technology services: November 2011

Monday, November 28, 2011

Libyans recover looted Roman antiquities

Recovered stone heads, ancient Roman artifacts, are seen on display in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. Moammar Gadhafi's forces tried to flee Tripoli with a sack of ancient Roman artifacts in hopes of selling them abroad to help fund their doomed fight, Libya's new leaders said Saturday as they displayed the recovered objects for the first time. The director of the state antiquities department, Saleh Algabe, hailed the find of 17 pieces, mostly small stone heads, as an important recovery of national treasures. (AP Photo/Abdel Magid al-Fergany)

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ? Moammar Gadhafi's forces tried to flee Tripoli with a sack of ancient Roman artifacts in hopes of selling them abroad to help fund their doomed fight, Libya's new leaders said Saturday as they displayed the recovered objects for the first time.

The director of the state antiquities department, Saleh Algabe, hailed the find of 17 pieces, mostly small stone heads, as an important recovery of national treasures.

The pieces included a female figurine evocative of ancient fertility symmbols, several small stone human heads and two ornate terracotta fragments. Algabe said the figurines were likely used in pagan worship and dated back to the second and third centuries A.D., when a swathe of North Africa belonged to the Roman Empire.

Algabe said the pieces were seized from a car on the road to Tripoli's airport in August as revolutionary forces were sweeping into the capital. It appeared Gadhafi's forces wanted to smuggle them out of the country and sell them at auction to fund their fight, he said. Officials did not know how much the objects were worth.

The pieces probably do not represent a major component of Libya's wealth of artifacts from the Roman era. Still, officials played up their recovery as significant.

Khalid Alturjman, a representative from the country's National Transitional Council, said the anti-Gadhafi's fighters' seizure of them stands as "a great example of the sacrifice of these revolutionary men for this country."

He formally handed them over to the antiquities department Saturday.

Algabe stressed that although they dated to the Roman era, they exhibited clear signs of local influence.

"This confirms the role of Libyans in civilization," he said.

The conference was held in Tripoli's main archaeological museum, which boasts a collection of ancient Roman statues and mosaics. The museum is housed within the Red Castle, a medieval fort that faces the Mediterranean Sea.

A museum employee said the recovered objects had once been part of the institution's collection. However, members of Gadhafi's regime had taken them, saying they were to be exhibited in European museums ? and never returned them.

Libya boasts many ancient Roman structures, including the famed seaside ruins of Leptis Magna, east of Tripoli.

Almost all of Libya's ancient archaeological sites and museums were spared damage during the recent civil war. NATO made a point of avoiding them during its bombing campaign, and Agabe said that the revolutionaries also made an effort to protect them.

"The Libyan people decided to protect their heritage," Algabe said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-26-ML-Libya-Recovered-Antiquities/id-918fbeb88b8a47f4a382d936af19553e

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Long lines at polls as Egypt holds landmark vote

An Egyptian woman rests in front of campaign posters outside a polling station on the first day of parliamentary elections in Alexandria, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Shaking off years of political apathy, Egyptians on Monday began voting in their nation's first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a giant step toward what many in the country hope will be a democratic Egypt after decades of dictatorship.(AP Photo/Tarek Fawzy)

Egyptian women wait at a polling station to vote in the country's parliamentary election in the Zamalek neighbourhood of Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Shaking off years of political apathy, Egyptians on Monday began voting in their nation's first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a giant step toward what many in the country hope will be a democratic Egypt after decades of dictatorship.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

An Egyptian army soldier stands guard next to posters of parliamentary candidates on a wall outside a polling center in Assuit, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Voting began on Monday in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising nine months ago. The vote is a milestone many Egyptians hope will usher in a democratic age after decades of dictatorship. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Egyptian voters line up outside a polling center in Assuit, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Voting began on Monday in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising nine months ago. The vote is a milestone many Egyptians hope will usher in a democratic age after decades of dictatorship. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

An Egyptian Army soldier stands guard as voters wait outside a polling center in Assuit, 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Voting began on Monday in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising nine months ago. The vote is a milestone many Egyptians hope will usher in a democratic age after decades of dictatorship. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

CAIRO (AP) ? Shaking off years of political apathy, Egyptians turned out in long lines at voting stations Monday in their nation's first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a giant step toward what they hope will be a democracy after decades of dictatorship.

The vote promises to be the fairest and cleanest election in Egypt in living memory, but it takes place amid sharp polarization among Egyptians and confusion over the nation's direction. On one level, the election is a competition between Islamic parties who want to take Egypt in a direction toward religious rule and more liberal groups that want a separation between religion and politics.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best organized group, along with other Islamists are expected to do well in the vote.

But also weighing heavily on voters' mind was whether this election will really set Egypt on a path of democracy after months of turmoil under the rule of the military, which took power after Mubarak's Feb. 11 fall. Only 10 days before the elections, major protests erupted demanding the generals step aside because of fears they will not allow real freedoms.

Early in the day, voters stood in lines stretching several hundred yards outside some polling centers in Cairo well before they opened at 8 a.m. local time (0600GMT), suggesting a respectable turnout. Many said they were voting for the first time, a sign of an enthusiasm that, in this election, one's vote mattered.

For decades, few Egyptians bothered to cast ballots because nearly every election was rigged, whether by bribery, ballot box stuffing or intimidation by police at the polls. Turnout was often in the single digits.

"I am voting for freedom. We lived in slavery. Now we want justice in freedom," said 50-year-old Iris Nawar at a polling station in Maadi, a Cairo suburb.

"We are afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood. But we lived for 30 years under Mubarak, we will live with them, too," said Nawar, a first-time voter.

Some voters brought their children along, saying they wanted them to learn how to exercise their rights in a democracy. Lines in cities around the country brought out a cross-section of the nation: men in Islamic beards, women in trendy clothes, the conservative headscarf or the niqab ? the most radical Islamic attire covering women's body from head to toe with only the eyes showing.

Many complained that the lines were too long and moved too slowly at the stations, which were heavily guarded by police and soldiers to prevent violence.

"If you have waited for 30 years, can't you wait now for another hour?" an army officer yelled at hundreds of women restless over the wait at one center.

The election is burdened with a long and unwieldy process. It stretched over multiple stages, with different provinces taking their turn to vote with each round. Each round lasts two days. Voting for 498-seat People's Assembly, parliament's lower chamber, will last until January, then elections for the 390-member upper house will drag on until March.

Moreover, there are significant questions over how relevant the new parliament will even be. The ruling military council of generals, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, insists it will maintain considerable powers after the election. It will put together the government and is trying to keep extensive control over the creation of an assembly to write a new constitution, a task that originally was seen as mainly in the parliament's hands.

The protesters who took to Cairo's Tahrir Square and other cities since Nov. 19 in rallies recalling the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak demand the generals surrender power immediately to a civilian government.

Some hoped their vote would help eventually push the generals out.

"We are fed up with the military," said Salah Radwan, waiting outside a polling center in Cairo's middle-class Abdeen neighborhood. "They should go to protect our borders and leave us to rule ourselves. Even if we don't get it right this time, we will get it right next time."

On Monday morning in Tahrir, a relatively small crowd of a few thousand remained to keep the round-the-clock protests going. Clashes during the protests left more than 40 dead have heightened fears of violence at polling stations.

By early afternoon Monday, there were no reports of foul play or violence except in the town of el-Badari in the southern Assiut province when armed men fired at polling centers and prevented voters from reaching them because the name of the candidate they support was not on the ballot. There were no reports of casualties.

For some, the central question in the vote was whether Egypt will go on a more Islamic or secular path.

The Brotherhood entered the campaign armed with a powerful network of activists around the country and years of experience in political activity, even though it was banned under Mubarak's regime. That gave them what many see as a significant advantage over liberal, leftist and secular parties, most of which are newly created since Mubarak's ouster, are not widely known among the public and were plagued by divisions through the past months.

In the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria, thousands of voters braved rain and strong winds to go to the polls. Long lines formed outside polling centers, with voters huddling under umbrellas. At one polling center in the Raml neighborhood, around a half dozen army soldiers stood guard by the ballot boxes inside.

"Choose freely, choose whomever you want to vote for," said one soldier, using a microphone.

Alexandria is a stronghold of the Brotherhood and many voters said they would vote for the group.

"The Muslim Brotherhood are the people who have stood by us when times were difficult," said Ragya el-Said, a 47-year-old lawyer. "We have a lot of confidence in them."

The Brotherhood is facing competition on the religious vote, however, particularly from the even more conservative Salafi movement, which advocates a hard-line Saudi Arabian-style interpretation of Islam. While the Brotherhood shows at times a willingness to play politics and compromise in its ideology, many Salafis make no bones about saying democracy must take a back seat to Islamic law.

"We're scared of the way they talk or that they'll limit our freedom or keep us from building churches," Christian voter Imad Zakhari said about the Islamists. "We had a revolution so we could have more freedom, not less," he said while waiting in line to vote with his 10-year-old son, George, standing next to him.

For many of those who did not want to vote for the Brotherhood or other Islamists, the alternative was not clear.

"I don't know any of the parties or who I'm voting for," she said. "I'll vote for the first names I see I guess," said Teresa Sobhi, a Christian voter in the southern city of Assiut. Still, she said, "there may be hope for Egypt at last, to build it from scratch."

The region is a bastion of Islamists, but also has a significant Christian population.

Across the city in the Walidiya district, teenager Ahmed Gamal was handing flyers urging voters to support the Nour Party of the Salafis.

"We used to be arrested by police under Mubarak for just going to the mosque. Our Nour party will now implement Islamic laws," he enthused as he handed the flyers to voters waiting in line ? a violation of rules barring campaigning at polling centers.

Back in Cairo, Shahira Ahmed, 45, was in line with her husband and daughter along with some 500 voters outside a polling station in a school in the upscale neighborhood of Zamalek. She said she was hoping liberals can at least establish some presence in parliament ? "to have a liberal and a civilized country, I mean no fanatics."

And, like many, she was still not sure whether democracy was really on the horizon.

"I never voted because I was never sure it was for real. This time, I hope it is, but I am not positive."

Monday's vote was taking place in nine provinces whose residents account for 24 million of Egypt's estimated 85 million people. Most prominent of the nine provinces are Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city.

Turnout among the estimated 50 million voters will play a key role. A higher turnout could water down the showing of the Brotherhood, since its core of supporters are the most likely to vote. Heavy numbers of voters will also give legitimacy to a vote that the military insisted go ahead despite the past weeks' turmoil. A referendum in March had a turnout of 40 percent ? anything lower than that could be a sign that skepticism over the process is high.

The Brotherhood, which used to run its candidates as independents because of the official ban on the group, made its strongest showing in elections in 2005, when it won 20 percent of parliament's seats. Its leaders have predicted that in this vote it could win up to 40 or 50 percent.

> ___

AP correspondents Maggie Michael in Cairo, Hadeel al-Shalchi in Alexandria, Egypt, and Aya Batrawy in Assiut, Egypt contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-28-ML-Egypt/id-2989d141e5ea4dfbaf3f9237c7db09ba

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The 'increasingly intolerable' glut of GOP debates: 4 consequences (The Week)

New York ? Republicans have already squared off nearly a dozen times ? and they're only halfway through the debate season

With the Republican presidential candidates constantly slugging it out in a seemingly endless stream of televised showdowns, it seems likely that 2011 will be remembered as the "year of the debate," says Michael Calderone at The Huffington Post. The 11th major debate of the campaign season was held on Tuesday, Nov. 22, and there are nearly a dozen more GOP primary debates still to come. Plenty of people are watching, and the candidate forums appear to be having a major impact on the race. How? Here, four consequences of the "increasingly intolerable" glut of debates:

1. Gaffes are blown way out of proportion
The media has been "lapping up every big 'viral' moment, making the most of the gaffes and stumbles and eternally questing for the next meltdown," says Jason Linkins at The Huffington Post. As a result, the slip-ups are overshadowing the substance of many of the debates, making them matter more than they should. "The early debates helped introduce the candidates to the Republican primary electorate," says Byron York in the Washington Examiner, and the later ones will help undecided voters make up their minds. But many in the middle served little purpose ? other than to provide another "occasion for a major gaffe or gotcha."

SEE MORE: The GOP's 'elimination round' debate: 4 key questions

2. Serious candidates are taken less seriously
"We are essentially witnessing Republican presidential politics morph into a kind of right-wing reality TV series," says Ryan Lizza at The New Yorker. This popular elimination format has been good news for "'politainment' conservatives like Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich, and not so great for successful governors like Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Perry." Some veteran Republicans worry this is the wrong image to project when picking a candidate for the job of leading the free world, says Michael D. Shear in The New York Times. The cumulative effect of all the embarrassing moments, they fear, may be the weakening of "the party brand, especially in foreign policy and national security, where Republicans have typically dominated Democrats."?

3."Retail" campaigning isn't what it used to be
"Once, it was the vaunted campaign machine, or the bulging bank accounts, or the number of key endorsements that defined who was up and who was down," says Ken Rudin at NPR. But this year, those elements of "retail" campaigning aren't all that critical. It really just seems to be the debates that matter. "Never before in a campaign cycle has the story line ? the rise and fall of frontrunners, the fluctuations in the polls ? been almost exclusively about what comes out of the debates."

SEE MORE: The 'disgraceful' CBS debate: Did the network mess up?

4. Candidates are getting tired
This isn't easy for the Republicans, says Rupert Cornwell in Britain's Independent. Sure, they "get free exposure" from the nationally televised debates, but in each forum, they have to keep tacking to the right to win over conservative primary voters. As the debate season drags on, every appearance means another occasion to let something slip that will be "fodder for the Obama campaign" in the general election, when the challenge will be wooing moderates and independents. No wonder "some candidates have suggested they might skip a few, if only to conserve their energy."

View this article on TheWeek.com
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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Dave Astor: Giving Thanks for Putting Away Childish Literary Things

As I write this on Thanksgiving weekend, I give thanks to the books that turn adolescent readers into adult readers. For me, it was one 19th-century novel by a woman, and one 20th-century novel by a man.

All of us who love books started with simpler fare. Perhaps it was Goodnight Moon, then The Cat in the Hat, and then kid-oriented novels such as Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (about an early computer big enough to hold gazillions of smartphones!).

But by the time we reach our mid-teens, English teachers up the ante. Two books on their agenda when I was that age included Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath -- both of which made me groan before I cracked their covers. A novel about some oddball governess? A farm family leaving Oklahoma? Bor-r-ring.

Then I read those two books, and my literary landscape was transformed. There was no going back to kid fiction with few nuances and little complexity. Danny Dunn was done.

Though I was a 20th-century American male, I strongly related to the British female protagonist in Bronte's 1847 novel. Jane Eyre somehow transcended time, place, and gender -- like all great literary characters can do. I admired her ethics, intelligence, independence, and self-sufficiency. Plus I was sort of a loner like her, and was from modest economic circumstances like her.

Meanwhile, The Grapes of Wrath opened my eyes more widely to matters such as injustice, gross economic inequality, and the importance of family. I was so taken with Steinbeck's 1939 novel that when I learned the movie version would be on TV at 2 a.m. one day, I stayed up to watch it despite having school just a few hours later. (This was before VCRs, of course.)

For all the lessons and such in those two books, the Bronte and Steinbeck classics were also darn good reads filled with suspense, pathos, believable dialogue, and flat-out excellent writing. Plus Jane Eyre was and is incredibly romantic.

Yes, after experiencing novels that meaty, it was time to "put away childish (literary) things." Soon, I was gobbling up Moby-Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Native Son, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, various Charles Dickens books, and other classics.

For many readers now in their 20s, I suspect the Harry Potter series might have been the books that helped spark that adolescent-to-adult reading transition.

Which novels catapulted your younger self into the world of more sophisticated literature?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor/giving-thanks-for-putting_b_1112387.html

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Why Do We Give? Not Why Or How You Think

New findings in the science of charity reveals some counter-intuitive results. For instance, people will give more money to a single suffering person than to a population of suffering people, and also give more when some type of physical discomfort ? for example, running a marathon ? is involved.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/25/142780599/why-we-give-not-why-you-think?ft=1&f=1007

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NBA owners, players reach tentative deal

FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2011 file photo, NBA commissioner David Stern speaks during a news conference in New York. The NBA is entering a season Stern calls "nuclear winter." The players have rejected the league's latest proposal and begun disbanding their union in preparation for going to court. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, left, and NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver converse in front of a midtown office building where NBA labor negotiations are taking place in New York, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)

NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver left, and San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, right, converse in front of a midtown office building where NBA labor negotiations are taking place, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt looks on in front of a midtown office building where NBA labor negotiations are taking place in New York, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)

The Players Association president Derek Fisher leaves after a news conference early Saturday morning Nov. 26, 2011 in New York regarding the NBA and the Players Association reaching a tentative agreement to end the five-month old lockout and start the league's 2011-12 season on Dec. 25. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

NEW YORK (AP) ? After nearly two years of bickering, NBA players and owners are back on the same side.

"We want to play basketball," Commissioner David Stern said.

Come Christmas Day, they should be.

The sides reached a tentative agreement early Saturday to end the 149-day lockout and hope to begin the delayed season with a marquee tripleheader Dec. 25. Most of a season that seemed in jeopardy of being lost entirely will be salvaged if both sides approve the handshake deal.

Barring a change in scheduling, the 2011-12 season will open with the Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, followed by Miami at Dallas in an NBA finals rematch before MVP Derrick Rose and Chicago visiting Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

Neither side provided many specifics about the deal, and there are still legal hurdles that must be cleared before gymnasiums are open again.

"We thought it was in both of our interest to try to reach a resolution and save the game," union executive director Billy Hunter said.

After a secret meeting earlier this week that got the broken process back on track, the sides met for more than 15 hours Friday, working to save the season. Stern said the agreement was "subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we're optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25."

President Barack Obama gave a thumbs-up when told about the tentative settlement after he finished playing basketball at Fort McNair in Washington on Saturday morning.

The league plans a 66-game season and aims to open training camps Dec. 9, with free agency opening at the same time. Stern has said it would take about 30 days from an agreement to playing the first game.

"All I feel right now is 'finally,'" Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade told The Associated Press.

Just 12 days after talks broke down and Stern declared the NBA could be headed to a "nuclear winter," he sat next to Hunter to announce the 10-year deal, with either side able to opt out after the sixth year.

"For myself, it's great to be a part of this particular moment in terms of giving our fans what they wanted and wanted to see," said Derek Fisher, the president of the players' association.

A majority on each side is needed to approve the agreement, first reported by CBSSports.com. The NBA needs votes from 15 of 29 owners. (The league owns the New Orleans Hornets.) Stern said the labor committee plans to discuss the agreement later Saturday and expects them to endorse it and recommend to the full board.

The union needs a simple majority of its 430-plus members. That process is a bit more complicated after the players dissolved the union Nov. 14. Now, they must drop their antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota and reform the union before voting on the deal.

Because the union disbanded, a new collective bargaining agreement can only be completed once the union has reformed. Drug testing and other issues still must be negotiated between the players and the league, which also must dismiss its lawsuit filed in New York.

"We're very pleased we've come this far," Stern said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

The sides will quickly return to work later Saturday, speaking with attorneys and their own committees to keep the process moving.

When the NBA returns, owners hope to find the type of parity that exists in the NFL, where the small-market Green Bay Packers are the current champions. The NBA has been dominated in recent years by the biggest spenders, with Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas winning the last four titles.

"I think it will largely prevent the high-spending teams from competing in the free-agent market the way they've been able to in the past. It's not the system we sought out to get in terms of a harder cap, but the luxury tax is harsher than it was. We hope it's effective," deputy commissioner Adam Silver said.

"We feel ultimately it will give fans in every community hope that their team can compete for championships."

The league hopes fans come right back, despite their anger over a work stoppage that followed such a successful season. But owners wanted more of the league's $4 billion in annual revenues after players were guaranteed 57 percent of basketball-related income in the old deal.

Participating in the talks for the league were Stern, Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube. The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.

Owners locked out the players July 1, and the sides spent most of the summer and fall battling over the division of revenues and other changes owners wanted in a new collective bargaining agreement. They said they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in each year of the former deal, ratified in 2005, and they wanted a system where the big-market teams wouldn't have the ability to outspend their smaller counterparts.

Players fought against those changes, not wanting to see any teams taken out of the market when they became free agents.

"This was not an easy agreement for anyone. The owners came in having suffered substantial losses and feeling the system wasn't working fairly across all teams," Silver said. "I certainly know the players had strong views about expectations in terms of what they should be getting from the system. It required a lot of compromise from both parties' part, and I think that's what we saw today."

Even the final day had turbulent patches. It required multiple calls with the owners' labor relations committee, all the while knowing another breakdown in talks would mean not only the loss of the Christmas schedule but possibly even the entire season.

"We resolved, despite some even bumps this evening, that the greater good required us to knock ourselves out and come to this tentative understanding," Stern said.

He denied the litigation was a factor in accelerating a deal, but things happened relatively quickly after the players filed a suit that could have won them some $6 billion in damages.

"For us the litigation is something that just has to be dealt with," Stern said. "It was not the reason for the settlement. The reason for the settlement was we've got fans, we've got players who would like to play and we've got others who are dependent on us. And it's always been our goal to reach a deal that was fair to both sides and get us playing as soon as possible, but that took a little time."

It finally yielded the second shortened season in NBA history, joining the 1998-99 lockout that reduced the schedule to 50 games. This time the league will miss 16 games off the normal schedule.

Though the deal's expected to be approved, it may not be unanimous as there are factions of hard-liners in both camps who will be unhappy with substantive portions of the deal.

"Let's all pray this turns out well," Pacers forward Danny Granger wrote on Twitter.

But getting what the owners wanted took a toll. Stern, after more than 27 years as the league's commissioner, hoped to close a deal much sooner but was committed for fighting for the owners' wishes even at the risk of damaging his legacy. Hunter dealt with anger from agents and even questions from his own players about his strategy, wondering why it could so long for the players to use the threat of litigation to give them leverage that had otherwise eluded them.

The sides met just twice in the first two months of the lockout before stepping up the pace in September, when it was already too late to open camps on time. The sides tried meeting in small groups, large groups and even mediation, but nothing sparked compromise.

Things changed this week with the entrance of Jim Quinn, a former NBPA counsel who had good relationships on both sides. The meeting Friday was held at the office of his law firm, though he did not take part.

Hunter said the terms of the deal would come out shortly, preferring to keep them private until they could be shared with the players. They might not like the deal, but it will be better than what many of them feared. Resigned to possibly missing the season, some had signed deals overseas so they would have some paycheck.

Instead, they're a step closer to returning home.

___

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and White House reporter Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-26-NBA%20Labor/id-0b8cb542272b4b82a6672a9390b65667

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

National marches back to power in New Zealand (Reuters)

AUCKLAND (Reuters) ? The ruling center-right National Party returned to power in a crushing win in New Zealand's general election on Saturday and secured the backing of minor parties to ensure a majority for asset sales and welfare reforms.

National, led by former foreign exchange dealer John Key, was sitting on 48 percent share of the vote on election night. That would give the party 60 seats in the 121-seat parliament from its current 58.

Key was guaranteed a second three-year term with the return of current coalition partners, free-market ACT and centrist United Future, each with one member.

"New Zealand has voted for a brighter future, and there will be a brighter future," Key, draped in blue and white streamers, told ecstatic supporters.

National campaigned on promises to build on policies of the past three years with an emphasis on sparking economic growth by cutting debt, curbing spending, selling state assets and returning to a budget surplus by 2014/15.

"The government will be focused on building a more competitive economy, with less debt, more jobs, and higher incomes," added Key, 52, flanked by his wife and son.

The opposition Labour Party's share of the vote was around 27 percent, which would give it 34 seats, a loss of nine.

"It wasn't our time this time," Labour leader Phil Goff told

supporters. "We're a bit bloodied, but we're not defeated."

Under New Zealand's proportional voting system, parties must secure either a local electorate seat, or 5 percent of the nationwide vote to get into parliament.

The final tally of seats could yet change when tens of thousands of absentee votes are counted over the next two weeks.

Opinion polls published in the last day of the campaign put the National Party up to 25 percentage points ahead of Labour.

CHAMPAGNE CORKS POP

The affable Key has been one of the most popular leaders in New Zealand history and has been seen as a safe pair of hands as he led the country through earthquakes, a coal mine disaster, and the global economic turmoil.

He has also benefited from linking himself with film maker Peter Jackson, who is making two movies based on the Hobbit books, and the country's All Black rugby team, which won the Rugby World Cup on home soil last month.

"Of all the politicians that New Zealand could have he's got the most experience and is best positioned I think to lead us into the future," said Denis MacNamara, a 63-year-old lawyer from Auckland, as champagne corks popped and supporters danced.

Key said the government, including ACT and United Future, would have 62 seats, allowing it to implement major policies, such as asset sales. But he would also look to renew a deal with the Maori Party representing the interests of indigenous Maori people.

"He understands proportional representation. He wants other people with him, including the Maori Party," said Canterbury University political scientist Therese Arsenau.

The surprise of the election was the near 7 percent showing for the nationalist New Zealand First Party, led by the mercurial veteran Winston Peters, ousted from parliament in 2008 amid a scandal over secret donations.

"Our aim is to be cooperative and constructive...we told people to hang on because help is on its way and tonight it's arrived," he said, adding the party would be independent and look to keep the government honest.

Of the other parties, the Greens were on track for 13 seats from their current nine, and the Maori Party retained three of the seven seats reserved for Maoris.

(Additional reporting by Mantik Kusjanto and Greg Stutchbury; Writing by Gyles Beckford; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/wl_nm/us_newzealand_election

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Investing in Valuable Metals Gold Bullion | All Stuff Ari

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Investing in Valuable Metals Gold Bullion. Posted on November 25, 2011 by. For the duration of these instances of financial hardship, there is a large demand for secure and reliable investments. Both knowledgeable and newbie investors are ...

Source: http://stuff-ari.com/2011/investing-in-valuable-metals-gold-bullion/

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US court won't block its Texas redistricting map (San Jose Mercury News)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166528536?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Funding stress in the FX swap market | Global Investing

Signs of the wholesale funding stress are cropping up in the FX swaps market, with the premium for?swapping euro LIBOR into dollar LIBOR over 3 months (so-called cross currency swap) rising to 141.5 basis points, which is the post-Lehman Brothers high.

The premium has skyrocketed in the past six months (back in May it was only 16.5bps) because European banks needing funds are forced to turn to the FX swap market, and other banks are?reluctant to lend to European companies in the United States.

And it looks like the situation is going to get worse from here, because of weak dollar bond issuance by euro zone companies.

JP Morgan says?companies across the euro zone are not issuing very much ? the average issuance over the past two months stands at only $1.3 bln, compared with a $4.5bln per week pace seen over the first half of the year, when dollar funding conditions were less stressed.

?The fact that dollar issuance is so subdued even for euro area non-financials is worrying as it suggests investors do not differentiate between euro area issuers. This is reinforced by the fact that dollar issuance by European companies outside the euro area appears relatively unaffected,? JP Morgan writes.

The $2.2bn per week pace of dollar debt issuance by UK, Swiss and Scandinavian companies in H2 is only slightly lower than the $3bn weekly average seen in H1, JP Morgan says.

Source: http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting/2011/11/23/funding-stress-in-the-fx-swap-market/

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Apple Black Friday deals start going live

Apple’s one day discount event has started going live in Australia and the UK, among other countries. Deals seem to be as expected — slim but fairly widespread — on select iPod touch, iPad, Mac, Accessories, and even iTunes Gift Cards. Unfortunately, you won’t be getting any deals on...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/oQrri0949O4/story01.htm

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Fed court proposes Texas congressional districts (AP)

AUSTIN, Texas ? Minorities will make up the majority of voters in three additional Texas congressional districts under a proposed redistricting map released by a federal court Wednesday, which is expected to give Democrats an advantage in the 2012 elections as they seek to win back the House.

Minorities currently are the majority in 10 out of 32 Texas districts and the new map will raise that to 13 out of 36, if the court gives the map final approval as expected.

The San Antonio-based federal court drew the maps after minority groups sued the state claiming a redistricting map drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature does not reflect the growth in the state's Hispanic and black population. In a separate case in Washington, a federal court refused to approve the lawmaker-drawn map without a trial, agreeing with the Department of Justice that there was sufficient evidence to question whether it hurt minority representation.

Also on Wednesday, the San Antonio federal court issued final maps for state Senate and House districts that are very similar to ones proposed last week that could also lead to greater minority representation. The court dramatically redrew those maps from what the Legislature passed, giving Democrats a chance to add as many as a dozen seats in the Legislature.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders have denied that any of Legislature's redistricting maps would diminish minority voting power and denounced the map issued on Wednesday.

"The court issued a map without any explanation, but still, it seems apparent that the proposed map misapplies federal law and continues the court's trend of inappropriately venturing into political policymaking rather than simply applying the law," Abbott said in a statement Wednesday on the congressional maps. "Perhaps worst, in the name of protecting Hispanic voting power, the court seems to be discarding already elected Republican Hispanics in favor of drawing maps that may elect Democratic Hispanics. That is not and should not be the proper role of the court or the proper application of the Voting Rights Act."

Abbott has said that if the court's maps do not change to more closely reflect what the Legislature approved, he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and most likely delay the March 6 primaries.

Republican lawmakers insist the maps drawn by the Legislature merely reflect the Republican majority in Texas. Experts say three of the new seats would have gone to Republicans under the legislative map. When drawing the interim map, the court gave priority to ensuring minority voting strength was protected in the 2012 election. The court-ordered map will remain in place until the legal fights are resolved.

Lawmakers redraw districts every 10 years to reflect changes in census data. Texas is adding four additional congressional seats in 2012, a reflection of the state's rapid population growth.

Texas, among other states with a history of racial discrimination, can't implement the maps or other changes to voting practices without federal approval under the Voting Rights Act. No federal approval and looming deadlines for county election officials made it necessary for the San Antonio court to issue their own plans that could be implemented immediately.

"It is certainly a map we are very, very proud of. We are talking about four (new) congressional districts and we've long maintained the lion's share of those should belong to Latinos and minorities who grew this state," said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, the leader of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, which participated in the San Antonio lawsuit.

The court redrew congressional districts 23 and 27 in West Texas and along the southern coast to make them more heavily Hispanic and created a new district 35 in Central Texas that also is majority Hispanic. The court also drew a new district 33 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where whites are a minority.

The changes to districts 23 and 27 put incumbent Republican U.S. Reps. Blake Farenthold and Francisco "Quico" Canseco at risk of losing their seats.

"Court releases TX Congressional map wiping out several Republican seats," Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick said on Twitter shortly after the maps were released.

In creating district 35, the court made a major departure from the Republican-drawn map by dividing Travis County, which includes Austin, into three congressional districts rather than five. The Legislature's draft map pitted Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett against a Democratic challenger from San Antonio, state Rep. Julian Castro. They'll run in separate districts under the court-drawn map.

"I'm pleased that the court drew a map that better represents the state of Texas. I'm confident that these are the maps that we will run under in 2012," Castro told The Associated Press. "Any time you can do without having a primary opponent, that's always a good thing."

More than 87 percent of the population growth in Texas since 2000 has been among minorities. In 2010, whites in Texas dropped to less than 50 percent of the population, but they still make up the vast majority of election officials.

Texas Democrats were pleased with the proposed map.

"We are pleased that Texas is on the road to fair elections in which the voters, rather than Republican mapmakers, will get to determine the outcome," said Boyd Ritchie, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.

The court will now accept comments on its proposed maps until noon Friday before issuing a final version of the maps before Monday, when candidates will begin registering to be placed on the ballot.

The congressional map is one of three maps being challenged, along with maps for the Texas House and Texas Senate. Interim proposals for those legislative districts were released by the San Antonio court last week. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has said he is considering appealing the court-drawn maps to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming the judges involved overstepped their bounds.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_el_ho/us_texas_redistricting

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Bahrain forces comb Shi'ite town before rights report (Reuters)

MANAMA (Reuters) ? Bahraini security forces chased youths in a Shi'ite town Wednesday and one man was killed when his car was hit by a police vehicle, activists said, hours before the release of a report on the sectarian strife that has roiled the kingdom.

Witnesses said riot police in 4x4 vehicles sped through the streets of Aali, outside the capital Manama, in pursuit of dozens of teenagers, before seizing one and beating him with batons as helicopters circled overhead.

Graffiti in the area read "Death to Al Khalifa," a reference to the Sunni ruling family, which Bahrain's majority Shi'ites accuse of denying them access to housing, land and state employment on sectarian grounds.

Security forces used tear gas to scatter dozens of people who marched through the center of the town chanting "Down with Hamad," the monarch Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Acrid black smoke rose from burning tires.

Hours earlier, a security forces vehicle in the town smashed into the car of Abdelnabi Kadhim Aaqil, which struck a parked vehicle and killed the driver, activists said. Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets after the crash, they said.

It was not clear whether the dead motorist had been involved in protests, which take place almost daily in Shi'ite regions of Bahrain and are often put down by security forces with tear gas.

The dead man's home, reeking of tear gas, was deserted and apparently abandoned by its occupants, after what neighbors said was a raid by security forces that is typical of their reaction to protest-related deaths in the area.

"They behave savagely," said a 32-year-old resident of the neighborhood who identified himself as Hussein. "They want no voice raised against them ... the idea is to frighten us."

Elsewhere in Aali, graffiti read "Your turn is coming," an apparent reference to the toppling of Arab leaders in Tunisia and Egypt after mass demonstrations.

In its Twitter feed, Bahrain's Interior Ministry called the incident in Aali a traffic accident and said it had completed a forensic investigation, but gave no details.

U.S. WEAPONS DEAL AWAITS REPORT

The violence came hours before the release of a report commissioned by Bahrain into the anti-government protests earlier this year, led by Shi'ites, and the subsequent crackdown featuring mass arrests and allegations of torture.

Bahrain called in Saudi and UAE troops in mid-March to help crush the protests, which it says Iran fomented through its co-religionists on the island. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and is financially dependent on Saudi Arabia.

Rights groups and activists estimate more than 3,000 people were detained in the crackdown and say as many as half of them suffered abuse, including electric shocks and beatings.

Bahrain commissioned jurists led by Egyptian-American international law expert Cherif Bassiouni to report on the unrest, the worst since sectarian-tinged political violence rocked Bahrain in the mid-1990s.

The United States has said a $53 million arms deal depends on the report, and Bahrain has already admitted security forces used excessive force in some cases, while denying any coordinated policy of torture.

The report follows a state-orchestrated "national dialogue" about the unrest which opposition groups dismissed as a farce.

(Reporting by Andrew Hammond and Warda al-Jawahiry; Writing by Joseph Logan; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/wl_nm/us_bahrain_violence

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Will Frontier Communications Be Able to Reverse Its Decline? (The Motley Fool)

Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR - News) reported a steep 30% fall in third-quarter net income, to $20.4 million, mainly due to a decrease in its subscriber base. Let's take a closer, Foolish look at Frontier's problems.

The numbers
The company's total revenues fell by 8%, to $1.3 billion. The reason for this drop was the fall in the number of subscribers across various segments, including business and residential customers, video, switched access, and directory. The drop in net income came from acquisition expenses and reduced operating incomes that were in part offset by lower taxes.

Local and long-distance service revenues fell sequentially and year over year, dropping by 12%, to $605 million, from last year's third quarter. Data and Internet service revenues remained relatively flat from the previous year's quarter at $457 million.

The sky is falling!
The previous year saw Frontier virtually triple its revenues after gaining 4.8 million rural landlines from Verizon (NYSE: VZ - News). This reversed the trend of falling revenues as the company saw its top line jump after the acquisition. But that was just temporary.

The company continues to bleed both customers and revenues mainly because of the increasing obsolescence of landline telephones. A look at sequential and year-over-year data shows this trend. Residential customer count fell sequentially by 2.3%, as well as from the previous year's quarter by 10.2%, to 3.1 million subscribers. Business customers also dropped sequentially by 2.2% and 9.8% from the previous year to 319,379 subscribers. But Frontier has made sure it's able to compensate for this and trim costs as much as possible.

Shaving off unprofitability
Some of the subscriber cuts were due to the company's efforts to reduce the number of customers for the unprofitable FiOS offering that was inadvertently acquired through its Verizon acquisition. FiOS is Verizon's bundled fiber optic offering that combines television, Internet, and telephone services.

So far, the company has been successful in shaving off 9,900 FiOS TV subscribers and 3,100 FiOS Internet subscribers. It has also discouraged customers from ordering the new service, using tactics like raising the installation fee to $500 in Oregon. Having done that, the company wants to shift focus to providing telephone and high-speed Internet services in Oregon and other markets that it got hold of through the Verizon deal. Frontier has also entered into tie-ups with DISH Network (Nasdaq: DISH - News) and DIRECTV (Nasdaq: DTV - News) to resell their satellite TV packages to its customers.

Frontier's efforts seem to be paying off, as it has witnessed the strongest broadband growth rate since the acquisition. The company has been able to bring broadband access to 592,000 new homes and has managed a net addition of 16,200 high-speed Internet subscribers while removing almost $500 million in annual costs.

The Foolish bottom line
With the industrywide trend of shrinking landline subscribers, Frontier has not made the mistake of hard-selling the obsolete technology. Instead, it has shifted focus to promoting its high-speed broadband services in order to retain and grow its precious customer base. This could very well be the solution to the company's falling revenues. However, until Frontier begins to show some improvement at least in terms of top-line numbers, I'd rather stay on the sidelines.

Keki Fatakia does not hold shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/fool/20111123/bs_fool_fool/rx165755

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The Bella Swan Wedding Dress: Available Now!

Attention, Twihards: you may never sleep with Robert Pattinson. But that doesn't mean you can't resemble the young woman who did sleep with Robert Pattinson in Breaking Dawn!

That's right, a replicated version of Bella Swan's wedding dress is now available.

Bella Wedding Dress

On sale for $799, the Alfred Angelo-designed creation is a long-sleeved, lace gown with a V-neck and open back. This is likely the closest you'll ever come to living out this iconic wedding scene each and every night.

Seriously, how beautiful did Kristen Stewart look in the film?!?

Did you see Breaking Dawn? What did you think?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/the-bella-swan-wedding-dress-available-now/

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Correction: President-Michigan-Poll story (AP)

LANSING, Mich. ? In a story Nov. 20 about a poll of Michigan voters that showed Mitt Romney beating President Barack Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the poll had a 4 percent sampling error. The poll had a 4 percentage point margin of sampling error.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_el_pr/us_president_michigan_poll

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Which Finalist Is Now the Frontrunner to Win 'DWTS'?

Season 13 of Dancing with the Stars is almost over, and the current frontrunner is no other than Rob Kardashian, who blew the judges away with two terrific dances with partner Cheryl Burke, making him the one to beat going into tonight's DWTS finale.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/rob-kardashian-now-frontrunner-win-dancing-stars/1-a-404858?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Arob-kardashian-now-frontrunner-win-dancing-stars-404858

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War, then soccer

By BARBARA SURK

Associated Press

Associated Press Sports

updated 2:41 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -For the first time in decades, football in Libya is just about, well, football.

Gone in the uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi is Al-Saadi Gadhafi, who dominated the game and intimidated players during the last years of his father's 42-year rule.

"It's about the ball and kicking the ball without fear and pressure so we can win for our country, for free Libya," said Ali al-Aswad, the manager of the national team and a former player for Tripoli club Al Ahli, the late dictator's favorite team.

Football had been in the shadows in Libya since February, when the revolt against Gadhafi's regime erupted in the North African country. Players either left the country to play for clubs in neighboring countries or joined the rebels.

Just days after anti-Gadhafi forces overran Tripoli in late August, assistant coach Abdul Hafid Arbesh went looking for football players around the chaotic capital. He wanted to put together a national team to take them on an epic journey to Egypt for Libya's first international match under the red, black and green revolutionary flag that has replaced the old regime's green banner.

After a bus ride to neighboring Tunisia, a flight to Libya's eastern city of Benghazi and from there another flight to Cairo, Arbesh's squad was in a stadium in the Egyptian capital, facing Mozambique in an African Cup of Nations qualifying match. Libya won 1-0.

"I brought the men together on the field and I held in my hand the new flag we put together on the bus and said: 'You are just like the rebels. You should fight like the rebels and make the mothers of the martyrs proud,"' Arbesh said.

Fresh from the front line, 25-year-old midfielder Walid al-Katroushi knew what to do.

Al-Katroushi was fighting alongside the rebel forces since April, when he traded football training camp in Tunisia for a war zone in his homeland. He said he couldn't continue playing while so many people were dying in efforts to liberate their country.

"When I joined the rebels, I forgot about football," al-Katroushi said in an interview during a training camp in Dubai. "I changed my clothes. I shaved my hair. I forgot everything, even my family."

As a football player on the front line, al-Katroushi said he was spoiled by the rebels. They respected him for leaving the game and joining the fight against Gadhafi.

"They gave me the best they had," al-Katroushi said. "When there were not enough bulletproof vests, some fighters took off their own and gave them to me.

"They were very afraid for me and afraid that I would get hurt in any way," al-Katroushi said. "They were very kind to me. They said I was too gentle to face the bullets."

Gadhafi's two sons, al-Saadi and Mohammed, dominated Libyan football and - along with their father - terrorized the players. Al-Saadi Gadhafi served as the president of the Libyan football federation until he escaped to Niger in September. He also had ambitions as a player, using his money and influence to play in Libya and even, briefly, in Italy for Perugia.

"All decisions were with them," al-Aswad said. "He would tell us when to play and how to play and if to play at all."

Al-Saadi would pull the national team off the field minutes before a match on the other side of the world, al-Aswad said. He'd bribe star players to score at some matches and threatened them with beatings if they scored at others. He ordered a club in Benghazi leveled.

Al-Aswad even holds al-Saadi responsible for the killing of a famous player, Bashir Riyan, in 2004.

"We suffered a lot," al-Aswad said. "It was like the ball only belonged to him and football players and the national team were his hostages."

Still, Libyan football has survived the regime and last month, the national team beat long odds to qualify for next year's African Cup. The team's new captain - goalkeeper Samir Aboud - is in the running for the African Player of the Year award after Libya defied political upheaval at home to reach Africa's top tournament.

Many players have family members and friends among the revolution's victims. Ahmed al-Sgayer, a defender who also fought alongside rebel forces, was shot in the arm and was hospitalized for weeks before he returned to football. Midfielder Abdullah al-Sharif lost an uncle in a NATO bombing and a cousin, who fought on the rebels' side.

His loyalty was always to football, al-Sharif said.

"There's a different flag and a different anthem, but I will always be proud to play for Libya," al-Sharif said.

The African Cup will kick off on Jan. 21 and will be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Libya will be in Group A along with Equatorial Guinea, Senegal and Zambia.

Next month, Libya will also play in the Arab Games, hosted by the Gulf country of Qatar, which sent war planes to Libya to help topple the Gadhafi regime. They will face Jordan, Palestine and Sudan in the group stage of Middle East's biggest sports event.

Libya hosted the African Cup of Nations in 1982 and reached the final that year, losing to Ghana. The North African country also reached the continental tournament in 2006 when it was hosted by Egypt.

A good performance in the African Cup is the team's goal, but Arbesh said the players are already dreaming about qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. Libya has never qualified, but Arbesh said he's always felt the country had talent that couldn't thrive because of the oppression.

"We needed support, not fear to win," Arbesh said. "Without Gadhafi's shackles, we can go far. Very far."

More news

America?needs Beckham back

Trash Talk: Aside from American football, the rest of the public?s attention is up for grabs, which is why it?s an opportune time for soccer to make its move. And an ideal opportunity for the MLS to bring David Beckham back.

War, then soccer

For the first time in decades, football in Libya is just about, well, football.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45387981/ns/sports-soccer/

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Priest arrested on charge of sexual assault on boy (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) ? A Catholic priest wanted in Colorado on charges that he sexually assaulted a boy was arrested in Chicago on Monday by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI said.

Father Richard James Kurtz, 67, who worked as a chemistry teacher at the University of Detroit High School in Detroit, Michigan, was turned over to Cook County authorities for extradition to Colorado, the FBI said.

Child abuse controversies have rocked the Catholic Church in the United States in the last decade, and the church has paid out some $2 billion in settlements to victims, bankrupting a handful of dioceses.

Kurtz, a Jesuit, faces felony charges for sexual assault and attempted sexual assault of a male under the age of 18 while they were in Colorado in 2001. Authorities did not give the boy's age.

The alleged crimes had no connection to any Colorado church, according to Sergeant Ron Hanavan, spokesman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Castle Rock, Colorado. Kurtz has been booked into a Chicago jail on a $100,000 bond.

The investigation began in June 2011 after the Society of Jesus Chicago-Detroit Province notified the Douglas County Sheriff's Office of the alleged crimes, Hanavan said in a statement. A warrant was issued for Kurtz' arrest last Friday.

The Province said in a statement on Monday that it had been cooperating with Colorado authorities on the case since April.

"In 2001, when a report first surfaced alleging misconduct by Father Kurtz, while he was visiting Colorado, a report was made by Fr. Kurtz Superior to civil authorities in the state of Michigan, where Fr. Kurtz was located at the time," it said.

"Fr. Kurtz was removed from all public ministry very soon after the initial allegation was received, and for the several years that have elapsed since then, his activities and movements have been carefully restricted by the Chicago Province." the statement said.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski, Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111122/us_nm/us_priest_arrested

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Debt panel poised to admit failure

Supercommittee Co-Chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas talks to reporters as he arrived for a meeting of the committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Co-Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, often called the Supercommittee, speaks to reporters following a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Senate Minority Whip Sen. Jon Kyl, R- Ariz., member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, commonly called the Supercommittee, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The U.S. Capitol building is seen Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Washington. The six Democrats and six Republicans on the Supercommittee, as it's familiarly called, have until next Wednesday, Nov. 23, to come together on a deficit reduction plan. Otherwise Congress faces a stark alternative: allow payroll tax cuts and jobless aid for millions to expire or extend them and increase the nation's $15 trillion debt by at least $160 billion. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A special deficit-reduction supercommittee appears likely to admit failure on Monday, unable or unwilling to compromise on a mix of spending cuts and tax increases required to meet its assignment of saving taxpayers at least $1.2 trillion over the coming decade.

The panel is sputtering to a close after two months of talks in which they were never able to get close to bridging a fundamental divide over how much to raise taxes to address a budget deficit that forced the government to borrow 36 cents of every dollar it spent last year.

Members of the bipartisan panel, formed during the summer crisis over raising the government's borrowing limit, spent their time on Sunday in testy performances on television talk shows, blaming each other for the impasse.

In a series of television interviews, not a single panelist seemed optimistic about any last-minute breakthrough. And it was clear that the two sides had never gotten particularly close, at least in the official exchanges of offers that were leaked to the media.

Aides said any remaining talks had broken off.

"There is one sticking divide. And that's the issue of what I call shared sacrifice," said panel co-chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on CNN's "State of the Union."

"The wealthiest Americans who earn over a million a year have to share too. And that line in the sand, we haven't seen Republicans willing to cross yet," she said

Republicans said Democrats' demands on taxes were simply too great and weren't accompanied by large enough proposals to curb the explosive growth of so-called entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

"If you look at the Democrats' position it was 'We have to raise taxes. We have to pass this jobs bill, which is another almost half-trillion dollars. And we're not excited about entitlement reform,' " countered Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Under the committee's rules, any plan would have to be unveiled Monday, but it appeared that Murray and co-chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas would instead issue a statement declaring the panel's work at a close, aides said.

"Put a bow on it. It's done," said an aide to a supercommittee Republican.

Failure by the panel would trigger about $1 billion over nine years in automatic across-the-board spending cuts to a wide range of domestic programs and the Pentagon budget, starting in 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This action, called a "sequester," would also generate $169 billion in saving from lower interest costs on the national debt.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the required cuts of up to $454 billion to the Pentagon would be "devastating" and leave a "hollow force," and defense hawks of Capitol Hill promise to unwind them. But that effort will be complicated by the insistence of other lawmakers that the overall amount of the budget cuts be left in place.

"I can't imagine that, knowing of the importance of national defense, that both Democrats and Republicans wouldn't find a way to work through that process so we still get the $1.2 trillion in cuts, but it doesn't all fall on defense," said supercommittee Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona.

The panel's failure also sets up a fight within a battle-weary, dysfunctional Congress over renewing a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, both of which are set to expire at the end of the year. Both proposals are part of President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs plan.

Extending the current 2 percentage point payroll tax cut isn't a popular idea with many Republicans, but allowing it to expire could harm the economy, economists say. So too would a cutoff of unemployment benefits averaging about $300 a week to millions of people who have been out of work for more than six months.

Serious negotiations ended Friday after Democrats rejected a $644 billion offer comprised of $543 billion in spending cuts, fees and other non-tax revenue, as well as $3 billion in tax revenue from closing a special tax break for corporate purchases of private jets. It also assumed $98 billion in reduced interest costs.

Officials familiar with the offer said it would save the government $121 billion by requiring federal civilian workers to contribute more to their pension plans, shave $23 billion from farm and nutrition programs and generate $15 billion from new auctions of broadcast spectrum to wireless companies.

Democrats said the plan was unbalanced because it included barely any tax revenue.

"Our Democratic friends are unable to cut even a dollar in spending without saying it has to be accompanied by tax increases," Kyl said.

On Saturday, Sen. Rob Portman floated an even smaller plan, said a lawmaker directly familiar with the panel's work. It, too, was rejected. The lawmaker required anonymity because of the secrecy of the talks.

The committee faces a Wednesday deadline. But members would have to agree on the outlines of a package by Monday to allow time for drafting and assessing by the Congressional Budget Office.

Over the past couple of weeks, the two sides have made a variety of offers and counter-offers, starting with a more than $3 trillion plan from Democrats that would have increased tax revenues by $1.3 trillion in exchange for further cuts in agency budgets, a change in the measure used to calculate cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries, and curbs on the growth of Medicare and Medicaid.

"We put on the table a proposal that required tough compromises on both sides, and they never did that," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the only House Democrat on the panel to participate in late-stage bipartisan talks.

Republicans countered with a $1.5 trillion plan that included a potential breakthrough ? $250 billion in higher taxes gleaned as Congress passes a future tax reform measure. The plan was trashed by Democrats, however, who said it would have lowered tax rates for the wealthy too far while eliminating tax breaks that chiefly benefit the middle class.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-20-Debt%20Supercommittee/id-fd3aecf6658a46648aa427736aeaff0a

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