US nuclear reactor loses power, venting steam

FILE - In this March 16, 2011 photo, steam escapes from Exelon Corp.'s nuclear plant in Byron, Ill. A nuclear reactor the plant shut down Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators. (AP Photo/Robert Ray, File)

FILE - In this March 16, 2011 photo, steam escapes from Exelon Corp.'s nuclear plant in Byron, Ill. A nuclear reactor the plant shut down Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators. (AP Photo/Robert Ray, File)

FILE - In this March 16, 2011 photo, steam escapes from Exelon Corp.'s nuclear plant in Byron, Ill. A nuclear reactor the plant shut down Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators. (AP Photo/Robert Ray, File)

CHICAGO (AP) ? A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant shut down after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators.

Unit 2 at Byron Generating Station, about 95 miles (153 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, shut down at 10:18 a.m. Monday, after losing power, Exelon officials said. Diesel generators began supplying power to the plant, and operators began releasing steam to cool the reactor from the part of the plant where turbines are producing electricity, not from within the nuclear reactor itself, officials said.

The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared the incident an "unusual event," the lowest of four levels of emergency. Commission officials also said the release of tritium was expected.

Exelon Nuclear officials believe a failed piece of equipment at a switchyard caused the shutdown but were still investigating an exact cause. The switchyard is similar to a large substation that delivers power to the plant from the electrical grid and from the plant to the electrical grid. Smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said, but no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded.

Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium is being released. They know the amounts are small because monitors around the plant aren't showing increased levels of radiation, she said.

Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side.

Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants.

Releasing steam helps "take away some of that energy still being produced by nuclear reaction but that doesn't have anywhere to go now." Even though the turbine is not turning to produce electricity, she said, "you still need to cool the equipment."

Candace Humphrey, Ogle County's emergency management coordinator, said county officials were notified of the incident as soon as it happened and that public safety was never in danger.

"It was standard procedure that they would notify county officials," she said. "There is always concern. But, it never crossed my mind that there was any danger to the people of Ogle County."

Unit 1 was operating normally while engineers investigate why Unit 2 lost power, which comes into the plant from the outside power grid, Mitlyng said. She said Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors were in the control room at Byron and in constant contact with the agency's incident response center in Lisle, Illinois.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-31-Nuclear%20Plant-Illinois/id-d5e18e98df5a4c8e9492c8c6c25cf93a

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Protein study gives fresh impetus in fight against superbugs

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2012) ? Scientists have shed light on the way superbugs such as MRSA are able to become resistant to antibiotics. Researchers have mapped the complex molecular structure of an enzyme found in many bacteria.

These molecules -- known as restriction enzymes -- control the speed at which bacteria can acquire resistance to drugs and eventually become superbugs.

Infectious bacteria

The study, carried out by an international team including scientists from the University of Edinburgh, focused on E. coli.

However, the results would apply to many other infectious bacteria.

After prolonged treatment with antibiotics, bacteria may evolve to become resistant to many drugs, as is the case with superbugs such as MRSA.

Enzyme activity

Bacteria become resistant by absorbing DNA -- usually from other bugs or viruses -- which contains genetic information enabling the bacteria to block the action of drugs.

Restriction enzymes can slow or halt this absorption process.

Enzymes that work in this way are believed to have evolved as a defense mechanism for bacteria.

DNA reaction

The researchers also studied the enzyme in action by reacting it with DNA from another organism.

They were able to model the mechanism by which the enzyme disables foreign DNA, while safeguarding the bacteria's own genetic material.

Restriction enzymes' ability to sever genetic material is widely applied by scientists to cut and paste strands of DNA in genetic engineering.

The study was carried out in collaboration with the Universities of Leeds and Portsmouth with partners in Poland and France.

It was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Wellcome Trust and published in Genes and Development journal.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Edinburgh.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. C. K. Kennaway, J. E. Taylor, C. F. Song, W. Potrzebowski, W. Nicholson, J. H. White, A. Swiderska, A. Obarska-Kosinska, P. Callow, L. P. Cooper, G. A. Roberts, J.-B. Artero, J. M. Bujnicki, J. Trinick, G. G. Kneale, D. T. F. Dryden. Structure and operation of the DNA-translocating type I DNA restriction enzymes. Genes & Development, 2012; 26 (1): 92 DOI: 10.1101/gad.179085.111

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120131102521.htm

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Air Force disciplines airmen over coffin photo (Reuters)

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) ? The U.S. Air Force will discipline but not criminally charge an unspecified number of airmen over a photograph that went viral showing them clowning around with a coffin used to transport American war dead.

"No criminal conduct occurred. However, members who were involved in the photo received administrative actions documenting that their conduct brought discredit to both the military and themselves," Colonel Gregory Reese, commander of the 37th Training Group at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, told reporters on Monday.

The photograph, posted on Facebook late last year, shows 16 members of the Lackland-based 345th Training Squadron around one of the metal coffins used to transport U.S. war casualties.

An airman posed inside a coffin in chains playing dead with a noose around his neck. He is surrounded by others, some with their arms crossed. A caption reads: "Da Dumpt, De Dumpt, Sucks to be U."

Reese called it a "graduation photograph" taken as the airmen celebrated the completion of their training, which involved unloading cargo planes and had nothing to do with transporting war dead.

The Air Force placed "discredit letters" in their records, making promotion or re-enlistment difficult for them.

Air Force spokesman Gerry Proctor declined to say how many people were disciplined, who took the picture or whether that person is in the Air Force.

The photo, taken in August, came to light shortly after a U.S. investigation revealed in November the military's main mortuary -- at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware -- lost track of body parts twice and wrongfully removed a limb of a Marine.

The investigation found those who took it intended to remind colleagues they could be killed if they failed to pay attention while loading and unloading aircraft, Reese said.

When the Air Force Times reported on the picture, relatives of service members killed in action reacted angrily.

"How dare you!" said a letter published in the Times in December from Deedy Salie, who described herself as a military widow. "My husband came home in one of those boxes, not on his own two feet like these disgraceful people will. Shame on you!"

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Daniel Trotta)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/us_nm/us_airforce_photo

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Turning communications careers inside out: the generalist emerges ...

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Okay, you know who you are, Mr. or Ms. Internal or External Communications expert. You love what you do on one side of the internal vs. external communications fence. You view the ?other side? as boring, limited, and/or frightening.? You?re perfectly happy doing what you?re doing and want to keep doing just that for the foreseeable future. And that?s just fine by you.

What you may not see (yet) is that communication leaders increasingly want ? and need ? communications generalists. And that means they want professionals with increasingly deeper competencies on both sides of the house. ?It can really be frustrating,? a chief communications officer recently told me. ?In some cases, we have internal comms leaders who are afraid of PR. In others, we have media gurus who don?t think internal comms is ?sexy? enough to keep their interest.?

What both of those kinds of employees are missing is a clear and emerging trend toward the development of communications generalists. So, why the push on developing communications skills inside and out? CCOs pretty much across the board say three things:

?

It helps the function: having communications professionals with increasingly deeper skill sets helps the function plan and execute faster and more effectively. As generalists understand how to plan for the range of stakeholders inside and out, they think in more integrated ? and effective ? ways. As demands on the function increase, one of the best ways to leverage existing headcount is to have those headcounts work smarter through mastering a range of communication disciplines.

?

It helps identify better current and future leaders: as professionals develop skills for internal and external communications concurrently, it begins to sort out better current and future leaders, including future CCOs (their successors). Picking a senior leader for a global communications function who has tons of media and issues management experience ? but never touched internal communications ? is going to be a much harder sell. Conversely, an employee engagement specialist who has never done financial or media communications will be an equally tough argument to make.

?

It helps retain talent: not surprisingly, the best and brightest want to be challenged, and that includes switching gears from external to internal communications or vice versa. They tend to see longer runways for their own growth and development, which helps retention.

?

Perhaps most important in my recent conversations with CCOs is this: most say the train has left the station already and there?s no turning back.? New talent is evaluated, in part, with an eye toward their openness to learning across all communication disciplines. Advancement increasingly is reserved for those who demonstrate willingness to learn both internal and external communications disciplines, and who show how that knowledge drives results in their work. And when restructuring activities are afoot, the fewer roles available are going not to the specialists, but to the generalists.
So a parting word to the wise communication professional: If you?re already diving into both ends of the internal and external communications pool, you?re in good, deep waters that will give you many more options for growth in the years ahead. For the rest, open yourself to the world of the generalist. You?ll leave the relatively shallow waters you?re in, and have an infinitely greater vista ahead.

Posted in Destinations

Source: http://www.ournorthstar.com/2012/01/turning-communications-careers-inside-out-the-generalist-emerges/

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The Kindle and Nook -- Good for More Than Just E-Books (ContributorNetwork)

They've got the brand names of popular black and white e-readers. But the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet are, as the latter's name implies, basically miniature tablets like the iPad. (The Nook Color is also; it's a cheaper version of the Nook Tablet.)

They're like the iPad in that they have color, glass multitouch screens, and reasonably powerful hardware inside. They're not as big or as powerful as the iPad, but they're only about half the size and half the cost. And that hardware doesn't go to waste, either. Here's what you can do with them besides read (and buy) e-books:

Web Browsing

Full-sized websites look a bit cramped on the 7-inch screens, and the text can be a bit tiny. You can double-tap to zoom in, though, and the browser will reflow the text to make it fit the screen width once it's a reasonable size. And on mobile sites, the experience is even better, as the buttons that were designed for smartphone users are especially easy to hit.

The Nook browser requires you to scroll to the top to bookmark a page or navigate it, but has most of the features that you would expect from a web browser.

Music

A Kindle or Nook can provide a soundtrack for reading books, or they can serve as portable music players when carried in a handbag. The built-in music apps are serviceable, and apps for Pandora, Grooveshark, and other streaming music services are available when you have Wi-Fi access. The Nook can sync music to its built-in memory or microSD card, and the Kindle can sync with your Amazon Cloud Drive account and buy new songs from Amazon's MP3 store.

Games and Apps

Neither the Nook nor the Kindle has the tens of thousands of tablet apps available for the iPad. And while they run Google's open-source Android operating system "under the hood", neither one has access to the Android Market, either.

Amazon has an "Appstore," though, and Barnes and Noble has its own selection of apps for the Nook. The Nook's catalog is considerably weaker, but both have a good-sized assortment of "name brand" games and apps, including Evernote, Netflix and Angry Birds.

If you rely on a particular tablet app, you may not be able to find it in either store. There's often a web version of today's popular apps, though, which you can access online through a web browser while you're on Wi-Fi.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120130/tc_ac/10891429_the_kindle_and_nook__good_for_more_than_just_ebooks

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Plan would help military families take leave (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration is proposing new rules to help military families care for service members when they are called to active duty or become injured.

First lady Michelle Obama was set to join Labor Secretary Hilda Solis on Monday to announce the plan that updates the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The proposal would let family members take up to 12 weeks of leave from work to help a service member deployed on short notice. Family caregivers could attend military functions, deal with child care issues, or update financial affairs without fear of losing their jobs.

It would also give family members up to 26 weeks of leave to care for a service member with a serious injury or illness.

Officials also are announcing other efforts to support military families.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_military_family_leave

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Sudan rebels say holding 29 Chinese workers (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Rebels in Sudan's oil-producing border state of South Kordofan said on Sunday they were holding Chinese workers for their own safety after a battle with the Sudanese army.

The army has been fighting rebels of the SPLM-N in South Kordofan bordering newly independent South Sudan since June. Fighting spread to the northern Blue Nile state in September.

"We are holding 29 Chinese workers after a battle with the army yesterday," a spokesman for the SPLM-N said. "They are in good health. We are holding them for their own safety because the army was trying to strike again."

The army said rebels had attacked the compound of a Chinese construction company operating in the area between the towns of Abbasiya and Rashad in the north of the state and captured 70 civilians.

"Most of them are Chinese. They (the rebels) are targeting civilians," said army spokesman Sawarmi Khalid Saad.

He said there had been no battle in the area and the army was now trying to rescue the civilians.

China's foreign ministry urged Sudan to guarantee the safety of Chinese personnel during the search and rescue process, according to a statement released in Beijing.

South Kordofan is the main oil-producing state in Sudan, while Blue Nile is rich in minerals such as chrome.

The fighting in both states has forced about 417,000 people to flee their homes, more than 80,000 of them to South Sudan, according to the United Nations.

Both states contain large groups who sided with the south in a decades-long civil war, and who say they continue to face persecution inside Sudan since South Sudan seceded in July.

The SPLM is now the ruling party in the independent south and denies supporting SPLM-North rebels across the border.

Events in South Kordofan and Blue Nile are difficult to verify because aid groups and diplomats are banned from areas where fighting takes place.

SPLM-North is one of a number of rebel movements in underdeveloped border areas who say they are fighting to overthrow Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and end what they see as the dominance of the Khartoum political elite.

Sudan and South Sudan, which still have to resolve a range of issues including the sharing of oil revenues, regularly trade accusations of supporting insurgencies on each other's territory.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Khalid Abdelaziz; additional reporting by David Stanway in Beijing)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_sudan_china

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Official Formspring for Android application available now

If you're one of the more than 28 million users of Formspring, you'll notice that there has been a lack of an official application from the social network. That all changes now as the official Formspring for Android application is available right now in the Android Market. 

It offers a pretty full experience, allowing you to ask and respond to questions from your contacts on the go. Sharing photos is also built in, and that pretty much covers everything Formspring is about. If there's room for one more social network on your Android device, hit the download links after the break. A word of warning though, it force closes at every time of asking on the Galaxy Nexus so you'll have to wait for an update to join in if you're using one.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/60hoWd00ylI/story01.htm

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'Harry Potter,' 'Thrones' win SAG stunt honors (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The "Harry Potter" finale has earned some love from Hollywood's top acting union, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for best big-screen stunt ensemble Sunday.

The win for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" was a final triumph for the fantasy franchise that concluded last summer after a run of eight blockbusters.

Winning the TV stunt ensemble prize was "Game of Thrones." The stunt awards were announced on the arrivals red carpet before the show began.

Among the early arrivals to the cheers of enthusiastic fans on a sunny and warm afternoon were Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray of the old "Dallas" TV series, soon to be the new "Dallas" TV series on TNT. Meanwhile, Glenn Close was looking very unlike her "Albert Nobbs" character for which she received a SAG nomination as she posed for fans in a sleek black gown.

For the main event, Sunday's 18th annual SAG ceremony is heavy on actors playing illustrious real-life figures.

Among them: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar"; and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in "My Week With Marilyn."

Streep won a Golden Globe for "The Iron Lady" and is considered a favorite for the SAG prize and for her third win at the Academy Awards, which are set for Feb. 26.

The front-runners for the other SAG awards are actors in fictional roles, though, among them George Clooney as a dad in crisis in "The Descendants" and Jean Dujardin as a silent-film star fallen on hard times in "The Artist." Both are up for best actor, and both won Globes ? Clooney as dramatic actor, Dujardin as musical or comedy actor.

Octavia Spencer as a brassy Mississippi maid in "The Help" and Christopher Plummer as an elderly dad who comes out as gay in "Beginners" won Globes for supporting performances and have strong prospects for the same honors at the SAG Awards.

The winners at the SAG ceremony typically go on to earn Oscars. All four acting recipients at SAG last year later took home Oscars ? Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" and Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for "The Fighter."

The same generally holds true for the weekend's other big Hollywood honors, the Directors Guild of America Awards, where Michel Hazanavicius won the feature-film prize Saturday for "The Artist." The Directors Guild winner has gone on to earn the best-director Oscar 57 times in the 63-year history of the union's awards show.

SAG also presents an award for overall cast performance, a prize that's loosely considered the ceremony's equivalent of a best-picture honor. However, the cast award has a spotty record at predicting what will win best picture at the Oscars.

While "The King's Speech" won both honors a year ago, the SAG cast recipient has gone on to claim the top Oscar only eight times in the 16 years since the guild added the category.

Airing live on TNT and TBS from the Shrine Exhibition Center in downtown Los Angeles, the show features nine television categories, as well.

Receiving the guild's life-achievement award is Mary Tyler Moore. The prize was to be presented by Dick Van Dyke, her co-star on the 1960s sit-com "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

___

Online:

http://www.sagawards.com

http://www.sagawards.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_harry_potter_thrones_win_sag_stunt_honors232901017/44348578/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/harry-potter-thrones-win-sag-stunt-honors-232901017.html

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Soraya Chemaly: The Athena Film Festival: 10 Movies That Can Change The World (Huffington post)

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

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Need for court artists fades as cameras move in (AP)

CHICAGO ? One marker in hand and one in his mouth, Lou Chukman glances up and down from a sketchpad to a reputed Chicago mobster across the courtroom ? drawing feverishly to capture the drama of the judge's verdict before the moment passes.

Sketch artists have been the public's eyes at high-profile trials for decades ? a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own.

Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift longstanding bans on cameras in courtrooms. As of a year ago, 14 states still had them ? but at least three, including Illinois this month, have taken steps since then to end the prohibitions.

"When people say to me, `Wow, you are a courtroom artist' ? I always say, `One day, you can tell your grandchildren you met a Stegosaurus," Chukman, 56, explained outside court. "We're an anachronism now, like blacksmiths."

Cutbacks in news budgets and shifts in aesthetic sensibilities toward digitized graphics have all contributed to the form's decline, said Maryland-based sketch artist Art Lien.

While the erosion of the job may not be much noticed by people reading and watching the news, Lien says something significant is being lost. Video or photos can't do what sketch artists can, he said, such as compressing hours of court action onto a single drawing that crystallizes the events.

The best courtroom drawings hang in museums or sell to collectors for thousands of dollars.

"I think people should lament the passing of this art form," Lien said.

But while courtroom drawing has a long history ? artists did illustrations of the Salem witch trials in 1692 ? the artistry can sometimes be sketchy. A bald lawyer ends up with a full head of hair. A defendant has two left hands. A portly judge is drawn rail-thin.

Subjects often complain as they see the drawings during court recesses, said Chicago artist Carol Renaud.

"They'll say, `Hey! My nose is too big.' And sometimes they're right," she conceded. "We do the drawings so fast."

Courtroom drawing doesn't attract most aspiring artists because it doesn't afford the luxury of laboring over a work for days until it's just right, said Andy Austin, who has drawn Chicago's biggest trials over 40 years, including that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

"You have to put your work on the air or in a newspaper whether you like it or not," she said.

The job also involves long stretches of tedium punctuated by bursts of action as a witness sobs or defendant faints. It can also get downright creepy.

At Gacy's trial, a client asked Austin for an image of him smiling. So, she sought to catch the eye of the man accused of killing 33 people. When she finally did, she beamed. He beamed back.

"The two of us smiled at each other like the two happiest people in the world until the sketch was finished," Austin recalled in her memoirs, titled "Rule 53," after the directive that bars cameras in U.S. courts.

There's no school specifically for courtroom artists. Many slipped or were nudged into it by circumstance.

Renaud drew fashion illustrations for Marshall Field's commercials into the `90s but lost that job when the department store starting relying on photographers. That led her to courtroom drawing.

Artists sometime get to court early and sketch the empty room. But coming in with a drawing fully finished in advance is seen as unethical.

Some artists use charcoal, water colors or pungent markers, which can leave those sitting nearby queasy. Most start with a quick pencil sketch, then fill it in. Austin draws right off the bat with her color pencils.

"If I overthink it, I get lost," she said. "I have a visceral reaction. I just hope what I feel is conveyed to my pen."

These days, Chukman and Renaud fear for their livelihoods. They make the bulk of their annual income off their court work. Working for a TV station or a newspaper can bring in about $300 a day. A trial lasting a month can mean a $6,000 paycheck. Chukman does other work on the side, including drawing caricatures as gifts.

Austin is semiretired and so she says she worries less. She also notes that federal courts ? where some of the most notorious trials take place, like the two corruption trials of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich ? seem more adamant about not allowing cameras.

Still, though Rule 53 remains in place, federal courts are experimenting with cameras in very limited cases.

"If federal courts do follow, that will be the end of us," Austin said.

Renaud holds out hope that, even if the worst happens, there will still be demand from lawyers for courtroom drawings they can hang in their offices. Lien plans to bolster his income by launching a website selling work from historic trials he covered, including of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Chukman, a courtroom artist for around 30 years, jokes that if asked for his opinion, he'd have told state-court authorities to keep the ban in place a few more years until he retires.

"I recognize my profession exists simply because of gaps in the law ? and I've been grateful for them," he said wistfully. "This line of work has been good to me."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_us/us_camera_in_courts_sketch_artist

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France: Ex-head of breast implant firm charged (AP)

MARSEILLE, France ? French authorities have filed preliminary charges against the former head of a now-defunct company accused of supplying potentially faulty breast implants affecting thousands of women.

A judge in the southeastern city of Marseille placed Jean-Claude Mas, the founder and former chief of Poly Implant Prothese, under investigation for "involuntary injury," defense lawyer Yves Haddad said Friday.

Mas was released on euro100,000 ($130,000) bail after being arrested Thursday, and ordered by an investigating judge to stay in France and not meet with any other former PIP executives, Haddad said.

The suspect PIP implants have been removed from the marketplace in several countries in and beyond Europe amid fears that they could rupture and leak silicone into the body.

The preliminary charges mean investigating magistrates have strong reason to believe a crime was committed but give them more time to probe to decide whether to recommend it go to trial.

Mas, 72, was arrested at his residence in a Mediterranean coastal resort town as part of a judicial investigation into manslaughter and involuntary injury. PIP's former No. 2, Claude Couty, was also detained.

Police investigators searched the Mas residence and held him for questioning for seven hours before he was transferred to appear before investigating judge Annaick Le Goff at the Marseille courthouse.

Mas did not speak to reporters after being released on bail.

"Mr. Mas was finally able to express himself before the judge. He is relieved to have been able to do so," Haddad said. "The magistrate judged that for now there's no reason to charge him for manslaughter because for the moment, there's no sign of evidence of this crime."

"Calm must return to this case," he added.

On the sole charge of involuntary injury, Mas risks up to one year in prison if convicted. That isn't sufficient to allow Le Goff to order him held in custody before trial.

The arrests ended weeks of speculation about whether investigators would be able to assemble enough evidence to detain Mas ? whose location was known to authorities ? or any other possible suspects on legal grounds.

Mas had run PIP until the company was closed in March 2010.

France's Health Safety Agency has said the suspect implants ? just one type of implants made by PIP ? appear to be more rupture-prone than other types. Investigators say PIP sought to save money by using industrial silicone, whose potential health risks are not yet clear.

PIP's website said the company had exported to more than 60 countries and was one of the world's leading implant makers. The silicone-gel implants in question are not sold in the United States.

According to estimates by national authorities, more than 42,000 women in Britain received the implants, more than 30,000 in France, 9,000 in Australia and 4,000 in Italy. Nearly 25,000 of the implants were sold in Brazil.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_breast_implants

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To Pivot or Not to Pivot

Ah, the internet ? how you hijack our vocabulary.? A few years ago, ?embedded? had connotations of journalists following soldiers.? Today, it?s most associated with YouTube clips.? Similarly, a pivot was something that I vaguely recall my basketball coach talking about. ?Today, it?s the repositioning of a company and without a doubt, 2011 was the year of the pivot.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TZ44rzUMMd4/

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Source: http://twitter.com/moneycontrolcom/statuses/162829611581964288

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Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund dead at 82 (AP)

HELSINKI ? Paavo Berglund, one of Finland's most prominent conductors, has died at age 82.

Elina Siltanen, the general manager of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra said Berglund died at home in Helsinki on Wednesday after a long illness. She could not give the cause of death.

Berglund, internationally known for numerous recordings of works of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, was principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1972-1979 and principal guest conductor with the Scottish National Orchestra in 1981-1985.

He was chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic and his engagements included major orchestras in Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic.

He debuted in New York in 1978 and since the 1990s had been a regular visitor at the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_mu/eu_finland_obit_berglund

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Following genetic footprints out of Africa: First modern humans settled in Arabia

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) ? A new study, using genetic analysis to look for clues about human migration over sixty thousand years ago, suggests that the first modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.

Led by the University of Leeds and the University of Porto in Portugal, the study is recently published in American Journal of Human Genetics and provides intriguing insight into the earliest stages of modern human migration, say the researchers.

"A major unanswered question regarding the dispersal of modern humans around the world concerns the geographical site of the first steps out of Africa," explains Dr Lu?sa Pereira from the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto (IPATIMUP). "One popular model predicts that the early stages of the dispersal took place across the Red Sea to southern Arabia, but direct genetic evidence has been thin on the ground."

The international research team, which included colleagues from across Europe, Arabia and North Africa, analysed three of the earliest non-African maternal lineages. These early branches are associated with the time period when modern humans first successfully moved out of Africa.

Using mitochondrial DNA analysis, which traces the female line of descent and is useful for comparing relatedness between different populations, the researchers compared complete genomes from Arabia and the Near East with a database of hundreds more samples from Europe. They found evidence for an ancient ancestry within Arabia.

Professor Martin Richards of the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences, said: "The timing and pattern of the migration of early modern humans has been a source of much debate and research. Our new results suggest that Arabia, rather than North Africa or the Near East, was the first staging-post in the spread of modern humans around the world."

The research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, the Leverhulme Trust, and the DeLaszlo Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ver?nica Fernandes, Farida Alshamali, Marco Alves, Marta D. Costa, Joana B. Pereira, Nuno M. Silva, Lotfi Cherni, Nourdin Harich, Viktor Cerny, Pedro Soares et al. The Arabian Cradle: Mitochondrial Relicts of the First Steps along the Southern Route out of Africa. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 26 January 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.12.010

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120126123705.htm

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Starbucks posts profit beat, sales jump (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Starbucks Corp's reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street's view after global economic worries failed to weaken demand for drinks and other products from the world's biggest coffee chain.

Based on its better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results, the company raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast to a range of $1.78 to $1.82 per share from $1.75 to $1.82.

Starbucks shares, up roughly 45 percent from a year ago and hovering near all-time highs, were off 1.1 percent at $47.79 in extended trading.

Global sales at cafes open at least 13 months jumped 9 percent, helped by an increase in customer visits and spending per transaction. That beat the 7.7 percent gain analysts, on average, expected, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Net income was $382.1 million, or 50 cents per share, for the quarter ended January 1. That was up from $346.6 million, or 45 cents, in the year earlier period.

Analysts, on average, were looking for a profit of 49 cents per share in the latest quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total revenue rose 16 percent to $3.4 billion.

(Reporting By Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_starbucks

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Iran won't move toward nuclear weapon in 2012: ISIS report (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Iran is unlikely to move toward building a nuclear weapon this year because it does not yet have the capability to produce enough weapon-grade uranium, a draft report by the Institute for Science and International Security said on Wednesday.

The report by the institute founded by nuclear expert David Albright offered a more temperate view of Iran's nuclear program than some of the heated rhetoric that has surfaced since the United States and its allies stepped up sanctions on Tehran.

"Iran is unlikely to decide to dash toward making nuclear weapons as long as its uranium enrichment capability remains as limited as it is today," the report said.

The United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over sanctions, with Iran threatening to retaliate by blocking oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States said it would not allow that to happen.

The escalating rhetoric and tensions have led to concerns about the potential for missteps between the adversaries that might spiral into a military confrontation that neither wants.

But the report, financed by a grant from the United States Institute of Peace, said Iran had not made a decision to build a nuclear bomb. The USIP is an independent, non-partisan center created by the U.S. Congress in 1984 that receives federal government funding.

"Iran is unlikely to break out in 2012, in great part because it is deterred from doing so," said the ISIS report, which has not yet been publicly released.

The report turns down the temperature, saying that sanctions and the fear of a military strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities have worked as a deterrent.

The institute has advised U.S. and foreign governments about Iran's nuclear capabilities and Albright is considered a respected expert on the issue. The report tracks closely with what is known of official U.S. government assessments.

U.S. officials say Iran has not made the decision to build a nuclear weapon and that Iranian leaders haven't made the decision because they have to weigh the cost and benefits of building a nuclear weapon.

Much of what the Iranians are doing with their nuclear program has civilian uses, but they are keeping their options open, which significantly adds to the air of ambiguity, U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Some conservative and Israeli analysts in the past have challenged these types of assessments, asserting that Iranian nuclear efforts are sufficiently advanced that they could build a bomb in a year or less.

But according to the institute's report: "Although Iran is engaged in nuclear hedging, no evidence has emerged that the regime has decided to build nuclear weapons."

"Such a decision may be unlikely to occur until Iran is first able to augment its enrichment capability to a point where it would have the ability to make weapon-grade uranium quickly and secretly," the report obtained by Reuters said.

It added that despite a report last November by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency alleging that Iran had made significant progress on nuclear weaponization, "Iran's essential challenge remains developing a secure capability to make enough weapon-grade uranium, likely for at least several nuclear weapons."

Some European intelligence officials have disputed a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate published in 2003 which said that Iran had stopped working on a program it had launched earlier to design and build a bomb.

The Europeans maintain that Iran never stopped research and scientific development efforts which could be bomb-related.

Tensions spiked after Iran announced earlier this month that it had begun to enrich uranium deep inside an underground facility near the holy city of Qom. The secretly built facility was publicly revealed by the United States in 2009.

AIRSTRIKES 'OVERSOLD'

Among possible policy options for halting Iran's nuclear program, one of the least likely to be successful is a military attack on its nuclear program, according to the institute's report.

Limited military options, such as airstrikes against nuclear facilities, are "oversold as to their ability to end or even significantly delay Iran's nuclear program," the report said. Limited bombing campaigns would be "unlikely to destroy Iran's main capability" to produce weapon-grade uranium, it said.

Iran has taken precautions by dispersing the centrifuges it uses for enrichment to multiple locations, has mastered the construction of centrifuges, and has probably stockpiled extra centrifuges, the institute said.

A bombing campaign that did not totally eliminate these capabilities would leave Iran "able to quickly rebuild" its nuclear program and even motivate it to set up a Manhattan Project-style crash program to build a bomb, which would only make the region more dangerous and unstable, according to the institute.

The report said that clandestine intelligence operations aimed at detecting secret Iranian nuclear activities, including the construction of new underground sites, are "vitally important." Known methods used by spy agencies include the recruitment of secret agents, cyber spying operations, overhead surveillance by satellites and drones, and bugging of equipment which Iran buys from foreign suppliers.

The report says another "well known tactic" used by Western spy agencies against Iran has been to infiltrate Iranian networks that smuggle nuclear-related equipment and supply them with plans or items which are faulty or sabotaged. The report says this tactic has helped the West to uncover at least one of Iran's secret nuclear sites and, according to official statements by the Iranians, has caused enrichment centrifuges to break.

Other more violent covert operations strategies, particularly the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers, have "serious downsides and implications," such as high risks of Iranian retaliation through militant attacks which could be directed against civilian targets. The United States has emphatically denied any involvement in the assassinations.

The report said that since thousands of specialists are involved in the Iranian nuclear program, assassinations were unlikely to be effective in slowing it down. It also warned that Iran could construe assassinations as acts of war and use them to justify retaliation.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_usa_iran_nuclear

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Oil near $100 as Fed vows to keep key rate low (AP)

BANGKOK ? Oil rose to near $100 a barrel Thursday in Asia after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would keep interest rates at record lows at least until 2014 to help jump-start the world's biggest economy.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 43 cents at $99.83 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose by 45 cents to finish at $99.40 per barrel in New York on Wednesday. At one point it was as high as $100.40.

Brent crude for March delivery was up 71 cents at $110.52 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

The U.S. central bank, which has kept its benchmark interest rate near zero for three years, said Wednesday that it doesn't plan to raise the rate before late 2014.

That caused the dollar to turn lower against major currencies, which makes dollar-priced oil less expensive for holders of other currencies.

"That would mean the U.S. dollar would continue to be cheap versus other currencies, and there is typically an inverse correlation between the value of the dollar and commodity pricing," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst at consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

"So oil prices are supported by the Federal Reserve statement," he said.

But other analysts saw room for oil prices to fall.

Leaving rates low would encourage businesses and consumers to borrow money cheaply, boosting the economy and leading to higher oil demand. But the Fed also "telegraphed its concern regarding U.S. economic growth ... which is intuitively bearish for oil," said energy trader and consultant The Schork Group.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 2.3 cents to $3.03 per gallon and gasoline futures gained 1 cent to $2.85 per gallon. Natural gas advanced 3.9 cents to $2.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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UK refinery of Petroplus back in production (AP)

LONDON ? The British refinery owned by collapsed Swiss energy company Petroplus Holdings has resumed shipments to customers, while authorities in France are investigating possible misuse of funds by the company.

Delivery trucks were rolling Thursday from Coryton refinery near London ? which accounts for about 10 percent of Britain's refinery output ? for the first time since the British subsidiary was placed in administration two days earlier.

In the French city of Nanterre, an official said have opened an investigation into suspected bankruptcy through misuse of funds at a French unit of Petroplus.

The probe centers on suspicions that a bank account of Petroplus-France was stripped of about euro100 million ($129 million) in funds.

Petroplus said on Wednesday that it had begun various forms of insolvency proceedings in Switzerland, France and Germany.

The company said a court had appointed Jaffe Rechtsanwaelte Insolvenzverwalter as administrator of the German operations. In France, FHB Administrateurs Judiciaires is administering the Petroplus operations.

Petroplus said it had filed in Switzerland for composition proceedings, a form of bankruptcy in which the company claims it acted in good faith.

Petroplus, Europe's largest independent oil refiner, filed for insolvency after failing to agree with its lenders on its $1.75 billion credit line. The company reported a net loss of $413 million in the first nine months of last year.

The company had announced on Dec. 30 that it would temporarily shut down its French and Belgian refineries "given limited credit availability and the economic climate in Europe."

Trading in the Petroplus shares had been suspended on Monday.

Refinery profitability has been squeezed as operating expenses and the cost of crude oil rose faster than the value of the products, and the economic slowdown in Europe has added to the pressure.

A survey by energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie in 2010 found that 29 of 96 refineries in the European Union did not generate a positive net cash margin.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_petroplus

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Top bankers say more optimistic on euro crisis (Reuters)

DAVOS (Reuters) ? The World Economic Forum's signature closed-session on banking saw financiers increasingly hopeful that the euro zone's debt crisis can be resolved and confident of a deal to ensure Greece's now inevitable debt default will be orderly.

The private meeting of financial services CEOs from major players including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Barclays (BARC.L), Citigroup (C.N) and UBS (UBSN.VX), acknowledged that progress had been made, participants said on Thursday.

Most pointed to the European Central Bank's launching last month of half a trillion euros in cheap 3-year loans as a possible turning point after almost three years of market chaos that has threatened some of the sector's biggest players.

"2011 was a year of great fear around (sovereign debt risk). Going into 2012 we feel somewhat more comfortable because progress has been made," Barclays' chief executive Bob Diamond told Reuters on the sidelines of the closed-door meeting.

He said the overall mood was cautious given the growth challenges the euro zone was still facing.

But bankers praised the progress made in pushing towards a euro zone fiscal union and on solving the European banks' funding and liquidity problems through cheap central bank money.

"The ECB (injection of 3-year loans) was a significant thing which took the major risk off the table, in the bank liquidity problem.," JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said earlier in the day. He said he saw "zero" risks to the solvency of banks from the Greek crisis, even if they trigger credit default swaps which would be the most likely to cause ripple effects across global markets.

Greece's tortuous negotiations over a debt swap with private creditors entered a new phase on Thursday with focus on how much the European Central Bank and other public creditors may need to contribute.

NO MESS

Diamond also said bankers were still hoping that the Greek crisis was increasingly viewed as a specific and isolated case inside the euro zone and would be resolved through an orderly default.

"Consensus in the room was that there will be an orderly default on Greece. On the rest of the euro zone there is not a great deal of concern," the CEO of a large Swiss bank said.

But despite signs of optimism, executives said U.S. bankers were still more cautious about the outlook for the euro zone.

"The Americans are the most negative. They do not really understand how the euro zone works," said the CEO of a large euro zone bank.

JPM's Dimon, who did not stay for the entire meeting, said, "How many people have you got in the room? That is how many views you have," when asked about the consensus on the euro crisis.

The so called financial services governor's meeting at the World Economic Forum is a yearly feature where top industry executives from around the world sit down for a conversation about some of the major issues facing the sector.

Bankers said besides the sovereign debt crisis, this year the agenda included issues such as regulation and policy, job creation and growth.

"The financial services community is excited about engaging with governments in jurisdictions where the governments are prepared to engage because I think the only way forward is collaborative solutions and I think that was a very positive tone," said NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) CEO Duncan Niederauer.

Late in the meeting on Thursday, the CEOs were also joined by some policy makers, including Min Zhu, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Another meeting is scheduled for Saturday.

Other CEOs in the room included Prudential Plc's (PRU.L) Tidjane Thiam, Julius Baer's (BAER.VX) Boris Collardi, Credit Suisse's (CSGN.VX) Brady Dougan and Intesa Sanpaolo's (ISP.MI) Enrico Cucchiani.

"It's always a good meeting. We know each other well," Thiam said, on his way to a bathroom break at the marathon meeting, which started at 12:30 in the afternoon and was going on as late as 4 pm local time. "So it's a good, constructive conversation."

(editing by Patrick Graham/Janet McBride)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_davos_banks

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Obama to Republicans: Game on

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, as Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, right, listne. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, as Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, right, listne. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama delivered an election-year broadside to Republicans: Game on.

The GOP, from Congress to the campaign trail, signaled it's ready for the fight.

In his third State of the Union address, Obama issued a populist call for income equality that echoed the Occupy Wall Street movement. He challenged GOP lawmakers to work with him or move aside so he could use the power of the presidency to produce results for an electorate uncertain whether he deserves another term.

Facing a deeply divided Congress, Obama appealed to lawmakers to send him legislation on immigration, clean energy and housing, knowing full well the election-year prospects are bleak but aware that polls show that the independent voters who lifted him to the presidency crave bipartisanship.

"I intend to fight obstruction with action," Obama told a packed chamber and tens of millions of Americans watching in prime time. House Republicans greeted his words with stony silence.

The Democratic president's vision of an activist government broke sharply with Republican demands for less government intervention to allow free enterprise. The stark differences will be evident in the White House's dealings with Congress and in the presidential campaign over the next 10 months.

In the Republican response to the president's address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who once considered a White House bid, railed against the "extremism" of an administration that stifles economic growth.

"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."

Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday the protracted policy fight with Republicans is "not about bad guys and good guys," but centers on how best to keep the middle class growing in America.

The administration has worked hard to strike deals with congressional Republicans on a wide array of issues, he said, including steps to rein in the mounting federal deficit. But Biden added that time after time in talks he held with congressional figures in both parties, he was told little could be accomplished because of the wall of opposition from 86 conservative House Republicans.

"It's like the tail is wagging the dog," the vice president said.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., called the differences between the parties "stark" and said he thought little could be accomplished on the federal debt until the two sides come to grips with the skyrocketing costs of health care and the Medicare program.

"I don't think anyone wants to pay higher taxes," Cantor said. And he said Washington needs to "get out of the mindset" that the country's problems can be solved with new programs and accept that small business "is the backbone" of the economy.

Campaigning in Florida, GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich rejected Obama's call for higher taxes on the wealthy.

"If he actually meant what he said it would be a disaster of the first order," said the former House speaker, who called it "the most anti-jobs single step he could take."

In his speech, Obama said getting a fair shot for all Americans is "the defining issue of our time." He described an economy on the rebound from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with more than 3 million jobs created in the last 22 months and U.S. manufacturers hiring. Although unemployment is high at 8.5 percent, home sales and corporate earnings have increased, among other positive economic signs.

Republicans say the president's policies have undermined the economy.

Obama "had the opportunity and the responsibility to level with the American people, admit that the policies of the past three years have delivered an underwhelming record of economic growth and job creation, and show an interest in changing direction and uniting, not dividing the nation," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., head of the Republican Policy Committee. "The president failed to meet that responsibility."

There were brief moments of bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats sat together, continuing a practice begun last year. The arrival of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt, elicited sustained applause and cheering, with chants of "Gabby, Gabby." Republican Rep. Jeff Flake escorted her into the chamber and Obama greeted her with a hug.

The president received loud applause from both sides when he said: "I'm a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more."

But all that belied a fierce divide.

Obama ticked off items on a hefty agenda that he wants from Congress ? a path to citizenship for children who come to the United States with their undocumented parents if they complete college, tax credits for clean energy, elimination of red tape for Americans refinancing their mortgages, a measure that bans insider trading by lawmakers and a payroll tax cut.

Political reality suggests it was largely wishful thinking on Obama's part. The payroll tax cut and must-do spending bill are the most likely legislative items to survive the election year.

But Obama's far-reaching list and the hour-plus speech offered a unique opportunity to contrast his record with congressional Republicans and his top presidential rivals, Mitt Romney and Gingrich.

"Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about," Obama said ? a clear response to the White House hopefuls who have pummeled him for months.

In an attack on the nation's growing income gap, Obama called for a new minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. Many millionaires ? including Romney ? pay a rate less than that because they get most of their income from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.

"Now you can call this class warfare all you want," Obama said. "But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense."

Obama calls this the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it's unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Emphasizing the point, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, attended the address in first lady Michelle Obama's box.

Obama made his appeal on the same day that Romney released some of his tax returns, showing he made more than $20 million in a single year and paid around 14 percent in taxes, largely because his wealth came from investments.

In advance of Obama's speech, Romney said, "Tonight will mark another chapter in the misguided policies of the last three years ? and the failed leadership of one man."

Obama highlighted his national security successes ? the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the diminished strength of al-Qaida and the demise of Moammar Gadhafi. In hailing the men and women of the military, the commander in chief contrasted their cooperation and dedication with the divisions and acrimony in Washington.

"At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations," Obama said. "They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example."

Obama left Washington for a three-day tour of five states crucial to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan on Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training.

He also addresses a conference of House Democrats focused on their own re-election in Cambridge, Md., on Friday.

Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.

Biden was interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning." Cantor appeared on CBS and MSNBC.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Bakst in Doral, Fla., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-25-State%20of%20the%20Union/id-7899e4c2c99c4e949e56b22f257414d0

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Palestinian tax hike riles business, unions (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank ? Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has sparked a furor with a push to get Palestinians to pay more taxes and reduce reliance on the massive foreign aid that has kept their self-rule government afloat for a generation.

Long accustomed to minimal taxes, the most powerful groups in the West Bank ? private business, the civil servants' union and the main political party, Fatah ? are fighting back, including with threats of labor strikes.

It's unlikely weary donor countries will rush to the rescue. They've cut back aid, paying less than promised in the past two years and triggering a series of financial crises. The survival of the Palestinian Authority is key to any deal with Israel on setting up a Palestinian state, but donors have become more frugal because of the global financial crisis and paralysis in Mideast diplomacy over the past three years.

Fayyad says the showdown over taxes is as much about the obligations of citizenship as about balancing the books. "This transcends money and finance," Fayyad told The Associated Press.

The tax hike mainly targets the top earners, doubling the maximum rate from 15 percent to 30 percent. Business leaders complain that they're being burdened unfairly and are threatening to refuse to pay.

"We'll fight back," said Samir Hleileh, CEO of the $700 million holding company Padico, one of the largest firms in the West Bank. He argued that Fayyad's move will undermine his own policy of encouraging private investment as the main motor of growth in a fragile economy shackled by continued Israeli restrictions on trade and movement.

Fatah, the movement headed by Fayyad's boss, President Mahmoud Abbas, also opposes the tax increase, though Abbas himself has not yet taken a position. A leader of the civil servants' union, dominated by Fatah, argued that the tax hike will lead to higher prices for goods and services and eventually hurt the poor, still a majority of Palestinians, and a small but growing middle class.

"Everyone I know is against it , everyone I know is talking about it," said Omar Matar, a 28-year-old waiter in a Ramallah restaurant whose monthly salary of 3,000 shekels ($793) means that even under the new rules he'll only pay 5 percent income tax. Matar complained that living expenses are high, services substandard and that he is unable to save for a down payment for a home.

Jamal Muheisen, a senior Fatah official, said Palestinians cannot be expected to carry an additional tax burden as long as they live under Israeli rule, without a state of their own.

"The occupation is the main reason for our crisis. Once we get rid of the occupation, we will have no financial problems. In the meantime, the international community should handle this problem," he said.

Oussama Kanaan, a senior official in the International Monetary Fund, said donors should pay more and on time "so as not to force the Palestinian Authority to take fiscal measures that are too severe, especially given its already solid track record in reforms."

Aid started flowing when the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994, as part of interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals that envisioned final agreement on the terms of Palestinian statehood by 1999. This and subsequent deadlines were missed as Israelis and Palestinians went through two turbulent decades, including repeated breakdowns in negotiations, two Palestinian uprisings and the violent takeover of Gaza by Fatah's rival, the Islamic militant Hamas.

Western and Arab donors initially hoped to underwrite peace efforts for just a few years but kept paying, in part because of fear that withdrawing funding would escalate the conflict. During the darkest periods, foreign aid was essential to helping the Palestinians survive, including in Gaza, which, though ruled by Hamas, receives almost half of Fayyad's budget in social services and salaries.

Still, donors paid less than promised in 2010 and 2011 for the day-to-day operations of Fayyad's government. Donors prefer to invest directly in development projects, such as roads and sewage treatment plants, and view such running costs ? the "pouring money down a hole" version of foreign aid ? to be less attractive.

In 2011 alone, donors contributed about 25 percent less than the nearly $1 billion promised for recurring costs in the $3.7 million budget, said Fayyad. The expected deficit in 2012 is $1.1 billion, and Fayyad said he needs to reduce that by at least $350 million, both by increasing revenues and slashing spending.

Fayyad said he's hit the limit in borrowing from banks and his government already owes the private sector hundreds of millions of dollars for unpaid goods and services.

"We just cannot continue like this," he said. Last year, major cash crises erupted repeatedly, including when Israel temporarily withheld the transfer of taxes and customs it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Fayyad has doubled the income tax rate for the wealthiest Palestinians ? those who earn more than 200,000 shekels ($53,000) a year ? to 30 percent, while those making more than 150,000 shekels ($40,000) are asked to pay 22.5 percent. The old tax regime was among the lowest in the region, and the changes don't hurt the poor and the middle class, he argues.

Hleileh, the Padico CEO, said Fayyad's policies are short-sighted and will lead to an economic downturn, after several years of growth, fueled in part by the easing of some Israeli restrictions.

Taking from the rich "means that less investment will be put in the market, less job creation," Hleileh said in an interview in Padico's new glass-fronted office tower, decorated with expressionist-style paintings by artists from Gaza.

"Less job creation means less taxes in two to three years, anyway. It basically means recession," he warned.

He said the tax increase will hurt Padico's 11,000 small shareholders and that a major foreign investor in the company is pulling out, in part over Fayyad's new measures.

Both sides are fighting for public opinion. The business community has taken out newspaper ads against the tax hike, while Fayyad has made his case on Palestinian TV and radio and in brochures distributed with daily newspapers.

Faced with the uproar, Fayyad has agreed to talk with the business leaders who say he should do more to cut spending, trim a bloated bureaucracy and find other ways to raise revenues, such as enforcing the collection of sales tax. Fayyad said he's open to ideas, but only if they don't burden the poor.

He insisted he's still on track for his ambitious goal of weaning his government off foreign aid for operating costs by 2013.

Nasser Abdel Karim, a Palestinian economist, said that under the current Israeli restrictions, the Palestinians will never be able to fund themselves.

"The donors won't abandon the Palestinian Authority ... and will provide money in critical moments. But the Palestinian Authority will always be in crisis," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_palestinians_tax_battle

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