TourAngle144 ? Golf Club Lessons

Visit the official TourAngle144 website: www.tourangle144.com Watch the TV commercial as seen on The Golf Channel, ESPN, TNT, Direct TV and Dish Network: youtu.be Read reviews from The Hackers Paradise, Golf.com and more: www.tourangle144.com TourAngle144 features and benefits for your golf swing: ? Promotes perfect posture ? Promotes a one piece take-away ? Trains you to delay the releasing of the golf club until impact ? Gives instant feedback to prevent casting, and cure your slice ? Instantly secures to any club with your own grip (NO SCREWS, TOOLS) ? Switch between golf clubs in seconds ? Use on the range or course to hit golf balls ? Will help cure your chipping yips ? Fits easily in your pocket ? Set a consistent shaft-to-forearm angle, to build one basic golf swing ? Lifetime replacement warranty ? DVD Golf Lesson from Top 100 Instructor Steve Bosdosh ? Made in the USA Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com Golf club lessons are most often overpriced, and prevents the average golfer from taking these very important fundamental lessons. Learning one basic swing, and being able to execute the same swing every time is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the game of golf, and is what the best players in the world are best at. When you are able to simplify the golf swing through golf club lessons, you are able to execute the golf swing easier and with less risk of something going wrong. The first step in golf club lessons is to learn <b>?</b>

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3. Excerpts from the Tour Angle 144 Golf Swing Training DVD ? www.tourangle144.com
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5. Your Friday Fix ? No Hump ? Golf Lessons by tripp

Source: http://golfonlineupdate.com/tourangle144-golf-club-lessons/

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Pushback (TIME)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180409141?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Romney plans aggressive push before Iowa caucuses (AP)

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa ? Feeling optimistic, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Thursday was positive on TV with an upbeat, new ad but in person went negative against President Barack Obama. He also announced an aggressive schedule of campaign events for the days leading up to next week's caucuses.

Romney, who is wrapping up a bus tour of eastern Iowa on Friday, planned to campaign in New Hampshire early Saturday before returning to Iowa that evening for a series of events on the economy. Those events are to be followed by six campaign rallies, mostly in eastern Iowa, from Sunday through Tuesday's caucuses, including an early morning one before voters start gathering to declare their candidate preferences.

Romney will then spend caucus night in Des Moines before flying to New Hampshire on Wednesday morning.

The newly planned events show a confident Romney campaign in the final five days of the campaign for Iowa. While Romney had spent months working to lower expectations that he would win here, the latest polls show him in strong position to win outright or finish in second place behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Romney's six rallies begin New Year's Day in Council Bluffs, in the western part of the state. In 2008, he did well in nearby counties where agribusiness drives the economy. He'll hold another set of rallies in eastern Iowa, where he also performed well.

The plans come as Romney began running a new, minute-long TV ad in Iowa. The spot shows clips from Romney's announcement speech in June. Romney also talks in the ad about the "spirit of enterprise" and focuses on the opportunities America has provided its people.

Romney repeated the pitch from the ad during an early-morning stop at a diner. He ignored his Republican rivals, who are also campaigning furiously in the state, and focused instead on the Democratic president.

"We have a choice in this coming election of what kind of America we're going to have," Romney told the crowd at J's Homestyle Cooking. "It's not just about replacing a president. It's about saving the soul of America. Are we going to change America into something we don't recognize?"

The former Massachusetts governor had two other events scheduled Thursday, including at Music Man Square in Mason City, the birthplace of playwright Meredith Willson. Willson set his play, "The Music Man," in a fictional Iowa town that he based on Mason City.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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AP sources: US to sell F-15s to Saudi Arabia (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration is poised to announce the sale of nearly $30 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The deal will send 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more, for a total of $29.4 billion, according to the officials, who requested anonymity because the sale has not been made public.

The agreement boosts the military strength of Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, at a time when the Obama administration is looking to counter Iranian threats in the region. Underscoring that effort was a fresh threat this week from Tehran, which warned that 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 oil exports.

About a year ago, the administration got the go-ahead from Congress for a 10-year, $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that included F-15s, helicopters and a broad array of missiles, bombs and delivery systems, as well as radar warning systems and night-vision goggles.

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.

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.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Honolulu contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_saudi_arabia

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Studies of deadly H5N1 bird flu mutations test scientific ethics

In a top-security lab in the Netherlands, scientists guard specimens of a super-killer influenza that slays half of those it infects and spreads easily from victim to victim.

It is a beast long feared by influenza experts, but it didn't come from nature. The scientists made it themselves.

Their noxious creation could help prevent catastrophe in the battle against the deadly H5N1 bird flu that has ravaged duck and chicken flocks across Asia and elsewhere since the mid-1990s but has mostly left our species alone ? for one crucial reason. Though H5N1 kills with brutality when it takes hold in a human, it infects extremely rarely and doesn't go on to easily spread between people.

Public health officials have long fretted that the virus may one day find a way to do so.

Now, in engineering what nature has so far not unleashed, the Dutch team and another in the U.S. that also has conducted sensitive H5N1 research have rekindled a debate that has smoldered since the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people.

The questions: Is some research too dangerous to publish? How do you make sure the wrong people don't get the information and the right people do?

In an unprecedented move, a government biosafety advisory panel has asked the Dutch and U.S. teams, as well as editors at two prestigious journals where their work has been accepted for publication, to omit crucial details about the research "that could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm."

Experts said the events signaled a "new phase" for the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which was chartered in 2004 to help assess potential risks of biological research and has never before stepped in so aggressively.

"We'll have to see how it plays out," said Ronald Atlas, a biologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and former president of the American Society for Microbiology who has been involved in discussions about biosafety for more than a decade.

"How one decides who to share the information with ? who do you trust, especially when you're not dealing with classified information and it's not just in the U.S. ? is going to be hard to work out."

Ron Fouchier, the Dutch virologist whose lab created the new H5N1 that can readily spread between ferrets ? animals that respond to influenza much as humans do ? has no doubt that his research is worthwhile. Creating viruses like this one is the only way to study them and get out ahead of a pandemic, he said.

"It's all about predicting what will hit you next. We want to predict earthquakes and tsunamis; we also want to predict what will happen with the bird flu virus," he said. "This work needed to be done."

As far back as 1997, he wanted to figure out whether H5N1, which has killed nearly 60% of the roughly 600 people known to have contracted it, could evolve to spread efficiently from mammal to mammal. If it could, that might pose a catastrophic threat to humans.

"We would be in very deep trouble," he said.

The genetic path to such an outcome is unclear. Though scientists know that the key to stoking a flu pandemic comes from the virus gaining the ability to transmit through droplets from sneezes and coughs, they can't say just what changes in the virus bring that about.

And with H5N1, in any case, many scientists thought it was impossible. Strains carrying the H5 type of a key influenza protein that helps the virus bind to cells in a host had never evolved to travel through the air from person to person.

Even if H5N1 did evolve such an ability, some researchers reasoned that it might do so at the expense of its ability to take hold deep in the lung. And that would make it less lethal.

"They said it's never happened before, so it won't happen at all," Fouchier said. "To me, that was weak."

Over the course of a decade, Fouchier carefully began to test these assumptions about H5N1 by trying to create a version of the virus that could travel from ferret to ferret.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/-cQ5liotZMA/la-sci-bird-flu-20111227,0,4778290.story

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Did Cheetah from 1930s Tarzan flicks die? (AP)

PALM HARBOR, Fla. ? A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah, the chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s, has died at 80. But other accounts call that claim into question.

Debbie Cobb, outreach director at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, said Wednesday that her grandparents acquired Cheetah around 1960 from "Tarzan" star Johnny Weissmuller and that the chimp appeared in Tarzan films between 1932 and 1934. During that period, Weissmuller made "Tarzan the Ape Man" and "Tarzan and His Mate."

But Cobb offered no documentation, saying it was destroyed in a 1995 fire.

Also, some Hollywood accounts indicate a chimpanzee by the name of Jiggs or Mr. Jiggs played Cheetah alongside Weissmuller early on and died in 1938.

In addition, an 80-year-old chimpanzee would be extraordinarily old, perhaps the oldest ever known. According to many experts and Save the Chimps, another Florida sanctuary, chimpanzees in captivity generally live to between 40 and 60, though Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Fla., says it has one that is around 73.

A similar claim about another chimpanzee that supposedly played second banana to Weissmuller was debunked in 2008 in a Washington Post story.

Writer R.D. Rosen discovered that the primate, which lived in Palm Springs, Calif., was born around 1960, meaning it wasn't oldest enough to have been in the Tarzan movies of Hollywood's Golden Age that starred Olympic swimming star Weissmuller as the vine-swinging, loincloth-wearing Ape Man and Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane.

While a number of chimpanzees played the sidekick role in the Tarzan movies of the 1930s and `40s, Rosen said in an email Wednesday that this latest purported Cheetah looks like a "business-boosting impostor as well."

"I'm afraid any chimp who actually shared a soundstage with Weissmuller and O'Sullivan is long gone," Rosen said.

Cobb said Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure and was cremated.

"Unfortunately, there was a fire in `95 in which a lot of that documentation burned up," Cobb said. "I'm 51 and I've known him for 51 years. My first remembrance of him coming here was when I was actually 5, and I've known him since then, and he was a full-grown chimp then."

Film historian and Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osbourne said the Cheetah character "was one of the things people loved about the Tarzan movies because he made people laugh. He was always a regular fun part of the movies."

In his time, the Cheetah character was as popular as Rin Tin Tin or Asta, the dog from the "Thin Man" movies, Osbourne said.

"He was a major star," he said.

At the animal sanctuary, Cheetah was outgoing, loved finger painting and liked to see people laugh, Cobb said. But he could also be ill-tempered. Cobb said that when the chimp didn't like what was going on, he would fling feces and other objects.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Nuckols in Washington and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.

___

Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_en_ot/us_obit_cheetah

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Senate OKs payroll tax cut, huge spending bill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Senate voted Saturday to temporarily avert a Jan. 1 payroll tax increase and benefit cutoff for the long-time unemployed, forcing a reluctant President Barack Obama to make an election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.

The action set up a Monday vote in the House, where many GOP lawmakers told their leaders they are ready to reject the measure.

With the still-reeling economy serving as a backdrop, the Senate's 89-10 vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that produced the compromise two-month extension of the expiring tax breaks and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors' Medicare reimbursements.

Senate passage capped a year of divided government marked by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour deals emerge. It also put the two sides on track to revisit the payroll tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and Congress heat up.

However, House GOP leaders held a conference call Saturday with rank-and-file lawmakers in which participants said strong anger was expressed about the Senate bill, including its lack of House-approved cuts in last year's health care overhaul law and its failure to erase the reductions in doctors' payments for more than two months.

"You can't have an economic recovery with this," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said of the bill "If the Senate is incapable of doing that, we don't have to accept it."

A House GOP aide said afterward, "Members are overwhelmingly disappointed in the Senate's decision to just `kick the can down the road' for two months.'

By 67-32, senators gave final congressional approval to a separate $1 trillion bill financing the Pentagon and scores of other federal agencies through next September. That measure avoided a shuttering of government offices that otherwise would have occurred this weekend when temporary financing expired.

The tax legislation delivers tax cuts and jobless benefits that some Republicans opposed. It also represents a rebuff of Obama's original demands for a yearlong payroll tax reduction for 160 million workers that was to be even deeper than this year's cut, extended to employers and paid for by boosting taxes on the highest-earning Americans.

The measure's $33 billion price tag will be paid for instead by raising fees that government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will charge to back new mortgages or refinancings, beginning next year. When fully phased in, those increases could cost a person with a $200,000 mortgage about $17 a month.

Despite the changes, Obama praised the Senate for passing the bill and prodded the Republican-run House to give it final approval in a vote, which has been expected early next week. He exhorted lawmakers to extend the tax cuts and jobless aid for the entire year, saying it would be "inexcusable" not to.

"It should be a formality, and hopefully it's done with as little drama as possible when they get back in January" from their holiday recess, he said.

The Senate adjourned for the year after its votes Saturday.

While Obama and Democrats used the fight to portray themselves as defenders of beleaguered middle- and lower-income people, Republicans used it to cast themselves as champions of job creation.

Headlining that was a provision they inserted forcing Obama to make a decision within two months on whether to allow construction of the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which is to deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The language requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.

Unions have clamored for the thousands of jobs the project could create. Environmentalists have decried the huge amounts of energy it would take to extract the oil. Obama originally announced he was delaying a decision until 2013, which would have allowed him to avoid choosing between two Democratic constituencies before Election Day next November.

When the House inserted the language into its version of the payroll tax bill this month, Obama said he would "reject" the legislation if it retained the Keystone provision. He abandoned that stance this past week as GOP leaders said they would insist on keeping the Keystone language and the final deal jelled.

"The only thing standing between thousands of American workers and the good jobs this project will provide is a presidential decision," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

An administration official said Friday that Obama would almost surely refuse to grant the permit, a stance echoed Saturday by congressional Democrats.

"We feel we're giving them the sleeves off a vest," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Democrats said when Congress revisits the issue of renewing the tax cuts and jobless benefits early next year, they would win the political battle because they would be viewed as protecting peoples' household budgets.

Republicans, though, said they would once again focus the fight on jobs, with some predicting they would try adding provisions to repeal pollution curbs and other government regulations that they say make it harder for companies to hire people.

"There are lots of issues Republicans are interested in as job creators that will still be alive in March," said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

The tax bill would renew this year's 4.2 percent payroll tax through February, preventing the rate from bouncing back to its normal 6.2 percent on New Year's Day. Obama pushed that cut through Congress a year ago as a way to help spark the economy by leaving more money in people's pockets.

A $50,000-a-year wage earner would save about $170 during next year's first two months under the bill the Senate approved Saturday.

Obama had proposed reducing the payroll tax employees pay to 3.1 percent next year. The levy is the chief source of revenue for Social Security.

For two more months, the tax measure would also continue current jobless benefits that provide a maximum 99 weeks of coverage for people who have been out of work the longest. Without any extension, the White House said, 2.5 million people would have lost coverage by the end of February.

The bill also prevents a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors that might have induced some to stop treating the program's elderly beneficiaries.

The spending legislation carries out budget cuts across government that Republicans won earlier this year and includes GOP provisions blocking energy efficiency and coal dust requirements. Democrats fought off Republican language that would have blocked limits on greenhouse gases and hazardous emissions from utility plants and other sources.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_rdp

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BlackBerry delay darkens RIM's future (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) ? A months-long delay in Research in Motion's new BlackBerrys and a dreary quarterly report sent RIM shares tumbling again on Friday and pushed some analysts to sound the death knell for the mobile device that once defined the industry.

RIM's announcement late Thursday that it expected to launch smartphones powered by its new QNX operating system months after initially expected revived calls for the ouster of RIM's co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

The delay, combined with a dismal performance outlook issued along with the quarterly results, sparked renewed chatter about the break-up of the Canadian tech giant, which has floundered as nimbler competitors claw away at its market share.

"RIM confirmed the BlackBerry 10 smartphones will be delayed until the latter part of calendar 2012. This could be game over for the BlackBerry franchise," analysts at Canadian brokerage National Bank Financial wrote in a note to clients. BlackBerry 10 is the name the company has given to the QNX phones, which RIM had initially expected to deliver in the first quarter.

On Friday, the delay spurred several brokerage firms to cut their price targets and ratings on RIM shares and sent the Waterloo, Ontario-based company's shares tumbling more than 12 percent on Friday.

"We see a high risk that this is too late to turn around RIM's position and believe the risk of further delays is meaningful," Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey said in a research note. "Even in the best case, however, it seems unlikely RIM will have large volumes of its BB10 devices on sale within 15 months."

RIM has been counting on the new QNX operating system to make up ground lost to Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad and the slew of devices that use Google Inc's Android software. The delay portends another long year of transition for RIM, allowing rivals to make further in-roads into RIM's market share.

RIM on Thursday also provided a gloomy outlook for earning as sales of an interim line of legacy BlackBerry 7 smartphones lag during the crucial holiday season. Even if shipments hit the high-end of RIM's expectations during Christmas, the company will still post the first annual decline in its history.

The constant stream of bad news from RIM over the last year has driven its shares to their lowest since early 2004, and it has led to analyst and investor demands for Balsillie and Lazaridis to step down.

"RIM reminds me of a beloved grandparent. You love them, but they are very outdated and sooner or later they will be gone," said independent analyst Jeff Kagan in an email.

"Either the existing CEOs must update their thinking or bring in a new CEO to lead the company out of the darkness and back into the sunshine before it is too late."

PRICE TARGET CUTS

Canaccord Genuity cut its price target on RIM's U.S.-listed shares to $15 from $18, citing the delay in the launch of BlackBerry 10 and the company's plans to spend more on sales and marketing to help sustain interim sales.

Barclays shared similar concerns about the company's projected investments in marketing and loyalty programs to regain "mind" share.

"Benefits of the investments are not guaranteed but are likely to keep RIM's operating margins at sustainably lower levels through 2012 and 2013," Barclays said.

Barclay's cut it price target on RIM's U.S.-listed shares to $14 from $16; Citigroup reduced it price target to $12 from $15, and National Bank Financial dropped its price target to $8 from $10.

Research in Motion shares, which have lost almost half their value in the last three months, fell 11.2 percent to $13.44 Friday afternoon on the Nasdaq. The Toronto-listed shares fell 12.1 percent to C$13.89.

(Reporting By Euan Rocha in Toronto and Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore; Editing by Frank McGurty)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111217/wr_nm/us_rim

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Venezuela honors Simon Bolivar with new coffin

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez salutes upon his arrival to the national pantheon to attend a ceremony marking the 181th anniversary of the death of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar in Caracas,Venezuela, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez salutes upon his arrival to the national pantheon to attend a ceremony marking the 181th anniversary of the death of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar in Caracas,Venezuela, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez salutes upon his arrival to the national pantheon to attend a ceremony marking the 181th anniversary of the death of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar in Caracas,Venezuela, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez gestures during a ceremony marking the 181th anniversary of the death of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar in Caracas,Venezuela, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, gestures next to the new coffin containing the remains of Venezuela's Independence hero Simon Bolivar, during a ceremony marking his 181st death anniversary at the National Pantheon in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Miraflores Press Office)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez paid tribute to 19th century independence leader Simon Bolivar on Saturday by unveiling a new coffin containing Bolivar's remains and adorned with gold, pearls and diamonds.

Soldiers lifted a flag from the mahogany coffin during a ceremony marking the anniversary of Bolivar's death in 1830. Bolivar is both a national hero in Venezuela and the namesake of Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution political movement.

"You live on in us," Chavez said in a speech, standing next to the coffin. "As the years pass, you will be more alive, father Bolivar."

Officials have said Chavez's government is spending 119 million bolivars ($27.7 million) to build a new mausoleum to house Bolivar's remains. The mausoleum is to have a soaring roof, and a metal framework has been partly erected behind the National Pantheon, where Bolivar's remains have long been entombed.

Chavez oversaw the exhumation of Bolivar's remains last year, seeking to confirm his idol's identity and investigate a theory that Bolivar could have been killed. Researchers confirmed Bolivar's identity through DNA tests but were unable to pin down the cause of his death.

The new coffin bears golden stars and the national seal, as well as Bolivar's initials and golden laurels. An announcer said the decorations on the coffin include diamonds and pearls from Venezuela.

Chavez has made Bolivar a central symbol throughout his nearly 13-year-old presidency. He often speaks below a portrait of Bolivar. In 1999, Chavez promoted the approval of a new constitution that changed the country's name to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-17-LT-Venezuela-Chavez/id-9a9bf0c3d4dc4d69b48ed4d1ef627a83

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Jailed Hezbollah commander turned over to Iraqis (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The last American prisoner in Iraq, a Hezbollah commander linked to the kidnapping deaths of four U.S. soldiers, was turned over to the Iraqi government Friday, the White House said.

U.S. officials have long feared that such a transfer would lead to Ali Mussa Daqduq's release from prison. But his case became enmeshed in both international diplomacy and the Washington political debate over how best to prosecute suspected terrorists.

Under President George W. Bush, prosecutors had planned to someday charge Daqduq in a U.S. criminal court. But those plans were scrapped after Obama took office and lawmakers began restricting the president's ability to bring terrorist suspects into the United States for trial.

Many Republicans had wanted Daqduq prosecuted before a military tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba. The Obama administration had hoped a compromise would be to prosecute Daqduq in a first-of-its-kind military commission on U.S. soil.

But the Iraqi government would not let the United States take Daqduq out of the country for trial, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

"We have sought and received assurances that he will be tried for his crimes," Vietor said Friday.

It was not immediately clear what charges he could face. The U.S. has said he was part of a brazen raid in which four American soldiers were abducted and killed in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala in 2007.

Iraq has had a shoddy record on detainee security. Last year, just a week after the U.S. turned more than 1,000 detainees at its Camp Cropper prison over to Iraqi control, four al-Qaida-linked detainees escaped. An investigation showed that the detainees had inside help.

That had lawmakers worried that Daqduq would return to Hezbollah soon after his transfer. Shortly before the White House announcement, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was gathering signatures on a letter to Obama.

"Daqduq's Iranian paymasters would like nothing more than to see him transferred to Iraqi custody where they could effectively pressure for his escape or release," Kirk wrote. "We truly hope you will not let that happen."

With the war over and Iraq a sovereign country, the United States is now bound by its diplomatic agreements with Baghdad. Shuttling Daqduq out of the country without the approval of the Iraqi government would have risked damaging U.S.-Iraqi relations.

Vietor said a trial at Guantanamo Bay was never an option, either for the Iraqis or for the administration.

"The policy of this administration, because we believe it's in our national security interest, is to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, not add to the population," he said.

Two Iraqi officials, speaking under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said Daqduq was in the custody of Iraqi judiciary authorities in Baghdad. Daqduq will stand before an Iraq investigative judge, one official said. Investigative judges decide whether there is enough evidence for a trial and recommend specific charges, somewhat like a grand jury does in the U.S. system.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata in Washington and Qassim Abdul Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_go_ot/us_hezbollah_prisoner

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'Cold shutdown': Japan reactor declared stable

David Guttenfelder / Pool via EPA, file

A building of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station as seen through a bus window in Okuma, Japan, on Nov. 12.

By msnbc.com news services

Updated at 6:23 a.m. ET

TOKYO -- The tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has reached a "cold shutdown" and is no longer leaking substantial amounts of radiation, Japan's prime minister?said Friday.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's announcement marks a milestone nine months after the March 11 tsunami sent three reactors at the plant into meltdowns in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.?It is a?crucial step toward lifting evacuation orders and closing the plant.

---

"Even if unforeseeable incidents happen, the situation is such that radiation levels on the boundary of the plant can now be maintained at a low level," Noda said. "Now that we have achieved stability in the reactors, a major concern for the nation has been resolved."

However,?experts noted that the plant remains vulnerable. Its surroundings are contaminated by radiation and closing the plant safely will take 30 or more years.

'Our battle is not over'
NBC News reported that there are still sporadic reports of leaks of contaminated water from the site.?

"There are many issues that remain," Noda added. "Our battle is not over."

Noda's?announcement means officials?can now start discussing whether to allow some evacuees to return to less-contaminated areas ? although a 12-mile zone around the plant is expected to remain off limits for years to come. The crisis displaced some 100,000 people.

A cold shutdown normally means a nuclear reactor's coolant system is at atmospheric pressure and its reactor core is at a temperature below 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius), making it impossible for a chain reaction to take place.

According to?plant operator?TEPCO, temperature gauges inside the Fukushima reactors show the pressure vessel is at around 158 degrees??F (70 C). The government also says the amount of radiation now being released around the plant is at or below 1 millisievert per year ? equivalent to the annual legal exposure limit for ordinary citizens before the crisis began.

Akira Yamaguchi, a nuclear physicist at Osaka University, said that the government's definition of cold shutdown is disputable.

"But what's most important right now is that there aren't any massive radiation leaks any more," he said.

Winter woes?
Putting longer-term issues aside, he warned that much of the backup equipment installed at the plant since the crisis began is makeshift and may break down. He said winter cold could test their strength.

Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of?evacuated Naimie town,?told a?press conference Friday that it was "hard to accept" Noda's declaration.

"We still feel a major distrust towards the government," he added.

Located 150 miles northeast of Tokyo, the plant was wrecked by a huge earthquake and a?tsunami that exceeded 45 feet in some areas, which knocked out its cooling systems, triggering meltdowns and radiation leaks.

NBC News reported that?the extraction of more than 3,000 fuel rods from the site, most likely?involving robotic cranes, is due to begin next year. High-powered water sprays will be used to decontaminate?roads and other infrastructure in nearby towns from early next month.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

NBC News' Arata Yamamoto, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9485735-cold-shutdown-japan-reactor-now-stable-pm-says

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US formally ends Iraq war with little fanfare

The US Forces Iraq colors are lowered before being encased in a ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec., 15, 2011. The ceremonies mark the official end of the US military mission in Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

The US Forces Iraq colors are lowered before being encased in a ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec., 15, 2011. The ceremonies mark the official end of the US military mission in Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

US Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta, right, walks across tarmac with Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, left, Commander of US Forces Iraq, during his arrival at Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec., 15, 2011. Panetta is participating in the ceremonies marking the end of the US military mission in Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

US Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta, second from the left, and Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey, far left, during the encasing of the US Forces Iraq colors, in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec., 15, 2011. The ceremonies mark the official end of the US military mission in Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Nearly nine years after American troops stormed across the Iraq border in a blaze of shock and awe, U.S. officials quietly ended the bloody and bitterly divisive conflict here Thursday, but the debate over whether it was worth the cost in money and lives is yet unanswered.

While many of the speeches painted a picture of victory ? for both the troops and the Iraqi people now set on a path for democracy ? the gnawing questions remain: Will Iraqis be able to forge their new government amid the still stubborn sectarian clashes. And will Iraq be able to defend itself and remain independent in a region fraught with turmoil and still steeped in insurgent threats.

Stark reminders of the fragile and often violent nature of the situation in Iraq engulfed the 45-minute ceremony. It was tucked into fortified corner of the airport, ringed with concrete blast walls. And on the chairs ? nearly empty of Iraqis ? were tags that listed not only the name of the VIP assigned to the seat, but the bunker they should move to in case of an attack.

The speeches touched on the success of the mission as well as its losses: Nearly 4,500 Americans and 100,000 Iraqis killed. Another 32,000 American and tens of thousands Iraqis wounded. And $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury.

On the other side of the ledger, an Iraq free from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, inching forward toward democracy and vowing to be a good neighbor in the region.

"To be sure the cost was high ? in blood and treasure of the United States and also the Iraqi people," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the roughly 200 troops and others in attendance. "Those lives have not been lost in vain -- they gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq."

Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the Iraqi people now have an unprecedented opportunity to live in a relatively peaceful environment, but he also acknowledged it will be a challenging time. And he urged Iraqi leaders to make good choices based on what is best for their people.

"Violence and prosperity cannot co-exist," said Austin, who eight years, eight months and 26 days ago gave the order for U.S. troops to storm across the border into Iraq. And on Thursday he gave the order to retire the flag of U.S. Forces-Iraq.

The flag was then rolled up, covered by a camouflage colored sheath and will be brought back to the U.S.

Speaking to the troops in the audience, Panetta lauded their service and their bravery, adding, "You will leave with great pride ? lasting pride ? secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to begin a new chapter in history."

Many Iraqis, however, are uncertain of how that chapter will unfold. Their relief at the end of Saddam, who was hanged on the last day of 2006, was tempered by a long and vicious war that was launched to find non-existent weapons of mass destruction and nearly plunged the nation into full-scale sectarian civil war.

"With this withdrawal, the Americans are leaving behind a destroyed country," said Mariam Khazim, a Shiite whose father was killed when a mortar shell struck his home in Sadr City. "The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans. The Americans did not leave a free people and country behind them, in fact they left a ruined country and a divided nation."

Some Iraqis celebrated the exit of what they called American occupiers, neither invited nor welcome in a proud country.

"The American ceremony represents the failure of the U.S. occupation of Iraq due to the great resistance of the Iraqi people," said lawmaker Amir al-Kinani, a member of the political coalition loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Others said that while grateful for U.S. help ousting Saddam, the war went on too long. A majority of Americans would agree, according to opinion polls.

The low-key nature of the ceremony stood in sharp contrast to the high octane start of the war, which began before dawn on March 20, 2003, with an airstrike in southern Baghdad where Saddam was believed to be hiding. U.S. and allied ground forces then stormed across the featureless Kuwaiti desert, accompanied by reporters, photographers and television crews embedded with the troops.

The final few thousand U.S. troops will leave Iraq in orderly caravans and tightly scheduled flights.

Austin led the massive logistical challenge of shuttering hundreds of bases and combat outposts, and methodically moving more than 50,000 U.S. troops and their equipment out of Iraq over the last year ? while still conducting training, security assistance and counterterrorism battles.

The war "tested our military's strength and our ability to adapt and evolve," he said, noting the development of the new counterinsurgency doctrine.

As of Thursday, there were two U.S. bases and less than 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq ? a dramatic drop from the roughly 500 military installations and as many as 170,000 troops during the surge ordered by President George W. Bush in 2007, when violence and raging sectarianism gripped the country. All U.S. troops are slated to be out of Iraq by the end of the year, but officials are likely to meet that goal a bit before then.

The total U.S. departure is a bit earlier than initially planned, and military leaders worry that it is a bit premature for the still maturing Iraqi security forces, who face continuing struggles to develop the logistics, air operations, surveillance and intelligence-sharing capabilities they will need in what has long been a difficult region.

Despite President Barack Obama's earlier contention that all American troops would be home for Christmas, at least 4,000 forces will remain in Kuwait for some months. The troops will be able to help finalize the move out of Iraq, but could also be used as a quick reaction force if needed.

Obama stopped short of calling the U.S. effort in Iraq a victory in an interview taped Thursday with ABC News' Barbara Walters.

"I would describe our troops as having succeeded in the mission of giving to the Iraqis their country in a way that gives them a chance for a successful future," Obama said.

Despite the war's toll and unpopularity, Panetta insisted that it "has not been in vain."

Iraqi citizens offered a more pessimistic assessment. "The Americans are leaving behind them a destroyed country," said Mariam Khazim of Sadr City. "The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans."

The Iraq Body Count website says more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion. The vast majority were civilians.

Panetta echoed Obama's promise that the U.S. plans to keep a robust diplomatic presence in Iraq, foster a deep and lasting relationship with the nation and maintain a strong military force in the region.

U.S. officials were unable to reach an agreement with the Iraqis on legal issues and troop immunity that would have allowed a small training and counterterrorism force to remain. U.S. defense officials said they expect there will be no movement on that issue until sometime next year.

Obama met in Washington with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki earlier this week, vowing to remain committed to Iraq as the two countries struggle to define their new relationship. Ending the war was an early goal of the Obama administration, and Thursday's ceremony will allow the president to fulfill a crucial campaign promise during a politically opportune time. The 2012 presidential race is roiling and Republicans are in a ferocious battle to determine who will face off against Obama in the election.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-15-Iraq/id-530e6dafbb2f47c78e67b91bb2cfd3be

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Olympus reveals $1 billion balance sheet hit (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp ironed out its crooked accounts on Wednesday after a 13-year fraud, with a $1.1 billion dent in its balance sheet triggering speculation it will need to merge, sell assets or raise capital to repair its finances.

The 92-year-old maker of cameras and medical equipment filed five years' worth of corrected statements, plus overdue first-half results, just hours before a Tokyo Stock Exchange deadline that could have seen it automatically delisted.

The most recent restatement, for end-June 2011, showed an 84 billion yen ($1.08 billion) reduction in net assets. Olympus added that as of end-September, its net assets were just 46 billion yen, down from a restated 225 billion yen in March 2007.

It also revealed a net loss of 32.33 billion yen for the six months to end-September, further fuelling talk the once-proud firm would need to move quickly to shore up its balance sheet or risk becoming prey to a takeover.

"Most probably Olympus has to increase capital. It's best for the company to merge with others rather than rebuild by itself," said Ryosuke Okazaki, chief investment officer at ITC Investment Partners.

Ousted CEO Michael Woodford, who blew the whistle on the loss cover-up and is campaigning to get his old job back, said that if reinstated, he would move fast to recapitalize Olympus.

But he said he favored private equity or a rights issue over a strategic alliance. Rights issues -- where existing shareholders are issued warrants to buy new stock -- are rare in Japan.

"You have to look at improving the capital structure of the company. Because of the litigation risk, you couldn't do that publicly, so you have (as) options a strategic alliance, private equity or a rights issue," Woodford told Reuters.

He said a strategic alliance would lose Olympus its independence, "which I think the employees most of all would not like."

Olympus President Shuichi Takayama has said he may sell assets or accept a capital tie-up to bolster the capital base.

Olympus has been dogged by rumors of bid interest from rivals, such as fellow endoscope makers Fujifilm and Hoya, or from private equity since it sacked its British chief executive and the scandal broke in October.

The stock, which has since lost about half its value to about $4.7 billion, closed down 4 percent on Wednesday.

RELIEVED, BUT NOT OUT OF THE WOODS

"The company might consider recapitalization because 46 billion yen is a very small amount of equity," said Nanako Imazu, an analyst at CLSA in Tokyo. "Any significant change in earnings to the downside or any significant change in the yen versus the dollar or the euro is a big risk."

Olympus' debt is about 14 times its equity, an extremely high ratio that compares to less than 1 for camera and office equipment maker Canon Inc.

Some investors were at least relieved that Olympus had met the deadline to fix its accounts, without sliding into technical insolvency at any stage in its restated accounts. Olympus also assured investors it was able to secure continued funding.

"This is extremely positive for Olympus as it can avoid getting delisted after meeting the deadline to submit its earnings," said ITC Investment Partners' Okazaki.

Other investors, though, remained wary, noting that the exchange could still delist Olympus if it deemed the past misrepresentations of its financial health were large enough.

"Although liabilities had not exceeded assets, it does not change the fact that they were window-dressing and, since the amount involved is so big and the period of time this was going on was so long, it's difficult to say what the Tokyo Stock Exchange will do," said Fujio Ando, senior managing director at Chibagin Asset Management.

"I would not say that fear of delisting has disappeared."

The Tokyo exchange said after the announcements that it was keeping Olympus on its watchlist for possible delisting.

Some of the restated accounts also came with qualified opinions from auditors, with KPMG AZSA LLC noting it had been unable to confirm all the money flows involved in the fraud.

"We were unable to get sufficient and appropriate proof for auditing on specific assets and amounts," the auditor wrote.

'REALISTIC CHANCE'

Olympus triggered the crisis on October 14 when it sacked Woodford, who immediately went public with his doubts about murky past M&A deals. Woodford is now appealing to shareholders to support his comeback as part of a complete board renewal.

The board has committed to resigning over the scandal, but wants to choose its own successors before quitting, setting up the prospect of a proxy war between its own candidates and those being assembled by Woodford as part of his campaign.

"The shareholding balance is such that there is a realistic chance we could win a proxy fight," Woodford said earlier. But he added that such a battle would cause a split between foreign and Japanese shareholders and he hoped it could be avoided.

"I think it would be harmful because it would show potentially Japan institutional investors are a club," Woodford said about a possible proxy battle.

Three big foreign shareholders -- Southeastern Asset Management, Harris Associates and Baillie Gifford & Co -- have said they back Woodford's bid to be reinstated.

"It continues to be clear that management and the board must change as soon as possible," said Josh Shores, a London-based principal at U.S. fund manager Southeastern Asset Management, Olympus's largest foreign investor.

"Olympus needs a credible board with independent directors providing oversight of the clean-up and company revamp," he told Reuters. "The involvement of Mr. Woodford will be a strong sign that the fix will be done in a thorough and transparent manner positioning Olympus for a strong future."

But Japanese institutional investors appear worried about whether he can win over the company's employees as well as his plans to turn the firm around.

Woodford said he was willing to meet Takayama at any time, but added incumbent directors were too discredited to be in a position to choose their successors.

"The only purge Olympus needs is in the boardroom," Woodford said on a live Internet broadcast late on Wednesday as part of his effort to woo employees, investors and the public.

"The culture is a good one. We make wonderful products. We have strong people and the problem is isolated at the board. So change the board and the company can get behind the new management and start moving forward."

He told Reuters he would probably be the sole foreigner on his list of board candidates. If he lost a proxy fight for control of the company, he would likely abandon his efforts to change the company, he said.

A rare foreign CEO in Japan when he led Olympus, Woodford has sought to soothe concerns about his plans for the firm.

"I want no part in selling Olympus or breaking it up," he said, adding he would not close the struggling camera business.

"People say the 'gaijin' president would shut it," Woodford said, using the Japanese word for foreigner. "I wouldn't."

(Additional reporting by James Topham, Mari Saito, Chikafumi Hodo, Nathan Layne, Yoko Kubota and Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO and Sinead Cruise in LONDON; Writing by Mark Bendeich and Linda Sieg; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/tc_nm/us_olympus

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Actor Hugh Grant to give evidence on privacy (AP)

LONDON ? Actor Hugh Grant and former Formula One chief Max Mosley will give evidence to British lawmakers about privacy laws and injunctions.

The lawmakers are gathering evidence about the efficacy of privacy laws and the use of legal gag orders that have been accused of stifling the media.

Media outlets have expressed alarm at the increasing use of injunctions or so-called "super-injunctions," court orders which not only ban reporting of details of a specific case, but often forbid any public mention that an injunction exists.

Mosley and Grant have both had details of their private lives published in several newspapers and both gave evidence last month at Leveson inquiry on media practices.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_en_mo/eu_britain_privacy

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Xbox to Receive New Content Channels and Windows Phone Connectivity

Via updates to its Xbox Live service, Microsoft will be adding a slew of new TV, movie, sports and news hubs to its Xbox hardware, as well as unifying its gaming and mobile product lineups with a common user interface. And, yes, there's an app for that: Along with the new content options, which begin rolling out Tuesday, Windows Phone users will be able to download a free app that lets them control their Xbox 360s, as well as find, and learn more about, Xbox Live content.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/9OHG39da1OQ/

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US job growth engine badly broken

By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer

The job market seems to be perking up a bit, but it?s just not creating work fast enough. The problem may be that it?s badly broken.

A closer look at the numbers points reveals that entire sections of the labor market are simply not adding jobs because they?re ?structurally impaired, ? according to a recent research report from economists at Credit Suisse. And it looks like they?re going to remain crippled for some time.

From real estate, to finance to manufacturing, these sectors have all but shut down as job-creators. Together, these industries account for about half of the jobs lost from the January, 2008 peak to the January, 2010 trough. With little or no job growth from these sectors, it?s as if half of the job market?s cylinders just aren?t firing.

The hardest-hit sector, real estate, has created the biggest crater in the job market. After overall employment levels peaked, the housing bust wiped out nearly 2.5 million real-estate related jobs over the next two years. Since then, employment levels for the industry has more or less flat-lined. That sector accounts for 38 percent of the jobs lost since the job market collapsed, according to Credit Suisse.

Those jobs won?t come back until the housing market begins to show meaningful recovery. But with a house prices falling and a foreclosure backlog of some four million homes, most forecasters don?t expect to see a meaningful recovery until 2015 at the earliest. In the meantime, that ?structural impairment? will likely keep a lid on new hiring for real estate-related jobs.

The recession also took a big bite out of employment in the finance and auto industries: close to a million jobs went away, or about 14 percent of the lost jobs. Employment levels for those industries haven?t begun to recover, either. Major banks continue to shed jobs as they work to rebuild after the financial panic of 2008. Car makers are enjoying strong sales this fall, but at a pace well below pre-recession levels.

Manufacturing (other than cars) accounts for another 27 percent of the jobs lost since the 2008 peak. Though manufacturing companies have boosted sales and profits since 2008, they?ve done so by making their existing workforces more productive with ?heavy investment in new equipment to automate output. As long as those businesses can squeeze more widgets from the assembly line with advances in technology instead of more workers, lost manufacturing jobs are going to be tough to replace. That?s especially true for the workers who lack the skills to operate all that new high-tech machinery.

Since the job market trough in January 2010, a new sector has become ?structurally impaired? ? state and local governments, which have shed roughly half a million jobs in the past year alone. Those losses are expected to widen as governments plug budget holes opened up by lower tax receipts generated by a weak economy.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/05/9228766-us-job-growth-engine-is-badly-broken

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Family funeral held for 5 young NC slaying victims

A line of five hearses leave Pleasant Garden Baptist Church after a funeral at the church near Greensboro, N.C., Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Mourners packed into a Baptist church in their hometown near Greensboro for a collective funeral for the five children between 8 and 17 gunned down in a shooting rampage by Mary Ann Holder, 36. Officers say Holder apparently shot one of her sons and three other children while they slept at her Pleasant Garden home, shot and wounded her married former lover, then killed her younger son. Holder then killed herself. (AP Photo/News & Record, Nelson Kepley)

A line of five hearses leave Pleasant Garden Baptist Church after a funeral at the church near Greensboro, N.C., Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Mourners packed into a Baptist church in their hometown near Greensboro for a collective funeral for the five children between 8 and 17 gunned down in a shooting rampage by Mary Ann Holder, 36. Officers say Holder apparently shot one of her sons and three other children while they slept at her Pleasant Garden home, shot and wounded her married former lover, then killed her younger son. Holder then killed herself. (AP Photo/News & Record, Nelson Kepley)

Clutching a program memorializing five people who died after they were shot on Nov. 20, two people embrace outside Pleasant Garden Baptist Church after a funeral at the church near Greensboro, N.C., Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Pictured on the brochure are: clockwise from top left, Zachary Lee "Zack" Smith, Dylan Smith, Hanaleigh Michelle Suttles, Richard Brian "Ricky" Suttles and Makayla Lee Woods, center. Mourners packed into a Baptist church in their hometown near Greensboro for a collective funeral for the five children between 8 and 17 gunned down in a shooting rampage by Mary Ann Holder, 36. Officers say Holder apparently shot one of her sons and three other children while they slept at her Pleasant Garden home, shot and wounded her married former lover, then killed her younger son. Holder then killed herself. (AP Photo/News & Record, Nelson Kepley)

PLEASANT GARDEN, N.C. (AP) ? Hundreds of friends, teenagers and teachers filled a North Carolina church Friday to join a family as it buried five children killed in what investigators have described as a family massacre.

Mourners packed into Pleasant Garden Baptist Church to attend the collective funeral for the five children, ages 8 to 17, who authorities say were gunned down in a shooting rampage by Mary Ann Holder, 36. Authorities say Holder apparently shot one of her sons and three other children while they slept at her Pleasant Garden home, shot and wounded her married former lover, then killed her younger son. Holder then killed herself.

Four of the children survived for days with what Sheriff BJ Barnes said were bullet wounds to the head. Holder left two notes apologizing for the pain she'd caused, Barnes said.

So many people attended the funeral in Guilford County that an overflow crowd gathered in the gym of the Family Life Center to watch a live video feed.

Four ministers led the service in the pulpit, under which lay the closed caskets of the five children. Three of the ministers eulogized the child or children they knew best.

Authorities say Holder killed her two sons: Robert Dylan Smith, 17, and Zachary Smith, 14. Barnes said she also killed the niece and nephew she took into her home when her sister died: Richard Brian Suttles, 17, and Hannaleigh Suttles, 8. She also mortally wounded Makayla Leigh Woods, Robert's 15-year-old girlfriend.

"It takes your breath away," friend Brooke Bex said. "I never thought I'd see my friends in a casket at that age."

Another friend, Adam Couch. was a pallbearer for Dylan Smith. He said he choked up when the family asked him to be part of the memorial.

"I never would have thought in a million years I'd be carrying my best friend to his grave, but I'm honored to do it," Couch said.

Holder's mother, Frances, said the family was praying that at least one of the children would survive to describe what happened. Frances Holder said she can't believe her daughter was responsible for the mass killings because she cared deeply for her children.

"People are calling my daughter a deadbeat mother, she was a no-good mother," Frances Holder said Thursday outside the church where mourners visited with the family. "She was very close to her children. I don't know what happened. I have no answers. I'm waiting for answers, just like everyone else."

Mary Ann Holder had been having an affair with Randall Lamb, 40, for more than three years, and its aftermath created months of bitter accusations involving Holder, Lamb and Lamb's wife, including allegations of stalking and harassment.

Jennifer Lamb had prepared but not yet filed a potentially costly lawsuit against Holder accusing her of alienating the affections of her husband, investigators said.

Mary Ann Holder met Randall Lamb the night before the shooting rampage to give him a $10,000 check in an apparent settlement aimed at staving off the threatened lawsuit, criminal investigators said in a search warrant. Holder then asked to meet him again the next morning in a community college parking lot.

That meeting ended with Holder firing several shots at Randall Lamb and wounding him in the shoulder. He recovered in a hospital and has returned home.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-03-Greensboro%20Shootings/id-59356094c39b447da9e71c345646663b

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UN official to AP: pledges to cut CO2 will go on

Protestors shout during a climate change rally outside the climate change summit held in the city of Durban, South Africa, Friday, Dec 2, 2011.(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Protestors shout during a climate change rally outside the climate change summit held in the city of Durban, South Africa, Friday, Dec 2, 2011.(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Protestors march during a climate change rally outside a climate change summit held in the city of Durban, South Africa, Friday, Dec 2, 2011. A report released late Thursday in London and discussed Friday at the U.N. climate conference in South Africa said that _ in theory _ reflecting a small amount of sunlight back into space before it strike's the Earth's surface would have an immediate and dramatic effect.(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

South African Police prevents protestors entering the climate change summit held in the city of Durban, South Africa, Friday, Dec 2, 2011. Brighten clouds with sea water? Spray aerosols high in the stratosphere? Paint roofs white and plant light-colored crops? How about positioning "sun shades" over the Earth? At a time of deep concern over global warming, a group of scientists, philosophers and legal scholars examined whether human intervention could artificially cool the Earth _ and what would happen if it did.(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Protestors shout during a climate change rallyoutside the climate change summit held in the city of Durban, South Africa, Friday, Dec 2, 2011. A report released late Thursday in London and discussed Friday at the U.N. climate conference in South Africa said that _ in theory _ reflecting a small amount of sunlight back into space before it strike's the Earth's surface would have an immediate and dramatic effect.(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

DURBAN, South Africa (AP) ? The top U.N. climate official said Saturday she is confident industrial countries will renew their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions after their current commitments expire next year.

Further commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an unshakable demand by poor countries, would avert a feared derailment of U.N. negotiations, but would mark little advancement toward the goal of a rapid and steep drop in worldwide carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

The protocol's future has been in doubt because rich countries have conditioned its continuation on an agreement by nations such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa to also accept binding emissions targets for themselves in the future.

"Countries are here these two weeks exactly talking about how they are going to go into a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," U.N. official Christiana Figueres told The Associated Press.

"The discussion this week is not about the 'if,' it's about the 'how.' That doesn't mean that we are out of the thick of it," she said. Delegates are discussing participation, the legal form of the rules and all of the conditions that will define the second commitment period, she said.

Figueres, who is executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, spoke to AP to mark the halfway point of the two-week meeting in South Africa's eastern city of Durban.

Conference chairmen were also compiling the first draft of an agreement that will be given to government ministers arriving next week for the final four days of talks. Among them are 12 heads of state or government and ministers from more than 130 nations.

Outside the conference hall, several thousand activists, South African village women, and trade union members paraded through this port city for a march billed as a "global day of protest."

"It's all about our future. It's calling for a sustainable future. We've got to act and we've actually got to act urgently, so that we put this planet back onto a sustainable path," said Bishop Jeff Davies, Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute. "At the moment, we are destroying our very life support systems."

Figueres said that talks were in "good shape" in preparation for the more senior delegates.

One reason for an uptick in optimism may be a signal from China that it will in the future set absolute caps on its emissions, perhaps as early as 2020. Until now, China has spoken of emissions controls purely in terms of energy intensity, or the amount of energy it uses per unit of economic production.

The signal from Beijing came from Xu Huaqing, a senior researcher for China's Energy Research Institute, who was quoted Friday in the semiofficial China Daily. His remarks were confirmed privately by one of China's top climate negotiators, Su Wei, on the sidelines of the talks in South Africa.

China is the world's largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gas and a main foil of industrial countries in the U.N. negotiations. Virtually every statement, even semiofficial comments, is parsed by delegates seeking departures from its public positions.

"It's part and parcel of a growing realization that all countries can contribute to the solution, that every one of them has to do it, of course, according to their respective capabilities," Figures said.

The 27 members of the European Union provide the bulk of those countries falling under Kyoto's targets. In return for signing up to another round of pledges, the EU wants all major polluters to agree to a legally binding regime for everyone to be negotiated by 2015.

The United States refused to join the Kyoto regime, which it said unfairly exempted major developing countries from any emissions constraints.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-03-AF-Climate-Conference/id-8fe2c09b03f749fbb30d63e4f66ed72d

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Katy Perry, Kardashians Top Barbara Walters' 'Most Fascinating'

'X Factor' judge Simon Cowell, 'Modern Family' stars also make the cut.
By Jocelyn Vena

Kim Kardashian
Photo: James Devaney/ WireImage

The past 12 months were full of some interesting folks, and Barbara Walters has announced who made her annual list with "The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2011." So, who made the cut? The top seven released so far include the Kardashian family, who continue to captivate TV audiences and the rumor mill thanks to several TV franchises and their headline-making relationships (babies, divorce and everything in between).

Pop superstar Katy Perry also will be featured on the special. After releasing her album Teenage Dream last year, she managed to break chart records this year with hits like "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" and "E.T." She also released several memorable videos and hit the road on her California Dreams Tour.

Wednesday night, Perry was nominated for several Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for her single "Firework."

Simon Cowell also landed on the list. After leaving "American Idol," he launched the U.S. version of "The X Factor" this fall, reuniting with his former "Idol" pal Paula Abdul. Longtime Yankee Derek Jeter, TV personality/entrepreneur Donald Trump and Kate Middleton's sister/royal wedding breakout star Pippa Middleton also will be featured on the special.

"Modern Family" onscreen couple Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet made the cut as well, bringing the list, technically, to 11. The #1 most-fascinating person, as well as the two other folks who made the list, will be announced on the primetime special December 14 on ABC.

Who's on your list of the most-fascinating people of 2011? Share your picks below!

Related Artists

• Katy Perry

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1675202/katy-perry-kardashian-barbara-walters-fascinating.jhtml

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