Jamaica's opposition wins elections in a landslide

Jamaica's former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller shows her inked finger after casting her ballot in parliamentary elections in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday Dec. 29, 2011. Jamaica is holding 63 parliamentary races where current Prime Minister Andrew Holness' Jamaica Labour Party is in a tight race against the People's National Party, headed by Simpson Miller, to win control of the government for the next five years. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Jamaica's former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller shows her inked finger after casting her ballot in parliamentary elections in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday Dec. 29, 2011. Jamaica is holding 63 parliamentary races where current Prime Minister Andrew Holness' Jamaica Labour Party is in a tight race against the People's National Party, headed by Simpson Miller, to win control of the government for the next five years. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness shows his inked finger after casting a ballot in parliamentary elections in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday Dec. 29, 2011. Jamaica is holding 63 parliamentary races where Holness' Jamaica Labour Party is in a tight race against the People's National Party, headed by former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, to win control of the government for the next five years. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Electoral workers review voter lists outside a polling station during parliamentary elections in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday Dec. 29, 2011. Jamaica is holding 63 parliamentary races where Prime Minister Andrew Holness' Jamaica Labour Party is in a tight race against the People's National Party, headed by former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, to win control of the government for the next five years. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Jamaica's former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller arrives to a polling station to vote in parliamentary elections in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday Dec. 29, 2011. Jamaica is holding 63 parliamentary races where current Prime Minister Andrew Holness' Jamaica Labour Party is in a tight race against the People's National Party, headed by Simpson Miller, to win control of the government for the next five years. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Jamaica's former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, left, helps a woman down the stairs as they arrive to a polling station during parliamentary elections in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday Dec. 29, 2011. Jamaica is holding 63 parliamentary races where current Prime Minister Andrew Holness' Jamaica Labour Party is in a tight race against the People's National Party, headed by Simpson Miller, to win control of the government for the next five years. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) ? On Jamaica's rutted streets, the complaints have been chronic ? home ownership is out of reach for most wage earners, the cost of electricity has skyrocketed, water service regularly fizzles out and decent jobs are scarce.

Fed up with chronic hard times, voters in this debt-wracked Caribbean nation on Thursday threw out the ruling party and delivered a landslide triumph to the opposition People's National Party, or PNP, whose campaign energetically tapped voter disillusionment especially among the numerous struggling poor.

The win marks a remarkable political comeback for former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who was Jamaica's first female leader during her year-and-a-half-long first stint in office that ended in 2007. The 66-year-old known affectionately as "Sista P" reached out to Jamaicans as a champion of the poor with a popular touch.

"She cares about the ghetto people," said Trishette Bond, a twenty-something resident of gritty Trench Town who wore an orange shirt and a bright orange wig, the color of Simpson Miller's slightly center-left party, which led the island for 18 years before narrowly losing 2007 elections.

As word of her election win emerged Thursday night, PNP supporters shimmied and shouted in the capital, Kingston, and motorists honked horns in celebration as they tore down the streets.

"I am humbled as I stand before you and I wish to thank the Jamaican people for their love, for their support and for giving the People's National Party and the leader of the party her own mandate," she said, after receiving hugs from numerous candidates, some crying.

Simpson Miller defeated Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who at 39 is Jamaica's youngest leader and leads the center-right Jamaica Labor Party.

Holness said the defeat will prompt a time of introspection and reflection for party leaders to examine what went wrong.

"I wish the new government well. We hope for the benefit of the country that they will do a good job," said Holness, who warned during the campaign that an opposition win would scare away foreign investment and dash hopes of economic progress.

While official results have not been released, elections director Orrette Fisher told The Associated Press that preliminary results showed Simpson Miller heading to victory.

"Based on the margins, it appears safe to say" that Simpson Miller's party won, Fisher said shortly after Jamaican newspapers and broadcasters called the election for the PNP. He expected his office to release the official count and breakdown of parliamentary seats on Saturday.

News station TVJ said Simpson Miller's People's National Party won 41 seats in parliament and Holness's Jamaica Labor Party 22.

Simpson Miller is beloved by her supporters for her folksy, plainspoken style. She became Jamaica's first female prime minister in March 2006 after she was picked by party delegates when P.J. Patterson retired as leader. But she was tossed out of office a year later in a narrow election defeat.

This time around, she has pledged to lift debt-wracked Jamaica out of poverty, secure foreign investment, and create jobs. Specifics are few, however.

Her party will face deep economic problems in this island of 2.8 million people, with a punishing debt of roughly $18.6 billion, or 130 per cent of gross domestic product. That's a rate about 10 percentage points higher than debt-troubled Italy's.

Veteran opposition lawmaker Omar Davies said one of the first things the People's National Party will do is get "a true assessment of the state of the economy," a dig at Holness' party which was accused of rarely providing citizens with a clear picture of the island's dire fiscal straits.

Holness, who became prime minister two months ago after Bruce Golding, Jamaica's leader since 2007, abruptly stepped down in October amid anemic public backing, won his parliamentary seat with 54 percent of the vote.

Simpson Miller has been a stalwart of the People's National Party since the 1970s. She was first elected to Parliament in 1976 and became a Cabinet member in 1989. Partisans have long admired Simpson Miller as a Jamaican who was born in rural poverty and grew up in a Kingston ghetto, not far from the crumbling concrete jungle made famous by Bob Marley.

During her brief tenure as prime minister, her support waned amid complaints she responded poorly to Hurricane Dean and was evasive about a scandal regarding a Dutch oil trading firm's $460,000 payment to her political party leading up to 2007 elections.

The two top candidates' different styles were clear while they cast their votes.

Holness is largely seen as unexciting, but bright and pragmatic. He whisked into the voting center in the middle class area of Mona, barely interacting with voters. After being heckled by an opposition partisan, he said he was "very confident" of a Labor victory and departed after taking three questions from reporters.

By contrast, Simpson Miller hugged and chatted with supporters at a school in Whitfield Town and told election workers to help struggling elderly voters.

Her party, which experimented with democratic socialism in the 1970s, is still perceived as more focused on social programs than the slightly more conservative Labor. There are no longer stark ideological differences between the two clan-like factions that have dominated Jamaican politics since the onetime British colony began self-rule in 1944. Jamaica became independent within the British Commonwealth in 1962.

___

Associated Press Writer Howard Campbell in Kingston contributed to this report.

___

David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-30-CB-Jamaica-Elections/id-d8e662300210435184ea42e98bcf778c

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Hugh Hefner, Playboy ready for their next chapters (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? On the second floor of the Playboy Mansion, beyond the seemingly endless hallway lined with photos of the famous folks who have visited the legendary party playground, is a narrow staircase that leads to a small loft.

"LOCK DOOR," signed "Hef," reads a handmade note tacked to the loft's tiny entrance.

"Excuse me if I sit?" asks Hugh Hefner, ever the gentleman as he leads a reporter into the cramped room that has only one chair. "I've got a bad hip."

Here in this modest space is where Hefner keeps a detailed record of his life that spans more than 2,500 volumes and counting ? a Guinness world record for a personal scrapbook collection.

Every Saturday, the 85-year-old founder of Playboy magazine spends a few hours scrapbooking ? a hobby he began in 1943 with cartoons he drew of himself and his high-school classmates.

Those doodles were "probably just a way of creating a world of my own to share with my friends," Hefner says, seated amid the archives of his life in yes, his trademark silk pajamas and bathrobe. "And in retrospect, in thinking about it, it's not a whole lot different than creating the magazine."

As the new year begins and Playboy approaches its 60th birthday, Hefner intends to continue working on the magazine, his scrapbooks and a Hollywood movie about his life. "That's alive again," he says of the biopic idea that's been bandied about for decades.

Though 2011 wasn't entirely kind to the man or the brand ? Hefner's 24-year-old fianc?e called off their engagement days before their June wedding and NBC's "The Playboy Club" was the first fall TV casualty, canceled after just three episodes ? Hefner is optimistic about what's next, personally and professionally.

"Retirement is unthinkable to me," he says. "The future is bright and very exciting and I'm looking forward to playing a part in it."

Hef ? his preferred nickname since his teens_ has been a media force since he published the first issue of Playboy in 1953 and he remains the figurehead of the empire he created. Although Playboy Enterprises named Scott Flanders its chief executive in 2009, Hefner continues to serve as editor-in-chief of the magazine, choosing the cover models and centerfolds and editing the cartoons, letters and party jokes.

Even Hefner is at a loss to explain the enduring appeal of Playboy, which has spawned and outlasted so many imitators, but he speculates that it "has to do with the quality of the publication and the fact that we were saying things that were important then and now."

The current issue, which features the much-touted nude pictorial of Lindsay Lohan, includes articles about Occupy Wall Street and Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, along with an excerpt from Elmore Leonard's latest novel and, of course, those photo spreads.

It's impossible to separate Hefner from the notion of busty young beauties and the whole clothing-optional, life's-a-party, I-work-in-pajamas thing. But such an image belies a thoughtful man who deeply values his contributions to "the social-sexual changes of my time," yet whose orderly persona seems tame compared to the celebrities of today's tabloid scene.

A longtime supporter of the First Amendment, Hefner was an early advocate of civil rights and reproductive rights, and he's championed personal liberties in print.

"It's very clear that Playboy was instrumental in the sexual revolution," he says. "We were making a case for the irrational sexual values that we had back then, and making a case for the sexual revolution back in the years immediately before it became a reality, and doing it in a forum that was very influential."

In the 1960s, he says, everybody read Playboy. The magazine was at its peak, selling nearly seven million copies a month, and its cutting-edge content of new writers and nude photos ? and Hefner's own editorials against puritanical repression ? appealed to a college-age audience hungry for change.

Hefner was opening the Playboy Club in London in 1966 when he realized the sexual revolution was well under way.

"The miniskirt had just arrived, sex was in the air and gaming, gambling had just become legal in the clubs," he recalls. "I had been writing the Playboy Philosophy for a couple years, and I felt that week in London that I was looking at the future."

That's when Hefner took his practice of the Playboy lifestyle to a new level. He opened more and more Playboy clubs, launched a TV show in Los Angeles and bought a private jet, dubbed the Big Bunny, to shuttle him back and forth from Playboy's headquarters in Chicago to the West Coast. He bought five and a half acres in the posh Holmby Hills neighborhood next to Beverly Hills and, as he puts it, "jumped into the swimming pool."

He was slowed by a stroke in 1985 as well as the conservative values that dominated during the Reagan era. Hefner married his 1989 Playmate of the Year, Kimberly Conrad, in July of that year. Son Marston was born a year later and Cooper was born in 1991. Hefner and Conrad separated in 1998 but remained married until their sons turned 18. They divorced in 2010.

Cooper Hefner is now a 20-year-old junior studying film and history at Chapman University in suburban Orange, Calif., and he says he hopes to be part of an effort to restore Playboy's appeal to young people.

"I definitely think there is some rebranding that needs to be done," Cooper Hefner says on a tour of the "game house," a little cottage a short walk from the mansion that's home to a pool table and an array of arcade games. "I personally don't think, with my generation and people of my age, the brand is as cool as it was in the `60s and `70s."

Indeed, Playboy's print circulation is now down to 1.5 million and its readership skews older than in its heyday.

Although not a major moneymaker, Hugh Hefner insists the magazine remains "the heart and soul of the company."

Still, the real future of Playboy ? which Hefner took private in 2011 after 40 years of public ownership ? is in brand licensing for merchandise and clubs, says CEO Flanders, noting that the one billion dollars-plus the licensing generates annually dwarfs the company's media profits.

Cooper Hefner agrees updated Playboy Clubs can play a big part in wooing a more youthful following, but he believes cinema projects such as Playboy's new short-film contest and his father's big-screen biopic can also help lure a younger demographic.

The elder Hefner has always loved the movies, calling them "my other family." Movies helped solidify his ideas about the painful result of sexual repression. What he saw on screen echoed the "hurtful and hypocritical side" of puritanical values that he experienced in his own life.

"I saw the censorship in the movies when the production code came in in 1934 when I was still a kid, and saw the fact that in movies, even sophisticated couples, like in `The Thin Man,' Nick and Nora Charles slept in twin beds," Hefner says. "In other words, married people in movies slept in twin beds, and I related that as a kid to the fact that I didn't get a lot of hugs and kisses in my home."

Hefner still screens movies at the mansion three times a week: Classics on Fridays and Saturdays and new films on Sundays. Every year on his April 9 birthday, he runs his favorite film, "Casablanca," and guests dress in the fashions of the 1940s.

The original playboy isn't bashful about wanting to see his own colorful life on the big screen. Previous attempts at screenplays of his story read "as if they were doing a piece on someone who's already gone," Hefner says, offering a rare acknowledgement of his own mortality. "But you've got the guy here. There isn't a great mystery. I can point where the bodies are and how to do it."

Besides working on a new script for the biopic, Hefner is working on new relationships with 25-year-old Playboy models Shera Bechard and Anna Berglund. He describes himself as "essentially a very romantic person."

"I don't know that I would be best served at married (life)," he says. "But I do know that I need an ongoing romantic relationship."

He also needs to keep working on Playboy, conceding that perhaps the business he built has become the soul mate he's sought throughout his life.

"It most certainly is the other half of who I am, without question, and it does fulfill me in ways that most work wouldn't for other people," he says.

It has provided him with the kind of larger-than-life existence reflected in the photos that fill the hallway near his scrapbooking room.

"It's kind of like in `Casablanca,' Rick's Caf?. Everybody comes to Rick's. Well everybody comes to Hef's," he says, passing by the pictures. "You'll find them from Mick Jagger to Doris Day to Groucho Marx, young and old."

Hefner says he was always a dreamer, but his life is beyond anything he ever imagined.

"Most people's lives, if they are successful, have a peak and then it's a bell-shaped curve, or they have wonderful years and then a slow dissipation. The opposite has been the case here," Hefner notes almost shyly. "I'm the luckiest guy, from my perspective, the luckiest guy on the planet."

"If you can do that and make some real difference in the world, it's too sweet."

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen can be reached at www.twitter.com/APSandy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111230/ap_en_ce/us_hugh_hefner

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TheSmokingManX: Amare Stoudemire: the NBA's top 3-point shooter!

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Amare Stoudemire: the NBA's top 3-point shooter! Il y a environ 4 heures via TweetDeck

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Video: Santelli's Bond Wrap-Up

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nanawireko: #Nigeria: Science and Tech. Ministry to Create Two Million Jobs in 2012 http://t.co/heiraIms #Africa

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US finalizes deal to sell F-15s to Saudi Arabia

HONOLULU?? The sale of $30 billion worth of F-15SA fighter jets to Saudi Arabia has been finalized, boosting the military strength of a key U.S. ally in the Middle East to help counter Iran, the Obama administration announced Thursday.

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Under the agreement, the U.S. will send Saudi Arabia 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more. Production of the aircraft, which will be manufactured by Boeing Co., will support 50,000 jobs and have a $3.5 billion annual economic impact in the U.S., the White House said.

The sale is part of a larger U.S. effort to realign its defense policies in the Persian Gulf to keep Iran in check. The announcement came as U.S. officials weighed a fresh threat from Tehran. Tehran warned this week it could disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Persian Gulf oil transport route, if Washington levies new sanctions targeting Iran's crude exports.

The fighter jet sale is part of a larger 10-year, $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that also includes helicopters, a broad array of missiles, bombs and delivery systems, as well as radar warning systems and night-vision goggles. Congress gave the deal the go-ahead about a year ago.

The plan initially raised concerns from pro-Israeli lawmakers, but U.S. officials reassured Congress that Israel's military edge would not be undercut by the sale. Additionally, there is now broad agreement among Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the West that Iran poses a significant and unpredictable threat.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are bitter regional rivals. Tensions between them were further stoked earlier this year after the U.S. accused Iran of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in Washington earlier this year.

Saudi Arabia is already the most militarily advanced of the Arab Gulf states, one of the richest countries in the world, and central to American policy in the Middle East. It is also vital to U.S. energy security, with Saudi Arabia ranking as the third-largest source of U.S. oil imports.

The White House announced the agreement with Saudi Arabia from Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is vacationing.

___

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45816109/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Community Food and Toy Drive says thank you | Letters

On behalf of all of us that organize and oversee this project, I want to thank everyone that makes this event possible. Once again this year we have delivered food and toys to 130 families and provided many truckloads of toys to other local programs to help those in need in the area.

We would like to thank these groups for the financial support they provide: South King Firefighters Foundation, Kiwanis Club of Greater Federal Way, Scoreboard Pub, Kiwanis Club of Federal Way, Federal Way Lions, H-Mart, Wal-Mart, Winco Food, Poverty Bay Coffee, Red Robin Restaurant, Decatur High School students, Longview Fiber, Des Moines Elementary, Federal Way Advancing Leadership and all of the individuals that donate to this great program.

We also want to thank South King Fire and Rescue for providing space to host this event. The Key Clubs at Federal Way and Thomas Jefferson high schools provide a lot of young labor to get the work done. The Kiwanis and Lions club members have been the backbone of our volunteer program for many years. Thanks to all of the South King firefighters that take in all the donations and help get them all to a central location. Thanks to all of the public school counselors that help us find these families in need, along with many small groups that help get all of the work done.

We want to thank the thousands of citizens that have dropped off toys at our local fire stations. Because of the donations you provide, we are also able to help other local programs and families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Finally, I want to thank Donna Conner, Ed Coutts and Roger Hershey for all of the work they not only have done this year, but the many years before this.

This is a great program that keeps improving every year. I look forward to working with all of you again next year.

Captain Kevin Crossen, South King Fire and Rescue

?

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N-Control dismisses marketing consultant, discounts PS3 Avenger pre-orders

Keeping up with your gamer gossip? Then you're probably up to snuff on the recent Ocean Marketing / Penny-Arcade spat. We held our tongues as the drama unfolded -- no easy task, considering Engadget's name was dragged into the affair -- but now it seems like the internet soap-opera is reaching its conclusion.

Not the gossiping type? Here's a quick recap: When N-Control's latest Avenger add-on missed its November 8th street date, customers with pre-orders were left wanting. Some reached out for answers, hoping they could still get their PS3 Avenger before Christmas. All they got in reply, though, were some *ahem* choice words from N-Control's third party marketing contractor, Paul Christoforo -- a man who gained instant notoriety when his emails caught the attention of Penny-Arcade's Mike Krahulik. Krahulik took exception to Christoforo's insults, threatening tone and name-drop posturing (that's where we came in) and responded by publishing the marketing mishap on his comic's website.

Suffice to say, it hasn't ended well for Paul Christoforo -- N-Control has released a statement saying that he and his marketing operation have been "categorically dismissed," stressing that Christoforo owns no stake whatsoever in N-Control. After ejecting the elephant from the room, N-Control went on to announce that all PS3 Avenger pre-orders would be given a $10 discount, and penned in a new ship date for January 15th. "I created the Avenger to make people happy," said inventor and company founder Dave Kotkin, who originally designed the controller for a student who had a physical disability, "I deeply regret that so many people have any negative feelings toward it as a result of what has happened." N-Control seems bent on moving on -- which is fine by us, so long as they keep their customers better informed. After all, it's not every day that such an awkward-looking gadget blows us out of the water. Read on for N-Control's full and apologetic press release.

Update: To clarify, Engadget's relationship with Mr. Christoforo was limited to a few emails and PR requests regarding his clients.

Continue reading N-Control dismisses marketing consultant, discounts PS3 Avenger pre-orders

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Chinese Characters for grandfather -- learning Chinese

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Syrian troops kill protesters as monitors visit

BEIRUT?? Arab League monitors gathered accounts about the Syrian government's crackdown on dissent in the central city of Homs Wednesday as fresh violence flared just dozens of miles away. Activists said troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, killing at least six.

Though President Bashar Assad's regime has made concessions to the observers, including the release of nearly 800 prisoners, the military was pressing ahead with a campaign to put down mostly peaceful protests.

In the two days since the Arab monitors arrived, activists said troops have killed at least 39 people, including the six shot in the central city of Hama on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the monitors are expected to visit Hama, Idlib and Daraa ? all centers of the uprising.

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The continued bloodshed ? and comments by an Arab League official praising Syria's cooperation ? have fueled concerns by the Syrian opposition that the Arab mission is a farce and a distraction from the ongoing killings.

Arab League: 'Nothing frightening' in Syria hotspot

The opposition suspects Assad is only trying to buy time and forestall more international sanctions and condemnation.

"This mission has absolutely no mandate, no authority, no teeth," said Ausama Monajed, a member of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group. "The regime does not feel obliged to even bring down the number of casualties a day."

The 60 monitors ? the first Syria has allowed in during the nine-month uprising ? are supposed to be ensuring the regime is complying with terms of a plan to end a crackdown the U.N. says has killed more than 5,000 people since March.

The plan, which Syria agreed to on Dec. 19, demands that the regime remove its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with the opposition and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. It also calls for the release of all political prisoners.

On Wednesday, the government released 755 prisoners following a report by Human Rights Watch accusing authorities of hiding hundreds of detainees from the monitors. It was the second concession in two days.

The army on Monday pulled some of its troops back from the central city of Homs after bombarding it for days and killing scores of people. Monitors who were allowed into the city were met by tens of thousands of protesters who called for Assad's execution.

Images obtained by The Associated Press from the city in the days leading up to the monitors' visit show army defectors inside a bombed-out building, firing machine guns through gaping holes in a wall.

In another, a huge crowd fills the street for a nighttime rally behind a giant banner of the uprising's revolutionary flag. A row of women wear the flags and a large sign overhead reads: "All the doors are closed except your door, God."

There are also photos of wounded civilians lying on a floor in pools of blood, and being treated with crude medical equipment. Another shows an alleyway with blood smeared on a wall and pooled on the ground.

At a Dec. 21 protest, a banner reads: "To the Arab League: Your initiative cannot protect us from death." Young girls with headbands that read "Leave!" and sashes calling for the "execution of Bashar" protest under banners with "Freedom and Dignity."

The images show the intensity of the opposition against Assad's regime, which brought on the offensive against Homs that began on Friday and lasted until monitors arrived Tuesday to start their one-month mission with a visit to the city.

Several from the team of 12 stayed in Homs overnight and they continued to work there Wednesday. There was no word on whether other teams went to different cities.

According to officials and activists, the monitors went to several districts of Homs, including trouble spots in Baba Amr, Bab Sbaa and Inshaat.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45808426/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Oh, Oh, Obama! (Powerlineblog)

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Aide to top Mexican drug boss Guzman captured (Reuters)

MEXICO CITY, Dec 26 (Reuters) ? Mexico landed its third blow against the country's most wanted drug trafficker in as many months after capturing a suspected lieutenant of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, boss of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

On Monday, masked Mexican soldiers presented Felipe Cabrera, known as "el Inge," to the media following his capture in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa, the northwestern Pacific state after which the drug cartel is named.

Cabrera, whose nickname is an abbreviation of the Spanish word for engineer, was the second suspected Guzman lieutenant to be seized there in the past two months.

"These are blows to the (Sinaloa) organization, but the structure for drug trafficking and money laundering is still intact," Alberto Islas, a security expert at consultancy Risk Evaluation, said after Cabrera's media parade in Mexico City.

In what may have been another bitter pill for Guzman, the government said later that the navy had seized 21 tonnes of monomethylamine - a compound used to make methamphetamines - in the Pacific port of Manzanillo, traditionally his turf.

The shipment may have been intended for Guzman given that several others belonging to him had been seized there, one official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Islas said the haul, which was intercepted on its way from Peru to Guatemala - where the Sinaloa cartel is also active - was probably worth at least $50 million in unprocessed form.

CRACKDOWN

President Felipe Calderon's conservative administration has been dominated by a military crackdown on drug cartels, which has claimed over 45,000 lives in the past five years, eroding support for his National Action Party, or PAN.

The PAN has been trailing its main rival for months as Mexico gears up for a presidential election in July 2012.

The government has captured or killed dozens of top smugglers, but Guzman, the most notorious, is still at large.

Defense ministry spokesman Ricardo Trevilla hailed the arrest of Cabrera as a setback for the operational and leadership capabilities of the Sinaloa cartel, regarded as the main trafficker of drugs into the United States.

The ministry said Cabrera was in charge of the cartel's operations in Durango, a state bordering Sinaloa and a Guzman bastion where the kingpin has been rumored to live.

Guzman runs an empire of methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine smuggling that has earned him a spot on Forbes magazine's list of billionaires.

The ministry added that Cabrera also had responsibility for the southern part of the border state of Chihuahua, through which many drugs are smuggled into the United States.

Cabrera, who allegedly headed Guzman's personal security in the Durango area, is suspected of involvement in a host of violent crimes ranging from arson to kidnapping and extortion.

He was captured on Friday as part of an operation which led to the arrest of 23 suspected operators in the Sinaloa cartel and their bitter rivals, Los Zetas.

(Editing by Eric Beech and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111226/wl_nm/us_mexico_drugs

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98% Le Havre

All Critics (54) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (1)

'Tis the season, so the saying goes. And when it comes to Aki Kaurism?ki, it holds true. The Finnish writer-director arrives bearing a gift wrapped in a contemporary immigration fable.

If the bummers and ambiguity of some of this season's movies are getting you down - or, hey, just the bummers and ambiguities of life - make your way to Le Havre. You won't be sorry.

The Finnish director's sense of humor is dry and dark as pitch, as he consistently finds moments of absurdity in the midst of strife and tragedy.

Kaurism?ki wrote the script, I think, with secret credit from Mother Goose and some fabric softener.

"Le Havre" is a small bit of movie magic, a story that plays more as a fable even as it deals with something as topical as immigration.

The film is especially comforting if you love old movies, as Kaurismaki does.

While the film never reaches any hugely profound revelations with its parable-styled stories of compassion and community, and occasionally feels a little slight, it's also enormously enjoyable and gorgeous to watch.

It's a puzzle, and an intriguing one.

In two stories of evolving trust and secrets, Le Havre reflects the essential simplicity of the moral choices made in its simple-seeming camera set-ups.

Kaurismaki's movie about a shoeshine man and an illegal immigrant is nothing less than a joy

A wonderfully concise, unfussy movie; it is "easy" by the director's standards, which is to say that it doesn't leave any significant ellipses in the narrative up until the aggressively darling ending.

...an upbeat little tome that leaves a good feeling to the spirit.

Kaurism?ki can almost restore your hope in humanity.

Kaurismaki dives into French film culture in 'Le Havre'

You almost become a citizen of Le Havre, watching this film and rejoicing at the end as two newfound, unexpected friends share a drink.

It's a straightforward yet completely artificial scenario, with welcome overtones of Italian Neo-Realism.

Unlike the director's typical hero, Wilms's spare performance conveys confidence rather than defeat. He and the kid warm the heart, thawing Kaurism?ki's usual icy aplomb.

Heart-wrenching but ultimately inspirational.

Le Havre is not the filmmaker's best work (see La Vie de Boh?me for that), but no matter the storm, we should be grateful to dock in this port.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_havre_2011/

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Rapper ?Tyler The Creator? Arrested For Felony Vandalism

The rapper known as “Tyler, the Creator,” was arrested after authorities say he got rowdy following a show at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood. Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Arthur Famble Jr. said the rapper was arrested Thursday night after he appeared in a show by his group, Odd Future, and destroyed the Sunset [...]

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Powerful Darfur rebel chief dead, Sudan says (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Sudan's armed forces have killed the leader of Darfur's most powerful rebel group, state media said on Sunday, dealing a severe blow to insurgents in the remote western region in their nearly decade-long war with Khartoum.

The Darfur conflict has rumbled on since mainly non-Arab insurgents took up arms in 2003, saying the central government had left them out of the political and economic power structure and was favoring local Arab tribes.

Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), emerged as one of the most powerful rebel commanders. In 2008, his fighters drove across the arid western terrain and launched a shock attack on Khartoum, killing over 200 people.

Sudan's authorities have long hunted Ibrahim, who had taken refuge in neighboring Libya under Muammar Gaddafi until the leader's overthrow deprived him of his safe haven, and had refused to sign a Qatar-brokered peace deal.

Al-Sawarmi Khalid, Sudan's armed forces spokesman, said government forces killed Ibrahim early on Sunday morning as he tried to cross into South Sudan, which seceded in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended a separate, decades-long civil war.

"The armed forces clashed in a direct confrontation with Khalil Ibrahim's rebel forces, and were able to eliminate Khalil Ibrahim, who died with a group of commanders," Khalid told state television.

JEM officials did not answer phone calls for comment on Sunday, but Al Jazeera television quoted Ibrahim's brother as confirming the death, saying he died in an air raid on his military convoy.

The death of Ibrahim, often described as commanding and charismatic, could be a major blow to JEM, although tightly restricted access to Sudan's conflict zones has made it hard to gauge the actual strength and internal unity of insurgents.

"Khalil's death is an important symbolic victory for the Government of Sudan - JEM has long been the most formidable military opposition in Darfur," Aly Verjee, a researcher at the Rift Valley Institute think tank , said.

"I don't think JEM will disappear with Khalil's death, but there's a risk that JEM fractures without his leadership, as has happened with the SLM (Sudan Liberation Movement) and other rebel movements in Darfur."

FIGHTING GOES ON

The United Nations has said as many as 300,000 people may have died in Darfur, where Khartoum mobilized troops and mostly Arab militias to crush the uprising. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

While violence has died down since the mass killings reported in the early days of the conflict, law and order have collapsed and the area has been hit by attacks by bandits, militias, soldiers and tribal groups in recent years.

Some 2 million people have fled the fighting, the United Nations says.

Various Darfur rebel groups, including two factions of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), have fought on despite a huge United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation set up in 2007.

Qatar brokered a peace deal which Sudan signed this year with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella association of smaller groups.

But JEM and the other major rebels groups have refused to sign the document, dampening hopes the region will soon see lasting peace.

In November, Darfur's main insurgent groups said they had formed an alliance to topple President Omar al-Bashir with other rebels in two border states, where fighting broke out around the time of South Sudan's independence.

Islamist in its outlook, Ibrahim's group has cooperated in the past with the more secular SLA rebels, although their different ideologies and histories have led to tensions.

JEM has claimed military advances as recently as last week, saying on Saturday its fighters clashed with government militias in parts of the North Kordofan state and were planning to advance on the capital Khartoum.

The report could not be independently verified.

Ibrahim died during a clash in North Kordofan's Wad Banda area, where authorities have accused JEM of attacking civilians and looting in the region, Sudan's state news agency SUNA said. The rebel group denies the charges.

The International Criminal Court has charged Bashir with masterminding genocide and other crimes in the region, accusations Khartoum dismisses as political.

(Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111225/wl_nm/us_sudan_darfur

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UK's fairy shrimps under threat

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EU APPROVES AVASTIN FOR OVARIAN CANCER - PJ Media

CHANGE: E.U. APPROVES AVASTIN FOR OVARIAN CANCER: ?The European Commission has approved Roche?s drug Avastin for treating women with newly diagnosed, advanced ovarian cancer, offering new options to sufferers previously limited to surgery and chemotherapy. . . . In two late-stage studies, Roche found that women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer who used Avastin and chemotherapy and then continued on just Avastin lived quite a bit longer without their disease getting worse compared with those who received only chemotherapy.?

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:47 am

Source: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/134111/

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And The Winner Of The Bob Feller 2001 Topps Archives Baseball Card Is?

And The Winner Of The Bob Feller 2001 Topps Archives Baseball Card Is?

Spiegel 83

Congratulations.? Here is one more look at the prize:

And here is how the winner was selected using a randomizer:

Spiegel83, I have sent you an email to get your mailing address!? Congrats again.

Thanks to everyone else that signed up for a chance to win.? I promise that there will be a lot of giveaways in the year to come!

Have a great holiday weekend.

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This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged all-star, baseball, baseball cards, Bob Feller, bob feller museum, cleveland indians, cy young, cy young award, Hall Of Fame, HOF, indians, pitcher, starting pitcher. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://bapple2286.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/and-the-winner-of-the-bob-feller-2001-topps-archives-baseball-card-is/

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lvgolfblogger: Gary Woodland up, Sean O'Hair down http://t.co/vsoUVfYu #Golf

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Gary Woodland up, Sean O'Hair down bit.ly/rxDaPB #Golf Il y a environ 11 heures via twitterfeed

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2012: The Year of Hobo Business Ethics? | Peter Shankman

As we come towards the end of the year, I wanted to write a post reflecting on what I was hoping to see next year. And of course, for inspiration, I turned to the Internet, which led me, in no particular order, to the following:

Cats, goals, dogs, fails, Lindsay Lohan, cats again, Gawker, coffee, coffee makers, naked women, and finally, Wikipedia, where I somehow wound up reading about hobos.

But the interesting thing about hobos was this ? Not only did they have their own code, (as made popular in the Mad Men episode of the same name), but they also had their own ethical code.

That?s right ? Hobos had a code of ethical conduct, one to which they tried to always adhere.

Pretty amazing, huh? They rode the rails, took work where they could get it, ate when they could, yet they tethered to a strong sense of ethical balance. When you think about it, that?s a lot more than most of our so called ?pillars of society? are doing nowadays. (How?s your jail cell, Mr. Madoff? How about yours, Mr. Blagojevich?)

With that said, here?s my recommendation for 2012: Follow the code of ethics set out by the Hobos well over a hundred years ago. If you do, chances are, you?ll do better, won?t get into trouble, and more than likely will have a good year, personally, professionally, and financially.

I?m going to try it in 2012. Will you join me? And are there any additional codes that should be added? Leave them in the comments.

The Hobo Code of Ethics:

Decide your own life, don?t let another person run or rule you.
When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.
Don?t take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.
Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but ensure employment should you return to that town again.
When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.
Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals? treatment of other hobos.
When jungling in town, respect handouts, do not wear them out, another hobo will be coming along who will need them as bad, if not worse than you.
Always respect nature, do not leave garbage where you are jungling.
If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help.
Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible.
When traveling, ride your train respectfully, take no personal chances, cause no problems with the operating crew or host railroad, act like an extra crew member.
Do not cause problems in a train yard, another hobo will be coming along who will need passage through that yard.
Do not allow other hobos to molest children, expose all molesters to authorities, they are the worst garbage to infest any society.
Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.
Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed, you may need their help someday.
If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it. Whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!

Source: http://shankman.com/2012-the-year-of-business-ethics/

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Lenovo H330-77801HU

The Lenovo H330-77801HU ($899 direct and $1,118 with monitor), a small form factor desktop PC, is decked out with a Blu-ray player, fast Core i5 processor, and a huge 1TB hard drive. It bundles in a monitor, making it a reasonably-priced starter PC for those that want more kick than something like the HP Pavilion p7-1167cb ($899.99 list, 4 stars). However, the lack of integrated Wi-Fi edges this system out for users that don't have their router located in the same room as their PC.

Design and Features
The H330-77801HU is a thin and tall small form factor PC, measuring 11.5 by 9.9 by 15.75 inches (HWD). We've seen smaller from Apple's Mac mini (Thunderbolt) ($799 list, 4.5 stars). The front of the chassis has a tray-loading Blu-ray player/ DVD+-RW, audio and mic jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, and a couple of media card readers that support CF I/CF II/ MD and SD/ SDHC/ MMC/ MS/ MSPro formats. The back has more audio jacks, two PS/2 ports (one of which will be occupied by the included keyboard), Ethernet jack, and four USB 2.0 port (one of which will be occupied by the included mouse). One major feature missing from the Lenovo H330-77801HU is Wi-Fi. Because it has been left out, users will have to utilize the wired Ethernet jack to connect to the Internet, which may be a problem for consumers that don't have their router setup in a convenient position nearby for a PC.

The 23.6-inch widescreen LS2421p Wide ($219.99 direct, 4 stars) monitor displays in 1,920-by-1,080. It comes with VGA and HDMI video inputs, corresponding to the included HDMI and VGA outputs on the Lenovo H330-77801HU. The system also comes bundled with VGA and HDMI cables, so you can just plug and play without having to worry about ordering cables ahead of time. Generally, you don't buy a small form factor PC if you're thinking about upgrading; the H330-77801HU is no different. It will require a good chunk of effort, time, and patience to unscrew every screw and separate the entire exterior casing from the internal components by sliding it off?I wouldn't recommend it. Mid-tower chassis, like the Acer AM3470-UC30P ($599.99 list, 4 stars), are easier to tinker with, as all you need to do is unscrew the screws on one of the side panels and slide it off.

The H330-77801HU has a 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive, much bigger than the Mac mini's 500GB one. There's a little preinstalled software on the system; most of it being Lenovo's proprietary applications.

Performance
The H330-77801HU is outfitted with a 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500 processor, 8GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 6450 (512MB) discrete graphics. These components beat allowed it to beat out the Apple Mac mini (1,936) and Acer AM3470 (2,081) by a significant margin in PCMark 7 (2,606)?a test measuring day-to-day performance. In more media-oriented tests, the Lenovo H330-77801HU was able to quickly encode a video in Handbrake in 1 minute 12 seconds. While the Mac mini (1:42) and Acer AM3470 (2:33) fell behind again.

The H330-77801HU does come with a discrete graphics processor, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's ready for the gaming grid. In Crysis (DirectX 10), it wasn't able to average a playable frame rate (29.2fps) during its play-through (30fps is considered playable) on Medium quality settings and 1,280-by-720 resolution. Similar results were seen in Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 11), averaging 12.4fps on the same settings. The H330-77801HU's AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics will be able to get you through Azeroth if you're an avid World of Warcraft player, but anything more complex and the system will stutter. If you want more gaming performance without sacrificing the small form factor, the Apple Mac mini comes with a much more powerful AMD Radeon HD 6630M (256MB) that could easily play Crysis on Medium settings (48 frames per second), but not Lost Planet 2. If a monitor/ PC bundle is more what you're looking for, and you don't mind sacrificing some space, the Acer AM3470's AMD Radeon HD 6550D graphics was able to garner playable frame rates in Crysis (40fps).

The Lenovo H330-77801HU is a powerful small form factor PC and well-priced monitor/PC bundle unit. However, it comes with a major feature missing?Wi-Fi. For just $20 more Lenovo could have installed a wireless card, and it's beyond me why they omitted it. If you're looking for a great budget PC/monitor bundle, the Editors' Choice Acer AM3470-UC30P is a great option. If you're more concerned about saving space, the Editors' Choice Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) is a powerful small form factor PC, but it doesn't come with a monitor.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo H330-77801HU with several other laptops side by side.

More laptop reviews:
??? HP Omni 120-1024
??? Lenovo H330-77801HU
??? HP Omni 220-1080qd
??? HP TouchSmart 520-1070
??? Samsung Series 7 (DP700A3B-A01US)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/zZrxyKgRYno/0,2817,2397698,00.asp

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AP Sources: House leaders accept Senate tax terms (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Their isolation complete, House Republican leaders abruptly caved and agreed to demands by President Barack Obama, congressional Democrats and fellow Republicans for a two-month extension of tax cuts for all workers.

The agreement, struck after some of the staunchest House conservatives began to retreat, also would renew jobless benefits for almost two million people and spare doctors from a big cut in Medicare payments.

The decision came after an intense day of maneuvering in which the Senate's top Republican leader, Kentuckian Mitch McConnell, urged the House to accept the Senate's short-term fix and negotiations later on a year-long extension. Obama, too, chided Republicans for blocking something all parties agreed upon.

Then a pair of GOP freshmen ? the group most opposed to a short-term agreement ? pivoted and urged a quick resolution before the tax cut expires Dec. 31. Absent a quick agreement, workers faced an increase of two percentage points in their Social Security taxes, or $1,000 a year for someone earning $50,000.

"I don't think that my constituents should have a tax increase because of Washington's dysfunction," said freshman Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., a former reality show star.

"An `all or nothing' attitude is not what my constituents need now," Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner. "We are now in a position...that requires Republicans to not only demand a willingness to compromise, but to offer it as well."

The rapid-fire developments underscored the political peril that House Republicans had courted after they rejected the two-month deal and insisted on dragging the Senate back into session to do it their way. The standoff rippled beyond Washington to Iowa, where Republican presidential candidates were making closing arguments less than two weeks before the caucuses that begin the nomination process.

Under the arrangement between Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the House would pass a new bill mirroring the Senate measure ? with modest tweaks to address concerns of payroll processors ? in exchange for a guarantee that Reid would immediately name Senate negotiators on the House's separate, year-long measure.

Just hours earlier, Boehner had criticized the idea.

"A two-month extension only perpetuates the uncertainty that too many employers already have in dealing with the economy and what's coming out of Washington," Boehner told reporters.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_go_co/us_payroll_tax

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