Honda sees sharp drop in profit on Thai floods (AP)

TOKYO ? Battered by the strong yen and supply disruptions from Thailand's floods, Honda said Tuesday that its net earnings in the October-December quarter tumbled 41 percent to 47.6 billion yen ($625 million) and projected a sharply lower full-year profit.

The Japanese automobile and motorcycle maker forecast it would earn 215 billion yen for the fiscal year through March, down nearly 60 percent from the 534 billion yen it earned the previous fiscal year.

Honda had scrapped its earnings forecast in October, when it reported its previous quarterly results, because the flooding in Thailand ? a key Asian production hub for Honda and many Japanese companies ? made the outlook too uncertain.

Honda stopped making cars at its automobile assembly plant in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, in October after it was damaged in the worst floods to hit Thailand in 50 years. The company said in a statement that it was making progress on draining the plant of flood water and cleaning up equipment, and that production was expected to resume by the end of March.

The flooding also disrupted the output at many Honda suppliers in Thailand, forcing it to reduce production as far away as the U.S. and Canada. Honda said production in neighboring Asian countries interrupted by the problems in Thailand was expected to return to normal by April.

All told, the problems related to flooding in Thailand have cost the company 260,000 vehicles in lost production worldwide, according to Tomohiro Okada, a company spokesman.

Quarterly sales slid 8 percent during the fiscal third quarter to 1.942 trillion yen.

The strong yen, which erodes Japanese exporters' foreign earned income when repatriated, also ate into the company's income. Declines due to unfavorable exchange rates accounted for 33.6 billion yen, or nearly half, of the 73.1 billion yen drop in net income before taxes reported the same quarter a year ago, Okada said.

A bright spot for the company was its motorcycle business, amid strong demand in emerging markets. Motorcycle sales rose 6.3 percent during the quarter to nearly 3.1 million units.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects impact from currencies in paragraph 8, adds lost production of vehicles from Thai flooding in paragraph 6, adds details about growth in motorcycle business)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earns_honda

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Gaming Blend Monthly Recap: January, 2012 | N4G

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Gaming Blend Monthly Recap: January, 2012. Gaming Blend "We're finishing off the very first month of 2012 and it has been an exciting month to say the least. This monthly recap is a short collection of some of the news highlights throughout ...

Source: http://n4g.com/news/930375/gaming-blend-monthly-recap-january-2012

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Madonna says charity plans 10 schools in Malawi (AP)

NEW YORK ? Nearly six years after it was created, Madonna's Raising Malawi charity is set to break ground on the construction of schools in the impoverished country, but they will be run by the local community, not the superstar's organization.

According to organizers, work on the first school will start on March 30 in the Kasungu area, about 80 miles from the capital of Lilongwe, and all of the schools should be built by June 2013. Raising Malawi is providing $300,000 to the non-governmental organization buildOn to develop the schools. They'll serve about 1,000 boys and girls in the southern African nation.

"This remains a very big priority in my life and I am excited that with the help of buildOn we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently," Madonna said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

Raising Malawi had originally intended to build all-girls schools that the organization would run. But it faced several obstacles in its goal, including complaints from some local farmers that they had been moved off land that Raising Malawi intended to use for its mission. Raising Malawi also had difficulty getting title to the land and there were concerns about the high costs of construction.

The new plan calls for "simple structures" that will be more practical and better serve Raising Malawi's original mission, said Trevor Neilson, who is helping to direct the project as partner of the Global Philanthropy Group. The approach will allow the program to serve twice as many children as before, Madonna said.

"I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel so much more confident that we can reach out goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more efficient and practical way," she said. Madonna has adopted two children from Malawi.

BuildOn has already built more than 50 schools in Malawi and 427 schools worldwide.

"For schools to be successful, they need to have community ownership and leadership," Neilson said in an interview Friday. "Raising Malawi shouldn't be running schools in Malawi. Local communities in Malawi should be running those schools, so that's a big part of the shift."

BuildOn has been working in Malawi for almost 20 years, said spokeswoman Carrie Pena. The organization works closely with the community, and locals even volunteer the labor to build the schools, according to Pena.

"It's absolutely a community-owned school," she said.

Neilson praised Madonna for sticking with her plan to build schools for Malawi's children despite several setbacks for the star, who is the director of the new movie "W.E.," out next week, and is this year's Super Bowl performer. Madonna brought in Global Philanthropy to work with Raising Malawi more than a year ago and removed the involvement of the Kabbalah Centre. She has practiced Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism.

"When the previous management team had those problems, I think a lot of people thought Madonna would give up," Neilson said "It would have been understandable, but instead she's going to reaching twice as many kids."

___

Online:

http://www.raisingmalawi.org

http://www.buildon.org/

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_mu/us_people_madonna_malawi

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Jury finds Afghan family guilty in honor killings

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, center, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Tooba Yahya is led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, front,Tooba Yahya, center and Hamed Shafia arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder of Mohammad Shafia's three daughters and childless first wife. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia reacts as he his led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder of his three daughters and childless first wife. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) ? A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

But Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

Hamed's lawyer, Patrick McCann, said he was disappointed with the verdict, but said his client will appeal and he believes the other two defendants will as well.

But prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis welcomed the verdict.

"This jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family in the most troubling of circumstances," Laarhuis said outside court.

"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," he said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing theory. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Shafia's lawyer, Peter Kemp, said after the verdicts that he believes the comments his client made on the wiretaps may have weighed more heavily on the jury's minds than the physical evidence in the case.

"He wasn't convicted for what he did," Kemp said. "He was convicted for what he said."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-29-CN-Canada-Honor-Killing/id-2393824308a8466e8e9dca4d88f75406

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Business Highlights (AP)

___

Economy grew 2.8 percent in Q4, but outlook is hazy

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The economy grew late last year at a pace that in normal times would suggest it's healthy.

But the 2.8 percent annualized growth rate in the October-December quarter ? the fastest pace since the spring of 2010 ? isn't being cheered by most economists or investors. That's because growth would have to be much stronger to significantly reduce unemployment. And signs in the data point to slower growth ahead.

For all of last year, the economy grew just 1.7 percent. That was just more than half the growth in 2010. The outlook for 2012 is slightly better. The Federal Reserve estimates growth of roughly 2.5 percent for the year.

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Activists and bloggers fear Twitter censorship

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Bloggers and activists from China, the Middle East and Latin America said Friday that they were concerned that new Twitter policies could allow governments to censor messages and stifle free expression.

Thursday's announcement that Twitter had refined its technology to censor messages on a country-by-country basis raised fears that the company's commitment to free speech may be weakening. Twitter is trying to broaden its audience and make more money by expanding around the globe.

Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or tweets, remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of various laws around the world.

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Private sector unions add members as jobs return

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Union membership grew slightly last year, giving labor leaders hope that a period of steep decline has finally bottomed out.

The number of unionized workers increased by about 50,000 to nearly 14.8 million members in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The increase comes after unions lost nearly 1.4 million members over the previous two years.

Still, unions' share of the overall workforce fell, from 11.9 percent to 11.8 percent, as state and local governments trimmed thousands of jobs to address budget shortfalls. That's the lowest percentage of union workers since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

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North America boosts Ford in 4Q

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) ? For Ford, there's no place like home.

North America propped up the company in the fourth quarter as the European debt crisis and flooding in Thailand hurt profits elsewhere. Ford Motor Co.'s shares took a hit after the company missed Wall Street's expectations but trimmed their losses once the company promised better ? if still bumpy ? results in 2012.

Ford reported $13.62 billion in net income. Investors shrugged off the result because most of that came from an accounting change. Without that, earnings totaled $1.1 billion, or 20 cents a share.

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Finance chiefs reassure CEOs over European crisis

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Leading finance chiefs sought to reassure anxious global business leaders on Friday that Europe is on track to solve its crippling debt crisis before it drags other economies down. Europe's top banker said investors, burned after trusting the region's governments too much, now trust them too little.

The finance chiefs said the picture in Europe has changed over the past two months as the European Central Bank has loaned billions of euros to fragile banks, indebted countries have pushed through convincing reforms and EU leaders have come near to building a closer fiscal union that would make their common currency stronger.

Several also signaled Friday that Greece is close to clinching a crucial debt-reduction deal with private bondholders ? a key element in Europe's efforts to stem a two-year debt crisis that is causing ripples around the globe. The crisis is a central topic at the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of government and business leaders at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

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Justice unit to probe mortgage-backed securities

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Federal and state law enforcement officials announced Friday that they have launched a fraud-fighting unit, starting with 55 prosecutors and investigators, to root out wrongdoing in the market for residential mortgage-backed securities.

Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference that the team will benefit from existing probes and disclosed that investigators have issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions in recent days, with the prospect that "more will follow." He said bringing full enforcement resources to bear will help expose abuses and hold violators accountable.

Residential mortgage-backed securities are the big investment packages of what turned out to be near-worthless mortgages that bankrupted many investors and contributed to the nation's financial crisis.

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As US slows, P&G turns to developing markets

NEW YORK (AP) ? Emerging markets are playing a bigger role in Procter & Gamble Co.'s growth, in another sign that U.S. companies are courting new customers overseas as American shoppers get tapped out.

The maker of Tide laundry detergent, Crest toothpaste and Pampers diapers said Friday that its market value grew 9 percent in developing countries over the latest quarter, but just 2 percent in North America and 0.5 percent in Western Europe. That news came as P&G reported a 49 percent drop in profit for the second fiscal quarter, hobbled by higher costs for materials and a big write-down on the value of two of its business units.

Developing markets like Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia now make up almost 37 percent of P&G's sales, up from 27 percent five years ago. That growth was buoyed by recent expansions like toothpaste offerings in Nigeria and fabric softener in Indonesia. In the same period, the share of sales that P&G makes in the U.S. dropped to 37 percent from 43 percent.

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Altria 4Q profit falls 9 percent, CEO to retire

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit fell about 9 percent on lease, legal and restructuring charges even as higher prices and gains from its smokeless tobacco products helped bolster sales.

The owner of the nation's biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, also announced that CEO Michael E. Szymanczyk will retire in May following the company's annual shareholder meeting. Altria's board has selected Martin J. Barrington to replace him as CEO and chairman. David R. Beran will serve as president and chief operating officer.

The company also disclosed that it has entered into an agreement with an affiliate of Fertin Pharma A/S to develop non-combustible nicotine-containing products. Several other tobacco companies have announced similar initiatives to seek cigarette alternatives as demand declines.

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Fitch downgrades 5 eurozone nations

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Fitch Ratings downgraded the debt of Italy, Spain and three other countries that use the euro on Friday, as European leaders work on several fronts to contain the continent's government-debt crisis.

The lower government-debt ratings for Italy, Spain, Belgium, Cyprus and Slovenia could make it more expensive for these countries to borrow.

Fitch said its decision was based on the deteriorating economic outlook in Europe, a concern that Europe's bailout fund is not large enough and a belief that European leaders are not acting quickly or boldly enough to prevent the debt crisis from worsening.

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By The Associated Press(equals)

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 74 points, or 0.6 percent, at 12,660.46. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 2.10 points to 1,316.33. The Nasdaq composite edged up 11.27 to 2,816.55.

Benchmark oil fell 14 cents to finish at $99.56 per barrel after climbing as high as $100.63 per barrel earlier in the session. Brent crude rose 67 cents to end at $111.46 per barrel in London.

Natural gas prices rose 7 cents, or 2.8 percent, to finish at $2.68 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil futures rose 2 cents to end at $3.07 per gallon. Gasoline futures rose 8 cents to end at $2.92 per gallon.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_bi_ge/us_business_highlights

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Arctic ice melt lifts hopes for Russian maritime trade

By Albina Kovalyova and Alissa de Carbonnel

SEVERODVINSK, Russia | Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:07pm EST

SEVERODVINSK, Russia (Reuters) - When severe snowstorms prevented life-sustaining fuel supplies from reaching the frozen Alaskan town of Nome, U.S. officials turned to a Russian company for help.

The relief mission through perilous, ice-choked seas was the first mid-winter fuel delivery to western Alaska, capping a year of pioneering shipping as oil and gas development and climate change increase traffic along northern trade routes sought by centuries of Arctic explorers.

Russia has staked future growth on mining the Arctic's vast energy resources, and reviving a Soviet-era shipping route along its Siberia coast is an integral part of that plan. It could also promise economic revival for Russia's ports and shipyards, struggling since their Soviet-era glory days.

But industry analysts and mariners say ice floes, narrow straits, shallow waters, poor infrastructure and stormy winters continue to loom as obstacles to safe and profitable shipping through the polar shortcut.

"We must develop the Arctic!" said Fazil Aliyev, a sea captain and owner of the tanker that voyaged to Alaska.

"It is profitable for everyone. Our clients win because their cargo is delivered faster, now we need to make it economically viable... try to make it a year-round route," he said, speaking by phone from Vladivostok, Russia's gateway port to Asian markets.

Aliyev's company, RIMSCO, tripled cargo along Russia's coastal waterway last year when a warm summer kept what Russia calls the Northern Sea Route open for a record 141 days, almost a month longer than usual.

Sometimes called the Northeast Passage, the circumpolar route is a network of sea lanes across the top of continental Eurasia which crosses Russian waters from the Kara Gate to the Bering Strait and trims some 4,000 nautical miles off southern routes.

Danish shipping group Nordic Bulk Carriers said it saved a third of the cost and nearly half the time sending goods to China sailing north of Russia instead of via the Suez canal.

"It's a very promising region and an interesting shipping lane that almost halves the distance between Europe and the Far East," Aliyev said.

TOUGH TIMES AT THE SHIPYARD

In the White Sea port of Severodvinsk, once a closed city of 200,000 at the heart of the Soviet Union's Cold War nuclear submarine program, defense contracts won by the shipyard and tested at a nearby naval base still pay the bulk of wages.

Big black submarines lumbered out to sea from its docks in ice-free waters without the help of tugboats or icebreakers unusually late into the fall last year.

Built in the 1930s, the state-owned Sevmash shipyard 35 km (22 miles) north of the city of Arkhangelsk, is a jumble of buildings and factory floors big enough to be a town itself, with canteens, churches and a museum for its 27,000 employees.

The shipyard saw tough times in the 1990s as Moscow slashed defense spending, and Russia's share of the global shipbuilding market dwindled to just 0.2 percent. China and South Korea now dominate, with 37 and 35 percent of the market, respectively.

Yelena Makhovetskaya, 27, a graduate of Sevmash's shipbuilding university, said salaries were among the highest in the Soviet Union when her parents moved here in the 1970s. Wages have since fallen against the national average, many people have left and fewer are coming to work in the region, she said.

But new state contracts are fueling a revival. The sector was one of the few to see growth in crisis-hit 2009, with output up 62 percent and another 8 percent in 2010.

Sevmash's director, Andrei Dyachkov, said the shipyard hopes to profit from its know-how in the Arctic to win orders to build offshore drilling platforms, ice-capable support ships and even a floating airstrip to service oil fields in the Pechora Sea.

A race to exploit energy riches in the Arctic sea floor -- believed to hold as much as one quarter of the earth's untapped hydrocarbons -- has already brought new contracts.

Under an order from state energy firm Gazprom, Sevmash completed Russia's first ice-resistant offshore production platform, which was tugged out to the Pechora Sea in August to drill at the oil-steeped Prirazlomnoye field.

QUICK AND PIRATE-FREE

Russia has long hauled cargoes of oil, iron ore and fish products across its sprawling northern coast, but until 2009 no foreign-flagged merchant vessel had plied the trade link.

When fast-rising temperatures melted Arctic ice cover to its second-smallest recorded area in 2011, a record 34 barges -- more than double 2010 and including supertankers -- piloted the icy seas.

Russian shipping giant Sovkomflot plied the coastal waterway with the biggest ship ever, a Suezmax-class tanker loaded with 120,000 tons of gas condensate, while a vessel owned by Scorpio Tanker Inc. sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in a record eight days.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has cast it as a quicker and pirate-free rival to the Suez Canal.

"I have no doubt this is just the beginning," Putin said of the voyages at an international Arctic forum in September.

With its eye on the billions of dollars earned by Egypt's waterway, Moscow hopes transit tolls and fees from the compulsory lease of one of its atomic-icebreaker escort ships will help fund its own costly infrastructure needs in the Arctic.

Most of Russia's 5,500-km (3,420-mile) Arctic-facing coast is uninhabited, lacking refueling stations, navigational infrastructure and coast guards to help stranded seafarers.

Its unrivaled fleet of nuclear icebreakers is a financial drain whether or not they are in use since the reactors need to remain constantly on, Arild Moe, deputy head of Norway's Fridtjof Nansen Institute, told Reuters.

"The waterway is considered an important part of national transport infrastructure, as well as a manifestation of Russian interests in the Arctic," Moe said. "The crucial issue is financing."

The Kremlin plans to spend $1.2 billion through 2014 on its ice-class fleet and build three atomic-powered and six diesel-electric icebreakers by 2020.

Dyachkov described winning these tenders as a potential game changer.

"It would confirm Sevmash as the centre for atomic shipbuilding in Russia," he told Reuters.

HAZARDOUS WATERS, FIERCE STORMS

One of the biggest barriers will continue to be the region's formidable winters.

Ice floes, heavy fog and violent storms like those that have hit Alaska this month increase the environmental and safety risks -- driving up liability insurance rates.

There is little economic incentive today for shipowners to order the more expensive ice-capable tankers, said Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an analyst at Norway-based Arctic Securities.

"I don't think standard vessels will be out-competed yet -- for the next five-ten years," Stavseth said. "We are going to see more pioneering and more exploratory shipping, but I would not bank on the Northern Sea Route becoming a standard route."

Some scientists say rising temperatures could make sailing the Arctic waters more hazardous -- not easier -- in the near future, bringing more icebergs and fiercer storms.

"This could be a real problem for offshore platforms and tankers," said Genrikh Alexeyev, an expert on the interaction of the ice, ocean and atmosphere at Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Institute.

The dangers of plying the Arctic seas were spotlighted when a drilling rig with 67 crew capsized and sank off Russia's far eastern island of Sakhalin in a storm last month, killing 53.

Experts say a leak even a fraction of the size of BP's disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could be devastating in frozen seas -- halting dreams of Arctic transformation in their tracks.

"Ice, like a blotter, easily absorbs oil products, and oil stuck to ice can spread colossal distances," said Inna Nemirovskaya, head of the P. P. Shirshova Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academy of Science.

But Russia is playing a long game in the Arctic.

"For Russia, development of Arctic resources is a vital interest. It is the key to maintaining and increasing gas exports," said Charles Emmerson, author of "The Future History of the Arctic."

"We are witnessing the first of a five-act play."

If and when climate change opens up the Arctic to year-round bulk shipping, Russia had a head start, Aliyev said.

"We've learned in the most extreme weather, so that when it gets easier there won't be anything to be scared of," he said.

(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/cTnb7hCwY7o/us-russia-arctic-idUSTRE80Q1FA20120127

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Ill-fated Italian ship inspired by EU (Reuters)

MIAMI (Reuters) ? Given the fading fortunes of the European Union, a good deal of symbolism can probably be read into the fact that it helped inspire the design of the Italian ocean liner that hit a rock and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio two weeks ago.

And it was indeed the EU, the economic and political confederation of member states with a combined population of more than 500 million people, that served as the central motif for fashioning the Costa Concordia's interior, said veteran Miami architect Joe Farcus.

"Usually I design ships around what I call the central idea, the point of interest of something that would be the basis of a story," Farcus said.

"On this ship, the idea was for each public room to take a style that was evocative of every country in Europe, in the European Union," he said. "I think it worked out that every country in the European Union sort of equaled the number of public rooms on the ship."

Poring over photos of the vessel's over-the-top interior, images taken before its accident and filled to overflowing with bold primary and neon colors, Farcus acknowledged that it was hard to say now exactly which of the rooms represented any particular EU member country.

But he said the towering central atrium took its design cues from the Art Nouveau styles of Belgium, in recognition of its role as the seat of the European Parliament. The piano bar, one of 13 watering holes aboard the ship, was done in Hungarian style because he is of Hungarian descent, Farcus said.

Costa Cruises Chairman and Chief Executive Pier Luigi Foschi also had the EU very much in mind when he named the ship, which was officially christened in July 2006, the Concordia, Farcus said.

"INCREDIBLY SAD"

As in Concord, the name signifies agreement or harmony and friendly, peaceful relations.

"That is how Mr. Foschi came up with the name Concordia, meaning a peaceful gathering of many cultures," Farcus said.

"It was very, very interesting," Farcus said on Wednesday at his well-appointed, palm-fringed Miami Beach home.

"To think of her where she is now is so incredibly sad," the 67-year-old architect said of the Concordia.

The ship is one of dozens Farcus has designed in a career spanning more than 30 years for Carnival Corp, the parent of Italy's Costa.

"I don't know anything beyond what I've read in the various media reports but it seems like it was a horrible human error situation, which accidents often are," said Farcus, when asked about what really happened on the Concordia on January 13. At least 16 people were killed and more are missing.

"Clearly the damage to the ship was catastrophic," he said, referring to the "gigantic gash" that tore into the hull of the Concordia and quickly caused it to capsize.

"The list apparently happened practically immediately," he said. "But there still seemed to be just about an hour where basically whatever should have been done, or could have been done, wasn't done for whatever reason. Time will tell that story, I guess."

Though Farcus once earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the architect behind the first passenger ship ever to exceed 100,000 tons, he said the size of gargantuan cruise liners, some of which now boast as much as 225,000 tons, was something that would now be subject to close scrutiny in any post-Concordia safety reviews.

"This raises issues and rightly so, it should be looked at," he said.

"If it floats it can sink."

(Reporting By Tom Brown; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/wl_nm/us_italy_ship_architect

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Video: GOP Battle for the Sunshine State

I think the momentum is back on Mitt Romney's side in Florida, says former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who adds Mitt Romney is the most capable candidate.

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46146584/

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Video: Under the electron microscope - a 3-D image of an individual protein

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

When Gang Ren whirls the controls of his cryo-electron microscope, he compares it to fine-tuning the gearshift and brakes of a racing bicycle. But this machine at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a bit more complex. It costs nearly $1.5 million, operates at the frigid temperature of liquid nitrogen, and it is allowing scientists to see what no one has seen before.

At the Molecular Foundry, Berkeley Lab's acclaimed nanotechnology research center, Ren has pushed his Zeiss Libra 120 Cryo-Tem microscope to resolutions never envisioned by its German manufacturers, producing detailed snapshots of individual molecules. Today, he and his colleague Lei Zhang are reporting the first 3-D images of an individual protein ever obtained with enough clarity to determine its structure.

Scientists routinely create models of proteins using X-ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance, and conventional cryo-electron microscope (cryoEM) imaging. But these models require computer "averaging" of data from analysis of thousands, or even millions of like molecules, because it is so difficult to resolve the features of a single particle. Ren and Zhang have done just that, generating detailed models using electron microscopic images of a single protein.

He calls his technique "individual-particle electron tomography," or IPET. The work is described in the January 24 issue of PLoS One, the open-source scientific journal, in an article entitled "IPET and FETR: Experimental Approach for Studying Molecular Structure Dynamics by Cryo-Electron Tomography of a Single-Molecule Structure."

The 3-D images reported in the paper include those of a single IgG antibody and apolipoprotein A-1 (ApoA-1), a protein involved in human metabolism. Ren's goal is to produce individual 3-D images of medically significant proteins, such as HDL? the heart-protective "good cholesterol" whose structure has eluded the efforts of legions of scientists armed with far more powerful protein modeling tools. "We are well on our way," says Ren.

Ren has the credentials of one who knows what he can do. He was recruited to work at Berkeley Lab in August 2010 from the University of California at San Francisco, where he had used a cryo-electron microscope and more conventional averaging techniques to discern the 3-D structure of LDL ? the "bad cholesterol" thought to be a major risk factor for heart disease.

His images of single proteins are a bit fuzzy, even after they are cleaned up by complex computer filtering, but very informative to the trained observer. These individual particles are extraordinarily tiny, requiring Ren to zero in on a spot of less than 20 nanometers. He has reported protein images as small as 70 kDa. That's kilodaltons, a Lilliputian scale (expressed in units of mass) set aside for taking the measure of atoms, molecules, and snippets of DNA. It's a more useful way to size soft objects like proteins that can be clumped, stringy, or floppy.

Unlike the sculptural images of protein models, a suite of these photographs can convey a sense of these particles in all their nanoscale floppiness. Within the complex structure of these proteins lies the secrets of their function, and perhaps keys to drugs that block the bad ones and promote the good ones. With some additional computer filtering, a high-contrast model of protein can be generated from the images and animated to show its moving parts in 3-D.

"This allows you to see the personality of each protein,'' says Ren. "It is a proof of concept for something that people thought was impossible."

A computer animation demonstrates the flexible dynamics ? the moving parts ? of human IgG antibody. 3-D images of two individual antibody particles (gray) were generated using EM tomography with IPET. The demonstration shows how the same molecular chains (red, orange, and green noodle-like models) of antibody particle #1 can fit precisely into particle #2, which was found under the microscope in an entirely different pose.

By observing the structure of single proteins, it is possible to understand their flexible, moving parts. "This opens a door for the study of protein dynamics," Ren says. "Antibodies, for example, are not solid. They are very flexible, very dynamic."

How did Ren coax so much versatility out of his Libra 120? "It's not a very high-end model,'' he concedes. Much has to do with the accessories he bolts on to the machine, and with his own artistry and patience. He's equipped the microscope with a $300,000 CCD camera, some powerful image-processing software, special contrasting agents, and a device called an "energy filter" that sifts through the digitized camera data and culls weak signals. Thoroughly familiar with his customized machine, he also employs an element of elbow grease, working long hours to draw out the powerful images from a torrent of digital noise.

The multiple angles used to create the 3-D portrait help resolve the faint molecular image. "All images are noisy," Ren explains. "In physics, the noise is inconsistent among the images, but the signal ? the object or protein ? is consistent. By using this approach, we find the consistent portion (the signal) can be enhanced, while the inconsistent portion (the noise) will be reduced substantially."

Electron microscopes focus streams of electrons rather than light to see incredibly tiny things. The short wavelength of an electron beam enables much higher resolution and magnification than visible light. Powerful electron microscopes have been used for decades to probe materials at atomic-scale; and right next door to the Molecular Foundry is Berkeley Lab's National Center for Electron Microscopy, which houses the most powerful microscopes in the world. The TEAM 0.5 microscope can distinguish objects as small as the radius of a hydrogen atom. But these heavyweight microscopes pull off this atomic-scale resolution with pulses of energy that would obliterate most soft biological proteins. The high power electron microscopes are used primarily for probing atomic structure of strong, solid materials, such as graphene ? a lattice of carbon only one atom thick.

Ren's lab specializes in cryoEM, which examines objects frozen at -180 ?C (-292 ?F). A bath of liquid nitrogen flash-freezes samples so quickly that no ice crystals form. "It is amorphous, like glass,'' Ren says. The protein samples are frozen on a disk the size of baby's fingernail, filled with tiny wells 2 microns across. The disk is inserted into the microscope on a rotating support that can tilt the sample up to 140? inside a vacuum ? sufficient camera angles to produce a 3-D perspective. "The challenge is to isolate it from the air, and to turn it without vibrations, even the vibrations from the bubbling of liquid nitrogen,'' says Ren.

The extremely low temperature fixes the samples and prevents them from drying out in the vacuum needed for the electron scan. It creates conditions favorable for imaging at much lower doses of electrons ? low enough to keep a single soft protein intact while more than 100 images are taken over a one-to-two hour period.

###

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: http://www.lbl.gov

Thanks to DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for this article.

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President Obama: I Want Second Term 'Badly' (ABC News)

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FTC stops fake news sites pushing acai berry diet (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Expect to see fewer "newsy" online advertisements hawking acai (ah-sah-EE') berry diet pills.

Federal regulators announced settlements Wednesday with six online marketers who were accused of using fake news sites on the Internet to entice customers to buy acai berry weight-loss products. They promised rapid and substantial weight loss.

The Federal Trade Commission says it was all a scam.

The FTC accused the marketers of designing websites that falsely appeared as if they were part of legitimate news organizations. They flashed investigative-sounding headlines and presented a reporter's "first-hand experience" with acai berry supplements.

The proposed settlements require the marketers to make clear that their messages are advertisements and not objective journalism. They also would be barred from making deceptive claims about their products.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_fake_news_sites_acai_berry

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Was 'Bridesmaids' deserving of Oscar nod?

AP

Debate continues over whether "Bridesmaids" deserves its Oscar nominations.

By Christopher Bahn

Did "Bridesmaids" get left behind at Oscar's Best Picture altar? Or are the raunchy comedy's two nominations already more than it deserves?

Some early buzz suggested that Kristen Wiig's R-rated wedding-disaster hit was a contender for the Academy Awards' top prize, especially now that the field is open to more than just five films. That didn't happen, but "Bridesmaids" did score a supporting-actress nod for Melissa McCarthy, who played the endearingly obnoxious and sexually voracious Megan, and an original screenplay nomination for writers Wiig and Annie Mumolo.?

Best Picture was always going to be a long shot. The fact is that the Oscars have never been kind to comedies, as a look at recent years makes clear. Of the nine movies nominated for Best Picture this year, only Woody Allen's "Midnight In Paris" is considered a comedy, and of the 10 nominations in 2010 and 2011, only the animated movies ?"Toy Story 3" and "Up" qualify.?

Another thing to note is that all three of those films lean more toward the heartwarming than the edgy side, and the Oscars don't tend to favor that kind of tone unless it's in a serious, weighty drama. The bold use of gross-out humor in "Bridesmaids" surely didn't work in its favor for the big nomination. Instead, it was honored in traditionally safe, relatively minor categories for envelope-pushers ? supporting actress and script.

?

But in any case, along with successful showings for "Moneyball" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," the nominations for "Bridesmaids" are a victory for mainstream, populist entertainment in a race that usually leans too heavily toward the self-consciously serious.?

Some fans were thrilled for Melissa McCarthy.

McCarthy in particular makes an unusual Oscar choice ? her character is neither the long-suffering martyr or dainty model that usually gets picked. Megan is brassy, bawdy, and confidently sexual ? a testament to McCarthy's fearless improv-comedy skills. But she's much more likely, in the end, to be a crowd-pleasing favorite who's mobbed on the red carpet, but?who doesn't walk down the aisle at the Kodak Theater.?

Still, her nomination is winning acclaim among mainstream filmgoers ? based on a totally unscientific scan of Twitter, popular sentiment is solidly, maybe 80/20, in her favor. One commenter compared McCarthy's performance to Nicole Kidman's in "The Hours," pointing out what the Oscars often miss: "Great comedy is harder than sticking on a prosthetic nose & looking morose." Another took the opposite view, encapsulating the unease many feel about "Bridesmaids" and its raunchy, body-fluid-heavy humor being honored among the best achievements in cinema: "Dear God: Please don't let Melissa McCarthy win an Oscar for pooping in a sink."

Is "Bridesmaids" Oscar material? Does Melissa McCarthy have a chance in the supporting actress category? Tell us on Facebook.

{"contentId":"10226027","totalVotes":"5525"}

Were two Oscar nominations right for 'Bridesmaids'?

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Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10226027-was-bridesmaids-deserving-of-oscar-nod

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Paul says no intention of third-party bid

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Ron Paul says he has no intention of running for president as a third-party candidate, though he's continuing to keep the door open a crack.

The Texas congressman is stopping short of saying no -- because he says he's not an absolutist. Paul notes that he once left Congress vowing not to return, only to run again.

But Paul says he doesn't have any plans to run outside the GOP and that he might even be able to endorse rival Newt Gingrich if he's the nominee. Paul says he is happy that Gingrich keeps hinting at attacking the Federal Reserve and jokes that if he could get Gingrich to listen to him on foreign policy, as Paul puts it, "we might just be able to talk business."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-23-GOP-Debate-Paul-Third%20Party/id-5f6a730958ce4f7d83293db12c095890

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France votes on genocide law, faces Turkish reprisals (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? French senators vote later on Monday on a bill to make it illegal to deny the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide, raising the prospect of a major diplomatic rift between two NATO allies.

Lawmakers in the lower-house National Assembly voted overwhelmingly in December for the draft law outlawing genocide denial, prompting Ankara to cancel all economic, political and military meetings with Paris and recall its ambassador for consultations.

The bill, which has been made more general so that it outlaws the denial of any genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing the Turks, will be debated from 3 p.m. (10 a.m. ET) in the upper house before a final vote.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.

The Ottoman empire was dissolved soon after the end of World War One, but successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the charge of genocide is a direct insult to their nation. Ankara argues that there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara would take new and permanent measures against France unless the bill was rejected.

"After this the values of Europe will face a big threat. If every parliament implements decisions reflecting its own historical views a new Inquisition period will begin in Europe," Davutoglu was reported as saying by Dogan news agency. "We all know what happened during the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately the revival of this is shameful for France."

Turks from across Europe demonstrated in central Paris at the weekend, with more protests due on Monday before the vote. Turkish lobby groups carried full page advertisements in French newspapers urging senators to back down.

The Socialist Party, which has had a majority in the Senate since elections in the upper house late last year, and the Senate leader of President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, which put forward the bill, have said they will back the legislation.

But a non-binding Senate recommendation last week said the law would be unconstitutional, and after weeks of aggressive Turkish lobbying there are suggestions the outcome will be closer than anticipated.

Turkey calls the bill a bid by President Nicolas Sarkozy to win the votes of 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France in the two-round presidential vote on April 22 and May 6.

Sarkozy wrote to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last week saying the bill did not single out any country and that Paris was aware of the "suffering endured by the Turkish people" during the final years of the Ottoman empire.

European Union candidate Turkey could not impose economic sanctions on France, given its World Trade Organisation membership and customs union accord with Europe.

But the row could cost France state-to-state contracts and would create diplomatic tension as Turkey takes an increasingly influential role in the Middle East.

The bill mandates a maximum 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail for offenders. France passed a law recognizing the killing of Armenians as genocide in 2001.

(Reporting By John Irish and Daren Butler in Istanbul)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_nm/us_france_turkey_genocide

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4 die in NYC subway incidents in 24 hours

By NBCNewYork.com

NEW YORK -- Four men have died in New York's subway in less than 24 hours.

Police say the mishaps ? all on Saturday ? are unrelated.

The first victim was found unconscious at about 2 a.m. in Queens' Elmhurst Avenue station at Broadway, on the R line. Police say he may have fallen down the stairs. He reportedly was in his 60s.

For more, visit NBCNewYork.com

At about 8 a.m. Saturday in Manhattan, a man in his 20s was struck by an L train at West 14th Street and Third Avenue.

Another man also was hit by an L train on the same line on Saturday evening.

The fourth fatality was reported in Brooklyn, when a man's body was removed from the tunnel near the Nostrand station on Saturday afternoon.

The victims' identities were not released.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10215906-4-die-in-nyc-subway-incidents-in-24-hours

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Roundup: Bayern falls to 'Gladbach in Bundesliga

/

updated 6:29 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2012

BERLIN - Marco Reus scored one goal and set up another as Borussia Moenchengladbach defeated first-place Bayern Munich 3-1 Friday night when the Bundesliga resumed after its winter break.

Reus capitalized on a blunder by Manuel Neuer in the 11th minute, scoring from 30 yards following the goalkeeper's poor clearance. Patrick Herrmann made it 2-0 in the 41st and added another goal in the 71st after being set up by Reus.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, back after recovering from a broken collarbone, scored for visiting Bayern in the 76th. Bayern defender Daniel van Buyten left around the same time with a suspected broken foot.

Moenchengladbach (11-4-3), which swept both league matches from Bayern for the first time since 1995-96, has 36 points, one fewer than Bayern (12-5-1). Borussia Dortmund and Schalke would match Bayern's 37 points with victories this weekend. Schalke hosts Stuttgart on Saturday and Dortmund is at Hamburg on Sunday.

___

LE MANS, France (AP) ? Brazilian winger Nene and striker Kevin Gameiro scored two goals each as Paris Saint-Germain beat the amateur team Sable-sur-Sarthe 4-0 to reach the last 16 of the French Cup.

Sable, which plays four divisions below PSG, started brightly but struggled after Nene put PSG ahead with a penalty kick in the 36th minute.

Winger Jeremy Menez set up Gameiro for his first goal in the 65th, and Gameiro ran onto a through ball from Nene to make it 3-0 in the 73rd, his 12th goal of the season. Nene scored in injury time, but missed the chance for a hat trick in the last seconds.

PSG midfielder Javier Pastore limped off with a thigh injury in the first half.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Pele: Messi's not me

Pele thinks Lionel Messi still needs to improve at international level before he can be considered the greatest soccer player ever and needs to score more goals to come close to matching the Brazilian great.

Boris Streubel / Getty Images

Best of the US

Abby Wambach and Clint Dempsey are voted top players by the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46076559/ns/sports-soccer/

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Karzai says he's met with Afghan insurgent faction

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, delivers a speech at the opening of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process.(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, delivers a speech at the opening of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process.(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai listens to Afghan national anthem ahead of inspecting the guards of honor during the opening ceremony of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, salutes to Afghan parliament members, as he walks out of parliament after delivering his speech at the opening ceremony of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai inspects the guards of honor during the opening ceremony of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

An Afghan police official inspects the scene where a truck was hit by a road side bomb on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, Helmand province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Satrurday, Jan. 21, 2012, killing four Afghan civilians, the Ministry of Interior said. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he personally held peace talks recently with the insurgent faction Hizb-i-Islami, appearing to assert his own role in a U.S.-led bid for negotiations to end the country's decade-long war.

Karzai made the announcement hours before he met with American special representative Marc Grossman to discuss progress and plans for bringing the Taliban insurgency into formal talks for the first time.

"Recently, we met with a delegation from Hizb-i-Islami ... and had negotiations," Karzai told a meeting of the Afghan parliament. "We are hopeful that these negotiations for peace continue and we will have good results," he added.

Karzai's statement was a reminder that any negotiations to end Afghanistan's war will be more complex than just talking to the Taliban's Pakistan-based leadership, headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. The two other main insurgent factions in the country have their own leaders and agendas.

Hizb-i-Islami is a radical Islamist militia that controls territory in Afghanistan's northeast and launches attacks against U.S. forces from Pakistan. Its leader, powerful warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is a former U.S. ally now listed as a terrorist by Washington.

Based over the Pakistan border, Hekmatyar has ties to al-Qaida and has launched deadly attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Fighters loyal to Hekmatyar also have strongholds in Baghlan, Kunduz and Kunar provinces in the north and northeast Afghanistan.

The other main insurgent group is the feared Haqqani network, which maintains close ties to both al-Qaida and the Taliban and commands the loyalties of an estimated 10,000 fighters. The Haqqanis have been blamed for a series of spectacular attacks, including suicide bombings inside Kabul.

By showing he can bring at least one major faction to the negotiating table, Karzai may hope to boost his standing in a tentative peace process that has recently been dominated by Washington. The president has met before with representatives of Hekmatyar, whose political allies hold seats in the Afghan parliament and Cabinet, but Saturday's public announcement seemed intended to bolster Karzai's insistence on inclusion in the U.S.-led peace process.

"It should be mentioned that the Afghan nation is the owner of the peace process and negotiations," Karzai said. "No foreign country or organization can prevent (Afghans) from exercising this right."

The U.S. has repeatedly said that formal negotiations must be Afghan-led, but Karzai is reportedly uneasy with his government not being directly involved in recent preliminary talks with Taliban representatives.

U.S. representative Grossman began meeting with Karzai on Saturday, the U.S. Embassy said.

Grossman, however, stressed that any future negotiations would include Afghanistan's government.

"After our meeting with President Karzai, we will decide what to do next because we take his guidance and advice in an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process," Grossman said Friday during a stop in India.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet also arrived in Kabul on Saturday for talks with Afghan officials after Paris suspended training missions following the killing of four French troops by an Afghan soldier, the latest in a rising number of assaults in which Afghan security forces or infiltrators have turned their guns on coalition forces.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan early over the deaths, a potential setback for the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to build a national army and allow foreign troops to go home.

After a briefing with an Afghan general, Longuet said in footage broadcast on France's LCI TV that the killer was a 21-year-old former soldier "who deserted, who went to Pakistan, who re-engaged in the Afghan army."

Earlier in the day, the French defense minister said his mission in Kabul is to "evaluate the attitude our officials should take" in the future.

On Saturday, insurgents killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said. The statement gave no other details, nor the nationality of the casualty.

Insurgents clashed Saturday with government forces in the town of Barmal in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, said Maj. Abdul Rahman, who coordinates coalition and Afghan operations in the area.

The Paktika governor's office said four attackers were trying to enter the town's main bazaar and then move toward government offices and military bases nearby. Before they could, Afghan security forces engaged them in a one-hour gun battle and all four attackers were killed, it said.

Separately, a roadside bomb killed four Afghan civilians Saturday morning in Helmand province in the south, the Interior Ministry said.

___

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-21-AS-Afghanistan/id-142861035067407180b0a31c957bcebc

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3 shark attacks in Australia in less than 3 weeks (AP)

SYDNEY ? A snorkeling guide was attacked by a 10-foot (3-meter) tiger shark off a remote beach in Australia's third attack this month. That's as many attacks as the country generally sees in an entire year.

David Pickering, 26, was leading a group of snorkelers through a lagoon at Western Australia's Coral Bay on Thursday when the shark swam up to him and sunk its teeth into his arm.

"I turned around and boom, there he was," Pickering told reporters. "(The force) was enough to actually bring me forward and under him because I scraped my knee on his belly."

Pickering said he punched the shark with his other arm and it backed off. He then yelled at the other snorkelers ? a couple and their two children ? to get out of the water before swimming the 300 feet (100 meters) back to shore.

"I'm pretty stoked that it happened to me and not one of those kids," he said.

Pickering was taken to a hospital in Perth with severe lacerations to his arm. His injuries were not life-threatening and he was in stable condition, Royal Flying Doctor Service spokeswoman Joanne Hill said.

The attack came one day after a surfer was bitten by a shark at a beach off Australia's east coast. Another surfer was attacked at a beach north of Sydney on Jan. 3.

Despite the encounter, Pickering said the attack wouldn't keep him away from the ocean.

"I'll definitely be back in the water ? as soon as this bad boy is healed up," he said, holding his arm up with a laugh.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_shark_attack

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Line6 introduces StageScape visual mixer, lets you touch it up to eleven

It might seem like we've gone mixer mad around here, but with a huge music trade-show starting this week, it's no surprise there's a pile of new tech on offer. The StageScape M20d visual mixer from Line 6 being one such example. Of course, we have inputs (12 line / mic, four line-only, and two for USB/SD streaming) and outputs (four XLR monitors, two master) all strummed along by internal 32-bit floating-point processing. What piqued our interest, however, was that seven inch screen you see up there. Rather than fumble over a mash of faders, you thumb the instrument's icon to pull up its parameters. Other features include Kaossilator style X-Y multi-parameter control, and color coded pots -- presumably so you don't kill the guitar solo by mistake. A final flourish is remote control via an iPad, for mid-track sound tweaks -- though you might need one of these. Tap the PR after the break for more info.

Continue reading Line6 introduces StageScape visual mixer, lets you touch it up to eleven

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Hitler lair to become tourist spot in Poland

The Hitler lair, also known as the 'Wolf's Lair,' was the site of an assassination attempt on the Nazi leader by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.?

Poland is looking for an investor to turn the "Wolf's Lair" of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler into a tourist attraction.

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The ruins of Hitler's fortress complex deep in the woodlands of northeastern Poland is famed as the site of an assassination attempt on Hitler by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and popularised by a 2008 film starring Tom Cruise.

The Wolf's Lair served as one of Hitler's military headquarters during World War Two and was destroyed by the Nazi forces as they retreated in early 1945.

The site -- whose name refers to Hitler's nickname, "Mr. Wolf" -- consisted of 80 buildings at its peak and is owned by the local forestry authority.

"We are waiting for offers, but so far we have none," local forestry official Zenon Piotrowicz said.

"The requirements are quite high because we want a new leaseholder to invest a lot, particularly in a museum with an exhibition that could be open all year long."

The remaining ruins are open to the public, but do not attract many visitors because they are hidden deep in a forest and accessible only by treacherous dirt roads.

The fortress near the Russian border was built in 1940 and 1941 to protect Hitler and other top Nazi officials from air bombardment during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. It had its own power plant and a railway station.

The complex was heavily camouflaged deep inside a forest and surrounded by a minefield, which took 10 years to clear after the war. ?

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