Death toll from European cold spell hits 58 (AP)

KIEV, Ukraine ? Thirty people, most of them homeless, have died of hypothermia in recent days in Ukraine, part of a surge of deaths across eastern Europe as the region grapples with an unusually severe cold spell.

In all, at least 58 people have died from the cold in Europe over the last week.

Of the victims in Ukraine, 21 were found frozen on the streets, five died in hospitals and four died in their own homes, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Yershova.

Temperatures plunged to minus 23 C (minus 10 F) in the capital of Kiev and elsewhere in Ukraine, as schools and nurseries closed down and authorities set up hundreds of heated tents with hot tea and sandwiches for the homeless.

Kiev city administration head Oleksandr Popov ordered city schools and colleges closed beginning Wednesday through the end of the week, as temperatures are expected to drop to minus 28 C (minus 18 F).

"They will be on a break at least until Monday," Popov said on his website.

In Poland, five people died of hypothermia in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the cold to 15 in the last four days, the national police said.

Temperatures sunk Tuesday to minus 27 C (minus 17 F) in the southeastern Polish city of Ustrzyki Gorne ? and forecasts predicted minus 29 C (minus 20 F) in the region overnight.

In Romania, two people died in the past 24 hours due to the frigid weather, the health ministry said Tuesday, bringing the total to eight cold-related deaths in the country since cold spell began. Temperatures plunged to minus 20 C ( minus 4 F) overnight in Bucharest.

In Russia, one person died late Monday of the cold in Moscow, where temperatures fell to minus 21 C, the city's health department said. The Russian Emergencies Ministry is not reporting deaths across the country yet.

__

Monika Scislowska from Warsaw, Poland, Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, and Nataliya Vasilyeva from Moscow contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_weather

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Syria uprising: Religion overshadowing the democratic push

The fighting in Syria risks being defined less as a popular uprising against a secular democracy and more as an armed sectarian conflict.

The sectarian fault line in Syria is growing more apparent as the conflict steadily intensifies between the Alawite-dominated regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the mainly Sunni rebel Free Syrian Army.

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The regime?s reliance on Alawite militiamen, known as the Shabiha, to help suppress the 10-month uprising is mirrored by elements of the armed rebel forces rallying around their Sunni identity through religious and sectarian motifs and language. The minority Alawite sect draws upon some Shiite traditions and is considered heretical by conservative Sunnis.

With the Assad regime showing no sign of caving to domestic and international pressure, the confrontation risks becoming defined less as a popular uprising against a secular autocracy and more as an armed sectarian conflict pitting Sunnis against Alawites and their Shiite allies: Iran and Lebanon?s Hezbollah.

?I think there?s more and more evidence of that and it?s almost unavoidable given how things have developed around the entire region,? says Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. ?Iran, Hezbollah, and the Syrian regime have been rolled into one? as an enemy of the mainly Sunni Syrian opposition.

Syria's neighbors: How 5 border nations are reacting to Assad's crackdown

Symbols of Sunni affirmation and religious observance?are easily found within the ranks of the FSA from examples as mundane as headbands inscribed with quotes from the Koran to heated anti-Hezbollah and Iran rhetoric. Some of the battalions that comprise the FSA are named after prominent historical Sunni leaders. They include Hamza al-Khatib, a companion of the prophet Mohammed who was a noted military strategist, and Muawiyah bin abi Sufyan, the founder of the Damascus-based Ummayyad dynasty and a figure reviled by Shiites.

"In Syria [sectarian identity] is there. All you have to do is scratch the surface," says Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of a book on Syria under the presidency of Mr. Assad. "Until now, I don't think you have seen a tremendous amount of organizing along sectarian lines.... But it is natural that the main divide is going to be between Alawites and other Shiite off-shoots versus Sunnis."

The FSA is composed of deserters from the regular Syrian army and is commanded by Col. Riad al-Assad who defected last summer and lives in a refugee camp in Turkey. Its strength is unknown although FSA leaders and Syrian opposition figures have claimed numbers as high as 40,000. Others say the figure is much lower.

In November, Colonel Assad told Turkey?s Millyet newspaper that the FSA sought to make Syria a ?Muslim country and a secular democracy? like Turkey. He admitted that all his fighters were Sunnis but denied regime allegations that the FSA was allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, the outlawed main Islamist force in Syria.

Still, there was no mistaking the staunchly Sunni identity and religious convictions of the six Syrians, five of whom were serving FSA officers and soldiers, sheltering last week in the home of a radical cleric in a dilapidated apartment block in the impoverished Sunni neighborhood of Bab Tebbaneh in Tripoli, a city in northern Lebanon. Two of them claimed to be sheikhs and all but one were from Homs, the flashpoint city lying 20 miles north of the border with Lebanon.

?We?re deserting because the regime makes us kill civilians. The Alawite officers stand behind us and they shoot anyone they see not firing at protestors,? says Ahmad, who said he deserted six months ago from a military intelligence unit in Damascus.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/rZ_onLNS2B8/Syria-uprising-Religion-overshadowing-the-democratic-push

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Man arrested in slayings of SC officer, Ga. woman (AP)

AIKEN, S.C. ? A man accused of killing his girlfriend in Georgia and then gunning down a police officer in South Carolina had been dealing with mental problems before the slayings, the man's father said.

Police in South Carolina said Joshua Tremaine Jones, 26, faces charges of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime in the death of Aiken police Master Cpl. Sandra Rogers. He is expected to appear in court in Aiken on Monday, according to Magistrate Judge Tracey Carroll.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said that Rogers was shot Saturday morning while responding to a report of suspicious activity. The 49-year-old had spent nearly 28 years with the Aiken Public Safety department.

Jones was arrested hours later in Batesburg.

James Jones, the suspect's father, told reporters that his son had past run-ins with the law and "was going through some mental problems," though he didn't elaborate on those problems. Jones said his son had run away from home and moved in with his girlfriend. He said his son is from North Augusta and briefly lived in Atlanta.

In neighboring Georgia, The Augusta Chronicle reported Jones also faces murder charges in the death of his girlfriend, 21-year-old Cayce Vice. Police found her body in her apartment Saturday morning after she didn't show up for work at a Five Guys restaurant. She had been shot in the head.

Richmond County sheriff's Capt. Scott Peebles told the newspaper (http://bit.ly/yO5JS7) that the agency had obtained warrants for Jones for murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Peebles confirmed that Vice had filed a complaint against Jones for assault earlier this month.

A phone message left late Saturday for the Richmond County Sheriff's Office was not immediately returned.

Jones said that when he returned from work Friday, his son had taken his blue BMW without permission and left. Jones said he and his other son drove around searching but couldn't locate him.

Jones said his heart goes out to the victim' families, and that he's devastated as a father.

"I just went straight to God and said, `I cannot believe this.' After all that I have taught him, I just never thought that my family would have to deal with something like this," Jones said.

The Aiken public safety department issued a statement Saturday evening praising Rogers as "an invaluable street cop who exemplified the model of a Public Safety Officer," according to WLTX-TV in Columbia, S.C.

Last month, hundreds of people gathered to mourn another Aiken police officer killed in the line of duty. Officer Scotty Richardson, 33, died in the early hours of Dec. 21 after being shot in the head during a traffic stop at an apartment complex the night before. Aiken is a city of 30,000 that's located about 20 miles northwest of Augusta.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_us/us_multi_state_slayings

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GOP tries new strategy to get Canada pipeline

WASHINGTON?? Republican lawmakers will try to force the Obama administration to approve the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline by attaching it to a bill that Congress will consider next month, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday.

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President Barack Obama earlier this month denied TransCanada's application for the oil sands pipeline, citing lack of time to review an alternative route within a 60-day window for action set by Congress.

The denial does not block TransCanada from reapplying and the company intends to do just that.

But Republicans have since been looking for a vehicle to claim the $7 billion project as their own, and Boehner said that would be a House Republican energy and highway bill.

"If (Keystone) is not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it will be part of it," Boehner said on ABC's "This Week" news program.

Environmentalists and some Democrats oppose Keystone, citing higher greenhouse gas emissions, while most Republicans say it would create needed jobs.

Story: With oil pipeline to US on hold, Canada eyes China

Republicans in the Senate also plan to introduce a Keystone bill. Some Senate Democrats back the pipeline, but its passage is not guaranteed in the body.

Parts of the House Republican plan, such as opening up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, stand little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.

Attaching Keystone to a pending deal to extend payroll tax cuts for workers, which has greater bipartisan backing than the highway bills, is another vehicle Republicans are considering.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46181992/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

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Facts About Cheap Car Insurance

In the event you are a vehicle owner, you are surely considering looking for the cheapest car insurance. With this, you are able to think about reading some web based content articles regarding some of the measures regarding how to make this feasible. Nevertheless, there are numerous them which may cause you confusion regarding which o trust since most of them have contradicting recommendations. Well, the advisable way for you to get rid of this issue is by sticking with the true effective recommendations which you genuinely want to get along with the long process.

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You can make use of the ability of world wide web to assist you make the auto insurance comparison process a little bit shorter. We already have some websites which can offer free auto insurance estimates. You just have to enter your zip code as what has been pointed out on the home page. The zip code is needed since it might help the database to gather adequate names of auto insurance companies within an area. It will demonstrate the auto insurance companies that are accredited by the government along with their offered auto insurance estimates and packages.

With this basic information, you are able to now go on with the advanced concepts regarding auto insurance. With the aid of world wide web, learning the important points about auto insurance is going to be a great deal easier for you.

Guest post by Guster J. Gwynn Hurley

Source: http://www.co-next.net/facts-about-cheap-car-insurance/

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PFT: Colts owner calls out Manning on Twitter

AP

Though the Cleveland Plain Dealer still has not acknowledged the move on its website (other than to finally remove his name and face from the roster), Tony Grossi no longer covers the Browns as a beat writer, following the accidental publication of a private Twitter message that called Browns owner Randy Lerner? (pictured) ?pathetic? and an ?irrelevant billionaire.?

Browns spokesman Neal Gulkis tells PFT that the Browns have no comment on the situation.

There?s still no evidence that the Browns pressured the Plain Dealer to make the move.? Per a source with knowledge of the situation, however, both Lerner and president Mike Holmgren refused to accept calls from Grossi after the message was posted and deleted.? We?re also told that a meeting occurred Wednesday between Plain Dealer publisher Terry Eggar and Holmgren.

The Plain Dealer has been nearly as silent as the Browns.? Managing editor Thom Fladung called the Kiley & Booms radio show on 92.3 The Fan this morning to explain the decision, and Fladung?s explanation was less than persuasive, in our opinion.

The decision to remove Grossi from the beat was driven by this ?determining factor? articulated by Fladung:? ?Don?t do something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?

That?s a pretty broad ? and vague ? rule.? And that?s the kind of standard that gives a news organization the ability to do pretty much whatever it wants whenever it wants, because there?s pretty much always something to which someone can point as proof of ?something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?

Making Fladung?s ?determining factor? even more confusing is the fact that he admitted that Grossi could have deliberately expressed a strong opinion about Lerner in a column published and printed in the Plain Dealer without conseqeuence.? ?Let?s say Tony had written that Randy Lerner?s lack of involvement with the Browns and their resulting disappointing records over the years has made him irrelevant as an owner, that?s defensible,? Fladung said.? ?That?s absolutely defensible.?

What?s indefensible is the failure of the Plain Dealer to acknowledge the fact that Grossi never intended to make the statements available for public view.? He fell victim to the subtle but significant differences between a ?direct message? (which is private) and a ?reply? (which is public) on Twitter.? It was an accident.? A mistake.

Let?s go back to the days of typewriters and shorthand, and let?s say that Grossi?s editor has two boxes on his desk.? One is for article submissions and one is for proposed topics.? And let?s say that Grossi scribbled out a scathing column about Lerner as a proposed topic, but Grossi accidentally put it in the box of actual submissions for print.

That?s the low-tech version of what happened here.? Grossi accidentally put his message in the wrong box.

So when Fladung says he ?felt very strongly? that the Twitter message ?was inappropriate and unprofessional and . . . it?s not the kind of opinion a journalist covering a beat can express,? Fladung presumes that Grossi actually intended to articulate that opinion to the world.? He didn?t.? It was inadvertently blurted out, like a temporary case of Twitter Tourette?s.

Some have suggested that the Twitter blunder provided the Plain Dealer with a vehicle for addressing pre-existing concerns regarding Grossi?s overall job performance.? Undercutting that theory was Fladung?s assertion during the radio interview that Grossi is a ?very good? and ?very successful? beat writer.

I?m continuing to write about this because it?s the kind of mistake that could happen to anyone, and everyone should be entitled to the benefit of the doubt in a case like this, especially when newspapers and other media companies want their writers to engage with the audience through various new technologies and platforms.? It also just ?feels? like an unjust result, whether because the Plain Dealer is being obtuse or because the Plain Dealer is cowering to the Browns or because the Browns are remaining deliberately silent in order to secure the preferred outcome of having Grossi removed from the beat.

Regardless, we?re disappointed in the Plain Dealer, in Fladung, in the Browns, in Lerner, and in Holmgren.? And we hope that one or more of them will snap out of it and do the right thing, or at least let the rest of us know in far more convincing fashion why they believe the right thing was done.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/26/irsay-calls-peyton-manning-a-politician/related/

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The High Price of New Cancer Drugs

First posted?1/24/12 on?Gooz News

Julie Gralow, an oncologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, recently prescribed an exciting new therapy for a 60-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer. Three-and-a-half years into her battle against the disease, the patient had already exhausted three different anti-estrogen therapies, each of which only put a temporary check on the spreading tumors.

The newly prescribed drug, Novartis? Afinitor, is one of the recently approved targeted therapies that have generated a lot of excitement among cancer patients and oncologists in recent years. Drugs that target just the cancer cells promise the same or better results as toxic chemotherapy, but with far fewer side effects.

There was a catch, though. Like many of the latest cancer drugs,?Novartis is charging exorbitant amounts?for the treatment ? in this case, $10,000 per month. That quickly put an end to that possibility for Gralow?s patient. Her monthly co-payment, even after her insurance company agreed to pay its share of the off-label use the drug (the Food and Drug Administration has only approved Afinitor for kidney and pancreatic cancer, not breast cancer), was $2,900.

?She can?t afford this, even though it?s potentially a less toxic and potentially equally effective regimen,? Gralow said. ?Chemo will help her, and it?s a reasonable choice. But that choice is 100 percent driven by economics.?

Over the past year, official Washington and candidates on the campaign trail have locked horns over the best way to curb rising health insurance costs. The public has been bombarded with dueling slogans ? Republicans vowing to fight the ?death panels? and ?rationing? of Obamacare?while Democrats promise ?guaranteed access? and ?affordability? with the Affordable Care Act.

But an economic drama that neither side wants to confront is playing itself out in cancer wards and oncologists? offices across the country. Unaffordable new drugs, even when they?re covered by insurance, are being rationed by price as patients, doctors and hospital officials struggle with what is likely to be the most pressing problem for the nation?s health care system over the next decade: how to pay for the spectacular?rise in the cost of cancer care, especially drugs and diagnostic tests.

?In the real world of private practice where most care is delivered, it would be a mistake to say rising costs haven?t affected care,? said Eric Nadler, a head, neck and lung cancer specialist at Baylor University Medical Center. A recent survey published in Health Affairs found a stunning 84 percent of oncologists say their patients? out-of-pocket spending influences treatment recommendations.

The growing cost of cancer care will impose its greatest burden on the nation?s Medicare system, since 55 percent of all cancers are diagnosed in individuals 65 or older. A recent study by the National Cancer Institute projected the cost of treating the 29 most common cancers in men and women will rise 27 percent by 2020, even though incidence of the disease is going down due to successful public health campaigns like the war on smoking.

That estimate is based on a relatively static cost of care per case. If costs increase just 2 percent more a year than previous trends in the first and last years of care, the study said, then costs would soar to $173 billion, a 39 percent increase. The study pointed out that its projections were based on 2006 Medicare claims data, which predated the development of most of the latest targeted therapies.

There?s no doubt that there will be many new therapies for cancer coming to market in the years ahead. The nation?s $150 billion public investment in understanding the biology of cancer ? the science side of the War on Cancer launched by President Richard Nixon in 1971 ? is beginning to bear fruit.

The pharmaceutical industry, which draws on that publicly funded science to develop drug candidates, now has 887 new cancer drugs in development, over 30 percent of its total portfolio of new drug candidates, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group. That?s up from 646 or 26 percent of the total devoted to cancer in 2006.

The industry is pouring increased research and development resources in cancer therapeutics in hopes that it will replace the revenue being lost from the expiration of patents on blockbusters like Lipitor. However, since there are fewer cancer patients than there are people with chronic conditions like elevated cholesterol, and many don?t live very long, the prices needed to support the industry?s current size and structure, and profits must be substantially higher.

?They?re trying to maximize profits given their incentives,? said Peter Neumann, director of the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts Medical Center, which receives funding from the drug industry. Possible solutions, he said, include letting Medicare set prices based on the medical value of adding extra months to life. That?s a variation on Great Britain?s cost-effectiveness model, which has been roundly condemned by most U.S. politicians and the press.

The other path is to turn to a bundled payment for every for every episode of cancer care and let the health care delivery organizations and private insurers sort it out. (Bundled payments?account for all medical services associated with a given episode of care?doctors, nurses, technicians, etc.) That approach, in essence, would force the marketplace to execute the rationing.
?Bundled payment isn?t a panacea, but it does create incentives,? Neumann said. Some private insurers are experimenting with bundled payments for cancer care.

A quick review of the new cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year reveals how fast drug prices are rising. Most of the older chemotherapy regimens for cancer, some of which have been around since the 1950s, are generic and relatively inexpensive. But among the six new drugs approved in 2011, the cheapest ? Johnson & Johnson?s Zytiga for advanced prostate cancer ? cost $44,000 a year. The drug extended life by an average of less than 5 months to 16 months, according to a company spokesperson.

At the high end of the spectrum was Adcetris, a biotech product from Seattle Genetics that treats recurrences of Hodgkin?s lymphoma.? A highly curable disease when initially treated in the 8,830 mostly middle-aged patients who get the disease every year, it is usually fatal if a drug-resistant strain emerges later in life. Adcetris, the first new treatment to come along since 1977, kept the cancer in check for nearly 7 months in the single small trial that led to its quick FDA approval. It?s price tag: $216,000 for a full course of treatment.

Skin cancer specialists had a lot to cheer about in 2011 with two new therapies coming on the market for metastatic melanoma, which is fatal within one year for about 75 percent of the 10,000 people stricken each year. But Roche/Genentech?s Zelboraf cost $61,400 a year and Bristol-Myers Squibb?s Yervoy, which nearly doubled the one-year survival rate from 25 percent to 46 percent, cost $120,000 for a four-month course of treatment.

?We price our medicines based on a number of factors including the value they deliver to patients and the scientific innovation they represent,? said Sarah Koenig, a spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers. ?We have one of the most robust patient assistance programs for cancer patients in the industry.?

Most drug companies have patient assistance programs for poor or struggling patients, but many only come into play if patients are poor or families have exhausted their savings. And since many of the latest therapies, like the older chemotherapies they are replacing or supplementing, extend life for brief periods of time, patients wind up weighing whether they want to deplete their children?s inheritances for a couple extra months of being very, very sick.

A study released at last June?s annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which represents the nation?s 25,000 oncologists, revealed that patients with co-payments over $500 a month were four times more likely to refuse treatment than those whose co-payments were under $100 a month. ?The price of drugs can?t be set so outrageously high,??study author Lee Schwartzberg??told Reuters. Schwartzberg is the chief medical officer at Acorn Research, which conducted the study.

?All stake holders have to get together and compromise to translate this great science into great patient care without breaking the bank.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDoctorWeighsIn/~3/UCU63rwZqJY/

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5 movies whose titles tell you everything (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Some movie titles are wordy and complicated ("Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan") or generically forgettable ("Someone Like You"). Others, like this week's "Man on a Ledge," tell you everything you need to know about the movie in just a few tidy words.

Here are five other movies whose titles say it all. I also thought about doing this list when Cameron Crowe's feel-good "We Bought a Zoo" came out at the end of last year. Somehow, though, my choices all turned out to be genre pictures ? probably because they're so hilarious:

? "Snakes on a Plane" (2006): This was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had at the movies: I saw it at a packed, late-night screening with a bunch of rowdy college kids in Boston. And that's really the best way to watch a movie like this. Somehow, sitting alone on your couch in the middle of the day just doesn't produce the same effect. It is, of course, about snakes ... on ... a plane. They get loose and they get angry. All kinds of gnarly carnage ensues at 35,000 feet. And Samuel L. Jackson gets to shout one of the greatest lines in film history (which, sadly, we'll have to paraphrase): "I have had it with these (13-letter expletive) snakes on this (13-letter expletive) plane!"

? "Hobo With a Shotgun" (2011): It's a bit of a one-note gimmick. Rutger Hauer plays the titular vagabond who rides into a new town and finds himself in possession of the aforementioned firearm. Transforming himself into a vigilante killer, he cleans up this cartoonishly depraved place full of dealers and junkies, pimps and prostitutes. It's a funny central nugget of an idea, the novelty of which wears off pretty quickly. But Hauer plays it completely straight in the kind of stoic, quietly violent character Clint Eastwood built a career on, and he makes the repetitively gory material work better than it should. Plus, it's just a fun title to say. Go ahead: "Hobo With a Shotgun." Feels good, right?

? "The Human Centipede" (2010): Yep, that's pretty much what it is. A mad German scientist abducts and mutilates three people, then stitches them together mouth-to-anus to create a human centipede. It's a wild idea that writer-director Tom Six executed with surprisingly artistry ? at least here, in part one. This is just the beginning of a trilogy; the disappointing part two came out last year, and Six is working on part three. But this original film is more suspenseful and less gratuitous than the title and the concept might suggest, with an unexpected, simple elegance to the storytelling.

? "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!" (1978): I have fond memories of watching this as a child on Elvira's "Movie Macabre." Yes, that's how old I am. This spoof of B-horror movies is gleefully silly and hilariously low-tech. Menacing, mutant tomatoes threaten humanity. The rumbling, grumbling pieces of produce are seemingly unstoppable. Running is no use. Weaponry is insufficient. They can even kill you underwater (in a parody of "Jaws"). Only one thing makes them vulnerable: playing the shrill hit song "Puberty Love," which causes the tomatoes to shrink. The San Diego Chicken even makes an appearance. That's how you know this is a quality piece of filmmaking.

? "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" (1964): This is a cheapo B-movie classic: a weird, goofy combination of family comedy and sci-fi adventure. The children of Mars are unhappy, so Martian leaders cook up a scheme to kidnap Santa Claus from Earth and bring him to their planet. There, he can set up a toy factory to please all the good little girls and boys. But Santa eventually wins on his terms because ... well, because he's Santa. This movie is also notable as the film debut of a young Pia Zadora as one of the Martian children. Everyone's gotta start somewhere.

___

Think of any other examples? Share them with AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire through Twitter: http://twitter.com/christylemire.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_en_mo/us_film_five_most

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Study Finds Mercury in More Northeastern Bird Species

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Dangerously high levels have been detected in Northeastern songbirds as the most toxic form of the heavy metal moves through the food chain.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=03041e4d751724c9bdddd394c38671bb

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I'm Watching You, Mitt (talking-points-memo)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/191167616?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Pelosi hints, then denies she has Gingrich secrets

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Does House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi know some dark secrets about GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich?

Twice, she offered tantalizing hints that she does. And then said she doesn't.

Gingrich said Wednesday that the House Democratic leader should come out with it or shut up.

The latest back-and-forth in the contest of two former House speakers came in a CNN interview Tuesday night, when host John King suggested to Pelosi that she "could come back here next January or next February with a President Gingrich?"

"Let me just say this. That will never happen," Pelosi said.

When King asked, "Why are you so sure?" Pelosi responded: "There's something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him, that's their prerogative. I don't even think that's going to happen."

On Wednesday, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said: "The 'something' leader Pelosi knows is that Newt Gingrich will not be president of the United States. She made that clear last night."

Hammill's statement, however, acknowledged that this wasn't the first time that Pelosi hinted that she knows something about Gingrich that she hasn't revealed.

In December, Pelosi reminded an interviewer that she served on the ethics panel that investigated Gingrich's use of tax-exempt organizations. That case ended with a reprimand by the House and a $300,000 penalty against the then-speaker for misleading the committee and prolonging its investigation.

Pelosi said last month: "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich. I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

Hammill repeated the explanation provided after those comments.

"Leader Pelosi previously made a reference to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware," the spokesman said.

Gingrich said Wednesday that Pelosi should come out with her information or stop talking.

"Look, I think if she knows something she ought to say it. If she doesn't know something she ought to quit saying it. But this is baloney. I don't think any Republican is going to be threatened by Nancy Pelosi. Frankly, I'd rather have her threaten me than endorse me. So I feel pretty good about it. If she has something, bring it out," he said.

Mitt Romney, Gingrich's chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination, has asked that all records from Gingrich's ethics investigation be released. In January 1997, when the case ended, the committee did make public its final report as well as exhibits ? which amounted to a comprehensive account of the committee's findings.

The chairman of the ethics committee during the Gingrich investigation, former Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson, said the committee traditionally does not publicly release investigative documents.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-25-Pelosi-Gingrich/id-3727d71e9d9d419793c29e55e5c3f7ff

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RIM's New CEO: Too Dull to Convert Me to BlackBerry [Video]

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Williams out of Australian Open in 4th round

Serena Williams of the US reacts in frustration during her fourth round match against Russia's Ekaterina Makarova at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Serena Williams of the US reacts in frustration during her fourth round match against Russia's Ekaterina Makarova at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Serena Williams of the US yells in frustration during her fourth round match against Russia's Ekaterina Makarova at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Serena Williams of the US makes a forehand return to Ekaterina Makarova during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/John Donegan)

Serena Williams of the US reacts as she plays Russia's Ekaterina Makarova in their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Sarah Ivey)

Serena Williams of the US bounces her racket during her fourth round match against Russia's Ekaterina Makarova at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? Numbers told the surprising story for Serena Williams in her fourth-round loss at the Australian Open on Monday.

Seven double-faults, including four in one game; 37 unforced errors, and a first-serve percentage of just over 50 percent that had her convinced "maybe I should have started serving lefty."

Some other numbers indicated why her 6-2, 6-3 loss to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova on what she admitted was a still-sore left ankle was more of a shock, particularly at this stage of the year's first major.

She has played 43 singles matches at Melbourne Park since she won the first of her five Australian Open titles in 2003, and Monday's loss was just her third. She's 54-7 since playing here for the first time in 1998, and she hasn't gone out this early here since 2006.

"I'm not physically 100 percent, so I can't be so angry at myself, even though I'm very unhappy," Williams said. "I know that I can play a hundred times better than I did this whole tournament."

Without Williams, who injured her left ankle in Brisbane two weeks ago, the only major winners still in contention were Maria Sharapova, defending champion Kim Clijsters and Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova.

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, still in search of her first Grand Slam title, played Clijsters in a quarterfinal on Tuesday. The Belgian advanced to the quarterfinals with a comeback win over Li Na on Sunday in a rematch of the 2011 decider, while Kvitova had some trouble late before beating former top-ranked Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 7-6 (2) Monday. Sharapova was playing Sabine Lisicki on Monday night.

Kvitova will next play Sara Errani of Italy, who beat 2008 semifinalist Zheng Jie 6-2, 6-1.

Defending men's champion Novak Djokovic will try to advance to the quarterfinals and keep alive his chance of winning his third straight Grand Slam when he plays Lleyton Hewitt on Rod Laver Arena after the Lisicki-Sharapova match. The Djokovic-Hewitt winner will play fifth-seeded David Ferrer, a 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 winner over Richard Gasquet, in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, two-time runner-up Andy Murray was leading 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 when Mikhail Kukushkin retired from their fourth-round match with a left hip injury, giving Murray an easy path into the quarters.

"It's obviously good for me, I get to conserve some energy," Murray said. "Tough for him, first time in the fourth-round of a Slam."

Murray will next play Kei Nishikori, who had a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over sixth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 2008 finalist.

The 22-year-old Nishikori became the first Japanese man in the last eight at the Australian Open in 80 years, and only the second man from his country to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since the Open Era started in 1968. Shuzo Matsuoka reached the 1995 Wimbledon quarterfinals.

"Is feeling unbelieveable. My first quarterfinal and beating Tsonga, makes me really happy," Nishikori said. "I hope it's big in Japan. A lot of people messaged me a couple of days ago about the round of 16 and now the quarterfinals. It's really exciting."

Makarova, a 23-year-old Russian left-hander, was equally thrilled about her win over Williams. And considering she'd lost in the first round of the last six tournaments she'd played, in awe over who she beat.

"Yeah, I'm surprised because she's a great player and it's really tough to play against her. But, I don't know, I just feeling so good and so focus. So I played my game, and that's it. I won against Serena. That's amazing."

Makarova overcame plenty of Williams crowd support, many of whom weren't that familiar with the Russian. Oracene Price, Williams' mother, was in the players' box with her sunglasses on and a wide-brimmed hat.

In the fourth game of the second set with Makarova serving, Williams netted an easy forehand return. She made an angry sound, and there was a bit of laughter in the crowd. Price just turned away, shaking her head.

After Williams' fourth double-fault in the fifth game of the second set, which gave Makarova the game and a 3-2 lead ? Williams shouted "Oh my god." She looked ready to smash her racket, but in the end bounced it on the court and caught it on the rebound.

The 13-time Grand Slam winner had only played two competitive matches since losing the U.S. Open final to Sam Stosur in September, and her light preparation was curtailed when she badly twisted her ankle as she won her second-round match at Brisbane earlier this month.

For that reason, Williams wasn't about to beat herself up over Monday's loss.

"Am I usually angry? I don't know. Crying? I don't cry. So I don't know what I usually project," she said. "I feel like I didn't play well today. I don't feel like I can't get better."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-23-TEN-Australian-Open/id-61ffb542abd946bba85179896cc357ca

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Pilot Season: ABC Orders Supernatural Drama Pilot 666 Park Ave (omg!)

ABC has picked up the supernatural drama pilot 666 Park Ave., according to The Hollywood Reporter.

ABC picks up Shawn Ryan's Last Resort

From the producers of The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle and Gossip Girl, the project is based on Gabrielle Pierce's book series about an innocent Midwestern couple who get hired as resident managers of an Upper East Side apartment building in New York. Unbeknownst to them, the residents have all made deals with the Devil to have their desires fulfilled.

David Wilcox is on board to adapt the book and executive-produce, alongside Alloy Entertainment's Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo.

ABC orders pilot for Shonda Rhimes' period drama

666 Park Ave. is the fourth drama pilot ABC has ordered this season, following Shawn Ryan's Last Resort, Roland Emmerich's untitled election project and Shonda Rhimes' Gilded Lilys.

Related Articles on TVGuide.com

• ABC picks up Shawn Ryan's Last Resort

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Italy risks worst environmental disaster in 20 years (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Italy risks its worst environmental disaster in more than two decades if the 2,400 tonnes of thick fuel in the capsized Costa Concordia pollutes one of the Mediterranean's most prized and pristine maritime reserves.

Seven days after the 114,500 tonne liner capsized off the Tuscan coast, its vast wreck is shifting precariously on an undersea ledge, threatening to slide further and undermining plans to pump the oil out safely.

The ship keeled over after striking a rock and is now lying on its side on a shelf in about 20 meters of water off the little island of Giglio. Eleven people were killed and 21 are still unaccounted for.

With hopes of finding any survivors all but gone, experts warn that beyond the loss of lives, this could turn into Italy's worst maritime environmental emergency since the sinking of the Amoco Milford Haven, loaded with 144,000 tonnes of oil, off the coast of Genoa in 1991.

The clean up of that area was completed in 2008, 17 years after the accident, and the Haven shipwreck is still on the seabed, said Luigi Alcaro, head of maritime emergencies at ISPRA, Italy's government agency for the environment.

"If the Costa Concordia slides further down and the fuel begins seeping into the water, we could be talking years and dozens of millions of euros before it can be cleared up," Alcaro told Reuters.

The amount of fuel on board the Costa Concordia, 2,380 tonnes of heavy diesel fuel and lubricating oil, is comparable to that carried by a small oil tanker, Environment Minister Corrado Clini told parliament this week.

The fuel tanks appear to be intact for now.

HIGHLY TOXIC

Clini said even a contained leakage would be highly toxic for the flora and fauna in the area, a natural maritime park noted for its clear waters, varied marine life and coral.

The Giglio island is a renowned diving site and the surrounding archipelago is home to more than 700 botanical and animal species, including turtles, dolphins and seals.

Alcaro said the most optimistic scenario would be to stabilize the ship and pump the oil out through a technique known as "hot tap."

"The oil on the ship is very thick and sticky, so you'd have to drill a hole in the hulk and warm it up to make it more fluid and easier to extract," he told Reuters.

"That could be done in about a month for the 13 external tanks on the ship. There are another 10 tanks inside, and those are a lot more difficult to reach," he said.

But if the ship slips deeper underwater, it would actually be better if the tanks ruptured open and the fuel floated up to the surface, he said.

"There would be panic for a couple of weeks of course but a 'black sea' of fuel would make it visible and easier to recover. The very worst scenario is having oil slowly leaking out."

He pointed to the precedent of the cruise ship Sea Diamond, which sank off the Greek island of Santorini in April 2007, saying oil from the wrecked vessel kept seeping into the water for three years at the rate of 30 kg a day.

Tourism is the top industry on Giglio and locals are worried about the potentially devastating impact of pollution.

"If there's a massive fuel spill, we might as well close everything down, throw away the key and come back in 10 years," said Massimiliano Botti, 40, owner of the Porta Via restaurant along the Giglio quay. "Environmental damage is what concerns us most. If the oil pollutes the coast, we're ruined."

Giglio's mayor Sergio Ortelli said the recovery of the fuel was likely to start within the next 48 hours, but the wreck shifted further on Friday as the weather worsened, forcing a new suspension in the rescue work.

"We can only hope that the weather remains acceptable, that efforts to stabilize the wreck continue speedily, and that God gives us a hand to preserve what many consider a little Mediterranean paradise," Fulco Pratesi, founder of the conservation group WWF in Italy, wrote in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

(additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Giglio; Editing by Philip Pullella and Janet Lawrence)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/wl_nm/us_italy_ship_environment

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Video: Intel CFO: 2011 Was a Great Year For Us

A breakdown of the tech company's Q4 results and how Intel is managing recent challenges, with Stacy Smith, Intel CFO.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46062136/

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High court throws out Texas electoral maps

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court handed Texas Republicans a partial victory Friday, tossing a court-drawn electoral redistricting plan that favored minorities and Democrats but leaving the future of the state's political maps - and possibly control of the U.S. House - in the hands of two federal courts with Texas' April primaries looming.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ordered a three-judge court in San Antonio to craft a new map that pays more deference to one originally drawn up by Texas' GOP-led Legislature. The immediate effect was to scrap the interim map the San Antonio court drafted that would have favored Democrats to pick up four new congressional seats Texas will add in 2012.

Republicans, led by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, heralded the ruling as a clear victory for the state.

"The Court made clear in a strongly worded opinion that the district court must give deference to elected leaders of this state, and it's clear by the Supreme Court ruling that the district court abandoned these guiding principles," he said in statement.

But the Supreme Court didn't go as far as Texas wanted, which was to implement the maps the Legislature drew for this year's election. Doing so would have rewritten existing election law as well as the Voting Rights Act. Only Justice Clarence Thomas said he would have gone that far.

Still, the outcome appeared to favor Republicans by instructing the judges to stick more closely to what the Legislature did, said election law expert Richard Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, law school.

After the 2012 election, Texas will have 36 seats in the next Congress, a gain of four seats. Under the map initially drawn by the San Antonio court and thrown out on Friday, Democrats would have been favored in three or four new seats. The GOP holds 23 of the current 32 seats.

In its decision, the Supreme Court said the San Antonio judges particularly erred in altering the borders of legislative and congressional districts in areas of the state where the allegation that the Legislature's map discriminated doesn't apply.

Although Republicans were quick to say Friday's decision will benefit them, Democrats and minority groups said that's not so.

Jose Garza, who argued on behalf of minority groups and Texas Democrats at the Supreme Court, said Abbott, the Texas attorney general, is "celebrating too early." Garza said he expects the new maps drawn by the San Antonio court to look very similar to the ones rejected Friday.

Garza said he interpreted the Supreme Court's ruling, in part, as a call for the San Antonio court to better explain its decisions.

Others involved in legal efforts opposing the Legislature's map echoed Garza.

"This is not a victory for Texas," said Nina Perales, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of several groups involved in legal efforts to throw out the Legislature's map. "They wanted their unprecedented maps in place, and Texas hasn't been allowed to do that."

Perales said she expected the Supreme Court to remand a decision on the maps to the San Antonio court and said she was confident that minority groups would be protected even if the new baseline for creating a map was the Legislature's original draft.

Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis, said Friday that she saw the decision bolstering the judge's decision to make changes to her Fort Worth-based district. Davis filed a lawsuit against the state Senate plan after her district was carved into three pieces, splitting Latino and African-American voters.

Beyond the jousting about how to interpret Friday's ruling was a reality that the electoral battlegrounds in Texas will remain hazy for the foreseeable future. Both Democrats and Republicans see Texas as potentially key for control of the U.S. House, but until the new maps are in place, neither side will have a clear sense of how it might fair in the state.

The Supreme Court didn't set a deadline for the San Antonio court to produce an acceptable map, but the clock is ticking toward Texas' scheduled April 3 primaries. The primaries have already been pushed back from March 6, and both parties expect the date to be pushed back again ? a prospect causing consternation among Republican leaders who worry the GOP presidential race will be decided before Texas votes.

Meanwhile, a separate three-judge federal court panel in Washington heard testimony this week about whether the map drawn by the Texas Legislature violated the federal Voting Rights Act, which requires states with a history of discrimination to get advance approval before changing the way they conduct elections. That proceeding will continue next week, with closing arguments set for February. With thousands of documents and dozens of hours of testimony to consider, a decision from that panel could be months away but could also affect the composition of Texas' maps.

The legal battle over Texas' maps was prompted by the results of the 2010 census, which found that Texas added more than 4 million residents since 2000, most of them Latinos and African-Americans. Minority groups and Democrats have maintained that they are being denied deserved voting power by GOP lawmakers seeking maximize electoral gains.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-20-Supreme%20Court-Texas%20Redistricting/id-dd49122bf9ae4a47baddd690e28d7e10

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Forced-Placed Insurance Can Cost Consumers a Bundle - NYTimes ...

January 20, 2012, 4:35 pm By BUCKS EDITORS

Paul Sullivan writes this week in his Wealth Matters column about force-placed insurance ? something that most homeowners don?t know about until their mortgage lender sends them a letter telling them they need it. If the homeowners don?t act quickly, the lender will buy the insurance for them, almost always at a price that?s a lot higher than the market rate.

Experts told Paul that homeowners should immediately deal with the initial letter from a lender saying that insurance is needed. Once the force-placed insurance is imposed, it is much harder, they say, to fight the lender.

While there are no figures on how many times lenders are imposing force-placed insurance, lawyers say they suspect the numbers are higher in the last couple of years.

Have you had any experience with this kind of insurance? Tell us about it below.

Source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/an-often-painful-lesson-in-insurance/

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What really counts in sports? | Religion Notes

Sports have long been regarded as a metaphor for life, a call for courage, persistence, team work, all of which will be on display in this Olympic year 2012. Many top-level athletes attribute their success to the power of prayer and God.

Discuss this at the Christian Science Reading Room, 721 SW 20th Ct., Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 11 a.m. Discuss how your relation to God plays a role in dissolving issues such as discouragement, win-at-all-costs attitudes and more, or visit www.spirituality.com/chats.

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Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/wntlifestyles/~3/gf3kPancP0I/137309743.html

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Josh Hutcherson And Vanessa Hudgens: Most Awkward Interview Ever?

The Hunger Games isn't the only movie actor Josh Hutcherson is promoting right now: The 19-year-old is currently in Australia with co-star Vanessa Hudgens for the premiere of their movie Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. The two stars made some time to do an interview with a Brisbane morning show while they were down under... and that's when things got awkward.

It was rumored that the young actors dated while on the set of the movie in July, but Vanessa Hudgens' current relationship with actor Austin Butler has been a high-profile (and PDA-plagued) news item for some time now.

So, when the interviewer asked how long Hutcherson and Hudgens had been going out, the two exes shared a shocked and awkward moment on screen.

Josh then responded:

"We?re not? We were at one point, but she broke my heart. No, I?m just kidding. That was a while ago. We?re really good friends now."

Watch the cringe-worthy Q&A go down in the video below at the 3:20 mark.

On the plus, Josh has been doing a ton of non-awkward interviews, lately, for his highly anticipated role as Peeta in The Hunger Games. Watch AOL's exclusive interview with the star, along with Liam Hemsworth, talking about its comparison to Twilight here.

So, tell us: Will you be seeing Journey 2: The Mysterious Island -- or will you hold out for The Hunger Games to see Josh in action? Sound off in the comments or tweet us @huffpostteen.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/18/josh-hutcherson-and-vanes_n_1212160.html

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Dominic Waughray: Green Business at Davos

What do green issues have to do with Davos? Many people assume that the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting will focus on the financial crisis still rippling through the world. This may be an important part of the program, but it's far from the whole story. A strong green thread runs right through the Meeting, demonstrating the fact that questions about economic growth and environmental sustainability are not separate, but tightly intertwined. At Davos this year, we want to launch a transformation to bring the energy and ingenuity of industry to bear on addressing the urgent problem of climate change.

It's all too clear why a new approach is needed. Getting countries to agree on how to tackle greenhouse gas emissions is vitally important, but it is also a necessarily slow process. Last year's UN climate summit in Durban was a diplomatic success in that it managed to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2017 and finalize a process to agree a new global accord to cut greenhouse gases. But countries have until 2015 to negotiate the new accord, and the measures won't actually come into force until 2020. Climate scientists, while welcoming the progress, are frustrated by the pace of these talks and are concerned that inevitable compromises will create too weak an agreement, given the scale of the challenge.

As a series of recent disasters has reminded us, we cannot afford lengthy delays in dealing with the interconnected issues of climate change, extreme weather, resources, economic development and humanitarian crises. Floods have cost the Thai economy US$45 billion in 2011, about 7% of its GDP according to the World Bank, with wider disruption to many global supply chains. Parts of China are experiencing their worst drought in 60 years, affecting over four million farmers. Poor rains across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda have created the worst drought since 1950, affecting more than 10 million people and pushing food prices upward.

Worryingly, these events could be trends rather than outliers. A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that it is at least 90% certain that the sort of exceptionally hot day that would occur once in every twenty years on average will occur once in every two years by the end of the 21st century. It also predicts with 66% certainty that the frequency of heavy rainfall will increase, particularly in tropical regions.

While international diplomacy goes at its own pace, many developing countries have seized the initiative and begun tackling these threats by designing more sustainable, resilient paths to economic growth. They are building up investment programs in clean energy, energy efficiency, water management systems, climate-resilient agriculture, smart grids and low-carbon transport systems. Reflecting this shift towards "green growth", developing countries now have more than half of the world's global renewable power capacity, and these investments are growing. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in 2011, for the first time, global investment in new renewable power plants (US$187 billion) surpassed fossil fuel power plant investment (US$157 billion).

Although this trend is encouraging, much more needs to be done to attract the private finance necessary to fund the green infrastructure at the speed and scale that developing countries require. Investors are understandably cautious about the risks involved in this relatively new area. Small amounts of well targeted public finance can, however, help to soothe their nerves and lure in much-needed private sector funds. Some new models are already starting to emerge on how this can happen. For example, to support India's efforts to build up its solar power industry, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently launched a US$150 million Partial Credit Guarantee mechanism to help shield private sector investors from some of the various risks associated with the new technology. Several projects representing over 600 Megawatts of new solar capacity are now in the due diligence stage, and are seeking to benefit from this new facility.

At Durban, the World Economic Forum ran a series of talks on how to get the best out of these kinds of public and private sector partnerships in order to boost green growth, and the same ideas will be taken on to the next level at Davos. Specifically, the Government of Mexico in its role as G20 Chair for 2012 has invited the Forum to develop practical recommendations on this agenda. The first meeting of heads of state, ministers, investors, business leaders and international experts to discuss what sort of practical network of new investment mechanisms might work will take place at Davos. The Great Transformation - the theme of this year's meeting - will also be a green transformation. With governments unable to move quickly and citizens impatient for change, industry must be both encouraged and enabled to play its part in tackling climate change.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dominic-waughray/green-business-at-davos_b_1212885.html

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Romanian PM warns protesters on fifth day (Reuters)

BUCHAREST (Reuters) ? Romania's prime minister warned anti-austerity protesters gathering for a fifth day on Monday that violence would not be tolerated after 59 people were injured in clashes between demonstrators and riot police at the weekend.

The country's worst unrest for more than a decade has seen riot police using tear gas against protesters throwing bricks, smashing windows and setting fire to newspaper stands and rubbish bins in central Bucharest since it began on Thursday.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered peacefully in central Bucharest and other cities on Monday afternoon, demanding Prime Minister Emil Boc and his close political ally President Traian Basescu resign.

The numbers were expected to rise in the evening and analysts predicted more protests but did not see them affecting the austerity measures passed by the ruling coalition's small but stable parliamentary majority.

The country had hitherto avoided the kind of violence that has shaken Greece and other indebted European states despite a 25 percent cut in public sector pay and five percentage point increase in VAT imposed in 2010 to maintain an IMF-led bailout.

Boc, whose popularity is declining ahead of parliamentary elections late this year, said any violence would just end up harming the country.

"We have achieved stability but we cannot harvest the fruits immediately," he said in his first speech since the protests began. "My message is clear: violence will not be tolerated, peaceful protests are legitimate," Boc said.

"Street violence can do us much harm and can hamper prospects for economic growth."

People rallied initially in support of a deputy health minister who quit in protest at a controversial draft healthcare legislation. But the demonstrations grew despite the government's cancellation of the bill and evolved into a general expression of discontent with austerity policies and poverty.

"Five years of European Union membership did not bring anything good, on the contrary, poverty, frozen pensions," Ioan Mendea, a 73-year old former jurist, who ekes out a living from a 900 lei ($260) monthly state pension, told Reuters.

"This government, prime minister, president must go."

Markets were largely unfazed by the violence and the finance ministry managed to sell far more debt than planned at a tender.

Daniel Hewitt of Barclays Capital in London said the protests had so far had limited impact. "This is certainly a change, but it does not seem to be able to lead to any ... significant changes as it stands now."

Police said they had fined or started criminal investigations against 283 demonstrators involved in Sunday's violence. Along with the tear gas, it was not clear what other measures they could employ to prevent any future violence.

"Compared to the rest of Europe, the protests we have seen here were very small, they are not a proper instrument yet," said Cristian Patrasconiu, a political commentator. "But I do expect them to continue...This is a wave that has yet to break."

($1 = 3.4244 Romanian lei)

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/wl_nm/us_romania_protests

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