal Constitution, via Associated Press Newt Gingrich with, from top, his current wife, Callista; his second wife, Marianne; and his daughters, Jackie Sue (front) and Kathy (left), and his first wife, Jackie. Imagine the history students of 2112, reading about the early 21st century on their vaporphones, or whatever they have by then. They would get to this presidential campaign and there would be a little footnote saying that despite a totally outrageous marital history, Newt Gingrich won the presidential primary in one of the most socially conservative states in the country. Maybe there would be a clip of him making the how-dare-you-sir speech to CNN's John King. Probably not exactly what Newt has in mind. Perhaps things will go differently. Maybe, despite his blah debate performances in Florida, Newt will do well in this week's primary, and go on to win the nomination, become president and build lots of moon colonies while saving America from Shariah law and the corrosive effects of the writing of Saul Alinsky. But if not, he'll still be the guy who managed to become a credible presidential candidate despite the three wives, the serial adultery, etc. etc. etc. He had a lot of help from the voters. In South Carolina, only 31 percent of the people interviewed by Public Policy Polling said they believed the second Mrs. Gingrich when she told ABC that her husband had asked her to share his sexual favors with his longtime mistress, who is now the third Mrs. G. Presumably they believed Newt, who said that he had "witnesses" who were eager to go to ABC and denounce the story. Although the Gingrich campaign now says the proffered witnesses didn't really exist. Except for his daughters by his first marriage. Who truly would not seem to be the best possible experts on whether Newt wanted to have whoopee rights to both their stepmothers. If Gingrich loses the Florida primary, I hope it is for the crime of middle-aged-child abuse. But about that open-marriage poll question: I believe that what the voters were actually saying was that they didn't want to hear about it. The American public has a long history of ignoring the private lives of elected officials whenever possible. They gave up on politicians as role models somewhere around Richard Nixon. Perhaps the critical moment came when voters decided to elect Bill Clinton president despite what were very clear storm warnings about his tendency to wander off, sexually speaking. Which was followed by the public's very clear decision to keep Bill Clinton even after he was caught in behavior that, really, even the head of Hedonists Inc. could not possibly have thought was a good idea. And it all worked out! Now Clinton is Beloved Ex-President Clinton, and everybody keeps sighing over how great things were when the prince of bad behavior was in charge. That goes for the social right, too. They are going to go for the guy who they think will carry out their agenda. Even if he is, say, an anti-abortion crusader whose ex-wife swore that he took her to get an abortion. See: former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr. The far right seems to be particularly indifferent to bad-behavior issues. Maybe this is because their supporters know that sinning social conservatives operate at a disadvantage. It is way easier to avoid the hypocrisy label if you're a straying civil libertarian whose family values speeches mainly involve encouraging kids to donate money to feed impoverished people in Africa. You're not going to be charged with speaking out of both sides of your mouth when the first side is talking about supporting Doctors Without Borders. Conservative voters also like expressions of remorse and promises to reform. When all else fails, they have even been known to argue that everybody does it. "I'm just saying, they all have stinky feet," former Congressman J. C. Watts, a Baptist preacher, said while he was campaigning for Newt in South Carolina.

Rushdie says he was lied to about threats JAIPUR, India, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Indian-born author Salman Rushdie says he believes police lied to him about hit men having been hired to kill him if he attended the Jaipur literary festival. Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" has been banned in India since it was published in 1988 and he has long been a target of Muslim extremists who condemn the book as blasphemous. Rushdie was confirmed to attend the Jaipur literary festival, but backed out last week just before it started because he said Rajasthan police told organizers two assassins had been hired by a known Islamist to kill him. The director-general of the Maharashtra police, which handles organized crime in the country, denied any knowledge of the alleged plot to The Hindu newspaper during the weekend. The denial prompted Rushdie to take to Twitter Sunday and complain: "I've investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry," the Daily Telegraph newspaper in London said.

Last orders for the Working Men's Club? Although the club is popular with local East End residents, its secretary, Peter Bell, is far from upbeat about the future. The problem, he explains, is that it's only busy at weekends. Revenue is propped up by West Ham supporters (who drink there after home matches at neighbouring Upton Park stadium) and if they proceed to move grounds to the Olympics site it could mean the club's closure. It hasn't always been like this. Twenty years ago, when Bell first arrived, it was a thriving place, with around 1,800 members and a busy lunchtime trade throughout the week. Weekends were packed, with the big concert hall on the first floor hosting bingo and discos. Nowadays the grandiose space more often acts as a poignant reminder of the club's glory days than it does as a function room. The downstairs bar does at least retain much of the old atmosphere at weekends, with many of its current 1,100 members regularly enjoying live entertainment from local acts. Before winning the X Factor, Alexandra Burke honed her performing skills here. In their heyday, WMCs were a focal point for community get-togethers. This photo was taken in 1973 in Newcastle. Image: Homer Sykes Archive / Alamy Nearby in Tower Hamlets, another working men's club is entertaining a different crowd: its ballroom heaves with young hipsters in vintage dresses and suits as they jive to rockabilly and watch off-kilter performers on the stage. When Warren Dent started running popular themed nights at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club in 2001, it was once a month and just for fun. This changed a few years ago when the club was faced with closure due to financial problems. Dent made the club's members an offer: "I asked them to give me the chance to keep their club open." The venue began to admit the general public. "They want it to feel like it's still their place," Dent says, "and they tell you when they've had enough. But they're grateful too. For a lot of them, this place is their life. Kate Nash performs at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. Image: AlamyCelebrity / Alamy Thanks to his nights, this is one WMC that is still going strong. However, Dent admits that it's a struggle to keep going. Away from the main road, it only generates income from weekend trade and operating costs are massive. Bell faces similar problems. Both men say no straight-thinking business investor would get involved. Yet both remain driven to keep the clubs going. "I love the movement, I believe in what it stands for and that's why I'm still struggling away, doing my best to support it," declares Slasberg, whose own club in Northampton still faces pressure despite having 2,000 members. He cites changing government regulations as a major contributing factor in the decline of the clubs; "open all hours" shops, cheap alcohol in supermarkets and the smoking ban have all had an impact. The number of WMCs in the country has halved over the last three decades. Image: Mark Henderson / Alamy So, given the challenges, can the WMC survive? Both Bethnal Green and East Ham demonstrate the financial benefits of opening to the public, yet Slasberg is not convinced: "The private part of a WMC is part of its character; if we just become pubs then the social side goes out of the window." He would like to see an influx of new members. The organisation welcomes all social and professional backgrounds, although not everybody seems to realise that. To survive, Slasberg believes the WMC needs to broaden its appeal to the younger generation. This, however, isn't a problem in East Ham, where membership is still passed on from father to son. The sons come here when they're kids and become members when they're 18. They sign their friends in as guests and then the mates want to become members too, so we have a lot of young people," Bell explains. Most pubs in the area don't welcome young adults, yet in the club they never have any problems with them. According to Bell, the fact that WMCs are owned by their members (you become a shareholder automatically on acquiring membership) encourages good behaviour. In addition, they have a strict members" code: anyone who doesn't abide by the rules is barred from all 2000 WMCs in the UK. Reflecting on last summer's riots, Bell believes it would help if there were more clubs for young Londoners to join: "The lads and girls in here are respectful, they know to behave themselves... because they see it all around and they care about the club." With club membership costing anything between £3 and £60 annually, it's a cheap entertainment option for recession-hit communities. Furthermore, the clubs themselves are inexpensive places, where someone can just sit and have a game of cards with their friends and simply socialise. "That is," Slasberg concludes, "a very important part of the role of the working men's club." Back in East Ham, Bell is getting ready for another weekend. An elderly man, presently the only customer, sits at a table with a pint of ale and packet of crisps. "I just wish," Bell says wistfully, looking around him, "that Newham council would come down here on a Saturday night. It's like a party, with 80-year-olds up dancing, young and old people together. They would think, "Yeah, this is good for our borough, why don't we do something to help provide this service." Because there are plenty of people who want that service, of that I can assure you. Hannah Marshall is a freelance journalist specialising in social and community issues and the arts.

US war drill postponed over Iran tensions JERUSALEM - The United States and Israel have postponed their largest-ever military drill to avoid aggravating mounting tensions between Iran and the international community. The missile defense exercise, "Austere Challenge 12," was scheduled for April to improve defense systems and cooperation between U.S. and Israeli forces. NBC's Richard Engel and former CIA officer Bob Baer share the latest about the assassination of a nuclear scientist in Iran. Defense officials told the Associated Press the drill won't take place before the second half of 2012. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the decision, which they say was taken on Sunday. Thousands of American and Israeli soldiers were to take part in the exercise, which was designed to test multiple Israeli and U.S. air defense systems against incoming missiles and rockets from places as far away as Iran. Tensions in the region have been raised by a war of words between the U.S. and Iran over the presence of American aircraft carriers in the strategically-imported Strait of Hormuz and the assassination last week of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran. Iranian officials, who maintain that their nuclear research is intended for peaceful purposes, accused Israel and the U.S. of responsibility for the attack. Both denied involvement. The Los Angeles Times reported that the drill was first planned following concerns Israel was preparing an unannounced attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. The paper said the American and U.S. officials were "in close contact on defense matters" but that "Jerusalem and Washington are at odds" over how aggressively to tackle the Iran nuclear issue. U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is scheduled to arrive in Israel this week for talks with his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Times reported. Amir Mirzaei Hekmati was charged with spying for the CIA. NBC's Ali Arouzi reports. Ron Ben-Yishai, military analyst for Israel news website Ynet, reported that Washington's decision to delay the drill was partly related to financial concerns, noting that the US has cut its defense budget for 2012 by $450 billion dollars.

Eight out of 10 guests and presenters on 'Today' programme are men, complains minister He said a lot of women were forced simply to "abandon the radio industry at the age of about 35" because of the lack of career opportunities. Mr Vaizey said he would arrange a meeting between Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, and Tory MP Nadine Dorries who had organised the debate to discuss the concerns. Earlier Ms Dorries had told him if a female presenter is away on "Today" - which has seven million listeners - "one can go two whole hours in the morning when listening to the Today programme without a single female voice and have male voices speaking at you throughout all that time." She was amazed that some septuagenarian broadcasters still worked at the BBC. She said: "Some of them are in their 70s and still in primetime spots, yet those women have been consigned to the graveyard. "If the BBC placed a banner on top of Broadcasting House and wrote on it: "The BBC does not believe that women deserve to be represented on BBC radio," that banner would be 100 per cent accurate." Ms Dorries said she was appalled that Radio 1 DJ "the amazing Annie Nightingale" had been shunted to presenting "one programme, one night a week, from 2 til 4am." She added: "Jo Wiley is on Radio 2 three nights a week from 8 til 9.30pm. That is as good as it gets. Ms Dorries continued that Vanessa Feltz was now broadcasting from 5am til 6.30am and Liz Kershaw, another DJ, had one programme on 6Music on Saturday afternoons. She said: "It is frankly amazing that Annie, Liz, Vanessa and Jo have kept hold of their jobs at all, because we all know what the BBC attitude is to women of a certain age." Ms Dorries claimed that Ms Feltz was only given her slot after an outcry over the way the previous incumbent - Sarah Kennedy - was "harassed out of her Radio 2 early morning slot in the most appalling way after 17 years of service." The problem was also prevalent on television where "it would appear that in the minds of TV bosses the viewing public only enjoy watching ageing male hosts accompanied by young blonde females." She cited the examples of Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly, who present "Strictly Come Dancing" and Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, from ITV's "This Morning." A BBC spokesman said: "Women of all ages feature prominently throughout the BBC's schedules on radio and television. There is of course always more we can do to improve gender balance and it is an issue we take seriously.

Robin Worsnop: Why residents must learn to love tourists By ROBIN WORSNOP Published on Tuesday 24 January 2012 11:58 Locals may grumble about tourists getting in the way and asking stupid questions but, argues Robin Worsnop, without them our city would be a far poorer place Sometimes you hear Edinburgh folk complaining about the tourists clogging up our streets or trying to catch the local buses. They never have the right change ready or even know which bus they want to catch, and it just makes my journey so much longer, or so the complaint goes. And then there are the leisurely paced tourists that amble along the street when you are trying to get to a meeting on time or who stop you to ask for directions to Edinburgh Castle. Then there are those who criticise the city for investing in services for these visitors. We need to remind ourselves just how important these visitors are in contributing to the wealth of the city and to supporting its cultural vibrancy, which we all enjoy. The visitor who comes to Edinburgh contributes to the economic viability of so many of the businesses, helping to make them sustainable so that local residents can benefit from them as well. Apart from the core of the industry, such as visitor attractions, hotels, hostels and guest houses, our visitors spend money all across the city. Taxis, buses, trains, shops of all kinds, restaurants and bars all benefit directly. Many would not survive without them. This has an impact beyond the jobs that are created, it also gives residents a greater choice of where to shop, eat and drink. Without the visitors during the various festivals which we now have all year round, the cultural offering of the city wouldn't survive. I cannot think of anyone in Edinburgh who doesn't appreciate how the Christmas market, fun fair park, ice rink and Christmas lights don't add to our quality of life during December. Without the visitors that these events attract they would not be viable. And what of other industries that exist in the city and provide jobs and wealth? Law, accountancy, finance and real estate firms all have clients who benefit from visitors" spending. The tourism industry in Edinburgh employs 32,000 people in its own right, but its impact goes far beyond those employed within this sector. It underpins much of what Edinburgh folk love about their city. And let's not forget there is a massive amount of things to love about this city. It is one of the most beautiful in the world and many other cities would love to have what Edinburgh has. It's why it's so attractive to our visitors. The World Heritage Old and New Towns put us on a par with Machu Pichu and the Great Wall of China. But we cannot be complacent. There are many cities throughout the world which are competing to attract visitors and the wealth they bring and we need to be mindful that our reputation lies on delivering exceptional experiences to our visitors. They are our guests and we are their hosts. The power of social media today gives consumers the power to drive more business to different destinations. The quality of the welcome from one and all in the city is an increasingly important part of the authentic experience visitors are looking for. Friendly and welcoming locals are what visitors expect when they come here and every interaction they have will combine to either add or detract from their experience and their likelihood to recommend us to their friends. You often hear how people get annoyed that they cannot get about the city as easily when we have a huge influx of visitors during the summer festivals, but it's worth remembering those festivals wouldn't even take place if the visitors weren't here. Beyond all this our visitors add a cosmopolitan flavour to Scotland's capital city, adding colour and variety to our lives. The increase in direct flights to Edinburgh has been fuelled by visitors coming here, but this has also allowed Edinburgh residents to visit other parts of the world more easily as well. It's unlikely that the quality of the restaurants in Edinburgh would have improved so much in the last ten years if there hadn't been the cultural interchange brought by our visitors. It's always worth watching how visitors marvel at Edinburgh's skyline and its beauty and it's a helpful reminder to us all how beautiful this city is, even if the wind is howling and the rain is horizontal. As residents it's something we should be extremely proud of. The visitors make our lives richer in so many ways and it's in all our interests to welcome them wholeheartedly and ensure they have the best experience so they recommend us to their friends so more of them come back and we can continue to enjoy all the benefits they bring with them. Robin Worsnop is chairman of the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group and founder of Rabbie's Trail Burners. The annual ETAG Conference takes place tomorrow from 8.15am to 2.30pm at the John McIntyre Conference Centre, Pollock Halls, Edinburgh. For more information or www.etag.org.uk Visitor spending has increased from £250m in 1990 to more than £1 billion per annum in 2010 - the highest tourism spending in any UK city except London. Tourism-related employment accounts for approximately 12 per cent of the workforce, having increased from 12,000 to 32,000 employees in the last 20 years. Approximately 50 per cent of our leisure tourism consists of repeat visits.

New year, new fake partners for China's young singletons with parents to please The romantic comedy Contract Lover reflects the trend of hiring an escort in an attempt to stop parents matchmaking. Finding a new man to take home for the holidays proved surprisingly easy for Lily Li. He had to be reliable, taciturn - and available for a few hundred yuan. I was not looking for some perfect guy to marry. Just someone tall - my parents like tall guys a lot - honest and not too talkative, so he doesn't say something wrong," explained the 26-year-old. Next week's lunar new year is China's biggest festival. It can also be a major headache for those returning home without a potential spouse. Pressure on young adults to settle down goes into overdrive, as gathering family members begin the inquisition and line up possible candidates. Taking a boyfriend or girlfriend home is a fast way to curb the speculation, which is why Li, like other twentysomethings, has hired a fake partner through an online agency. "My parents want me to get married by 30," the office worker explained. Bringing a 'boyfriend' back home simply means I get less hassle from relatives and my parents will stop worrying about my romantic life. Li will pay him between 500 and 700 yuan (£51-£72) a day - they are still haggling - to accompany her from Beijing to Hunan to meet her parents. "I don't need him to stay long, just one night, New Year's Eve, and he can just say work is busy and he has to go back the next day, like [the guy I hired] last year," she said. She is keeping the meeting deliberately short to prevent her parents learning too much about him. Although she has vetted him over a coffee, she does not really know him and worries he might turn out to be a thief and steal from her home. Despite such potential drawbacks, the phenomenon has become so well established it has spawned films such as Contract Lover and a hit TV drama, Renting a Girlfriend to Return Home for New Year. One man touting his services on Taobao - a popular online shopping site - said a "basic programme" of meeting parents and visiting relatives would cost 300 yuan a day. But, perhaps half-jokingly, he offered optional extras including doing chores (for 70 yuan an hour) and drinking China's lethal baijiu spirit with relatives (at 50 yuan per 100ml). Few "couples" will have to share bedrooms - families tend to be conservative in that regard - but some advertisers spell out the non-sexual nature of the deal, to avoid misunderstanding. This may be wise, since one agent offering fake girlfriends for bachelors did appear to have something else in mind: he was persistent in asking an inquirer whether "other services" were needed. Hu Xingdou, a social commentator at the Beijing Institute of Technology, suggested that the trend for hiring fake partners had emerged from a clash between old and new ideas. Increasing materialism and the pressures of Chinese life made it harder for young people to find a partner, while parents still expected their children to marry young, he said. But it may also reflect another enduring Chinese belief: the importance of being filial. Many people are reluctant to upset their parents by confronting them and would rather pretend to conform. "Taking someone fake home is definitely not what I want, but it at least can cheer up my parents," said Li Huahua, a 23-year-old graduate from Sichuan who used her nickname to preserve anonymity. They expect me to have a boyfriend and get married at 26 or 27. Because I'm lesbian and very certain about my sexuality, it's probably more difficult for me to fulfil their demands and more necessary to find a cover. She has persuaded a male friend to pretend they are a couple so she does not have to hire a stranger. But she still has one major concern: her mother and father might like him. "My parents might accept him as their future son-in-law and ask me to bring him again next year," she said. It's not easy to have the same guy every time.

Part modern, part farmhouse, Alexandria home is testament to architect Goodman By Nancy McKeon Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 18, 2011; 1:29 PM Back in 1952 there was a 100-year-old farmhouse for sale atop a ridge on North Quaker Lane in Alexandria. It sat near the edge of seven acres and, it is said, could boast a view of the Potomac River. Those who looked at buying the old frame dwelling probably thought of two courses of action: Either lovingly restore the simple two-story house or tear it down and use the lot for something new and less modest. But the buyer turned out to be Charles M. Goodman, well on his way to becoming the hottest modern architect of the period in Washington, and he found a third way: He lived with his family in the farmhouse for a while, then gutted it, preserving the shell, and in 1954 attached a long, modern glass pavilion to it. Today, the view of the Potomac is long gone, obscured by the past 60 years of development. Six and a half of the seven acres are gone, too, sold to developers years ago. Gone, too, are Goodman, who died in 1992 at 85, and his widow, Dorothy, who sold the house about a decade ago and lives in a nearby condominium. But the midcentury-modern Goodman House still stands, sheltered by trees, its perimeter marked by about 2,000 square feet of stone patios and walkways that divide the garden areas and offer places for relaxation or entertaining. Maybe it's those interconnected walkways or maybe it's just the architecture buffs the house attracts now that it's on the market again, but Long & Foster real estate agent Susan Walters said she has never seen anything like it: "At open houses, [prospective buyers] walk all the way around the house before they come inside. I've just never seen that before. And, she adds, "I've been selling houses for 39 years." Of course, a lot of the lookers are not prospective buyers; they're midcentury-modern enthusiasts who've come to genuflect at the altar of Goodman's modernist vision. There's a lot to bow down to. Goodman, who designed the Deco-touched terminal for the new National Airport (1938-40) and later the famous midcentury houses of Hollin Hills in Fairfax County, melded the old and new parts of the house and wound up with something unique. Where the scale of the houses in Hollin Hills is modest - a modernist attempt to reach first-time homebuyers in the post-war boom - the glass pavilion here has space and volume to spare: It forms a living room 20 feet wide by 34 feet long with 10-foot ceilings. At one end of the room, near the front door, a cantilevered concrete fireplace and ledge are anchored in a massive stone wall that rises to meet the ceiling, which is sheathed in hardwood planking that lends the potentially austere room some warmth. And for real warmth, the slate floor underfoot has radiant heat. On three sides of the living room pavilion there is nothing between the occupant and the surrounding trees but floor-to-ceiling glass. The fourth wall is something else: Three wide, wood stairs lead to the rear of the house, the two-story farmhouse portion, including Goodman's library, its custom wood credenza and flat-file drawers still in place, and a family/TV room, both with standard-looking walls and old-fashioned windows. The two rooms come off a 38-foot-long gallery that stretches moodily from the library at the eastern end to a blaze of light from the glass walls of a contemporary 23-by-15-foot dining room on the west. The juxtaposition of light and dark suited Goodman's idea of what people wanted. The late Robert C. Lautman, Goodman's official photographer for 20 years, told Washington City Paper staff reporter David Morton in 2003: "Sometimes you want to be in a room that is one with the outside. And sometimes you want to be in a cave. The current owners of Goodman House are Jemal and Berna Omidvar. Both pediatricians, he's of Turkish descent from Iran, and she's from Nicaragua. "The minute we walked in the house, we loved it," Berna Omidvar said. All the light and all that space! The architect must have had parties in mind when he designed it - it's wonderful for entertaining. Although purists may balk, the house may be better for entertaining now than it was originally. Floorplans from 1998, when Mrs. Goodman allowed the place to be used as the Alexandria Decorator Showhouse, clearly show a solid wall between the living room and the kitchen, which is on the same level as the gallery. At that time, it could be reached only from the dining room. But at some point in the past decade, someone punched an entry from the kitchen to the living room. Now, three wide wood stairs, mimicking the ones to the rear gallery, allow for quick nips to the kitchen from the living room, greatly improving the traffic flow. Despite the change, the kitchen keeps its original steel St. Charles cabinets (the same kind of cabinets Frank Lloyd Wright used at Fallingwater), although they were reconfigured to allow for the new doorway. A more contemporary addition to the room: a kitchen island topped with the same stainless-steel countertop as the original cabinets. For all her enthusiasm about entertaining in Goodman House, Omidvar concedes that two hyper-busy doctors are less than likely to make time for cooking and entertaining at home. And that's why she and her husband reluctantly put the house on the market, for $1.3 million. In fact, the Omidvars have already moved into a townhouse where the gardens are taken care of, the snow is plowed and the house size is more manageable. Walters hopes a new set of owners will "take the house to the next level." The Omidvars made needed upgrades to the roof and the heating and cooling systems. But Walters thinks a new owner might want to replace those glass walls with double-glazing. She also is bothered by the fact that some post-Goodman owner changed the configuration of the bedrooms upstairs. "The bathrooms used to be big, and now they're small," she said. They wanted to get a fourth bedroom up there, I guess. Her desire to put the place back in its original configuration explains why Walters is e-mailing midcentury-modern groups, inviting members to see the house. Somewhere out there, she hopes, is the person or persons with the means to take the house all the way back to what the architect had in mind. And if that means that hundreds of design buffs promenade through the house on viewing days, well, that's all right with the Omidvars and with her.

Report: It's twins again for 'Teen Mom' Leah Messer A recent report reveals that it's twins again for pregnant "Teen Mom 2" star Leah Messer. It looks like tiny "Teen Mom 2" stars Aliannah and Aleeah won't simply have to make room for one new brother or sister when mom Leah Messer gives birth. According to In Touch Weekly, the twins will have to make room for a brother and sister -- or two brothers or maybe two sisters. That's right! Sources close to Messer revealed she's expecting twins again. "She just found out last week," one insider told the magazine. Messer is said to be "thrilled" to be expanding her family with fiancé Jeremy Calvert. She's also said to be excited about the television opportunities two more babies could bring. "She thinks the babies will help her get her own spin-off show," the insider said. Multiple multiples and a solo show? If that sounds like a familiar set up, it should. The insider added, "She wants her own series and her own brand, just like Kate!" As in Gosselin. Until then, catch Messer and her fellow young mothers on "Teen Mom 2" Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Do you think the 19-year-old can handle two more little ones? And if she landed her own spin-off show, would you tune in?

Four years after a presidential election that looked, briefly, as if it might put an end to America's partisan warfare, we find ourselves further embroiled in it, as reports from the run-up to the Iowa caucuses reminded us almost daily. Only now what once seemed disagreements over solutions have grown, or deteriorated, into profound differences over just what the problems are. This was not the case a generation ago, when the two major parties found common ground on some of the most pressing issues of the day - as Geoffrey Kabaservice points out in "Rule and Ruin. The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party: From Eisenhower to the Tea Party," one of two books reviewed by Timothy Noah on this week's cover. While the Tea Partiers, at odds with anyone they suspect belongs to an out-of-touch establishment, have little use for moderation, they do regard themselves as the authentic voice of what used to be called "Middle America," at least to judge from "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism," Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson's survey of the movement, also reviewed by Noah. And what of the American left, and the new insurgency known as Occupy Wall Street? Its participants too are troubled by the state of our politics, in particular the misalliance of money and power. This is the case made in the third book reviewed on our cover, Thomas Frank's "Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right." The reviewer is Michael Kinsley.

Karzai orders probe of teen wife's torture KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into the torture of a 15-year-old girl police said they rescued from the basement of her in-laws' house. In a statement Sunday, Karzai ordered the Interior Ministry to investigate the case of Sahar Gul and directed the deputy interior minister to make any necessary arrests, CNN reported Monday. Last month, authorities in Baghlan province said they rescued the girl after receiving reports she was tortured for refusing her in-laws' demands to become a prostitute. Police said they were waiting until she recovered to talk to her before proceeding. The girl was married to a 30-year-old man about seven months ago. After her parents reported not seeing her for months, police began investigating At the time, police said they rescued the teen, starved, with her nails removed, from a dark basement room in her in-laws' house. Police arrested her in-laws but her husband fled. Rahima Zarifi, director of the Women's Affairs Department in Baghlan, said the girl was hospitalized. Zarifi said the case illustrates how women still suffer in parts of Afghanistan despite progress since the fall of the Taliban.

Romania fires foreign minister who insulted protesters Attila Kisbenedek / AFP - Getty Images Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi was fired on Monday. BUCHAREST, Romania - Romania's prime minister on Monday fired the foreign minister over insulting remarks he made about anti-government protesters. Emil Boc said in a speech that Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi was fired for making inappropriate remarks about protesters, who have taken to the streets for the past 10 days to demonstrate against austerity measures and call for the resignation of President Traian Basescu and the government. Last week, as anti-government protests raged in Romania, Baconschi wrote on his blog that Romanians who work for a living will decide the country's future, not the "violent and clueless slums." Baconschi's comments caused outrage. Boc apologized to protesters during an extraordinary two-day Parliament session called by opposition parties following the protests. "I present apologies from the parliamentary tribune to the Romanian public for these verbal errors," he said. Daniel Mihailescu / AFP - Getty Images A woman holds a sign reading "QUIT!" -- referring to Romanian President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Emil Boc -- during a protest in Bucharest on Sunday. Some protesters gathered in Bucharest's University Square said the dismissal did not satisfy them. The opposition also said the firing of Baconschi did not go far enough, and lawmakers called for early elections, saying Basescu, parliament and the government are no longer wanted by the people. "Romania needs radical solutions - early presidential and early general elections to be held as soon as possible," said Crin Antonescu who leads the opposition Liberal Party. We believe most Romanians are discontented and reject their political leaders. Baconschi was appointed foreign minister in Dec. 2009, and before that he was Romania's ambassador to the Vatican and to Paris. He is currently in Brussels for a European Union meeting of foreign ministers. According to the Mediafax news agency, Baconschi said he had received a text message from the prime minister telling him that he was fired.

Bill Jamieson: Shouting may be over, but a reputation may be lost By Bill Jamieson Published on Monday 30 January 2012 00:00 ANOTHER goading of public ire over bank bonuses at Royal Bank of Scotland; another huge political storm; and now, last night, after Labour threatened to bring the issue to a vote in the Commons, a capitulation by chief executive Stephen Hester. It has come too late to avoid serious questions about his judgment. But it may also be a landmark move ahead of bonus announcement by other banks in the coming weeks. The grip of the corporate boardrooms on excessive pay awards may at last be loosening. What renders this sequence of events at RBS all the more galling is its dreary predictability, and that it was all so avoidable. Condemnation of Hester's bonus rained down from politicians to angry radio phone-in callers. The latest £963,000 share award on top of a £1.2 million salary was like a stick violently jabbed into an already furious wasp's nest of public opinion. However legally watertight this bonus contract may have been when it was drafted three years ago, it was nothing other than deeply corrosive for the bank and its reputation in current circumstances. Once RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton waived his bonus entitlement earlier in the weekend, Hester was left friendless, isolated and exposed. Sir Philip's decision effectively delivered the coup de grâce, and clearly proved more effective than earnest pleas from the government - the bank's 83 per cent shareholder. While Hester has spared the government a political drubbing at Westminster, it may have come too late for his own reputation and credibility. For a bank the size of RBS, and one so dependent on continuing taxpayer support, to be so blind to context is astonishing. When the detailed calibrations of Hester's bonus arrangements were crafted more than three years ago it may have had a rationale relative to its time. We are now in a different era. Real incomes have fallen. The economy is broken, unemployment is rising and RBS anything but back to normal. It should not have been beyond the wit of the board to have been sensitive to context and invoked force majeure on the out-of-control bonus culture. That this whole controversy could have been foreseen - and avoided - cannot but beg questions about judgment at the top of RBS - Sir Philip excepted. Rally in bank shares not all it's cracked up to be BANK shares have risen strongly since the start of the year, lifting the broader market. So, are the banks now on the mend? They are about as on the mend as a patient on life support given amphetamines. Shares in UniCredit have surged almost 70 per cent since the first week of January. Others, such as Societe Generale, Intesa Sanpaolo and RBS are all up by about 40 per cent. Bonuses all round? This rally is a key element of the change of mood in markets compared to the doom-laden months of October and November. But what has brought this change? Are Europe's banks over the worst? A key reason for the change is that since late December, the European Central Bank has resorted to liquidity support for Europe's stricken commercial banks on a scale without precedent. Its Longer Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) is designed to help the banks meet a colossal mountain of £1.4 trillion of debt refinancing over the next two years, the bulk of this falling due in the first six months of this year. Not only have the banks eagerly grasped this immediate lifeline, but a further extension of this support is scheduled for February. This support does not in any way address the underlying problem of the banks" bad debt pile or even provide more transparency as to the scale of write-off required. What LTRO does is to buy time. It also enables the banks to use this lifeline to buy government bonds, thus easing (for now) the crisis of country solvency. While this money pumping continues, bank shares - and stock markets generally - should continue to show strength. But this is a dangerous rally to trust. It is critically dependent on evidence that the banks are getting to grips with that hangover of toxic loans, and that governments are restructuring their economies to boost growth. Without evidence of these, we are swapping one bubble for another - and with consequences to match. Don't confuse the bank share rally with crisis resolution or underlying improvement.

Escaped Stankovic recaptured in Bosnia FOCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Bosnian police have captured Radovan Stankovic, a former member of Serbian paramilitary forces who escaped from prison about five years ago, authorities said. Stankovic was convicted in 2006 for crimes against humanity during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including the rape, sexual assault and enslavement of young girls. He escaped from prison in 2007, CNN reported Sunday. He was captured in Foca, less than a mile from the prison from which he escaped, Serbian media reported. Police were tipped off to Stankovic's presence in a Foca apartment after reports of the sounds of things breaking. Witnesses told police Stankovic was under the influence of alcohol. "Today's apprehension of Stankovic is significant for the victims of the grave crimes he has been convicted for," the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said in a statement Saturday. I hope that this arrest reflects an increased commitment of the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to support the process of bringing to justice those responsible for the grave crimes committed on their territory in the early 1990s.

LAPD wants to question man in arson probe A Mercedes-Benz was among the vehicles damaged by an arson fire late Saturday in Hollywood. Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times By Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times Los Angeles police on Sunday will release the description of a man wanted for questioning in connection with a string of fires over the last three days. He is described as an older white male with a receding hairline and shoulder-length ponytail. His image was caught on a video that showed a car fire Saturday night inside the parking structure of the Hollywood & Highland Center on Hollywood Boulevard. The LAPD plans to release more on the man Sunday afternoon. The LAPD asks residents to leave porch and carport lights on at night and make sure cars are locked. Authorities also ask residents to immediately report anything suspicious by calling 911. Officials said Sunday that they have connected at least 39 fires, the first of which started early Friday morning in Hollywood. Most of the fires have occurred in the Hollywood and West Hollywood areas. Early Saturday, nearly a dozen fires broke out in the northeast San Fernando Valley. At a news conference Sunday morning, officials said many of the fires have been started in cars and in some cases spread to carports, garages and apartments. But they declined to say what evidence tied the cases together or to give more information about how the fires were set. Law enforcement sources told The Times that detectives are concerned that releasing more information could prompt the arsonist or arsonists to change tactics and encourage copycats. The sources said there was evidence connecting most of the fires. But investigators don't want to say what kind of fuel or ignition device was used, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was still ongoing.

Virus throws Palace Cup plan into chaos Dougie Freedman expected to endure a sleepless night last night in anticipation of the phone call this morning that could determine the prospects of his Crystal Palace side against Cardiff City in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final tonight. Twelve months into his first managerial job, Freedman faces a problem that would tax his more experienced peers after a virus passed through his squad rendering a number of key players doubtful for the club's biggest game in years. Suddenly the club's doctor has emerged as a central figure in Palace's hopes of reaching Wembley. Freedman has been forced to quarantine some of his squad but fears that may not be enough to prevent more last-minute drop-outs. Nathaniel Clyne, Paddy McCarthy, Anthony Gardner, Mile Jedinak and Sean Scannell are the main doubts, and the manager said: "I don't know about my team until five o'clock. My worry is if it catches any more. I know who's got it and who's getting better but I don't know who is going to catch it. I'm dreading the phone call in the morning that somebody new has got it. Everybody knows what to do now. They have a number to call for the doctor and know that they have to call if they have any symptoms. In terms of preparation, they will turn up and whoever I see tomorrow, I'll try and pick the best team. Freedman could be forgiven for adopting a tone of frustration at a situation that seems particularly cruel given his side's achievement of beating Manchester United at Old Trafford in the previous round - a win that took them into the last four. Instead, he insisted it is not the worst-case scenario. "It could happen before the second leg when we could be losing it so it could be worse," he added. The virus won't change ambition, it will change personnel. There's no need to open up in the first leg, we've got 180 minutes. I have enough experience of the play-offs to know two-legged games are more often than not decided in the last 25 minutes. Midfielder David Wright will be particularly hopeful of avoiding illness. Wright has been here before with Wigan in 2006, only to see his ambitions ruined by a training-ground collision. "I got injured on the day before the semi-final and I missed everything," he said. So this is like a second bite. Kick-off 8pm (Sky Sports 1) Referee Mike Dean (Wirral) Odds Home 15-8; Draw 9-4; Away 6-4.

Snooker: Higgins tips Trump to rule the game Four-time world champion John Higgins believes Judd Trump could dominate the sport for years to come. Higgins and Trump are on course to meet in Sunday's final of the £500,000 Masters in north London. And Higgins, who survived a scare to beat Trump in last season's World Championship final, said the 22-year-old will be a box-office star. "You've got two box-office players with Ronnie [O'Sullivan] and Judd, which is great for the game," said Higgins. There's nothing stopping Judd right now, he looks carefree and when he gets in amongst the balls he's clearing them up. The standard is a bit higher now amongst the top 16 players. When [Stephen] Hendry and [Steve] Davis were dominating they only had three or four people to worry about. It is O'Sullivan who Trump has to beat today in his bid to reach the semi-final, while Higgins will face Graeme Dott or Ali Carter in his quarter-final tonight. Mark Selby survived a spirited fightback to beat Stephen Lee 6-4 to progress to the quarter-finals yesterday. He now faces Shaun Murphy. snooker

American Football: Giants cut Rodgers and Green Bay down to size The shadow of 2008 hovers over the NFL play-offs. On Saturday, the New England Patriots put the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow to the sword. Then the New York Giants, in the biggest upset of last weekend's divisional round, went to Green Bay and defeated the champion Packers. Four years ago, Giants and Patriots met in the Super Bowl. Come 5 February, they could again. First, however, there's the small matter of the Sunday's championship games. But the Giants, after their impressive win on Sunday, will fancy their chances against San Francisco in the final battle for the NFC title. The 49ers may have edged the New Orleans Saints 36-32 after one of the most compelling play-off games in recent history, in which the lead changed hands four times in the last four minutes. But the Giants, a bare 9-7 in the regular season, are getting hot at just the right time. The Packers boasted the the most lethal offense in the game, led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers who took them to a record 15-1 regular season. Green Bay might have been the most popular pick for a Super Bowl repeat, but New York made Rodgers and his receivers look ordinary. Four times they sacked him, and also forced him into a fumble and an interception. Four years ago as well, the Giants won in Green Bay on their road to beating New England in Super Bowl XLII. In the AFC championship match-up, the Patriots will face the Baltimore Ravens, who overcame the Houston Texans in their divisional play-off. "It wasn't pretty, but we're not a pretty team," conceded Ravens' linebacker Terrell Suggs. The only score after the interval was a Ravens field goal with three minutes to go, wrapping up a 20-13 win.

Japan plans to scrap nuclear plants after 40 years Many more of the 54 reactors in Japan will reach the 40-year mark in the near future, though some were built only a few years ago. Japanese media reported that the law may include loopholes to allow some old nuclear reactors to keep running if their safety is confirmed with tests. The proposal could be similar to the law in the U.S., which grants 40-year licenses and allows for 20-year extensions. Such renewals have been granted to 66 of 104 U.S. nuclear reactors. That process has been so routine that many in the industry are already planning for additional license extensions that could push the plants to operate for 80 years or even 100. It had planned to expand nuclear power before the meltdown, but has since ordered reactors undergoing routine inspections to undergo new tests and get community approval before they can be restarted. The new restrictions mean that only six Japanese reactors are currently running. The Asahi newspaper reported Saturday Japan is likely to face a power shortage if it carries out the 40-year rule, which barring loopholes would force 18 more reactors to shut down by 2020, and another 18 by 2030. The government has already decided to scrap six reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi, where backup generators, some of them in basements, were destroyed by the March 11 tsunami - setting off the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. The government has said it will take 40 years to fully decommission the plant. It is unclear whether the age of the reactors was related to the nuclear crisis. The location of the generators, absence of alternative backup power and inadequate venting are believed to be more direct causes, but some critics have said the Fukushima plant showed signs of age, such as cracks in piping and walls. Promising that nuclear plants may be gone in about four decades may help the government gain public support for getting more reactors running again. The future of Japan's nuclear policy remains under review. Some people are worried about radiation in the food and water, as well as the health of children, who are more at risk than are adults to sicknesses from radiation exposure.

Blake Griffin dunk is the brightest of highlights That's Griffin's best in-game dunk, and therefore his best dunk. Griffin's dunk over the Kia at the All-Star Game a year ago was fun, but it was contrived, rehearsed, and done without a hand in his face - no, on his face, look at the replay, it's not like Perkins did nothing. And I loved it because it wasn't done for show. It came naturally in the flow of the game, off a nice bounce pass from Chris Paul, who was acquired in part to do just that. In other words, it wasn't a bounce off the glass to himself. Ahem. And it came against the best team in the NBA. Griffin had a similar dunk against - or rather over, or upon - Timofey Mozgov in 2010; until now that was perhaps the most repeated video of Griffin. He gets higher in this one, his head tops the rim by several inches. He said this time, his fingers touched the rim. And he makes it look effortless. Of course, none of this matters if the Clippers didn't win. They did. It's hard to imagine, but when the smoke clears at the end of the season, the Clippers may be the best team in Los Angeles. The Lakers beat them in their most recent meetings, but the fact that it wasn't easy, and the fact that the Lakers are still looking for players (Gilbert Arenas?), says a lot about the state of this rivalry. The night before, LeBron James literally hurdled John Lucas for a pretty sweet dunk of his own, but even he Tweeted that Griffin's dunk was No. He moved himself to No. 2; that's quite a concession for a man who likes to be called King. Of course, a dunk is still a dunk. It's two points, no matter how jaw-dropping. And a dunk used to be something special; now it seems everyone can do it. In the winter, the Top 10 Plays on "SportsCenter" is literally littered with dunks. Which seems to cause more dunks, somehow - Top 10 Plays is the Johnny Appleseed of dunking. All of which has sort of turned me off the genre. I have become fond of the well-executed alley-oop followed by the two-handed dunk, or better yet, just a nice, quiet drop-in. It's more of a knife in the back (figuratively) than a hammer to the face. Sneaky. Disorienting. But for the Griffin dunk, I'll make an exception. I'll watch that one over and over, despite the fact that I happen to root for the Thunder. For the all-star dunk competition, he should just submit that footage, like an Oscar contender, and wait for the voting. Because that's the winner, right there. No props, no gimmicks, no practice. Just a demoralizing dunk in the middle of an important game between playoff-bound teams. That beats leaping a Kia any day.

Look again at oil tax splits BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The North Dakota Senate's Republican majority leader says the Legislature needs to provide a greater share of state oil tax collections to local governments. Rich Wardner of Dickinson is chairman of a committee that's looking into how oil tax revenues are split up. North Dakota's oil production tax is now divided among the state and local governments. But a number of county, city and school officials say the formula needs to be reworked to give local governments more money. Wardner says it's clear that western North Dakota's oil boom has put a tremendous strain on local schools, roads and public works. He says the Legislature will need to take a close look at how oil tax revenue is divided among the state and local governments.

Video: National Youth Orchestra practice a concert without musical instruments The National Youth Orchestra will tonight perform a world premiere of Anna Meredith's HandsFree at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. The piece (with an exclusive preview trailer above), is part of the London 2012 Festival's Music 20x12 and is a concert performed without a single musical instrument. Meredith, 33, one of Britain's leading young composers, said: "These amazing young musicians from the National Youth Orchestra will put down their flutes, clarinets, their cellos and then perform my piece which will be using everything apart from instruments. There will be clapping, stamping, singing, beatboxing - basically anything I can think of that avoids instruments. Edinburgh-born Meredith, who wrote the recently acclaimed Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra, took NYO musicians into the streets of Birmingham last summer following the Cultural Olympiad commission and the group showed the public how clapping, body percussion and beatboxing (a technique sometimes used in hip-hop music, involving the art of producing drum beats and rhythm using a person's mouth, tongue, lips and voice techniques) could be used creatively to make interesting music. The first official performance takes place tonight and the NYO will then take the concert to the Barbican tomorrow. Meredith added: "HandsFree has to be memorised so there won't be a conventional score. We have tried out different sounds with body percussion and then working out the narrative of the piece and practical ways of making it work. There have been some surprises. Beatboxing for long periods is exhausting and It turns out that clapping for more than 30 seconds is pretty painful.

Buffett to GOP: You pay and so will I BOSTON (Reuters) - Warren Buffett is willing to put his money where his mouth is, if only congressional Republicans would join him. The billionaire investor, in the new issue of Time magazine, says he will donate $1 to paying down the national debt for every dollar donated by a Republican in Congress. The only exception is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell - for whom Buffett said he would go $3-to-$1. The idea stems from a New York Times opinion piece Buffett wrote last August in which he said the rich ought to pay more taxes. It sparked an instant controversy, with some Washington conservatives calling on the 81-year-old "Oracle of Omaha" to voluntarily pay extra. "It restores my faith in human nature to think that there are people who have been around Washington all this time and are not yet so cynical as to think that can't be solved by voluntary contributions," the Berkshire Hathaway CEO told Time for an article hitting newsstands on Friday. He went on to tell the magazine that what the country needed was a system that favored people who were not born investors. "We need a tax system that takes very good care of people who just really aren't as well adapted to the market system, and to capitalism, but are nevertheless just as good citizens, and are doing things that are of use in society," he said. Buffett, who has raised money for President Barack Obama recently, takes swings at Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in the Time interview as well, criticizing Gingrich's track record and Romney's ties to the private equity business. Reporting By Ben Berkowitz; editing by Andre Grenon

German man faces 80-years in prison over Hollywood car arson spree "It is my opinion that the defendant's criminal spree was motivated by his rage against Americans and that by setting these fires (the) defendant intended to harm and terrorise as many residents of the city and county of Los Angeles as possible," arson investigator Edward Nordskog wrote in court documents filed earlier this month. State prosecutors in Germany say Burkhart is also wanted there on suspicion of starting a fire that burned down his family's home in Neukirchen. Burkhart's 53-year-old mother was arrested in Los Angeles in December on a provisional warrant issued by German authorities and was facing extradition. Dorothee Burkhart, who has been living in a Los Angeles apartment with her son, faces multiple charges of fraud and embezzlement in Germany, according to court documents. Harry Burkhart was arrested after a tip from a member of the US State Department's Diplomatic Security field office who recognised him on surveillance videotape from an outburst during his mother's initial court hearing, a state department spokeswoman said. According to the declaration filed by Nordskog, Harry Burkhart was ejected from the courtroom during Dec 29 extradition proceedings for his mother after angrily shouting a profanity against Americans. A man resembling Burkhart was captured on security cameras leaving the scene of several of the fires, which caused no fatalities. One firefighter was injured and another person suffered from smoke inhalation. One of the fires damaged a house in the Hollywood Hills where late rocker Jim Morrison was inspired to write the 1968 song "Love Street" about his girlfriend.

Kim Sengupta: The West knows air strikes will only stir up hornet's nest Neither the European Union nor the United States appear to want the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear programme to escalate to a point where air strikes become inevitable. The constant refrain from officials, privately, in London, Paris and Washington is that they are "one hundred per cent behind a diplomatic rather than a military solution." The scenario, however, is unfolding against a constant drumbeat of war in the background, with hawks in Israel clamouring for capabilities to produce the bomb destroyed before Tehran is in a position to start weaponising. The view in western Europe and the US, however, is that air strikes will create massive problems in a region facing the upheavals of the Arab Spring and an increasingly violent schism between Shia and Sunnis. Coming under attack from a foreign power, be it Israel or America, may also, it is feared, lead to a grave situation within Iran. Despite perception to the contrary, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime is not the worst option for the West in Iranian terms - there are other more extreme factions waiting in the wings. It is thus seen as imperative that the punitive measures being taken by the EU and US drive Iran to opening up the most secretive of its facilities, such as the one near Qom, to inspection from the International Atomic Energy Agency; and this will have to take place relatively quickly. Many observers believe that if the Netanyahu government was indeed set on bombing Iran it will do so in the US election year, with Barack Obama having no choice but to back a military operation. The EU and US sanctions will not work if they are not backed by Russia, China and major oil clients of Iran such as India and Japan. Despite irritation about some of the moves being made by the West in Moscow and Beijing, there is common purpose in persuading Tehran to give up its quest for the Bomb. There is also consensus that a military onslaught on the country is the least welcome scenario.

4 years after D.C. fire, ex-tenants and Mount Pleasant area face frustration Where once there were dozens of apartments occupied by mostly poor and working-class Latino families is a rubble-strewn crater. Steel beams prop up the building's yellow brick facade. A black chain-link fence topped by barbed wire surrounds the property's perimeter. Civic leaders and politicians still talk of ensuring that many of the Deauville's 200 former residents return to a new building at their old address, 3145 Mount Pleasant St. NW, a block west of 16th Street. But no one can say when the rebuilding will begin, frustrating neighborhood residents and business owners as well as the building's former tenants, many of whom received financial aid from the District to relocate - monthly subsidies that have or are about to expire. "This is really, really hard," said Romero-Castillo, a waitress at a nearby restaurant and the head of the building's tenants association, which still meets every month. We ask when can we can go back. We don't know when. But we know we will. So we wait. Two years ago, the tenants association bought the Deauville property with a $4 million loan from the D.C. government. The plan is to build low-income rental housing. But the tenants association still needs $10 million to begin construction, part of which may become available from the District this year. Mount Pleasant residents have long since lost their patience for the crater at the center of their neighborhood. "Four years, and what do we have to show for it?" asked Terry Lynch, a longtime Mount Pleasant activist, gazing through the fence at the crater. Look at all the rubble. You'd think you were in Dresden after the war. Jackie Flanagan, who moved Nana, her clothing boutique, from U Street to Mount Pleasant last year, said the hole is a reminder of the "sadness of that day." "Half the neighborhood was out there trying to help," said Flanagan, who has lived in Mount Pleasant nearly five years. And now it's just languishing. It feels unsettling. Council member Jim Graham (D), whose Ward 1 district includes Mount Pleasant, said the recession and the difficulties of funding low-income housing complexes have conspired to slow development on the site. But he said the District remains committed to the project and preserving Mount Pleasant's economic diversity by building subsidized housing. "No one is more anxious to see this developed than us," he said. It's not going to happen at the snap of a finger because of the complexities of getting the money. But progress has been made, Graham said. He said he thinks the community won a victory in 2010 when the tenants association purchased the property from NWJ, a Philadelphia-based real estate company under whose ownership the building had amassed more than 7,000 code violations. At the time of the fire, the tenants were suing the landlord over the building's conditions.

In the heart of Seoul: The South Korean capital has plenty of surprises for urban adventurers We'd already listened to the fluent English patter of the double-acts who run the wayside stalls that cook and sell the nutty traditional sweet called "dragon's beard." I imagined some ritual in one of the tea-houses, hidden down alleyways just off the main drag. Instead, we turned off into a small courtyard that hosted a sort of mini-mall, and went upstairs. There, gaggles of shrieking teens (well, it was Saturday night) clustered around automatic photo booths. They seemed - by the extravagant period outfits hanging all around - to have been hijacked by a theatrical costumier. The deal is that you pay a few thousand won (the exchange rate runs at 1,800 to the pound), select your historical fancy-dress, and leave giggling over the evidence of how fine you'd look as - in my case - a 17th-century Korean nobleman. Korea surprised me, not least in its civic sense of humour - quirky, surreal, sometimes raucous and often, yes, a bit silly. Laughter has helped its citizens ease their rapid passage from the war-wrecked wasteland of the 1950s to today's urban and ultra-modern "Asian tiger." It is one of the qualities that takes the edge off the daily stress of Seoul. Take the cheap and efficient subway (and you should: a single ticket costs 60p, while maps in Roman as well as Korean script, aid the foreigner). Just before a train arrives in the station, a merry little fanfare plays. You enter the clean, comfortable carriage with a smile. London Underground, take note. Less than 60 years ago, this was a flattened battleground. In 1953, an armistice halted the war that divided the nation and it still, technically, continues. Since then, South Korea's capital has mushroomed into a 10-million strong metropolis, the core of a wider conurbation double that size. Just a few kilometres beyond Seoul, meanwhile, North Korea under its new leader Kim Jong-un still languishes in nuclear-armed poverty. Although many young people seem to care little about the unification question, trippers flock to the Demilitarised Zone to gaze through telescopes at their deprived neighbour at the Odusan Unification Observatory - surely one of the world's weirdest tourist spots. This year, the country's per-capita GDP will surpass the EU average of around US$30,000: an astonishing ascent. Given that breakneck growth, veterans of other Asian urban giants might expect to find in Seoul a smog-choked, high-rise hell of neon and concrete grey. And, if you want outlandish skyscrapers, swish retail complexes and nocturnal dazzle, the city will satisfy big-time. For a splash of glitz, try the pedestrian streets around Myeongdong, where Japanese tourists on shopping trips snap up designer labels beneath corporate HQs. To glimpse this tigerish Seoul at its proudest, take the cable car up Namsan ("southern mountain") at night, with an electric rainbow of signage spread below. Even that short trip will show you why Seoul feels different from its counterparts elsewhere. Namsan rises on its green tuft abruptly for 260 metres, right from the heart of the capital. On a hilltop viewing platform, hundreds of couples have attached padlocks to the railings as a token of undying love. Having savoured this inner-city idyll (which comes with obligatory fast-food outlets and even a teddy-bear store), you may descend again through trees into the metropolitan hubbub on an emission-free electric bus, for a lordly 30p. Seoul feels cleaner, and greener, than many east-Asian rivals. Through autumn or spring, you may breathe freely and walk briskly - humid July or August would tell another story, which is why the 1988 Olympics were deferred until late September. Some enlightened urban planning has - belatedly, perhaps - begun to mitigate the effects of the growth spurt: in the cleaned-up and now fishable Cheonggyecheon urban waterway, lined with paths and plants, that cuts through the heart of downtown, or in the cycle tracks that run along the broad Hangang - Seoul's Thames or Seine. You can hire bikes for a riverside spin, stop for a snack at one of the stylish cafés at the ends of bridges. Hilly parks dot the suburbs south of the Hangang, the preserve of Seoul's richer half. But it's in the north-of-the river quarters, where most visitors congregate, that the paradoxical pleasures of "green Seoul" can be most easily enjoyed. Immediately north of the business and consumer hub, wooded mountains topped with rocky outcrops soar into the sky, a dream-like landscape transplanted from some antique scroll. Wild and dramatic scenery rears over the hooting, throbbing centre: rare in any sprawling city but, in booming Asia, surely unique. Between the skyscrapers and mountainsides lies the green oasis of the palace district. Of the six royal residences, Gyeongbokgung is the largest and most varied, Changdeokgung is the most sumptuously designed and Changgyeonggung is, perhaps, the most peaceful. Here, in the far-flung estates of the Joseon monarchs - first constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries, now immaculately restored - finely carved audience halls and living quarters, temples and pavilions, nestle amid gardens landscaped with a painter's eye. In autumn, as the leaves turn to a dozen reds and golds, take the "secret garden" tour at Changdeokgung and you will feel like you've slipped into the decoration on a screen, or the pattern on a plate. Among the stars in this arboricultural heaven are ancient Chinese scholar and gooseberry trees, and venerable mulberries. One juniper dates back to 1250. The Bukchon neighbourhood, squeezed between a couple of palace compounds, is an urban village noted for its one-storey hanok houses, each built around a small courtyard. Its survival, across the road from the downtown frenzy, shows not only that many citizens of Seoul seek to preserve tradition in the face of galloping development, but that they can wield enough civic muscle to prevail. Thanks to a long campaign by residents, Bukchon remains a delightful low-rise warren for wandering in narrow lanes, eating at Korean restaurants (shoes off, legs crossed) and browsing in the art galleries that have sprung up across the area. It also offers quiet homestay accommodation in hanoks. For the equivalent of £33 per night, I unrolled a mat on the floor, a stone's throw from the Changdeokgung palace walls. At the western edge of Bukchon, tree-lined Samcheongdonggil rises past galleries and cafés through Seoul's version of Soho or Chelsea. Stop along the way, with the city's trend-surfers, for a good coffee or a glass of wine (pricey, like everywhere in Asia). Then head into Samcheong Park, which is steep and forested and serves as a kind of taster for the Bugaksan and Inwangsan mountains, both of which peer down into the city from 350-metre peaks. A little further north, for stalwart hikers, lie the trails of the Bukhansan National Park. Imagine if Hampstead Heath or Arthur's Seat grew overnight into the Peak District or the Grampians, and you will begin to grasp how spectacular, and special, is Seoul's highland hinterland. With more huffing and puffing than one might wish for after ambling through an arty quarter, I climbed through the trees to Prospect Point and looked down over the high-rise city. In the shadow of towers of corporate power, the curved, carved roofs of Gyeongbokgung recalled an era of less frenetic, if riskier, authority. At twilight on a day of gazebos, gardens and forests, I felt I could adopt the lifestyle of a Joseon-era aristocrat. After all (don't laugh) I have the photos to prove it. Travel essentials: Seoul Korean Air (020-7495 8641; koreanair.com) and Asiana Airlines (020-7304 9900; flyasiana.com) both fly daily non-stop from Heathrow to Seoul. Korean Air will start flights from Gatwick in April. Regent Holidays (0117 921 1771; regent-holidays.co.uk), has an eight-day Highlight of South Korea group tour from £1,290, excluding flights. On The Go Tours (020-7371 1113; onthegotours.com) has a week's "South Korean Express" tour from £1,099, excl flights. visitkorea.or.kr

No disguising Glenn Close's passion for 'Albert Nobbs' Although the waiters and chambermaids who staff a 19th century Dublin hotel in "Albert Nobbs" don't have the slightest inkling that one of their co-workers is not as he seems, there's no mistaking Glenn Close as the titular butler, a woman who's spent decades passing as a man. The woman who sits for a midafternoon latte and goat cheese salad at New York's Jane Hotel isn't dressed in men's clothes, nor has her face been prosthetically altered. But she's still not quite Glenn Close, at least not as we've come to know her in her three decades on-screen. Her face is softer, more open, her manner more casual. Listen closely, you can even hear her drop a "g" or two. Considering how much of her career has been spent playing imperious, steely grande dames (like the Marquise de Merteuil, Cruella de Vil, the vindictive Alex Forrest in "Fatal Attraction" and the merciless litigator Patty Hewes on TV's "Damages"), it's almost a shock to see her with her claws retracted. "There are things you have as an actor that you have no control over," says Janet McTeer, who costars as a cross-dressing handyman in "Albert Nobbs" and recently wrapped a role on "Damages'" final season. "She's very commanding," she says of Close. She has a lot of presence, and she's very strong, as am I, so we get those kind of roles. But opposite qualities are just as present. They're just not as noisy. The existence of "Albert Nobbs" the film owes more to quiet persistence than imposing demands. Close first played the part, based on a 19th century story by Irish writer George Moore, in a 1982 off-Broadway production nestled between her work in "The World According to Garp" and "The Big Chill." It was 15 years later that she first thought of bringing the story to the screen, and nearly as long again before the cameras started rolling. "I'm a sucker for what I think is a good story, and also a character that I found incredibly challenging," Close says. It really brings into play everything I've learned as an actor. The stage adaptation was very austere, with a very Minimalist set, and you're in wide shot the whole time. But a movie comes right into your soul. There's no question that Close's soul is in "Albert Nobbs." In addition to starring in and producing the film (the latter task involved, among other things, wooing potential investors with a private concert), Close wrote the screenplay as well, sharing credit with Gabriella Prekop, who Close says "first put pen to paper," and novelist John Banville, who infused the dialogue with Irish vernacular. "I could never come up with something like, 'He's a great whore for the drink,'" she says with a smile. Close spent years reworking the script and seeking financing, to the point where she thought her window to play the part might have closed. She recalls the moment in preproduction when makeup, hair, latex and facial expressions finally aligned to create a character who stood on her own. "I thought I'd have the burden of my face," she says. But when we did the tests, I looked up and it really wasn't me. I started crying. I thought maybe too much time had gone by and I couldn't pull it off. That was quite a moment. Director Rodrigo Garcia recalls how, a few days before principal photography commenced, "there was suddenly this peculiar little man standing next to me. I knew it was Glenn, but every now and then, I'd almost forget. Close's long history with the project left her with a definite sense of how certain moments should play; when invisible threads failed to pull a curtain aside with the requisite grace of a breeze, she had scaffolding built to hold a fan outside the window. "You have to be a fighter," she says, "not necessarily combative, but you can't give up. Maybe the key is not to question too much, to just do what your instincts tell you, because there's some place that's coming from. I did have strong instincts about this film. I guess it was a vision. But Close also yielded to her collaborators' ideas when the occasion arose. I didn't feel proprietary about it. I'm not sure why. Maybe because for me it's not just about the script, or the characters - it's literally about what an entire team of people can create together. Everybody should feel ownership for the whole project and feel empowered to fight for whatever they should fight for. Garcia said Close was "as open a writer as I've worked with. She clued into what made the story of its time but also of any time, which is the parts of yourself that you have to give up or disguise just to fit in. "Actors in general often feel like the odd one out growing up," McTeer says. I think Glenn really related in that way to this character. She has such a compassion for outsiders and people who don't quite fit in. I think she's drawn to that. Close was raised as an outsider, not entirely by choice. Her parents, whom she calls "black sheep," were born to wealth but shunned their families' old-guard values. "They never socialized at all," she recalls. They quit all the country clubs, and they wanted to do something for the world. That "something" involved joining Moral Re-Armament, an insular, quasi-religious order sometimes referred to as a cult. "That's a huge can of worms," Close says, showing just a flicker of Patty Hewes' indomitable chill. It's almost ridiculous to open it up in an interview. But a few minutes later, she returns to the subject. I think anybody who went through what I went through as a child - anybody who's in any kind of group where you're quite repressed, you do feel, like I did feel, that you're on the outside looking in, and I think in many ways that is Albert. She's on the outside in that she can't tell the truth about who she is. What's attractive to me about a character like Albert is her naïveté. Her innocence makes her powerful in a way. It's like holding up a mirror to someone else. If someone's unknowing, it's how other people treat them. People still think of themselves as invisible and powerless, and the important thing is just to survive. Are you going to kill yourself? That dilemma is still incredibly relevant. I think that's why people are finding it so intriguing, because whatever baggage you bring to it, it says something.

India to frame broader environment rules for power projects NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to frame broader guidelines and prescribe timelines for issuing environment clearances to power sector projects, the federal environment minister said on Wednesday. "Within my mandate to protect the environment, our policy will be to have consistent, transparent guidelines," Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters. India holds about 10 percent of the world's coal reserves, but has struggled to provide enough fuel to its under-performing power sector, because of policy challenges. State-run miner Coal India has said it may miss production targets this year because of delays in environmental clearances at some of its mines, even as demand rises from power plants and industries. Reporting by Sanjeev Choudhary; Editing by Subhadip Sircar

Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim acquitted of sodomy charges Malaysia's political future is up for grabs after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted on Monday of sodomy after a two-year court case that divided voters and dominated politics. The 64-year-old was charged in 2008 with sodomising a former aide in a case he contended was politically motivated. With the charges dismissed, analysts said Anwar's next battle would involve creating a viable alternative to the ruling National Front coalition, in power since 1957, if he is to have a chance of beating it in general elections expected to be called this year. "This [verdict] gives Malaysia an opportunity to move out of dirty politics - for the [National Front] to get out of gutter politics, and for the opposition to ... move on and change its tactic from being the 'martyr' and 'target' to one that promotes a positive alternative for voters," said Bridget Welsh, Malaysia specialist at Singapore Management University. But Anwar, as leader of a three-party coalition that includes Islamists and an ethnic Chinese party, will have his work cut out, according to Malaysian political analyst Ong Kian Ming. He said that some voters would see Monday's acquittal as a positive step in the reforms recently enacted by the prime minister, Najib Razak. Had [Anwar] been convicted, he could have garnered more public sympathy. That now won't be as strong. Najib can now try to capitalise on this by continuing on with his political reforms, saying that the judiciary system is free and fair, and ... gaining some momentum by leading up to the next election. Najib hopes to regain a strong mandate, despite suffering in popularity polls, and has promised economic and civil liberty reforms. In an interview at home after the verdict, Anwar described Malaysia's "need to tackle corruption, unemployment [and create] changes that benefit the civil service, quality education," and his coalition's "plans to provide the people with all this when we take over Putrajaya [Malaysia's administrative capital]." "Now that I am vindicated and freed, naturally I will work with my friends and ... the coalition of opposition parties to ensure we can wrest control," he said. Experts have warned that the opposition, long seen as underdogs, will now have to prove it can truly take control. Ibrahim Suffian of the thinktank Merdeka Centre told the Malaysian Insider website that "the positive outcome of the case evens out the playing field." "The next election will now be fought on policy issues, on alternatives of how the country can be further governed and developed, and on quality instead of sensational issues," he said. Anwar's acquittal followed a trial whose lurid details grabbed headlines in the mainly Muslim country of 28 million, where sex between males is punishable even if consensual. Anwar faced a caning and up to 20 years' jail if convicted. The case rested primarily on testimony by Anwar's accuser, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 26, as well as semen samples found on Saiful's body that investigators said matched Anwar's DNA. Defence lawyers contended that Saiful's testimony about the alleged sodomy, at a Kuala Lumpur condominium in 2008, was riddled with inconsistencies and the DNA evidence mishandled by investigators. In his ruling on Monday, judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah told a packed Kuala Lumpur courtroom: "The court at this stage could not with 100% certainty exclude the possibility that the [DNA] sample is not compromised. A jubilant Anwar greeted reporters after the verdict, as his family wept. "Thank God justice has prevailed," he said. To be honest, I am a little surprised. Some 5,000 opposition supporters had gathered outside the court, chanting "reformasi" (reform) as a police helicopter flew overhead and riot police, backed by a truck mounted with a water cannon, watched the crowd amid fears that the demonstration could turn violent. Two people were injured and taken to hospital, but it is still unclear who was responsible. The judgment is seen as a positive step forward for Malaysia's judicial system and could have a major impact on upcoming general elections. Anwar and supporters have long said the sodomy allegations were a government plot to weaken his opposition coalition. The charges emerged after the grouping made unprecedented gains in the 2008 general elections, winning more than a third of seats. and aAnalysts believe Anwar, who has vowed to scale back Malaysia's most draconian laws and reunify the racially-divided nation if elected, could potentially knock out the incumbent government entirely. The trial was Anwar's second in 14 years. Once considered Malaysia's heir apparent, he served as both deputy prime minister and finance minister in the incumbent UMNO party before a spectacular fall from grace with his then premier, Mahathir Mohamad, in 1998. After repeated calls for reform and an end to cronyism, he faced corruption and sodomy charges - which he adamantly and famously denied whilst sporting a black eye after being beaten by police - and was then jailed for six years until his sodomy conviction was overturned in 2004. Anwar has since become the glue binding together the three very ideologically different parties in his opposition alliance. Anwar's accuser, Saiful, who did not attend the hearing, wrote on Twitter after the verdict that he would "remain calm, continue praying and be patient." In a statement released after the verdict, the Malaysian government said ruling proved that "Malaysia has an independent judiciary and this verdict proves that the government does not hold sway over judges' decisions. But the legal saga may very well continue, as chief prosecutor Yusof Zainal Abiden has not yet decided whether to appeal against the acquittal. 1993: Anwar Ibrahim, then 46, becomes deputy to premier Mahathir Mohamad. They have a very close working relationship and Anwar is seen as the heir apparent. 1998: Despite being named Asian of the year by Newsweek, Anwar sacked after falling out with Mahathir over calls for reform and an end to cronyism. He is soon charged with corruption and sodomy (the latter based on accusations by his family's former driver), charges he dismisses as politically motivated. 1999: Jailed for six years for corruption. 2000: Nine year sentence for sodomy. 2004: Anwar freed after Malaysia's top court overturns his sodomy conviction. 8 March 2008: Anwar leads an opposition coalition to wrest a third of parliament's seats and five states from the incumbent National Front coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since it became independent from Britain in 1957. 14 April 2008: A ban against Anwar holding public office, related to his corruption conviction, expires. 29 June 2008: His former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, then 23, files a police report accusing him of sodomy in a Kuala Lumpur condo. Anwar denies the charges. 31 July 2008: Anwar's wife resigns her parliamentary seat in Penang, her husband's home state, to allow Anwar to contest the byelection. 7 August 2008: Anwar is charged with sodomy. 26 August 2008: Anwar wins a landslide victory in the Penang byelection, is sworn into parliament and declared leader of the opposition. 1 February 2010: Second sodomy trial begins. 9 July 2011: Anwar is injured at a rally calling for clean and fair elections after police fire water cannon and teargas at protesters. 10 July 2011: He warns PM Najib Razak's government that a "hibiscus revolution" may soon occur unless protesters' demands for electoral reform and an "end to dirty politics" are met. 22 August 2011: In a statement to the high court in Kuala Lumpur, Anwar calls the sodomy charge against him "a vile and desperate attempt at character assassination." 3-8 January 2012: Anwar embarks on a national tour, rallying support before the verdict. 9 January 2012: Anwar is acquitted of sodomy charges.

After rise in polls, Rick Santorum braces for attack Reporting from Sioux City, Iowa - Riding a closing burst of support ahead of Tuesday's presidential caucuses, Republican candidate Rick Santorum told a crowd of supporters Sunday afternoon that he is ready for a wave of negative attacks now that he has emerged as one of the top tier contenders in Iowa. This isn't my first rodeo. I've been in tough races," said the former Pennsylvania senator. I've had the national media crawling up anywhere they could crawl . . . . It's not going to be fun. Santorum's final sprint had the air of a victory lap as he began the last two days of a long Iowa campaign with what he said was his 372nd town hall meeting. This conservative capital of western Iowa is "where it started to take hold for us," he told more than 150 people jammed into the Daily Grind coffee shop in downtown Sioux City. Santorum stopped short of predicting a win, but said that the Iowa caucuses two days from now will "send a shock wave across this country." The large New Year's Day throng wasn't the only sign of Santorum's radically changed circumstances. As he spoke a TV screen featured live CNN video of the event. A channel switch brought up a Fox News channel screen, reporting that "Santorum gains ground in new Iowa poll." Santorum took shots at President Obama - calling his policy toward Iran "un-American" - and several of his GOP rivals. He said if Obama wins reelection, "his foreign policy will not be any different from Ron Paul's foreign policy," referring to the Houston-area congressman's non-interventionist views. And he ridiculed Texas Gov. Rick Perry's unforgettable debate gaffe, when he forgot the name of one of the Cabinet departments he wanted to close. But Santorum also signaled that his rising prominence in the race would draw increasing criticism from his rivals, who will gather next weekend in New Hampshire for a pair of televised debates. Referring to his years in Congress, Santorum said his track record is "not perfect, and I'm sure you'll hear from my friends about my warts. We all have them. Apparently alluding to attacks from Perry on his support for earmarked federal spending, Santorum said that "I may have held my nose" because there were "bad things" in spending measures, as well as good things, but "you didn't see me advocate for the bad." The heightened attention, and voter turnout, is a function of Santorum's closing leap into contention in Iowa, after spending months near the bottom of the field. A Des Moines Register survey, released Saturday night, showed him in a tight race for first place with Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Interviews with voters at his Sioux City event, the first of three western Iowa stops on Sunday, hinted at the potential for the latest opinion survey to create something of a bandwagon effect for Santorum. Denny Rehan, 66, a commercial printing salesman in Sioux City, said the polling surge "reinforces my thinking in support of Rick Santorum." He said he had been trying to decide between Santorum and Romney but "I just like Rick Santorum's ideas a little better. . . . I'm a big support of the family life movement. Antiabortion, that's a big one for me. Mary Albrecht, 43, who attended with her husband, Dave, and their young children, heard about the Register poll on Fox satellite news on the 30-mile drive from their home in Le Mars. I think he's lucky to have momentum building at the right time. He may be lucky," she said, adding that the poll might tip her into Santorum's camp. The highly publicized poll has an influence, she said, "even though I know it shouldn't, because I want might my vote to count." Kevin Fletcher, 49, a Sioux City lawyer who with his wife, Debbie, will be attending a caucus for the first time this week, said "some of my friends always liked [Santorum] but didn't think he was electable." Debbie Fletcher, 50, said she thinks "personally that the surge will help, with people who think he is not electable."

Police: Pa. Man Killed 3 Teens Over Stepsons' Feud Police say a Philadelphia man killed three teenagers in an ambush sparked by a feud involving his stepsons. Investigators say 30-year-old Axel Barreto was arrested at a suburban motel Wednesday night, around the time one of his alleged victims was taken off life support. Authorities say Barreto fired a dozen or more shots into a car loaded with seven teenagers late Tuesday after the boys arrived for a confrontation with his stepsons. Police say the planned fight stemmed from a dispute at school that then spilled on to Facebook. Police identified the victims as Joshua Soto and Dante Lugo, both 14, and 16-year-old Javier Orlandi. Soto and Orlandi died late Tuesday. Another 16-year-old who was behind the wheel was wounded in the neck.

FCC proposes ending NFL blackout rule WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. regulators are asking for comment on a proposal to pull the plug on pro football's television blackout policy. The Federal Communications Commission this week filed a formal request for public comment on the idea to scuttle the policy of prohibiting telecasts of games that do not sell out prior the start. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said the rule, which was adopted in 1975, may be obsolete due to the wide range of communication technology currently available. "We now live in a world with not only local broadcast stations, but also cable, satellite, the Internet and wireless, and where television and merchandizing revenues exceed ticket sales," McDonald said in a written statement. It is appropriate for us to re-examine the rule in light of marketplace changes. The Hill said the National Football League, which would be most affected by the move, was taking an early stance against the proposal. The league issued a statement saying the rule supports ticket sales, which add to the overall excitement and appeal of the games. "The policy is very important in supporting NFL stadiums and the ability of NFL clubs to sell tickets; keeping our games attractive as television programming with large crowds; and ensuring that we can continue to keep our games on free TV," the NFL said.

New counterfeit detection method used ATLANTA, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A new testing method to detect counterfeit components is in operation with World Micro Inc., a U.S. distributor of electronic parts. The system involves "heat solvent" testing, which can reveal if a component's true markings have been "blacktopped," which means original markings have been covered and new markings added. The special heater and solvent process augments testing methods already in place at the Georgia company -- X-Ray, X-RF analysis and component solderability testing -- to identify counterfeit parts or parts that simply don't meet required specifications. "We are now able to penetrate blacktopped surfaces that may be thought impervious to testing and detection," said Gary Beckstedt, global director of quality for World Micro. But now, by completely immersing a suspect part for 45 minutes in a heated solvent specifically formulated to penetrate the latest urethane-type coatings, we're confident that no resurfaced component can escape our inspection process and find its way into the supply chain.

Report: Hue Jackson fired by Raiders Hue Jackson has been fired by the Oakland Raiders after one season as head coach, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, who cites an NFL source. The Raiders were 8-8 under Jackson and missed the playoffs, losing four of their final five games. They would have won the AFC West, however, had they been able to beat San Diego in Week 17. The Chargers, who were already out of the playoff picture, eliminated Oakland with a 38-26 win at Oakland. A text message to Jackson on Tuesday morning was not immediately returned. Jackson replaced Tom Cable as coach and looked to be among the most powerful coaches in the league after the October death of Raiders owner Al Davis, seeing as the franchise had no general manager. But on Friday, the Raiders hired Green Bay executive Reggie McKenzie as general manager, and McKenzie -- a former Raiders linebacker -- officially began his new job Tuesday. He reportedly planned to evaluate the coaching situation. McKenzie and Jackson have the same agent. After the season-ending loss to the Chargers, Jackson had ripped the team to the media, saying he was very angry at his players. At some point in time, as a group of men, you go in the game and you can say whatever you want about coaches, you win the game. Here's your time. Here's your time to make some plays," Jackson said at the time. We didn't get them stopped and we didn't make enough plays. Yeah, I'm [ticked] at the team. Like I tell them, I always put it on me, but I am [ticked] at my team because when you have those kind of opportunities, you've got to do it and we didn't do it. Tiger Woods to open season at Pebble Beach Photo: Hue Jackson. Credit: Thomas B. Shea / Getty Images

National Guard Empowerment Now Law of the Land Defense act adds Guard officer to Joint Chiefs WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Guard community ― nearly 500,000 men and women in uniform plus hundreds of thousands of family members and retirees ― is hailing language in the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that adds one of their own to the nation's senior panel of military advisors. President Barack Obama signed the NDAA on Saturday. It includes a provision giving the Guard's senior officer, the chief of the National Guard Bureau (NGB), a permanent seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president's signature culminated a legislative effort to "empower" the Guard that began years ago. It gained momentum last spring after the House passed an amendment that would give the Guard a seat at the table and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus, included the same proposal in a more comprehensive Senate bill. The House and Senate ultimately agreed on a package of Guard Empowerment provisions, including adding the NGB chief to the Joint Chiefs. "This is the Guard's most significant legislative victory since the Militia Act of 1903 created the modern, dual-mission National Guard," said retired Maj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett Jr., the president of the National Guard Association of the United States. But the real winner here is the nation's homeland security. "The primary role of the Joint Chiefs is to advise the president, the secretary of defense and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security," he said. Without the Guard at the table, our civilian leaders didn't have direct access to expertise on the Guard's domestic-response capabilities. In the post-9/11 world, it was a void that had to be filled. And now it has been filled. The NGB chief ― a four-star general ― previously participated as an invited guest in some discussions with the Joint Chiefs. However, he was not a required participant and was often excluded from meetings. Nor did he have the ability to nominate Guard officers for positions that require Senate confirmation. The provision in the NDAA enables the NGB chief to sit with the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines ― none of whom have ever served in the Guard ― and provide the Guard, for the first time, permanent representation among the nation's senior military officers. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., co-sponsored the legislation in the House. Other Guard Empowerment provisions in the NDAA include requirements for the Pentagon to delineate Guard and Reserve equipment procurement in future budget requests, to prepare a report to Congress on the costs of Guard and Reserve units versus similar active-component outfits, and to consider Guard and Reserve officers for appointment to certain command positions. The NDAA also creates a new three-star position of NGB vice chief and provides permanent funding to the Guard's State Partnership Program with democratic nations around the world. About NGAUS: The association includes nearly 45,000 current or former Guard officers. It was created in 1878 to provide unified representation in Washington. In their first productive meeting after Reconstruction, militia officers from the North and South formed the association with the goal of obtaining better equipment and training by educating Congress on militia needs. Today, 134 years later, the militia is known as the National Guard, but NGAUS has the same mission. SOURCE National Guard Association of the U.S.

New Hampshire voters are no pushovers Consider the cranky New Hampshire voter. "Maybe someone can ask you about being a warmonger and how that reconciles with your faith," Michele Seven demanded at a town hall meeting Rick Santorum held Friday in the auditorium of Dublin School. Her sweet tone belied the hostility behind her question. Jesus said, 'Love your enemies,' and to feed them. Not blow them up. "Right," replied the former Pennsylvania senator, whose bellicose language toward Iran is proving less popular here than in Iowa, where he ended in a near dead-heat with Mitt Romney in the first vote of the 2012 presidential campaign. But as you know, my faith, my Catholic faith, as well as Christian faith, has a theory called 'just war' theory. "No, it doesn't," Seven said. "Yes, it does," Santorum said. Another day, another confrontation on the campaign trail in the Granite State, where the concept of "Iowa nice" is as foreign here as a pork chop on a stick. In Iowa, most voters take care not to offend. "I want to apologize in advance if this sounds a little harsh," said a man in Carroll, Iowa, before asking Newt Gingrich last week about the Greek cruise that led to his staff quitting last summer, his oversized bill at Tiffany and his failure to qualify for the Virginia ballot. Here the obdurate electorate skips the niceties and gets right to the point. At a town hall meeting Friday in Lebanon, N.H., 51-year-old Peter Merrill assailed Gingrich as the person "most responsible, or at least as responsible as any living person on the planet, for the current practice of conducting politics as if you were a suicide bomber engaged in hostage negotiations." His question was about healthcare reform. At least one seasoned observer believes the tendency of New Hampshire voters to get right to the point is a function of a compressed time frame. "A big factor is that Iowa takes place, in a sense, for a year, whereas in New Hampshire, it's intense for about a week," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines. So it stands to reason you'll get much more direct and perhaps confrontational questions from people. Indeed. If former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, who owns a vacation home in New Hampshire, expected a favorite son's welcome at his first post-Iowa-victory town hall meeting here, he got something more like a brisk slap in the face. The first three questions were edgy if not downright hostile. A man who identified himself with the Occupy movements challenged Romney to "refine" his oft-mocked statement that "corporations are people" to "corporations are abusive people." A woman asked Romney why he opposes President Obama's healthcare plan when he instituted a similar overhaul in Massachusetts. A Chinese American woman took Romney to task for his "degrading" language toward China. "It just doesn't make me feel good," she said. "We kick the tires hard and repeatedly," said New Hampshire GOP committeeman Steve Duprey, who worked for John McCain in 2008 but has not endorsed anyone this time. The attitude is, 'These people work for us, and we owe them our respect, not our deference.' Also, said Duprey, New Hampshirites expect a candidate to welcome confrontation, not avoid it. "In 2008, one of the problems with Mitt Romney was he would look for people with Romney buttons on, and the questions would be 'Why are you so great?'" said Duprey, whose wife is a close advisor to Romney's wife, Ann. McCain would call on the Code Pink ladies. They are the pink-clad lefty activists who disrupt events by shouting antiwar slogans. Voters rewarded McCain with the win. Romney finished second. And people here are acutely attuned to how candidates deal with unexpected "trouble." That can be a persistent heckler, someone who interrupts in frustration, or those who insist on asking a question the candidate has already answered. Santorum was asked three times at the same event why he opposes gay marriage. In fact, perhaps more than the other candidates, it is Santorum - whose politics put him at the far right end of the spectrum on many issues - who has been heatedly challenged by New Hampshire voters. Understandably, because they tend to be more independent and libertarian-leaning than Republican voters in Iowa.

12 places to go - latimes.com New Mexico: This year, New Mexicans mark 100 years of statehood. But much of the state's appeal stems from its human history that goes back much further. In 2010, Santa Fe celebrated 400 years of cityhood. Explore here: the adobe architecture and art galleries of Santa Fe; the vintage signage along old Route 66; the lingering hippie vibe of Truth or Consequences. Don't forget the Lightning Field, an art installation outside Quemado where (for $150 to $250 a person) you spend a summer night in a wood cabin and wait to see if lightning will strike one of the 400 tall steel poles outside your door. Even if there's no strike, the sky puts on shows at sunset and sunrise that will leave you in awe. London: The city is twinkling with improvements and special events these days, in part because of the Summer Olympics July 27-Aug. But there are also the Queen's Diamond Jubilee events (June 2-5), which celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's ascent to the throne 60 years ago. If you can dodge the Olympic dates (and attendant price hikes), great opportunities await - for instance, a new exhibition of landscapes by David Hockney, Jan. 21-April 9 at the Royal Academy of Art, and a major "Dickens and London" show at the Museum of London (www.museumoflondon.org.uk) through June 10. Why Charles Dickens now? Because the author was born Feb. 7, 1812. New York: This is no secret. In 2011, the city drew more than 50 million visitors (including day-trippers from as close as 50 miles away), a record. The museums, shows and shops are as impressive and inspiring as ever, and more than 45 hotels have opened since January 2010. Among them: the Mondrian SoHo (http://www.mondriansoho.com); the Sanctuary Hotel (132 W. 47th St.); the Nolitan (www.nolitanhotel.com), north of Little Italy; the Hôtel Americano (http://www.hotel-americano.com) in Chelsea; the YOTEL New York (www.yotel.com/Hotels/New-York-City) near Times Square; W New York Downtown (http://www.wnewyorkdowntown.com) in the Financial District; and Andaz Wall Street (newyork.wallstreet.andaz.hyatt.com/). In Brooklyn, openings include the boutique Hotel Williamsburg (http://www.hwbrooklyn.com). All these new rooms probably won't put a big dent in the city's hefty lodging rates, which average roughly $250 a night, but they surely won't hurt. Oahu: As the Obamas remind us yearly, you need not jump to Maui or Kauai in order to experience that Hawaiian getaway feeling. Though Oahu's big city, Honolulu, has urban challenges, and the crowded towers of Waikiki are a bit much for some people, Oahu's assets are many, beginning with Waikiki's gentle waves and the sight of Diamond Head. There's also the slower pace of life on the windward side, including the enclave of Kailua, where the president's family has vacationed repeatedly. Now add Disney's 21-acre Aulani resort (resorts.disney.go.com/Aulani), which opened in August. Salt Lake City and environs: There are seven ski resorts within an hour of Salt Lake City International Airport, and the largest ski area, Park City, keeps improving, with the December 2010 opening of the luxurious Montage Deer Valley (http://www.montagedeervalley.com). At Park City's Canyons resort (http://www.canyonsresort.com), recent additions include heated chairlift seats and a kosher restaurant. Down in Salt Lake City on March 22, local leaders will unveil City Creek Center, a 20-acre shopping, office and residential project with a retractable roof designed to revitalize the area around downtown's Temple Square. Portland, Ore., and Willamette wine country: The word is out about this city's indie spirit, flowing beer and coffee, rampant bicyclists and myriad food trucks. Most readers know of the wonderland called Powell's (http://www.powells.com), the bricks-and-mortar-and-bandwidth bookshop empire based here. Outsiders are learning to cross the Willamette River into east-side neighborhoods such as Hawthorne (home to Reed College), Belmont and Sellwood/Westmoreland, which bristle with vital restaurants, bars and shops. Meanwhile, the wine industry grows in the nearby Willamette Valley. If you drive 45 minutes from Portland, you can see for yourself, then flop at the Allison Inn & Spa (http://www.theallison.com in Newberg, a boutique lodging that opened in 2009. Necker Island: Richard Branson's Caribbean retreat on Necker Island (www.neckerisland.com) went up in flames last summer. But be calm, billionaires. The island, in the British Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, is back in business as a getaway spot for the rich and famous. Kate Winslet was among the guests when the Great House caught fire on Aug. 22; she was said to have helped Branson's 90-year-old mother to safety. Though no serious injuries were reported, reconstruction will take awhile. To keep guests coming, the island's Bali Houses and Branson's private home, Temple House, have been refurbished. Travelers also can book the resort's 104-foot catamaran, Necker Belle. Myanmar: It's been decades since the U.S. has been friendly with Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, but as its new civilian government edges toward reforms after 50 years of repressive and isolationist military regimes, U.S. officials agreed on Jan. 13 to resume full diplomatic relations. This is great news for curious Americans. Those who head to Yangon (formerly Rangoon) will find the glittering Shwedagon Pagoda. And outside the city of Bagan, the plains are studded with temples, some of them 1,000 years old. Rough Guides has declined to publish a Myanmar guide because of the regime's oppressive tactics, but Lonely Planet, which says travelers must make their own decisions, published a new edition in November. New Zealand: The country, which likes to call itself "home of Middle-earth," has another bout of Tolkien movie madness coming up. In 2001, the first "Lord of the Rings" film - and the Kiwi landscape's featured role in it - prompted a boom in travel to the land of sheep, lakes and bungee jumps. Now (well, in December) comes "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," with a prominent role for Matamata (a North Island town about two hours south of Auckland) as stand-in for Hobbiton. Naturally, the New Zealand tourism folks (http://www.newzealand.com/us/) stand ready with plenty of info on shooting locations. Vayama, a web travel agency, counts the country among its 12 "most sought-after" 2012 destinations. Washington, D.C., with a Virginia side trip: Washington is great in an election year - in every monument, museum and government agency, you feel a part of breaking news. You could go to the St. Petersburg-Tampa area of Florida (where the Republicans will hold their convention Aug. 27-30) or Charlotte, N.C. (where Democrats will gather Sept. But why not head instead to where we're all supposed to come together? The city's recent additions include the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in West Potomac Park, dedicated in October. Besides this year's campaign hoopla, you can listen for echoes of the Civil War, which was in its early months 150 years ago. Sesquicentennial commemorations are happening throughout Virginia. If you head south from D.C. on Interstate 95, in two hours you'll reach the old Confederate capital, Richmond, Va. Travelers can check out the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar (http://www.tredegar.org); the neighboring Richmond National Battlefield Park (www.nps.gov/rich) and the Museum of the Confederacy (www.moc.org), which includes the mansion where Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived from 1861 until shortly before war's end in 1865. Chicago: Don't go to Chicago on May 19-21 unless you like barricades or you're looking to make an impression on the global economy. That's when the G8 and NATO summits will be held. The rest of the year looks good in the Windy City, weather permitting. Millennium Park, tardily unveiled in 2004, has become one of the most admired public spaces in the country, especially its three-story reflecting steel "Cloud Gate" sculpture. Among the hotel openings in 2011: The Public Chicago (http://www.publichotels.com/chicago), an Ian Schrager venture on the city's Gold Coast, and the hyper-stylish Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago (http://www.radissonblu.com/aquahotel-chicago), whose wavy white exterior wall fins are said to bring out the chic in Chicago. Bentonville, Ark.: That's right, Bentonville, served by Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. It's where Wal-Mart is headquartered, and it's where Alice Walton, of the chain's founding Walton family, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build Crystal Bridges, a new museum of American art, colonial to contemporary, on a 120-acre site. The collection, which opened Nov. 11, leans toward representational works with broad appeal. Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" is here, as is Andy Warhol's "Dolly Parton." New Yorkers may scoff at this distant town as a cultural destination, but we out west should be above that. crystalbridges.org; free admission to the permanent collection.

The G.O.P."s "Black People" Platform As we've gotten around to casting votes to select a Republican presidential nominee, the antiblack rhetoric has taken center stage. You just have to love (and despise) this kind of predictability. On Sunday, Rick "The Rooster" Santorum, campaigning in Iowa, said what sounded like "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money. At first, he offered a nondenial that suggested that the comment might have been out of context. Now he's saying that he didn't say "black people" at all but that he "started to say a word" and then "sort of mumbled it and changed my thought." Pause as I look askance and hum an incredulous, "Uh huh." Newton Leroy Gingrich has been calling President Obama "the best food stamp president" for months, but after plummeting in the polls and finishing forth in Iowa, he must have decided that this approach was too subtle. So, on Thursday in New Hampshire, he sharpened the shiv and dug it in deeper, saying, "I'm prepared, if the N.A.A.C.P. invites me, I'll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." On Friday, Gingrich defended himself, as usual, by insisting that exactly what he said wasn't exactly what he said. He was advocating for African-Americans, not disparaging them. Uh huh. The comments from Santorum and Gingrich came after a renewed exploration of Ron Paul's controversial newsletters, one of which said in June 1992 about the Los Angeles riots: "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began." Paul has, of course, insisted that he didn't write or review the newsletters, although they were written under his name, he made money from them and he used to brag about them. First, some facts. Take the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly known as food stamps. PolitiFact has rated Gingrich's "food stamp president" charge as only half-true. Yes, participation in the program is at a record high, but Bush-era efforts to increase participation and broaden the program "produced consistent increases in the number of average monthly beneficiaries. The number rose in seven out of the eight years of Bush's presidency - most of which were years not considered recessionary. All told, the number of recipients rose by a cumulative 63 percent during Bush's eight-year presidency. Now to the singling out of blacks. The largest group of SNAP beneficiaries is by far non-Hispanic whites. However, it is true that the rate of participation is much higher among blacks than whites. Put the emphasis where you wish. Finally, as to the false dichotomy of "food stamps" versus "paychecks." First, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, most SNAP participants are either too old or too young to work. Forty-seven percent were under age 18, and 8 percent were 60 or older. Second, "nearly 30 percent of SNAP households had earnings in 2010, and 41 percent of all SNAP participants lived in a household with earnings." But race is usually less about facts than historical mythology, which evokes the black bogyman, who saps the money from the whites who earn it. Ever since blacks first arrived on these shores in chains, they have been perceived as lazy and dependent on whites - first as slaves, and then as "entitled" citizens. It is the Shackles-to-Bootstraps Doctrine of Self-Defeat that disavows any and all structural inhibitors to success. The preface of the "Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor" tells a story about the first black captives arriving in the New World and one slave "muttering angrily to himself." The captain of the boat says to him, "What's the matter with you? You've been in this country for only five minutes and already you're complaining! Folklore or fact, this is the way many have viewed blacks in this country throughout history and even now: with scolding disdain and shocking blindness. In 1935, W.E.B. DuBois's "Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880" pointed out that one of the major themes that American children were being taught in textbooks about that period was that "all Negroes were lazy, dishonest and extravagant." The themes are eerily resonant of today's Republican talking points on welfare. One textbook theme excerpted by Mr. DuBois stated that "legislatures were often at the mercy of Negroes, childishly ignorant, who sold their votes openly, and whose "loyalty" was gained by allowing them to eat, drink and clothe themselves at the state's expense." Another stated that "assistance led many freed men to believe that they need no longer work." This tired trope was reprised in 1976. After losing the Iowa caucus to Gerald Ford and heading into the New Hampshire primary, Ronald Reagan glommed onto the idea of the "welfare queen." Reagan explained at nearly every stop that there was a woman in Chicago who "has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veteran's benefits on four nonexisting deceased husbands. And she is collecting Social Security on her cards. She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000. Coincidence? Racial politics play well for Republicans. Santorum and Paul finished second and third in Iowa. Time will tell if Gingrich rebounds. Playing to racial anxiety and fear isn't a fluke; it's a strategy that energizes the Republican base. Kevin Phillips, who popularized the right's "Southern Strategy," was quoted in The New York Times Magazine in May 1970 as saying that "the more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans."

The Global Note: Marines To Be Charged?...U.S.-Iran Secret Channel...Apple's Beijing Riot...Royal Pooch? CHARGES COMING?...Martha RADDATZ and Luis MARTINEZ have learned that criminal charges could come as early against those four Marines seen urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban. All four Marines have been identified, Raddatz reports - though only two have been interviewed. The criminal charges are expected to include bringing dishonor to the military and possible war crimes charges. The Marines could face jail time. THE FALLOUT...In the meantime, condemnation is coming fast and furious from every direction for the viral video that shows four Marines urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban fighters. Arab media today joins the State Department and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the host of voices condemning the act. Nasser ATTA notes an editorial today in Alqud Al Arabi that reads, "This story in Afghanistan is not an isolated incident. It is part of their military education that does not respect the other and looks at other cultures with spite and enjoys the humiliation of others and their believes. However, the regional press from Kabul to Islamabad through much of the Arab world continues to play the story in a straightforward way. And no big protests anywhere...yet. SECRET U.S. CHANNEL TO WARN IRAN...The New York Times reports the Obama administration is using a "secret channel of communication" to warn Iran that closing the Strait of Hormuz would provoke an American response. Officials declined to describe the unusual contact between the two governments, but say the secret channel was chosen to underscore privately to Iran the depth of American concern about rising tensions over the strait. The threats and counter-threats over the Strait are a major source of worry - not only because of what a shutdown would mean economically, but also due to the fear that one misstep by either side could provoke war. FUNERAL FOR NUCLEAR SCIENTIST...Iranian state television showed thousands of people turning out for the funeral of assassinated Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan today. NUCLEAR INSPECTORS...Meantime, the Wall Street Journal reports Iran has agreed to allow UN nuclear inspectors into the country later this month. The visit is tentatively set for January 28, though it's not yet clear if Tehran will allow the inspectors to visit key nuclear sites and interview the officials who head the country's nuclear weapons program. AHMADINEJAD + CASTRO...Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to look for friends in Latin America today, wrapping up his tour through the region with a visit to Ecuador. He found a friend yesterday - when he met with longtime Washington foe Fidel Castro to discuss world affairs. MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE U.S....A very different U.S.-Iran story: A 111-year-old Iranian woman is set to be sworn in as a U.S. citizen today. Warina Zaya Bahou will be sworn in at 2p ET in her metro-Detroit home. She just the second-oldest person on record to be naturalized. Reuters reports a Lebanese suspect with Hezbollah ties has been taken into custody by Thai officials - following a U.S. Embassy warning that American citizens may be the targets of terrorist attacks in Bangkok. The embassy said in a message posted on its website on Friday that "foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future." Al Arabiya reports Syrian opposition groups are calling for mass protests around the country today, just as the Arab League struggles define its much-maligned mission. More of those Arab League monitors tell Reuters they may defect from the mission today. Demonstrations are reportedly already underway in Aleppo, Deir al-Zour, Homs, Idlib and suburbs of Damascus. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed one protester in Idlib, where more than 20,000 people were demonstrating. What a scene in Beijing, where Karson YIU reports: Apple has halted all sales of all iPhone models in China after an angry crowd threw eggs at Apple's Beijing flagship store when it failed to open on schedule at 7a to sell the new iPhone 4S. The smartphones are wildly popular in China and stores there are often mobbed for the release of new models. Several people had traveled hundreds of miles for the opening. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is back home this morning after a private trip to Dubai that stoked rumors that he was being pushed out by the army or was fleeing a potential coup. Those rumors first surfaced last month with Zardari traveled to Dubai for medical treatment during a deepening crisis between the country's civilian government and the military. New numbers show the uphill battle we face in restricting Afghanistan's economy. Rising opium prices mean Afghanistan's opium farmers made a bundle last year. As much as $1.4 billion, the BBC says. Prices started to rise in 2010 after the poppy crop was hit by a fungal disease and were up 133 percent last year alone. Myanmar freed many of its most prominent political prisoners today in a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation that also has been a key condition set by Western nations for easing sanctions against the country. The releases of several political activists and ethnic minority leaders were part of a presidential pardon for 651 detainees. Akiko FUJITA notes a Yonhap report that North Korea test-fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea this week. This is the second missile test since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. FUJITA again: Japanese police have captured a Chinese inmate who sparked a nationwide manhunt when he bolted from a prison earlier this week, clad only in his underwear. NHK even broke into programming to show police taking 23-year-old Li Guolin into custody, only a mile from the prison from which he escaped. Unfortunately, he managed to find some clothes along the way - he was wearing a jacket and ski cap when he was arrested. This is the first prison break in two decades in Japan. Quite a story from Kelly COBIELLA in London: An Oxford mathematician was released on bail today after being grilled for 36 hours in the death of his best friend - another Oxford professor. Dr. Devinder Sivia was arrested in connection with the death of 50-year old astrophysicist Steven Rawlings, although police have not been able to determine how Rawlings died Wednesday night. An autopsy was completed on Thursday but coroners were not able to pin down the cause of death. "This is a tragic incident and our investigations are ongoing to establish the cause of death," Detective Superintendent Rob Mason said. Mason emphasized that police are looking into "all potential circumstances that could have led to his (Rawling's) death. We are mindful that ultimately the death may be a matter for a coroner's inquest rather than a criminal court. Neighbors called police Wednesday night after hearing Rawlings and his mathematician friend fighting. When they arrived, Rawlings was unconscious. A neighbor tried to revive Rawlings using CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the home. Neighbors said Rawlings and Sivia were the "best of friends." The two had known each other for decades. They wrote a book together in the late 1990′s called "Foundations of Science Mathematics." Police believe the professors had dinner at a pub Wednesday night, but it's not clear what sparked their late night argument. Police arrested Sivia Wednesday night. Police questioned him for 36 hours before releasing him on bail today. "It must have been a terrible accident," Professor Rawlings" sister told British newspaper The Telegraph. They have been friends for 30 years. We can't think that there was any kind of fight. Joran van der Sloot may be sentenced today after pleading guilty to the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman. Just yesterday, an Alabama judge officially declared Natalee Holloway dead. Van der Sloot was, of course, the main suspect in her disappearance. The Los Angeles Times notes a milestone in India: the South Asian nation has gone a year without recording a new case of polio. Most health experts gave India relatively little chance of getting this far given its huge population, poor infrastructure, widespread poverty and infamous bureaucracy, so it's considered an encouraging development for health professionals fighting to eradicate the disease, but experts warn that premature declarations of victory could lead to complacency among Indian parents who might stop immunizing their children. The New York Times reports negative comments that rolled into Vladimir Putin's presidential campaign website have mysteriously disappeared, replaced with a flood of support for Putin. Putin's press secretary says only comments with obscene language were removed. The episode seems to underscore the delicate balance Putin must strike in his election bid. He could ignore last month's protests, set off by the public rejection of parliamentary election results, but that would risk further undermining the government's legitimacy. The Obama administration has decided to remove two of the four U.S. Army brigades remaining in Europe as part of a broader effort to cut $487 billion from the Pentagon's budget over the next decade, senior U.S. officials tell the Washington Post. The reductions in Army forces, which have not been formally announced, are likely to concern European officials, who worry that the smaller American presence reflects a waning of interest in the decades-long U.S.-NATO partnership in Europe. Top Pentagon officials have sought to allay the concerns by telling their NATO allies in private meetings that the United States will continue to rotate Army units through Europe on training missions to augment the presence of the remaining two brigades. A Baltimore man, Christopher Lyles, has had a successful windpipe transplant. He traveled to Sweden to have his cancerous windpipe removed and replaced with a synthetic one. The New York Times reports it was the second procedure of its kind and the first for an American. Our affiliate WMAR interviewed him before he went for the surgery at the beginning of November. As Andreena NARAYAN notes, a 16-carat yellow diamond snatched in London by Bentley-driving bandits has turned up in a Hong Kong pawn shop. The diamond was stolen in a July 2007 holdup in which a pair of sharply dressed bandits stepped out of a $250,000 Bentley and pretended to be shoppers at a tony London jeweler before brandishing handguns and stealing diamonds and a host of other jewelry. The jeweler is suing in an attempt to get the gem back. Sad nature story from northern Europe - though the humans are trying to help: The BBC reports overwhelming numbers of seals are washing ashore in The Netherlands, thanks to rough seas that are tearing pups and their mothers apart. Marine specialists and veterinarians have erected a tent along the shore, inside which they're treating the seals with donated fish and kiddie pools. Looks like Will and Kate have adopted a dog...

US Navy rescues Iranian fishermen, again / AFP - Getty Images Sailors from guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey's provide food, water and medical supplies to distressed Iranian mariners on Wednesday. By Courtney Kube, NBC News The U.S. Navy is either following around Iranian boats waiting until they issue distress calls, or they were once again in the right place at the right time for several needy fishermen. The guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey came to the rescue of a sinking Iranian fishing dhow in the Arabian Sea early Wednesday morning. An MH-60R Seahawk helicopter spotted the sinking dhow at 7:53 a.m. All but one of the crew members had already climbed on to two other dhows nearby. The USS Dewey hurried to the boat -- named the Al Mamsoor -- where a U.S. boarding team gave the Iranian fishermen water, food, and both medical and hygienic supplies. In all, the U.S. gave them about 150 pounds of supplies. The dhow had been flooding for several days before the fishermen finally abandoned their ship. Last Thursday, U.S. naval forces in the northern Arabian Sea rescued 13 Iranian fisherman who were held hostages by pirates for more than a month, sending them home with food and fuel and wearing baseball caps bearing the name of the U.S. warship that freed them.

Swansea City v Arsenal: live Swansea 3-2 Arsenal (Graham 70) Wow. Swansea switched off for Arsenal's goal - it was an easy through ball up the middle from Djourou to Walcott. Very similar to the first goal; when Swansea's centre-backs get separated they can be totally vulnerable. Walcott chips nicely over Vorm for his first PL goal in three months. But Swansea score with their first move. It's a long through ball down the inside-right channel (I think Sigurdsson hit the pass) for Danny Graham, who thumps the ball past Szczesny. A fine finish, and what a sucker punch. Swansea 2-2 Arsenal (Walcott 69) I'd write about this properly, but... 67 min Arsenal are trying to speed things up without much success. Swansea aren't being made to work all that hard yet. 65 min Henry gets involved deep on the left touchline and feeds the ball on to Van Persie. He plays it back to Rosicky (on for Benayoun) who lashes wide. On the subject of Thierry Henry's beard, Harry Cordina insists he was talking about Barabbas, not Baracus. You are right; I meant the one Pontius Pilate pardoned. At least in some films or passion plays Barabbas was always portrayed with a beard. Which leads to the obvious question: could Mr T play Barabbas? Meanwhile I like Jennifer Mitchell's suggestion a lot: "Could it be that he is rebelling against the "Gillette curse?" 63 min Sigurdsson takes two corners from the right. Graham fluffed his header from the first after catching Song napping, and Arsenal clear the second easily. And Arshavin comes off for you know how. 62 min More dangerous stuff from Sigurdsson, who looks for Graham with another curving pass, this one from deep. Graham beats Mertesacker to it this time but can't open up a shooting angle. 60 min Sigurdsson almost gives Graham an easy header, arcing the ball into his path with a sweet chipped pass. It's just beyond the striker. Henry will be on soon for Arsenal. Swansea 2-1 Arsenal (Dyer 57) That's some finish from Nathan Dyer! Ramsey, who conceded the penalty for Swansea's first, gives the ball away in his own half, letting Allen advance towards the Arsenal box. Allen slips the ball right to Dyer, who gets the ball out from his feet and lashes a confident strike high past Szczesny with his right as the keeper comes out. 56 min Sigurdsson tries a fancy trick to beat Mertesacker on the Arsenal touchline but ends up in a muddle with the ball bouncing out of play. 54 min Rangel chips a nice ball over the top in Dyer's direction. Again Koscielny gets there first, and he has time to carry out a calm clearance. He's having a great game. 52 min Williams gives Walcott no time on the ball after he collects another cross from Miquel which cleared the area, and his crunching but fair challenge recovers possession for Swansea. 51 min Dyer controls the ball just outside the Arsenal box and to the left of the D. His shot looks dangerous and draws a gasp from the Liberty Stadium, but it's well over. 50 min Koscielny is on his toes smartly to beat Graham to a low ball in from Rangel after a nice move from Swansea. 48 min Outside the penalty box, the ball falls to Arshavin in space. Swansea's defenders don't even pretend to look afraid because they know he's going to do something rubbish. Sure enough, his shot flies way over the bar. 47 min Arshavin releases Miquel, who curves an exquisite low ball across goal. It's between keeper and defence and just a couple of feet away from both Van Persie and Walcott. The ball bounces out the other side of the box. 46 min Arsenal kick off and Theo Walcott is almost immediately through on goal after a great bit of control and a nice pass from Van Persie. It's a hard chance from a tight angle and Walcott blazes over. Gylfi Sigurdsson has replaced Agustien, and Thierry Henry is warming up. Which is good news, whatever you think of his beard. HALF TIME I wasn't optimistic about this game, but that was a very entertaining half of football. The scoreline reflects the balance of things pretty well - Arsenal flew out of the box and earned their quick opener; Swansea dominated for 25 minutes or so in the middle of the half, without creating all that many chances, before being pushed back once again towards the end. Half-time emails: Henry's beard: "Is Henry that old that he's has one too many face lifts and now has a beard?" ponders Andy Holgate. I think he's going for a kind of elder statesman look. "It does not become him," says Harry Zammit Cordina. He looks like Barabbas. He used to look much better before. Is it possible you mean Baracus there, Harry, as in "I pity the fool!" Unless you're talking about the guy Pontius Pilate pardoned instead of Jesus. I don't know if he had a beard. ...and finally, MC Kenna is in the house: "Thierry's beard looks like one of those magnetic iron-filing spy disguise toys that you used to get on markets when you were a kid." I can't say whether or not I agree with you, MC, because I have no idea what that is. And here's another cold cure (see Ed Ballard's personal problems, 15.46), this time from Keith Skeaping. Auld Scottish saying 'a glass of cold water' at the onset of a cold does the trick....but from the sound of it you're already in the second half. Maybe just headbutt Death's door.... 45 min+2 The half's ending with Swansea looking a bit harassed, passing out from the back with Arsenal breathing down their necks. Arsenal can't make the pressure count, though, and that's it. 45 min Arsenal have a free kick on the left after Britton fouled Miquel. Arshavin whips it in and Walcott (!) wins the header. Straight at Vorm. 43 min Arsenal are hogging the ball in Swansea's half without being all that good, so let's have another cold cure. "Bonjour Ed, c'est moi encore (from France)," says Paul Hobart. Your cold: 1) Stuff yourself full of friut and veg in a rainbow of colours, not less than 10 portions a day and this will fill you with illness fighting antioxidants. 2) Keep eating oily fish like mackerel, sardines and trout at least 3 portions a week and 3) Make sure you keep eating berries and citrus fruit (kiwi is good) for immune strengthening Vitamin C to prevent the cold coming back. Great goal from Arsenal, but Walcott will soon have done sufficient nothing to allow The Man to come on. 42 min A bit of hustle from Song kets him hustle the ball away from Dyer and hurtle into Swansea's half. He knocks the ball on to RVP, trying to work some urgency back into Arsenal. The Dutchman's offside. 40 min Great, direct play from Swansea. Williams steps out of defence and lofts a superb through ball over to Dyer, who's beaten the offside trap on the right. He cuts speedily back onto his left and thumps a decent shot at goal. Szczesny fields without too much bother. 38 min Benayoun, Song and Ramsey knock the ball around, starting to look confident. Caulker does well to clear the danger when Arsenal eventually work the ball into the attacking third, smartly intercepting a through ball meant for Song. 36 min That's more like it from Arsenal. Van Persie advances at the defence, waiting for a passing option. When Ramsey gets into position in front of him Van Persie plays a quick give-and-go to get into a shooting position. Ramsey's return pass was minutely overhit, allowing Vorm to save, but that was the best thing Arsenal have done in a while. 35 min Rangel gets forward, scoots away from the unfussed Arshavin, beats Miquel, and lofts a ball into the box. Arsenal hack the ball clear desperately eventually. 34 min Caulker's all patched up and Swansea are up to 11 again. 33 min Caulker cut himself going for that header and he's getting the blood mopped up on the touchline. Swansea down to 10 for the moment. 32 min Allen's high, swirling ball is met by Caulker at the far post. He nods it back into danger and this is looking very good for Swansea. Fortunately for the visitors the ball falls to Koscielny, who manages to clear. 31 min Rangel is brought down by Benayoun as he cuts in from the left, and Swansea have a free kick from 30 yards or so, to the right of the area... 29 min Van Persie is in loads of space after Ashley Williams had ventured off upfield for some reason. Benayoun spots the opportunity and angles a good ball into his path. It's on Van Persie's right foot once again, and this time he can't beat Vorm, who closes down the angle well and blocks the shot. A good chance wasted, that. 27 min A rare breather, with moves breaking down haplessly at either end. 25 min From the set piece the ball comes out to Dyer, who spots Sinclair unmarked to the left of the area. He feeds a neat pass in his direction and Sinclair's got time to pick out a team-mate or set up a shot. He spoons the ball horribly out of play. Filth. 24 min Mertesacker knocks the ball behind for a corner after Taylor got into a good position on the left flank. 23 min Britton and co circulate the ball for a few seconds in midfield before Agustien pings a nice pass through to Dyer. He's got goalside of debutant Ignasi Miquel but Koscielny is covering well. He clears. 22 min Mertesacker tries a first-time through ball on the volley from the centre circle after being first to get to Sinclair's clearance. It's safe to say that first-time volleyed through balls aren't his speciality, and this one bounces sadly out of play. 20 min Far from being the ponderous, dull affair I predicted, this is becoming a tense and panicky-feeling game. Swansea have definitely had the better of it since Arsenal's opener, and have dominated possession - 60 percent or thereabouts. Impressive. 18 min Van Persie's shot is blocked and trickles towards Vorm but the keeper doesn't get there and the ball bounces around the box a bit. It almost falls to Ramsey - he'd have an open goal - but the ball's cleared. I think that's what happened, roughly; I was mostly still typing up the last entry. Swansea 1-1 Arsenal (Sinclair 16) It's Ramsey who gives it away, getting Dyer's ankle with a little tap as Dyer was shielding the ball from Koscielny in the box. Sinclair goes hard and low to the right and beats Szczesny with a cool spot-kick. 14 min That's a dreadful ball in from Allen, clean out of play. 13 min A free kick for Swansea to the right of the penalty area after a handball from Benayoun... 11 min Not much happening in the football, Swansea are starting to edge into it without threatening, so here are some cold cures (see 15.46). Here's Jeff Wighum. "The big hit in Germany is a root extract called "Umckaloabo" (um-cuckal-oh-Agh-boo) - you take 30 drops every half hour. After 3 hours you take 4cc of whisky and go to bed. When you get up 2 days later the cold is gone. 2 days after that, so is the hangover. Gute besserung. Thanks Jeff! And another from Terezinha Borges: "Haven't had a common cold since I started taking propolis some years back. What is propolis? The elixir and anti-viral substance produced by bees. Just pop a dozen drops on your cornflakes. Works a treat! Thanks Terezinha! 10 min Sinclair tries to feed a through-ball on for Dyer but he's beaten to the ball by Koscielny. Swansea are starting to see a little more of the ball. 9 min Dyer does that disappointed sigh thing that footballers like to do when a team-mate overhits a pass. You know the one, it's the one that says "If you weren't so useless I'd definitely have scored there but you're a mate so I'll let you off this time," and it's combined by a roll of the eyes. He was in a decent position on the left but the through ball (didn't see whose, sorry) was overhit. 7 min Van Persie whips a cross out of play from a free kick in a very good position over by the right touchline. Swansea are struggling to escape their half. Swansea 0-1 Arsenal (RVP 5) Arshavin feeds it through to Van Persie, who's got between Williams and Caulker all too easily. For a moment it looks as though hesitation might have taken the chance away from him, but he lofts the ball elegantly over Vorm as he approaches. A lovely finish, very easy for Arsenal, and who knows - maybe this will be a thriller after all. 3 min Van Persie nods the ball on cleverly to Walcott, who can't get the ball under control in a very dangerous position deep inside Swansea's area. Something of a let-off for Swansea there as Vorm gathers. 1 min They're off. The first chance falls to Agustien. Not much of a chance, really - he dodged a challenge in midfield and let fly from 30 yards. Miles wide. 16.00 We're about to get under way. Everybody's patting Thierry on the back, and Arsene Wenger's shaking hands with his opposte number. He's smiling politely, but Sky's gossip is that he's complained about the quality of the pitch. Ospreys played on Friday and it's looking a little messy. 15.55 All of Sky's pregame punditry focused, predictably, on the sides' shared love of a possession-based game. Swansea's possession stats are the fifth best in Europe, would you believe. Impressively, nobody on the TV sofa made the obvious point - that there's a serious risk that we're going to be sitting through a goalless hour-and-a-half of slowed-down tika taka. 15.51 Arteta's injury, by the way, is a dicky knee. Twitter's Arsenal fans are fretting that he'll miss the Gunners' date with Manchester United a week today. 15.46 If I know anything about the internet, it's that the internet was invented to let enthusiastic but unqualified people dish out medical advice. So, internet, let me ask you this: what's the best cure for the common cold? I've got my inaugural cold of 2012, and it's a rotter. I think it's some extra murderous new strain of cold. Though it would be an exaggeration to say I'm on Death's door, I'm not far away. I'm definitely lurking on Death's porch and having a root around in Death's bins. So what've you got, internet? I've already got lemsip; I'm looking for something more original from you. Let me know here. 15.41 Sky's tunnel-man has cornered Arsene Wenger, who shows off his tactical brains when it's pointed out to him that Arsenal and Swansea play a similar style of football. "Well, it will be the team who plays this type of game the best who will win," he points out astutely. Within the same system, us trying to play better. He says Henry isn't starting because he's not quite match-fit. 15.39 Full teams. Benayoun starts for Arsenal in place of the African-Cup-of-Nations-bound Gervinho, while Arteta misses out through injury. Thierry Henry starts on the bench, as does Swansea's (very handy) Icelandic loan signing, Gylfi Sigurdsson - expect a cameo from him too. Gervinho and Chamakh are off to the Cup of Nations. The absence of Marouane Chamakh, in particular, will have prompted crisis meetings at the Emirates. Ho ho. Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Caulker, Williams, Taylor, Dyer, Agustien, Britton, Allen, Sinclair, Graham. Subs: Tremmel, Routledge, Monk, Lita, Moore, Richards, Sigurdsson. Arsenal: Szczesny, Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Miquel, Walcott, Ramsey, Song, Benayoun, Arshavin, van Persie. Subs:Almunia, Rosicky, Park, Henry, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Squillaci, Yennaris. Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland) 15.24 Good afternoon, readers. Ready for what promises to be a smashing afternoon of football? Well, how about a cagey and circumspect afternoon of football? Sorry, I know those aren't the most exciting adjectives, but I think it's better for all of us to face facts. Swansea don't go in for thrillers at home, and so far this season Arsenal have both made it their aim to grind out nervy one-goal victories. Thank goodness, then, for the definitely-not-boring comeback of Thierry Henry, returning from the wilderness with that serious beard of his, looking like a well-groomed prophet. Sunday, January 15, 2012 Swansea City v Arsenal Liberty Stadium Kick-off: 16.00 GMT. Referee: Michael Oliver (Matches 10, R3 Y26). Team News Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers has almost a full squad to select from ahead of Sunday's Liberty Stadium meeting with Arsenal.

Egyptians see remarkable year not living up to its potential Temporary monuments are erected in Tahrir Square on Wednesday as thousands of Egyptians gather to mark the one year anniversary of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. They are scenes reminiscent of Egypt's 18-day revolution that toppled the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak. Men and women, young and old, Muslim and Christian, rich and poor, secular and conservative ... all back in the symbolic heart of Egypt's revolution, Tahrir Square. They are also in cities all across the country. But the unity seen during Egypt's revolution in 2011 has been replaced by widening differences over where the country stands one year later. The difference revolves around the transition to democracy. Is it on the right path? Led by the right people? Genuine or simply cosmetic? Actions versus promises. Accomplishments versus rhetoric. Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the uprising that ousted Mubarak. Related: Obama wants to boost Egypt aid quickly Some gathered in the square to celebrate that revolution. They said the past year had been one of transformation. They cited a newly elected lower house of parliament, new individual freedoms and an explosion of political parties running the gamut. Those gathered Wednesday celebrated the accomplishments of the revolution. Those accomplishments cannot simply be dismissed. The pace of reform may be slow, but change has been tangible. Those here commemorating the revolution argued change has been cosmetic. One regime has simply been replaced by another. "We have changed the driver in the car, but you have not changed the car or its direction," one protester told me. "Only when the direction of the car changes will the revolution be considered successful," he added. Those commemorating the revolution said the anniversary should serve as a reminder of what Egyptians can accomplish when they are united. The past year has not lived up to its potential. They cited thousands of civilians in military trials as evidence that the ruling military council -- all appointed by Mubarak coincidentally -- has resorted to the same draconian measures as its predecessor. They said that in the past year, not a single senior officer of the internal security forces or minister has been convicted in the killings of around 800 protesters. So for them, Wednesday was about renewing demonstrations against the ruling military council. Related: Huge crowd in Cairo The military council said it's holding the ship steady on the course to democracy. And while it has changed the timetable to elections a few times, it has done so only when events on the ground rapidly deteriorated and protests flared up. On one hand that showed it had been responsive to public sentiments and street protests; but on the other hand, it continued to act unilaterally when it came to fundamental issues concerning the process of reform. It retained exclusive power over the security services and the judiciary. It has refused to delegate powers and authority to the military-appointed prime minister or the newly elected lower house of parliament. At the same time, the military has issued a declaration of constitutional principles that many interpret as an attempt to retain powers after a new government is directly elected. And of course... there are the new democratic realities that have emerged in post-revolution Egypt. New political parties, but not necessarily new political voices. The loudest so far has been that of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafist movement. Between the two of them, they overwhelmingly won the majority of seats in parliament. Will their mandate from the people be seen as a direct order to challenge the military? Some argue the Islamists are content with the democratic process undertaken by the military because it has paved their way to power. They fear the two have cut backroom deals. The military will move the democratic process at a pace and under conditions favorable to Islamist parties at the expense of the lesser and weaker secular and liberal forces. In exchange, the Islamists will not mobilize their massive street support against the military or hold them accountable for past misdoings going forward. So whether Egyptians celebrate, commemorate or reinvigorate their January 25 Revolution, one thing is for certain, it has been a remarkable year in the history of this country.

Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'Dungeons and Dragons' - GeekOut Soon, diehard players of the iconic “Dungeons and Dragons” role-playing game will be getting a new way to slash orcs and slay dragons. Mike Mearls, lead designer for D&D at parent company Wizards of the Coast, announced Monday that it is developing a new version of Dungeons and Dragons. While the details are still to be developed, Mearls said the latest iteration will aim to incorporate the best of its predecessors, along with the varying play styles and different approaches of the players who have loved them. As such, Mearls said the company will be reaching out to its player base for suggestions. “We could guess at those play styles, or use our own, but gathering a broad range of input makes sense to us,” he said. “We want to cast as wide a net as possible. We can only deliver on that promise if we give the varied audience of D&D players a chance to kick the tires and let us know if we’re on target.” A long-running tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. - better know in the hobby world as TSR or TSR hobbies. In 1997, Wizards of the Coast, creator of the popular “Magic: The Gathering” card game, bought TSR and has been publishing D&D ever since. Over the years, there have been several different editions of the game. Wizards of the Coast currently produces materials only for whichever is the most current version, while third-party companies are allowed to publish materials for players still enjoying the older versions. Fans differ on which updates over the years should be considered new versions. But most acknowledge six versions, with what’s referred to as 4th Edition being the most current. This announcement, or “official acknowledgment,” of a new edition of the game is something that Wizards of the Coast has been laying the groundwork for for roughly a year. Hints have appeared in the “Legend and Lore” column in the online magazine devoted to the game, “Dragon.” Speculation hit a fever pitch when former Wizards employee Monte Cook, one of the lead designers for D&D’s third edition, was rehired. Mearls confirmed Monday that Cook is the new version’s lead designer. “Monte Cook is one of the smartest, most creative game designers I know,” said Owen K.C. Stephens, a professional game designer who worked for Wizards of the Coast for 14 months. “Any chance to read his thoughts about game design in general, and what makes D&D popular and/or successful, is always good.” Mearls said, after acknowledging the past year’s speculation, that Wizards of the Coast knows the announcement won’t be a shocker for many diehard D&D fans. We’re not trying to completely surprise or shock people with a change to the game,” he said. “In some ways, this is a natural time period to start looking at the next edition of the game.” He said the update is, in part, geared toward reinvigorating the classic franchise at a time when many gamers are going online for their epic quests. "I think there are also fears out there that tabletop RPGs are going away, that there are these external forces that are going to eventually squeeze the hobby into a continual twilight," Mearls said. I think the hobby needs a jolt, something positive and exciting, to kick-start it into its next 40 years.” One question on the minds of most D&D players is what the new edition is going to be called. D&D has had an edition number associated with it since the release of “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition” in 1989. Will this be called 5th Edition? “Most people will think of this as the fifth edition of D&D. In many ways, though, we want this to be a version of the game that embraces the entirety of D&D’s history," he said, "One that all D&D fans can turn to and use. “I think that the actual naming of the game will come down to how the play-tests go and how people react to it. I’d love to just call it Dungeons & Dragons and leave the edition numbering behind.” “Dungeons and Dragons - that brand is far stronger than worrying about version numbers or cute marketing terms like ‘30th anniversary edition,' ” said Mike Shea, who runs the D&D blog SlyFlourish.com and has written two books about the game. “However, for those already part of the community, they will likely want to call it ‘fifth edition’ just to separate it. “Not heavily promoting a version name also gives them the option to market version-agnostic products like the Dungeon Tiles, Map Packs, miniatures and flavor-focused setting source books.” In Monday’s announcement, Wizards of the Coast invited the D&D fan base to help shape the future of the game. But will content really be shaped by players outside the company? “We are 100% committed to giving players and DMs (dungeon masters, who run the games) ample time to play-test and provide us with their feedback,” Mearls said. Players will get their first chance to play-test the proposed changes this month at the Dungeons & Dragons Experience convention – running January 26-29 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Convention attendees will have early access to the initial draft of the design concepts they’ve been working on. In the spring, Wizards of the Coast will begin an open play-test of the game, available to anyone who wants to sign up at wizards/dndnext. In early December, I got a chance to play-test this new edition, and I can tell you that it was fun to play. Mearls said the company has been doing internal play-testing for a few months. Most of the time, employees have been testing mechanics of the game to make sure it plays at the table the way they think it should. Shea said he appreciated the thought that the “Dragon” column showed the new version’s creators are giving it. “I like how both Cook and Mike Mearls went back and dissected the original concepts behind D&D and hunted down the core elements of the game,” he said. “I like how they both have discussed designing D&D as a modular game with a core set of rules that can be expanded to add levels of complexity as a gaming group desires.” Cook is working with Robert Schwalb and Bruce Cordell, two names that are well-known in D&D for their work on fourth-edition products. As with anything that is as deeply ingrained into the geek culture and community, the announcement of a new version of D&D will probably be met with a level of reaction that, to quote “Ghostbusters,” could reach “dogs and cats living together” levels of hysteria. “It will be a re-creation of the scene from the movie ‘Airplane II,’ when the passengers were told the vessel was out of coffee,” Stephens said. “[That will be] followed by increasingly intense online debates about which edition of D&D is better, and what the chances are that the fifth edition will be the next best thing since sliced bread, or the end of Western civilization.” “[Gamers] are a passionate bunch who are extremely vocal and ready to give our most blunt opinions about things at the drop of a hat,” said Jerry LeNeave, who runs the D&D blog DreadGazebo.net and is content director for D&D wiki Obsidian Portal, a free service for tracking all of your tabletop RPGs online. “The thing about those opinions is we often double back to take a second look at things after we have cooled off. So if a new edition were to be launched, I think the community would need some time to regain its composure before forming truly fair opinions.” Stephens said he’s hoping for strong support for players who want to develop abilities and skills outside of combat in the new edition. Shea wants the combat part of the game – obviously a big part for any player – to run faster. He’d also like to see the game be consistently challenging for players (and their characters) at all levels. Ultimately, it seems as though the kind of game that fans want the new D&D to be is up to them.

Want to get attention on Twitter? Win big in a Republican primary, then propose colonizing the moon. It is working for Newt Gingrich. Gingrich was mentioned more times on Twitter and in the media during the past week than any of his other Republican rivals, according to @MentionMachine data. His South Carolina primary win helped him surpass Ron Paul in total Twitter mentions, something no other candidate has been able to do since the @MentionMachine began tracking them earlier this month. Gingrich had 314,990 total Twitter mentions since last Friday, and Paul had 307,377. Gingrich was mentioned 8,460 times by the media in the same span, while Mitt Romney was mentioned 8,292 times. Gingrich's Twitter and media mentions spiked the day after his win, and ticked up again Wednesday after he told a group of activists he wanted the U.S. to have a permanent lunar base. The most recent poll numbers may bring Gingrich back down to earth - he trailed Romney by 9 points in Florida in a Quinnipiac poll released Friday, four days before the state's primary.

Giants at 49ers, Ravens at Patriots That road warrior mentality the New York Giants have embraced is paving their path nicely. They will need it for one more game when they head to San Francisco next Sunday to play for the NFC championship. Since making the playoffs as a wild card in 2007, Tom Coughlin's team has emphasized the need to be comfortable on the road. The Giants felt downright at home at Lambeau Field in the postseason for the second straight time, humbling the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers 37-20 Sunday. Four years ago, they eliminated the Packers 23-20 in overtime on the Lambeau tundra. "I think we're a dangerous team," Coughlin said. Eli Manning threw for three touchdowns for the second consecutive week, Hakeem Nicks caught two of his scoring throws - one a 37-yard desperation pass at the end of the first half - and the Giants (11-7) forced four turnovers from the usually precise Packers and had four sacks. So it's on to San Francisco, where they lost 27-20 in November. But the Giants also lost to the Packers (15-2) during the regular season. The 49ers (14-3) won a classic on Saturday, rallying to beat New Orleans 36-32 with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Alex Smith to Vernon Davis with 9 seconds remaining. Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers is sacked by New York Giants' Michael Boley, center, and Corey Webster, right, during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps) Close The AFC title game will match the Baltimore Ravens (13-4) and Patriots (14-3) in New England. Two years ago, Baltimore romped at Foxboro 33-14 in the wild-card round. Baltimore finished off a 9-0 home record with a 20-13 victory Sunday over first-time playoff qualifier Houston. Ed Reed's interception late in the fourth quarter sealed it, and the Ravens didn't commit a penalty or have a turnover. Lardarius Webb had two picks and Joe Flacco threw for two TDs. "We have won in New England," Flacco said. So we're going to have to make sure we prepare well all week and bring our 'A' game up there. New England routed Denver 45-10, silencing Tebowmania as Tom Brady tied an NFL mark with six touchdown passes and set another with five in the first half. In their last meeting, 49ers All-Pro defensive tackle Justin Smith batted down Manning's pass in the closing seconds to preserve a win. That started New York on a downward spiral of four consecutive losses. But the Giants have found a pass rush and a running game, Manning has maintained his sizzling pace in his best season, and they have gotten healthy. They've won five of six, including two playoff games. "We went down there earlier this year and we didn't get it done, we fell short," receiver Mario Manningham said. But I think we're going to go back and watch what we did wrong and just come back and do the right things. San Francisco has done nearly everything right in a turnaround season under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh. They are extremely efficient with perhaps the best tackling defense in the league led by four All-Pros - linebackers Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman, cornerback Carlos Rogers and Smith - and ball-hawking skills that allowed them to lead the NFL with 38 takeaways. Same thing on offense, with a league-low 10 turnovers.

Brazil's Embraer eyes NATO buyers for Super Tucano By Brad Haynes and Carolina Marcondes SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's Embraer expects to sell its Super Tucano light attack aircraft to more NATO nations after clinching an order from the United States that lifted the company into the upper echelons of global defense contractors, a top executive told Reuters. "When you're selling to the most demanding client on the planet ... that's a showcase," Luiz Carlos Aguiar, the head of Embraer's Defense and Security unit, said in an interview. It naturally opens the door to the NATO countries, which have many joint operations. Just weeks after winning its first U.S. government contract, Aguiar said Embraer is also eyeing at least three other projects for the U.S. armed forces, undeterred by the political firestorm surrounding an American rival's legal challenge. Buoyed by the U.S. endorsement, Embraer's defense unit could make up a quarter of its revenue by 2020, Aguiar said, up from an estimated 14 percent last year and under 5 percent in 2006. The unit promises steady growth with Brazil's armed forces as the country bolsters protection of its vast borders and far-flung offshore oil reserves, reducing Embraer's reliance on highly cyclical revenue from civil aviation. But as Embraer's defense ambitions grow in foreign countries, it also faces more politically charged competition. The U.S. Air Force halted the $355 million Super Tucano order last week due to a lawsuit from losing bidder Hawker-Beechcraft HKBCH.UL, of Kansas, stirring nationalist rhetoric from local lawmakers and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. Aguiar dismissed the political risks, confident that a swift decision in courts will free up Embraer to deliver the Air Force's first Super Tucanos from a new Florida plant next year. Our team is totally ready. No one was deactivated," said Aguiar. You just press the button and we go to work. The order could grow to $950 million for 55 aircraft, which are designed for surveillance and counterinsurgency operations in rugged conditions like the Afghanistan border. The U.S. contract is the first for the Super Tucano in the NATO alliance. An earlier generation of the plane, known as the Tucano, was used beginning in 1989 for pilot training in France and the United Kingdom. Embraer's focus on defense is a return to its roots for the planemaker, which was founded in 1969 as a government-run supplier for the Brazilian Air Force. After it was privatized in 1994, the company reinvented itself as a commercial planemaker and eventually became the world's leading manufacturer of regional jets, competing with Canada's Bombardier (BBDb.TO). In many ways, Embraer has also become the face of an emerging, more modern Brazil, long a commodities-based economy dependent on the country's vast natural resources and agricultural wealth, from iron ore and oil to sugar and coffee. As Brazil's global ambitions grow with its economic rise, Embraer is pushing into new defense segments. The company has announced a string of acquisitions and new partnerships in the year since it established a separate defense and security unit. Embraer is developing unmanned aircraft to patrol Brazil's borders deep in the Amazon. The Brazilian navy has turned to the company for planes to protect deep-sea oil reserves located more than an hour off its coastline by helicopter. And in November Embraer joined forces with state telecom Telebras to launch a defense and communications satellite. The pace of new ventures will slow in 2012, as the focus turns to the execution of existing projects, Aguiar said. Embraer has also finished lining up an array of suppliers for its KC-390 military cargo plane, he said, preparing the company to define specifications, determine pricing and begin sales by the first quarter of next year. And with Embraer's scope extending well beyond the aviation market, there is more room for innovative announcements. As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, for example, Embraer is developing software to manage public security at those major events to coordinate communication between local, state and federal forces. Their systems still aren't talking to each other. They're fundamentally fragmented. So there's a role for Embraer to play there, integrating all of them," Aguiar said. Editing by Todd Benson

Michigan Teacher in Hot Water for Using Tea to Break Up Fight A Michigan teacher is in hot water after using steaming tea to break up a fight between two high school students. On Tuesday morning, 15-year-old Skyler Henion and 18-year-old Dillon Anderson were arguing via text message over a girl. The two met in a hallway and a fight broke out. The teacher was just coming in and heard and then watched the two students fighting. After several attempts of trying to get them to break up by yelling and saying, "hey, stop fighting," they didn't stop," Detective Jeff Pratt of the Hastings Police Department told ABCNews.com. "She was carrying tea and said, "If you don't quit fighting, I'll throw my hot tea on you." And when they didn't stop, she did. The fight broke up and later that afternoon Henion went to the Hastings Police Department to file an assault complaint against Anderson. Henion had bruising on his face from the scuffle. While telling police the story, he mentioned the tea and they asked him if he had been injured. "He took off his shirt and he had red marks which is consistent with burns from hot tea on his shoulder," Pratt said. Now, the both the teacher and Anderson are under investigation for separate cases of assault. The police have passed the case onto the prosecutor's office and they are expected to decided today on how to proceed. Both the teacher and Anderson could face up to 93 days in jail for misdemeanor charges. The teacher is currently on paid administrative leave from the school. Though Pratt concedes that the teacher's tactic was effective, he wished she had found another way to break up the fight. "I wish it was cold water," she said. I wish she had done something different.

Sarah Sands: The Tudors are the seasoned beams of British history The historian Niall Ferguson once complained that schoolchildren are taught only about Henry VIII and the world wars. Yes, but let's face it, these are the blockbusters of British history. This year, the Tudors are on a roll. Hilary Mantel has become the high-end, historical equivalent of J K Rowling. Wolf Hall, her Booker prize-winning novel about the influence of Thomas Cromwell, won a stadium-size following. Her publishers hastily promised a sequel, then a trilogy. The second book, Bring Up the Bodies, this summer's guaranteed bestseller, spans the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn. If Mantel can make the wily administrator Cromwell such a layered character, imagine how an uppity and doomed Queen will fare in her hands. It will be like jumping into a Holbein painting. I have been reading Nicola Shulman's portrait of the poet Thomas Wyatt, Graven with Diamonds, an elegantly written, well-researched book which should not be eclipsed by Mantel. Wyatt may not be as major a historical character as Cromwell, but his story is intimately woven into the Tudor court. He was allegedly a lover of Anne Boleyn. It will be interesting to see if Mantel supports this theory. He was sent to the Tower of London during Cromwell's sinister rounding-up of men accused of adultery with the queen, but survived, and later regained favour through another unfortunate queen, Catherine Howard. It is hard to go wrong with stories of spirited, troublesome, divisive women who turn the country upside-down. Look at The Iron Lady. The vitriol towards Anne Boleyn makes the Thatcher-haters look kindly. The Queen's fault lay in a talent for French wordplay and a high-handedness. But by the time she was sent to the Tower in 1536, she was accused of taking 100 lovers, of bewitching the king, and of poisoning Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary. Her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, who had schemed to promote Anne, begged the king to be rid of her. The intrigue and shifting axis of power at the Tudor court gives the Borgias a run for their money. And at the centre is the almost remorseful king, fencing shadows. The tale works on every level. It is a vortex of love, power and religion. It is also the beginning of present day England. The foundation of this proud and bolshie island, at odds with Europe, is formed here. Our present queen's willingness to grant equal rights of succession to a daughter of Prince William, is a reminder of Anne Boleyn's tragedy and dramatic irony. She was beheaded for failing to produce a son, yet her daughter became history's great queen. The Christmas parade of the Royal Family at church in Sandringham is an expression of narrative determination. The Queen is the head of the Church of England because her ancestor was besotted by a woman who was not his wife. Yet it is hard to imagine Britain now as a Catholic country. It is an example of how the crooked timber of our history assumes a natural, familiar shape over time. Downton Abbey has been terrific entertainment, but we haven't learnt much from it, whereas anyone over 45 whose brain has got mushy about the order of Henry VIII's wives, feels silent gratitude to Mantel. With the Tudors we can enjoy the human story, admire the qualities that made Britain great and feel a little closer to the century that gave us Shakespeare. Sarah Sands is deputy editor of the 'London Evening Standard'

Oil begins 2012 with a bang January 3, 2012, 9:18 a.m. NEW YORK - Oil prices are soaring Tuesday as tensions grow over key Persian Gulf oil shipments. In midday trading benchmark crude jumped $3.55, or 3.6%, to $102.38 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil varieties that are imported by U.S. refineries, rose $3.26, or 3%, to $110.64 per barrel in London. Prices shot up as exchanges opened for the first day of 2012 trading. Commodity prices tend to rise at the beginning of January as investors start the new year with a fresh round of trading. This year prices were driven by heightened concerns that Iran might try to close the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to oil tankers, if Western nations impose new sanctions. Iran warned the U.S. to stay out of the strategic waterway, where one-sixth of the world's oil shipments pass every day. On Monday its navy fired a cruise missile as part of a military exercise. The U.S. and European nations are mulling further economic sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program. A standoff could result that would be damaging to the global economy. A dustup with Iran could slow crucial oil supplies at a time when the world needs every drop. Global oil demand is expected to rise to a record 89.5 million barrels per day in 2012. Three of the world's largest economies - the U.S., China and India - continued to grow with increased manufacturing activity in December. A private trade group said that U.S. manufacturing expanded last month at the fastest pace in six months. The Commerce Department also said that U.S. construction spending jumped in November on a spate of new projects for single-family homes and apartments.

Nadal, Federer win again in straight sets 2-ranked Rafael Nadal picked up his fourth straight-set victory of the 2012 Australian Open with a win Sunday over Feliciano Lopez. Nadal lost serve just once in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 decision over Lopez. The match was relatively lengthy for Nadal -- 2 hours, 45 minutes -- but Nadal still took 58 percent of the points, including 77 percent on serve. He also won nearly half (50-of-109) of the points when receiving and finished off five of his 18 break-point chances versus Lopez, who was the No. 18 seed. Seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych earned a quarterfinal shot at Nadal with a taut 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2) win against 10th-seeded Nicolas Almagro. Berdych managed just one break in the nearly 4-hour match but survived with the advantage in the tiebreakers. Roger Federer, seeded third, took out unseeded Australian Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 with six service breaks. Tomic landed 75 percent of his first serves but Federer still won 48 percent of the points off Tomic's serve. Tomic's loss leaves Lleyton Hewitt, who plays world No. 1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round Monday, as the last Australian in the field. 11-seeded Juan Martin del Potro ran past Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 with at least two breaks in each set. Federer owns a 7-2 series edge over del Potro going into their quarterfinal match. One of del Potro's wins over Federer was a five-set victory in the finals of the 2009 U.S. Open. Nadal is 10-3 versus Berdych, including taking the last nine meetings.

Syrian opposition signs plan for post-Assad future BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two leading Syrian opposition parties have agreed a road map to democracy should a popular uprising succeed in toppling President Bashar al-Assad, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters. Hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets across Syria on Friday, aiming to demonstrate the strength of their movement to Arab League monitors checking whether Assad is implementing a pledge to halt a violent crackdown on unrest that has been raging since March. The observer mission has already stirred controversy for its lack of numbers and comments by its Sudanese leader, General Mohammed al-Dabi, suggesting he was reassured by first impressions of Homs, one of the main centers of unrest. He later backtracked from the reports of those remarks, but appeared likely to cause fresh concern that the mission would be soft on Syria by undermining the comments of one of his observers in Deraa, cradle of the uprising, posted in a video on YouTube early on Saturday. "We saw snipers in the town, we saw them with our own eyes," the observer says in Arabic, visibly concerned. We're going to ask the government to remove them immediately. We'll be in touch with the Arab League back in Cairo. Dabi later told the BBC: "This man said that IF he sees, by his eyes, those snipers, he will report them immediately and he will tell the government. But he didn't see, he said that 'IF he (sees) ', so it is not correct in the media, what he said. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces had shot dead 27 people on Friday in areas where there were no observers, adding to the toll of a conflict that the United Nations says has killed more than 5,000 people, most of them unarmed civilians. The Observatory said four civilians had been shot dead on Saturday, three by snipers. The bodies of three detainees were also returned home, and a woman died of gunshot wounds, it said. With little confidence in the Arab observer mission, opposition groups are trying to create a coherent movement to build political pressure and to boost their credibility in the eyes of other countries that fear chaos if Assad is forced out. The leading opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, signed the deal on Friday with the largely Syrian-based National Coordination Committee, according to Moulhem Droubi, a top SNC member from Syria's Muslim Brotherhood. The two groups have received attention from Western powers, but it is not clear how much sway they hold with the mass of protesters. The document seen by Reuters says the deal will be presented to other opposition groups at a conference next month. The National Coordination Committee had disagreed with the SNC's calls for foreign intervention - one of several disputes that had prevented opposition groups agreeing on what a post-Assad Syria should look like. In their pact, the two sides "reject any military intervention that harms the sovereignty or stability of the country, though Arab intervention is not considered foreign." The groups outlined a one-year transitional period, which could be renewed once if necessary. In that period, Syria would adopt a new constitution "that ensures a parliamentary system for a democratic, pluralistic civil state." The document also stresses that religious freedom will be guaranteed by the new constitution and condemns any signs of sectarianism or "sectarian militarization." Most of the protesters come from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, while Assad still appears to enjoy significant support among members of his Shi'ite Alawite sect, from which most of the ruling establishment is drawn. The Arab League plan calls for a verifiable withdrawal of troops and heavy weaponry from towns and cities. But activists say they have little faith that the Arab League mission can help to stem the violence against them. The mission is still short of its planned strength of 150 members, who must observe events in dozens of towns and cities across a country of 23 million people. And it relies for its transport on state security escorts who some protesters say have prevented access to the demonstrators. We don't know what to do. But we know Assad and his regime won't give us what we want," said opposition activist Ziad in Douma, a suburb of Damascus that has seen big protests. So why should we wait for them to help us? Assad wants us to raise our weapons and kill each other and he is pushing us towards that every day. We wanted the monitors to help us find a solution, but it won't happen. SNC head Burhan Ghalioun said on Friday that if the government did not implement the peace plan, "there is no other solution except going to the (U.N.) Security Council - and I think we are walking toward the Security Council. On Saturday, thousands took to the streets in the protest hotspot of Idlib, carrying the bodies of three slain protesters wrapped in white sheets and sprinkled with leaves. "The martyr is beloved by God and Assad is the enemy of God," the protesters shouted, according to witnesses. Most foreign media are banned from Syria, making witness reports hard to verify. Assad, 46, says Islamist militants steered from abroad are the source of unrest and have killed 2,000 of his forces. The state news agency SANA reported at length on "massive demonstrations" throughout Syria on Friday in support of Assad, and against "the plot which Syria is exposed to." It said demonstrators had denounced "the pressure and biased campaigns targeting Syria's security and stability" and the "lies and fabrications of the misleading media channels." Some protesters have decided their best hope lies with the Free Syrian Army, a group of army defectors and armed rebels who have been taking the fight to Assad's forces and sometimes overshadowing the peaceful protests. I think it's obvious at this point that the Arab League needs to take a stronger stance. We need support for the Free Syrian Army," activist Manhal Abu Bakr said by phone from Hama. It has been nearly a week and they (the monitors) haven't stopped the killing. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby had said it should take only a week to see if Assad was keeping his word. The commander of the Free Syrian Army told Reuters on Friday he had ordered his fighters to stop attacks while the FSA tried to arrange a meeting with the monitors. But in a newspaper interview published on Saturday he said if the Arab mission was "not professional," the FSA would "resume our defense operations." U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Friday that the United Nations was ready to train the observers in rights monitoring. Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut and Ayman Samir in Cairo; Writing by Douglas Hamilton, Erika Solomon and Kevin Liffey

China's poorest get sceptical about higher education When Wang Fei was admitted to university, his parents hosted the entire village for a banquet. "Not many people here went to university and in our family I'm the only one," he says. But two years after his graduation with a logistics degree from Ningbo university, his family and neighbours in Xiaozhai, a village in the hilly, landlocked province of Guizhou, one of the poorest corners of China, are in much less of a mood to celebrate 24-year-old Mr Wang because his career is not living up to expectations. "When they look at me, many people think university is useless," he says. In China, where scholarship was once seen as a path for social mobility for anyone, especially the poorest view higher education with increasing scepticism. "My brothers and my sister are as smart as I am, but there was no money, and then they preferred to get an industry job to going to university," says Jiang Guoli, a 20-year-old English student from Leidayan, another poor Guizhou village. Her entire generation has left home not to pursue more knowledge or training but for the quick money expected from jobs in the export manufacturing hubs of coastal China. The trend is the result of 15 years of higher education reforms that were intended to achieve the exact opposite. From the late 1990s, Chinese universities, once elite institutions which only a tiny fraction of high school graduates could hope to enter, were encouraged to throw their doors open and recruit more students. In 2010, 6.6m new students entered university, an all-time record. However, poor applicants from the countryside are in a much weaker position to grab these new opportunities. Village primary and high schools lack the qualified teachers and funds that urban schools have. "The people they hire for our schools are mostly senior high school graduates who work as substitute teachers," says Wu Bingfeng, a 22-year-old student of applied chemistry at Guizhou University. As a result, rural students often fall behind their urban rivals in the nationwide university entry exams and only manage to enter less lower-ranking universities. According to a Chinese government survey conducted in 2006, 3.5 times as many urban students as rural students graduated from senior high school. In technical school, the factor widens to 55.5 times, in university to 281.6 times and in post graduate studies to 323 times. The ratio of students with rural backgrounds entering top universities such as Tsinghua, renowned as "China's MIT," or Peking University, has dropped drastically since the reforms began. "The expanded student recruitment by universities has increased chances to receive an education, [...] but it has not automatically advanced the realisation of fair access to education," said Yang Jianchao, a professor at Nanjing Normal university, in a paper last year. While rural students on average have a smaller chance of obtaining a good university education, they pay as much as those from the city. When the Chinese government relaxed entry limits to the universities, it also allowed them to raise fees to finance the larger student numbers. Average annual university fees between Rmb4,000 (US$634) and Rmb6,000 seem low compared to international counterparts. But that is still four to 10 times the annual household income in some of rural China's poorest regions. Although some comfort may be drawn from the fact that rural income is growing, such disparities have widened with China's rapid urbanisation. The urban population now exceeds the rural one, as Beijing announced this week. Jiang Guoli's home village of Leidayan indicates the standard of living in such areas. Home to 40 families, it clings to a steep slope high above a river gorge and is far away from the paved road, fixed-line telephone network and the nearest primary school. It takes more than four hours by bus plus a two-hour hike to reach it from Guiyang, the provincial capital. Many families in Guizhou and Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai, other provinces with rural populations at the bottom of China's wealth ladder, have been driven deep into debt by their attempts to send their offspring to university, seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to escape poverty. Mr Wang, the logistics graduate, is still optimistic that his university education will eventually pay off. But his situation remains a tough one. Since his graduation two years ago, he has tried and failed to raise chicken and plant vegetables and corn in his home village, worked as a waiter in a Shanghai hotel and most recently opened a computer shop in a nearby town. He has also racked up Rmb40,000 in debt on top of Rmb20,000 in student loans he has yet to pay off. Additional reporting Chen Yuanni in Guizhou

Americans expected to buy more cars in 2012 DETROIT (AP) - Strong sales in December capped off a great year for U.S. carmakers - especially Chrysler - and 2012 should be even better. For their biggest Japanese rivals, a year of natural disasters and other struggles ended on a sour note, with U.S. sales falling and the outlook for next year just as challenging. Chrysler Group, in the midst of a comeback after its 2009 trip through bankruptcy court, said Wednesday that sales surged 37 percent in December and 26 percent for all of 2011. Demand was particularly strong for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Chrysler 200. Chrysler catapulted itself ahead of Honda Motor Co. as the fourth-largest automaker by sales in the U.S. General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. ended the year with more modest double-digit percentage gains. Analysts say U.S. car sales rose for the second year in a row as buyers' confidence in the economy picked up, their aging vehicles wore down and their ability to take out cheap loans improved. U.S. auto sales rose 10 percent to 12.8 million in 2011. That's up 22 percent from 2009, when the U.S. auto industry and the financial system were in peril. November and December were the strongest months of the year for U.S. auto sales, and analysts expect the momentum to continue into 2012. Improving employment numbers, low interest rates and building demand to replace older cars should all boost 2012 sales. GM's December sales rose 5 percent, resulting in a 13 percent bump for the year, while Ford's December sales climbed 10 percent, closing out an 11 percent gain for 2011. Nissan Motor Co., which recovered more quickly than its rivals from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, was the only major Japanese automaker to sell more cars in the U.S. in 2011. Its sales surged nearly 8 percent in December and 15 percent for the year. Nissan's Leaf electric car also outsold GM's Chevrolet Volt in the cars' first full year on the market. Nissan sold 9,674 Leafs, beating the Volt by just over 2,000. But for Honda and Toyota, 2011 was a disappointing sales year. They couldn't get enough cars and trucks to U.S. dealers because of Japan's disasters and flooding in Thailand. Toyota said Wednesday that it doesn't expect its inventory to be at normal levels until March. Both carmakers, whose sales fell 7 percent in 2011, were also hurt by aging offerings like the Toyota Corolla and poor reviews of the new Honda Civic. While U.S. sales haven't returned to their pre-recession levels, American motorists are increasingly eager to buy, says Jesse Toprak, vice president of analysis for the car pricing site TrueCar.com. Buyers snapped up more small cars like the Chevrolet Cruze, Hyundai Elantra and Ford Fiesta. And sales of trucks and SUVs picked up as well, a sign that small businesses are updating their aging fleets, something they were reluctant to do during a slow economic recovery. "They're becoming more comfortable buying a car even though the dust hasn't totally settled," says Toprak. GM and others predict that total U.S. auto sales will rise by another 1 million or so in 2012 to a range of 13.5 million to 14 million. That's still far below the peak of around 17 million in 2005, but consistent with a slow and steady economic recovery. Unemployment has declined in the past three months, and hiring is improving. That's helping consumers feel more confident about a big purchase like a car. Low interest rates - below 3 percent, in some cases - are also enticing buyers, says Don Johnson, GM's U.S. sales chief. And with the average age of a car in the U.S. pushing a record 11 years, there is growing demand to replace old cars. Buyers are coming out even though car prices are relatively high. The average new vehicle cost $30,686 in December, up 5 percent from a year earlier, as automakers offered more pricy features like navigation systems and backup cameras but cut back on rebates and other deals. Incentive spending dropped 3 percent in December from a year earlier to an average of $2,562 per vehicle, according to TrueCar.com. Many analysts had predicted a price war in 2011 as Toyota and Honda factories resumed normal production and they sought to win customers. But the big discounts never materialized, and GM's Johnson doesn't expect them in 2012, either. But others think Toyota and Honda will use incentives to try to win back the market share they lost in 2011. Toyota expected to end the year with market share of 12.9 percent, down from 15 percent in 2010. "I still expect Toyota and Honda to be a little more aggressive in the first half," says Paul Ballew, a former GM chief economist who now works for Nationwide Insurance. Other automakers reporting Wednesday: _ Volkswagen AG said 2011 sales were up 26 percent on strong sales of the Jetta and Passat sedans. December sales were up 36 percent to 32,502, the company's best December in the U.S. since 1972. _ Hyundai Motor Co. said 2011 sales rose 20 percent on strong demand for the Sonata and Elantra sedans. December sales were up 13 percent. _ Kia Motors Corp. said 2011 sales rose 36 percent on sales of the new Optima, Soul and Sorento. December sales were up 43 percent.

Geese to march in Spanish festivals MADRID, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A Spanish family of goose trainers will lead about 150 of the birds, decked out in Christmas ornaments, in Three Kings' festival parades in four cities. Jose Miguel Espinosa, who has been training geese for the holiday events for 20 years, said his birds, which also wear handcrafted collars, march in single file, backward and forward, slowly and quickly. They are trained, he said, "not to get scared by fireworks, people shouting or camera flashes." The dandy ganders will take part in Thursday's processions in Madrid, Toledo, Santander and Palencia, ThinkSpain reported. Besides Palencia's festival, Espinosa said he will lead a "troop" of geese in Madrid, while his son, David, will guide dozens of the birds in Toledo and his daughter, Juncal, will lead a flock in Santander.

Uncertainty clouds recovery of skier Burke in Utah SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke's agent and her publicist were teary-eyed at a hospital Monday as they tried to explain the lack of any prognosis report for the Olympic favorite. Burke, 29, was seriously injured Jan. 10 in a training accident at the superpipe in Park City, Utah, and six days later remained sedated on a breathing tube as doctors tested her brain functions. Reporters gathered at Salt Lake City hospital Monday for what was expected to be a discussion by doctors of Burke's most recent neurological tests and assessments. At the last minute, however, Burke's agent, Michael Spencer, and her publicist, Nicole Wool, said there was nothing the family wanted to report as doctors continued working on Burke, so the news conference was canceled. "Obviously, this is a sensitive situation," a somber Wool said at the University of Utah Hospital. Spencer said he had not consulted any doctors but knew that Burke's condition could remain tenuous for days, if not weeks, longer. In a statement, Burke's husband, Rory Bushfield, and other family members said they decided not to meet with reporters after discussing results from the skier's latest brain scans and reflex tests. The family said more tests will be done and future updates on Burke's condition will come through her website, www.sarahburkeski.com. A day after the accident, doctors said they repaired a tear to an artery that caused bleeding on her brain. They said she tore a vertebral artery, which is located in the neck and supplies blood to the brainstem and the back part of the brain. Those parts control many critical functions, including balance and vision. "With injuries of this type, we need to observe the course of her brain function before making definitive pronouncements about Sarah's prognosis for recovery," Dr. William Couldwell, the neurosurgeon who performed the operation, said in a statement last week. Burke, who lives in Squamish, British Columbia, is widely considered the foremost pioneer for her main sport of freestyle halfpipe. She lobbied aggressively to have it included in the Olympics, where it will debut in 2014. She is a four-time Winter X Games champion and had been scheduled to defend her 2011 title later this month in Aspen, Colo. Burke tried many of the toughest tricks in her sport and was the first woman to land a 1080 - three full revolutions - in competition. It was not known what move she was performing when she was injured. Before the accident, Burke was on a path that would have made her an odds-on favorite to win more X Games gold and possibly even the big prize in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. She fell while training at a personal sponsor event at the Park City Mountain Resort, an accident that witnesses said didn't look as bad as it later turned out to be. Burke was on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury after a near-fatal fall on Dec. 31, 2009. Pearce spent months in hospitals in Utah and Colorado, then missed the 2010 Olympics. Last month, 712 days after his traumatic brain injury, he got on a snowboard again in Breckenridge, Colo., according to his website. Pearce, now 24, has said he has no plans to compete again because "snowboarding has become too dangerous." Burke's accident once again brings up questions about the safety of the sport, and superpipes in general, which have walls soaring as high as 22 feet - more than 25 percent higher since the middle of the last decade. Experts within the sport believe improved pipe-building technology, along with air bags and mandatory helmets have made the sport safer, not more dangerous.

Oscar nominations 2012: Who was snubbed? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pulled some surprises Tuesday morning in its Oscar nominations for the 2012 Academy Awards, with the 5,783 voting members highlighting specific performances while snubbing the directors behind the films, and in other cases choosing a film and ignoring its stars. Each of the four acting categories left at least one likely contender off the list in favor of a surprise choice. Rooney Mara scored a best actress nomination for her role in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," but her director, David Fincher, was ignored, as was the film in the best picture category. Mara's inclusion meant "We Need to Talk About Kevin's" lead actress Tilda Swinton was left off the list. In the actor category, it seems taking it all off gets you nowhere, whereas saying nothing at all makes you a shoo-in. Michael Fassbender was ignored by the academy for his role as a sex addict in Steve McQueen's "Shame," a performance many thought was a lock in the best actor category. Meanwhile, Demian Bichir was nominated for his role as an undocumented gardener living in Los Angeles in the little-seen Chris Weitz-directed drama "A Better Life," and both Jean Dujardin (best actor, "The Artist") and Max von Sydow (best supporting actor, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close") were nominated for roles where few, if any, words are spoken. Along with the surprising addition of Von Sydow, Jonah Hill, best known for being one of Judd Apatow's gang of comedic actors, was recognized for his dramatic work playing opposite Brad Pitt in "Moneyball." Nick Nolte likewise scored a best supporting actor nomination for his performance in "Warrior" and Kenneth Branagh got one for "My Week With Marilyn" -- leaving no room for Albert Brooks and his role as the violent gangster in "Drive." For supporting actress, Melissa McCarthy received recognition for her memorable role in "Bridesmaids," a choice that was a bit of a surprise considering the film didn't land in the best picture category. McCarthy's performance, which has sent her star quotient through the roof, pushed out Shailene Woodley, the young actress who co-starred opposite George Clooney in "The Descendants" and received a slew of positive accolades for her performance. The biggest question going into Tuesday's nominations was how many films would be nominated for best picture. With the new rule requiring each nominee for best picture to receive 5% of the votes, many thought the field would be narrower than the nine movies that ultimately were chosen. The most surprising inclusions in the top nine were "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" and "The Tree of Life," two films that proved divisive with critics. Left off that best picture list was "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "Bridesmaids," a film with an unlikely pedigree but one that was beloved by both audiences and critics. The only comedy that landed on the list was Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris." In the best animated film category, Pixar animation's "Cars 2" was left off the nominee list, a stunner for an outfit that has been dominant in that category in recent years. While "War Horse" and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" were nominated for best picture, their directors -- Steven Spielberg and Stephen Daldry, respectively -- weren't acknowledged for their individual efforts. David Fincher was also shut out of the director's race. It may be, though, that the song category -- with just two nominations -- contains the most number of snubs. Bret McKenzie ("Flight of the Conchords") and his song "Man or Muppet" will go head-to-head with Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown's "Real in Rio" from the "Rio" movie. But Madonna ("W.E."), Sinead O'Connor ("Albert Nobbs"), Mary J. Blige ("The Help") and Elton John ("Gnomeo and Juliet") were all left off the list. Photo: Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Credit: Merrick Morton / Associated Press

Vienna ball dropped from UNESCO Austrian heritage list

Late Night: Jon Stewart calls Newt Gingrich a 'pollutant' As Jon Stewart observed on "The Daily Show" Thursday night, the day was a roller coaster for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. It began on an upbeat note, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he was dropping out of the race and throwing his support behind Gingrich. But, as Stewart joked, "Gingrich barely had time to have a victory affair," because only a few minutes later came a "bombshell." In an interview with ABC's "Nightline," Gingrich's second wife, Marianne Gingrich, claimed that the former House Speaker had asked her for an open marriage. Accidentally on purpose confusing Gingrich's second ex-wife, Marianne, with his first ex-wife, Jackie, Stewart said, "It's not surprising that Newt's ex-wife is not a fan of his. It's long been reported that Newt discussed his first divorce while she was recovering from cancer surgery. Realizing the error of his ways, Stewart concluded, "I can't imagine Marianne has as big a beef with the former speaker as his first wife." Cut to a clip from "The View," in which ABC News correspondent Brian Ross explained how Gingrich asked Marianne for a divorce shortly after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. First wife, cancer? Second wife, multiple sclerosis? Can Newt Gingrich be reclassified as a pollutant? A carcinogen? Stewart wondered. The guy's like the dioxin of husbands. As he feigned nausea over the idea of Gingrich's swinging lifestyle, Stewart joked, "I think I'm going to be sick, and then Newt will leave me." He then turned to correspondent John Oliver for some expert analysis, asking if the revelations over Gingrich's messy personal life might put a stop to his momentum in South Carolina. Oliver insisted that Gingrich's audacity only made him more appealing to the Republican electorate. Gingrich can make the case to voters: Don't look at what I did. Look at the skill it took me to do it," he argued. You really think the Chinese want to go toe-to-toe on debt negotiations with a guy who tried to get his recently-diagnosed-with-multiple-sclerosis wife to swing? ... Their culture is based on shame, and Newt Gingrich has none. Oliver described Gingrich as an "emotionally and physically repugnant man" who, despite his resemblance to Dwight Schrute of "The Office," has a romantic track record that "Warren Beatty would find daunting." He also proposed a new slogan for Gingrich's campaign: "Open your legs, America." Let's all say it together now: Ewww. Ex-wife: Newt Gingrich wanted 'open marriage' Late Night: Stephen Colbert drops super PAC to run for president

'Mad Men' Season Premiere Is Set for March 25 January 15, 2012, 11:31 am Jon Hamm has been a bad boy, and not just in his scenes in "Bridesmaids." A few days ago Mr. Hamm let it slip in a podcast interview that the long-awaited season premiere of "Mad Men," the AMC period drama on which he plays the advertising executive Don Draper, would be shown on March 25. Though a few days of radio silence from the network followed Mr. Hamm can now wipe those beads of sweat from his Brylcreemed brow: AMC has confirmed the news, announcing over the weekend that Season 5 of "Mad Men" would begin on that date, with a two-hour episode written by the series" creator, Matthew Weiner, and directed by Jennifer Getzinger, who directed the episode "The Suitcase" last season. For fans of "Mad Men" this premiere has been a long time coming. The previous season concluded more than a year ago, on Oct. 17, 2010, and while new episodes typically start in the summer, production on Season 5 was delayed by a lengthy contract renegotiation involving Mr. Weiner, AMC and Lionsgate, the studio that produces the series. At the end of that process AMC announced that it had renewed "Mad Men" through Season 7, which Mr. Weiner said would be the show's last. Additionally, AMC said over the weekend that Season 2 of its crime drama "The Killing" would begin on April 1, following an ambiguous and controversial Season 1 finale in June. Also, the network said that the third season of its hit zombie series, "The Walking Dead," would be 16 episodes long; the show is currently in the middle of a 13-episode second season, and its debut season in 2010 was 6 episodes. An earlier version of this post misidentified the director of the season premiere of "Mad Men." Jon Hamm will direct the second episode, on April 1, not the premiere.

Poisoning suspected in 5th hospital death STOCKPORT, England, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A fifth person has died of suspected insulin poisoning at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, England, police said. Linda McDonagh, 60, who died Jan. 14, was one of 21 patients who police suspect were poisoned at the hospital last summer, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday. McDonagh was "one of a number of patients who police believe suffered hypoglycemic episodes between June and July 2011 after being administered contaminated products at Stepping Hill Hospital," a Greater Manchester Police spokesman said. Last July, a major investigation began after saline drips at Stepping Hill were found to be deliberately contaminated with insulin. Previously this month, Victorino Chua, 46, a Stepping Hill nurse who is under investigation in the deaths of three patients, was released on bail. Another nurse, Rebecca Leighton, 27, was arrested and charged with six counts of endangering life last year, but the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case against her because of a lack of evidence.

Dec. Jobless Rate Falls to 8.5 Percent The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in December to 8.5 percent, the lowest since February 2009, as the economy added a robust 200,000 jobs, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. "This is a strong jobs report, relative to what we have seen in the past few years," Stephen Bronars, senior economist with Welch Consulting. However, he said a 200,000 increase in jobs is still far less than what is needed to get the labor market back to pre-recession levels. The unemployment rate, which has fallen for four straight months, has decreased in part because the labor force has barely grown in the past year. There are still 5.6 million long-term unemployed workers, Bronars said. Frank Fantozzi, president of Planned Financial Services, said the jobs report supports his claim that the economy will have steady, modest growth in GDP of around 2 to 2.25 percent. "The markets should see this as favorable as well as improving investor confidence despite Europe's ups and downs as they try to solve their debt situation," he said. Expectations for a solid month in hiring were raised Thursday when payroll processing company ADP reported private businesses added 325,000 workers in December in its monthly report. Bronars said before the report was released that anything under 200,000 new jobs for December would have been "disappointing." Stock futures rose 61 points on the Dow Jones industrial average after the unemployment report was issued. The economy needs to create at least 100,000 to 150,000 jobs a month to keep up with a growing labor force, according to economists' estimates. Economists expected a gain of about 155,000 jobs for December, but with a slightly higher unemployment rate due to job cutbacks in the government sector and more people are re-entering the work force. The unemployment rate ticked down two-tenths of one percent from November. November's unemployment rate was revised upward to 8.7 percent from 8.6 percent. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised to 112,000 from 100,000, and the change for November was revised to 100,000 from 120,000. There has been an average of 132,000 jobs added over the past six months for private sector payrolls. The pockets of strength in employment growth in the past year have been professional and technical services, health care, and temporary help agencies. Most of the employment gains in the last year have been for college graduates. Growth everywhere else has been sluggish, Bronars said. Manufacturing has rebounded more than other sectors but job losses in manufacturing were much worse in the downturn. Employment in professional and technical services grew four times faster than rest of labor market, health care grew three times faster, and temporary help grew ten times faster. Employment of teenage workers has fallen by about 30 percent since 2006. There are approximately 1.8 million fewer teenagers working today than in November 2006. Many of these young people are not counted as unemployed but are productive because they are enrolled in school. Nonetheless a good indicator that the labor market is improving would be for teenage employment to be rising," Bronars said. "I will be looking for more broad-based employment gains before I will conclude that the labor market is in full recovery," Bronars said. "The unemployment rate has fallen, in part, because young people have delayed finishing school, and those attempting to re-enter the labor market have given up looking for work," Bronars said.

COL BKB: Murray State 76, Eastern Ky. MURRAY, Ky., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Donte Poole scored six points over the final 5 minutes Wednesday that helped No. 18 Murray State escape an upset bid and down Eastern Kentucky 76-67. The Racers remained unbeaten in 15 games this season and improved to 3-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Eastern Kentucky trailed by only a point with 5 minutes remaining before Murray State closed the game on a 21-13 run. Poole led the Racers with 22 points and both Isaiah Canaan and Ed Daniel had 16. The Racers held an 11-point halftime lead before the Colonels put together their comeback bid. Jaron Jones paced Eastern Kentucky (9-7) with 23 points.

Tebow, Broncos in Playoffs Despite 7-3 Loss to KC Even in defeat, Tim Tebow came out a winner. Tebow fell short in his latest comeback bid, yet his Denver Broncos still made it the playoffs Sunday. As the AFC West champions, no less. Meaning more Tebowmania, at least for another week. Former Denver quarterback Kyle Orton got his revenge in leading the Kansas City Chiefs over the Broncos 7-3. But the Broncos wound up in the postseason anyway when San Diego knocked off Oakland minutes later. "It's obviously a little bittersweet right now," Tebow said. We would have loved to have won that game to have a little momentum going into the playoffs. But I think it's still a special thing what we accomplished, to come back and win the AFC West is very special. Now, the Broncos (8-8) will host the wild-card Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) in the first round next Sunday. "Well, we're AFC West champs," Broncos coach John Fox said. It doesn't matter how you do it. Once you get into the dance, they can't kick you out. After begrudgingly congratulating Orton, the Broncos celebrated the end to their six-year playoff drought once the Chargers eliminated the Raiders 38-26. Denver finished 8-8, same as the Raiders and Chargers. They won their first division title since 2005 on a tiebreaker, going 6-6 against common opponents while the others went 5-7. Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow (15) throws against the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, in Denver. And he might have secured interim coach Romeo Crennel's future with the Chiefs (7-9). Orton had laid low all week but he finally 'fessed up after the game that this game had special meaning to him even though it was for pride and payback and not the playoffs. "I can't hide that," he said. But I congratulate those guys. They're in. I congratulate them and I look forward to next year. The Broncos revamped their offense to fit Tebow's unconventional skill set and surged to the top of their division. Neither QB had a great day. The game's only touchdown came on Dexter McCluster's 21-yard scamper in the first quarter, so this game was as much about the Punting Colquitt brothers, Dustin and Britton, as it was about Orton vs. Tebow. The Broncos got one last shot when they got the ball at their 16 with just under a minute left. Because Fox had declined to go for a 57-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the first half - he was afraid a miss would set up the Chiefs for a double-digit halftime lead - the Broncos had to go 84 yards in 47 seconds instead of just needing to get into range for another game-winner by Matt Prater.

Japan retailer Seven & I Q3 profit rises, Aeon falls TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Seven & I Holdings posted a rise in third-quarter profit on Friday as strong post-quake demand for food and consumer goods continued to boost earnings of Japanese general retailers, although Aeon Co's earnings undershot strong year-earlier results. Many Japanese retailers are poised to earn record profits in the current financial year after the earthquake and tsunami last March increased sales of prepared meals and private-label products, while operating efficiency improved. But with falling wages, high unemployment and concerns about the health of the Japanese and world economies weighing on domestic consumption, market watchers are expecting sales levels at retailers to face challenges in the near term. Top Japanese retailer Seven & I's operating profit jumped 17 percent to 66.0 billion yen ($854.7 million) for the September-November quarter in part as convenience store visits by older and female customers stayed high after rising in the aftermath of the March 11 disasters. But Aeon, Japan's second-biggest retailer, posted a year-on-year drop of 19 percent in operating profit to 25.4 billion yen over the same period. Aeon faced a higher annual hurdle than Seven & I, after posting a 52 percent surge in operating profit in its third quarter for the 2010 business year. Their earnings seem very steady and strong. Even if Aeon came in a little under analyst estimates, there is a sense of direction for these companies and investors can be sure of their strength," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Fund. Right now, there is so much uncertainty that investors are shifting to stable stocks with strong earnings that are not easily swayed by outside factors like Europe ... In this risk-off environment, stocks of companies like Seven & I and Aeon will remain attractive. Graphic: Seven & I results link.reuters.com/fym85s Both retailers maintained their operating-profit forecasts for the business year to February 2012. Seven & I, the owner of 7-Eleven, the world's largest convenience store chain, kept its annual outlook at 286 billion yen, in line with the average estimate of 290 billion yen in a poll of 19 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The forecast is the highest since Seven & I posted a 286.8 billion yen profit in its 2006 business year. Aeon, the owner of Aeon Retail supermarkets as well as convenience stores, boutiques and shopping malls, kept its operating profit outlook at 195-205 billion yen, which is in line with the average estimate of 199 billion yen in a poll of 13 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. But with Japanese household spending falling 3.2 percent year-on-year in November and retail sales down 2.3 percent, both much weaker than forecast, retailers may struggle to maintain similar levels of profit growth in the 2012 business year. Shares of Seven & I fell about 1 percent in 2011, while Aeon rose 4 percent over the same period, versus a 17 percent slide in the benchmark Nikkei average. Before the results were released, shares of Seven & I settled 0.4 percent lower while Aeon posted a 1.0 percent loss, against the Nikkei's 1.2 percent fall for the day.

Rihanna has Tupac tribute tattoo Rihanna has tweeted pictures of herself getting a tattoo at a parlour in LA. She posted pictures posing with other celebrities who were getting inked, including Machete star Danny Trejo. Rihanna also shared the snaps of her lying on the tattoist's couch drinking a beer. When the work was finished, she debuted the finished product to her fans, holding up her fingers to show 'thug life' on each hand, a tribute to the late rapper Tupac '2pac' Shakur. She later tweeted how much she loves her new tattoo.

Kate Winslet and ‘Downton Abbey’ win Golden Globes It was a repeat of last year's Emmys with PBS' "Downton Abbey" winning best miniseries or TV movie at the Golden Globes on Sunday night and Kate Winslet winning for lead actress in the miniseries and movie category for HBO's melodrama for "Mildred Pierce." Earlier, honors for supporting actor in a movie went to actor Christopher Plummer, 82. It marked his first Golden Globe, for playing a widower who comes out of the closet in "Beginners." Laura Dern also won for lead actress in a TV comedy or musical series for HBO's "Enlightened." It marks her third Golden Globe win. But let's face it. Audiences are tuning into the Golden Globes not so much to see if "The Artist," "The Help," "Hugo" or "Midnight in Paris" wins a best picture award but to see just how outrageous host Ricky Gervais will get. If his opening monologue is any indication, he will not disappoint. So. Where was I?" said Gervais, walking on stage for his third consecutive outing as host. He kicked off the 69th annual Golden Globe awards by trashing everyone in sight, taking aim at NBC -- the network airing the show -- the awards show itself, and everyone from Hollywood royalty to the Kardashians. He took jabs at Mel Gibson, took a sly swipe at Jodie Foster, and Eddie Murphy, who bailed on hosting the Oscars. "When the man who says yes to 'Norbert' says 'no' to you, you know you are in trouble," he said. He also revisited a slap he took last year at the critically lambasted "The Tourist" by putting star Johnny Depp on the spot and asking, "Have you seen 'The Tourist' yet?" Depp took a long pause and finally said "No." As it stands, Gervais' hosting duties might be where all the excitement is. There isn't much of a horse race in the best film categories. It is anybody's guess what will take home best dramatic film and comedy or musical. The Golden Globes haven't been a crystal ball when it comes to predicting the Oscar-winning best picture. Last year, the Globes chose "The Social Network" and director David Fincher for their top honors, while the academy crowned "The King's Speech" and its director, Tom Hooper. Vying for drama series are newcomers "American Horror Story," "Boss," "Game of Thrones," "Homeland" and last year's winner, "Boardwalk Empire." And comedy series nominees are first-timers "Enlightened," "Episodes" and "New Girl" as well as "Glee" and "Modern Family." susan.king@latimes.com and rene.lynch@latimes.com

Mississippi Attorney General challenges Barbour pardons STARKVILLE, Miss (Reuters) - Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood was seeking a court injunction on Wednesday to block some of the more than 200 pardons granted by former governor Haley Barbour to people convicted of crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery, his spokeswoman said. Barbour, a conservative Republican, outraged some in Mississippi by granting pardons to more than 200 people during his final days in office. The pardons included four convicted murderers who had been allowed to work at the governor's mansion doing odd jobs because of good prison behavior. Hood, the only Democrat holding a statewide office in Mississippi, was seeking the injunction in Hinds County Court, his spokeswoman said. Reporting by Robbie Ward; Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Cynthia Johnston

Anna Hazare's Team Seeks Your Advice As the dust fades after Parliament's heated debate over the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill many are examining what, exactly, the anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare contributed to India's political landscape. Within his own camp, there is introspection and a lot of open-ended questions: Where do we go from here? We are conscious that a wrong decision at this stage could prove disastrous for the movement," Arvind Kejriwal wrote in the Times of India Friday. Mr. Kejriwal paints a picture of a deeply disillusioned Mr. Hazare, to whom promises were made by the Congress government which have not been met. He also signals that Mr. Hazare himself, whose dogmatic anti-corruption stance made him a national hero, is unclear about a next step, even asking supporters to e-mail in suggestions. What should we do now? Should we campaign against Congress or UPA?," he asks. The movement was successful because thousands participated. The people should now suggest the way ahead. Send your suggestions to iacsuggestions@gmail.com. The highly unusual strategy comes after Mr. Hazare, who in August rallied tens of thousands, didn't draw similar crowds in Mumbai last month, and has decided not to campaign in upcoming elections because his is ill. Mr. Hazare's recent defeats have sparked some highly criticalexaminations of the movement, in one case naming it a "farce" from the beginning. Others are analyzing his team's missteps along the way. There are few leaders who have solicited the public for advice on what to do next - while New York City mayor Ed Koch was famous for asking "How'm I doing?" voters rarely got the sense that he had no idea what he was doing. In a recent example, New York senator Greg Ball asked his Twitter followers how they thought he should vote on the gay marriage bill, received many responses in favor, and voted that way. Advice is already pouring in for Mr. Hazare, some of it also unusual. A writer on Firstpost this afternoon suggests he think more like a vacuum cleaner salesman: Imagine, 25 years ago, you were a salesman of vacuum cleaners, a product neither wanted nor needed. Think of the Lokpal bill as a product facing similar challenges, and remember that the sale is going to be long and hard. Perhaps the best thing for the Hazare camp would be to think long and hard about what to do next amongst themselves, and devise their own plan. There are few examples of a movement succeeding that was based on an outsider's advice.

Pentagon Prepares For New Military Talks With Iraq WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is preparing to begin talks with Iraq on defining a long-term defense relationship that may include expanded U.S. training help, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's chief policy aide. Michele Flournoy, who is leaving her Pentagon post on Friday to return to private life, said in an interview with a small group of reporters that the administration is open to Iraqi suggestions about the scope and depth of defense ties. "One of the things we're looking forward to doing is sitting down with the Iraqis in the coming month or two to start thinking about how they want to work with" the U.S. military to develop a program of exercises, training and other forms of security cooperation, Flournoy said. The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Iraq in December after nearly nine years of war. Both sides had considered keeping at least several thousand U.S. troops there to provide comprehensive field training for Iraqi security forces, but they failed to strike a deal before the expiration of a 2008 agreement that required all American troops to leave. As a result, training is limited to a group of American service members and contractors in Baghdad who will help Iraqis learn to operate newly acquired weapons systems. They are part of the Office of Security Cooperation, based in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and headed by Army Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen. Additional and more comprehensive training is a major issue because Iraq's army and police are mainly equipped and trained to counter an internal insurgency, rather than deter and defend against external threats. Iraq, for example, currently cannot defend its own air sovereignty. It is buying - but has not yet received - U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets. In a new report on conditions in Iraq, a U.S. government watchdog agency said the Iraqi army is giving so much attention to fighting the insurgents that it has had too little time to train for conventional combat. "The Iraqi army, while capable of conducting counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, possesses limited ability to defend the nation against foreign threats," said the report submitted to Congress Monday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W. Bowen, Jr. In an introductory note, Bowen wrote that while Iraq's young democracy is buoyed by increasing oil production, it "remains imperiled by roiling ethno-sectarian tensions and their consequent security threats." Iraq has seen an upswing in violence since the last U.S. troop left, but senior U.S. officials have remained in touch in hopes of nudging the Iraqis toward a political accommodation that can avert a slide into civil war. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone on Saturday with Osama Nujaifi, speaker of the Council of Representatives. And Biden spoke on Friday with a key opposition figure, Ayad Allawi, a former interim prime minister and a secular Shiite leader of the Iraqiya political bloc. Allawi has said Iraq needs to replace its prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, or hold new elections to prevent the country from fracturing along sectarian lines. In a positive sign, Iraq's Sunni leaders announced on Sunday that they will end their boycott of parliament. That may have paved the way for the political leadership to hold a national conference led by President Jalal Talabani to seek reconciliation and to end a sectarian political crisis. George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, said Sunday that Panetta remains optimistic about the outlook in Iraq despite worsening violence. "The secretary believes that the Iraqi people have a genuine opportunity to create a future of greater security for themselves, and that senseless acts of violence will not deter them from pursuing that goal," Little said. The United States remains committed to a strong security relationship with Iraq. U.S. officials have said they aim to establish broad defense ties to Iraq, similar to American relationships with other nations in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. Flournoy, 51, is stepping down from her position as undersecretary of defense for policy on Friday after three years in the job. She is the first woman to hold that post. Her chief deputy, Jim Miller, has been picked to succeed her. In the interview last week, Flournoy reiterated that she is leaving government to focus more on her family. She and her husband, W. Scott Gould, have three children aged 14, 12 and nine. She came to the Pentagon in February 2009 from the Center for a New American Security, where she was the think tank's first president. She had served in the Pentagon in the 1990s as a strategist. Flournoy said in an Associated Press interview in December when she announced her decision to quit that she intends to play an informal role this year in supporting President Barack Obama's re-election effort. She was a member of his transition team after the November 2008 election. Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Former Penn State Players Unhappy With Choice of Bill O'Brien as Coach STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The news that Bill O'Brien would become Penn State's first new football coach in almost a half century upset some former Nittany Lions football players, left some observers wondering why the search took nearly eight weeks to complete and moved fans here and afar to ask: "Who?" O'Brien, the 42-year-old offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, could be formally introduced as Joe Paterno's replacement on Saturday. In becoming just the 15th head coach at Penn State, O'Brien will inherit a program in turmoil: Paterno was fired on Nov. 9 in the midst of his 46th season because of a sexual-abuse scandal involving the football program's former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. O'Brien was hired at least in part because some more high-profile and established candidates were not interested in the job. He will remain with the Patriots through the postseason. The selection of O'Brien set off a wave of criticism among former Nittany Lions players, who said that the university's acting athletic director, David M. Joyner, had not meaningfully counseled them on his search or his ultimate decision. They were also displeased that the interim coach Tom Bradley, on the staff for 33 years and the defensive coordinator since 2000, was not given a chance to take over on a full-time basis. The former linebackers LaVar Arrington and Brandon Short led an online petition in support of Bradley. "It would have been nice if we felt like we were part of the process," said D. J. Dozier, a running back on the team that won the national title in the 1986 season. This is a pretty important situation in transition for the university and the program. There are a lot of guys that feel a certain way. Today I have more questions than answers. Dozier and Short were among a small group that met with Joyner and other administrators on Friday at the Old Main administration building on campus. The meeting lasted about an hour and a half, and according to a person present, Joyner would not confirm to them whether O'Brien had been hired. Jeff Nelson, Penn State's assistant athletic director for communications, said that Joyner would not be available to comment on Friday. An orthopedic surgeon, Joyner had no experience in college athletic administration before he took over as the acting athletic director for Tim Curley, who is facing perjury charges related to the scandal and is on administrative leave. Joyner, who played football and wrestled at Penn State, served as the head physician for the United States teams at the 1992 Winter Olympics and also became a health care and business consultant. It appears that Joyner did not use a search firm during the hiring process, according to agents for coaches who dealt with Penn State. Instead, Joyner and Ira M. Lubert, a member of the university's board of trustees, seemed to lead the search by themselves. Joyner and Lubert were also involved in the hiring of the renowned wrestler Cael Sanderson as the Penn State wrestling coach in April 2009. "Joyner is eminently unqualified for the job," Bill Earley, a former booster for the university, said in a telephone interview. It's been amateurish. They acted like they were interviewing someone for the treasury of the P.T.A. at an elementary school. O'Brien has extensive experience as a college assistant coach, but he has never been a head coach. He spent a combined 12 seasons at Georgia Tech, Maryland and Duke before joining the Patriots in 2007. Penn State was reported to have interviewed Brian Norwood, the associate head coach at Baylor; Tom Clements, the Green Bay Packers" quarterbacks coach; and Greg Roman, a San Francisco 49ers assistant. Three Penn State assistants also interviewed: Bradley, Larry Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden. A decision to hire any of the team's current coaches would have been controversial. Paterno and other university officials came under criticism for not reporting to authorities what they knew about Sandusky's reported sexual assault of a boy in 2002. Sandusky is charged with molesting 10 boys over many years. On Friday evening, Joyner met with members of the coaching staff at Penn State's football complex. Joyner and the coaches would not comment on the meeting. With the coach in place, Joyner's future appears to be among the next crucial matters that Penn State will need to address. Joyner stepped away from his position on the board of trustees to assume the role of acting athletic director. It remains unclear whether Joyner will return to his seat on the board. Joyner's term as a trustee was set to expire on June 30. In order to have his name included on the ballot for re-election, he would need to step down as acting athletic director and his name would need to be on a petition with 50 or more votes from alumni by Feb. 25. There is a sense among some university officials that Joyner would embrace the opportunity to become the full-time athletic director. That decision rests largely with the university's new president, Rodney A. Erickson, who took over after Graham B. Spanier's departure in November in the wake of the scandal.

Video: Sherlock, The Reichenbach Fall: BBC One, preview It's a shame this brilliant series is ending already, but as it's essentially been three feature films one can see why we get only short bursts. The final mystery is a contemporary retelling of another Conan Doyle classic. The Reichenbach Fall sees Holmes's nemesis James Moriarty (Andrew Scott) pull off his most audacious crime yet, as the Tower of London, Bank of England and Pentonville prison are all sprung open on the same day. Naturally, the villain's plans don't stop there, and a deadly confrontation looms. Martin Freeman is especially excellent as Watson. Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall is on Sunday 15th January at 9pm, BBC One

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - A Canadian man accused of masterminding one of the largest high-tech bank robberies in U.S. history was sentenced to nearly 18 years in prison Monday following a years-long investigation into fake debt collection agencies that prosecutors say stole the identities of about 38,000 people. Adekunle Adetiloye was accused of organizing a scheme to open nearly 600 fraudulent bank accounts and bilk 22 major banks, potentially costing credit card firms and banks up to $5 million. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase in North Dakota, where the case was handled, said the 40-year-old had an "insatiable hunger for other people's money." But prosecutors and the judge believed he was central to the scheme. Investigators said Adetiloye incorporated two different companies in Delaware - Syspac Financial Services and Commet Consultant Inc. - that claimed to be debt collection companies. He gained access to commercial data providers, including large-scale outfits LexisNexis and ChoicePoint that only allow access to law enforcement, financial services and debt collection companies. With access to those data providers, Adetiloye and others obtained the personal identification information to about 38,000 people, most of whom were medical professionals, and used that information to open credit card, debit and checking accounts, prosecutors said. Those data providers said it was only the second such breach of that scale. "Characterizing this fraud scheme as massive, if anything, is an understatement," Chase said in court documents. Investigators' interest in Adetiloye, a native of Nigeria, was piqued after figuring out he was unemployed and receiving welfare yet living lavishly, complete with a Range Rover vehicle, extended trips to England and an expensive condominium. Then there were two credit cards tucked away in his wallet the each bore different names - Donald Douglas and Vincent Andriole - that seemed to confirm suspicions that he was up to something nefarious. The complexity of the scheme - which took five years to investigate and litigate - was highlighted in a sentencing phase that has lasted nearly a year and included numerous hearings and briefings, and some 12,000 pages of court documents. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson handed down a 214-month prison term and scheduled a Feb. 15 hearing to discuss returning nearly $1.5 million in losses to credit card companies and banks. The judge has said losses may have been as much as $5 million. Defense attorney Richard Henderson had asked for a sentence of fewer than 16 years for his client, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges. Henderson said any prison time is more difficult than it would be for American citizens because he has no family in the United States. No decision has been made about whether he plans to appeal, said Neil Fulton, lead federal public defender for North Dakota and South Dakota. "The sentence imposed today should send a strong message to those who would seek to scam the citizens and businesses of North Dakota and the United States," U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon said in a statement released Monday. We take the growing problem of foreign financial fraud seriously here and seeking justice for the victims of such crimes is a priority for our office. Greg Krier, lead credit card fraud investigator for U.S. Bank, testified during the sentencing phase of the case that it was the most complex case he had ever seen. Investigators initially said the operation accessed information of nearly 16,000 people, about 500 of whom had their identities stolen for the purpose of obtaining credit cards. But further investigation showed that the scheme actually accessed personal information to some 38,000 people. The government said Adetiloye went so far as to mask his handwriting after a judge ordered a test of his calligraphy. The judge calculated losses to banks at about $1.5 million, but said it could have been as high as $5 million if credit limits had been maxed out.

Stolen Olympic ring found in Edinburgh pawn shop

Hollywood's most memorable costumes to go on display From Dorothy's dress in the Wizard of Oz to Darth Vader's cape, London's Victoria & Albert museum will play host its 'Hollywood Costume' exhibition in October. A new exhibition will bring together over 100 outfits worn by unforgettable cinema characters. Stunning dresses on show will include Holly Golightly's black Givenchy dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's , Scarlett O'Hara's velvet 'curtain' dress from Gone With the Wind and the stunning green gown worn by Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis in Atonement . But there will also be plenty of costumes that are far from glamorous but instantly recognisable: Travis Bickle's military jacket and plaid shirt from Taxi Driver , Indiana Jones's leather jacket and fedora, the Barbour jacket and sensible tweed skirt worn by Dame Helen Mirren in The Queen . The exhibition has been five years in the making. It is curated by Deborah Nadoolman Landis, the Hollywood costume designer who counts Raiders of the Lost Ark among her many credits. Her guiding principle was to start with the characters. My starting point was thinking not so much about the costumes but about the characters that have become embedded in popular culture. Whose faces do we see on postcards? What characters mean the most to people? Which are the characters that show up time and time again at fancy dress parties?" she said. I went to my husband [film director John Landis] and friends and colleagues and asked, 'Who do you love? If you went to the V&A, who would you want to see? It's a generational thing. For some, it was Joan Crawford's waitress outfit from Mildred Pierce . All the girls in the V&A's conservation department immediately named the dress from Atonement . I didn't go looking for costumes, I went looking for characters. This is not a decorative show. There's plenty of glamour - Marilyn Monroe's dress from Some Like It Hot is jaw-dropping in its nakedness. But it's not about the fabulosity, it's about what's inside. The costumes will be displayed alongside film clips, montages and interviews with the designers, directors and actors involved. Harrison Ford's outfit from Raiders of the Lost Ark began with a Steven Spielberg sketch. Nadoolman Landis recalled: "Steven drew a picture. It's the most charming thing you ever saw - it looks like a 12-year-old did it. "It said, 'he's 6'1" and wears a hat'. And this picture showed me exactly what Indiana Jones would look like. Everyone knows that Tom Selleck was originally cast. Tom is 6'6" and gorgeous, and we were terribly disappointed when it turned out he couldn't do it. We got Harrison Ford at the last minute. Harrison is such a reticent superstar, he's an intellectual, he's thoughtful, he's introspective. He brings so much of that to Indiana Jones. The character is supposed to be this professorial archaeologist and you believe that from Harrison, whereas I think that would have been a tough sell from Tom Selleck. Gwyneth Paltrow's dress from 'Shakespeare in Love' will go on display. Photo: Paul Grover The story of how Judy Garland's gingham pinafore from The Wizard of Oz came to be in the exhibition reads like a film script. In 2005, the dress came up for auction at Bonhams. Among the bidders in the saleroom was a woman who had loved The Wizard of Oz since childhood and had dreamed of owning the dress. She lost out to an anonymous telephone bidder - who turned out to be her husband, a British businessman who shelled out £140,000 for it. He gave it to her as a present for her 32nd birthday. Their identities have never been disclosed. When the V&A began working on the exhibition, Nadoolman Landis got a call. She said: "The caller said, 'My employer has heard that there's going to be a landmark exhibition and she has one of the classic Hollywood costumes, would you be interested?' Dorothy Gale in the film 'Wizard of Oz'. Photo: Jane Mingay Of course we said yes. And then we got another message, that we had to be available two weeks on Tuesday and meet outside Temple Tube station. We turned up and there were two other characters waiting there, private conservators who had also been told to meet there, and they didn't know who the owner was either. I thought, 'This must be how MI5 operate'. Then we met this person, the assistant, who asked to see all of our passports for security reasons and then said, 'Follow me'. They followed the assistant to a private bank on the Strand, where they had to show their passports again. Nadoolman Landis said: "It was like Gringotts in Harry Potter. We go down and down and down, then through a big door into a safe. It was like going into a submarine. They brought this box in on their shoulders. I put on white gloves, cut the string and opened the box, and there was Dorothy's dress. The pinafore was designed by Adrian, the legendary Hollywood costume designer, and made from cheap gingham. It was run up on a treadle sewing machine to ensure it looked authentically like a garment that had been made by Dorothy's Aunty Em. The dress is tiny - Judy Garland was 17 at the time and under five feet in height. Her name is sewn on to a label on the inside hem. "This dress was made in 1939 at the greatest moment of MGM Hollywood history," Nadoolman Landis said. The woman representing the owner asked if there was something wrong with it because I looked so upset. Because I hope this doesn't sound absurd, but I cried. In that moment, I felt like Howard Carter seeing Tutankhamun's sarcophagus. Other costumes in the show include Joan Crawford's bugle-beaded gown from The Bride Wore Red , Tippi Hedren's pale green suit from The Birds , Kate Winslet's twill suit from Titanic , Jack Sparrow's get-up from Pirates of the Caribbean , Gwyneth Paltrow's sumptuous yellow gown from Shakespeare In Love and the designs worn by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain . Sir Christopher Frayling, also a guest curator, said: "The design of costumes for films is a distinctive form of design which is often taken for granted or misunderstood. This V&A exhibition presents the ideal opportunity to set the record straight - and will do so in the most spectacular way. Hollywood Costume , sponsored by Harry Winston, opens at the V&A on 20 October 2012. Tickets areavailable from www.vam.ac.uk/hollywoodcostume

Africa Cup of Nations Day 9 1742: Team news from BATA. Matthew Kenyon again. Two changes for Libya: Rabea Aboubaker replaced by Abdulazziz Berrish and Ihab Albusaifi comes in for the injured Walid El Khatroushi. Meanwhile, Mohamed El Mograbhi starts despite receiving a nasty blow to the face in the Zambia game. For Senegal , coach Amara Traore has made SIX changes. Keeper Bouna Coundoul is dropped and replaced by Khadim Ndiaye. Also out: Lamine Sane - injured, Issiar Dia, Dame Ndoye, Papiss Demba Cisse and Guirane Ndaw. Coming in: aside from Ndiaye, Pape Diakhite, Mamadou Niang (the captain having been restored to the starting line-up), Souleymane Camara, Deme Ndiaye and Omar Daf. So that's great news for both Camara and Daf, who both contested the 2002 Nations Cup final and that year's World Cup too. 1740: The BBC's Nick Cavell is watching today's game in MALABO and says "Stadium is slowly filling up here and the stadium announcer is trying to get the crowd singing along with him. Equatorial Guinea and Zambia both on the pitch warming-up - not that they need much - it is again very hot and humid in Malabo. 1737: Matthew Kenyon is inside the BATA stadium for the BBC today, where he reports "Shaping for rain here - let's hope it's not as heavy as Wednesday!" Because on Wednesday, matches had to be delayed because of the terrific downpour in Bata, leaving Libya and Zambia to play out a 2-2 draw on a pitch which should have not been staging any matches. Later that evening, Eq Guinea were also in action - so we'll soon find out how badly the surface was damaged by those games. 1734: In case you're wondering, this live page will be bringing you updates from both games in Group A today. They both start in just under half an hour and while I will be keeping an eye across the MALABO game, between Equatorial Guinea and Zambia, my colleague Stephen Fottrell will be following the BATA fixture, where Libya face Senegal. But all the action will be here, so please do click on refresh and we will bring you all the drama as it unfolds. We could be set for a relatively calm evening but if we have what this Africa Cup of Nations has already thrown up, I don't fancy our chances! Anyway, it all really depends on whether Libya can beat a potentially-demoralised Senegal if we are to have a nail-biting two hours. 1730 GMT: So this is it. The final chance for either Zambia or Libya to make it through from Group A . At present, co-hosts Equatorial Guinea are already through. They have six points, the Zambians have four, the Libyans one while Senegal are pointless and out of the competition. The easiest way of putting things is that if Zambia get at least a point from their Malabo encounter with Equatorial Guinea , then the Chipolopolo join the co-hosts in the quarter-finals. The only way that Zambia cannot qualify if if they lose, and Libya beat Senegal in Bata . BUT there would however need to be a swing in the number of goals scored to take the Libyans through.

Romney edges Santorum in race for Iowa delegates WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won most of the delegates in the Iowa Republican caucuses Tuesday, edging former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Iowa's delegates to the national convention are not bound by the results of the caucuses. But an Associated Press analysis showed Romney would win 13 and Santorum would win 12, if there were no changes in their support as the campaign wears on. Twenty-five delegates were at stake in the caucuses. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas came in third in the voting but was shut out of delegates because he didn't win any of Iowa's four congressional districts. Romney and Santorum each won two congressional districts, and Romney was the statewide winner by a mere eight votes, according to final results announced early Wednesday by the Iowa GOP. A total of 2,286 delegates are slated to go to the party's national convention. Support from a majority - 1,144 - is needed to claim the Republican nomination to take on incumbent President Barack Obama. Iowa Republicans use a multi-step process to elect national delegates, starting with local caucuses. On Tuesday, caucus-goers elected delegates to county conventions, who in turn will elect delegates to congressional district conventions and the state party convention in June. These are the conventions where delegates to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla., are selected. Each of the four congressional districts will elect three delegates to the national convention. They will also appoint two members to a slate committee, which will choose 13 additional delegates. The slate is voted on at the party's state convention in June. The system puts a premium on getting the most votes in individual congressional districts. If a candidate's supporters can control a congressional district convention, they can choose national delegates and slate committee members who support their candidate. In Iowa and other caucus states, the AP uses the results from local caucuses to calculate the number of national delegates each candidate will win, if the candidates maintain the same level of support throughout the process. The AP will update delegate totals, if support for the candidates changes.

Damien Hirst: assistants make my spot paintings but my heart is in them all In an interview with Reuters, Hirst claimed that "every single spot painting contains my eye, my hand and my heart. I imagine you will want to say that if I don't actually paint them myself then how can my hand be there? But I controlled every aspect of them coming into being and much more than just designing them or even ordering them over the phone. And my hand is evidence in the paintings everywhere. I think it's important that they are handmade but equally important that they look machine-made. I've never had a problem with using assistants. David Hockney was quoted earlier this month as saying that the use of assistants was "insulting" to other artists. It was interpreted as a rebuke to Hirst, but the Royal Academy later issued a statement on Hockney's behalf denying that he had criticised any fellow artists. Explaining the concept behind the spot paintings, Hirst said: "Rather than think about whether a painting is important or highbrow, I tried to imagine a painting that if you left it in the street outside a busy bar, would it be still there in the morning or would someone think it looked cool enough to take home? I wanted to find a way to use colour in paintings that wasn't expressionism. I was taught by painters who believed that as an artist you paint how you feel and I believed in that for a long time. And then I lost faith in it and wanted to create a system where whatever decisions you make within a painting, the paintings end up happy. And I came up with spot paintings. Around 300 of the works have been lent to the Gagosian exhibitions by private collectors and museums. The earlier examples are the most sought after, with a 1998 spot painting fetching a record price of £1.8 million. Hirst, 46, has made a fortune from his work but said that being known as the world's wealthiest living artist "doesn't sound like something great to have on my gravestone." His forthcoming projects include "working with monkeys" on a series of primate paintings. The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 runs until February 18 at the two London Gagosian Galleries, in Britannia Street, King's Cross, and Davies Street, Mayfair.

Picasso, 2 other works stolen from museum ATHENS, Greece, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A Picasso painting the artist donated to the National Gallery in Athens and two other artworks were stolen during a break-in early Monday, Greek police said. Pablo Picasso had donated the 1939 "Woman's Head" as a gift to the gallery in 1940 to recognize the Greeks' resistance to Nazi occupation. It was the only Picasso in the gallery's collection, Anma reported. Also stolen were a 1905 oil painting by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian of a windmill next to a river and a pen-and-sepia sketch on paper by the 17th-century Italian painter Guglielmo Caccia, known as Moncalvo, of St. Didacus of Alcala with the Holy Trinity and symbols of faith. An attempt to steal another Mondrian painting failed. It was found in the courtyard outside the gallery. A back door of the gallery had been forced open and the alarm system was deactivated. Police were to review footage from the museum's surveillance cameras.

Obama honors Martin Luther King Jr with school project WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday paid tribute to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by helping build a library reading nook at a local school, saying service and diversity make America the "strongest, most extraordinary country on earth." The president, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughter Malia marked King's birthday by helping spruce up the library at Browne Education Campus, named after 19th-century African-American rights advocate Hugh M. Browne. It serves elementary and junior high school students in a predominantly African-American community in northeast Washington. Next to it is the historic Langston Legacy Golf Course, a formerly segregated course for African-American golfers. Speaking underneath a sign reading "United we serve," Obama praised the nation's diversity. "At a time when the country has been going through some difficult economic times, for us to be able to come together as a community, people from all different walks of life, and make sure that we're giving back, that's ultimately what makes us the strongest, most extraordinary country on earth," he said. Obama, who is up for reelection in November, has been criticized by some Republican opponents as not believing in American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States and its values are unique and worthy of imitation. The Obamas greeted adults and children at the school, then headed to its library where they built book shelves and set out bean bags and sitting mats on the floor. Balancing on a step-ladder, Obama painted words onto the wall: "The time is always right to do what is right," a quotation by King. Obama said it was the third time his family had celebrated King's birthday with a community service project. Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst

Elderly Man Dies in Boston Apartment Complex Fire Authorities say one person has died and five others, including a firefighter, have been taken to hospitals after an early morning fire at a Boston apartment complex for the elderly. The fire at the Harbor Point apartments was reported at about 3 a.m. Tuesday. Firefighters focused on a fourth-floor apartment where the blaze is thought to have originated. That's where the victim, described as an elderly man, was found. Four other residents were taken to hospitals for treatment of smoke inhalation, while a firefighter suffered a shoulder injury. About 50 residents were briefly displaced from their apartments. There was no immediate word on a cause.

Davos: David Cameron urges eurozone to take 'bold and decisive action' David Cameron addresses on the World Economic Forum in Davos. David Cameron urged eurozone leaders to follow Britain's "bold and decisive" action in dealing with its crisis as he warned that the continent was facing a "perilous" moment. Addressing the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the prime minister said three things needed to be done urgently in 2012 - "Greece, banks and firewall." He said the Greek situation needed to be resolved, banks recapitalised and an agreement reached on a new bailout fund for troubled eurozone countries. He set out a stinging critique of the eurozone's current response to the crisis, and its long-term failure to make itself more competitive. Half of EU countries were less competitive than they were a year ago and five were less competitive than Iran. Since the start of the crisis the level of government debt per head of population in Europe had risen by €4,500 (£3,750), foreign direct investment had fallen by two-thirds, and nearly half of EU member states had nearly one-fifth, or more, of their young people out of work. This is not a moment to pretend there's not a problem. It's not the moment for fear of failure to hold us back," Cameron said. He described the timing of a proposal for a financial transactions tax as "madness," saying the levy - also known as a Robin Hood tax - would cost 500,000 jobs in the EU and cut GDP by up to €200bn. Setting out a defence of his own tough stance on cutting spending, he said "to be cautious would have been catastrophic." "It is time for boldness," he said. "The [eurozone] crisis is still weighing down on business confidence," said Cameron, citing the rise in bond yields in Spain, Italy and Portugal from a year ago. He was insistent that the veto he used before Christmas was not a sign that Britain wanted to leave Europe. Let me tell you nothing could be further from the truth. Britain is part of the EU, not by default but by choice. And he was here to win business: the UK is "unashamedly pro-business." My message to you in this special Olympic year for Britain is to come to Britain, be part of this special year. Last year at Davos he said 2011 would be a make-or-break year for the Doha trade liberalisation talks. Admitting that they had failed, he said countries should press ahead with "coalitions of the willing." Last year, at this very forum, world leaders called for an all-out effort to conclude the Doha round in 2011. We said it was the make-or-break year. It was. And we have to be frank about it. It didn't work," Cameron said. But let's not give up on free trade. Let's step forward with a new and ambitious set of ideas to take trade forwards.

It's the time of the year when our winter frozen minds start daydreaming about palm trees, blue water, warm breezes and margaritas. The best way to get through the long cold winter months is to make delicious food that warms you from head to toe --and this Spicy Corn Chowder gets the job done. If you don't like spicy food, you can replace the jalapeno with green bell pepper and leave out the crushed red pepper flakes and sriracha. It will be just as tasty without the extra kick. If you want to make the vegetarian, replace the chicken with cannelloni beans. 5 Strips bacon; sliced into 1/2 inch pieces 1 Sweet onion, diced 2 Carrots peeled and chopped 2 Stalks of celery, chopped 2 Garlic cloves, minced 1 Jalapeno, finely chopped and seeded 6 Sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only 1/4 Cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 Chipotle seasoning 1/4 Teaspoon crushed red pepper 1/4 Teaspoon sriracha chili sauce 6 Cup vegetable stock 2 Cup heavy cream 2 Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced 5 15 oz Can/Jar corn,drained 2 Cup cooked and shredded chicken Salt and pepper to taste Step 1: In a Dutch oven or other large heavy-bottomed pot, cook bacon over medium high heat until crisp, remove bacon and allow to drain on a paper towel, reserve for garnish. Step 2: Reduce heat to medium. Add the carrots, celery, onion, jalapeneo and thyme to the bacon drippings and cook until veggies have softened; about 8-10 minutes. Dust the veggies with the flour, chipotle seasoning and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir to coat well. Let cook for 2 minutes stirring frequently. Step 3: Pour in the vegetable stock and to a boil. Add the cream and potatoes, bring to rapid boil and allow the soup to boil hard for about 7 minutes, until the potatoes break down. Step 4: Add the corn, season with salt and pepper and add the chicken and sriracha. Simmer until the corn is softened and the chicken is heated through, about 10-12 minutes.

Concrete balls threaten Indonesia train 'surfers' Concrete balls threaten Indonesia train 'surfers' - Asia-Pacific 'With this method, we hope the passengers will no longer sit on the train roof, as it is dangerous,' official says JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia has adopted a potentially deadly new tactic in an attempt to stop people illegally riding the roofs of trains. Grapefruit-sized concrete balls have been suspended across the tracks, positioned to rake over the top of trains as they pull out of stations or go through rail crossings. Authorities hope the balls - which could deliver serious blows to the head - will be enough to deter defiant roof riders. "We've tried just about everything, even putting rolls of barbed wire on the roof, but nothing seems to work," said Mateta Rizahulhaq, a spokesman for the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api. Maybe this will do it. "With this method, we hope the passengers will no longer sit on the train roof, as it is dangerous," Mateta told the Jakarta Globe. Dogs, paint, religion failed Previous attempt to stop the practice including hosing people down with red paint, threatening them with dogs and appealing for help from religious leaders. Trains that crisscross Indonesia on poorly maintained tracks left behind by Dutch colonizers six decades ago usually are packed with passengers, especially during the rush hour. Hundreds seeking to escape the overcrowded carriages clamor to the top. Some ride high to avoid paying for a ticket. Others do so because - despite the dangers, with dozens killed or injured every year - "rail surfing" is fun. The first dozen or so balls were installed Tuesday hundreds of yards from the entrance of a train station just outside the capital, Jakarta. Painted silver, the balls hung by chains from what looked like the frame of a giant soccer goal. But there was a glitch: The chains were too short, leaving a gap of about 16 inches between the balls and the roofs of the passing train carriages. Rizahulhaq said adjustments would be made. If successful, the project will be expanded, with balls also set up near railway crossings. Asked about worries that the balls could hurt or even kill those who defy the roof-riding ban, he insisted that wasn't really his problem. "They don't have to sit on top," he said. And we've already told them, if the train is full, go to the office. We will be happy to reimburse their tickets. 'It's windy, really nice' The commuters, known as "Atappers" or "Roofers," meanwhile are hardcore in their determination to stay on top. "I was really scared when I first heard about these balls," said Mulyanto, a 27-year-old shopkeeper, who rides between his hometown of Bogor and Jakarta almost every day for work. It sounds like it could be really dangerous. "But I don't think it'll last long," he said. They've tried everything to keep us from riding ... in the end we always win. We like it up there, it's windy, really nice. "There's a rush when you get on top of the train, plus the view is great and you don't have to pay," another rail surfer Adit, 17, told the Jakarta Globe. Many of the roof riders - and regular passengers - say the main problem lies with Indonesia's dilapidated railway system. There are not enough trains to meet demand, they say. And there are constant delays in service. People have jobs! They can't be late," said Parto, a trader at the Jakarta stock exchange, who can usually be found sitting inside. If the train is late, they'll do whatever they have to. Several years ago, paint guns were set up to spray those riding on the top of carriages so authorities could identify and round up the guilty travelers. But roof riders destroyed the equipment soon after. The exhortations of clerics didn't work. Neither did the dogs. At one point, police decided to do the expected: Arrest the culprits. But their officers were pelted with rocks and they gave up.

More City Principals Join Protest - SchoolBook More than 100 principals from New York City schools have signed a letter online objecting to New York State's system of teacher evaluations, organizers of the protest said. All told, more than 25 percent of all principals statewide have joined the protest, according to the signatures as of Thursday. Here are the latest tallies: Total 1,182 or 26.2 percent of all principals in the state Long Island 506 Westchester 110 New York City 110 Rockland 34 Orange 28 Erie 48

Four patients die each day from hunger in hospital "They represent avoidable deaths," she told the Daily Mail. These people needed our care when they were at their most vulnerable. Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: "There must be systematic monitoring of malnutrition in older patients. From the hospital ward to the hospital board, everyone needs to take responsibility and help stop this scandal. The figures, which cover both NHS and private run hospitals, showed the number of deaths linked to lack of food and water had risen since 2000. A decade ago, 862 deaths were recorded with dehydration or hunger listed as a cause or contributory factor. The most recent figures showed an increase on the previous year, when there were 1,292 such deaths. A Department of Health spokesman said: "Many patients who suffer or die from malnutrition and dehydration are admitted to hospital with these conditions and have underlying health conditions like cancer that make them more susceptible to these problems. However, every NHS patient has the right to expect that they are looked after properly in hospital. The spokesman said action had been taken to ensure nurses would have "more time to check that patients are comfortable, are helped to eat and drink, and are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve." It comes after David Cameron said he wanted nurses to complete hourly rounds of hospital wards to improve standards of care. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister said staff should regularly ensure patients were comfortable. "Patients should expect nurses to undertake regular nursing rounds - systematically and routinely checking that each of their patients is comfortable, properly fed and hydrated, and treated with the dignity and respect they deserve," he said. His comments followed damaging reports by the care watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, and admissions by the NHS that nursing lacked compassion. Last year, the CQC found only half of the 100 hospitals visited by its inspectors were ensuring patients had enough to eat and drink. Doctors at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, Worcs, resorted to prescribing water for patients to remind nurses to provide it. Elsewhere, some elderly or weak patients were given meals without any help to eat. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is facing continued criticism over the Government's proposed health reforms as the NHS seeks to save £20 billion by 2015. A Health Select Committee report was expected to find the reforms put the savings target at risk.

Obama Hosts Online Town Hall, Looks To Help Unemployed Questioner WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is trying to rebuild the American economy, one job at a time --literally. The president asked an online town hall questioner Monday to send him her husband's resume, insisting he wanted to look into why the man remained out of work despite his background as a semiconductor engineer. I meant what I said. If you send me your husband's resume I'd be interested in finding out what's happening right there," Obama told the questioner, Jennifer Weddel of Fort Worth, Texas. He told Weddel that according to what he was hearing from industry, such high-tech fields are in great demand and her husband should be able to find work right away. Weddel told Obama that despite what he said, her husband had been out of work for three years. She wanted to know why foreign workers were getting visas for high-skilled work. The exchange came as Obama appeared in a live video chat room known as a "Hangout," part of online search giant Google's social networking site Google Plus. He was answering questions submitted to Google and via YouTube, as well as interacting live with Weddel and four others in the Hangout. It's part of the White House focus on social media. Obama was also asked to justify his administration's use of unmanned drone strikes, and contended they were being used judiciously.