Cameron boosts 2018 World Cup bid

Prime Minister David Cameron met Fifa president Sepp Blatter ahead of the vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts

England's 2018 World Cup bid appeared to be gathering momentum ahead of Thursday's vote with Prime Minister David Cameron taking centre-stage in the lobbying of Fifa members.

Mr Cameron spent Tuesday afternoon and evening meeting some of the 22 Fifa executive committee members who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.

The Prime Minister met Fifa president Sepp Blatter first and then vice-president Jack Warner, whose vote is so pivotal to England's hopes.

Mr Cameron also held meetings with four other Fifa members: two African members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma, Cyprus' Marios Lefkaritis, and Qatar's Mohammed bin Hammam, plus other talks with the Emir of Qatar.

The series of meetings contrasts with the absence of Vladimir Putin, prime minister of Russia, one of England's rivals for 2018 along with Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium.

After his meeting, Mr Warner gave England's bid a significant boost by praising English football's international development work. He said: "The British Prime Minister understands the importance and power of football. He reiterated his Government's commitment to the World Cup and spoke extensively about England's legacy programme.

"Over the last decade England has supported not only Concacaf but all federations in their development activities and I must commend the Prime Minister and the FA for that."

In another boost for England, Mr Hayatou, the Fifa vice-president accused by BBC Panorama of taking payments, insisted he was innocent - and that he would not take out his anger on England's bid. Mr Hayatou has threatened legal action against Panorama over their claim he accepted a £10,000 payment in 1995 - he said the money was given to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) towards their 40th anniversary celebrations.

Mr Hayatou told Press Association Sport: "There is a big difference between Panorama and my relationship with the England bid, there is no confusion in my mind."

David Beckham, who will take part in England's presentation with Mr Cameron and Prince William on Thursday, will give a news conference on Wednesday morning. Beckham was with Mr Cameron at the meeting with Mr Blatter where they attempted to smooth over any ill feeling caused by Panorama.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jCymX4as3_5uLY3lloP1TdoWFIwQ?docId=N0367961291176721330A

Before Business Leaders, Bernanke Discusses Unemployment’s Toll on Americans

Ben Bernanke, right, the Fed chairman, with I.B.M.'s chief executive, Samuel Palmisano, in Ohio.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, found some respite on Tuesday from the second-guessing the central bank has faced since it announced a $600 billion effort to stimulate the slow recovery.

During a 75-minute discussion here with five business leaders, including the chief executives of I.B.M. and Ford Motor as well as the founder of a local chain of ice cream stores, inflation and monetary policy were not even mentioned, much less debated.

Mr. Bernanke did, however, emphasize the toll high unemployment was taking on families and on the share of the unemployed — more than 40 percent — who have been jobless for at least six months.

“At the pace of growth that we’re seeing now, we’re not growing fast enough to materially reduce the unemployment rate,” he said. The economy needs to grow at an annualized rate of 2 to 2.5 percent just to accommodate new workers coming into the labor force, he said. Mr. Bernanke has made this point repeatedly this year.

At 9.6 percent, the unemployment rate is about where it was when the recession officially ended in June 2009, Mr. Bernanke said, and only about a million of the 8.5 million jobs lost since the peak of the last economic expansion have been restored.

“Part of the barrier to faster growth and recovery is confidence in households that they will be financially secure and that they can make purchases and take chances in changing careers and changing locations,” Mr. Bernanke said. “With unemployment so high, that confidence is hard to come by.”

The discussion, organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and held at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, was part of an effort by Mr. Bernanke to reach out more.

“We spend a lot of time, of course, looking at data, sitting in Washington, looking at the screen, but there’s only so much you can learn from that,” he said.

Sandra Pianalto, the president of the Cleveland Fed, who moderated the discussion, referred obliquely to the firestorm the Fed has faced in recent weeks. “Through my interactions with Ben, I’ve learned that extreme circumstances often require very creative and aggressive policy responses, and that the right decisions sometimes aren’t the most popular decisions,” she said.

While none of the executives criticized the Fed, Samuel J. Palmisano, the chief executive of I.B.M., said that uncertainty, particularly over regulations, was holding back businesses, not financial constraints.

“Clearly, there’s tons of liquidity, as you know,” he told Mr. Bernanke, who was seated to his left. “There’s probably more than we could consume. It’s not a credit issue. It’s not the financial system or a banking issue. I think at the end of the day it’s clarity.”

But two of the three local business owners on the panel said financial conditions were still tight. “Credit is much more tight today than it was in past years,” said Dwight E. Smith, founder of Sophisticated Systems, a provider of information technology services.

Curtis J. Moody, co-founder of Moody Nolan Architects, said, “The lines of credits are more difficult to get, and they’re lower.”

The business leaders agreed that the partisan climate in Washington was not helping matters. “Exports aren’t partisan, competitive tax policies aren’t partisan,” Mr. Palmisano said. “Economic expansion, job creation, isn’t political at the end of the day.”

Alan R. Mulally, the chief executive of Ford, said the government needed “a laser focus on creating an environment where businesses can grow.” He said that “currencies need to be set by the market” and “not manipulated,” and added, “We need to have trade agreements that actually allow us to export.”

That appeared to be a reference to a free trade agreement with South Korea that was negotiated by the Bush administration and is opposed by Ford. The Obama administration wants to complete the deal and submit it to Congress, but negotiations with South Korea have become stuck over restrictions on American auto and beef exports.

Mr. Bernanke said he took away from the discussion the need for clarity on regulatory, trade and fiscal matters. He also emphasized the importance of government support for technological innovation and the need to improve public education, community colleges and work force training.

Several M.B.A. students in the audience said that they had hoped Mr. Bernanke would discuss the Fed’s decision to buy bonds to reduce long-term interest rates, a topic they had debated in class. The students were generally skeptical about the strategy’s effectiveness.

“If you inflate the economy without doing anything about growth, you’re just printing money,” said one of the students, Jyotisko Sinha, 27.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/business/economy/01fed.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Secret Military Mini-Shuttle Headed Back to Earth

A miniature robotic space shuttle launched from Cape Canaveral in April has completed a nine-month classified mission for the military and will be headed for a landing as early as Friday, Air Force officials said on Tuesday.

The vehicle, known as the Orbital Test Vehicle or X-37B, is expected to land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California between Friday and Monday, depending on weather and technical considerations, the Air Force said in a statement.

The project, started by NASA in the late 1990s and later adopted by the military, is intended to test technologies for a next-generation space shuttle.

The military is looking at the space plane as a way to test new equipment, sensors and material in space, with the intention of incorporating successful technologies into satellites and other operational systems.

The Air Force imposed a news blackout on the X-37B's activities while in orbit, though it was tracked by amateur satellite-watchers throughout its nine-month mission.

The X-37B looks like a space shuttle orbiter, with a similar shape and payload bay for cargo and experiments.

But it measures 29 feet, 3 inches in length and has a 15-foot (4.5-meter) wing span, compared to the 122-foot (37-meter) orbiters with wing spans of 78 feet.

Unlike NASA's space shuttles, which can stay in orbit about two weeks, X-37B is designed to spend as long as nine months in space, then land autonomously on a runway.

The Air Force plans to fly its second X-37B vehicle this spring. The vehicles were built by Boeing Co's advanced research lab, Phantom Works.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=12280571

Michael Jackson's dad files wrongful death suit against son's doctor

Joe Jackson sued Dr. Conrad Murray, his medical clinics and the pharmacy that sold the drug that killed Michael Jackson.

An attorney for the father of the late pop star Michael Jackson filed a wrongful death suit Tuesday against Jackson's doctor and his medical clinics, as well as the pharmacy that sold the doctor the drug that killed Jackson.

Attorney Brian Oxman filed the suit in the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County on behalf of Joe Jackson. A similar lawsuit filed against Dr. Conrad Murray in federal court -- which did not include the pharmacy -- was thrown out of court earlier this month.

The suit also alleges negligent hiring, training and supervision and negligence against the clinics and negligence against the pharmacy and Murray. It asks for unspecified damages and court costs.

The suit names Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and his three children as "nominal plaintiff parties."

Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's June 25, 2009, death, which the Los Angeles County coroner ruled was from an overdose of propofol, a powerful anesthetic used to put surgical patients to sleep.

Murray, hired as Jackson's personal doctor while the singer rehearsed for his comeback concerts, admitted giving him propofol as a sleep aid. But Murray's lawyer said the amount was much smaller than what was found in Jackson's body during the autopsy.

In October, a California appeals court rejected Joe Jackson's challenge of the two men named by the late pop star to run his estate. The court ruled that since Joe Jackson was not named as a beneficiary in his son's will, he has no legal standing to object to John Branca and John McClain as executors.

Jackson accused Branca and McClain of misconduct, including fabricating the will in which Jackson named them as his executors.

Michael Jackson's will places his entire estate in a trust that benefits only his mother, Katherine Jackson, his three children and unnamed charities. Katherine Jackson dropped her probate challenge of the executors last November, just a day after Joe Jackson, her husband of 61 years, filed his challenge.

Katherine Jackson has filed a lawsuit accusing international concert promotion and production company AEG Live of causing her son's death by pushing him to rehearse for his comeback concerts despite poor health. Her suit claimed that the concert production company controlled Jackson's health because it hired and directed Murray.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/11/30/jackson.wrongful.death/

American loses over a stone on 'potato diet'

An American who ate nothing but potatoes for two months has astounded nutritionists by claiming to be healthier than when he started.

Chris Voigt, 45, who is head of the Washington State Potato Commission, embarked on his "spud diet" in an attempt to show that the vegetable is high in nutrients.

He was protesting against the US Department of Agriculture which is due to release new, more diverse school lunch menus replacing potatoes with other vegetables.

Mr Voigt, who was more than 14 stone at the outset, said that by eating only potatoes he had lost a stone and a half

He also reduced his blood sugar level and his cholesterol dropped by more than one third.

He said: "I've been struggling being borderline high cholesterol for four or five years. I absolutely feel great. I've always had lots of good energy on this diet, I've had no strange side effects, I sleep well at night."

During the diet he consumed 400lbs of potatoes, about 20 individual vegetables a day.

He ate them boiled, mashed, sliced, fried and roasted. On Thanksgiving he crafted mashed potato into the shape of a turkey and carved it.

Mr Voigt said potatoes have more potassium than bananas, and that one serving provides roughly 45 per cent of the daily recommended value for Vitamin C.

The only negative health impact was a lack of some fat-soluble vitamins such as Vitamins A and E, he said.

He accepted that a diet of just potatoes was not sustainable in the long term but said his experiment had shown how "truly healthy" the vegetable is.

Despite eating so many potatoes Mr Voigt said he still loves them.

He celebrated the end of his 60-day diet with a meal of fajitas and tacos, and some grilled potatoes.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8172056/American-loses-over-a-stone-on-potato-diet.html

Russia Backs China’s Call for Six-Party Talks on North Korea

Russia supports China’s proposal to hold six-nation talks on military tensions stemming from North Korea’s Nov. 23 artillery attack on a South Korean island, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said.

“We think that if everybody could come to those talks, they could be useful,” Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in an interview today. “We sort of view this initiative as a positive one.”

China proposed on Nov. 28 that “emergency” talks to address the increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula be held early next month in Beijing. They would involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, North Korea and the U.S., a group that met several times, starting in 2003, to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program until the government in Pyongyang pulled out of the talks in April 2009.

The U.S., Japan and South Korea haven’t agreed to China’s proposal, saying they want to see more concrete action by North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program before restarting the talks.

Japan’s bid to bring the issue to the UN Security Council has run into resistance from China.

“We are trying our best,” Ambassador Tsuneo Nishida of Japan told reporters at the UN. “We have been really trying to form a consensus in the Security Council. You have noticed that the Security Council has not yet been in a position to do that.”

The U.S. and Japan, which has a seat on the Security Council until Dec. 31, have been holding bilateral talks with China, Russia and other panel members. The U.S. and Japan haven’t formally proposed action by the Security Council.

Russian Suggestion

Churkin suggested that Russia also would be open to Security Council involvement in the issue.

“It could be discussed in the Security Council,” Churkin said. “No one has brought it up.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed similar willingness to back a Security Council position on the artillery attack during a Nov. 25 news conference in Moscow.

“I hope that soon the Security Council will express its opinion, which will help calm the situation,” Lavrov said, according to a transcript provided by the Foreign Ministry.

China, while not openly rejecting the call for Security Council involvement, is pushing hard for the six-party format.

Yang Tao, political director of China’s mission to the UN, called the six-party talks “one of the most useful platforms” and said it had “some success” dealing with the issue of North Korea’s nuclear program.

“It is very important for this platform to play its dual role,” Yang said in an interview.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/russia-backs-china-s-call-for-six-party-talks-on-north-korea.html

Thousands of moustaches face the chop as Movember ends

Merv Hughes' moustache is an inspiration to many

Over the last 30 days or so they've appeared silently on the faces of tens of thousands of men across the country.

They are known as Mos - or moustaches to the uninitiated - and they have turned November into Movember.

They've been grown to raise money for - and awareness of - prostate cancer.

But as Movember draws to a close, it will be hair today and gone tomorrow when the razors come out and the moustaches disappear.

The idea for Movember was hatched in Melbourne, Australia in 2003.

Taking their inspiration from the pink ribbon breast cancer awareness campaign, a group of friends decided to grow moustaches for the month of November, partly for fun and partly to raise awareness of issues around men's health.

Within a few years the campaign had exploded worldwide.

Powered by social networking and a slick website, Movember spread from Down Under to include New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Ireland.

The UK got in on the act in 2007 when around £1m was raised for the main beneficiary, The Prostate Cancer Charity.

This year more than 110,000 people have registered on the website and so far they've raised around £6.1m, although the charity believes that the final figure could be closer to £10m.

The rules are simple.

You start with a clean shaven face on November 1st, and you don't shave your top lip until November 30th.

There are no beards, no goatees and no joining up sideburns with a 'tache.
The Clark Gable

Sports stars, celebrities and politicians have all been sporting moustaches, but it is very much a grass roots movement.

Mike Orchard of Froxfield in Hampshire has been growing what he hopes is a sophisticated Clark Gable affair after being introduced to the world of Movember by a friend.

"There are a bunch of us around the village doing it.

"We have a mutual support group where we get around and have a good laugh at each other.

"Generally speaking, most people react with horror, but when you explain, they get it."

Mike's wife Frances is not so impressed however.

"Her most coherent remark has been she can't wait for November to be over!"
The Hairy Biker

Christian Heap is another convert.

He's gone for a big handlebar effort, releasing his inner biker.

"It's pretty fair to say the first two weeks, I was thinking what am I doing?

"I was really uncomfortable with it.

"Then the next 10 days you get into it but the last three or four days I've been dying to get rid of it.

"My wife Nicky is looking forward to the 1st of December more than me."
It's all for charity, mate

Movember has proved to be a huge boost to The Prostate Cancer Charity both in terms of a sudden surge in their income as well as raising awareness of the disease among notoriously hard to reach men.

"We can get to guys in their 30s and 40s in a way that has just not been possible," says Mark Bishop, the charity's director of fundraising.

"This is a movement for men, rather than a campaign.

"250,000 men are living with prostate cancer each year; 10,000 will die each year.

"Men are acting proactively around their health in a way we've not seen before.

"The truth is many guys find it tough to take health messages on board, particularly when it's about down below."

So after a month of itchyness, ridicule and the uncomfortable feeling that people are staring, thousands of men are now preparing to shave off their moustaches.

And who knows, next year - if the BBC is willing to put me on air with a 'tache - I may even be one of them.

If you have any queries about prostate cancer, call The Prostate Cancer Charity's confidential Helpline 0800 074 8383 which is staffed by specialist nurses and open from 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday and Wednesdays from 7 - 9pm

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11866011

Hathaway, Franco to co-host Oscars

Hollywood stars Anne Hathaway and James Franco have been confirmed as co-hosts for this years Oscars.

The 127 Hours star and the Love and Other Drugs actress will co-host the 83rd Annual Academy Awards in February, Access Hollywood has confirmed.

Producers picked the pair to try and attract younger movie fans.

Oscar producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer said in a statement: 'James Franco and Anne Hathaway personify the next generation of Hollywood icons - fresh, exciting and multi-talented.

'We hope to create an Oscar broadcast that will both showcase their incredible talents and entertain the world on February 27.'

James, 32, currently stars in Danny Boyle's flick 127 Hours as mountaineer Aron Ralston and Anne, 28, is playing the role of Maggie Murdock in new film Love and Other Drugs alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.

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http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1602380.php/Hathaway-Franco-to-co-host-Oscars

BBC defends Panorama investigation into Fifa 'bribes'

Fifa executives Ricardo Teixeira, Issa Hayatou and Nicolas Leoz

The BBC has defended a documentary which alleges three Fifa officials took bribes in the 1990s.

Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira took the money from a sport marketing firm awarded lucrative World Cup rights, Panorama alleges.

The BBC investigation was shown three days before a vote to decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

BBC executive editor Clive Edwards said it was Panorama's job "to investigate corruption and wrongdoing".

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has asked the BBC to hand over any evidence it has relating to the claims made against Mr Hayatou, who is a long-standing member of the IOC.

The alleged bribes are included in a confidential document listing 175 payments totalling about $100m (£64m).

The three men did not respond to Panorama over the allegations.

Fifa, world football's governing body, also declined interview requests to address the allegations.

However, in a statement issued on Tuesday, it said the case was "definitely closed" as allegations had already been investigated in Switzerland, with no Fifa officials being convicted.

In its programme broadcast on Monday, Panorama reported on evidence a fourth senior Fifa executive - vice-president Jack Warner - continues to be involved in the resale of World Cup tickets to touts.

The BBC stood by its decision to air the allegations ahead of Thursday's vote in Zurich.

Clive Edwards told Radio 4's Today programme that Panorama had received a list showing the alleged payment of bribes in October, and had spent the intervening time checking the claims and putting them to those named.

Mr Edwards added Panorama presented its evidence to Fifa on 10 November.

"Some people have said that it would have been better to do it after the vote but it is surely nonsense to suggest that you know a process could be flawed and you don't say anything until after it has happened," Mr Edwards said.

"I am not prepared to sit on information we have. I believe that it is in everyone's interest that there should be a fair process and that corruption should be exposed."
British press

The BBC has been criticised by the English FA, which is competing with Russia, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium to host the 2018 tournament.

A statement from the FA described the investigation as an "embarrassment to the BBC".

"We stand by our previous position that the BBC's Panorama did nothing more than rake over a series of historical allegations none of which are relevant to the current bidding process.

"The 2018 team are entirely focused on winning the bid for England."

But Michel Platini, president of football's European governing body Uefa, said the Panorama programme should not affect England's bid to hold the World Cup.

Speaking to reporters after the documentary aired, he said: "I don't think this programme will have an effect, no - but I think what may affect the decision is the atmosphere going back a long time and what people have been writing about Fifa in the British press for many years."

The alleged bribes to the three members of Fifa's executive committee were paid by sports marketing company International Sport and Leisure (ISL) and date from 1989 to 1999, Panorama reports. The company collapsed in 2001.

Fifa granted ISL exclusive rights to market World Cup tournaments to some of the world's biggest brands and ISL received millions more from negotiating television broadcast rights.

Some details of the alleged bribes emerged in 2008, when six ISL managers were accused of misusing company money. Bribery was not a criminal offence in Switzerland at the time the money was allegedly paid out.
Closely linked

One Fifa official - Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay, the head of South America's football confederation - was named in court papers in connection with payments totalling $130,000 (£83,000)


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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11874091

German Unemployment Falls to Lowest in 18 Years

A jobseeker uses a computer to search for a job at an unemployment office in Berlin.

German unemployment fell for a 17th month in November as business optimism improved, underscoring the gulf between Europe’s biggest economy and peripheral nations struggling to cut debt.

The number of people out of work declined a seasonally adjusted 9,000 to 3.14 million, the lowest since December 1992, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. Economists forecast a decrease of 20,000, according to the median of 31 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The adjusted jobless rate remained at 7.5 percent.

Rising payrolls help bolster domestic demand in Europe’s most populous country, lessening German reliance on exports and shoring up slower-growth economies in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. German retailers are enjoying a “dream start” to the Christmas shopping season, the HDE industry federation said yesterday, as the European Union said a bigger-than-expected “spillover” from Germany may be coming to Europe’s aid.

“The German economy stands at the eve of a virtuous circle for domestic demand,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING in Brussels. “Combined with a general-feel-good factor, German consumers seem set to finally spend their way out of the recession during the Christmas shopping season.”

The euro fell against the dollar today on concern that the debt crisis in Ireland will spread to other euro nations. The currency was at $1.2987 as of 10:05 a.m. in London from $1.3125 yesterday.

Porsche Engineers

German business confidence unexpectedly surged to a record in November as domestic spending increased, the Ifo institute said on Nov. 24. Ifo’s gauge of executives’ expectations also rose to a record.

Porsche SE will hire more than 100 engineers in the coming weeks and increase capacity at a center in Weissach, Germany, it said Nov. 18. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG will add 500 workers to its engines plant in Munich, Focus magazine reported this week, citing works council head Manfred Schoch.

The Berlin-based DIW institute said yesterday that the German economy will maintain its pace of recovery in the current quarter, forecasting expansion of 0.7 percent. Consumer spending is increasingly becoming an “engine of growth,” it said.

The revival of domestic demand may boost manufacturing across the euro region, helping recoveries in so-called peripheral nations including Ireland and Portugal, whose governments are struggling to reduce budget deficits.

Spillover

“The spillover from the pick-up in activity in Germany to other member states may materialize to a greater extent than currently envisaged,” European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in Brussels yesterday.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, forecast 2.2 percent economic growth in Germany in 2011 after 3.7 percent this year, the fastest pace since the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990.

The recovery in the euro-area economy is “uneven” across member states, Rehn said. An index of export orders at German manufacturers rose in November, while similar gauges for Spain and Greece declined, according to commission figures.

A separate report today from the EU statistics office in Luxembourg showed that the euro-area jobless rate increased to 10.1 percent in October, the highest since July 1998, from 10 percent in September. Spain had the highest rate, at 20.7 percent.

Pay Boost

With German economic recovery showing few signs of cooling, workers may benefit from earlier pay increases. MAN SE will bring forward a 2011 raise, saying on Nov. 24 it will increase salaries in Germany by 2.7 percent as early as February.

Retail sales were higher than expected last weekend, the first of advent, and retailers are forecasting a further sales increase in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the HDE retail federation said yesterday. The Ifo institute’s German retail trade gauge rose in November to the highest level since the series started in January 2003.

Average German unemployment will drop to 2.96 million in 2011 from 3.24 million this year, the Labor Agency’s IAB research institute has forecast. That’s based on a prediction of 3 percent economic growth this year and 1.75 percent in 2011.

According to OECD data, Germany’s jobless rate was 6.7 percent in September. The equivalent rate in France was 10 percent, the U.S. rate was 9.6 percent and the Group of Seven average was 8.1 percent.


Read More

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/unemployment-in-germany-declined-to-lowest-level-in-18-years-in-november.html

Facebook Scam: 'See Who Has Viewed Your Profile'

Curious to see who views your Facebook profile page?

You're out of luck. Status updates, Facebook groups, and pages claiming to let users see who has viewed their Facebook profile pages are scams, often linking users to ad-filled sites.

In recent days, for instance, you may have seen your Facebook friends speaking in bizarrely adolescent chatroom vernacular:

"OMG OMG OMG... I cant believe this actually works! Now you really can see who viewed your profile! on [LINK]."

"If you're tempted to click on the link, you're taken to a webpage that encourages you to go a little deeper and permit an application to have access to your Facebook profile," wrote Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a blog post.

According to Sophos, over 60,000 people clicked into the claim in a few hours.

But as Facebook noted in July, there is no way anyone can see who has viewed their profile, and no way others can create such a function.

"We're working hard to block and remove websites, Pages, and applications that claim to do this. If you see one, don't be fooled, and report it to us immediately," the company wrote on its security page.

Clicking into these links usually directs people to ad-filled pages. Others might promise to exchange a profile-viewing feature if a user can generate enough likes and linkshares.

"If you've been hit by a scam like this, remove references to it from your newsfeed, and revoke the right of rogue applications to access your profile via Account/ Privacy Settings/ Applications and Websites," Cluley suggests.

Read More

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373574,00.asp

Federal workers rage over President Obama's two-year wage freeze

federal workers in New York had a few choice words for President Obama's decision Monday to freeze their wages for the next two years.

"That's why Obama's ratings are below [ex-President George W.] Bush's, and that's hard to be unless you're Osama Bin Laden," said Rosemarie Clemmens of Manhattan.

Clemmens, who works for the Social Security Administration, said she voted for Obama but won't again. "I can't wait until I retire," the life-long government worker added.

Even the Secret Service and FBI, among other federal law enforcement agencies, are taking a hit thanks to Obama's decree.

"Federal law enforcement officers have been sacrificing for our country since the attacks on 9/11, and now we're being asked to bear the brunt of a failing economy," said Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

"This is disheartening, but it won't dilute our honor for serving our country," he said, adding that a pay freeze should be a last resort, not the first.

Signaling a distinct shift toward austerity, Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for federal workers, saving up to $5 billion in two years, and $28 billion in five.

"The hard truth is getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government," Obama said.

Obama's lower lip was distinctly swollen after taking an elbow during a Friday basketball game, but he said doctors have cleared him to get back on the court.



Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/30/2010-11-30_fed_workers_rage_over_wage_freeze.html#ixzz16lS6FiS9

Gunman Shoots Himself After Standoff

A student armed with a handgun held 23 other students and a teacher hostage for several hours on Monday at a high school in Marinette, Wis., and then shot himself after the police stormed the building, the authorities said.

All of the hostages were found to be unharmed after about five hours of being held hostage, the police said. The gunman was taken to a local hospital after shooting himself, said the local police chief, Jeff Skorik. His condition was not known Monday night.

The incident began after 3 p.m., before school let out, when a male student entered a classroom at Marinette High School carrying a handgun, the Marinette police said. He kept the class and the teacher in the room as the rest of the school emptied and evening set in.

By late Monday, scores of law enforcement officials and other state authorities from all over eastern Wisconsin had gathered near the school, which was cordoned off, and police negotiators spoke by telephone to the teacher.

The student first released five hostages around 9 p.m.; the rest were released a short time later.

Chief Skorik of the Marinette police said the armed student had no demands during the standoff and provided no sense of why he had taken people hostage. Investigators met with his parents, whom they did not name publicly, as the standoff continued, the police said.

Families of the students trapped at the school gathered in a room usually reserved for jurors at the local courthouse in Marinette, a city of 11,700 about 50 miles north of Green Bay.

Administrators from the high school, which has about 800 students, were meeting with the parents, the police said, and reviewing a class roster to sort out exactly who was still inside. Mental health counselors were also on hand.

The authorities became aware of the hostage situation after receiving a call from a school administrator. A teacher — apparently the one who was held — had turned away some students at the door of their Western Civilization class, a student’s parent told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but the students did not understand until far later that a standoff was unfolding.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/30hostage.html?src=twrhp

Scientists find way to reverse aging in mice

Scientists in Boston have made an astounding discovery, taking aging mice and turning them young again, like tiny little Benjamin Buttons.

Scientists in Boston have made an astounding discovery, taking aging mice and turning them young again, like tiny little Benjamin Buttons.

Just like the title character in the Hollywood film version of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," the mice appeared to not only stop aging but grow younger.

Molecular biologist Dr. Ronald DePinho at Harvard Medical School in Boston was able to pull off the feat by playing with "telomeres" -- the protective DNA caps on the ends of our chromosomes.

The caps, which have long been implicated in aging, prevent our chromosomes from "fraying" and the genes inside them from "unravelling."

Scientists have long known that a little bit of our telomeres erodes each time our cells divide. Previous research has shown that people with longer telomeres tend to live longer, whereas those with shorter telomeres suffer more from age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's.

A few years ago, DePinho and his research team devised a way to engineer mice so that they lacked a working copy of the gene that regulates the production of telomerase, which is an enzyme that strengthens telomeres and whose production declines over time.

Instead of dying at three years old, the genetically engineered mice died at about six months. By the time they died, they had become infertile, their coat hair had turned grey and they had developed age-related conditions such as osteoporosis.

DePinho wondered whether he could reverse the aging in the mice if they suddenly began making telomerase again.

So he took a group of engineered mice and added back the telomerase gene, but left it inactive. His team then allowed the mice to age for six months, until they were the equivalent of 80-year-old humans. They then gave the mice a drug that "switched on" the telomerase gene.

One month later, not only did the new production of telomerase stop the aging process in the mice, it appeared to actually undo the premature aging so that the mice became the physiological equivalent of young adults.

Even DePinho was surprised at how effective the experiment was.

"We expected to see a slowing or a stabilization of aging. Instead, what we found was a dramatic reversal in aging," he told CTV.

"The shrunken brains increased, new neurons were formed, the coat hair was restored to a new sheen."

DePinho notes that the treated mice went on to have a normal lifespan. They were simply healthier and biologically younger.

DePinto and his colleagues stress that the study was a "proof-of-concept" experiment, designed to show that changes to telomerase can affect aging. There are still many questions to answer before an experiment can be tried on humans.

For example, some research has shown that telomerase seems to help cancer tumours grow faster. DePinho says his team didn't observe any cancers in the mice, but then the telomerase was activated for only one month.

"This teaches us something fundamental about aging: that aged tissue -- even very aged tissue -- retains the ability to rejuvenate itself," he said.

DePinho says it's possible the method could be used to treat people with rare genetic premature aging syndromes. Whether the technique could help reverse normal aging still remains to be seen. Still, he says the findings were worth sharing and appear in the journal Nature.

"The results were so dramatic that we wanted to get them out to the research community as soon as possible so we could inspire the research community to move forward on these findings," DePinho said.


Read More

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20101129/reversing-aging-mice-101129/

Wall Street Bailout to Cost Taxpayers $25 Billion, CBO Says

The Troubled Asset Relief Program will cost taxpayers far less than initially feared, with the price tag likely to total about $25 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“It was not apparent when the TARP was created two years ago that the costs would be this low,” the nonpartisan agency said today in a report seconding administration predictions. “Because the financial system stabilized and then improved, the amount of funds used by the TARP was well below the $700 billion initially authorized and the outcomes of most transactions made through the TARP were favorable for the federal government.”

The Treasury Department had predicted in October that the $700 billion could end up costing taxpayers as little as $29 billion, less than half of what it took to clean up the 1980s savings-and-loan crisis.

Federal aid to automakers, as well as to American International Group Inc., has ended up costing less than expected, the CBO said, while banks receiving bailout funds repaid their TARP money sooner than projected. In addition, participation in a program designed to aid struggling homeowners with their mortgages has been lower than forecast. The agency had predicted in August that the TARP program, which was created in October 2008, would cost $66 billion.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/wall-street-bailout-to-cost-taxpayers-25-billion-cbo-says.html

Cook's simple recipe makes Aussies stew as England opener goes back to basics

That was some statement from Alastair Cook and some statement from England.

In each of the last three Ashes series, they have finished the first Test with a question mark hanging over them. This time, all the question marks are hanging over Australia. Both teams know it and so does the Australian public.

England owe Cook a debt. The pitch may have been flat and the bowling ordinary, but a bloke who was fretting over his technique for most of the summer has now gone out there and beaten Don Bradman's record score at the Gabba. Not a bad riposte.

I've watched Cook closely for some time and I think what he did in this game - and what he did when he saved his place at The Oval with that hundred against Pakistan last summer - was to forget his technical issues and concentrate on keeping things simple.

Seeing the ball and playing the ball does not sound like the sexiest mantra, but that is essentially what Cook did during his 235 not out. If you think too much about your technique, you can get into trouble. It's good to be self-critical, but not if it paralyses you.

It's true that Cook has made a couple of minor adjustments. He's bending the front knee more into the drive and not hanging back in expectation of a short ball. The quality of his front-foot play has improved as a result

I would add, though, he has scored his runs on a pitch that offered barely any sideways movement. His first-innings dismissal came when Peter Siddle was jagging it about, so the problem hasn't just vanished overnight. But that is what England must accept with Cook.

In tricky conditions, as we saw last summer, he might struggle. But he ticks all the other boxes: mental strength, heart, calmness, converting 50s into big scores, being a team man and a lack of fear of the Aussies. The way he played out there helped England avoid the fate of so many touring teams before them.

Fortress Gabba is usually the place other teams leave feeling deflated and ridiculed. Mentally disintegrated, I believe they call it. But England didn't implode after falling 200-odd behind on first innings and Australia cannot hide from a scoreboard reading 517 for 1.

That total has done two things. It has shown the England guys they can get runs against this Australian attack. And it has alleviated a lot of the pressure they may have felt after the third day of this game. At that point plenty of supporters on both sides would have thought: 'Here we go again. Same old England, same old Australia.' But you look at Australia's bowling and all their dropped catches and you realise that just isn't the case any more.

Ponting was right: this wasn't a typical Gabba pitch. But then it wasn't a typical Australian performance, either. And that will worry him greatly.

The toss now becomes crucial at Adelaide. Not only do the bowlers - especially the Aussies - need a bit of a rest after flogging their guts out at the Gabba, but Adelaide tends to break up a bit more on the last two days.

Brisbane stayed intact. Both sides will need to work out how they're going to get 20 wickets after taking 11 apiece in the first Test, but the greater problems are with Australia.

Xavier Doherty looks like a bit of a roller of the ball rather than an out-and- out spinner and Mitchell Johnson may be drinking in the last-chance saloon.

But I like the look of Dougie Bollinger, who's been added to the squad. He's had a good start to his Test career and he's a real effort bowler. He's quick and strong, and although he may be a bit undercooked after coming back recently from injury, he's an old-fashioned, in-your-face snarler - a bit like Merv Hughes.

England can't get too cocky after conceding 481 and 107 for 1 in Brisbane, so there are some issues for them to consider. But I wouldn't worry too much about Graeme Swann. Off-spinners tend to struggle in Australia. Muttiah Muralitharan averaged 75 in Tests here and Harbhajan Singh averages 73. Sydney apart, it's not the sort of place where an off-spinner rocks up and takes 5 for 50.

Swann's done tremendously well in the last two years, but we have to be careful we avoid a Monty Panesar scenario. We built Monty up to be the next spinning genius, when he has always been no more than a very good slow left-armer. The same applies to Swann. He shouldn't be judged on one tough game on a flat pitch. As long as he outbowls the opposition spinner and chips in on wearing pitches, he'll be doing his job. And, so far, England have done theirs.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1334270/ASHES-2010-Alastair-Cooks-simple-recipe-makes-Aussies-stew-says-Nasser-Hussain.html#ixzz16jg3iRmY

Government agencies navigate the promises and pitfalls of social media

As law enforcement, transportation agencies and other departments rush to interact with the public through Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, guidelines for using social media have been slow to follow.

When the Orange County Sheriff's Department launched its blog three years ago, the first entry hinted at the department's motivation for venturing into social media.

"The Media's Rush to Judgment," penned by then-Sheriff Michael S. Carona, who was in the midst of a corruption scandal, addressed public perceptions surrounding a police shooting and an inmate's death at a county jail.

With his blog, Carona had made an end-run around the print and electronic media that he felt had sabotaged his career, overlooked the good things his department had done and overreacted to events such as the beating death of an accused sex offender at Theo Lacy jail.

But the ex-sheriff's blog also pointed toward the pitfalls and problems in social media that have left cities and counties across California scrambling.

Fearing liability from posted comments, Redondo Beach put the city's Facebook page on hold in August. Yolo County in Northern California adopted a social media policy in April, and San Francisco abandoned its effort to archive posts on its Facebook page.

"Everybody sees the benefit and there's an early rush and then you begin seeing the problems that come up," said Redondo Beach City Atty. Michael Webb. "Law by its very nature progresses much slower than technology … we need to let the law catch up with the technology."

In a National Assn. of Counties survey of member counties, 41% said they used Twitter and 36% said they had a Facebook page. Yet almost 80% said they had no social media policies. But that may be changing.

In Orange County, where Carona's reign ended with an indictment and the jail beating resulted in a damning grand jury report, officials have adopted a social media policy that discourages hyperlinking, warns against attacking specific groups and asks each department to name a social media coordinator.

The policy, one of the few adopted by a county in California, also directs each department to weigh the use of social media and says it should be a "risk-based decision" that takes into account goals, legal perils, technical capabilities and potential benefits.

What the policy doesn't do is regulate content or distinguish between opinion and fact.

Just a few years ago, municipalities were rushing to get into social media — the talk at conferences was often about which city had started tweeting or joined Facebook. But now, some are beginning to take a more measured look.

In February, California unveiled a Social Media Standard directing that only authorized state employees can use departments' official accounts and that some features, such as instant messaging, should be disabled.

When Orange County began looking into a policy last year, the chief executive's technology office asked other California counties whether they had policies. The overwhelming response was: " 'We don't, but we'd like to see yours when you're finished,' " said Orange County spokesman Howard Sutter.

Just as e-mails can be subject to California's Public Records Act, Facebook status updates, tweets and blog posts can be too, as Orange County's policy repeatedly reminds users.

Webb, Redondo Beach's city attorney, pointed to how San Francisco struggled with this issue — the county began archiving all Facebook posts and comments before finding it prohibitively expensive.

At a League of California Cities conference earlier this year, two presentations illustrated the conflict: one was on the benefits of Facebook, and the other was a blunt reminder that the site falls under the Public Records Act.

Webb had expected that during the conference the league might issue a request to Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown for direction on using social media. That didn't happen, he said, and now cities and counties may have to figure things out on their own.

Like other public information officers around the state, Ted Nguyen of the Orange County Transportation Authority uses Twitter to send out practical, ready-to-use information — in his case, details on bus and Metrolink delays, road detours and freeway construction projects.

Nguyen also spends some of his time giving out information about social media. Several times a day, he is contacted by government agencies from across the country with questions like: Do you need permission to tweet someone's photo?

"I think there's obviously a fear factor, they don't necessarily want to be the first one out the gate," he said. "There is this effort to help each other."

Read More

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-social-media-20101129,0,6793833.story

Iran May Have Missiles from North Korea, Cables Posted by WikiLeaks Show

Iran obtained 19 advanced missiles from North Korea, potentially giving the Islamic nation the capability of attacking Moscow and cities in Western Europe, according to embassy cables posted by WikiLeaks.org and provided to the New York Times.

U.S. officials denounced the release, coming on the eve of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s departure for a security conference in the Persian Gulf, as jeopardizing U.S. ties with foreign governments and endangering individuals. WikiLeaks began posting the cables yesterday.

The 19 North Korean BM-25 missiles, based on a Russian design known as the R-27, might give Iran the “building blocks” for producing long-range missiles, according to a Feb. 24 cable posted on WikiLeaks. The cable didn’t provide specific evidence, according to the Times, which agreed not to publish the document at the Obama administration’s request.

“North Korea and Iran have had a decades-long missile relationship and also most likely a nuclear relationship,” said Bruce Klingner, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington and former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Korea branch. “The leaking of the classified documents provides a greater sense of confidence” for analysis conducted previously by outside experts and most recently illustrated in photos from a North Korean parade, he said.

Pressured the U.S.

Diplomatic cables posted by the Guardian, which also received advance copies from WikiLeaks, indicate as far back as early 2008 Saudi Arabia and other Arab governments pressed the U.S. for attacks on Iran to stop it getting a nuclear bomb, even as some expressed concern that a military strike might destabilize the region.

The Obama administration has won stiffer United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran and sealed arms agreements such as a $60 billion deal with Saudi Arabia over the next 10 years.

The State Department declined to confirm information in what WikiLeaks says is more than 250,000 documents, covering a period from December 1966 through February 2010.

“I can’t provide veracity of anything WikiLeaks has released to the media,” Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman, said in an interview, adding the agency’s policy is to refrain from commenting on specific leaked materials.

About 9,000 documents were listed as containing information too sensitive to be shared with a foreign government, the New York Times said. None was listed as “top-secret,” according to the Times.

Similar Tone

Along with the Guardian of the U.K., France’s Le Monde, Spain’s El Pais and Der Spiegel of Germany obtained the WikiLeaks documents.

On the threat from Iran, a cable posted by the Guardian quoted Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., as citing Saudi King Abdullah’s “frequent exhortations to attack Iran and put an end” to the Iranian nuclear weapons program. The exchange took place in an April 20, 2008 meeting between al- Jubeir, then-U.S. Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Central Command commander General David Petraeus, the Guardian said.

A similar tone was struck by King Hamad of Bahrain in a Nov. 4, 2009 conversation with Petraeus.

King Hamad “pointed to Iran as the source of much trouble” in the region and “he argued forcefully to take action to terminate their nuclear program by whatever means necessary,” according to a classified cable.

Hamad said “the danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it,” according to the cable cited by the Guardian.

Increased Monitoring

Bahrain is home to the U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters. The cable also disclosed that the king agreed to a NATO request to base Awacs air surveillance aircraft in his nation as part of increased monitoring of Iran.

Israeli military officials 14 days later in a Nov. 18, 2009 meeting with U.S. State and Defense Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro, said 2010 would be a “critical year” for Iran’s nuclear program and Israel’s capability to attack, according to a cable posted by the Guardian.

“If the Iranians continue to protect and harden their nuclear sites, it will be more difficult to target and damage them,” the cable said, summarizing Israel’s concerns.

The cable said both sides discussed the need to avoid publicity for an “upcoming delivery” of GBU-28 bunker-buster bombs to Israel “to avoid any allegations that the U.S. is helping prepare for a strike against Iran.”

Carrying Cash

The leaked documents include details about governments and officials, including an episode last year in which Afghanistan’s then-vice president, Ahmed Zia Massoud, was found carrying $52 million in cash while visiting the United Arab Emirates. Massoud denied taking any money out of Afghanistan, according to the Times.

According to another cable, a Chinese contact told the U.S. embassy in Beijing in January that China’s Politburo directed an “intrusion” into Google Inc.’s local computer networks. The Google hacking was “part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government,” the New York Times said in its account of the WikiLeaks cables.

In July 2009, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, then the defense supreme commander for the United Arab Emirates, declared that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “is Hitler,” the New York Times reported, citing the documents.

Republicans, Cables

The Obama administration said in a statement yesterday that embassy reporting to Washington “is candid and often incomplete information,” not an expression of policy.

“Nevertheless, these cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and opposition leaders,” according to the statement from the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs.

Republicans also condemned the release of the cables, with Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina stating on “Fox News Sunday” that “the people at WikiLeaks could have blood on their hands.”

WikiLeaks, a nonprofit group that posts information the government wants to keep confidential, previously released 400,000 documents in October related to the Iraq war and about 75,000 in July on the Afghan conflict.

An Army intelligence analyst named Bradley Manning was arrested in June at age 22 and charged with illegally releasing classified information. He had said in an online chat in May that the documents he downloaded included “260,000 State Department cables from embassies and consulates all over the world,” the New York Times reported.

The Pentagon said yesterday it will take action to prevent future reoccurrences, such as monitoring user behavior in a way similar to steps taken by credit-card companies to detect fraud. The military will also conduct security oversight inspections at forward bases and remove the ability of classified computers to download information onto removable disks.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-29/iran-may-have-missiles-from-north-korea-cables-posted-by-wikileaks-show.html

UK Blamed For Fake Taliban Commander

President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff has said British authorities brought a fake Taliban commander into sensitive meetings with the Afghan authorities.

The British embassy refused to confirm or deny the remarks, made in an interview with the Washington Post.

A man described as Mullah Mansour, a senior Taliban commander, was reportedly taken to Kabul for a meeting with President Karzai himself.

Now it is claimed he was really a Pakistani shopkeeper from Quetta.

The impersonator is said to have disappeared after hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid to him for his co-operation in the process of Taliban reconciliation.

President Karzai's office is blaming the British authorities for this debacle - telling the Washington Post the man was brought to the meeting by British diplomats.

A spokesman for the British embassy in Kabul said they did not comment on operational matters.

The Afghan government's meetings with the Taliban - fake or otherwise - have been described as contacts rather than negotiations.

If there was indeed British involvement, the question is whether this was logistical support or something more active.

"If we are desperate to talk to the Taliban, the Taliban will think, 'we are winning'," said one Western official.

Full negotiations to end this conflict still seem a long way off - and the case of the Taliban impostor will not have helped matters.

Read More

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11845217

India marks 2 years since Mumbai terror attack

India marked the second anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack Friday with somber ceremonies and a renewed promise to seek justice for the 166 people slain in an assault that has set back peace efforts with archrival Pakistan.

The 60-hour siege by 10 Pakistani militants, which has been called India's 9/11, paralyzed the financial capital and deeply wounded the national psyche.

The gunmen attacked ordinary commuters in a train station, targeted the rich and famous at luxury hotels, killed tourists at a popular cafe, overwhelmed the local police force and took over a Jewish center.

In a message of defiance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the strength of the Indian people will conquer those threatening their way of life.

"We will never succumb to the designs of our enemies," he said. "We pledge to redouble our efforts to bring the perpetrators of this crime against humanity to justice."

The attack froze peace efforts between India and Pakistan to resolve their six-decade-old conflict. Though the nuclear-armed neighbors have haltingly renewed ties, India has refused to resume full-fledged peace talks until Pakistan prosecutes those responsible for the attack and cracks down on anti-India militant groups.

The only gunman to survive the assault, Ajmal Kasab, has been sentenced to death in India, but none of the seven alleged masterminds arrested in Pakistan has been put on trial. India repeated its demand that they be punished.

"Once again I call upon Pakistan to dismantle the terror machine operating with impunity in territories under its control and to bring all the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack to speedy justice," Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said in a statement.

Officers flanked by special anti-terror vehicles marched through Mumbai on Friday morning from the Oberoi Trident Hotel, one of the attack sites.

Hundreds of students held a giant banner that read "The Great Wall of Mumbai," intending to show how the city remained defiant in the face of the attack.

Government ministers laid wreaths in a commemoration ceremony, while the father of a paramilitary officer slain in the attacks embarked on a bike ride from Bangalore to Mumbai to join a peace march. Families of the victims planned a candlelight vigil Friday evening.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama stayed in one of the targeted sites, the Taj Mahal Hotel, and paid tribute to the attack victims in a speech that pledged solidarity with India against terror.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jXPK8FO4UCtXKu0IG-Na34dyJWYQ?docId=4ca6829bc3bc485e9f7c5fa9e2126cc8

Morgan Tsvangirai takes Robert Mugabe to Zimbabwe court

Morgan Tsvangirai (L) and Robert Mugabe (C) entered a power-sharing deal in 2009

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has begun legal action against President Robert Mugabe over the appointment of regional governors.

Mr Tsvangirai says he should have been consulted over the appointments under the power-sharing deal which saw him become prime minister.

Mr Mugabe's allies have dismissed the claims.

The case is the latest sign of worsening relations between the long-time rivals.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, the mediator of the power-sharing deal, is due in Harare later to try to iron out the pair's differences.

"In my humble view, submission and plea, all of this is plain, clear and simple. Wherever the Constitution obliges the President to act in consultation with me as Prime Minister, he must first secure my agreement," Mr Tsvangirai said in court papers, reports the AFP news agency.

Last month Mr Mugabe said that elections should be held in 2011 and that the coalition deal should not be renewed when it expires in February.

Read More

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11844981

Dancing With The Stars watched by 24m viewers

The final of US show Dancing With The Stars attracted an average audience of 24 million people, network ABC said.

The episode, in which Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey was crowned the winner, attracted the show's biggest audience in three years, ABC said.

The network said numbers grew to 26.4 million in the last 30 minutes as the winners were revealed.

Disney Channel star Kyle Massey, 19, was voted runner-up with Bristol Palin, 20, taking 3rd place.

Producers said the public voted in record numbers for the three finalists, briefly crashing the show's website.

Grey, 50, told Good Morning America she had resisted pressure to recreate the iconic dance she performed with co-star Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing.

They danced in the 1987 film to Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes' Oscar-winning duet (I've Had) The Time of My Life.

"I knew everybody wanted us to do something with The Time of My Life - there was a lot of pressure for that.

"But I knew that was a dance for Patrick and me, and I wanted to leave it as such."

Swayze died of pancreatic cancer in September 2009 at the age of 57.

Read More

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11838129

Secondhand smoke kills 600,000 a year worldwide

Secondhand smoke sickens millions and kills more than 600,000 people worldwide each year, including more than 165,000 children under 5, according to the first report to estimate the worldwide burden of disease and death from tobacco.

The World Health Organization's report on 192 countries appeared in The Lancet on Thursday and found more than half of the deaths are from heart disease, followed by deaths from cancer, lung infections, asthma and other ailments.

More than two-thirds of the children's deaths are in Africa and Asia, where they have less access to important public health services, such as vaccines, and less advanced medical care, the report says.

"These (statistics) are sad data," the American Cancer Society's Tom Glynn says.

Tobacco kills a total of 5.7 million people worldwide each year, including 5.1 million people who die from their own smoking, the report says. Smoking is the world's leading cause of preventable death, according to the WHO.

Growing concern about secondhand smoke has led more than 40 countries to enact some kind of smoking ban, although many of these laws are limited, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.

In the USA, 35 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands have smoke-free laws, protecting 79% of the population.

According to the new report, children are particularly vulnerable. About 40% are exposed to secondhand smoke, along with one-third of adults. Kids exposed to secondhand smoke are at higher risk of a variety of illnesses, such as asthma, pneumonia, ear infections and sudden infant death syndrome.

Almost half of all deaths from secondhand smoke are in adult women, while 28% are in children.

"The combination of infectious diseases and tobacco seems to be a deadly combination for children," the report says.

Because researchers used conservative estimates, the report may underestimate the number of secondhand smoke-related deaths, says Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco.

Glynn says he does see "glimmers of hope" in the report. Smoking bans protect only 7% of the world's population, suggesting lawmakers could save many lives by passing smoking bans, he says.

The bans can have dramatic benefits, the report says. Heart attack rates drop 10% to 20% in the first year after the bans are enacted.

Studies show smoke-free laws encourage smokers to quit and to make their homes smoke-free, Glynn says.

"There is virtually no parent who does not care deeply about protecting their children from harm," he says. "They will do the right thing if made aware."

Read More

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/2010-11-26-smoke26_st_N.htm