Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Fla. broke rules to gain influence on nomination (AP)

MIAMI ? Florida broke the presidential primary rules ? again ? but officials figure it's worth a penalty for their state to maintain a relevant voice in nominating candidates for the White House.

When Florida voters choose their candidate for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, they'll do so as the fourth state in the process. The cost: half their delegates to the GOP convention.

"I'd much rather have a say in the nomination process as opposed to the coronation process," Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos said.

As it did in 2008, Florida went against the national parties this year and set the last Tuesday in January as its primary date. In response, officials in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina moved up their dates too.

The strategy paid off for Florida four years ago. Sen. John McCain carried the state and used the momentum from that victory to win the Republican nomination.

Florida could again play a pivotal role. With Rick Santorum barely winning the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney carrying New Hampshire and Newt Gingrich taking South Carolina, a victory in the winner-take-all contest for Florida's 50 delegates could change the course of the campaign.

Seeking more influence isn't anything new for Florida.

Hoping to share New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary date, the state set its 1972 primary for the second Tuesday in March. New Hampshire responded by moving up its election, but Florida's date remained in law until 2008.

At first, that still left Florida early in the nominating process. While several states held caucuses before the 1976 vote, Florida was the third state to choose delegates through a primary, following New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Florida chose the eventual nominees: Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican Gerald Ford.

Then other states began moving up their primaries. Florida soon found itself irrelevant, holding its contest after the nominees essentially had been decided.

Republican legislative leaders and then-Gov. Charlie Crist decided to change that for the 2008 primaries, arguing that Florida is more diverse in population than other early voting states. It has large populations of Hispanic and black voters, a mix of Southerners and Northern transplants and large rural areas and major cities.

The national parties weren't happy. The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of all its delegates. After initially making frequent stops in Florida, the Democratic candidates agreed to boycott the state.

The Republican National Committee stripped Florida of half its delegates, which, given its size, still made it an important state to win. GOP candidates spent a lot of time talking about issues important to the state, including the restoration of the Everglades, Cuba policy, offshore drilling and property insurance issues.

While McCain was able to use Florida to build momentum, the same wasn't true for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her overwhelming victory over Barack Obama had an asterisk next to it ? there were no delegates at stake and none of the candidates had campaigned here for months before the election. She unsuccessfully argued to have the delegates fully restored before finally conceding the race. Once it was clear Obama would be the nominee, the delegates were restored at his request.

For all the complaining about Florida moving its presidential primary, the state was the first to hold a primary. Ever.

In 1904, Florida elected delegates to a national party's nominating convention. And while they weren't bound to follow the results of the presidential preference primary, other states began taking up the idea.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_el_pr/us_florida_primary_history

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Just Show Me: 3 great football apps for your Android phone (Yahoo! News)

Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you three apps for your?Android phone that'll help you stay on top of the Super Bowl and all the football news.

To get started, download these apps and watch our video. And don't forget to?outfit yourself with a new TV for the big game!

Take a look at these other episodes of Just Show Me that'll help you master your Android phone:

If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.

This article originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120130/tc_yblog_technews/just-show-me-3-great-football-apps-for-your-android-phone

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Monday, January 30, 2012

WTO: China unfairly limits export of raw materials (AP)

GENEVA ? The World Trade Organization ruled Monday that China unfairly limited exports of nine raw materials to protect domestic manufacturers.

A WTO appeals body rejected China's appeal of an earlier ruling in July that concluded the Asian economic powerhouse had violated international trade rules. The appeals body largely sided with the United States, European and Mexico, which had taken issue with Chinese restrictions on its exports of nine materials used widely in the steel, aluminum and chemical industries.

They had complained that China drives up prices on overseas shipments of the materials by setting export duties, quotas and licensing requirements on them, giving the country's manufacturers an unfair edge over competitors. But China had argued that its export limits were needed to protect the environment.

The ruling affects China's exports of certain forms of bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide, silicon metal, yellow phosphorous and zinc. In it, the WTO appeals body says China must now "bring its export duty and export quota measures into conformity with its WTO obligations."

The issue has sparked tension with some of China's major trading partners. In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk called the ruling "a tremendous victory for the United States ? particularly its manufacturers and workers."

He called it a decision that "ensures that core manufacturing industries in this country can get the materials they need to produce and compete on a level playing field."

The European Commission said in a statement that while the case requires China to comply, the EU "continues to be deeply troubled by China's use of export restrictions" for other rare earth and industrial raw materials.

China's WTO mission in Geneva said it "deeply regrets" that the appeals body upheld major parts of the earlier panel's conclusions, but noted that some other aspects were reversed. It vowed to abide by the WTO findings.

But it explained that Chinese government had in recent years "reinforced its administration on certain resource products, especially the 'high-pollution, high-energy-consuming and resource-dependent' products" to protect the environment and conserve natural resources.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_wto_china_trade

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Fizban > Gilean (Unqualified Offerings)

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

SAG Awards menu is months in the making (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? When your dinner party guests include Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Kate Winslet and Glenn Close, and the whole affair is televised live, it can take months to plan the menu. That's why the team behind the Screen Actors Guild Awards began putting together the plate for Sunday's ceremony months ago.

It was still summer when show producer Kathy Connell and director Jeff Margolis first sat down with chef Suzanne Goins of Los Angeles eatery Lucques with a tall order: Create a meal that is delicious at room temperature, looks beautiful on TV, is easy to eat and appeals to Hollywood tastes. Oh, and no poppyseeds, soups, spicy dishes, or piles of onions or garlic.

"It can't drip, stick in their teeth or be too heavy," Connell said. "We have to appease all palates."

The chef put together a plate of possibilities: Slow-roasted salmon with yellow beets, lamb with cous cous and spiced cauliflower and roasted root vegetables with quinoa. There was also a chopped chicken salad and another chicken dish with black beans.

To ensure the dishes are both tasty and TV-ready, Connell and Margolis, along with the show's florist and art director, dined together at this summertime lunch on tables set to replicate those that will be in the Shrine Exposition Center during the ceremony. The pewter, crushed-silk tablecloths and white lilies you'll see on TV Sunday were also chosen months ago.

The diners discussed the look of the plate, the size of the portions and the vegetarian possibilities.

"We'd like the portions a little larger," Connell told the chef.

"And a little more sauce on the salmon," Margolis added.

Come Sunday, it's up to Goins to prepare 1,200 of the long-planned meals for the A-list audience.

___

Online:

www.sagawards.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_en_mo/us_sag_awards_menu

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Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana celebrate at Sundance (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana came to the Sundance Film Festival to promote their closing-night film, "The Words."

The two actors play a married couple in the movie, which follows an aspiring writer who gains fame when he finds an old manuscript and passes it off as his own.

The pair avoided any appearance of their reported off-screen romance by staying apart from one another while posing for photos and giving interviews to support the film. Saldana did affectionately touch Cooper as they passed in a hallway, though.

Both had been to Sundance before, where snow fell throughout the festival and the weather dipped into the teens. Still, Saldana maintained her fashionista edge.

"I did bring warm stuff but I also brought fashion-y stuff. Come on. You've got to pay the price, even if it's too cold," she said.

The 33-year-old actress wore green suede shoes with spiked stiletto heels despite the slushy conditions.

"They're kind of fabulous. They're also lethal. So I have to be really careful, and somebody has to be careful not to piss me off," she said with a smile. "Yeah right. I'm just trying not to fall. It's like `Please don't fall. Please don't fall,' if I'm walking."

Cooper's first time at the festival was 12 years earlier with the eventual cult comedy hit "Wet Hot American Summer."

"I wasn't even able to get into the screening," he recalled.

Saldana said playing Cooper's wife in "The Words" made her think about how she approaches relationships and the concept of unconditional love.

"Like how unconditional am I when I'm in love. Do you bypass certain things? Would I be able to be with a man ? or with someone ? that feels incomplete, doesn't matter what we do?" she said. "If we change this, if we get married, if we have a baby ? just someone that feels incomplete. Would I be able to deal with that for so many years and accept them as who they are and go, `Come as you are. This is who I fell in love with and I don't want to change you?'

"I'm not like that, which is why I wanted to play her, because it was a challenge, you know. Look at me, I totally said I'm not unconditional at all. So awful."

Cooper's part as author-plagiarist Rory Jansen is his second writerly role after playing a novelist in last year's "Limitless." But that's just coincidence, he said. Despite having a degree in English, the 37-year-old actor says he typically only writes in his "girlnal."

"Journal, sorry," he said. "That's a `Wet Hot' reference. Paul Rudd says that."

Saldana, meanwhile, is in the midst of shooting the "Star Trek" sequel in Los Angeles with director J.J. Abrams and much of the original's cast.

"It's wonderful because I've been dying to work with the cast again, to work with JJ," she said. "I love him so much. He's such an amazing human being and such an amazing storyteller and a great director, so what more can I ask for? I start the year and I'm literally going back to a very familiar environment and being a part of a great story."

"The Words," which also stars Dennis Quaid, Jeremy Irons, Ben Barnes and Olivia Wilde, premiered Friday. It was acquired early in the festival by CBS Films, which plans to release it theatrically in the fall. Sundance continues through Sunday.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report.

___

Online:

www.sundance.org/festival

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_en_ot/us_film_sundance_cooper_saldana

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Many Mo. farmers shut out of federal flooding aid (AP)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. ? Farmers whose land was damaged by Missouri River flooding expressed frustration Friday that a missed deadline will keep them from sharing in $215 million from one federal disaster program.

Farmers and communities had to apply for the aid by June 30, but many still had land under water then and couldn't do a required damage assessment. Water didn't recede from many farms in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri until late September or early October.

The money is part of $308 million in funding the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week. It is distributed through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, which requires a sponsor such as a city, county or drainage district. The money is meant to be used to clear drainage ditches, fix levees and structures and reshape eroded banks.

Officials couldn't say Friday how many farmers missed the chance to apply for help.

About 1,200 of Bruce Biermann's 2,500 acres in northwest Missouri flooded last summer. He said he should be planting this year's crop in about 60 days but that will be tough to do without help with repairs.

"It certainly is disappointing that we can't have access to funds that are basically earmarked for disasters like this," he said.

The flooding started in June when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began releasing massive amounts of water from upstream reservoirs filled by melting snow and heavy rains. The deluge continued for months, overtopping levees and turning farms into lakes. When the water finally receded, farmers found tree limbs, trash and, in some places, a 2- to 3-feet of sand covering their land.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the application deadline set by Congress led to the money being primarily focused on disasters that happened earlier in 2011 but that didn't mean farmers who suffered later damage wouldn't get help.

"I don't think it's accurate to suggest that the folks in northwest Missouri aren't going to get help and assistance," he said during a visit to Kansas City to tout President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. "We will continue to work with our existing programs to give them as much help as possible."

The deadline for the next round of funding is Jan. 31, but it's unclear how much money will be given and whether it will come in time to help farmers and communities make repairs before this spring's planting season.

The farmers' and communities' best chance of getting some of the $215 million already allocated will be if other communities don't use all the money they requested. Unused money is placed in a pot that could be redistributed, and about $452,000 leftover from past storms already has been used to help farmers in northwest Missouri, where 207,000 acres flooded last year.

David Sieck, who has about 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans near Glenwood, Iowa, said it really bothered him that an arbitrary deadline was keeping some farmers and communities getting immediate access to the money. About half of land is in river bottoms and about three-fifths of that flooded last year.

"Never ever do I remember a prolonged flood for 3 1/2 months," he said.

Missouri and Utah shared the bulk of the $308 million in disaster aid announced last week. Missouri received $50 million, while Utah got $60 million to deal with two rounds of flooding.

Along with $35 million from the watershed program, Missouri received $15 million from the USDA's Emergency Conservation Program, which helps clear debris and grade farmland. Much of that money will go to the southeast portion of the state where the corps blew three holes in the Birds Point levee in May to relieve pressure at the height of flooding that threatened nearby Cairo, Ill.

"We appreciate the work of everyone involved in securing it for Missouri and we are glad that farmers throughout the state are going to benefit, but the people in northwest Missouri are not," said Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau.

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

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Utah teens arrested in alleged school bombing plot (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY ? A Utah high school student bragged to police that he was smarter than the Columbine killers and was plotting with an older student to set off a bomb during a school assembly and escape in a stolen plane, court documents say.

Dallin Morgan, 18, and the 16-year-old boy were pulled out of school Wednesday and arrested after authorities learned of the plot, Roy police spokeswoman Anna Bond said Thursday.

The students prepared by logging hundreds of hours on flight simulator software on their home computers, and they planned to take a plane at Ogden Hinckley Airport after the bombing, Bond said.

The juvenile hinted at the plan in text messages to a friend, writing that both suspects wanted "revenge on the world" and "we have a plan to get away with it too."

He hinted at the plan by writing "explosives, airport, airplane" and added, "We're just gonna kill and fly our way to a country that won't send us back to the US," according to a probable cause statement police filed to make the arrests late Wednesday.

The Associated Press isn't naming the 16-year-old because he is a minor.

The juvenile told investigators he was so "fascinated" by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that he visited the Littleton, Colo., school and interviewed the principal about the shootings that killed 13 people. Roy police said the principal, Frank DeAngelis, confirmed that the boy made his visit Dec. 12.

Morgan was being held on $10,000 bail at Weber County jail on suspicion of conspiracy to commit mass destruction. The juvenile was in custody at Weber Valley Detention Center on the same charge. Prosecutors were weighing possible additional charges.

Both students had "absolute knowledge of the security systems and the layout of the school," Bond said. "They knew where the security cameras were. Their original plan was to set off explosives during an assembly. We don't know what date they were planning to do this, but they had been planning it for months."

School officials said there were no imminent plans to hold a school assembly.

Local and federal agents searched the school, two vehicles belonging to the suspects and their homes but found no explosives. The FBI is examining the suspects' computers, police said.

The parents of both students "woke up in the middle of a nightmare," Bond said. "They've been very cooperative."

The other Roy High School student who received text messages tipped authorities to the plot Wednesday, said the school's safety specialist, Nate Taggart.

The student "came forward and had some suspicions but not a lot of information ? enough that it gave administration the ability to make some connections and identify the students involved," Taggart said.

The school has about 1,500 students.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_school_bomb_plot

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Bugging equipment found in Mexico lawmaker offices (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? A search of several Mexican lawmakers' offices turned up recording equipment, leading legislators to believe they have been spied on for years, a congressman said Wednesday.

Congressman Armando Rios said security personnel found microphones and other devices that seemed to have been installed years ago.

"Some of the equipment has newer technology, but other devices are from a long time ago, which leads us to believe they were installed years ago," said Rios, a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD.

Rios said the offices of key committees and of several lawmakers from different political parties were bugged.

"What is at stake is the vulnerability of the legislature, of one of the powers of the union," Rios said.

Congress president Guadalupe Acosta, also of the PRD, on Tuesday filed a complaint with federal prosecutors, who opened an investigation.

Acosta wouldn't identify the lawmakers who were being spied on or who he thinks was behind the espionage. Rios blamed the government of President Felipe Calderon, who belongs to the conservative National Action Party, or PAN.

Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire denied Rios' accusations and said the government has done nothing illegal.

Mexico's main intelligence agency allegedly spied on the government's political opponents during the 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

After PAN candidate Vicente Fox won the 2000 presidential election, he announced that the agency, the Center for National Security and Investigation, would no longer spy on political opponents. But in 2008, under Calderon, the agency hired a private company to monitor the activities of legislators.

Legislators complained they were being spied on but the government said it was simply collecting public information.

Several secretly recorded telephone conversations of government officials or politicians have been made public in Mexico in the last few years.

In 2006, the former governor of Puebla state, Mario Marin, was implicated in a revenge plot against a journalist after Mexican news media released a recorded telephone conversation. In it, he allegedly speaks with a businessman about punishing Lydia Cacho, who had written a book that accuses one of their acquaintances of being a child molester.

In 2010, a radio station broadcast a telephone conversation between then federal lawmaker Cesar Godoy and alleged drug trafficker Servando Gomez, known as "La Tuta." In it, Godoy and Gomez express support for each other and discuss bribing a reporter.

Shortly after the recording was released, Godoy, who is now a fugitive, was charged with aiding drug trafficking and money laundering.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_lawmakers_espionage

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Robert Hegyes, played Epstein on 'Kotter,' dies (omg!)

FILE - In this 1978 file photo, Robert Hegyes portrays Juan Epstein from the comedy series "Welcome Back Kotter." The actor best known for playing the Jewish Puerto Rican student on the 1970s TV show has died. He was 60. (AP Photo, file)

METUCHEN, N.J. (AP) ? Robert Hegyes, the actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show "Welcome Back Kotter" has died. He was 60.

The Flynn & Son Funeral Home in Fords, N.J., said it was informed of Hegyes' death Thursday by the actor's family.

A spokesman at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Hegyes, of Metuchen, arrived at the hospital Thursday morning in full cardiac arrest and died.

Hegyes was appearing on Broadway in 1975 when he auditioned for "Kotter," a TV series about a teacher who returns to the inner-city New York school of his youth to teach a group of irreverent remedial students nicknamed the "Sweathogs." They included the character Vinnie Barbarino, played by John Travolta.

The show's theme song, performed by John Sebastian, became a pop hit.

Hegyes also appeared on many other TV series, including "Cagney & Lacey."

He was born in Perth Amboy and grew up in Metuchen, the eldest child of a Hungarian father and Italian mother.

He attended Rowan University, formerly Glassboro State College, in southern New Jersey, before heading to New York City after graduation. He returned to Rowan on several occasions to teach master classes in acting, a university spokesman said Thursday.

"He was a good friend to the university," spokesman Joe Cardona said.

Hegyes continued to act after "Kotter" and was a regular on "Cagney & Lacey." He also guest-starred in shows including "Diagnosis Murder" and "The Drew Carey Show."

On his website, Hegyes wrote that he was inspired by Chico Marx, whom he had played in a touring production of a show about the Marx Bros. He also recalled how his mother encouraged him to get involved in theater as a teen.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_robert_hegyes_played_epstein_kotter_dies014931250/44321757/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/robert-hegyes-played-epstein-kotter-dies-014931250.html

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Netflix regains 600K US subscribers in 4Q (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Netflix regained 600,000 U.S. customers in the fourth quarter as the video subscription service began to recover from a revolt against a big price increase.

Figures released Wednesday show Netflix Inc. ended December with 24.4 million subscribers in the U.S. That was up from 23.8 million at the end of September.

The subscriber uptick is a positive sign for Netflix after several months of upheaval that battered its stock. Netflix lost 800,000 subscribers last summer after raising its U.S. prices by as much as 60 percent.

The fallout contributed to a 14 percent decrease in Netflix's fourth-quarter earnings.

Netflix made $40.7 million, or 73 cents per share, in the final three months of last year. That compares with income of $47.1 million, or 87 cents per share, a year earlier.

Investors had been bracing for a bigger drop-off. The company's performance easily exceeded the average earnings estimate of 54 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Fourth-quarter revenue climbed 47 percent from the previous year to $876 million ? $19 million above analyst projections.

Netflix's stock soared $11.63, or more than 12 percent, to $106.67 in extended trading. During the regular session, it increased $2.37, up 2.6 percent.

The stock still has a long way to go to return to its peak of nearly $305, which was reached in July, around the same time that Netflix announced the price increase that outraged customers.

But the fourth-quarter results should help bolster confidence in Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who had been lambasted for miscalculating how subscribers would react to the higher prices.

Hastings had promised Netflix would work to lure back customers, and the fourth-quarter gains were even better than he had forecast.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_hi_te/us_earns_netflix

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AP Exclusive: US talks to Afghan insurgent group (AP)

ISLAMABAD ? Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level U.S. officials have held talks with a representative of an insurgent movement led by a former Afghan prime minister who has been branded a terrorist by Washington, a relative of the rebel leader says.

Dr. Ghairat Baheer, a representative and son-in-law of longtime Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (Gul-bu-DEEN HEK-mah-tyar), told The Associated Press this week that he had met separately with David Petraeus, former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan and now CIA director, and had face-to-face discussions earlier this month with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, currently the top commander in the country.

Baheer, who was released in 2008 after six years in U.S. detention at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, described his talks with U.S. officials as nascent and exploratory. Yet, Baheer says the discussions show that the U.S. knows that in addition to getting the blessing of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar ? a bitter rival of Hekmatyar even though both are fighting international troops ? any peace deal would have to be supported by Hekmatyar, who has thousands of fighters and followers primarily in the north and east.

Hizb-i-Islami, which means Islamic party, has had ties to al-Qaida but in 2010 floated a 15-point peace plan during informal meetings with the Afghan government in Kabul. At the time, however, U.S. officials refused to see the party's delegation.

"Hizb-i-Islami is a reality that no one can ignore," Baheer said during an interview last week at his spacious home in a posh suburb of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. "For a while, the United States and the Kabul government tried not to give so much importance to Hizb-i-Islami, but now they have come to the conclusion that they cannot make it without Hizb-i-Islami."

In Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden would not confirm that such meetings took place but said the U.S. was maintaining "a range of contacts in support of an Afghan-led reconciliation process."

On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he also had met recently with Hizb-i-Islami representatives. Baheer said he attended those meetings but added that the party considers the Afghan government corrupt and lacking legitimacy.

Karzai's announcement appeared intended to bolster his position as the key player in the search for peace. The U.S. repeatedly has said that formal negotiations must be Afghan-led, but Karzai has complained that his government has not been directly involved in recent preliminary talks with Taliban representatives and plans for setting up a Taliban political office in the Gulf state of Qatar.

Baheer said his meeting with Petraeus, whom he described as a "very humble, polite person," was marked by a few rounds of verbal sparring with each boasting a battlefield strength that the other dismissed as exaggerated.

"There was a psychological war in these first meetings," he said.

Baheer said Crocker and Allen tried to persuade Hizb-i-Islami to become part of Afghanistan's political network, accept the Afghan security forces and embrace the nation's current constitution. He said Hizb-i-Islami was ready to accept the security forces and the constitution, but wants a multiparty commission established to review and revise the charter.

"We are willing to make compromises," said Baheer. "We already have said we will accept the Afghan army and the police."

He said Hizb-i-Islami envisioned a multiparty government in postwar Afghanistan. At the same time, the group wants all U.S. and NATO forces, including military trainers, to leave Afghanistan, he said.

"The presence of any foreign forces will be not acceptable to us under any cover," he said. "Daily, there is another American killing of civilians. The longer they stay, the more they are hated by the Afghan people."

Overtures to Hekmatyar's group show not only the degree of U.S. interest in pursuing a settlement but also the complexity of putting together an agreement acceptable to all sides in factious Afghanistan. The U.S. formally declared Hekmatyar a "global terrorist" in 2003 because of alleged links to al-Qaida and froze all assets which he may have in the United States.

Hekmatyar, who is in his mid-60s, was among the major recipients of U.S. aid during the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 1980s. He and other anti-Soviet commanders swept into Kabul in 1992 and ousted the pro-Soviet government, only to turn against one another in a bitter and bloody power struggle that destroyed vast sections of the Afghan capital and killed an estimated 50,000 civilians before the Taliban seized the city.

A bitter rival of Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar fled to Iran and remained there until the Taliban were ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. He declared war on foreign troops in his country and rebuilt his military forces, which by 2008 had become a major threat to the U.S.-led coalition.

Contacts with Hekmatyar's group as well as parallel efforts to negotiate with the Taliban have taken on new urgency following the NATO decision to withdraw foreign combat forces, transfer security responsibility to the Afghans by the end of 2014 and bring an end to the unpopular war, which is increasingly seen as a drain on the financially strapped Western countries that provide most of the troops.

On Sunday, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, completed two days of meetings about the peace process with Karzai and other Afghan officials. Grossman, who was to travel to Qatar on Monday, urged the Taliban to issue a "clear statement" against international terrorism and affirm their commitment to the peace process "to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan."

U.S. officials also have reached out to the Pakistan-based Haqqani militant network to test its interest in peace talks. Haqqani fighters, the second largest insurgent group after the Taliban, have been blamed for most of the high-profile attacks in the heart of the Afghan capital.

___

Kathy Gannon is AP special regional correspondent covering Pakistan and Afghanistan. She can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/kathygannon

___

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Kabul and Kimberly Dozier and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_talks

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How did Romney's IRA grow so big? (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? In the wake of news reports last week that presidential contender Mitt Romney owns an individual retirement account worth as much as $101 million, questions are growing over how it could have gotten so big when contribution limits are capped at $5,000 or $6,000 a year.

Tax lawyers and accountants suggest an answer: Romney may have made use of an Internal Revenue Service loophole that allows investors to undervalue interests in investment partnerships when first putting them into an IRA. These assets can produce returns far in excess of those that could be generated from other investments made at the capped level.

An investor could even set an initial value for a partnership interest at zero dollars, because under tax regulations an interest in a partnership represents future income, not current value, said Chris Sanchirico, co-director of the Center for Tax Law and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Whether Romney used this technique, which is legal, when he put partnership interests into his IRA is a question that won't likely be answered when he discloses his 2010 tax returns on Tuesday.

Romney's IRA, valued at between $20.7 million and $101.6 million, as reported by The Wall Street Journal last Thursday, holds stakes in 13 investment entities run by Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he cofounded and led for 13 years.

"One possibility for its size is that he put his Bain partnership interests into the IRA and valued them at a very low number," said David Weisbach, a law professor who focuses on tax at the University of Chicago Law School.

Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, declined to respond to emails and calls.

In the wake of growing scrutiny of his personal wealth, Romney, one of the wealthiest contenders ever for the White House, told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday that on Tuesday he would release his 2010 tax returns and estimates for his 2011 return.

The release will not provide much insight into his IRA. That is because a personal income-tax return shows IRA contributions and withdrawals only for the year of the return, and not for previous years, and does not show whether any contributions were in the form of undervalued partnership interests. While an IRA investor can sometimes be required to file a separate return for the IRA, it is unclear whether Romney intends to release any such returns.

Romney's personal financial summary, disclosed last August under federal election rules, shows that his IRA holds his most lucrative investments, which are stakes in partnerships run by Bain Capital. Those stakes include Bcip Trust Associates III, a Bain fund that is his single largest investment, with assets valued at $5,000,001 to $25,000,000. Bcip Trust Associates III produced income to Romney's IRA of over $5,000,000 over 2010 and through August 12, 2011, according to the summary.

Robert Stack, head of international tax at law firm Ivins Phillips & Barker, said it is possible that Romney's IRA grew so large not only because of an increase in the value of the funds in which it invests but also through lucrative profits, typically 20 percent of investment gains per year, that funds can generate for their general partners.

It is not known whether Romney is a general partner in the Bain funds, meaning invested in the partnership responsible for managing the funds, or simply an investor in the funds. The Romney campaign has declined to comment on this issue.

The general partners' cut of the profit, known as carried interest, is taxable each year if the funds in which the IRA is invested earn certain management fees or borrow to make their investments. Tax lawyers say they want to know whether Romney's IRA holds any carried interest and whether it has paid tax on it - something not disclosed in his personal financial summary or on a federal income tax return. "In the context of a $100 million IRA, that is what we would want to know," said David Miller, a tax lawyer at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.

The average IRA held by Americans holds $42,500, according to the Investment Company Institute, a trade group. While the Romney campaign has said that some of his IRA consists of retirement savings rolled over from previous plans, accountants say rollovers would not likely explain the size of his IRA.

"Even if he rolled over a 401k, with the annual caps on contributions, you're still only talking about a few million dollars," said Robert Green, an accountant who is founder of Green Trading, a tax and accounting firm that caters to the investment industry. Last year, individuals could contribute a maximum of $16,500 a year to their 401(k) plans.

Tax lawyers say it is also important to know whether Romney's IRA holds stakes in Bain funds directly, or through related, offshore entities.

These entities, commonly used by tax-exempt investors such as Romney's IRA, legally allow the investors to avoid having to pay a special tax, known as the unearned business income tax, or UBTI.

While the Wall Street Journal suggested on Thursday that avoidance of the special tax was a big reason for the size of Romney's IRA, some tax lawyers said that its size might simply reflect the extreme profitability of a carried interest held by the IRA. "The best guess is that he put the carried interest into the IRA," Miller said.

Romney's IRA produced income of $1.5 million to $8.5 million over 2010 and through August 12, 2011, according to his financial summary, but it is unknown what, if any, taxes the IRA may have paid on its carried interest. Saul, Romney's campaign spokeswoman, declined requests for comment.

(Reporting by Lynnley Browning; Additional reporting by Gregory Roumeliotis; Editing by Amy Stevens, Eddie Evans and Carol Bishopric)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_romney_ira

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A year on, has Egypt's revolution stalled? (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? A few dozen activists huddle around tents on a grubby traffic island in Cairo's Tahrir Square, a forlorn reminder of the revolutionary ardor that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

A year on, the revolution that youth activists spearheaded appears to have stalled as the military rulers who replaced Mubarak seem to be exploiting opposition splits and popular fears of chaos to shore up their power and limit the scope of change.

Many Egyptians admire the youthful fervor of the revolutionaries but oppose their implacable hostility to the military caretakers, who have pledged to step aside by mid-year and hand power to elected civilians.

In a nod of approval to the army's transition timetable, voters have thronged polls for Egypt's first free parliamentary vote in decades and elected an assembly dominated by Islamists.

Their victory is a huge change in itself. Egyptians speak more freely a year on, their daily protests evidence both of newfound liberties and hope that people can make a difference.

For activists, however, the revolution will be incomplete as long as the army remains in power. Too little has changed, they say, to end a street movement demanding deeper, broader, faster reform. New campaigns have been born, such as 3askar Kaziboon, or Military Liars, in which activists roam the streets showing videos of protesters wounded since the end of the 18-day revolt.

"The more time has passed the more people have become convinced that the regime has not changed... They decapitated the regime so that the people would calm down, convinced that change has happened when it has not," said Amal Bakry of the No To Military Trials pressure group set up after the revolt. "It's still present in its ministers, its government, in everything."

Kamal al-Ganzouri, the generals' choice for prime minister, led the cabinet under Mubarak in the 1990s.

Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the general who is now Egypt's ruler, was Mubarak's defense minister for two decades. A leaked U.S. embassy cable said officers called him Mubarak's "poodle."

An emergency law in force since 1981 remains. The generals say it is necessary to keep order, but activists say it allows them to ride roughshod over civil liberties as Mubarak once did.

No To Military Trials estimates 12,000 people have been referred to military courts since Mubarak fell, four times the number who faced that fate during his 30-year tenure, when state security courts were the venue of choice for emergency trials.

Some were jailed for their criticism of the military council and now speak of a campaign to crush the pro-democracy movement.

Sipping tea at a cafe in an upscale district of Cairo, Bakry said her group struggled, at first, to convince Egyptians that the army was trying to block real democratic change.

The army was feted for pushing Mubarak aside last February and ensuring order when his hated state security forces fled the streets, but its handling of street protests in recent months has appeared at times to take a leaf out of Mubarak's book.

In October, at least 25 people were killed near the state media building in Cairo. Protesters say military police drove vehicles into a crowd of protesters and fired live shots. The army blamed foreign elements and other instigators. Watching state media, some Egyptians thought the army had been attacked.

"People were not emotionally ready to face the truth," Bakry said. "They did not want to admit that the revolution had been defeated and ... that the army, so highly regarded among the people, was doing all these things."

TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN RULE

Egyptians willing to give the army the benefit of the doubt went out to vote for parliament from November 28 and found they could cast their ballots for the first time without fear of intimidation from thugs or finding ballot boxes already stuffed.

The new assembly, which held its first sitting on Monday, is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood -- officially banned from politics under Mubarak.

Egyptians speak more freely since the revolt, they can and do protest more freely despite repeated crackdowns and they have set up a dizzying number of political parties in recent months.

There has been an increase in what activist Mozn Hassan, head of Nazra for Feminist Studies, calls "active citizenship."

"It could fail, it could be stolen but there are spaces and subjects open now that you could not discuss in 2010," she said.

"Whether you like what happened or not, there has been an experience with political parties now."

But critics question how much say new deputies will have in drafting the new constitution or naming the government. Under the latest timetable, there will be a two-month window from the end of parliamentary elections in March to presidential polls in June in which to name a 100-member body to draft the document, agree on its contents and put it to a referendum.

To those who have campaigned for years for an empowered parliament and for the rule of law, it seems the generals are railroading the reform process. The army says it will not field a presidential candidate, but activists worry it will back its preferred choice via state media, with others unable to compete.

Veteran activist and politician Ayman Nour told Reuters the army was conceding control of parliament to politicians while trying to keep its grip over the powerful presidency.

"They see it as them giving parliament to political forces, or Islamic forces, while they keep their right to a president who belongs to them," he said. "They want a person to whom they can give instructions, who guarantees loyalty to them."

Disappointed by what they see as the superficial reforms of the army-led transition, candidates have quit the presidential race. Mohammed ElBaradei, former head of the U.N. nuclear agency, withdrew complaining too little had changed. So has Nour, the only man to ever challenge Mubarak to the presidency.

Since the uprising, Nour has failed to overturn a Mubarak-era conviction on charges of falsifying party registration documents that bars him from the presidential race. Critics complain that Egypt's judiciary is still filled with Mubarak-era appointees who resist change. Mubarak-era laws remain in place.

"I warned from Tahrir Square of the danger of leaving responsibility in the hands of the army, and I said clearly that I fear the military beret and the religious turban," Nour said.

"The counter-revolution is managing Egypt now."

ONE YEAR ON

Egypt's most powerful Islamist force, the Muslim Brotherhood, has largely kept its followers off the streets to focus on winning elections, consolidating its power inside parliament and working through the institutions of state.

Egyptians tired of political turbulence that has hit the economy and keen to restore normality, say it is time to end protests and give the newly-elected parliament a chance.

Despondent at the Brotherhood's position, street activists want to wrest back the initiative and are urging mass protests against the generals on the January 25 anniversary of the uprising.

With marches, wall art and videos of wounded protesters, activists are trying to revive the euphoria that swept the Arab world in 2011 for fear that creeping fatalism among their compatriots could allow Egypt to return to authoritarian rule.

"I am against protesting on January 25. Military rule will be meaningless after the parliamentary and presidential election; you are rushing something that if you wait will come on its own," said 30-year-old Ahmed Farouq, an optician who, like some two thirds of Egyptians, voted for Islamists. "Ordinary citizens want to calm down and achieve stability."

The army has declared January 25 a public holiday to celebrate, part of what critics say is an effort to appropriate what the revolution stands for and limit calls for change. It appears to have stepped up Mubarak-era scrutiny of civil society groups.

In December, Egyptian authorities swooped on some 17 non-governmental groups, part of a probe into what they say are illegal foreign funds for political activities.

Nazra was not raided but has faced a smear campaign.

"They said I was an American agent!" said Hassan, slumping her head on the desk in mock shame. "Our funding delays worsened after the revolution. It was hard anyway but it worsened."

The April 6 Youth Movement, one of the army's most prominent critics, has been labeled a foreign-funded agency doing the bidding of unnamed outsiders. Its members say they are regularly attacked by "concerned citizens" who think they are spies.

Many campaigners say the real revolution has not happened in the government but in the Egyptian people, who have found more courage to stand up for their rights.

"The real change is in the people who acted, people like me who had never been to a protest in my life before January 28 last year... Now there are thousands, hundreds of thousands who are willing to be part of this change," said Bakry.

Hassan agreed: "Uprisings are 18 days, protests are 18 days, but if you want use the word revolution in a difficult society like Egypt's... you are talking 10 years."

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan and Tom Perry; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Diana Abdallah)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_nm/us_egypt_revolution

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Classic matchups for spots in Super Bowl (AP)

No complaining about these championship matchups: prolific offense vs. stingy defense, or old foes renewing a storied rivalry.

Whichever suits your preference, the NFL has it this weekend.

When the New England Patriots host the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday for the AFC title, four players who have come to represent the highest levels of achievement will be on each side of the ball. Tom Brady, seeking a fifth start in a Super Bowl, and Wes Welker on New England's offense, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed on Baltimore's defense.

How juicy.

"They've got a lot of guys over there that are very explosive," said Reed, the Ravens' star safety. "Obviously, they score a lot of points, and we've all seen that. It's going to be an all-day affair for our defense."

The other championship affair Sunday is at Candlestick Park, where the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers have played some memorable games, regular season and postseason. Despite the geographic separation, these franchises have quite a history with each other.

"You know there are a lot of memories," former Giants quarterback Phil Simms said of the rivalry. "They went from maybe the greatest to the worst in lots of ways. The games were awesome."

It could shape up as an awesome weekend. Certainly an intriguing one.

New England (14-3) hasn't won the AFC crown since 2007, when it was unbeaten until the Giants pulled off a shocker in the Super Bowl. The Patriots' last NFL title came in January 2005.

To get their fourth league championship under coach Bill Belichick and with Brady at quarterback, they'll need to have their offense in high gear, which it has been nearly all season. The Patriots scored at least 27 points in all but three games and averaged 32.8, including last week's 45-10 rout of Denver, their ninth straight victory.

But New England didn't beat an opponent that finished with a winning record, and lost to its two most difficult foes, Pittsburgh and the Giants.

Baltimore (13-4) most assuredly presents a difficult challenge, with a defense that yielded 266 points, more than only two teams.

"I think we have a lot of confidence, we are a confident type team, have a lot of good players and they feed off each other," All-Pro receiver Welker said. "We feel someone will step up and make a play ... and it makes it tough on defenses.

"I understand we are playing a great football team this week and have to be on top of everything. No mental errors, no bad mistakes, knowing your job and taking care of your business."

Brady usually does that, although before the romp past Denver, he and the Patriots had lost three straight postseason games. He is 4-0 in regular-season meetings with the Ravens, but lost their only playoff matchup.

If he isn't at his best, it will be because of Lewis, Reed and that staunch Baltimore D. The Ravens are as physical as anyone, and one thing that historically has slowed Brady has been when a defense gets in his face, disrupts his rhythm ? and hits him. Many times.

"It's more important that we stop their whole offense," said Reed, whom Belichick called the greatest safety he has faced during his coaching career. "We can't focus on one particular player, because Brady doesn't. Brady throws it to everybody. I've been saying that all week. He'll throw it to an offensive lineman. We're looking at everybody that's eligible that's going out on a route and not going out on a route. We're paying attention to everybody. Everybody has a responsibility. They have 11 guys on the field. We have 11 guys on the field. Everybody has to do their responsibility."

The 11 guys on each side of the ball at Candlestick Park for the NFC championship game will carry on a tradition of notable meetings that dates back to when the 49ers (14-3) and Giants (11-7) were dominating the conference in the 1980s. Their only faceoff in the title game was in January 1991, when New York kicked five field goals for a 15-13 victory, preventing San Francisco from going after a third straight Super Bowl trophy.

While it's fun to conjure up memories of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Lawrence Taylor and Matt Bahr, this year's participants are more concerned with adding to a winning legacy. This is the 49ers' first playoff appearance since the 2002 season, when they won a wild 39-38 wild-card game against the Giants. New York, of course, won it all four years ago.

"Winning is what it's all about and it definitely makes coming to work a lot better than hearing, Who's going to be your new head coach or defensive coordinator?' All-Pro defensive tackle Justin Smith said. "I'll take this over the other for sure."

No worries on the coaching front after Jim Harbaugh made his first year in charge one of the most successful for any rookie coach. Harbaugh doesn't have much of a feel for Giants-49ers, though; he didn't play for either team.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who was on the 1990 championship staff, knows all about it.

"I have thought about that and we will talk about some of the things that occurred there," Coughlin said, "but only from the standpoint of the history and the tradition and what a great event that was at that particular time. That was a long time ago and I think some of our players, because they are historians, will know a little about that game and the great players that played in that game."

More appropriate, perhaps, is the 27-20 win by the 49ers in November, a game decided only when Smith blocked Eli Manning's last-minute pass deep in San Francisco territory. It was the latest installment of a grand rivalry.

Until Sunday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_championship_weekend

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Erick Silva ?s DQ will stand, but UFC implementing replay

Remember Erick Silva's bizarre disqualification at UFC 142? The one that caused the Brazilian prospect to go from jubilant to despondent in about .15 seconds? The one that made UFC commentator Joe Rogan call out referee Mario Yamasaki's judgment while in the Octagon? The one that made us all wonder why there's no instant replay in MMA?

Yeah, that one? It won't be overturned. Since the fight was in Brazil, with no regulatory commission, the UFC served as the regulator of the fight. They announced that they have no plans to change the fight to a no-contest.

From Marc Ratner, the UFC's vice president of government and regulatory affairs:

"Based on the referee's verbal warnings and his determination that the blows were intentional and a disqualifying foul, this is not the type of decision that can be reviewed," Ratner stated. "Therefore, the decision stands."

However, Ratner did share some good news. The UFC will start using instant replay at their self-regulated, international events, and will encourage state commissions to come into the 90s and use replay.

While it may not be the exact outcome that MMA fans -- or Erick Silva -- wants, it's still a good sign that the UFC is willing to make a change to improve the sport overall.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/erick-silva-dq-stand-ufc-implementing-replay-154335851.html

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Renowned attorney Bennett to represent Megaupload

FILE - In this April 30, 2007 file photo, attorney Robert Bennett speaks in Washington. Bennett, one of the nation's most prominent defense lawyers will represent file-sharing website Megaupload on charges that the company used its popular site to orchestrate a massive piracy scheme that enabled millions of illegal downloads of movies and other content. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this April 30, 2007 file photo, attorney Robert Bennett speaks in Washington. Bennett, one of the nation's most prominent defense lawyers will represent file-sharing website Megaupload on charges that the company used its popular site to orchestrate a massive piracy scheme that enabled millions of illegal downloads of movies and other content. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

(AP) ? When Megaupload executives arrive in court to answer charges that they orchestrated a massive online piracy scheme, they'll be backed by a prominent lawyer who has defended Bill Clinton against sexual harassment charges and Enron against allegations of corporate fraud.

Washington attorney Robert Bennett said Friday that he will represent the company, which was indicted in federal court in Alexandria Thursday on copyright infringement and other charges.

The U.S. government shut down Megaupload's file-sharing website on Thursday, alleging that the company facilitated illegal downloads of copyrighted movies and other content. Seven individuals ? including the company's founder, who had his name legally changed to Kim Dotcom ? were also charged. Dotcom and three others were arrested in New Zealand; three others remain at large.

New Zealand police raided several homes and businesses linked to Dotcom and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials said.

In Hong Kong, where Megaupload is based, customs officials said they seized more than $42.5 million in assets. They said the company operated out of luxury hotel space costing more than $12,000 a day, and they seized high-speed servers and other equipment from the offices.

The shutdown and indictment generated headlines around the world in part because of the size and scope of Megaupload's operation. Sandvine, Inc., a Canadian company that provides equipment to monitor Internet traffic, said the website alone accounted for about 1 percent of traffic on U.S. cable and DSL lines. The site is even more popular in many foreign countries.

Bennett said that "we intend to vigorously defend against these charges" but declined to comment on the case in detail.

Bennett is best known for serving as President Bill Clinton's attorney when he was accused of sexual harassment by Paula Jones. He has also represented Defense Secretaries Clark Clifford and Caspar Weinberger.

Megaupload was no stranger to accusations that its website existed for the sole purpose of mass copyright breach. Before its website was taken down, Megaupload offered a more detailed defense of its operations, claiming in a statement that such accusations are "grotesquely overblown."

The company said it had a clear, easy-to-follow procedure if movie studios or other copyright holders saw that their products were being illegally shared on Megaupload, and said that it responded to those "takedown notices" as required by law.

"Of course, abuse does happen and is an inevitable fact of life in a free society, but it is curbed heavily and efficiently by our close cooperation with trusted takedown partners. It is just unfortunate that the activities of a small group of 'black sheep' overshadows the millions of users that use our sites legitimately every day," the statement said.

Indeed, sites like megaupload.com, known as cyberlockers, can fulfill legitimate needs and are used every day by people looking for an efficient way to share or transfer large files that can't easily be sent by email.

In their indictment, however, federal prosecutors offered a detailed glimpse of the internal workings of the website. They allege that Megaupload was well aware that the vast majority of its users were there to illegally download copyrighted content.

According to the indictment, in a 2008 email chat session, two of the alleged coconspirators exchange messages, with one saying "we have a funny business . . . modern days pirates :)" and the other responds, "we're not pirates, we're just providing shipping services to pirates :)".

In another instance, one of the defendants allegedly laments in colorful language that an episode HBO's "The Sopranos" has been uploaded to site, but the dialogue is in French, limiting its appeal.

In fact, prosecutors allege that the entire website was specifically designed to encourage piracy. The website provided cash bonuses to users who uploaded content popular enough to prompt mass downloads ? such content was almost always copyrighted material.

Stefan Mentzer, an intellectual property partner with the White and Case law firm in New York, said it's likely that Megaupload will try to argue at least two defenses: One is that its service qualifies as a so-called "safe harbor" under Digital Millennium Copyright Act ? the federal law governing copyright infringement ? if they can show, for instance, that they had no actual knowledge that infringing material was on their system. Another possible defense would be jurisdictional ? specifically, that a case can't be brought in the Eastern District of Virginia against a Hong Kong-based company like Megaupload without evidence that they directed criminal activity related to the district.

But Mentzer said both defenses would be a challenge, given the evidence that prosecutors appear to have collected.

"The Department of Justice doesn't just cavalierly file these lawsuits," Mentzer said.

Federal prosecutors have made Internet piracy a priority in the last decade, especially in the Eastern District of Virginia, which can claim jurisdiction over many such cases because large portions of the Internet's backbone ? servers and other infrastructure ? are physically located in northern Virginia's technology corridor.

The vast majority of those cases have resulted in guilty pleas and prison time. On Friday, a day after announcement of the Megaupload case, a federal judge sentenced Matthew David Howard Smith, 24, of Raleigh, North Carolina, to 14 months in prison for his role in founding a website called NinjaVideo. That site was one of many shut down in 2010, at a time when it facilitated nearly 1 million illegal downloads a week.

NinjaVideo was what prosecutors called a "linking site" to Megaupload. Casual users of Megaupload would be unable to find popular movies and TV shows on the site without the proper links. Sites like NinjaVideo allowed users to easily search for the desired movies or music and provided the links that enabled them to download the content from Megaupload.

The other co-founder of NinjaVideo, Hana Beshara, was sentenced earlier this month to 22 months in prison. While she admitted guilt, she portrayed herself as a sort of Robin Hood of the online world, stealing from greedy movie studios to provide entertainment downloads to the masses in the form of free films, TV shows, videogames and music.

While the legal defense for piracy may be difficult, accused Internet pirates clearly have their supporters, as evidenced by the millions of people who use their sites as well as the response to Thursday's Megaupload shutdown. Within hours of the indictment being unsealed, the loose affiliation of hackers known as Anonymous caused temporary shutdowns of the Justice Department website as well as the websites of the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry groups that support a tougher piracy laws.

It could be months before the criminal case against Megaupload gets underway. The four defendants arrested in made an initial appearance in a New Zealand court Friday and are scheduled to make a second appearance on Monday. Authorities have said it could take a year or more to bring them to the U.S. if they fight extradition.

___

AP Business Writers Daniel Wagner in Washington and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-20-Internet%20Piracy-Megaupload/id-151071ef5a4747448511d034b77a3609

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Report: Lythgoe vows to pay Seacrest's salary

A well-paid Ryan Seacrest will continue to host "American Idol," if Nigel Lythgoe has anything to say about it.

By Ree Hines

Ryan Seacrest is one of entertainment's busiest men. In addition to his hosting work on "American Idol," he's an E! News host, has a nationally syndicated radio show, produces a number of television shows and he's set to launch his own TV network. But recent rumors revealed he might have some extra time on his hands soon.

It seems his reported $15 million payday for "Idol" is a bit much for?many of the show's bigwigs, and since it's unlikely he would take on the same talent-show duties for a slashed salary, some expect Seacrest to leave "Idol" after the current season ends. But not executive producer Nigel Lythgoe.

According to TMZ, Lythgoe not only expects Seacrest to stay, he's willing to reach into his pockets to make sure that happens.

After all of the judging shakeups on?the show has seen, Lythgoe believes that Seacrest is an "extremely important" part of "Idol," and he's said to be ready to back that up by making up for any salary sacrifice asked of Seacrest from his own funds.

That could be one pricey proposal.

What do you think? Is Seacrest worth the big bucks? Do you believe Lythgoe would really make up a multimillion dollar difference in pay? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.??

?

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Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10189991-report-lythgoe-vows-to-pay-seacrests-idol-salary

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Senior Goldman bond executive retires: memo (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Donald Mullen, a senior bond executive at Goldman Sachs (GS.N) who oversaw controversial subprime mortgage trades leading up to the financial crisis, has retired, according to an internal memo distributed on Friday and obtained by Reuters.

His is the latest in a string of high-profile departures from the Wall Street bank, which has been struggling to maintain profits by cutting staff and bonuses in a weak business environment.

Mullen, a veteran bond trader who was most recently head of the credit and mortgage business inside Goldman's securities division, joined the bank as a partner in July 2001 to head leveraged finance.

He previously held senior positions at Bear Stearns, Salomon Brothers, Drexel Burnham Lambert and First Boston and leaves Goldman as a member of several influential internal groups, including the management committee and firmwide risk committee.

A spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo, which was signed by Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn.

As a senior mortgage executive at Goldman, Mullen was actively engaged in derivative trades that became known as "the big short." Goldman constructed those collateralized debt obligations in 2007 to profit from declines in the value of subprime mortgage bonds.

Mullen was one of a handful of senior Goldman executives whose emails were publicly released by a Senate committee that investigated Goldman's actions leading up to the financial crisis.

"Sounds like we will make some serious money," Mullen said when a ratings agency downgraded a group of mortgage-backed securities Goldman was betting against.

Such trades allowed Goldman to avoid major losses from the collapse of the mortgage market, but also brought much public scrutiny after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Goldman of fraud related to one of its subprime CDOs. The bank paid $550 million to settle the charges in 2010 without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

Dozens of top Goldman executives have departed over the last year, as Wall Street faces difficult market conditions and new financial reform regulations that have already started to curb profitability. Last week, two co-heads of the securities division that housed Mullen's group also stepped down.

Goldman 2011 earnings of $2.5 billion were the weakest since 2008 and down 47 percent from the previous year. In response, the bank cut its payroll by 2,400 employees, or 7 percent, and reduced compensation expenses by 21 percent. The average Goldman employee received $367,057 in 2011, down from $430,700 the previous year.

Mullen's retirement announcement came the day after Goldman employees were informed of their 2011 bonuses, and few were spared from the bank's newfound frugality.

Some employees in weak-performing areas received no bonus at all, according to one source in the bank's fixed-income trading division. Compensation consultants have estimated that senior Wall Street executives, particularly in fixed-income divisions, were sure to see bonus cuts of 30 percent or more.

Mullen's departure may also reflect a change in the type of businesses that will drive earnings for Wall Street banks going forward. Morgan Stanley (MS.N), which also reported muted 2011 profitability this week, has cut staff from divisions that will be treated less favorably under new capital regulations, such as subprime debt securitization.

On a conference call with analysts to discuss Goldman's results on Wednesday, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said the recent string of high-profile departures have occurred because senior executives stayed longer than usual to help Goldman cope with the financial crisis and its aftermath.

"Through both what I would call a financial crisis and reputational issues, the senior people at Goldman Sachs did not leave," he said.

The normal tenure of a Goldman partner is about eight years, Viniar said, with 15 to 20 percent of partners retiring bi-annually to make room for new arrivals. But there was "far less" turnover during the past four years, Viniar said.

(Reporting By Lauren Tara LaCapra; Additional reporting by Katya Wachtel; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/bs_nm/us_goldman_retirement

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