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More Rain Forecast for Brazil as Floods, Mudslides Kill 511 in Rio State.

Brazil’s most-deadly natural disaster may worsen
as heavy rain in coming weeks threatens to cause
more mudslides and hinder rescue efforts after at
least 511 people died in Rio de Janeiro state.
Petropolis, Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo, cities
in the mountainous area about 40 miles north of
Rio, were the hardest hit this week as heavy rain
sent earth and rocks rolling down hillside
communities and swollen rivers swept away
houses. A cold front stationed in the region and a
weather system bringing humidity from the
Amazon will continue to produce persistent rain,
Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry said.
“Moderate to heavy rainfall will continue over the
next few weeks, and that will probably aggravate
the situation, because the soil is totally soaked, ”
said Felipe Farias, a meteorologist at Brazil’s
weather forecast and climatic studies center, or
CPTEC. Rain began falling again in the area early
today, Farias said.
The region has already seen the largest rainfall
since 1967, according to the government ’s Inmet
meteorology agency. Teresopolis, the largest and
hardest-hit city, where at least 226 people died,
absorbed 259 millimeters of rain in the past 10
days, while the average rainfall for the month of
January is 290 millimeters, according to Inmet.
The fruit-producing city may get 80 to 100
millimeters more rain through Sunday, said
Brazil ’s National Institute for Space Research,
known as INPE.
Supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro were reporting
shortages of produce this morning.
Entirely Rebuilt
Nova Friburgo, a city founded by German
immigrants that became a textile industry hub,
will need to be entirely rebuilt, Rio de Janeiro
governor Sergio Cabral said in a press conference
yesterday. At least 225 died in the town,
according to the state ’s health and civil defense
department. In Petropolis, a town named after
Brazilian monarch Pedro II, who built his
summer palace there in 1845, at least 39 people
died.
President Dilma Rousseff spoke in public for the
first time since taking office Jan. 1 after surveying
the rescue effort in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. She
said decades of poor government planning that
allowed poor people to build ramshackle homes
on unsafe mountainsides was partly to blame for
the tragedy.
“We saw regions where mountains fell apart,”
Rousseff told reporters yesterday. “Housing in
high-risk areas is the rule, not the exception” in
Brazil. Rousseff authorized 700 million reais ($418
million) in aid to fund relief and rescue efforts.
Help for Victims
Victims will be allowed to withdraw money from
their government-run severance and disability
accounts, known as FGTS, to rebuild their homes
or relocate, Labor Minister Carlos Lupi said in
Brasilia yesterday.
Rio’s state government will help as many as
6,000 families that lost houses pay rent, will set
up two field hospitals in the area and is sending
7.3 metric tons of medication and other materials
to assist victims, Cabral said.
Erick Conolly de Carvalho, an economist at
insurance company Icatu Holding SA, lost eight
family members including three sons when the
house they had rented in an upscale district of
Petropolis was engulfed, according to the city ’s
civil defense agency.

Source: Http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-14/more-rain-forecast-for-brazil-as-floods-mudslides-kill-511-in-rio-state.html

A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

China is failing to enforce trade laws necessary for
nuclear sanctions against Iran, weakening
international efforts to prevent Iran from
acquiring a nuclear arsenal, according to a former
nuclear inspector for the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA).
Bloomberg reports that David Albright, a nuclear
physicist who served as a UN nuclear inspector in
Iran in the 1990s, warned Thursday that “China
does not implement and enforce its trade controls
or its sanctions laws adequately.”
IN PICTURES: Who has nukes?
While the U.S. and Europe have developed law
enforcement and export control networks to
detect Iranian front companies attempting to buy
dual-use technology or materials, in China there’s
"still a large amount" of equipment and materials
that reaches Iranian buyers, Albright said.
"To a German supplier in China, it looks like a
domestic sale where export controls don ’t even
come into play," Albright said. "It turns out that
company is a front for an Iranian smuggling
network."
Mr. Albright also said that “sanctions are working,
but they can be improved," noting that Iran
appears to be facing shortages of maraging steel,
an alloy used to build centrifuges for enriching
uranium. Bloomberg writes that the Chinese
Embassy in Washington did not respond to
requests for comment on Albright's remarks.
Albright's comments come ahead of Chinese
President Hu Jintao's meeting next week with
President Obama in Washington in which nuclear
sanctions against Iran are likely to come up. The
China Post, a pro-China Taiwanese newspaper,
reports that on Thursday China rebuffed an offer
from Tehran to tour Iranian nuclear facilities,
"potentially smoothing a source of friction"
between the US and China ahead of President
Hu's visit.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei
said that China's representative to the IAEA, one
of those Iran invited to the tour, “is still in China
right now, so it will be difficult for him to go to
Iran.”
Russia, whose IAEA representative was also
invited, offered a cool response to Iran this week
as well, reports Radio Free Europe. While not
rejecting Iran's invitation, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said that "such visits cannot in any
way be considered a substitute for IAEA
inspections. And also, these visits and the group
of countries participating in these visits must not
be considered a substitute for the talks between
Iran and the sextet," referring to the six nations
involved in talks over Iran's nuclear program: the
US, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany.
The Christian Science Monitor reported earlier this
month that Iran offered the tour of its nuclear
facilities to China, Russia, and Hungary (which
holds the EU presidency), among others, while
leaving out the US, Britain, France, and Germany
– all key critics of Iran's nuclear program, which
they fear is being used to develop nuclear
weapons.
But while Iran claimed to be making the offer to
show “cooperation with the IAEA,” experts say it
was merely an attempt to undermine the
sanctions implemented by the five UN Security
Council members and Germany.
“The Iranians are always trying to divide the
coalition, and I think the point of the meetings [for
the Iranians] is not to resolve the problem, but to
deflect pressure for more sanctions, by
demonstrating that Iran is not recalcitrant, ” says
Shahram Chubin, an Iran nuclear expert with the
Carnegie Endowment based in Geneva.
“The Russians and the Chinese like to have any
excuse not to go to the next step, or indeed to
implement the current steps, and the Iranians
play on that, ” says Mr. Chubin, author of a 2006
book about Iran's nuclear efforts. Iran’s tactic is to
“delay and prevaricate and divide, and it's always
in response to pressure, despite what it says. Of
course, that [pressure] is exactly the only way
you can get the Iranians to focus. ”
The Associated Press reports that the tour will still
go on this weekend, according to Iranian
diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh, but that its
significance is diminished in the absence of the
sextet and the EU, as well as key Iranian allies
Turkey and Brazil.

Source: Http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2011/0114/Former-nuclear-inspector-China-falling-short-on-enforcing-sanctions-on-Iran

Retail Sales Rise Less Than Expected.

Sales at U.S. retailers rose slightly less than
expected in December, but retail sales for all of
2010 reversed two years of contraction and
posted the biggest gain in more than a decade, a
government report showed on Friday.
Total retail sales climbed 0.6%, advancing for the
sixth straight month as sales declines at
electronics and general merchandise stores were
offset by gains in gasoline and building materials
sales, the said. Analysts
polled by Reuters were expecting sales to gain
0.8%.
Excluding autos, sales rose 0.5%. Analysts had
forecast a 0.7% increase.
Total sales for the 12 months of 2010 were up
6.65% from the previous year after a 6.5% drop
in 2009. It was the largest 12-month gain in sales
since 1999.

Source: Http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/01/14/retail-sales-rise-expected/

Michelle Obama's Advice to Parents in Wake of Tucson Shooting.

First Lady Michelle Obama is offering advice to
parents who are struggling to help their children
understand the horrific Tucson massacre that
killed six and wounded 14, including Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords (D-Ariz.)
Mrs. Obama accompanied President Obama to
the Tucson memorial service for the victims
Wednesday at the University of Arizona, sitting
next to Mark Kelly, the NASA astronaut who is
Giffords' husband.
Her main advice: use the tragedy to teach kids
about faith, compassion, hope and community
service.
A White House official told Politics Daily, "It was
something she personally wanted to do and knew
exactly what she wanted to say. She decided to
do it before the memorial service."
Mrs. Obama's "open letter to parents" is posted at
whitehouse.gov.
MICHELLE OBAMA'S LETTER:
Like so many Americans all across the country,
Barack and I were shocked and heartbroken by
the horrific act of violence committed in Arizona
this past weekend. Yesterday, we had the chance
to attend a memorial service and meet with some
of the families of those who lost their lives, and
both of us were deeply moved by their strength
and resilience in the face of such unspeakable
tragedy.
As parents, an event like this hits home especially
hard. It makes our hearts ache for those who lost
loved ones. It makes us want to hug our own
families a little tighter. And it makes us think about
what an event like this says about the world we
live in – and the world in which our children will
grow up.
In the days and weeks ahead, as we struggle with
these issues ourselves, many of us will find that
our children are struggling with them as well. The
questions my daughters have asked are the same
ones that many of your children will have – and
they don't lend
themselves to easy answers. But they will provide
an opportunity for us as parents to teach some
valuable lessons – about the character of our
country, about the values we hold dear, and
about finding hope at a time when it seems far
away.
Gambar We can teach our children that here in
America, we embrace each other, and support
each other, in times of crisis. And we can help
them do that in their own small way – whether
it's by sending a letter, or saying a prayer, or just
keeping the victims and their families in their
thoughts.
We can teach them the value of tolerance – the
practice of assuming the best, rather than the
worst, about those around us. We can teach
them to give others the benefit of the doubt,
particularly those with whom they disagree.
We can also teach our children about the
tremendous sacrifices made by the men and
women who serve our country and by their
families. We can explain to them that although we
might not always agree with those who represent
us, anyone who enters public life does so because
they love their country and want to serve it.
Christina Green felt that call. She was just 9 years
old when she lost her life. But she was at that
store that day because she was passionate about
serving others. She had just been elected to her
school's student council, and she wanted to meet
her congresswoman and learn more about
politics and public life.
And that's something else we can do for our
children – we can tell them about Christina and
about how much she wanted to give back. We
can tell them about John Roll, a judge with a
reputation for fairness; about Dorothy Morris, a
devoted wife to her husband, her high school
sweetheart, to whom she'd been married for 55
years; about Phyllis Schneck, a great-
grandmother who sewed aprons for church
fundraisers; about Dorwan Stoddard, a retired
construction worker who helped neighbors down
on
their luck; and about Gabe Zimmerman, who did
community outreach for Congresswoman
Giffords, working tirelessly to help folks who were
struggling, and was engaged to be married next
year. We can tell them about the brave men and
women who risked their lives that day to save
others. And we can work together to honor their
legacy by following their example – by embracing
our fellow citizens; by standing up for what we
believe is right; and by doing our part, however
we can, to serve our communities and our
country.
Sincerely,
Michelle Obama
Source: Http://m.aol.com/politicsdaily/default/politicsDailyArticle.do?articleType=dailyguidance&url=http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/13/michelle-obamas-advice-to-parents-in-wake-of-tucson-shooting/

Jude Law returns to London stage in "Anna Christie".

Hollywood actor
Jude Law will return to the
West End stage, appearing in
Eugene O'Neill's "Anna
Christie" at the Donmar
Warehouse, the theater said.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, part of a farewell
season for the Donmar's artistic director Michael
Grandage, will run from August 4 to October 8.
Law, who enjoyed a successful run on stage in
the title role of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in 2009,
will play Mat Burke, a sailor who falls in love with
the title character who is a former prostitute.
Anna will be played by Ruth Wilson.
Other plays in the season include Shakespeare's
"Richard II" and "Inadmissible Evidence" by John
Osborne.

Source: Http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70D2T920110114

Obama speech recalls Reagan.

The patter of the Oval Office hasn't come as easily
to Obama as it has to his predecessors.
Two weeks after President Barack Obama
returned from a Hawaiian vacation spent reading
a 900-page biography of Ronald Reagan, he
delivered a speech in Tucson, Ariz., Wednesday
that incorporated, but didn ’t parrot, the gilded,
common-touch oratory of the 40th president.
The pageantry and patter of the Oval Office that
came so naturally to Reagan and Bill Clinton
haven ’t come quite as easily to Obama, an
electrifying campaign performer who is finally
mastering the intimate, idiosyncratic language of
the American presidency.
It’s not as if Obama hasn’t managed to connect
emotionally with the American people since being
elected — he delivered an especially moving
eulogy last April at the funeral of 29 coal miners in
West Virginia and nearly choked up when
discussing his mother ’s losing battle with cancer
and insurance companies after he passed health
care reform last spring.
But he’s never managed to do it consistently
since becoming president. And he had certainly
never delivered a speech quite like the one he
made to honor Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the six
people murdered in Arizona on Wednesday: a
passionate and pared-down delivery that
grounded his usual soaring rhetoric with
expressions of straightforward patriotism,
neighborly decency and raw grief.
“It was different than Clinton at Oklahoma City or
Reagan after the Challenger crash, but it was
equally important for his presidency, ” said
presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who has
written books on Reagan as well as Presidents
Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and both Roosevelts.
“Remember, he took some shots when he first
took office, and that has bred caution in his
speechwriting, ” added Brinkley. “The Oval Office
speech on the BP spill was boilerplate. Even the
Fort Hood eulogy, while heartfelt, was pretty
unmemorable. But this was a great presidential
speech. This was a serious, transformational
moment in his presidency. ”
The president will probably never be as
comfortable expressing emotions publicly as
Clinton is. And the coolly cerebral Obama can’t
replicate the folksy, anecdotal style native to
Reagan, who was so uninterested in the basic
details of governance that aides learned to grab
his attention by telling stories, referencing movies
and using colorful visual aids. Nor does Obama
possess Reagan ’s Hollywood-bred acting skills or
comfort before the cameras.
But Obama is internalizing a lesson that came as
second nature to his two predecessors: A
president who can ’t make a consistent emotional
connection with the people he leads is a president
who can ’t govern effectively.
“Obama was especially well-suited to give this
particular speech,” said Jonathan Prince, who co-
wrote Clinton’s much-praised speech after the
1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City.
“He’s said some things in the heat of the
moment, but he’s never given into the rhetoric of
hatred,” Prince said of Obama. “This is a person
who has always talked about common ground.
It ’s not like he had to invent that message. It
came naturally.”
Obama’s aides bristle at the notion that
Wednesday’s speech in Tucson represented a
change in the president’s basic communications
approach, arguing that he was simply
responding to the powerful emotions of the
moment and the need to transcend the politics of
division.

Source: Http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47595.html

Obese? What your doc may be overlooking.

Ann Silk, MD, worries about her
overweight patients. But Dr. Silk, an internal-
medicine resident at the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center, isn't concerned only about their
diets and cholesterol levels.
She also worries that the fatty tissue on their
bodies will obscure other health problems, like
tumors.
Although excess weight is hard on a patient's
body, it's also hard on doctors who are trying to
perform physical exams.
Blood pressure cuffs have to be bigger.
Stethoscopes can't pick up subtle heart
abnormalities and lung sounds muffled by flesh.
And medical scales often max out at 350 pounds
-- making it hard to determine exactly how
overweight the largest patients are.
Moreover, excess body fat can interfere with a
doctor's ability to assess thyroid or liver health or
recognize abnormal growths.
Even with all the high-tech medical tools at their
disposal, doctors still find out some important,
potentially life-saving information by touching
and feeling their patients' bodies. Fat makes that
job much tougher.
Health.com: Slim down at any age
"It's a worry that we're not finding what we need
to find on exams because there is tissue in the
way of our fingers, and in the way of our
stethoscope," says Dr. Silk, who co-authored an
article about this problem in this week's issue of
the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"It leaves us with a little bit of uncertainty --
maybe you would even say insecurity -- whether
we are identifying all the abnormalities on [an]
exam."
In some cases, this uncertainty could lead to
missed tumors or other oversights, Dr. Silk adds.
"For the abdominal and gynecological exam, a
mass would have to be pretty big before you
could find it."
John Simmons, MD, an assistant professor of
family and community medicine at the Texas
A&M Health Science Center, in College Station,
says that doctors can't identify conditions such as
liver problems, hernias, and fluid buildup in the
abdomen through physical exams alone.
Still, he says, abdominal, breast, thyroid, and
genital examinations are particularly difficult in
obese patients.
Health.com: 19 new reasons to keep fat off
For this reason, obese patients should be
especially proactive about making sure they get
regular screening tests, Dr. Simmons says. If
necessary, they should "take it upon [themselves]
to remind the doctor of potentially embarrassing
but critically important screening tests like
mammograms, Pap smears, genital exams, and
colonoscopies."
The impact of obesity on physical examinations is
still a new area of research, Dr. Silk says. To her
knowledge, no studies have been conducted on
whether excess body fat can delay serious
diagnoses, and medical schools and textbooks
appear to be lagging behind the rise in obesity
rates.
More than one in three U.S. adults are obese, and
two out of every three are overweight. The
average American man and woman now weighs
195 pounds and 165 pounds, respectively --
about 18% more than they did in 1960.
Health.com: Best and worst advice from top diet
plans
Dr. Silk and her co-author argue that the standard
physical exam needs to be modified as a result.
Here are some of the changes they say doctors
and obese patients should consider during their
next physical:
Longer breast exams. Some data suggests
that a good breast exam takes three minutes per
breast, but even longer in a heavier patient, Dr.
Silk says. Doctors and patients should be
prepared to spend some extra time on breast
exams.
Rest before tests. Obese patients may grow
short of breath after walking even brief distances,
which could throw off readings for heart rate,
blood pressure, and breathing rate. If needed,
doctors should encourage obese patients to sit
quietly for 15 minutes before checking their vital
signs.
More elbow grease. Belly fat can make it
harder for doctors to feel for liver problems or
unhealthy fluid buildup in the abdomen, which
means doctors may need to press extra firmly or
spend more time on this area. "Patients have to
be good sports at tolerating vigorous exams," Dr.
Silk says.
Different instruments. Standard medical
instruments may not be sufficient to examine
heavier people. For instance, doctors may need
to use a handheld imaging device known as a
Doppler (rather than a stethoscope) to measure
heart rate in obese patients, and they may need
to use a longer speculum for gynecological
exams.
Health.com: 13 oversize products for overweight
people
These changes aren't likely to address all the
shortcomings of the physical exam, however.
Medical training and textbooks will eventually
need to be updated to reflect the obesity
epidemic, Dr. Silk and her colleague write, and
some doctors may need to invest in new
technology and equipment.

Source: Http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/14/obese.doctor.overlook/

Stock futures off, Dow, S&P seek 7th week of gains

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell
on Friday despite strong quarterly results from
JPMorgan Chase & Co as the Dow Industrials and
S&P 500 looked to close out a seventh week of
gains.
JPMorgan , the first major financial company to
report, post a 47 percent jump in quarterly profit,
helped by narrowing losses on bad loans. Chief
Executive Jamie Dimon said there were signs of
stability and growth returning to the U.S.
economy.
The expectations of strong earnings have lifted
equities in recent weeks, with the S&P 500
hovering near a 28-month high. JPMorgan has
risen 4.8 percent since the start of January,
dipped 0.3 percent to $44.31 in volatile premarket
trading.
"JPMorgan's results make me more optimistic
about what we could see out of other large
banks, but everyone is ready to take a bit of the
break given the tremendous run-up we've had,"
said Oliver Pursche, president at Gary Goldberg
Financial Services in Suffern, New York.
While results were above expectations, "they're
not blowing anyone away. That's why they're
not enough to move the futures."
China raised bank reserve requirements, offering
more evidence that its central bank was preparing
to allow economic growth to slow as it battles
inflation.
Intel Corp added to the optimism over company
earnings after posting better-than-expected
quarterly profit late Thursday. The technology
bellwether also forecast strong revenues for the
coming quarter. Intel, a Dow component, rose
1.6 percent to $21.64 in premarket trading and
helped limit losses in Nasdaq futures.
S&P 500 futures fell 3.8 points and were below
fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by
taking into account interest rates, dividends and
time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones
industrial average futures fell 53 points, and
Nasdaq 100 futures lost 3 points.
A pair of datapoints on the consumer will be
closely watched by investors. December retail
sales, to be released at 8:30 a.m. EST, are seen
rising 0.8 percent, matching the previous month.
The preliminary Reuters/University of Michigan
January sentiment number will be released at
9:55 a.m. (1455 GMT), and is seen edging up to
75.4 from 74.5 in the previous month.
French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA hopes to
reach a takeover deal that would value U.S. target
Genzyme at around $76 per share, or some $20
billion, the French daily Le Figaro reported.
Genzyme edged 0.3 percent higher to $72.60 in
premarket trading.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co has recalled 64 million
tablets of the blood pressure medicine Avalide in
the United States and Puerto Rico, marking the
second major recall of the medicine in less than
four months. The stock closed at $25.90.
U.S. stocks edged lower Thursday, hurt by a
slide in drugmaker Merck & Co Inc and as falling
commodities prices hit shares of natural resource
companies.

Source: Http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20110114&id=12542112

Tucson to bury judge slain in shooting rampage.

A devout Catholic
and a respected federal judge,
John Roll was also a close
friend to Congresswoman
Gabrielle Giffords.
He was shot to death as he dropped by to see
her at a constituents' meeting outside a north
Tucson grocery store last Saturday, on his way
home from mass. His funeral is on Friday
morning.
Among six people killed when a college dropout
pumped bullet after bullet into a crowd outside
the Safeway store, Roll was a highly respected
jurist.
He joined the federal bench in 1991 after being
nominated by President George Bush, on the
recommendation of Arizona Republican Senator
John McCain.
He rose to become the senior federal judge in the
Mexico border state, where his fairness and rigor
won him high regard among trial lawyers.
Twenty-two-year-old Jared Lee Loughner was
arrested for the shootings.
He made a first appearance in a court in Phoenix
on Monday, on five federal charges, including the
attempted assassination of Giffords, who remains
in critical condition in a Tucson hospital.
Roll's colleagues recused themselves from
hearing the trial, on the grounds that their
impartiality could be questioned.
The private funeral is scheduled to be held at 10
a.m. at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the same Catholic
Church where a service for 9-year-old Christina
Green, the youngest shooting victim, was held
on Thursday.
Hundreds of mourners, among them classmates
and leather clad bikers, turned out to say silent
farewells to the bright, lively youngster who was
remembered for her love of singing and baseball
and an interest in learning about politics.
Her short life was celebrated by President Barack
Obama in an emotional memorial address on
Wednesday, in which he told thousands of
people crammed into a Tucson sports stadium
he wanted democracy and America to be as
good as Christina had imagined them.

Source: Http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70D2MG20110114

Health care reform law back on House agenda for Tuesday.

The House will try to get back to normal next
week, with the chamber coming back into
session on Tuesday to reignite debate over
repealing the health care reform law.
“As the White House noted, it is important for
Congress to get back to work, and to that end we
will resume thoughtful consideration of the health
care bill next week, ” said Brad Dayspring, a
spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-
Va.). “Americans have legitimate concerns about
the cost of the new health care law and its effect
on the ability to grow jobs in our country. It is
our expectation that the debate will continue to
focus on those substantive policy differences
surrounding the new law. ”
The GOP is planning a two-day debate beginning
Tuesday evening and ending Wednesday
evening, with a vote that will most likely send the
bill to the Senate, where it is unlikely to see the
light of day.
On Thursday, Republicans are planning to bring
up a bill that would instruct committees to draft
replacement bills. Republicans, with the help of
four Democrats, have already cleared the main
procedural hurdle to bring the bill up for a final
vote.
Republicans plan to release the rest of the official
schedule next week, but the new movement on
the health care repeal is the first sign that the
politics and policy are back on the agenda a week
after the shootings in Arizona that left Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in critical condition.
Indeed, the White House is signaling similar
intentions in moving ahead with its agenda.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said
Thursday during his press briefing that
“ everybody in the country has had some time to
reflect on this.” The Obama administration has a
series of meetings — and state dinner — with
Chinese President Hu Jintao next week.
“And I think all those that were — remember,
they were there to, again, see the exercising of
the way we govern our country, and I think that
while we will continue to celebrate the lives of
those that were lost and hope for and pray for
the speedy recovery of those that were injured or
some that are and some that aren ’t in the
hospital, I think you’ll see — because they would
have wanted that — us getting back to the
business of, again, how do we solve those
problems and how do we do it in a way that lives
up to the thoughts and the aspirations of those
that were involved in the tragic events, ” Gibbs
said.

Source: Http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47566.html

Pope John Paul II will be beatified after Easter.

Current pontiff Benedict XVI certifies that a miracle
healing attributed to John Paul is genuine. The
finding puts John Paul closer to sainthood, for
which a second miracle is required.
Reporting from Manchester, England — The late
Pope John Paul II will be beatified this spring, the
Vatican announced Friday after the current
pontiff, Benedict XVI, certified that his predecessor
had met the requirements.
The move puts the former pope a step closer to
sainthood on what is already an unusually
accelerated timetable that Benedict launched
within weeks of John Paul's death almost six
years ago.
The Vatican said Benedict had approved findings
by the church that John Paul had performed a
miracle after his death, a prerequisite for
beatification. A nun who suffered from
Parkinson's disease, as did the late pope, said she
was healed of her affliction after praying to John
Paul shortly after he died.
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The beatification is to take place May 1, the first
Sunday after Easter, the Vatican said.
The decision to elevate John Paul, who inspired
millions worldwide with his tough stance against
Communism and his resilience after a 1981
assassination attempt, is a spot of good news for
the Roman Catholic Church, which has been
battered by countless allegations of sexual abuse
by priests, nuns and other religious workers.
Many of those acts of abuse were alleged to have
occurred during John Paul's 27-year papacy. But
much of the blame for the church's slow and
largely defensive response to the complaints has
now shifted to today's Vatican.
After John Paul's death on April 2, 2005,
mourners and pilgrims at his funeral in St. Peter's
Square waved signs calling for "sainthood right
now," in a mark of their devotion. Weeks later,
Benedict said he would immediately open the
process leading to canonization, overriding rules
that dictate a five-year wait after a person dies.
At the end of 2009, Benedict gave formal
recognition of John Paul's "heroic virtues" and
granted him the title of "venerable." After his
beatification, the late pontiff will be known as
"blessed."
For sainthood, a second confirmed miracle is
required.
Reports surfaced last year that at least some
church investigators were doubtful of claims by
Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a French nun, to have
been cured of Parkinson's through John Paul's
intercession.
But the panel overseeing such investigations
concluded that the nun's recovery from the
degenerative disease had no other explanation --
in other words, that it was a genuine miracle.
Although accelerated procedures toward
sainthood are unusual, they are not without
precedent. John Paul himself put Mother Teresa
on the "fast track" to beatification after her death
in 1997. She was beatified in 2003.

Source: Http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-john-paul-beatify-20110115,0,1088918.story

Nearly 500 Dead in Brazil Mudslides, Flooding.

Jan. 12: Cars sit in debris in a flooded street in
Teresopolis, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil.

TERESOPOLIS, BRAZIL – Rain began falling again
Friday in this mountain town, hampering rescue
efforts in the wake of deadly mudslides and
flooding that has killed hundreds of people and
left vast swaths of cities buried under layers of
earth.
The death toll ticked up overnight to 479 killed in
three cities north of Rio in what is one of Brazil's
deadliest natural disasters on record. Officials
feared, however, that number could sharply rise,
though they would not venture a guess of how
many remain missing. Local reports put it in the
hundreds.
Hundreds of rescuers were in the area and
officials said lack of help was not a problem --
rather it was trying to access remote areas
isolated after roads were washed out. Despite the
new rains, no more mudslides have been
reported.
For those who did survive remains the grim task
of burying loved ones.
As night fell Thursday on Teresopolis, barefoot
volunteers dragged a generator and stadium
lights into a cemetery, where nearly 200 freshly
dug graves lay open like wounds in the red clay
soil, waiting for the dead.
Funerals already had been held all day: a sister
laying her brother to rest, a man burying his 1-
year-old niece in a small white casket, a mother
who cried her 9-year-old son's name repeatedly
as he was lowered into the earth.
Small, handmade white crosses identified only by
numbers -- the details would have to come later
-- dotted the desolate, sodden hilltop.
Dozens more funerals will come Friday and 300
more graves will be dug Saturday, said Vitor da
Costa Soares, a city worker in charge of the
cemetery.
"We'll make room. We have to. We'll stay up
here until 10 p.m., midnight if we can, and we'll
be here at 6 a.m. tomorrow," he said.
Heavy rains unleashed the mudslides before
dawn Wednesday, burying people as they slept
in this area about 40 miles north of Rio.
Survivors started digging for friends and relatives
with their bare hands, kitchen utensils, whatever
they could find as they waited for help in remote
neighborhoods perched precariously on steep,
washed-out hillsides.
In the remote Campo Grande neighborhood of
Teresopolis, now accessible only by a perilous
five-mile hike through mud-slicked jungle, family
members pulled the lifeless bodies of loved ones
from the muck. They carefully laid the corpses on
dry ground, covering them with blankets.
A young boy cried out as his father's body was
found: "I want to see my dad! I want to see my
dad!"
Flooding and mudslides are common in Brazil
when the summer rains come, but this week's
slides were among the worst in recent memory.
The disasters punish the poor, who often live in
rickety shacks perched perilously on steep
hillsides with little or no foundations. But even the
rich did not escape the damage in Teresopolis,
where large homes were washed away.
"I have friends still lost in all of this mud," said
Carlos Eurico, a resident of Campo Grande, as he
motioned to a sea of destruction behind him. "It's
all gone. It's all over now. We're putting
ourselves in the hands of God."
In the same area, Nilson Martins, 35, carefully
held the only thing pulled out alive since dawn: a
pet rabbit that had somehow remained pristinely
white despite the mud.
"We're just digging around, there is no way of
knowing where to look," he said. "There are three
more bodies under the rubble over there. One
seems to be a girl, no more than 16, dead, buried
under that mud."
The hundreds of homes washed away in the
neighborhood were turned inside out, their
plumbing and electrical wires exposed. Children's
clothes littered the earth, cars were tossed upside
down into thickets. An eerie quiet prevailed as
people searched for life. The sounds of digging,
with sticks and hands, were occasionally
punctuated by shouts as another corpse was
located.
Conceicao Salomao, a doctor coordinating relief
efforts at a makeshift refuge inside a gymnasium
in central Teresopolis, said about 750 people
were staying there Thursday and about 1,000
people had sought treatment in the past day. One
danger she worried about was leptospirosis, a
waterborne bacterial disease.
"The hospitals around here are overflowing. The
army and navy are setting up field hospitals to
help," she said.
Rio state's Civil Defense department said on its
website that 222 people were killed in Teresopolis,
216 in nearby Nova Friburgo and 41 in
neighboring Petropolis. It said about 14,000
people had been driven from their homes.
An additional 37 people had died in floods and
mudslides since Christmas in other parts of
southeastern Brazil -- 16 in Minas Gerais state
north of Rio and 21 in Sao Paulo state.
Nineteen-year-old Geisa Carvalho and her mother
were awakened at 3 a.m. Wednesday by a
tremendous rumble as tons of muck slid down a
sheer granite rock face onto their Teresopolis
neighborhood of Caleme.
The power was out, but by lightning flashes they
could see the torrent of mud and water rushing
just a few feet (meters) from their home -- and
the remnants of their neighbors' houses that
were swept far down a hill.
"We were like zombies, covered in mud, in the
dark, digging and digging," Carvalho said.
Nearly all the homes in their neighborhood were
swept to the bottom of a hill.
Just a few rescuers managed to hike to Caleme
on Thursday and they had only shovels and
machetes -- not the heavier equipment needed to
hunt for survivors. Residents said they had no
food, water or medication, and many made the
long walk for help to the center of Teresopolis.
Morgues in the cities were full and bodies covered
in blankets were laid in streets.
Officials said the area hit by slides had seen 10
inches of rain in less than 24 hours. More rain is
forecast through the weekend.

Source: Http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/12/torrential-rain-floods-rio-leave-dead/?test=latestnews

Gold slips below $1,370/oz after China move.

(Reuters) - Gold fell in Europe
on Friday after China's central
bank raised lenders' reserve
requirements by 50 basis
points, with softer haven
demand for the metal after
solid bond sales by Portugal
and Spain also weighing on
prices.
But physical demand for gold in Asia is still likely
to underpin the precious metal, analysts said,
with Chinese buyers moving into the market
ahead of the Lunar New Year in February.
Spot gold was bid at $1,368.45 an ounce at 5:47
a.m. ET, against $1,372.75 late in New York on
Thursday, having earlier hit a low of $1,365.33.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery fell $18.80
an ounce to $1,368.20.
China's central bank raised lenders' required
reserves for the fourth time in just over two
months on Friday, making good on its vow that
inflation fighting will be a top priority for the year.
Gold is sometimes seen as a hedge against rising
inflation, and also benefits widely from a low
interest rate environment.
"China's move of course has consequences for
the gold market, but it is not (just) China that is
playing a role," said Peter Fertig, a consultant at
Quantitative Commodity Research. "After
yesterday's ECB conference the market is also
concerned that the ECB might hike rates earlier
than previously assumed."
The European Central Bank said on Thursday that
the euro zone faces short-term price pressures
which may linger, showing it could raise interest
rates to contain inflation even while the bloc is
gripped by a debt crisis.
"Also bond auctions for Portugal, Spain and Italy
went well, credit default swaps are declining, and
spreads over German bunds are falling, which
indicates there is less reason to be concerned
about the euro zone debt crisis," Fertig added.
"Investors are moving again out of safe havens
into more risky assets, which also weighs on
gold," he said.
The euro earlier hit a one-month high against the
dollar and the Swiss franc after tough talk on
inflation from the European Central Bank and an
easing of debt worries after solid bond sales by
Portugal and Spain.
The European currency shed gains after China's
announcement, but quickly crept higher once
again. Nonetheless, gold prices have struggled to
mirror its strong performance.
"Gold's inability to follow the euro/dollar higher
can be attributed to this week's successful
auctions in the euro zone periphery, and the
associated dampening of sovereign debt
concerns," said UBS analyst Edel Tully in a note.
DEBT CONCERNS
Worries over certain euro zone countries' debt
levels can work two ways for gold, lifting prices
as investors choose gold as a haven from risk,
but weighing on them via the pressure they exert
on the euro.
Traders in Asia reported strong physical gold
buying, particularly from China, on Friday, but
large bullion-backed exchange-traded funds
Holdings of the world's largest gold ETF, New
York's SPDR Gold Trust, fell by more than 6
metric tons on Thursday and are down more
than 15 metric tons so far this year.
Among other precious metals, spot silver was
bid at $28.60 an ounce against $28.67.
The gold:silver ratio -- the number of ounces of
silver needed to buy an ounce of gold -- rose to a
one-month high on Friday at just below 48,
showing that silver, as is typical, is
underperforming gold in a falling market.
Platinum was at $1,807.74 an ounce against
$1,799.99, while palladium was at $797 against
$803.75.
Source: Http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BF5L920110114

In Tunisia's capital, protesters return to the streets.

Tunis, Tunisia (CNN) -- A day after the Tunisian
president indicated that he wouldn't run again,
people peacefully took to the streets in tense
North African nation's capital to protest his rule.
Thousands congregated in front of the Interior
Ministry, and chanted slogans such as "Get out!"
and "Freedom for Tunisia!"
Haykal Maki, a pro-opposition lawyer who was in
the throng, said protesters want a "regime
change," the resignation of President Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali, and lawsuits addressing the
regime's corruption.
Tunisia has been wracked by angry
demonstrations, with citizens -- angry with the
government's performance -- protesting high
unemployment, alleged corruption, rising prices,
and a limitations on rights.
Feature: Social media is fueling
Tunisia protests
The wave of protests was sparked
by the suicide of an unemployed
college graduate, a man who
torched himself in December after
police confiscated his fruit cart,
cutting off his source of income.
In an address on national TV on
Thursday night, Ben Ali addressed
the crisis in a speech that came as
street unrest percolated and a
message purportedly from an al
Qaeda affiliate announced its
support of protesters.
He vowed to cut prices of basic
foodstuffs, to lift censorship and to
ensure police do not use live
ammunition except in self-defense,
and he indicated that he will not run
again for president.
"Enough violence," Ben Ali said on
national television after days of riots
that have killed at least 21 people.
"I also gave orders to the interior minister ... not
to use live ammunition. It is unacceptable and
unjustified unless someone uses his weapon and
forces you to defend yourself."
Ben Ali said he had asked the prime minister to
reduce prices of staples, including sugar, milk and
bread and said he had decided to give "complete
freedom to all media outlets ... as long as they
respect our values and the value of the
profession."
The 74-year-old president added that he would
not push to change the law setting an age limit
for presidential candidates in the next election in
2014.
By then, he would have exceeded the 75-year
age limit. "There will not be presidency for life,"
he said.
Organized mainly by the country's lawyers'
union mainly and other unions, the crowd on
Friday was under the watchful eye of a
contingent of riot police officers.
But the protesters freely were not shy about
slamming the government and Ben Ali's rule.
Demonstrators shouted "Public trial for the
president's family!" and "Yes to water and bread,
but NO to Ben Ali!"
Reem Ben Yousef, a 37-year-old university
professor, told CNN that the protesters say the
ruling family has robbed citizens and they want
them to depart from public life.
Reem says that Ben Ali's speech was staged and
was cynical about the presence of a pro-
government demonstration after his speech.
"We do not believe in Ben Ali and his regime,"
she said.

Source: Http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/14/tunisia.protests/

Poll: Americans SayThey Will HonorKing Holiday

The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial site,
which is currently under construction, is seen
through a mesh barrier during a tour for the
media in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011.

Americans are no more convinced than before
Barack Obama was elected as the first black
president that the country is closer to achieving
Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of racial equality, a
poll shows.
Seventy-seven percent of people interviewed in
an AP-GfK poll say there has been significant
progress toward King's dream, about the same
as the 75 percent who felt that way in 2006,
before Obama was elected. Just over one in five,
22 percent, say they feel there has been "no
significant progress" toward that dream.
"The exuberance and thrill of seeing an African
American elected to the presidency has been
tempered by the outrageous claims that we've
heard about him," said William Jelani Cobb, a
history professor at Rutgers University.
Real concerns that King fought for remain, even
with a black president, he said.
"And the violent rhetoric we've seen directed
towards (Obama) diminishes the initial sentiment
that we've made great progress because of the
election," he said.
The poll also reveals that more people plan to
celebrate Monday's federal holiday honoring King
— 30 percent, compared to 23 percent who had
such plans five years ago. That includes 46
percent of non-whites, 38 percent of college
graduates, 36 percent who live in urban areas
and 36 percent who attend religious services at
least weekly, according to the poll.
Some communities in the South, including
around Atlanta, where schools have been closed
because of a snow and ice storm, have decided
to make up one of the days on MLK Day,
upsetting some African-American groups.
In 1994, Congress added community service as a
focus of the federal holiday, which marks its 25th
anniversary this year. More than one million
Americans are expected to participate in 13,000
projects around the country on the King Day of
Service, said Patrick Corvington, head of the
Corporation for National and Community Service,
the federal agency charged with administering
service projects on the King holiday.
"The focus on service has allowed for a different
kind of conversation about Dr. King and what he
was about," Corvington said. "It allows all people
to connect with Dr. King in different ways."
The new poll also shows most of the nation in
support of the King holiday. Three-quarters of
those surveyed this year say King's birthday
should be so honored, with 84 percent of non-
white respondents believing so, compared to 68
percent of white respondents. Younger adults are
also more apt to feel the birthday deserves the
honor, as 81 percent among those under 50
years old supported the holiday, compared to 66
percent among those 50 to 64 and 62 percent
among seniors.
The civil rights icon, who would have turned 82
on Saturday, is the only American who was not a
U.S. president honored with a federal holiday.
The AP-GfK Poll was conducted January 5-10,
2010 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate
Communications. It involved landline and cell
phone interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide,
and has a margin of sampling error of plus or
minus 4.2 percentage points.

Source: Http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=12614254

Japan Finance Minister: Share Economic, Fiscal Policy Views With Yosano.

TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan's finance minister
said Friday he shares some economic and fiscal
policy views with Kaoru Yosano, a veteran
lawmaker who is expected to become economy
minister in a cabinet reshuffle later in the day.
Yoshihiko Noda, who is expected to keep his post
in the reshuffle, said at a news conference that he
is aware of Yosano's interest in balancing
economic growth with fiscal management,
adding that "there are many things we share" in
terms of looking at issues that need to be solved.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has reportedly decided
to pick Yosano, a former finance minister and an
advocate of a consumption tax hike, as the
country's new economic and fiscal policy
minister. Yosano left the Sunrise Party of Japan
on Thursday.

Source: Http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110113-716332.html

Delayed again, 'Spider-Man' may set another record.

NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway's "Spider-Man:
Turn Off the Dark" has already become the most
expensive show ever mounted on Broadway.
Soon it may reach another milestone: The show
stuck in previews the longest.
Producers delayed the $65 million show for the
fifth time Thursday, pushing the opening date to
March 15 to fine-tune and put in a new ending.
Lead producer Michael Cohl promised this is "the
final postponement."
The change means the show, when it opens, will
break what is considered the record for most
preview performances — 71 — held by Arthur
Laurents' "Nick and Nora" in 1991. That may not
bode well for the comic book hero, which has
enjoyed 37 previews so far and now has more
than a month of them to go: "Nick and Nora"
lasted only a week after finally opening officially.
The "Spider-Man" musical — the dreamchild of
"Lion King" director Julie Taymor with music by
U2's Bono and The Edge — hasn't been hurt at
the box office by the raft of injuries, cancellations,
the defection of a lead actress, in-show delays
and postponements.
The new opening delay doesn't really hurt the
musical, whose costs easily dwarf Broadway's
last costliest show, the $25 million "Shrek the
Musical." Though producers are charging full-
price for tickets, the show is still selling out the
1,930-seat Foxwoods Theatre in Times Square
almost each night, and last week the webslinger
tale took the week's box-office crown from the
Oz musical "Wicked."
In a statement, Taymor said: "We are so grateful
for the enthusiastic audiences who have been
coming to see 'Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark'
and we are dedicated to giving them the very
best show we can."
Once a show officially opens, it is considered
frozen and no more tinkering is allowed. The
latest delay was somewhat expected since a big,
spectacular finale still seemed absent. Audiences
at previews were also confused about the role of
Arachne, Spider-Man's evil love interest.
Bono and The Edge, both newcomers to writing
musicals, returned from touring this month to
help fix the show's problems. In a statement,
they said: "We are looking for the extraordinary
here and we are nearly there."
The show has been built specifically for the
Foxwoods Theatre, meaning a traditional out-of-
town tryout to fix glitches wasn't possible. Cohl
has said he considered delaying previews until
the production had gelled better, but argued that
the cast and crew had to bite the bullet eventually,
even if they risked embarrassment and bad
press.
The show's massive costs — a 41-member cast,
18 orchestra members, complicated sets and
dozens of daring aerial stunts, including a battle
between two characters over the audience —
mean the theater will have to virtually sell out
every show for several years just to break even.
The weekly running bill has been put as high as
$1 million. (Tickets are priced from $67.50-$135
for weekday performances and $67.50-$140 for
weekend performances. Top premium seats go
for more than $275.)
The delay is likely to re-ignite a simmering debate
among theater critics about how to handle
preview performances that stretch out for
months. Already the lengthy delay to "Spider-
Man" has prompted some critics to publish their
own preliminary reviews, breaking a customary
rule. They argued that the show was a legitimate
news story and that the full-price cost of tickets
meant audiences had a right to know what to
expect.
One person who is championing the show is
conservative commentator Glenn Beck, who has
seen "Spider-Man" twice and is giving it glowing
reviews both on the air and on his Twitter
account. "This is better than 'Wicked!'" he raved
Wednesday on "The Glenn Beck Program,"
which has an estimated 6 million listeners.
Years in the making, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the
Dark" had financing woes before its first stunt
was executed. Originally scheduled to open Dec.
21, the show was postponed to Jan. 11 and then
to Feb. 7. Now it will be March.
On the Net:
http://spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com

Source: Http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSKFiafEpgC_XIdpYW3OQj-MtXLQ?docId=3e1ebb59b75143a2a30ff3eb185ec71b

Business news in brief | Judge approves Madoff settlement.

Judge approves Madoff settlement
A New York bankruptcy judge approved a
historic $7.2 billion deal Thursday to settle a
lawsuit brought against the estate of one of the
oldest and wealthiest clients of disgraced financier
Bernard Madoff. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton
Lifland signed off on the deal at the urging of a
court-appointed trustee seeking to recover funds
for thousands of investors burned by Madoff ’s
epic Ponzi scheme.
Trustee Irving Picard and federal authorities
reached the settlement last month with the estate
of Jeffry Picower, a businessman and
philanthropist who drowned in 2009 after
suffering a heart attack in the swimming pool of
his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion. Federal
prosecutors have called the forfeiture the largest
in Justice Department history.
Resentencing date set for Black
Prosecutors said at a status hearing for Conrad
Black on Thursday that they do not intend to
retry the former media mogul on fraud
convictions that an appellate court tossed out last
year. Judge Amy St. Eve also set a June 24
resentencing date for Black on the two
convictions that appellate judges had upheld.
Defense attorneys asked the judge for a June date
to give them a chance to file a new appeal with
the U.S. Supreme Court.
Black, who did not speak during the hearing,
once had a media empire that included the
Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of
London and community papers in the U.S. and
Canada.
Marathon spinning off refining business
Marathon Oil said Thursday it will split into two
companies, separating its business of exploring
for and producing oil from its lower-margin
refining operation. The company says the move
will allow it to be more flexible in operational
decisions. Analysts say it ’s a good time to divest
less profitable businesses as energy markets
recover. The Houston company had considered a
spinoff two years ago but shelved it as prices for
oil and gas plummeted in the recession.
The refining company will be known as Marathon
Petroleum Corp. and will be based in Findlay,
Ohio. It ’s expected to be the nation’s fifth-largest
refiner, with refineries in the Midwest, Gulf Coast
and Southeast. Marathon Petroleum will trade on
the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol
MPC starting on July 1.
European inflation worries
The European Central Bank’s president warned
Thursday that inflation may remain high for
months, raising questions about the possibility of
an eventual interest-rate hike, and he urged
governments to bolster measures to tackle the
eurozone debt crisis.
Jean-Claude Trichet’s comments came after the
ECB left its main interest rate unchanged at 1
percent on Thursday for the 20th consecutive
month. The decision was expected although
annual inflation in the 17-nation eurozone rose to
2.3 percent in December, above its target and a
two-year high. The bank ’s mandate is to keep
inflation “close to but below 2 percent.”

Source: Http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/13/2582346/business-news-in-brief-judge-approves.html

Apple's iOS update gives hints on future of iPhone and iPad.

Imagination Technologies designs microchips
used in Apple's iPad

Apple has released a beta version of its iOS
operating system that shows some of the
features that will be coming for iPhone and iPad
users and hints at the form that future versions of
those devices might take.
The beta version of iOS 4.3 was released to
developers overnight to give them time to
prepare their apps for new features. As is typical
after these releases, the new features have been
posted online and beta users are already digging
around within the OS to find hints of future
changes.
New features in iOS 4.3 include increased AirPlay
support, allowing apps and websites to send
video from an iPhone or an iPad to an Apple TV,
and support for a ‘personal hotspot’, which will
allow an iPhone to create a wifi hotspot that other
devices can use. The new version also brings
more multitouch gestures - for example swiping
fingers up the screen will reveal the multitasking
menu.
Apple has also added an option that lets users
choose the function of the switch on the side of
the iPad. When the iPad was launched, the switch
served to lock the screen orientation of the iPad
but in iOS 4.2 Apple turned it into a mute switch -
matching the iPhone and iPod touch. The new
option allows users to choose what the switch
does.
A hunt through the code for the new version of
the iOS reveals clues about the future of iOS
devices. MacRumors has found a reference
to something called ‘Find My Friends’, leading
them to speculate that Apple plans a location-
based social service of some kind. 9 To 5 Mac
has found images that suggest the next version
of the iPad will have a camera - though perhaps
not a higher-resolution screen.
Meanwhile, Engadget has found references
to new model numbers for iOS devices -
including two new iPhones and three new iPads.
The second iPhone is likely to be a version based
on the CDMA mobile standard for the American
Verizon network. The three iPads are likely to be a
wifi model, a model on the GSM mobile standard
and a CDMA version.
Finally, Boy Genius Report says that future
versions of iPad and iPhone might do away with
the Home button and work entirely on touch
gestures. BGR ’s source says Apple is already
testing devices without the button. Whether the
concept makes it beyond the test stage is
something we ’ll find out soon, perhaps later this
year.

Source: Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8257082/Apples-iOS-update-gives-hints-on-future-of-iPhone-and-iPad.html

Tunisian protests: Tunis marchers test Ben Ali's words.

Tunisia's president made it clear his forces would
no longer use lethal force against demonstrators

Demonstrators are gathering for a march
through the centre of the Tunisian capital,
Tunis, as pressure mounts on President
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
On Thursday night, Mr Ben Ali - who has
governed Tunisia since 1987 - announced he
would stand down in 2014.
His speech came after weeks of protests which
have left at least 23 dead.
Opposition parties gave a cautious welcome to
the news. Trade unions have called on people to
observe a general strike on Friday.
Human rights groups say more than 60 people
have died in weeks of unrest across the country,
as security forces responded to people protesting
over corruption, unemployment levels and high
food prices.
Demands for reform
The BBC's Adam Mynott in Tunis says early
indications are that many people in Tunis have
heeded the unions' call to protest.
In his speech on Thursday night, Mr Ben Ali said
there was "no presidency for life" in Tunisia.
However, our correspondent says there is a
degree of scepticism as to whether deeds will
follow on from words.
Mr Ben Ali, 74, is only Tunisia's second president
since independence from France in 1956. He was
last re-elected in 2009 with 89.62% of the vote.
In his speech, he said he did not intend to amend
the constitution to remove the upper age limit for
presidential candidates, which would have
allowed him to stand for a further term in 2014.
The president, who earlier this week had blamed
the unrest on "terrorists", also said he felt "very,
very deep and massive regret" over the deaths of
civilians in the protests.
He said he had ordered troops to stop firing on
protesters except in self defence, and pledged to
take action on food prices, which have gone up
fourfold in recent weeks.
Afterwards, Mr Ben Ali's supporters took to the
streets of Tunis, cheering and sounding car
horns.
In a further overture, foreign minister Kamel
Mourjane said it would be possible to form a
government of national unity involving the
opposition.
Speaking to France's Europe 1 radio on Friday, he
also held out the possibility of early parliamentary
elections.
Tunisia's main opposition leader, Najib Chebbi,
called the president's announcement "very good",
but said he was awaiting "concrete details".
Mustapha Ben Jaafar, head of the Democratic
Forum for Work and Liberties, said the speech
"opens up possibilities".
But human rights activist Mohamed Abbou said
he believed President Ben Ali was "fooling the
Tunisians with promises that have no
tomorrow".
The protests began in mid-December in the
southern town of Sidi Bouzid, after an
unemployed graduate set himself on fire when
police tried to prevent him from selling vegetables
without a permit. He died a few weeks later.

Source: Http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12189535

1 million affected by Sri Lanka floods.

Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Aid workers
scrambled to help more than a million people in
Sri Lanka suffering from massive flooding
described by the government as the worst
natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.
At least 23 people have died and 36 others were
injured in the destruction wrought by torrential
rains, the Disaster Management Center said.
The Sri Lankan government and United Nations
agencies were beefing up efforts to address
increasingly dire humanitarian needs.
"We share the strong concern over the
immediate requirements of over one million
affected, especially the most vulnerable including
children," said Neil Buhne, the U.N. humanitarian
coordinator in Sri Lanka.
He said the global body was already looking at
longer-term effects from damage to agriculture,
infrastructure and housing. About 125,000 acres
of the nation's staple rice crop has been
destroyed, the government estimated.
The full extent of the damage cannot be assessed
until flood waters in northern and central
provinces recede, but Mahinda Amaraweera,
minister of Disaster Management, told a news
conference the losses were severe.
So far, he said, the government
has allocated more than $1.5
million for recovery efforts and
prompted the largest military
response since the 2009 defeat of
the Tamil Tigers. More than 28,000
troops, backed by transport
helicopters and navy boats, were
engaged in rescue and food
delivery operations.
Many of the people in flood-affected areas are still
recovering from the 25-year bloody conflict
between the government and the rebel Tamil
Tigers.
George Sigamoney, secretary-general of the
Catholic charitable organization Caritas in Sri
Lanka, said it has been difficult to access places
affected by overflowing rivers, broken dams and
drowned roads.
"Hundreds of farmers had started to cultivate
their fields again after the war," he said on the
Caritas website. "But these efforts are turning to
be futile as the rains continue to lash the rice
growing areas. A lot of houses from our shelter
programs have been damaged in the floods as
well."
The U.N. World Food Programme said it was
"facing major breaks in food supplies." It said
rations for people returning home after the war
has been significantly reduced since October.
Sigamoney feared more misery lay ahead with
shortages and exploding prices of basic food
items.
"The poor will find it even more difficult to afford
the most basic food items", he said.

Source: Http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/sri.lanka.troops.rescue/

Sri Lanka struggles with flood havoc.

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — The Sri Lankan military
and aid agencies struggled Thursday to bring
relief to a million people displaced by floods that
have claimed nearly 30 lives and devastated the
island's rice bowl.
Even as torrential rains eased overnight to bring
some temporary respite, the number of people
seeking protection in state-run shelters swelled to
nearly 400,000, the state Disaster Management
Centre (DMC) said.
The centre put the official death toll at 27. The
floods were triggered by week-long rains across
northern, central and eastern Sri Lanka that forced
more than a million local residents to flee their
homes.
Some 3,000 soldiers have been deployed in the
worst-affected regions, along with trucks and air
force helicopters, as UN convoys have struggled
to bring crucial supplies in by road.
A large number of those forced out of their
homes had only recently been resettled after
decades of ethnic conflict between Tamil Tiger
rebels and government forces.
"Many families were just returning home after
years of displacement," said Reza Hossaini,
country representative for the UN children's
agency, UNICEF.
"They were rebuilding their lives, children were
returning to their community schools and now
they all face this latest severe setback," Hossaini
said.
Seven trucks loaded with UNICEF supplies,
including water tanks, tarpaulins, chlorine tablets,
sleeping mats and cooking gear, managed to
reach the eastern districts of Ampara and
Batticaloa late Thursday.
Residents of Batticaloa, a major rice-growing
area, said it was the worst flooding in living
memory.
"I have never seen anything like this before," said
farmer H.A.D. Jinadasa. "It will take months to
recover. I have lost everything, my fields and
farm machinery."
S. Kokulan, a village official who had turned a
local school into a welfare centre, said more than
3,000 people had come looking for help and
shelter, although the school building was itself
partially flooded.
"The men come for meals and then go back to
look after their houses. As the waters go down,
people are scared of looting," Kokulan said.
The region witnessed intense fighting during the
separatist conflict which came to an end in May
2009, and was also devastated in the December
2004 tsunami.
Sections of the main road leading to Batticaloa
from Colombo, a distance of 300 kilometres (187
miles), were still submerged, allowing only heavy
weather vehicles with a high ground-clearance to
get through.
"The water levels have begun to go down, but
the number of people moving to state-run relief
camps is going up," a DMC spokesman said,
adding that more than 630 camps were up and
running.
President Mahinda Rajapakse told reporters in
Colombo that they were still estimating the extent
of the damage, with the agricultural ministry
suggesting that that nearly 20 percent of the
country's rice farms had been flooded.
"We are not sparing any costs," the president
said. "The relief operations are going ahead and I
have told the officials to ensure that there are no
delays in distributing aid."
Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for
irrigation and power generation, but the seasonal
downpours frequently cause death and property
damage in low-lying areas as well as
mountainous regions.
The island's two main monsoon seasons run
from May to September and December to
February.

Source: Http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iMX7tfD6ntlIibbIwrft0BegBS4w?docId=CNG.2573ef4e8ce422164bc70a8d6573395d.81

Exclusive: Loughner Friend Explains Alleged Gunman's Grudge Against Giffords

— Jared Lee Loughner volunteering at the Tucson
Book Festival. Loughner is a suspect in the
shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others at a
public event. | © Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily
Star/ZUMAPRESS.com.

At 2:00 a.m. on Saturday—about eight hours
before he allegedly killed six people and wounded
14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), in
Tucson —Jared Lee Loughner phoned an old and
close friend with whom he had gone to high
school and college. The friend, Bryce Tierney,
was up late watching TV, but he didn't answer
the call. When he later checked his voice mail, he
heard a simple message from Loughner: "Hey
man, it's Jared. Me and you had good times.
Peace out. Later."
That was it. But later in the day, when Tierney
first heard about the Tucson massacre, he had a
sickening feeling: "They hadn't released the name,
but I said, 'Holy shit, I think it's Jared that did it.'"
Tierney tells Mother Jones in an exclusive
interview that Loughner held a years-long grudge
against Giffords and had repeatedly derided her
as a "fake." Loughner's animus toward Giffords
intensified after he attended one of her campaign
events and she did not, in his view, sufficiently
answer a question he had posed, Tierney says.
He also describes Loughner as being obsessed
with "lucid dreaming"—that is, the idea that
conscious dreams are an alternative reality that a
person can inhabit and control —and says
Loughner became "more interested in this world
than our reality." Tierney adds, "I saw his dream
journal once. That's the golden piece of evidence.
You want to know what goes on in Jared
Loughner's mind, there's a dream journal that will
tell you everything."
On Sunday, federal prosecutors charged 22-year-
old Loughner with one count of attempting to
assassinate a member of Congress, two counts
of unlawfully killing a federal employee, and two
counts of attempting to kill a federal employee.
Giffords was the target of Loughner's rampage,
prosecutors say, and the sworn affidavit
accompanying the charges mentions that
Loughner attended a Giffords "Congress in Your
Corner" event in 2007. The affidavit also mentions
that police searching a safe in Loughner's home
found a letter from Giffords' office thanking the
alleged shooter for attending an August 25, 2007
event.*
Tierney, who's also 22, recalls Loughner
complaining about a Giffords event he attended
during that period. He's unsure whether it was
the same one mentioned in the charges —
Loughner "might have gone to some other
rallies," he says —but Tierney notes it was a
significant moment for Loughner: "He told me
that she opened up the floor for questions and he
asked a question. The question was, 'What is
government if words have no meaning?'"
Giffords' answer, whatever it was, didn't satisfy
Loughner. "He said, 'Can you believe it, they
wouldn't answer my question,' and I told him,
'Dude, no one's going to answer that,'" Tierney
recalls. "Ever since that, he thought she was fake,
he had something against her."
Tierney says he has "no clue" why Loughner
might have "shot all those other people." But, he
notes, "when I heard Gabrielle Giffords has been
shot, I was like 'Oh my God...' For some reason I
felt like I knew...I felt like if anyone was going to
shoot her, it would be Jared."
Loughner would occasionally mention Giffords,
according to Tierney: "It wasn't a day-in, day-out
thing, but maybe once in a while, if Giffords did
something that was ridiculous or passed some
stupid law or did something stupid, he related
that to people. But the thing I remember most is
just that question. I don't remember him stalking
her or anything." Tierney notes that Loughner did
not display any specific political or ideological
bent: "It wasn't like he was in a certain party or
went to rallies...It's not like he'd go on political
rants." But Loughner did, according to Tierney,
believe that government is "fucking us over." He
never heard Loughner vent about the perils of
"currency," as Loughner did on one YouTube
video he created.
Tierney, who first met Loughner in middle
school, recalls that Loughner started to act
strange around his junior or senior year of high
school. Before that, Loughner was just a "normal
kid," says Tierney. When the two friends started
hanging out in sophomore year of high school,
"there was nothing really dark about Jared,"
Tierney says. "He was playing drums, doing
band things, playing sax. He was raised on
writing and reading music." Loughner also did a
lot of creative writing in his high school days,
Tierney says, and he used to carry around a
copy of a short story he wrote involving a
character named Angel; he'd ask people if they
would like to read it. "It had a lot of hidden
metaphors in it," Tierney says.
As Loughner and Tierney grew closer, Tierney
got used to spending the first ten minutes or so
of every day together arguing with Loughner's
"nihilist" view of the world. "By the time he was
19 or 20, he was really fascinated with semantics
and how the world is really nothing —illusion,"
Tierney says.
Once, Tierney recalls, Loughner told him, "I'm
pretty sure I've come to the conclusion that
words mean nothing." Loughner would also tell
Tierney and his friends that life "means nothing,"
and they'd reply, "If it means nothing, what
you're saying means nothing." Other times,
Tierney says, Loughner acted like any teen: "We'd
go to concerts, play music, get into trouble."

Source: Http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/jared-lee-loughner-friend-voicemail-phone-message

Chip sector jumps on strong Intel report.

HELSINKI/LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in
semiconductor companies jumped on Friday in
Japan and Europe after strong earnings report
from sector bellwether Intel, the world's largest
chipmaker, defied a slowdown in PC sales.
Shares in British chip designer ARM jumped 10
percent to a 10-year high, while the wider
European technology sector was up 0.5 percent
by 3:50 a.m. ET.
U.S. group Intel, whose microprocessors are the
brains in the bulk of the world's PCs, posted
market-beating revenue and margins for the
fourth quarter, and also gave a rosy outlook for
early 2011 overnight.
"The expectations regarding the results of the
semiconductor giant Intel were not really low
but Intel could overdeliver again," Close Brothers
Seydler strategist Roger Peeters said.
Earlier this week, research firm IDC said weak
consumer demand coupled with a surge of
tablet market capped the growth in global
personal computer shipments at 3 percent in the
fourth quarter.
RBS Capital Markets analyst Nick Hyslop said
Intel's guidance was very strong for first quarter
and the company did slightly better than
expected in the fourth quarter, given a growing
perception that Intel's position in tablets was
weak.
"People were relieved from an Intel standpoint,"
he said, adding a good first quarter for Intel
implied a good performance from ARM "given
that ARM is doing all the tablets."
Intel was the first major technology company to
report fourth-quarter results, and its upbeat
numbers set a positive tone for the rest of the
sector.
"Intel's good comments on server sales, coupled
with the positive SAP statement late yesterday,
indicate that corporations investment activity has
been good in the fourth quarter," Pohjola Bank
analyst Hannu Rauhala said.
German group SAP, Europe's biggest software
maker, said on Thursday software sales jumped
about a third in the fourth quarter.
In Japan, Tokyo Electron rose 2.8 percent to
5,530 yen, Sumco added 2 percent to 1,266 yen,
and Nikon Corp gained 0.7 percent to 1,875 yen.
Dutch semiconductor equipment vendors ASML
and ASMI rose 2.6 percent and 3.4 percent
respectively.

Source: Http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70D1PA20110114?feedType=RSS&ca=rdt

Marathon to spin off refining business.

Marathon Oil Corp. has a refinery in Texas City.
Under a proposal approved Thursday, the
downstream business would be spun off into
Marathon Petroleum Corp., which would be set
up in Findlay, Ohio.
After studying and then dropping the idea two
years ago, Marathon Oil Corp. said Thursday
the timing is finally right to split the company in
two.
The company's board has approved a plan to
spin off its downstream business, which includes
six U.S. oil refineries, and operate what's left as a
stand-alone oil and gas exploration and
production firm in Houston.
Under the plan, a new company called Marathon
Petroleum Corp. will be set up in Findlay, Ohio,
where Marathon's downstream business already
has offices.
It is expected to launch in July as the nation's fifth-
largest oil refiner, with its own stock trading
symbol. Marathon, meanwhile, will narrow its
focus as a global upstream oil and gas company,
with particular emphasis on emerging oil plays in
the U.S., officials said.
Major oil companies have been shedding U.S.
refining operations in recent years as gasoline
demand stagnates, biofuels take a bigger share of
the fuel market and a glut of plant capacity
weakens profits. Huge swings in oil prices in
recent years have also wreaked havoc on the
business.
But Marathon CEO Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., in an
interview Thursday with the Chronicle, said it
would be wrong to interpret the proposed
separation as an attempt to jettison its refining
unit and related businesses.
"We would not do this if we didn't think our
downstream business could be a top-tier
company on its own," he said.
Marathon said in July 2008 it was considering a
downstream spinoff in a bid to enhance
shareholder value. But in early 2009, with the
financial meltdown in full swing, management
took it off the table.
Now that economic conditions have improved
significantly and the company has completed
several major capital projects, including a $4
billion expansion of its refinery in Garyville, La.,
a split once again makes sense, Cazalot said.
Officials said the separation will give each
company more flexibility to pursue unique
business strategies and investors more
information about individual business segments
that may have gotten lost in the combined
corporation.
Analysts said the move also is clearly designed to
boost the value of Marathon Oil, which trades at a
discount to some of its peers.
Shares rise 6 percent
Investors appeared to like the news Thursday,
pushing Marathon shares up 6 percent to $42.98
in New York Stock Exchange trading.
As for the new downstream company, its shares
should trade at a premium to rivals , given the
cost advantages it enjoys at Midwest refineries,
the sophistication of its new Garyville complex
and low-volatility earnings from fuel stations and
pipelines, said Jeff Dietert, managing director at
Simmons & Company International, an
energy investment bank in Houston.
Texas City site
The new company will control half a dozen
refineries, including one in Texas City, with a
total 1.1 million barrels per day of crude
processing capacity. It also will own or operate
more than 9,000 miles of pipelines, as well as
control 1,300 Speedway brand fuel stations and
dozens of storage terminals.
In recent years, Marathon's refining and
marketing segment accounted for at least one-
third of annual earnings.
UBS analyst William Featherston, in a report
Thursday, valued Marathon's downstream
business at $11 billion based on earnings and
assets, while pegging the remaining upstream oil
and natural gas business at $21.5 billion to $23.4
billion.
Under the spinoff, which is expected to be tax-
free and completed by June 30, Marathon intends
to distribute one share of the new company's
stock for every two shares of the parent held at a
date to be determined.
Gary Heminger, Marathon's current downstream
chief, will become CEO of the new entity, while
Marathon's board of directors will be divided
between the two companies with no director
serving on both boards.
As for employees, Marathon officials said they
should expect minimal changes in the day-to-day
operations of both companies and the majority of
workers will see little, if any, effect on their
positions. Marathon employs roughly 29,000
globally, with about 1,500 in Houston.

Source: Http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7380843.html

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