Maradona fined over feud with rival coach

By MICHAEL CASEY

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 1:54 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -Diego Maradona was fined 9,000 dirham ($2,450, ?1,901) on Thursday by the United Arab Emirates Football Association for verbally abusing a rival coach.

Maradona, who coaches UAE club Al Wasl, has been feuding with Al Ain coach Cosmin Olaroiu since losing an ill-tempered match last month. The 1986 World Cup-winning Argentine complained that Olaroiu and his staff celebrated the winning goal in an unprofessional manner. He later called Olaroiu rude and impolite and suggested it was the club's players, not Olaroiu, who deserved credit for its early season success.

Olaroiu, a Romanian in his first year at Al Ain, told reporters that Maradona's criticisms came from someone "who doesn't have a clear mind," a reference to the Argentine's history of drug and alcohol abuse. Olaroiu was not sanctioned over the comments because Al Wasl hasn't filed a complaint.

In its verdict, the FA disciplinary committee also cautioned Maradona and took him to task for calling Olaroiu "impolite." The committee dismissed a separate complaint filed by Al Wasl, which accused Al Ain fans of pelting its supporters with stones after the match.

Al Wasl officials could not be reached for immediate comment.

Al Ain Chief Executive Carlo Nohra said Maradona's sanction was justified and sent a message that such conduct would not be tolerated in the league.

"We are happy a decision has been taken in this case," Nohra said. "This was never really about Maradona but curbing coaches behavior toward one another. We all felt this behavior should have been picked up by the league anyway."

Since arriving in Dubai, the brash and colorful Maradona has made his presence felt. He has repeatedly criticized referees he claims were biased against his club and at one point suggested they should focus more on the match than trying to become celebrities.

He also kicked a fan for intruding on a photo shoot he was trying to take with a banner of support from his grandson.

"As a surprise from my daughters in Argentina and Manchester, they put a sign up for me in the ground that read: 'Grandfather, I'm with you. I love you. Benja,"' Maradona said after the incident. "I'd like to apologize to one of the fans. I was trying to unfurl and see the whole banner and, by mistake, I perhaps injured him."

On Wednesday, the 50-year-old Maradona defended his criticism of referees, and said they could benefit from his vast experience.

"I only say what I feel," Maradona told a news conference. "In the future, they will realize what I said was right. I have 35 years in the industry and that has made me realize certain things."

Maradona retired as a player in 1997, but battled weight problems and an admitted cocaine habit even before he left the game. He turned to coaching in 2008, taking over at Argentina and leading his country to the World Cup quarterfinals in South Africa. He was fired after the World Cup and joined Al Wasl in May.

Throughout his career, Maradona has never been shy about courting controversy.

In 2009, he was handed a two-month ban by FIFA from all football activities for expletive-filled rants after his team qualified for the 2010 World Cup.

He also has had a running feud with Pele, recently saying the retired Brazilian star must have taken the "wrong medication" when he suggested Neymar was better than Lionel Messi.

---

Follow Michael Casey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mcasey1

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

advertisement

More newsAnwar Amro / AFP - Getty Images

Lebanon rallying around team

Ali al-Saadi gave Lebanon a 1-0 lead against South Korea and the sectarian chants echoing across Cite Sportive stadium suddenly gave way to a more hopeful cheer.

Off-field woes

Football in 2011 was dominated by events off the field rather than on it.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45814678/ns/sports-soccer/

telenav wade phillips wade phillips new orleans hornets time person of the year sag nominations sag nominations

LSU Football Recruiting: Tigers Gunning For Top Class With Kiel In The Fold

SB Nation Newsletters

The 5 biggest sports stories, hand-picked for your inbox. Show more info?

We?ve developed a unique newsletter that delivers the five most interesting sports stories fans are talking about, direct to your email three times a week. Each email is curated by an SB Nation editor who follows sports the way you do: as a fan. One email three times a week, with stories worth your time.

You can unsubscribe at anytime, and we'll never use your address for evil. Not interested? Make this bar go away forever. You can always sign up later.

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2011/12/28/2666562/lsu-football-recruiting-tigers-commit-signing-day

rachel crow steelers browns albert pujols pau gasol virginia tech va tech duggar miscarriage

A Christian on Hitchens' Atheism and Lowe's Muslim Problem (Time.com)

David Caton owes me one. I interviewed the head of the Florida Family Association last week during his bigoted but successful crusade to get companies like Lowe's to pull ads from All-American Muslim, the Learning Channel reality show about a community of Muslim Americans. Before Caton hung up on me -- he gets angry when you question his complaint that the show presents Muslims in too positive a light and not as crazed radicals plotting to impose Islamic shari'a law from Maine to Monterey -- I corrected his pronunciation of imam, a Muslim cleric, from Eye-mam to the proper Ee-mawm. Later that day, I heard him say it properly on CNN.

But that's all he got right. I concern myself with Caton -- who also likes to hire small planes to haul banners over Orlando warning people that homosexuals visit Disney World -- only for two reasons. One is that a major corporation like Lowe's actually caved to the Evangelical's ugly Islamophobia. The other is that he got his 15 minutes of fame at about the same time that Christopher Hitchens died, on Dec. 15. Hitchens was best known as one of the "angry atheists" for his 2007 best seller God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and narrow-minded fundamentalists like Caton made his work a lot easier. So of course did extremist Muslims, as well as extremist Roman Catholics, Jews, Hindus and all the fanatics who ruin religion the way drunks ruin driving. Which is why Hitchens' attacks on faith, while brilliantly written, could also feel gratuitous. (See "Christopher Hitchens, RIP.")

So it's fitting, at least for the silent majority of Christians who aren't hatemongering zealots but who derive hope and humane inspiration from our beliefs, that Caton and Hitchens should both be in the news during the Christmas season. The holiday's anticommercialization critics are right to argue that Christians spend too much time on outdoor lights at the expense of the inner light kindled by the story of God's incarnation in a manger. I'm as guilty as anyone in that regard. But Caton and Hitchens at least give us Christians a convenient place to start. They prod us on the one hand to assess what isn't Christian -- like demonizing gays and Muslims -- and on the other hand to reaffirm why Christianity and religion itself are a positive and not always poisonous influence in the world.

The crux of the Florida Family Association's campaign is Caton's preposterous claim, as he told me, that "every Eye-mam in this country wants to put the U.S. under shari'a law." Every imam I know here in Miami rejects the idea. "Muslims are only 6 million out of 300 million in this country," one reminds me. "We rely on U.S. law to protect our rights as a minority." They're also a minority who wish Christians well at Christmas: the Koran reverently mentions Jesus and the Virgin Mary almost 60 times. (See "Do Shari'a Courts Have a Role in British Life?")

One way, then, that Christians can practice Jesus' teachings of love, tolerance and charity this yuletide is by resolving to reassure folks like Muslims that we're not like the Florida Family Association. That we're committed to the code of Christmas -- "Peace on earth to people of goodwill" -- trumpeted by the same angels we place atop the trees in our living rooms.

That's also one of the best ways to answer Hitchens as well as other angry atheists like Richard Dawkins and quite a few members of my own hypersecular profession. It's a fairly widely accepted maxim that atheist fundamentalists, as I call them, can be just as intolerant as religious fundamentalists. And the problem they share is that both take religion way too literally. Just as Christian fundamentalists insist on a literal reading of the Bible, angry atheists tend to insist that belief in God qualifies you as a raving creationist. (See "Why Christopher Hitchens Is Wrong About Billy Graham.")

Here's what they refuse to get: Yes, Christians believe that Jesus' nativity was a virgin birth and that he rose from the dead on Easter. But if you were to show most Christians incontrovertible scientific proof that those miracles didn't occur, they would shrug -- because their faith means more to them than that. Because in the end, what they have faith in is the redemptive power of the story. In Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, an agnostic says to his Catholic friend, "You can't seriously believe it all ... I mean about Christmas and the star and the three kings and the ox and the ass."

"Oh yes, I believe that. It's a lovely idea."

"But you can't believe things simply because they're a lovely idea."

"But I do. That's how I believe."

I'm willing to bet it's how most believers believe. Before Hitchens died at 62 from esophageal cancer, he made a point of declaring he was certain no heaven awaited him. But that swipe at the faithful always misses the point. Most of us don't believe in God because we think it's a ticket to heaven. Rather, our belief in God -- our belief in the living ideal of ourselves, which is something even atheists ponder -- instills in us a faith that in the end, light always defeats darkness (which is how people get through the wars and natural disasters I cover). That does make us open to the possibility of the hereafter -- but more important, it gives us purposeful inspiration to make the here and now better.

With all due respect to the memory of Christopher Hitchens, making the here and now better would be difficult without religion. But it's also hard enough without the un-Christian antics of people like David Caton. As Christmas ought to remind us.

See TIME's 2011 Person of the Year.

See the Top 10 Everything of 2011.

View this article on Time.com

Most Popular on Time.com:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111227/us_time/08599210292700

weather los angeles caleb hanie nascar bcs standings 2011 rhodes scholarship rhodes scholarship ufc 139 results

State of the world: Global gender gap narrows

Part 5 of the surprisingly upbeat state of the world: Women's lot rises as the gender gap narrows worldwide.

Ten years ago, life was still hard for the women of Ijuhanyondo village in Tanzania.

Skip to next paragraph

"Women were very behind. They used to be only at home doing housework," a resident named Baruani told a World Bank researcher this year.

But much has changed in the intervening decade. Many Ijuhanyondo women now run their own business and have cash for themselves. In the old days men did not allow women to participate in politics; now females make up half the members of the street committee that runs the village.

Things are far from perfect ? most Ijuhanyondo homes do not have piped-in water. Men still get drunk and beat their wives. Parents still favor sons when it comes to passing along family possessions.

Overall, though, said a villager named Ag?netha, "we do not depend on men as it used to be."

As goes Ijuhanyondo, perhaps so goes the evolution of gender equality across the world. Things have changed for the better, particularly in developing nations, at a pace that would have been unthinkable as recently as the 1970s, according to a 2012 World Bank report on the subject.

"In four major areas ? women's rights, education, health, and labor force outcomes ? the gains in the second half of the 20th century were large and fast in many parts of the world," says the World Bank's "Gender Equality and Development" report.

Consider the gains made on formal rights and constitutional guarantees of equality. In 2003, the African Union adopted a protocol on women's rights, dubbed the "Maputo Protocol." Of the 53 African nations, 46 have now signed this protocol, which asserts women's rights to political participation and social equality, among other things. Thirty signees have ratified it.

In 1994 all Latin American nations signed an Organization of American States convention on the prevention of violence against women. Since then, 28 of these countries have passed their own laws establishing punishments for domestic abuse.

Today, Saudi Arabia remains the only nation that formally restricts women's right to vote. The Philippines has made sweeping legislative changes recognizing women's rights across a wide spectrum of law. Morocco overhauled its family code in 2004 to better recognize equality between the genders.

In education, the world has just about reached gender parity in primary school enrollment, according to the World Bank. Even those regions that lag in this area are making progress ? in sub-Saharan Africa, the girl-boy ratio in primary school was 91 to 100 in 2008, up from 85 to 100 in 1999. In secondary schools, girls outnumber boys in roughly one-third of developing nations. At the university level, more women than men are enrolled worldwide.

"This increase in female enrollment is consistent with an increasing demand for 'brain' rather than 'brawn' jobs in a globalizing world," notes the World Bank gender report.

As for health, the life expectancy for women has risen from 54 in 1960 to 71 in 2008. That's slightly more than it has gone up for men. Recent decades have also seen the fastest-ever decline in fertility, from 5 births per woman in 1960 to about 2.5 in 1980. This allows families to concentrate resources on fewer kids and gives women more opportunity to enter the workforce. Indeed, the gender gap in labor force participation has steadily narrowed. Between 1980 and 2008, the percentage of women working outside the home has risen from 50.2 to 51.8. The corresponding figure for men has fallen, from 82 percent to 77 percent.

Of course, there's still a long way to go in regard to gender equality. Worldwide, women still spend much more time on domestic work than men. They make less money than men for doing equivalent work. And in some nations, such as India and China, there is the problem of what the World Bank calls "girls missing at birth," a decline in female infants caused by parental preference for boys, the advent of gender-determining pre-natal medical tests, and access to abortion.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/mNChlOiJNn0/State-of-the-world-Global-gender-gap-narrows

rachel crow rachel crow steelers browns albert pujols pau gasol virginia tech va tech

cam_kirk: S/O @babyloncartel for the iPhone wallpaper http://t.co/27IoOgDC

• Passer la navigation
• Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
• Passer cette ?tape
• Connexion

• Connexion
• Rejoignez Twitter !

S/O @babyloncartel for the iPhone wallpaper instagr.am/p/bRpdP/ Il y a environ 3 heures via Instagram

cam_kirk

Cam Kirk

Pied de page

• ? 2011 Twitter
• ? propos de nous
• Contact
• Blog
• Statut
• Ressources
• API
• Entreprises
• Aide
• Offres d'emploi
• Conditions
• Confidentialit?

Source: http://twitter.com/cam_kirk/statuses/150692530843947008

new air jordans the patriot jeff dunham night at the museum young guns concord billy the kid

Rwandan rebel freed after intn'l charges dropped (AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands ? The International Criminal Court freed a Rwandan rebel Friday and returned him to France after dismissing murder and rape charges against him.

Callixte Mbarushimana, who spent 11 months in detention, was the first war crimes suspect to be arrested and freed without trial since the court began work in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.

The court said Mbarushimana, who had lived in Paris before his arrest, was "released on French territory, as he requested" through the cooperation of the Netherlands and France.

Mbarushimana was charged with five counts of murder, rape, torture and persecution allegedly committed by Rwandan rebels in neighboring Congo.

In a 2-1 decision, pretrial judges ruled last week that the evidence against him was insufficient to warrant a trial, and ordered him freed.

Prosecutors lost an appeal last Tuesday, but his release was delayed because he was still the subject of a U.N. travel ban. France asked for a delay to allow time to clear his transfer with the U.N. Sanctions Committee.

Prosecutors accused Mbarushimana of being a senior member of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, which is made up of former guerrillas accused of genocide in Rwanda's 1994 ethnic slaughter.

The group's killing spree in Congo in 2009 that left hundreds dead was aimed at forcing Rwanda to accept their return.

Prosecutors allege that Mbarushimana's role was coordinating "an international campaign of propaganda and extortion" aimed at furthering the FDLR cause.

Mbarushimana signed his name to FDLR press releases issued from Paris, but denied his group was involved in atrocities. He described the FDLR as a political and military organization intent on bringing reform to Rwanda.

It was yet another narrow escape for Mbarushimana, a former computer technician for the U.N. Development Program, who has evaded trial several times for the 1994 genocide and the ensuing struggle. Some half a million Tutsis were murdered by ethnic Hutus in 100 days in the summer of 1994.

Mbarushimana was arrested and held for two months in 2001while working for the U.N. in Kosovo before he was released because his indictment was faulty. Later he was indicted by the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, but again his case was dropped, apparently because the court was focusing on higher-level suspects. In 2008 he was arrested in Frankfurt when German authorities found his name on the U.N. sanctions list. He was released four months later.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_re_eu/eu_international_court_congo

government shutdown sofia vergara jacksonville jaguars jacksonville jaguars iraq war over iraq war over maurice jones drew

USDA reverses decision to cut agriculture reports

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Agriculture Department is reinstating several reports that it had targeted for elimination two months ago in a cost-cutting move.

The department says that it will reinstate reports for industries such as catfish and trout, hops, fruits and vegetables, and bees and honey.

In October, the USDA had said that eliminating or reducing the frequency of 14 crop and livestock reports would save about $10 million.

But some farmers complained that without the reports, they would be left guessing how much to produce and when to sell.

The reports influence the price and supply of many products that people wind up consuming.

The USDA said this month that several improvements to its operations have allowed the department to find money to reinstate several key reports.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-25-USDA%20Cutbacks-Reversals/id-6586e28a2c8e473fa7ac0f85aff10767

joe paterno lung cancer john tucker must die uk basketball iowa state faroe islands faroe islands corso

APNewsBreak: 10,000 US troops leave Afghanistan (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama's order to withdraw 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year has been accomplished, a little more than a week before the year-end deadline, military officials said Thursday.

The drawdown is the first step in the plan to wind down the war, transition security to Afghan forces and end the combat role for international troops by the end of 2014.

It also gives the Obama administration a second war-related accomplishment to tout this month ? coming just a week after U.S. officials marked the end of the war in Iraq and the last convoy of American soldiers rumbled out of that country into Kuwait.

Officials say there are now 91,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan ? down from the peak of 101,000 in June.

In December 2009 Obama announced he was sending an additional 33,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a bid to beat back the escalating Taliban insurgency and change the course of the war. Six months ago, declaring that the "tide of war is receding," Obama said he would withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of this year, and another 23,000 by the end of next summer.

The decision was met with initial opposition from military leaders who thought the withdrawal was too much, too soon, particularly since it would pull troops out before the end of next year's fighting season, which can last well into October and even November.

Last week, however, during a trip to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta repeatedly told troops that the U.S. had reached a turning point in the war. And at one point he went so far as to say, "I really think that for all the sacrifices that you're doing, the reality is that it is paying off and that we're moving in the right direction. ... We're winning this very tough conflict here in Afghanistan."

Contrasting that assessment is the ongoing violence in Afghanistan's east, along the Pakistan border, and the high-profile attacks and assassinations that continue to wreak havoc in and around Kabul. The violence is compounded by worries about government corruption, the fragile economy, and fears that Afghan forces won't be ready to take over security of the country as American and NATO troops leave.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_afghanistan

oklahoma earthquake new madrid fault current time earthquake today earthquake today droid razr oklahoma news

Cards From The Kotaku Community

Today we received a delivery. No, a courier didn?t come to the office, nor did the pizza guy. Rather, a group of Kotaku readers exploded into our head quarters, massive boxes in arms, yelling ?MERRY CHRISTMAS!?. We were absolutely blown away by the thoughtfulness of the gifts, especially some of the art and cards we received. Here?s the organiser of the Kotaku Christmas Project, long-time reader and all-the-time wonderful person, Chuloopa, to talk about the cards.

Hey guys and gals ? ?Loops here again!

Woah! What a day! So who wants to have a look at some cards? How about two amazing works of art from Sughly and Dr. What? And a REALLLY long message from Blaghman? I know I sure as heck do.

After weeks of planning and hard work, the community all submitted some Christmas cards to our cause all as part of the infamous ?Phase 3?. Some submitted their own cards, others were foolish?.er?trusting enough to allow me to create a card with their message included! So this is your first chance to check out what I?ve done as well! Oh the tension is palpable!!!

Three of the cards were double-sided, those of Steve-0-the-dev0, Lambomann, and myself ? that?s why they have two images. All cards were printed on matte photo paper at Big W and looked absolutely amazing in the end ? I?ve had to drop the resolution on these ones, though, so I could fit them in a email to Mark? but for now, Enjoy!!!

And here are the two amazing pieces of art:
Sughly:

Dr. What?

And last, but certainly not least, an amazingly long and awesome message that was too big to fit on a card from Blaghman!
??

Oh Kotaku Crew, can I call you the Kotaku Krew? No? Oh, well I guess I?d better not, I wouldn?t want to offend you, this is, after all, all for you. By now I imagine you?ve finally grasped the extent of effort to which Chuloopa went to here, and I hope you?re impressed. This is his love-child, after all. But again, I?m losing track of what?s important here, and that?s you. You know, Loops said that the artistic among us could create special cards for you, with two parts to them, an image, and a wall of text, well, they say that a picture pains a thousand words, so I guess the only choice I have, as an artistically lacking member of the public, is to write a thousand words, and a wall of text. Somehow though, I doubt that that will happen. We?ll see though.

Mark, I guess it?s fitting to start with you. You?re the reason I?m here today, you?re the reason I started commenting in TAY. Well, kind of the reason. It?s your fault you see. I?ve been reading this site for a long time, a very long time. In fact, I remember the days when Plunkett was the ?Australian Editor? and KotakAU didn?t exist as it does today. Of course, I barely read it back then, but I dropped in occasionally, and over the years, the site grew, and I began to read a whole lot more. Then, suddenly, I heard from a friend ?Have you heard? Wildgoose is leaving Kotaku!? I couldn?t believe it. How could anyone replace the Goose? He judged our Haiku?s, he dealt with those crazy people in TAY! I didn?t understand. I found out about you, how could this Mike Squirrels character ever hope to equal the Wild Goose? And then, just briefly, a wild Junglist appeared. In that time, I became a part of TAY. I joined the old order, those of the before time. In weeks of 400 posts, that seemed so packed.

Then you arrived. Like a magnificent, magical bolt from the blue, you turned up. There?s not a lot I can say about this. Your coming was like the return of Rocky, as he rallies to defeat his opponent, like Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, fighting off the Alien Queen of bad journalism. Suddenly, you were here, and everything was okay.

Truly, words cannot describe the changes that have been wrought to Kotaku under your leadership, and I can hardly fathom the effect that the site as a whole has had on me, since I became part of it. The community of KotakAU is surely its greatest aspect, and with you as editor it has been allowed to flourish and grow, into one of the nicest places on the internet. So, Mark, a toast to you. Have a Merry Christmas, and never forget the effect you?ve had.

Elly, on to you next. I pride myself on being an observant person, I am almost certainly misguided in this, but nevertheless, I consider it an attribute. I am sure you can imagine the shock then, when I first saw your name appear on Kotaku. I had no idea who this person was, this ?Elly Hart.? Who was she? What did she want with my baked potatoes? Why is the rum always gone? I?ll be honest, some of these questions have never been answered, though that may simply be due to the fact that I never ask hard enough. What relevance does this have? Well, I am not the only person who occasionally misses things. The first time I recall hearing about you, someone asked in the comments how you?d enjoyed your time as an intern at Kotaku. Yes, they had confused you for Ms. Tracey Lien. Oh the hilarity, women on the internet? Of course this couldn?t happen! I should not mock this asker so, they were only being polite, after all, I imagine that if I ever asked anything back then I would immediately have cause to regret it. Speaking of being polite, I feel that I should compliment your writing, though I am not just being polite as I say this, I do enjoy your written work, so you should really do more of it. Some kid on the internet told you so, so you have to now! Finally, in the interest of resurrecting an old joke, I never received that signed photo of you, a point with which I shall forever be sore. So, to you, have a Merry Christmas, and imagine that I say something profound here.

?-

Amazing, everyone. Simply amazing.

xoxo ? Chuloopa

A personal message from myself: I have only been here for a few months and I can?t say how grateful I am to belong to such an amazing community. As a writer you?re constantly wondering who is reading your work and if anyone even cares, and the Kotaku community has been one of the most engaged communities I have ever written for. So thank you for making me feel so welcome. I love my job!

Source: http://feeds.kotaku.com.au/~r/KotakuAustralia/~3/M8FGwVAsciA/

packers stock sale jason mayhem miller newt gingrich chicago bears margarito margarito horton hears a who

Report: US mistakes led to Pakistan airstrikes (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Wall Street Journal says Pentagon investigators have determined that mistakes by a joint U.S.-Afghan special operations team led to the airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month.

The newspaper says the Defense Department investigation found that coalition troops conducting operations along the Afghan border with Pakistan incorrectly believed there were no Pakistani forces in the area.

After the U.S. and Afghan commandos were attacked by militants, they called in airstrikes against two encampments they thought were used by militants. They were actually were Pakistan border posts.

The Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the report, says an opportunity to stop the fighting was missed when a U.S. serviceman gave incorrect data to the Pakistanis, so they did not know their posts were under attack.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_pakistan_airstrikes

ndamukong suh ndamukong suh aptera aptera facebook ipo facebook ipo national defense authorization act

Insight: Russia says no to West's way with HIV (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? In 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev said heroin was a threat to Russia's national security. This year, Russia pledged to finance programs to reduce the harm done by drug use, including an HIV crisis that is one of the most severe in the world.

But even though the number of new HIV infections in Russia jumped 10 percent over 2011, health workers and global HIV authorities say Moscow has not honored that promise.

This is not due to a lack of cash - Russia is doubling its budget for HIV in 2012 from 2010 levels. At issue is how it will use the funds. From next year, no money will go to such internationally recognized efforts as needle exchanges. None has ever gone to heroin substitution: the Russian authorities oppose it. Moscow doesn't believe these approaches help slow the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"Working on drug dependency is more effective than needle exchange and methadone programs," said Alexei Mazus, who heads the Moscow Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention, one of around 100 such venues across the country run by the health ministry.

In areas where needle exchanges have taken place, he said the health ministry had seen new HIV cases increase, not fall. Russia's health ministry said last year it had evidence that HIV rates have tripled in areas where foreign-run needle exchange programs were running.

The United Nations says so-called "harm reduction" programs - needle exchanges, and using methadone as a substitute for heroin - are effective in slowing the spread of HIV. Methadone reduces the risk of infection by dirty needles because it can be swallowed, rather than injected.

A major WHO study found HIV rates fell more than 18 percent in cities with needle exchanges, while they rose 8 percent in areas that did not have them. The British and U.S. governments both approved needle exchanges in recent drug policies drafted to combat HIV. But in Russia's drug strategy for 2010-20, heroin substitutes are banned.

Projects such as giving drug users and sex workers clean needles, HIV awareness training and medication have been funded by the United Nations in Russia for the last seven years. Next year that funding comes to an end and with it, so will most of these schemes.

Some health workers and global HIV authorities are angered and baffled by Russia's approach, which they say will only aggravate the problem.

"When a few programs were funded and running it was then difficult to see how things could get worse. Now we know," Damon Barrett, a senior human rights analyst at Harm Reduction International in London, told Reuters.

RICH RUSSIA

Separated from world no. 1 opium producer Afghanistan by former Soviet Central Asia, whose borders are porous, Russia has more heroin users than any other country. Moscow puts the total at two million, although the United Nations says there are half a million more, and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) say there could be as many as three million.

This year, Russian health officials estimate 62,000 people were newly infected with HIV, a 10 percent increase on 2010 and the upper limit of a prediction made last year by the International AIDS Society. Officially, Russia has had almost 637,000 cases, including over 100,000 deaths in the year to November.

The UN puts the number of people living with HIV today in Russia at over a million.

Since 2004, NGOs in Russia have received a grant from the UN's Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Fund says the $351 million it has provided has reached half a million Russians. It has supported over 70 harm reduction programs across the country. The 20 or so that remain will stop receiving UN money at the end of this month.

This is for two reasons, says Nicolas Cantau, fund portfolio manager for Russia at the Global Fund. First, Russia has become richer, and the Fund's resources can be given to impoverished countries. For rich countries to be eligible for Global Fund resources, 10 percent of the population must be infected: South Africa is the only country in the Group of 20 richest nations to qualify.

Russia has been a donor as well as a recipient, and has given the Fund $265 million up to date. But the Fund now wants something in return: It says Russia should begin financing its own harm reduction programs.

BROKEN PROMISE

At a United Nations meeting in New York in June, Russia pledged to do just that from this year. Its deputy health minister Veronika Skvortsova said Moscow also gave "general support" to a declaration for "Zero new infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths".

A spokesman for the health ministry said Russia has put aside money for free HIV testing, for the first time ever. But he declined to comment in detail on why harm reduction programs have yet to materialize. "They are not considered useful in fighting this disease," he said.

Some health workers are incensed.

"As it turns out, they were tricking us," said Anya Sarang, who heads the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice, a small Russian NGO. "Now we are in the final month of the year. Have they actually done anything? No," Sarang said.

The Global Fund's Cantau is dismayed. "All the things that we have done will be lost without further funding," he says. "It is disappointing".

PREVENTION BY COUNSEL

Russia has put aside around $600 million for HIV in 2012 - double what it had in 2010 - but only 3 percent of this will go towards prevention. Some money will go to HIV tests, and Moscow says it also provides free anti-retroviral drugs for all sufferers of the disease, although the UN says only a quarter of those in need actually receive them.

No funds will go to needle exchanges. Instead, Russia's HIV/AIDS Prevention Centres will try prevent HIV with anti-drug adverts, and treat HIV with psychological counseling.

Mazus, the head of the Moscow Centre, said HIV sufferers need to grieve through counseling, which will also prevent them from passing on the disease to others.

"HIV is a behavioral disease. It's not being transferred in everyday life. It is not dangerous," he told Reuters.

Such views are scorned by foreign health bodies.

Instead of making good its June promise, Russia has "ramped up repressive measures known to fuel HIV", said Harm Reduction International's Barrett. He pointed to the ban on opiate substitution therapy.

"AGGRESSION"

Concerns have spread beyond health workers. On World AIDS Day, December 1, a drug-users' network organized protests at 12 Russian embassies from New York to Stockholm to Canberra.

Hundreds of protesters rallied and held candles, some holding signs accusing the state of murder for its refusal to legalize methadone, while others held large red banners heaping shame on Russia.

The protests' coordinator, Erin O'Mara, also editor of "Black Poppy", a British magazine for drug users, said "the spotlight was on Russia and its shameful lack of response and indeed inappropriately aggressive, state-sponsored aggression towards... people who use drugs".

In Moscow, protesters played funeral music and held up coffins as they paraded past the health ministry. The ministry declined comment.

Some foreign health workers in Russia fear its endemic corruption could make it hard for them to access what funds are available for HIV prevention.

"It will be very tough to find money. We fear that the state's funding for HIV will be pre-awarded," said Yelena Agapova, from the AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW), a Dutch organization set up in Russia 10 years ago.

Like dozens of NGOs in Russia combating HIV, her organization has received the bulk of its support from the Global Fund. It runs mother-to-child HIV prevention programs, prison HIV prevention and safe sex campaigns.

Though its Moscow office will stay in place with a skeletal staff, it says it will "significantly" downsize its projects from next year. Only a handful of similar organizations will continue working once flows from the Global Fund stop over coming weeks. They will be financed from Western awards and George Soros' Open Society Foundation.

Harm Reduction International's Barrett says the impact will be catastrophic: "It is a human disaster that Russian authorities are willing to watch unfold," he said.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Koppel; Editing by Sara Ledwith)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/ts_nm/us_russia_hiv

washington wizards rudy zynga free shipping free shipping esophageal cancer extreme makeover home edition

Inflation eases, creates space for Fed stimulus (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? U.S. consumer prices were flat in November as Americans paid less for cars and gasoline, a further sign of a cool down in inflation that could give the Federal Reserve more room to help a still-weak economy.

The Labor Department said on Friday the Consumer Price Index was unchanged last month. Economists had expected an increase of 0.1 percent.

Prices spiked earlier in the year but the report showed the trend has shifted. Over the past 12 months, prices have risen 3.4 percent. That marked a second monthly decline from a three-year high in September.

The report "leaves the Fed ample cover for any additional monetary policy accommodation they may see warranted in the New Year," said Ian Lyngen, a bond strategist at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.

Still, some of the data could give pause to policymakers at the central bank.

Outside food and energy, prices climbed a faster-than-expected 0.2 percent. These so-called core prices rose 2.2 percent in the 12 months through November, up from 2.1 percent in October.

"Core inflation ... is a bit more persistent than what some people had expected," said Jeremy Lawson, and economist at BNP Paribas in New York.

Economists and investors see inflation slowing further over the coming months, which could help convince the Fed to do more to bring down the country's 8.6 percent unemployment rate.

Prices for U.S. government debt rose slightly as investors saw the data opening the door a bit wider to stimulative Fed action. U.S. stocks rose and the dollar fell against the euro as investors remained on edge over the euro zone's debt crisis.

The U.S. recovery has picked up momentum over the past few months, but the Fed on Tuesday warned that turmoil in Europe still presents a big risk to the U.S. economy and it kept the option of further monetary stimulus on the table.

FED EASE STILL IN PLAY

In an appearance before Congress on Friday, New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley defended a decision by the U.S. central bank to provide dollars for banks overseas, warning of the risks of disruptive asset sales if liquidity dried up.

"If the access to dollar funding were severely impaired, this would necessitate the abrupt forced sales of dollar assets by these banks, which could seriously disrupt U.S. markets and adversely affect U.S. businesses, consumers and jobs," he said.

A 2.4 percent drop in gasoline prices and a 0.3 percent decline in the cost of new vehicles dragged down overall prices in November. Prices for food rose 0.1 percent, while within the core index, prices for apparel jumped 0.6 percent.

Many economists have said the Fed could try to give the economy a bit of help at a meeting on January 24-25 by laying out forecasts for interest rates that could underscore its willingness to keep borrowing costs ultra-low for a prolonged period.

The U.S. central bank has held overnight interest rates near zero since December 2008 and has bought $2.3 trillion in government and mortgage-related bonds in a further attempt to stimulate a robust recovery.

Some Fed watchers also think the U.S. central bank will step up bond buying later in 2012.

(Additional reporting by Chris Reese and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/bs_nm/us_economy

while you were sleeping happy halloween happy halloween history of halloween eagles cowboys eagles cowboys trick or treat times

Typhoon kills more than 436 in southern Philippines (Reuters)

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (Reuters) ? More than 400 people were killed and an unknown number were missing after a typhoon struck the southern Philippines, causing flash floods and landslides and driving tens of thousands from their homes.

In a text message to Reuters, Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), said the death toll of 436 was expected to rise.

"Our death toll was based on the actual number of bodies that were brought to funeral homes in the two cities that were the hardest hit by the typhoon," Pang said, adding it was difficult to estimate how many were still unaccounted for.

Typhoon Washi, with winds gusting up to 90 kmh (56 mph), barreled into the resource-rich island of Mindanao late on Friday, bringing heavy rain that also grounded some domestic flights and left wide areas without power.

Emergency workers, soldiers and police were recovering more bodies - most covered in mud - washed ashore in nearby towns.

Pang said nearly 360 bodies had been found in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan and about 50 in four other southern provinces. The government's official death toll stood only at 131 people and nearly 270 missing.

Another 21 people drowned on the central island of Negros, the PNRC said.

Hundreds were also unaccounted for, most of them from a coastal village in Iligan. Houses were swept into the sea by floodwaters while people were sleeping inside late on Friday.

The Philippines social welfare department said about 100,000 people were displaced and brought to nearly three dozen

shelters in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

"WE RAN FOR OUR LIVES"

Army spokesman Colonel Leopoldo Galon said search and rescue operations would continue along the shorelines in Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte provinces.

"I can't explain how these things happened, entire villages were swept to the sea by flash floods," Galon said.

"I have not seen anything like this before. This could be worse than Ondoy," he said, referring to a 2009 storm that inundated the capital, Manila, killing hundreds of people.

Television pictures showed bodies encased in mud, cars piled on top of each other and wrecked homes. Helicopters and boats searched the sea for survivors and victims.

"We ran for our lives when we heard a loud whistle blow and was followed by a big bang," Michael Mabaylan, 38, a carpenter, told Reuters. He said his wife and five children were all safe.

Aid worker Crislyn Felisilda cited concern about children who had became separated from their families or lost their parents. "Many children are looking for their loved ones... (and children were) crying and staring into space."

Rosal Agacac, a 40-year-old mother, was begging authorities to help find her two children after their shanty was swept to the sea. "Please President Noynoy, help me," she cried, holding a candle at a spot where their house stood before the floods, referring to President Benigno Aquino.

Aquino met with cabinet members and disaster officials to assess conditions on the main southern island and ordered a review of disaster plans to avoid a repeat of the tragedy. He is due to inspect typhoon-hit areas after Christmas.

Rescue boats pulled at least 15 people from the sea, said another army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang.

Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz said many people were caught by surprise when water rose one meter (three feet) high in less

than an hour, forcing people onto roofs. "Most of them were already sleeping when floodwaters entered their homes. This is the worst flooding our city has experienced in years."

The national disaster agency said it could not estimate crop and property damage because emergency workers, including soldiers and police officers, were evacuating families and recovering casualties.

Six domestic flights run by Cebu Pacific were cancelled due to the rain and near-zero visibility in the southern and central

Philippines. Ferry services were also halted, stranding hundreds of people.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year.

(Writing by Manny Mogato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111218/wl_nm/us_philippines_weather

lakers steelers va tech tyson chandler tyson chandler duggar miscarriage dan gilbert

AP-GfK Poll: Obama re-election odds roughly 50-50 (The Arizona Republic)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/175378931?client_source=feed&format=rss

state college pa wilson ramos kidnapped mcqueary mike mcqueary joe paterno fired joe paterno fired glen campbell

Feds to release findings in probe of Ariz. sheriff (AP)

PHOENIX ? Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday in a civil rights investigation of an Arizona sheriff's office accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols.

The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office since June 2008 for alleged discrimination, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and for having an English-only policy in his jails that discriminates against people with limited English skills.

The self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America has been a national political fixture who has built his reputation on jailing inmates in tents and dressing them in pink underwear, selling himself to voters as unceasingly tough on crime and pushing the bounds of how far local police can go to confront illegal immigration.

The federal agency had previously provided little details of its probe, but Arpaio believed the inquiry was focused on the 20 immigration patrols known as "sweeps" that his office has conducted since January 2008.

During the patrols, deputies flood an area of a city ? in some cases, heavily Latino areas ? over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the sweeps, according to figures provided by Arpaio's office.

Critics said Arpaio's deputies target people during the patrols for minor traffic infractions based on their skin color so they can ask for proof of citizenship. Arpaio denied the allegation, saying people are stopped if deputies have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of them are illegal immigrants.

Apart from the civil rights probe, a federal grand jury also has been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009 and is specifically examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad.

The squad's cases against two county officials and a judge collapsed in court before going to trial and have been criticized by politicians at odds with the sheriff as trumped up. Arpaio has defended the investigations as a valid attempt at rooting out corruption in county government.

More than any other local police boss in the nation, Arpaio has pushed the bounds of what local officers can do to crack down on illegal immigration.

He began doing immigration enforcement in 2005 after the Legislature passed a ban on immigrant smuggling and voters became frustrated over the problems from the state's porous border. He set up a hotline to report immigration violations.

Over nearly the last three years, he has raided 56 businesses suspected of breaking a state law by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. The raids led to more than 370 criminal arrests of illegal immigrants accused of using fake documents to get jobs and in two civil cases against employers for illegal hiring.

Arpaio had 100 deputies specially trained so they could make federal immigration arrests, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in October 2009 stripped them of that power. A defiant Arpaio continued his immigration efforts by using state laws.

Critics have said Arpaio has demonized illegal immigrants in a bid to win support from voters. His supporters said the sheriff is the only local police boss who has really done anything about illegal immigration.

The sheriff has complained that the civil rights investigation is politically motivated, singling out Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who in the spring of 2008 had asked the Justice Department to investigate Arpaio's immigration efforts.

During its investigation, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit alleging that Arpaio's office wouldn't hand over records and wouldn't give access to jails, employees and inmates. The lawsuit was settled this summer after getting cooperation from the sheriff's office.

A separate lawsuit in which a handful of Hispanics alleged racial profiling in Arpaio's sweeps remains alive in federal court.

The judge in that case found grounds to sanction the sheriff's office for having thrown away and shredded officers' records of traffic stops made during the sweeps, but hasn't yet imposed a penalty.

The sheriff's office said the destruction of records was an honest error that sprung from a top official not telling others in his office to preserve the documents.

Later, some sweeps-related emails that were thought to have been deleted by the sheriff's office turned out to have been saved by the county as part of an unrelated lawsuit.

Among the huge volume of saved emails were some that showed some deputies circulated offensive jokes about Mexicans.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_re_us/us_arizona_sheriff_civil_rights

recursion amy schumer amy schumer ascii art ascii art andrew mason once in a blue moon

Lenovo's rugged ThinkPad X130e targets the education market, arrives December 20 for $469

When we first spotted leaked photos of Lenovo's ThinkPad X130e, we just kind of assumed it was the next-gen successor to the X120e, which we reviewed almost a year ago. Well, you know what happens when you A-S-S-U-M-E, right? Turns out, there is indeed an X130e, but it's intended specifically for classrooms. The company just made its official announcement, and explained that that rugged design we've been hearing about isn't meant to protect it from careless baggage handlers at the airport so much as freewheeling six year-olds. Though Lenovo's already had a hand in Intel's Classmate project, this is the first time it's released a classroom-ready laptop under the ThinkPad brand, red pointing stick and all.

Of all the kid-proof touches, the more obvious ones include a rubber bumper ringing the plastic chassis, along with a thicker bezel shielded by 1.2mm of plastic. It also has recessed, reinforced ports, an accelerometer to protect the hard drive and a hinge rated for 30,000 cycles. Of course, the result of all this ruggedizing is that the X130e is fairly heavy for an 11-incher, at 3.9 pounds (1.78kg). Otherwise, though, its specs are pretty much what you'd expect in an 11.6-inch laptop. For starters, it's offered with an Intel Core i3-2367M processor, as well as AMD Fusion E-300 and E-450 APUs. It comes with 2GB of RAM (upgradeable to 8GB), up to 500GB in storage, Bluetooth 3.0 and a 6-cell battery rated for 8.5 hours of battery life. Lenovo's also added its RapidBoot technology, promising a sub-20-second startup time. It also has three USB 2.0 sockets, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, a combined headphone / mic port and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. And, because Lenovo is selling these to schools, it'll customize the laptops by tweaking the BIOS and tricking out the lid in assorted colors. It'll go on sale December 20th starting at $469 and in the meantime, we've got some candy-colored press photos below.

Gallery: Lenovo ThinkPad X130e

Continue reading Lenovo's rugged ThinkPad X130e targets the education market, arrives December 20 for $469

Lenovo's rugged ThinkPad X130e targets the education market, arrives December 20 for $469 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/uWaaejYzcjk/

the stand winston churchill winston churchill arkham city conjugated linoleic acid world series schedule apple earnings

Reduce Stress by Dividing Your Day into Three Operational Modes [Mind Hacks]

People build stress by thinking about an issue all day or get into a cycle where worrying about something leads to the the behavior we were worried about, such as eating too much because we spend too much time worrying about gaining weight or continually arriving late to work due to the pressure of not running late. We have to break these cycles in order to reduce stress and accomplish our goals. To accomplish this, blogger Tim Horie recommends that we divide our day into three distinct operational modes: thinking, doing, and relaxing.

On the surface that is pretty obvious. But similar to how capturing actions in the Getting Things Done philosophy removes the need to remember everything, having a distinct time to think about our problems and goals and only allowing worrying and planning during those times is rather freeing. When the time comes for the second mode, doing, we will work on our goals and not analyze them. This is similar to the philosophy behind National Novel Writing Month?you're not trying to edit and create a publishable novel, you're just trying to get enough words down that something is accomplished for the day.

Once you're able to set aside time for pure thought and action without analysis you should be able to let everything go for a few hours to relax with a movie, exercising, or spending time with friends.

If you spend a week or so giving the Three Operational Modes technique a try you might find that you have become more productive and less stressed as your thoughts and worries aren't creeping into your work or relaxation time. Photo by Jukka Zitting

Reduce stress with 3 operational modes | Tim Horie's blog via Reddit

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/6wjwG3zy7ZA/reduce-stress-by-dividing-your-day-into-three-operational-modes

miranda kerr occupy la adriana lima victoria secret angels fox 4 fox 4 adam levine

Islamist success is democracy at work: Egypt's Moussa (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Amr Moussa, a front-runner for Egypt's presidency, said on Sunday the strong Islamist showing in the first parliamentary election since army generals replaced Hosni Mubarak in February had to be swallowed as democracy in action.

The Muslim Brotherhood has also urged its rivals to "accept the will of the people" after a first-round vote set its party on course to take the most seats in parliament, with a hardline Salafi Islamist party thrusting liberals into third place.

Overall, the initial election results suggest Islamist parties, while not united, may wield a two-thirds majority in parliament. It reinforces a trend in North Africa where Islamists now lead governments in Morocco and Tunisia.

In line with the Brotherhood's pragmatic image, the group's Freedom and Justice party may avoid lining up with its ultra-conservative Islamist rivals.

But its popular mandate will strengthen its hand in any power struggle with the military over Egypt's political future.

Egyptians return to the polls on Monday for 52 run-off votes for individual candidates, who will occupy a third of the 498 elected seats in the lower house once two more rounds of the complicated voting process end in January. Two-thirds of the seats are allocated proportionately to party lists.

Figures released by the election committee and published by state media show a list led by the Brotherhood's FJP securing 36.6 percent of valid party-list votes, followed by the Salafi al-Nour Party with 24.4 percent, and the liberal Egyptian Bloc with 13.4 percent.

The liberal Wafd Party took 7.1 percent, the moderate Islamist Wasat Party 4.3 percent, while the Revolution Continues, a group formed by youth activists, picked up 3.5 percent. The rest went to smaller party lists.

"I am happy about the application of the democratic process, the beginning of democracy," said Moussa, a former Mubarak-era foreign minister and secretary-general of the Arab League.

"You cannot have democracy and then amend or reject the results," he told Reuters by telephone, adding that the shape of parliament would not be clear until the voting was over.

ISRAEL PEACE TREATY

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Egypt's future rulers to preserve a peace treaty with Israel.

"We hope any future government in Egypt will recognise the importance of keeping the peace treaty with Israel in its own right and as a basis for regional security and economic stability," Netanyahu said in his first public comments on a vote that has raised concern in Israel.

The fate of the 1979 treaty between Egypt and Israel is also a concern for its sponsor, the United States, which has backed it with billions of dollars in military aid for both countries.

The Muslim Brotherhood, spiritual father of the Islamist Palestinian Hamas group, shares widespread Arab hostility to Israel, but it has not called for revoking the treaty.

Moussa, 75, an urbane and affable diplomat-turned- politician, is popular with many Egyptians for his nationalism and his perceived independence from Mubarak during his decade at the helm of the Arab League, where he stepped down in June.

"With the apparent gains about the Islamic trend, let us see," he said. "This will fall on the other forces, the liberal forces, to get together and form a strong front in parliament."

The assembly's popular mandate will give it clout to stand up to the generals who have ruled Egypt for nine turbulent months since a popular uprising toppled Mubarak on February 11.

Protests against army rule had led to clashes with police in Cairo in the week before the vote, raising fears of an election marred by violence, yet voting passed off calmly.

But the state news agency reported on Sunday that a fight erupted between supporters of a candidate for the liberal Free Egyptians party in the Nile Delta area of Manoufiya and backers of the rival Wasat party. The driver of the Free Egyptians candidate died of a gunshot wound to the stomach, it said.

TUSSLE OVER CONSTITUTION

The Brotherhood, Egypt's best-organised political group and popular with the poor for its decades of charity work, was banned but semi-tolerated under Mubarak. It now wants to shape a new constitution to be drawn up next year.

That could be the focus of a power struggle with the ruling military council, which wants to keep a presidential system, rather than the parliamentary one favoured by the Brotherhood.

"I believe the constitutional debate will be a very serious and tough one. I don't think any party can impose its own language or principles," Moussa said. "The constitution will have to be the outcome of consensus and general debate among the people. The liberal camp is also strong."

The Salafis are expected to demand that purist Islamist codes be reflected in the constitution and other legislation, forcing the Brotherhood to defend its own Islamist image.

"The Salafis are certainly going to insert religion and identity into the political discourse like never before," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center.

"The Brotherhood is going to come under pressure from the right. It runs the risk of losing supporters to the Salafis if it is not seen to be authentically Islamist enough."

The constitution, to be written by a constituent assembly chosen by parliament, may go to a referendum before a presidential election in June, under an accelerated timetable for a handover to civilian rule.

The generals, who had envisaged keeping power until end-2012 or beyond, agreed to a speedier transfer after last month's bloody street protests against army rule killed 42 people.

The man they appointed to lead a new interim cabinet was quoted on Saturday as saying he would not name his ministerial line-up until Wednesday, in the latest of several delays.

Kamal al-Ganzouri, told the state-owned al-Ahram newspaper he did not want to appoint a new interior minister to oversee law and order on the eve of Monday's run-off votes.

(Additional reporting by Maha El Dayan, Tom Pfeiffer and Tamim Elyan; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111204/wl_nm/us_egypt_election

patsy cline packers stock sale packers stock sale broncos broncos jason mayhem miller denver broncos

Unusual weather system produces destructive winds

The winds reached 97 mph at one mountain peak. More than 380,000 homes lost power. Thousands of trees snapped, blocking roads and damaging property. Scores of schools were closed, as was Griffith Park. And motorists battled gridlock caused by broken traffic signals and blowing debris.

The storm, which produced some of the strongest wind gusts in more than a decade, was caused by a highly unusual weather system that even had experts marveling at its power.

While Santa Ana winds are common this time of year, this storm was anything but.

PHOTOS: Sana Ana wind damage

The winds were produced by two separate weather systems that channeled cold air from the north into the Los Angeles area.

A clockwise high-pressure system was parked over Northern California and the Great Basin as a counter-clockwise low-pressure system hovered over Arizona.

Like two massive gears spinning in opposite directions, the systems funneled the winds.

"In some places we've seen gusts over hurricane force, which for the Southwest part of the country is not something that usually happens," said Brian Edwards, a meteorologist for AccuWeather.com. "This is a one-every-10-years kind of thing."

Indeed, the blustery conditions extended across the Southwest, including Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. In some places, including Utah, wind gusts topped 100 mph.

Experts said one reason for the extensive damage was that the winds were remarkably choppy and unpredictable.

In some places, winds suddenly shifted from 10 mph or 20 mph to more than 80 mph. The shift made trees as well as roofs and power lines vulnerable.

"Everything lined up perfectly," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Ca?ada-Flintridge.

Trees were no match for the winds, especially those with heavy canopies. Patzert noted that trees in urban Southern California neighborhoods don't have the strong root systems found in more natural environments.

"L.A. trees don't have deep roots. The urban forest is artificial and is primarily watered by lawn sprinklers," Patzert said. "So what keeps our urban forest alive is people watering their lawns, which are not natural, so you don't have deep root systems. So our trees are very vulnerable to Santa Ana events."

Walter Warriner, a Santa Monica arborist and community forester, agreed, adding that the large canopies of many local trees lack strong foundations.

"When you look at a tree above ground there's a ratio of 20 to 1 compared to below ground, so there's not that many roots holding our big trees in place," he said.

While damage was reported across the Southland, communities in the western San Gabriel Valley were particularly hard-hit, including Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Altadena and La Ca?ada-Flintridge.

National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Boldt said this, too, was unusual.

Typically, the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County get the brunt of such windstorms.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/CsB_27JgesY/la-me-winds-science-20111202,0,1785597.story

cj wilson statue of liberty gold rush alaska gold rush alaska the addams family blue bloods temple grandin

'Obama Classic' Delayed by NBA Return (ABC News)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/168832308?client_source=feed&format=rss

joost new hampshire debate how to get ios 5 how to get ios 5 eric holder eric holder avengers trailer

McCready: I'm fighting courts to protect my son

TAMPA, Fla.?? Country singer Mindy McCready, who had been reported missing, spoke with Florida authorities Wednesday and is aware of a court order to return her 5-year-old son by Thursday afternoon, police said.

Cape Coral Police Lt. Tony Sizemore said McCready and her son are not in the Lee County, Fla., area, and that she is "currently outside of the terms of her family court stipulation." She knows that she is supposed to bring her son back to Lee County by 5 p.m. Thursday, he said.

"The million dollar question is whether she will comply," said Sizemore.

The state Department of Children and Families said a missing person report was filed with Cape Coral police Tuesday night after McCready took her son Zander from her father's home.

McCready doesn't have custody of her son ? her mother does ? and the singer was allowed to visit the boy at her father's home, according to a department spokesman. On Tuesday, DCF discovered that McCready and the boy were not at her father's home.

DCF spokesman Terry Field told The Associated Press the agency asked a Lee County judge for an emergency pickup order, and the judge ruled McCready must return the boy voluntarily by 5 p.m. Thursday or risk an arrest warrant.

Meanwhile, McCready said on Facebook that she is not missing.

"I have been fighting the Florida court system to protect my son, and bring him home," she posted, adding that she spoke with Cape Coral Police via Skype ? something that the agency confirmed.

The singer's brother, Josh McCready, told The Associated Press in a private Facebook message that his sister was "fine."

"Mindy is fine and so is Zander. There is nothing to worry about," he wrote.

Kat Atwood, McCready's publicist, issued a statement Wednesday saying McCready and her son are "safe, healthy and comfortable," and denies that she has done anything wrong. The statement says McCready has been awaiting a court order on whether she would be awarded custody of her son.

1. More Entertainment stories
   1. Kim abused Kris? Dr. Drew thinks so

      Celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinsky believes a fight seen on the season premiere of "Kim and Kourtney Take New York" is...

   2. Teen gets busted for driving high on 'DUI'
   3. Prosecutors OK with Conrad Murray jail time
   4. Chris Meloni in talks for ?True Blood? role
   5. Nicolas Cage on cover of Serbian biology book

"No Amber Alert has been issued; this is not a missing child case," Atwood said in the statement.

According to Aimee McLaughlin of the Childrens Network of Southwest Florida, a case manager filed a missing person report with the Cape Coral Police on Tuesday. The DCF spokesman said Children's Network of Southwest Florida is the Community-Based Care agency for the area.

Since topping the country charts in the mid-1990s with her music, the troubled 36-year-old singer's life has been filled with domestic abuse, drug and DUI arrests and a suicide attempt. In August, she filed a libel suit in Palm Beach County against her own mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted her mother.

In 2010, she spoke with The Associated Press about her life.

"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just always been like that. My entire life, things have been attracted to me and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."

In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.

And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.

During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010 McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.

On the show she said she suffered from love addiction, not substance abuse. In one of the show's scarier moments, McCready suffered a seizure and was rushed to a hospital where scans showed brain damage.

Also in 2010, police went to McCready's mother's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why McCready was hospitalized.

Cape Coral is on Florida's Gulf coast, about 120 miles northwest of Miami.

McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.

A call to a lawyer representing McCready in the custody case was not immediately returned.

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

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45494644/ns/today-entertainment/

denver weather conjoined twins justin bieber paternity justin bieber paternity denver news kym johnson how old is justin bieber