Jan
28

Guatemala: Ex dictador to face genocide charges

Guatemala’s former dictator Efrain Rios Montt wipes sweat from his forehead in a courtroom in Guatemala City, Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. Rios Montt is refusing to testify in a genocide case involving crimes against indigenous communities during his dictatorship in the 1980s. He has been accused of being responsible for some of the worst massacres during the Central American country’s 36 years of civil war. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Guatemala’s former dictator Efrain Rios Montt wipes sweat from his forehead in a courtroom in Guatemala City, Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. Rios Montt is refusing to testify in a genocide case involving crimes against indigenous communities during his dictatorship in the 1980s. He has been accused of being responsible for some of the worst massacres during the Central American country’s 36 years of civil war. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Relatives of genocide victims gather in the court room were Guatemala’s former strongman Efrain Rios Montt (1980-1982) was linked to the process of genocide and crimes against humanity in Guatemala City, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. The judge decided that Rios Montt is under house arrest and can not move without permission of the court. On January 14, 2012, R?os Montt lost the immunity against prosecution that he had enjoyed as a member of the national legislature. As the commander in chief and alleged intellectual author of a military campaign that largely targeted civilians, R?os Montt?s prosecution has long been sought by human rights organizations in Guatemala and elsewhere. (AP Photo/Moises Castilo)

Guatemala’s former strongman Efrain Rios Montt (1980-1982), center, listens to prosecutors next to his lawyers in the court in Guatemala City, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. The judge decided that Rios Montt is under house arrest and can not move without permission of the court after being linked to the process of genocide and crimes against humanity. On January 14, 2012, R?os Montt lost the immunity against prosecution that he had enjoyed as a member of the national legislature. As the commander in chief and alleged intellectual author of a military campaign that largely targeted civilians, R?os Montt?s prosecution has long been sought by human rights organizations in Guatemala and elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A relative of genocide victims gather in the court room were Guatemala’s former strongman Efrain Rios Montt (1980-1982) was linked to the process of genocide and crimes against humanity in Guatemala City, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. The judge decided that Rios Montt is under house arrest and can not move without permission of the court. On Jan. 14, 2012, R?os Montt lost the immunity against prosecution that he had enjoyed as a member of the national legislature. As the commander in chief and alleged intellectual author of a military campaign that largely targeted civilians, R?os Montt?s prosecution has long been sought by human rights organizations in Guatemala and elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Guatemala’s former strongman Efrain Rios Montt (1980-1982) gestures as listening a journalist’s question outside the courtroom after being linked to the process of genocide and crimes against humanity in Guatemala City, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. The judge decided that Rios Montt is under house arrest and can not move without permission of the court. On January 14, 2012, R?os Montt lost the immunity against prosecution that he had enjoyed as a member of the national legislature. As the commander in chief and alleged intellectual author of a military campaign that largely targeted civilians, R?os Montt?s prosecution has long been sought by human rights organizations in Guatemala and elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) ? The defense lawyer for former dictator Efrain Rios Montt said Friday that a judge violated due process when she issued unprecedented genocide charges against Rios Montt for conduct during Guatemala’s bloody civil war.

Danilo Rodriguez Galvez said Judge Carol Patricia Flores was supposed to issue her decision only after hearing testimony on allegations that Rios Montt was involved in hundreds of murders, human violations and the displacement of 29,000 people during the three-decade war.

Flores charged Rios Montt with genocide and crimes against humanity late Thursday, hours after he appeared in court but refused to testify about the allegations.

It’s the first time a Latin American court has charged former president with genocide.

Flores first lectured Rios Montt for an hour on the allegations, citing witness testimony, before issuing her decision, Rodriguez said. He said that her conduct resembled a conviction and that he would file a formal complaint next week.

“The judge’s duty was to report the resolution. The fact is that she talked for an hour as if the case had already been prosecuted,” Rodriguez said.

Flores said Friday she would not comment because the complaint had yet to be formally filed.

Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala in 1982-83 after a military coup, is accused in 266 incidents that resulted in 1,771 deaths, 1,400 human rights violations and the displacement of 29,000 indigenous Guatemalans.

The war ended in 1996 with the signing of a peace accord between the government and leftist guerrillas. The conflict left more than 200,000 dead and missing, 93 percent of them by state forces and paramilitary groups, according to a U.N. report. Hundreds of Mayan villages were largely wiped away.

Thousands of people demanding prosecution packed the courthouse where Rios Montt appeared Thursday. There were also supporters in the crowd.

“I understand what the prosecution is saying and I won’t respond,” Rios Montt said before the judge, later adding: “The point is to do justice, not vengeance.”

He had immunity from prosecution as a member of congress, but it expired Jan. 14.

After hearing daylong testimony, some by victims and witnesses of atrocities, Flores deliberated for three hours before issuing her decision. Rios Montt faces prosecution on charges he was the mastermind of the abuses in his roles as head of the military and Guatemala’s equivalent of the secret service.

“Unfortunately there are cases like this where people have been waiting 29 years for justice,” Flores said during the testimony.

The next step is for the prosecution to present the formal case against Rios Montt before the court.

He was ordered to be held under house arrest and to pay a $64,000 bond.

The former dictator was also told not to communicate with others accused in the case, which also involves country’s first genocide charges against retired generals Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez and Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes, the army chief of staff under Rios Montt.

Crimes against humanity charges were suspended earlier this month for retired Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia, the defense minister for Rios Montt who later deposed him to take over the presidency. The court determined Mejia doesn’t have the physical or mental faculties to go to trial.

Rodriguez and Lopez have also claimed health conditions have kept them from court proceedings. All are in their 80s.

Prosecutors argued Thursday that as de facto president, Rios Montt was responsible for the army’s “scorched earth” policy in communities where there was potential support for the leftist rebels.

Prosecutor Manuel Vasquez also accused him of authorizing massacres of ethnic Ixil Maya as well as sexual assaults on the women.

“The politics that caused the massacres started in 1965 and continued throughout,” Rodriguez argued on behalf of Rios Montt. “You can’t ascribe authorship of that long-term political policy to Rios Montt.”

Zury Rios, the former leader’s daughter who heads the Guatemala Republican Front political party, said the case against her father came from outside interests.

It was first brought in 2000 by the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights based on testimony of victims and their families.

Guatemala’s 1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Rigoberta Menchu, also has accused Rios Montt of genocide in a Spanish court.

The country’s recently inaugurated president, Otto Perez Molina, was a top military officer during the war and has long insisted there were no massacres, human rights violations or genocide in the conflict.

But his close advisers have said he supports meeting the conditions set by various U.S. congressional appropriations acts for restoring aid that was first eliminated in 1978 halfway through the civil war. Among the required steps is reforming a weak justice system that has failed to bring those responsible for wartime abuses to justice.

The unprecedented genocide trial has continued since Perez took office earlier this month.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-27-LT-Guatemala-Ex-Dictator/id-0de5e9b89b674f1fa61b6e1223f17d36

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Jan
27

Bristol-Myers reports rise in 4th-quarter profit (AP)

NEW YORK ? Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. reported a 76 percent increase in the fourth-quarter profit Thursday, driven in part by sales of a recently-approved diabetes drug and hefty charges a year earlier, though the drugmaker still fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.

The company focused attention on rapid sales growth for its three-year-old oral diabetes drug Onglyza, which increased 110 percent to $153 million. But results were dominated by two established products, blood thinner Plavix and the psychiatric drug Abilify.

Net income rose to $852 million, or 50 cents per share, up from $483 million, or 28 cents per share, in the 2010 quarter.

The New York company said fees and discounts under the U.S. health care overhaul reduced earnings per share by 4 cents in the latest quarter. The year-earlier results were weighted down by $324 million in expenses, including charges for streamlining global operations, depreciation and shutdown costs, licensing payments and a tax charge.

Adjusted income rose 12 percent to $906 million, or 53 cents per share, from $807 million, or 47 cents per share, for the same period of 2010. Total sales increased 7 percent to $5.45 billion from $5.11 billion.

Those results were slightly short of analyst expectations as polled by FactSet, which called for 55 cents per share on sales of $5.51 billion.

“Investors weren’t expecting much and they didn’t get much,” said Erik Gordon an analyst and professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “A couple of products beat their sales estimates by a hair and a couple missed by a hair.”

Bristol-Myers said it expects 2012 full-year earnings per share between $1.90 and $2.00. Analysts are looking for $1.98 per share, on average.

Company shares fell 22 cents to close at $32.48 Friday.

Bristol-Myers and French partner Sanofi SA jointly market Plavix, the world’s second-best-selling drug, which posted a 3 percent drop in sales to $1.67 billion. The drug loses U.S. patent protection in May and Bristol has initiated a dozen or more partnerships and deals aimed at developing new revenue-generating products.

Among the most highly anticipated of those drugs is the anti-clotting pill Eliquis, which is approved in the European Union for preventing clots in patients getting hip or knee replacement surgery. Bristol and its partner on the drug, Pfizer Inc., are seeking U.S. approval for the drug for stroke prevention, which would allow them to market it for millions more patients. The Food and Drug Administration has given Eliquis a priority review, with a March 28 target date for a ruling.

Also scheduled to lose patent protection in the coming year is the blood pressure drug Avapro. Sales of that drug and its foreign counterpart Avalide fell 23 percent, to $195 million. That’s because they have generic competition in Canada, a rival’s similar drug has generic competition in many countries, and one of the three dosage forms isn’t available due to a recall.

Sales of the company’s second biggest product, schizophrenia and bipolar drug Abilify, rose 4 percent to $737 million.

For full-year 2011 the company earned $3.71 billion, or $2.16 per share, on sales of $21.24 billion. Excluding one-time items income was $2.28 per share.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_bristol_myers

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Jan
27

Study of freakish mystery illness finds no cause (AP)

ATLANTA ? Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.

Many of these people were in California and one of that state’s U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they were affected by this freakish condition called Morgellons.

The study cost nearly $600,000. Its long-awaited results, released Wednesday, conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients’ minds.

“We found no infectious cause,” said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.

The study appears in PLoS One, one of the Public Library of Science journals.

Sufferers of Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns) describe a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin and ? perhaps worst of all ? mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. Some say they’ve suffered for decades, but the syndrome wasn’t named until 2002, when “Morgellons” was chosen from a 1674 medical paper describing similar symptoms.

Afflicted patients have documented their suffering on websites and many have vainly searched for a doctor who believed them. Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.

Last May, Mayo Clinic researchers published a study of 108 Morgellons patients and found none of them suffered from any unusual physical ailment. The study concluded that the sores on many of them were caused by their own scratching and picking at their skin.

The CDC study was meant to be broader, starting with a large population and then went looking for cases within the group. The intent was to give scientists a better idea of how common Morgellons actually is.

They focused on more than 3 million people who lived in 13 counties in Northern California, a location chosen in part because all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, which had a research arm that could assist in the project. Also, many of the anecdotal reports of Morgellons came from the area.

Culling through Kaiser patient records from July 2006 through June 2008, the team found ? and was able to reach ? 115 who had what sounded like Morgellons. Most were middle-aged white women. They were not clustered in any one spot.

That led to the finding that Morgellons occurred in roughly 4 out of every 100,000 Kaiser enrollees. “So it’s rare,” Eberhard said.

Roughly 100 agreed to at least answer survey questions, and about 40 consented to a battery of physical and psychological tests that stretched over several days.

Blood and urine tests and skin biopsies checked for dozens of infectious diseases, including fungus and bacteria that could cause some of the symptoms. The researchers found none that would explain the cases.

There was no sign of an environmental cause, either, although researchers did not go to each person’s house to look around.

They took fibers from 12 people, which were tested at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Nothing unusual there, either. Cotton and nylon, mainly ? not some kind of organism wriggling out of a patient’s body.

Skin lesions were common, but researchers concluded most of them were from scratching.

What stood out was how the patients did on the psychological exams. Though normal in most respects, they had more depression than the general public and were more obsessive about physical ailments, the study found.

However, they did not have an unusual history of psychiatric problems, according to their medical records. And the testing gave no clear indication of a delusional disorder.

So what do they have? The researchers don’t know. They don’t even know what to call it, opting for the label “unexplained dermopathy” in their paper.

But clearly, something made them miserable. “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” said Felicia Goldstein, an Emory University neurology professor and study co-author.

She said perhaps the patients could be helped by cognitive behavioral therapy that might help them deal with possible contributing psychological issues.

The study is not expected to be the last word on the subject.

Among those with additional questions is Randy Wymore, an Oklahoma State University pharmacologist who for years was the most reputable scientist to look into it and who has concluded Morgellons is not a psychiatric disorder.

On Wednesday, Wymore said he had not seen the CDC paper and was unable to comment on it. But when the study began, he questioned whether Kaiser patients with Morgellons would participate, especially if they were unhappy with how they were previously handled by their Kaiser doctors.

“There is always the question: How many of the study participants actually have Morgellons Disease?” he said, in an email.

The CDC is not planning additional study, however. The agency’s expertise is in infectious diseases and environmental health problems, and the researchers saw no evidence of that.

“We’re not mental health experts,” one CDC spokeswoman said.

___

Online:

PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/home.action

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_he_me/us_med_cdc_morgellons_study

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Jan
26

20 things that happened online in 2011, illustrated

By Matthew Hawkins

“2011: Twenty Things That Happened On The Internet” by The SYZYGY Group.

We’re reaching the end of January, the first month of 2012, and the last thing we need is yet another list that recollects the previous year. But make it an eye-popping illustration, and even a game out of it? That’s totally fine.

Peter Jaworowski, Executive Creative Director at The SYZYGY Group, and Michal Lisowski, Lead Artist at Ars Thanea, have put together the following illustration, simply titled “2011: Twenty Things That Happened On The Internet.”

For a closer look, simply click here. I’d name a few obvious references myself, and make educated guesses for the ones that I’m not entirely sure about, but that would be ruining the challenge.

SYZYGY is also giving away signed limited edition prints of the piece. Simply follow them on Twitter?and use the hashtag #20things. A few recipients will be randomly chosen every day. Clues will also be provided in the coming days.

So, how many can you identify?

Related stores:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Matthew Hawkins.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10227153-20-things-that-happened-online-in-2011-illustrated

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Jan
26

Obama tax ideas face long odds ahead of election (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama’s bid to get millionaires and multinational companies to pay more taxes may play well with many voters but it faces long odds in the deadlocked U.S. Congress.

Obama used his State of the Union speech on Tuesday to press the case for a new minimum 30 percent tax on Americans earning more than $1 million a year and for tougher treatment of corporations that move jobs out of the United States.

At the same time, he called for tax credits to lure jobs back to the United States.

“Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas,” Obama said. “Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world.”

Obama, facing a tough re-election campaign, for several years has called for steeper taxes on corporations’ foreign profits and closing what he calls tax loopholes that also benefit multinational companies.

Most of these ideas have stalled for years in Congress – even some Democrats say they can wait for a complete overhaul of the tax code.

A tax lobbyist affiliated with Democrats said real debate over the proposed tax changes would have to wait until after the November 6 presidential and congressional elections.

“They would only likely stand a chance in a broader corporate tax reform debate and I just don’t think that tax reform is in the cards,” the lobbyist said.

Obama and Republicans both say the tax code needs a major rewrite and lawmakers are laying the groundwork for such a reform, but the process is expected to take years. The 35 percent U.S. corporate rate is among the highest in the world and critics say it harms business competitiveness.

Obama is calling for a number of tax policies that could in theory appeal to Republicans, in the name of boosting the flagging economy. For example, he wants to trim tax rates for manufacturers and double a tax deduction for high-tech manufacturing – ideas that might gain some bipartisan backing.

But even that is unlikely in the current environment.

“Tempted as they may be by more tax cuts, anything that smacks of a deal with Obama, or a victory for Obama, especially one that undercuts their theme – however detached from the reality – that Obama is a tax-increaser, will be reflexively resisted by Republicans in both houses,” said Norm Ornstein, a congressional watcher at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

BUFFETT RULE

Probably the biggest tax change Obama outlined is a revamp of what he has called the Buffett rule, named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, to ensure the wealthy pay what he calls a fair share of taxes. Obama proposed a minimum 30 percent tax on millionaires, and eliminating many tax deductions for them – including for housing, healthcare and childcare.

Buffett’s secretary – famous for her boss’s observation that she pays a higher tax rate than he does – sat in the congressional gallery as a guest of the White House to underscore the point.

A minimum 30 percent tax rate would be about twice the tax rate paid by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the past two years, according to filings he released on Tuesday.

Lower tax rates enacted under former Republican President George W. Bush are set to expire at the end of this year, setting up a fight over extending them in late 2012.

Obama and Democrats want to let the lower rates for the wealthy expire. Obama said given steep budget deficits, Americans face a choice.

“Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else?” Obama asked.

The top individual income tax rate is now 35 percent, but the superwealthy can enjoy lower rates in some cases if they earn most of their income from investments – as does Romney – which are subject to a 15 percent rate.

A version of Obama’s so-called Buffett rule has been promoted by Democrats in Congress as a way to pay for extending the payroll tax cut, but has no chance of passing.

Obama had previously proposed limiting deductions for wealthier Americans to a certain percentage of their income, but he went further in Tuesday’s speech to advocate cutting out certain tax breaks completely for millionaires.

Even before Obama spoke, Republicans were blasting the speech as a campaign event.

“No Bailouts, No Hand-outs, And No Cop-outs,” read one congressional Republican press release.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/ts_nm/us_usa_obama_speech_taxes

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Jan
25

How to troubleshoot common jailbreak issues on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

While jailbreak can unquestionably add loads of functionality to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch – it isn’t completely error prone. Whether you’re having issues getting your device to jailbreak or running into problems after you’ve jailbroken, we’ve got the answers to lots of common problems.



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/1Jfj08Slxno/story01.htm

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Jan
25

Heated charges, counter-charges in Florida debate (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich clashed repeatedly in heated, personal terms Monday night in a crackling campaign debate, the former Massachusetts governor tagging his rival as a Washington “influence peddler,” only to be accused in turn of spreading falsehoods over many years in politics.

“You’ve been walking around the state saying things that are untrue,” Gingrich told his rival in a two-hour debate marked by occasional interruptions and finger-pointing.

The event marked the first encounter among the four remaining GOP contenders ? former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul shared the stage ? since Gingrich won the South Carolina primary in an upset last weekend.

His double-digit victory reset the race to pick a rival to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama this fall, and the next contest is the Jan. 31 Florida primary.

With a week of campaigning ahead, Romney is expected to release his income tax return for 2010 as well as an estimate for 2011 on Tuesday. He said it will show he paid all the taxes he was obligated to pay, adding, “I don’t think the voters want a president who pays more than he owes.”

Following his defeat in South Carolina, Romney can ill afford to lose in Florida, and he was the aggressor from the opening moments Monday night. He said Gingrich had “resigned in disgrace” from Congress after four years as speaker and then had spent the next 15 years “working as an influence peddler.”

In particular, he referred to the contract Gingrich’s consulting firm had with Freddie Mac, a government-backed mortgage giant that he said “did a lot of bad for a lot of people and you were working there.”

Romney also said Gingrich had lobbied lawmakers to approve legislation creating a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

“I have never, ever gone and done any lobbying,” Gingrich retorted emphatically, adding that his firm had hired an expert to explain to employees “the bright line between what you can do as a citizen and what you do as a lobbyist.”

Romney counterpunched, referring to the $300,000 that Gingrich’s consulting firm received in 2006 from Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage giant.

And when Gingrich sought to turn the tables by inquiring about the private equity firm that Romney founded, the former Massachusetts governor replied: “We didn’t do any work with the government. …I wasn’t a lobbyist.”

As for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Gingrich expressed pride in having supported it. “It has saved lives. It’s run on a free enterprise model,” he said in a state that is home to millions of seniors.

Whatever the stated subject, the debate’s subtext was character ? and electability, the quality that Republican voters say consistently matters most to them in the race.

Gingrich said voters don’t want a president who will “manage the decay,” but change the country. “That requires sending somebody who’s prepared to be controversial when necessary.”

Romney pointed to his career in business, his turn as head of the Salt Lake City Olympics and a term as governor of Massachusetts.

Obama took his lumps, as customary in a Republican debate.

Romney said the president lacks a vision for NASA, and said, “There are people on the Space Coast that are suffering and Florida itself is suffering as a result.”

He proposed that “a collection” of academics and private investors consult with the president on a new mission for the space agency and have the program funded jointly by the government and private industry.

Gingrich called that answer “building a bigger bureaucracy” and instead proposed handing out prizes to people who come up with ways to “make the Space Coast literally hum with activity.” Going back to the moon permanently, putting a man on mars and building space stations should be priorities, he said.

When the debate turned to immigration, one moderator noted that Romney and Santorum have said they would veto the “Dream Act,” which would create conditions under which illegal immigrant minors might achieve U.S. citizenship, and asked if Gingrich agreed.

“No, I would work to get a signable version,” he said. “I think any young person brought here by their parents when they were young should have the same opportunity to join the American military and earn citizenship.”

Romney said that was the same as his position.

Moments later, he was asked to reconcile two other statements he has made about immigration, that while he doesn’t want to deport millions of illegal immigrants, he wants them to return to their home countries and apply for citizenship. “The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home,” he said.

At times, the other two contenders on stage were reduced to supporting roles.

Asked if he could envision a path to the nomination for himself, Santorum said the race has so far been defined by its unpredictability.

He jumped at the chance to criticize both Romney and Gingrich for having supported the big federal bailouts of Wall Street in 2008.

He also said both men had abandoned conservative principles by supporting elements of “cap and trade” legislation to curb pollution emissions from industrial sites. “When push came to shove, they were pushed,” he said.

Paul sidestepped when moderator Brian Williams of NBC asked if he would run as a third-party candidate in the fall if he doesn’t win the nomination. “I have no intention,” he said, but he didn’t rule it out.

Paul has said he will largely bypass Florida to concentrate on states that are holding caucuses.

Hit at the outset with Romney’ charge that he had resigned Congress in disgrace and went on to a career peddling his own influence, Gingrich said two men who had run against the former governor in the 2008 campaign, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, had said he couldn’t tell the truth.

The polls post-South Carolina show Gingrich and Romney leading in the Florida primary. That and the former speaker’s weekend victory explained why the two were squabbling even before the debate began, and why they tangled almost instantly once it had begun.

Romney began airing a harshly critical new campaign ad and said the former House speaker had engaged in “potentially wrongful activity” with the consulting work he did after leaving Congress in the late 1990s.

Gingrich retorted that Romney was a candidate who was campaigning on openness yet “has released none of his business records.”

He followed up two hours before the debate by arranging the release of a contract his former consulting firm had with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. for a retainer of $25,000 per month in 2006, or a total for the year of $300,000. The agreement called for “consulting and related services.”

Despite Romney’s attempts to call Gingrich a lobbyist, the contract makes no mention of lobbying.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_debate

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Jan
24

Two more arrested in Europe over Megaupload case (Reuters)

AUCKLAND (Reuters) ? Two men sought worldwide in connection with a U.S.-led crackdown on the online file-sharing website Megaupload have been arrested, a New Zealand government lawyer told a court on Monday.

U.S. authorities had issued international warrants for Sven Echternach, 39, a German, and Andrus Nomm, 32, of Estonia for their involvement in alleged internet piracy and money laundering.

The two had been arrested in Europe, New Zealand government lawyer Anne Toohey told a court hearing on an application for bail by Megaupload’s founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz.

Toohey said Echternach had travelled to Germany from the Philippines, but cannot be extradited because German law does not permit extradition of its own citizens. Nomm had been detained in the Netherlands.

A Slovakian national, Julius Bencko, is still being sought in connection with what U.S. authorities have called the Mega Conspiracy.

Dotcom, 38, and three others, were arrested in New Zealand on Friday after police raided a country estate at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Raids took place in several other countries and the Megaupload site has been shut down, with the business’s assets frozen.

On Monday, Dotcom’s New Zealand lawyer denied Megaupload was involved in copyright breaches, the pirating of movies and music, and said his client should be given bail, possibly involving electronic tagging.

Toohey said Dotcom was an “extreme flight risk” and should be held in custody ahead of formal hearing on the United States’ extradition bid.

U.S. authorities want to extradite Dotcom on charges he masterminded a scheme that made more than $175 million in a few short years by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorisation. Megaupload’s lawyer has said the company simply offered online storage.

(Writing by Gyles Beckford; Editing by Ed Davies and Alex Richardson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wr_nm/us_internet_piracy_arrests

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Jan
23

Christina Aguilera Pulls A ‘Rocky Horror’ (omg!)

Christina Aguilera Pulls A 'Rocky Horror'

In 1975, Patricia Quinn’s lips were immortalized in the Rocky Horror Picture Show opening credits thanks to a close-up as she sang along to Science Fiction/Double Feature.

Christina Aguilera, perhaps the world’s biggest fan of red lips, is set to recreate that iconic opening with the release of Casa de mi Padre, a new “foreign film” starring Will Ferrell.

Casa de mi Padre Trailer!

The Voice mentor supplies the theme song for the film and an extreme close-up of her lips — as she sings Casa de mi Padre – kick off the action. Give the title track a spin below!

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_christina_aguilera_pulls_rocky_horror231700874/44249250/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/christina-aguilera-pulls-rocky-horror-231700874.html

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Jan
23

LA detective in Simpson-Goldman murders dies at 70 (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Philip Vannatter, the Los Angeles police detective who served as a lead investigator in the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, has died.

His brother, Joe, says Vannatter died Friday in Southern California of complications from cancer. He was 70.

Vannatter spent 28 years with the LAPD, mostly as a homicide detective. He later consulted on cold-case murders.

He was among the first detectives on the scene at former football star O.J. Simpson’s mansion in June 1994, following the stabbing deaths of Simpson’s wife Nicole and her friend, Ron Goldman. Vannatter testified at the murder trial, at which Simpson was acquitted.

In 1977, Vannatter conducted the investigation that led to the arrest of film director Roman Polanski on charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_philip_vannatter

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