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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sky will launch an internet based TV service in the UK in the first half of 2012
Update: Still waiting for Sky Go on Android? The company mentioned during its presentation that the app will finally arrive on Google's platform in February. It will also have new channels, including Sky 1, Sky Living and Sky Arts, plus, of course, the new Sky Sports F1 HD channel. The company is also expanding its broadband reach, with plans to cover a million more homes by June 2013, and add a Sky Broadband Unlimited Fibre option. For 20 a month, it offers 40 megabit download speed with no usage caps based on BT Fibre.
Continue reading Sky will launch an internet based TV service in the UK in the first half of 2012
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Monday, January 30, 2012
FDA approves Roche skin cancer drug (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? U.S. health regulators on Monday approved Roche's pill to treat an advanced form of the most common form of skin cancer, known as basal cell carcinoma.
The drug, Erivedge, which was co-developed by Curis Inc, was given a green light by the Food and Drug Administration more than a month ahead of the expected March 8 decision date. It was approved for use by adults whose cancer cannot be treated with surgery or radiation or whose disease has spread to other parts of the body or returned following surgery.
Erivedge, known chemically as vismodegib, is the first drug to gain FDA approval for advanced basal cell carcinoma. Curis, which earned a $10 million milestone payment as a result of the approval, is entitled to royalty payments on sales of the drug.
"Today's approval provides a new treatment for people with advanced basal cell carcinoma who, until now, had no approved medicines to help shrink disfiguring or potentially life-threatening lesions," Hal Barron, Roche chief medical officer, said in a statement.
The drug, which is taken once a day, is expected to cost about $7,500 a month, with an estimated 10-month course of treatment totaling about $75,000, Curis said in a regulatory filing.
Roche is awaiting an approval decision on the drug in Europe.
Basal cell carcinoma is generally a slow-growing and painless form of skin cancer that starts in the top layer of the skin and develops on areas that are regularly exposed to sunlight or other ultraviolet radiation.
Erivedge works by inhibiting a signaling pathway that is active in most basal cell cancers and only in a few normal tissues, such as hair follicles.
The drug was approved with a warning alerting patients and health-care professionals of the potential risk of death or severe birth effects to a fetus. Pregnancy status must be verified prior to the start of Erivedge treatment, the FDA said.
Curis shares were down 16 cents, or 3 percent, at $5.02 on Nasdaq. Roche shares closed off 1.2 percent in Switzerland.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; editing by Mark Porter and Gunna Dickson)
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years.
In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks.
"Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status," it said.
Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status.
Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed.
All of the ratings were given negative outlooks.
Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts.
"Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures," Fitch said.
Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory.
With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact.
The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13.
Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with "detached serenity."
"They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too," he said during a live interview on Italian television.
"They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament," he said.
Fitch said of Italy: "A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation."
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)
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$132.9 billion: Remember TARP? It still owes you.
$132.9 billion short, the 2008 US bailout of the financial system could continue through 2017. Some of the $132.9 billion TARP money will never be recovered.?
A government watchdog says U.S. taxpayers are still owed $132.9 billion that companies haven't repaid from the financial bailout, and some of that will never be recovered.
Skip to next paragraphThe bailout launched at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 will continue to exist for years, says a report issued Thursday by Christy Romero, the acting special inspector general for the $700 billion bailout. Some bailout programs, such as the effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by reducing mortgage payments, will last as late as 2017, costing the government an additional $51 billion or so.
The gyrating stock market has slowed the Treasury Department's efforts to sell off its stakes in 458 bailed-out companies, the report says. They include insurer American International Group Inc., General Motors Co. and Ally Financial Inc.
If Treasury plans to sell its stock in the three companies at or above the price where taxpayers would break even on their investment ? $28.73 a share for AIG, $53.98 for GM ? it may take a long time for the market to rebound to that level, the report says. AIG's shares closed Wednesday at $25.31, while GM ended at $24.92. Ally isn't publicly traded.
It will also be challenging for the government to get out of the 458 companies as the market remains volatile and banks struggle to keep afloat in the tough economy, it says.
Congress authorized $700 billion for the bailout of financial companies and automakers, and $413.4 billion was paid out. So far the government has recovered about $318 billion. The bailout is called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or?TARP.
"TARP?is not over," Romero said in a statement. She said her office will maintain its commitment to protect taxpayers for the duration of the program.
Treasury spokesman Matt Anderson said the department "has made substantial progress winding down?TARP and has already recovered more than 77 percent of the funds disbursed for the program, through repayments and other income."
"We'll continue to balance the important goals of exiting our investments as soon as practicable and maximizing value for taxpayers," Anderson said.
The government has unwound its investments in four of the companies that received the most aid: Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Chrysler Group LLC and Chrysler Financial, the automaker's old lending arm.
On Wednesday, Treasury announced that it had sold the final batch of securities under its $368 million Small Business Administration loan program under?TARP.
In Romero's quarterly report to Congress, she said her office has uncovered and prevented fraud related to TARP. Investigations by her office resulted in criminal charges against 10 people and three convictions in the quarter ended Dec. 31, the report notes. Altogether, the investigations have resulted in criminal charges against 61 people, including 45 senior company executives, according to the report. Thirty-one of the 61 individuals have been convicted. Civil charges have been filed against 38 people.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hOXxW4Sz7Qs/132.9-billion-Remember-TARP-It-still-owes-you
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Fading Gingrich attacks Romney in ad (Reuters)
MIAMI (Reuters) ? Newt Gingrich struggled to regain momentum in the Republican presidential race on Friday as two new polls showed him falling behind rival Mitt Romney, who was seen as the winner of the final debate before the Florida primary.
The White House contenders courted Florida's sizable Hispanic vote, many of them Cubans, with appearances on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network, where Romney received an unusually warm reception and the reaction to Gingrich was more sedate.
Bouncing back after losing the South Carolina primary to Gingrich on Saturday, Romney had an 8-percentage point lead over him in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. A Quinnipiac University poll gave him a 9-percentage point edge.
The Reuters/Ipsos online poll gave Romney 41 percent and Gingrich 33 percent ahead of Saturday's contest.
That margin is similar to three polls released on Thursday that all showed Romney taking control of the battle in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor enjoys a financial and organizational advantage over Gingrich.
Romney battered the former House of Representatives speaker in two debates this week, wounding him in the same format that has helped fuel Gingrich's campaign.
"With the debates now over, Gingrich will need some other way to reverse the tide that appears to be going against him," Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown said.
Tuesday's Florida primary is the fourth contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 U.S. election. Romney won in New Hampshire and former Senator Rick Santorum won the first contest in Iowa.
Romney repeatedly attacked Gingrich at Thursday's debate in Florida, scoring points on immigration, candidates' finances and even lunar exploration.
"That was Romney on Red Bull," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said. "You could tell Newt was tired, he's carrying a heavy load. He was counting on pure momentum to carry him through Florida, and that momentum has stopped."
At a campaign event in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Romney reminded the crowd of his debate performance.
"How about that debate last night? Wasn't that fun?" Romney asked. "I've had the fun of two debates where I had to stand up and battle, and battling was fun."
'CUBA WILL BE FREE'
An energized Romney, whom Gingrich has described as the most anti-immigrant candidate in the Republican race, won several standing ovations from the Hispanic crowd in Miami earlier on Friday.
"There is a time coming soon when Cuba will be free," Romney told them, adding "America can't sit back" in dealing with the island nation off the coast of Florida.
Gingrich received a much quieter response, once again mocking Romney's call for "self-deportation" of illegal immigrants as "a fantasy. It's not a solution."
Gingrich said the concept might work for younger illegal immigrants who had been in the United States a short time, but not for older immigrants with deep family ties. They should be allowed to apply for citizenship through local councils similar to draft boards, he said.
A Florida win for Romney would put him in a strong position to capture the nomination as the primary map tilts in his favor in February with contests in seven states where he has the potential for strong showings.
Next up on February 4 is Nevada, where Romney won with 51 percent of the vote during his failed 2008 presidential bid. On February 7 Minnesota and Colorado hold caucuses and Missouri holds a primary. Gingrich did not make the ballot in Missouri.
Four of the states with February contests - Nevada, Maine, Colorado and Minnesota - use caucus systems, which often require greater organization to rally voter turnout. That could help Romney take advantage of his superior financial and staff resources.
On February 28, Michigan and Arizona hold primaries. Romney was raised in Michigan, where his father was a governor and car executive.
A new Gingrich television ad in Florida asked: "What kind of man would mislead, distort and deceive just to win an election?"
"This man would be Mitt Romney," the ad's narrator said.
Romney's camp said the sharp tone from Gingrich was a sign he was desperate to distract from his own record as House speaker, where he faced an ethics probe, and as a consultant with mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
"It is laughable to see lectures on honesty coming from a paid influence peddler who suffered an unprecedented ethics reprimand, was forced to pay a $300,000 penalty, and resigned in disgrace at the hands of his own party," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.
(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny; writing by John Whitesides; editing by Alistair Bell and Mohammad Zargham)
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Too little, too late? Factory jobs making comeback
John Schoen, msnbc.com
Manufacturing accounts for 9 percent of the U.S. workforce, compared with 28 percent in 1960 and 12 percent just a decade ago.
By Allison Linn
President Barack Obama is on the road this week touting a plan to bring jobs back to the United States, in part by bolstering manufacturing here.
It?s no secret that?s a tough challenge.
The United States has lately seen an increase in manufacturing jobs, something Obama noted in his State of the Union address Tuesday. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 330,000 manufacturing jobs have been created over the past two years, bringing the total to nearly 11.8 million as of December.
Still, that is a nearly 2 million short of the?13.7 million manufacturing jobs that existed when the economy went into recession in December 2007. And it?s far fewer than in the late 1970s, when more than 19 million Americans -- out of a much smaller work force -- were employed in manufacturing, which was?seen as a key path to a middle-class life.
Manufacturing may be bouncing back, but it is returning in a far different form.?The recession washed out many inefficent companies, leaving behind?operations that even leaner and more highly automated. That means they can make do?with?fewer workers even as they increase production.
As a recent series of stories in The New York Times has highlighted, successful companies like Apple have prospered largely by mastering a global supply chain that depends on sending work overseas to take advantage of low-cost labor.
Obama is hoping that tax breaks and other incentives will help encourage manufacturers to keep jobs here, or even bring some back. Time will tell whether that is true.
Related:
Why companies aren?t hiring more workers
Yes, we do still make things in America
Apple accused of ignoring labor abuses
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Video: Faber Report: AT&T Earnings
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46147756/
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Bosses Who Work Out Are Nicer
60-Second Science |
Mind & Brain
Employees rated supervisers who worked out as less abusive than their sedentary counterparts. Christopher Intagliata reports.
January 26, 2012
More 60-Second Science
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We've all heard exercise is good for your physical and mental wellbeing. But a good workout can actually influence the mental wellbeing of others, too. Because bosses who hit the gym tend to be less abusive to their employees. That's according to a study in the Journal of Business and Psychology. [James P. Burton, Jenny M. Hoobler and Melinda L. Scheuer, Supervisor Workplace Stress and Abusive Supervision: The Buffering Effect of Exercise]
Researchers asked 98 MBA students who were also employed full-time to rate how their supervisors treated them, by responding to statements like "[my boss] puts me down in front of others." The researchers also had supervisors fill out a different survey, about their stress levels and weekly exercise. And, as the authors expected, the more stressed out supervisors were, the more their employees felt belittled by them. But the employees felt better about bosses who exercised, whether it was yoga, cardio or weightlifting. And just one or two days a week did the trick.
Exercise didn't simply melt away the stress?bosses who worked out reported feeling just as much pressure as their sedentary counterparts. Active bosses just spared subordinates the verbal attacks. So next time you feel like telling your boss to take a hike... it might actually be sound advice!
?Christopher Intagliata
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]
Don't actually tell your boss to take a hike...
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Research: South Africans most active tweeters (AP)
JOHANNESBURG ? Young people tweeting from BlackBerrys and iPhones are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, with South Africans by far the most vociferous, according to new research published Thursday.
Kenya-based Portland Communications and Tweetminster published findings indicating Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation and is fast becoming an important source of information. More than 80 percent of those polled said they mainly used it for communicating with friends, 68 percent said they use it to monitor news and 22 percent to search for jobs, the companies said.
The research analyzed more than 11.5 million geographically pinpointed tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011. That was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa's most active tweeters.
South Africans, with the continent's biggest economy, were the most prolific with over twice as many tweets at 5,030,226 than the next most active country of Kenya with 2,476,800 tweets. Surprisingly, Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, had only 1,646,212 tweets from its more than 160 million people. It was followed by Egypt with 1,214,062 and Morocco with 745,620 tweets.
African tweeters are young, averaging 20 to 29 years, compared to 39 worldwide, the report said. And some 57 percent of analyzed tweets were sent from mobile phones, mainly BlackBerrys and iPhones.
The researchers noted how few African business and political leaders were joining Africa's burgeoning Twittersphere.
"With some notable exceptions, we found that business and political leaders were largely absent from the debates playing out on Twitter across the continent," they said. "As Twitter lifts off in Africa, governments, businesses and development agencies can really no longer afford to stay out of a new space where dialogue will increasingly be taking place."
Among noted Twitter users are President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Kagame got into an infamous Twitterspat last year with journalist Ian Birrell of The Guardian of London, with the two trading tweets about human rights and repression in the central African nation. The cyber-conversation first was joined by Kagame's foreign minister, and then went global.
While Kenyan soldiers and fighters of an extremist Somali Islamist group have been fighting each other, their spokesman have taken the battle onto Twitter, with taunts, accusations and insults being directly traded in a rare engagement on the Internet.
On Thursday, South Africa's new Corruption Watch campaign launched, including a Twitter account where tweeters encouraged each other to make it "the No. 1 followed Twitter account in South Africa."
The research, called "How Africa Tweets," found Twitter is helping form new links within Africa. The majority of those surveyed said at least half of the Twitter accounts they followed were based on the continent.
Beatrice Karanja, head of Portland Nairobi, said: "We saw the pivotal role of Twitter in the events in North Africa last year, but it is clear that Africa's Twitter revolution is really just beginning."
---
Online:
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame: http://twitter.com/paulkagame
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga: http://twitter.com/odinga_raila
Kenyan military spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir: http://twitter.com/Major_chirchir
Corruption Watch: http://twitter.com/Corruption_SA
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Celebrity Birthdays January 24: Mischa Barton, Ed Helms, Neil Diamond & More
Happy Tuesday, readers! What do you think of the Oscar noms? Did your favorites get a nod? I am loving the fact that Melissa McCarthy was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her hilarious role as Megan in “Bridesmaids”. Well deserved! Oh, and kudos to McCarthy’s co-star Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo for their nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Yay! Okay, got a little off topic there for a bit, sorry. Just very excited to see “Bridesmaids” recognized. Anyhoo, in today’s edition of celebrity birthdays, a former “Fresh Prince” star turned soap actress turns 33, “Shaggy” is 42 and a “Don’t Know Much” Neville brother is 71. Guess who? Happy Birthday, Mischa Barton! “The O.C.” actress is 26 years old today. Looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of Mischa this year, filming has begun on yet another horror flick she has been tapped to star in, “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”, and she recently completed filming “Apartment 1303: 3D”. “Into the Darkness” is scheduled for a 2013 release. Happy Birthday, Ed Helms! “The Office” and “Hangover” star is 37 years old today. In addition to seeing Helms every Thursday night as Andy Bernard in “The [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/PkYXO47Xrb4/
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Petition asks White House to probe MPAA's Chris Dodd (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES, Jan 22 (TheWrap.com) ? More than 10,000 petition signers are asking the White House to investigate comments made by MPAA chief executive Chris Dodd, who warned in an exclusive interview with Fox News that politicians who failed to back antipiracy legislation could see Hollywood dollars dry up.
Dodd's words, coming at the end of the week that saw two bills backed by the motion picture lobby -- the so-called PIPA and SOPA measures -- battered by nationwide protests and defections by formerly supportive politicians, amount to bribery, the petition claims.
"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd said. "Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."
Early Sunday, a petition was started.
"This is an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal. This is a brazen flouting of the 'above the law' status people of Dodd's position and wealth enjoy," the petition reads.
The petition was initiated by the New York-based educational and research group We The People Foundation. It has amassed more than 10,000 signatures.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Consumer watchdog targets payday loans
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau held a hearing in Birmingham, Ala., on payday lenders. Richard Cordray, the CFPB?s newly-appointed executive director, said his agency will examine both bank and nonbank institutions offering these short-term, small-dollar loans.
?We recognize that there is a need and a demand in the country for emergency credit,? he said. ?At the same time, it?s important that these products actually help consumers and not harm them. We know that some payday lenders are engaged in practices that present immediate risks to consumers and are illegal. Where we find these practices, we will take immediate steps to eliminate them.?
Payday loans are supposed to be short term: 14 days. As the name implies, they?re supposed to get you to the next pay day, when you?re able to repay the loan.
Here?s how it works. Let?s say you need $100 and the interest rate for that two week period is 17 percent. You write a postdated check made out to the lender for $117. If you can?t pay that amount when the two weeks is up, they keep $17, the loan is extended and another $17 fee is added on.
Critics say customers often roll-over their debt when they can?t repay it. They wind up living off that borrowed money at an annual interest rate of 400 to 600 percent or more.
Steven Stetson, a policy analyst with Alabama Arise, an anti-poverty group based in Montgomery, told the hearing people get ?churned through the system? six, eight, 10 times a year.
?If we have laws against gouging for gas and water, we ought to have laws against gouging for loans,? he said.
In his opening remarks, Director Cordray said the CFPB planned to look into the long-term use of payday loans.? He talked about a consumer who had contacted the agency. The man took out a $500 loan to pay for car repair. But at the end of two weeks, he couldn?t repay the loan.
It?s been nine months and the borrower has paid $900 on that loan. He has $312 more to go. The money is withdrawn directly from his paycheck and now he doesn?t have enough left to pay his bills.
Other customers at the hearing spoke favorably about their experience. They wore ?I Choose Payday Advance? stickers provided by the industry, the Associated Press reported.
LaDonna Banks said she needed the loan after she donated a kidney to her brother and couldn?t work.
?I borrowed the money. I paid back the money,? she said.
People who use payday loans tend to have less income, fewer assets and lower net worth than the average American family. They are disproportionately people of color. The industry insists it is serving people who are denied credit and shut out of the traditional banking system. ?
Ted Saunders, CEO of Ohio-based Community Choice Financial (which operates in more than a dozen states), said he was offended by suggestions that payday lenders take advantage of people. Saunders believes the federal government should go after the ?bad actors? in the business rather than creating new rules.
What do you think? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to hear from people who?ve used payday lenders. You can leave an anonymous comment on the CFPB website.?
More info:
Payday Loans Equal Very Costly Cash: Consumers Urged to Consider the Alternatives??
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10217549-consumer-watchdog-targets-payday-loans
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Pakistan rejects US self-defense claim on strikes (AP)
ISLAMABAD ? Pakistan's army on Monday formally rejected a U.S. claim that American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops last year were justified as self-defense, a stance that could complicate efforts to repair the troubled but vital relationship between the two countries.
In a detailed report, the army said that Pakistani troops did not trigger the Nov. 26 incident at two posts along the Afghan border by firing at American and Afghan forces, as the U.S. has alleged. Pakistan's army said its troops shot at suspected militants who were nowhere near coalition troops.
"Trying to affix partial responsibility of the incident on Pakistan is, therefore, unjustified and unacceptable," said the report, which was issued in response to the U.S. investigation that concluded at the end of December.
The U.S. expressed condolences for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers but said American troops acted "with appropriate force" in self-defense because they thought they were being attacked by Taliban insurgents.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. stood by the "thorough" investigation into the Nov. 26 incident conducted by the military's U.S. Central Command.
"We did offer to the Pakistani government, to the Pakistani military, that they could participate fully in our investigation and have their own people on our team. They declined to participate. That could have led to more convergence of view, perhaps," she told a news briefing Monday.
Pakistan responded quickly to the deadly attack by closing its border crossings to supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan. The borders have remained closed, and Pakistan also kicked the U.S. out of a base that was used to service American drones.
The differing accounts of what happened could make it difficult for the two sides to move forward, but many analysts believe they will find a way because it's in their own interests to do so. The U.S. needs Pakistan's help in targeting Islamist militants within the country and negotiating peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Islamabad is heavily reliant on billions of dollars in aid from Washington.
Pakistan said the fundamental cause of the deadly airstrikes was the decision by coalition forces not to tell Pakistan that American and Afghan troops were conducting an operation near the border inside Afghanistan before dawn on Nov. 26.
Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark, an Air Force special operations officer who led the U.S. investigation, has said U.S. and NATO commanders believed some of their military operations were compromised after details and locations were given to the Pakistanis.
Clark has also said that U.S. forces did not know that the two relatively new Pakistani outposts ? simple structures constructed with stacked gray stones ? had been set up on a mountain ridge along the border.
The Pakistani army countered that coalition forces must have known about the two posts set up at the end of September 2011, because they had conducted at least one other operation in the area afterward. Coalition aircraft also conducted constant surveillance of the area, the Pakistanis said.
The army said previously that it provided NATO with maps clearly marking the location of the border posts, but that claim did not appear in its report.
The U.S. has said its forces attacked the posts after Pakistani troops targeted them with heavy machine gun fire and "effective" mortar fire.
The Pakistani army said its soldiers did not shoot in the direction of the patrol, but instead fired three mortars and "a few machine gun rounds" at a location at least 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) away from the coalition forces.
The army criticized the U.S. and NATO for "deep, varied and systematic" failures that prevented them from realizing they were targeting Pakistani forces over the course of three separate engagements that lasted at least 90 minutes.
"In the process, every soldier on and around the posts, even on the reverse slope of the ridge, was individually targeted," said the Pakistani report. "This pattern of engagement cannot be justified by calling it 'self-defense.'"
The U.S. has acknowledged that its forces failed to determine who was firing at them and whether there were friendly forces in the area. The U.S. said its troops used incorrect maps and mistakenly provided Pakistan with the wrong location where they said fighting was taking place ? an area almost nine miles (14 kilometers) away.
The Pakistani army accused coalition forces of showing "no urgency whatsoever in a situation where due to use of overwhelming and disproportionate force ... lives were being lost."
"This displays utter disregard for the lives of the Pakistani soldiers," said the report, which pointed out the attack left behind seven widows and 16 orphans.
The Pakistani army claimed coalition forces attacked Pakistani troops four other times between June 2008 and July 2011, killing 18 soldiers.
Pakistan claimed coalition forces failed to hold anyone responsible for these past incidents. It refused to participate in the U.S. investigation into the Nov. 26, 2011, attack, claiming past U.S. probes into border incidents were biased.
"It is increasingly obvious to Pakistan military that the entire coordination mechanism has been reduced to an exercise in futility, is more for the purposes of optics and that it has repeatedly been undermined," said the army report.
___
Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad contributed to this report.
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Lawyers: Abortion doctor immune from prosecution (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Lawyers for a Utah abortion doctor charged with murder for the death of a fetus in Maryland asked a judge Friday to throw out the charges, arguing she is immune from prosecution and that the state is trying to infringe upon a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.
Dr. Nicola Riley and her former colleague, Dr. Steven Brigham of New Jersey, were indicted last month under a law that allows murder charges to be brought in the death of a viable fetus. The 2005 law had only been used previously for cases in which defendants were accused of assaulting or killing pregnant women, and prosecutors have acknowledged they are in uncharted territory by using it to charge abortion doctors. Thirty-seven other states have similar statutes.
At Riley's bail review hearing Friday in Cecil County Circuit Court in Elkton, Md., attorney Stuart O. Simms argued that prosecutors were attempting to criminalize constitutionally protected medical treatment.
"Based on their interpretation of the statute, they are now threatening to charge any medical professional in Cecil County with a state crime," Simms told The Associated Press after the hearing.
Judge Keith Baynes set bail for Riley at $300,000, the amount requested by Deputy State's Attorney Kerwin Miller, who argued that the evidence against the 46-year-old Salt Lake City resident is strong and characterized her as a flight risk. She was arrested Dec. 28 on a fugitive warrant and was extradited to Maryland on Thursday.
"It gets no bigger than this," Miller said in reference to Riley's first-degree murder charge, the Cecil Whig of Elkton reported.
Riley posted bail shortly after the hearing and was released from custody. As a condition of her release, she was ordered not to perform abortions.
Miller and State's Attorney Ellis Rollins did not return messages seeking comment. They have declined to speak to reporters since they were criticized by Riley's attorneys for discussing the indictment publicly while it was still under seal.
The charges against Riley stem from a botched abortion in August 2010 at Brigham's Elkton clinic. The 18-year-old patient suffered serious injuries, and Riley drove her to a nearby hospital rather than call 911, according to medical regulators. The fetus was 21 weeks old. Doctors generally consider fetuses to be viable outside the womb starting around 23 weeks.
Brigham, of Voorhees, N.J., has been charged with murder in the death of that fetus and four others. He was released from custody Jan. 6 after posting a $500,000 bond. His attorney has also argued that Brigham has not violated the fetal homicide law.
Riley's Maryland medical license was suspended over the August 2010 incident, and Brigham was ordered to stop practicing medicine without a license in Maryland. Regulators discovered that Brigham was beginning second-trimester abortions in New Jersey and having patients drive themselves to Elkton the next day to complete the procedures.
Brigham was not authorized to perform abortions in New Jersey after the first trimester, and regulators called his actions manipulative and deceptive. He also lost his New Jersey license, leaving him without a valid license in any state.
In Maryland, licensed physicians can perform abortions before the fetus is deemed capable of surviving outside the womb, and abortions of viable fetuses are permitted to protect the life or health of the mother or if the fetus has serious genetic abnormalities.
The state's fetal homicide law was approved in 2005 in the wake of the highly publicized slaying of Laci Peterson in Modesto, Calif. Peterson was seven months pregnant, and her husband, Scott Peterson, was convicted of killing both her and their unborn son.
The law specifically exempts licensed physicians performing legal abortions. Before the bill was passed, its sponsor, Delegate Charles Boutin, wrote in a letter to a committee chairman that it is "clearly and solely a victim's rights bill. It takes care of the `Laci Peterson' issue in Maryland, while protecting a woman's right to choose."
"The General Assembly never intended for doctors to be prosecuted at all for performing abortions, let alone convicted and subjected to criminal penalty," Riley's attorneys argued in their motion to dismiss the indictment.
Experts on both sides of the abortion debate say the use of a fetal homicide law to target doctors ? or medical professionals of any kind ? is highly unusual if not unprecedented in U.S. history. Most states have provisions excluding doctors from prosecution. Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel with Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, said the Cecil County prosecutors appeared to be testing the limits of that exclusion.
"It's a case of first impression," Forsythe said.
Jennifer Nash, a policy analyst with the Guttmacher Institute, a research institution that favors abortion rights, noted that abortion doctors have faced prosecution dating to the mid-19th century, but most such cases have fallen under criminal abortion statutes.
Some anti-abortion activists have hailed the arrests of Brigham and Riley, saying the charges shed light on the troubling practices of certain abortion doctors. A search of Brigham's Elkton clinic revealed a freezer containing 35 late-term fetuses, including one believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks, according to documents released by medical regulators.
___
Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at http://twitter.com/APBenNuckols
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Arnie visits Austrian town run on green energy (AP)
GUESSING, Austria ? It was another chance to tuck into a schnitzel. But Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit to a small eastern Austrian town had a more compelling purpose.
Austria's most famous living son is proud of his record of greening California while governor. So his visit to Guessing, which meets its energy needs through renewables, was fitting.
In both Guessing and California, "the world has already become a better one," he told fans and dignitaries gathered in his honor Sunday.
After a lunch of Wiener schnitzel and Kaiserscharrn ? chopped up pancakes with jam ? Arnie toured the village's energy plants, describing his push for green energy as "my crusade."
And yes, the "Terminator" star did say, "I'll be back."
___
Philipp Jenne contributed to this report.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Schlumberger posts profit jump (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Schlumberger Ltd (SLB.N), the world's largest oilfield services company, reported a 36 percent rise in quarterly earnings, beating Wall Street forecasts, but it warned that Europe's debt crisis could hurt economic growth and trim oil demand.
The International Energy Agency cut its oil demand forecast earlier this week, saying the possibility of a credit crunch in Europe could set off a recession that would cut energy consumption.
Oilfield service companies have benefited from strong crude oil prices, which have prompted their energy-producing customers to hike spending by about 10 percent this year, according to a survey by Barclays Capital.
Schlumberger said in a statement that its planned capital spending would rise by more than 12 percent to nearly $4.5 billion this year, but added that it was "building the required flexibility into our resource plans."
"This is code for throttling back on spending, at a minimum, if warranted," Simmons & Co analyst Bill Herbert wrote in a note to investors.
Schlumberger said its growth in North America was driven by business in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, where activity is increasing after the 2010 BP Plc (BP.L) oil spill brought drilling there to a standstill.
Offshore activity in Africa and land business in the Middle East and North Africa were also strong, the company said.
Still, recent price increases that had helped the onshore business in North America have slowed from the third quarter, according to Schlumberger.
U.S. drilling activity has exploded in recent years as the development of shale rock formations has surged. That has been a boon for Schlumberger and rival Halliburton Co (HAL.N), which reports its quarterly earnings next week.
That drilling has led to a glut of natural gas and pushed prices for the fuel to its lowest levels in a decade, raising expectations that such activity will decline.
Schlumberger's fourth-quarter net profit rose to $1.4 billion, or $1.05 per share, from $1.0 billion, or 76 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, earnings per share of $1.11 topped the $1.09 that analysts had on average forecast, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose about 21 percent to $11 billion, above the $10.8 billion analysts had expected.
Schlumberger shares were up 0.5 percent at $73.25 in premarket trading.
(Reporting by Matt Daily in New York, Krishna N Das in Bangalore and Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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Sweden to probe fate of WWII hero Wallenberg (AP)
STOCKHOLM ? Sweden will open a new probe into what happened to World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg after he was captured by the Soviets in 1945.
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has asked experts to look into whether any new material has emerged that could shed new light on what happened to the Swedish diplomat, Bildt spokeswoman Anna Charlotta Johansson said Wednesday.
Wallenberg is credited with rescuing tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. He disappeared after being arrested in Hungary by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. On Tuesday, Hungary, Sweden and Israel launched the Raoul Wallenberg Year to honor his efforts.
The new Swedish probe will be led by Hans Magnusson, who was involved in a similar effort together with Russian experts in the 1990s. According to Bildt, the Russian experts then said Wallenberg died, "or more likely was killed," on 17 June 1947 in Soviet custody, but unverified witness accounts and newly uncovered evidence suggest he may have lived beyond that date.
The Soviets said he died of a heart attack in prison and Russia has never officially retracted that version. The Swedes haven't contested the Russian version, but have maintained there was insufficient evidence to draw any firm conclusions about Wallenberg's ultimate fate.
On Monday, two U.S. researchers told The Associated Press that a newly found Swedish document shows how the KGB intervened in the early 1990s to stop the previous investigation.
Russian scholar Vadim Birstein, one of the researchers working for the first Wallenberg commission, said they had just found some previously unknown documents when the archive was closed to them in the spring of 1991.
The former head of the Soviet "Special Archive," Anatoly Prokopenko, told the AP that following a brief period of openness before and after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian authorities have grown increasingly reluctant to allow public access to the archives.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Haiti goalkeeper hospitalized after collision
updated 1:51 a.m. ET Jan. 20, 2012
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Haiti goalkeeper Ednie Limage was hospitalized Thursday night with a possible spinal injury after colliding with a teammate during an Olympic qualifying game against Canada.
Limage was reaching for a high ball when she struck hard by midfielder Samantha Marie-Ann Brand in the second half of Haiti's 6-0 loss. Limage fell to the ground in pain, still clutching the ball.
Limage was carried off the field on a hand-held stretcher and treated near the Haiti bench for much of the second half. Then she was immobilized on a hospital stretcher and taken from the stadium.
Coach Ronald Luxieux said through a translator that the 26-year-old Limage was "suffering quite a bit" and that "it might be a spinal injury." He said he expected to have an update Friday.
Limage lives in Canada and plays for the University of Moncton in New Brunswick.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46067808/ns/sports-olympic_sports/
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Russia says will stand firm with China on Syria (Reuters)
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russia will offer Washington no explanation for arms deliveries to Syria and together with China will prevent the U.N. Security Council from approving any military intervention in the conflict-torn nation, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Using his annual news conference to draw lines in the sand on Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said veto-holding Security Council members Russia and China would stand firm against foreign intervention.
"We will insist - and we have an understanding with our Chinese colleagues that this is our common position - that these fundamental points be retained in any decision that may be taken by the U.N. Security Council," Lavrov said.
"If somebody intends to use force ... it will be on their conscience. They will not receive any authority from the Security Council," said Lavrov, who also emphasized that Russia and China oppose any sanctions against Syria.
Russia has been the most vocal supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a 10-month government crackdown that the United Nations says has killed more than 5,000 civilians, refusing to join calls for him to step down.
Russia joined China in October to veto a Western-backed resolution against Assad's government, saying the domestic opposition shared blame for the violence and that it would have opened the door for military action like NATO's Libya operation.
Russia submitted its own draft resolution last month and proposed a new version this week, but Lavrov indicated the council was deeply divided over the issue of where blame lies for the bloodshed and the possibility of military intervention.
He said Western members of the Security Council "are categorically determined to exclude from the resolution the phrase that (says) nothing in it can be interpreted as allowing the use of force."
'PLAYING GAMES'
Western diplomats in New York, however, suggested that Russia was playing for time in negotiations on the draft resolution. Two days of negotiations on revising the Russian text failed to resolve the deadlock and bridge differences between the Western and Russian camps.
"Russia's playing games," a Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Negotiations aren't really going anywhere. China and others would probably agree not to block a tougher resolution, but Russia isn't compromising."
The United States, France and Britain, along with Russia and China, are permanent Security Council members with the power to block any resolution from passage.
Moscow has close ties with Syria, a leading client for arms sales, and its naval maintenance facility in the port of Tartus is a rare outpost for Russia's shrunken post-Soviet military.
A Russian-operated ship carrying what a Cypriot official said was bullets arrived in Tartus last week from St. Petersburg after being held up in Cyprus.
The United States said it had raised concerns about the ship with Russia, but Lavrov said there was no need for an explanation.
"We don't consider it necessary to explain ourselves or justify ourselves, because we are not violating any international agreements or any (U.N.) Security Council resolutions," Lavrov told an annual news conference.
The U.S. envoy to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Tuesday that the United States "would have very grave concern about arms flows into Syria from any source" and that it was unfortunate there was no U.N. arms embargo on Syria.
Russia says such an embargo would cut off supplies to the government while enabling armed opponents to receive weapons illegally. Lavrov repeated on Wednesday that Russia and China oppose any sanctions on Syria.
"The red line is quite clear: we will not support any sanctions, because unilateral sanctions have been imposed without any consultation with Russia or China," he said.
Syria accounted for 7 percent of Russia's total of $10 billion in arms deliveries abroad in 2010, according to the Russian defense think tank CAST.
An unnamed military source was quoted as saying in December that Russia had delivered anti-ship Yakhont missiles to Syria.
(Additional reporting by Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Nadal, Federer advance at Australian Open (AP)
MELBOURNE, Australia ? Rafael Nadal advanced to the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday without much trouble from his opponent or his injured right knee. Rival Roger Federer got through without picking up a racket
Nadal beat German veteran Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in a 2 1/2-hour match, declaring that the twisted tendon in the heavily taped knee was not a concern.
Just before Federer was due on Hisense Arena, the Swiss found out that his scheduled opponent, Germany's Andreas Beck, had a back injury and had to withdraw.
"Now, I'll just take it easy this afternoon and come out tomorrow and hit intensely, and then I'll be ready for the next match," said Federer, a four-time Australian Open winner.
Nadal, asked after his match if he would have appreciated the same kind of good fortune, was pragmatic.
"Before the day started, yes," he said, smiling. "Now that I've played and won, I'm happy. It was a positive match, but not that demanding. We didn't play four hours, five hours. Three sets, so it wasn't that tough."
Nadal and Federer could meet in the semifinals next week. Top-seeded Novak Djokovic and fourth-seeded Andy Murray, the threats from the other side of the draw, play their second-rounders Thursday.
Two of the women's title contenders, defending champion Kim Clijsters and No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, both won their second-round matches Wednesday on their way to a potential quarterfinal meeting.
French Open champion Li Na also advanced, defeating Olivia Rogowska of Australia 6-2, 6-2. She could meet Clijsters in the fourth round in a rematch of last year's final at Melbourne Park.
Clijsters needed only 47 minutes to beat Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France 6-0, 6-1 and Wozniacki defeated Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-1, 7-6 (4).
Clijsters said she doesn't give a lot of thought to who she'll face down the road of any tournament.
"That's something that I definitely learned since I was younger ... the media people always start to talk about the future, quarterfinal, semifinal, a tough third, fourth round coming up before the tournament even starts," the Belgian veteran said. "I don't like to waste my energy on those kind of thoughts."
Third-seeded Victoria Azarenka, one of five players who could have the No. 1 women's ranking by the end of the tournament, was scheduled to play Australian wild-card Casey Dellacqua in a late match Wednesday.
Elsewhere on the women's side, 10th-seeded Francesca Schiavone was eliminated 6-4, 6-3 by fellow Italian Romina Oprandi and No. 16 Peng Shuai of China lost 6-2, 6-4 to Iveta Benesova of Czech Republic.
Former No. 1-ranked Jelena Jankovic beat Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan 6-4, 6-2
Eighth-ranked Mardy Fish became the first top 10 player on the men's side to lose, falling 7-6 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (6) to Colombia's Alejandro Falla.
No. 7 Tomas Berdych beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 6-0, 7-6 (4) and 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, No. 18 Feliciano Lopez and No. 30 Kevin Anderson also advanced.
Qualifier Lukas Lacko of Slovakia beat American Donald Young 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to earn a match against Nadal.
Another American, 16th-seeded John Isner, won a 4-hour, 41-minute marathon, including a 99-minute last set, over former Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian. Isner had 43 aces in his 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8 win.
Nalbandian had several run-ins with the chair umpire during the often tense match. The Argentinian was enraged when a tournament official refused to overrule the chair umpire's decision to decline a review of a line call late in the fifth. He later smashed his racket to the ground in disgust when he netted a backhand on match point.
"It's ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires," Nalbandian said. "I didn't understand in that situation, 8-all, break point."
Ivo Karlovic of Croatia beat Carlos Berlocq of 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will play Federer in the third round, while 13th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine defeated Tobias Kamke of Germany 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6.
Australian teenager Bernard Tomic beat another American Sam Querrey in the first night match on Rod Laver Arena, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3. Tomic will play Dolgopolov in the third round.
Nadal figures he's in strong shape to add a second Australian Open title to the one he captured in 2009, one of his 10 Grand Slam singles titles.
"I've been practicing well, I've had a very good preparation in my opinion," Nadal said. "I've won two matches in straight sets with positive feelings."
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