Iowa GOP chairman Strawn says he'll resign (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? The chairman of Iowa's Republican Party says he is stepping down following criticism of the Jan. 3 caucus vote count.

In a written announcement Tuesday, chairman Matt Strawn didn't address the caucus count in which a close race led him to first declare Mitt Romney the winner by eight votes. Two weeks later, Strawn initially declined to name a winner when a recount showed Rick Santorum with a 34-vote edge.

Santorum was later declared the winner.

Strawn says his resignation will be effective Feb. 10.

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

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Romney has 20 point lead in new Florida poll (Washington Bureau)

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Syrian troops push back in fight on Damascus edges

This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

Protesters shout slogans as they carry pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Syrian flags during a demonstration in front of the Russian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, to express gratitude for the Russian position in support of Syria. Russia has said it will use its Security Council veto to block any resolution threatening Syria with sanctions or lacking a clear ban on any foreign military interference. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian forces heavily shelled the restive city of Homs on Monday and troops pushed back dissident troops from some suburbs on the outskirts of Damascus in an offensive trying to regain control of the capital's eastern doorstep, activists said.

President Bashar Assad's regime is intensifying its assault aimed at crushing army defectors and protesters, even as the West tries to overcome Russian opposition and win a new U.N. resolution demanding a halt to Syria's crackdown on the 10-month-old uprising. Activists reported at least 28 civilians killed on Monday.

With talks on the resolution due to begin Tuesday, a French official said at least 10 members of the Security Council backed the measure, which includes a U.N. demand that Assad carry out an Arab League peace plan. The plan requires Assad to hand his powers over to his vice president and allow the creation of a unity government within two months. Damascus has rejected the proposal.

A text needs support from nine nations on the 15-member U.N. Security Council to go to a vote. The French official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with departmental rules.

The British and French foreign ministers were heading to New York to push for backing of the measure in Tuesday's U.N. talks.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron's office urged Moscow to reconsider its opposition to the measure.

"Russia can no longer explain blocking the U.N. and providing cover for the regime's brutal repression," a spokeswoman for Cameron said, on customary condition of anonymity in line with policy.

Russia insists it won't support any resolution it believes could open the door to an eventual foreign military intervention in Syria, the way an Arab-backed U.N. resolution paved the way for NATO airstrikes in Libya. Instead, the Kremlin said Monday it was trying to put together negotiations in Moscow between Damascus and the opposition.

It said Assad's government has agreed to participate. The opposition has in the past rejected any negotiations unless violence stops, and there was no immediate word whether any of the multiple groups that make up the anti-Assad camp would attend.

The United Nations estimated several weeks ago that more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria's crackdown since the uprising against Assad's rule began in March. The bloodshed has continued since ? with more than 190 killed in the past five days ? and the U.N. says it has been unable to update the figure.

Regime forces on Monday heavily shelled the central city of Homs, which has been one of the cities at the forefront of the uprising, activists said. Heavy machine gun fire hit the city's restive Baba Amr district.

The Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported that 14 were killed in the city on Monday. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, put the number at 15. Both also reported the discovery of a family of six ? a couple and their four children ? who had been killed by gunfire several days earlier in the city's Karm el-Zeitoun district.

The past three days, pro-Assad forces have been fighting to take back a string of suburbs on the eastern approach to Damascus where army defectors who joined the opposition had seized control.

Government troops managed on Sunday evening to take control of two of the districts closest to Damascus, Ein Tarma and Kfar Batna, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based head of the Observatory.

On Monday, the regime forces were trying to take the next suburbs farther out, with heavy fighting in the districts of Saqba and Arbeen, he said.

At least five civilians were killed in the fighting near Damascus, the Observatory and LCC said. The Observatory also reported 10 army defectors and eight regime troops or security forces killed around the country.

The reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities keep tight control on the media and have banned many foreign journalists from entering the country.

The wide-scale offensive near the capital suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus, which has remained relatively quiet while most other Syrian cities have slipped into chaos since the uprising began in March.

The violence has gradually approached the capital. In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests.

Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may either be losing control or setting up a trap for the fighters before going on the offensive.

State media reported that an "armed terrorist group" blew up a gas pipeline at dawn Monday. The pipeline carries gas from the central province of Homs to an area near the border with Lebanon. SANA news agency reported that the blast happened in Tal Hosh, which is about five miles (eight kilometers) from Talkalakh, along the border with Lebanon.

Further details were not immediately available.

There have been several pipeline attacks since the Syrian uprising began, but it is not clear who is behind them.

Assad's regime has blamed "terrorists" for driving the country's uprising, not protesters seeking democratic change.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-30-ML-Syria/id-c8d504a680db4788837e9c4b8e8b8b7b

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Instant Smoke Drops Add a Little Magic To Your Photographs [Photography]

Unless you're a master at 3D and compositing, digitally adding smoke to a photo is a lot harder than adding it practically while you're shooting. And with these instant smoke drops, you can easily create plumes without burning your studio down. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/R_QB-gY0V7k/instant-smoke-drops-add-a-little-magic-to-your-photographs

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Beware of China's housing bubble

The housing bubble was a global rather than US event. The bubble outlasted the US experience in several other countries such as Australia and Canada which are experiencing some weakness. However, the one I?ve worried about is in China. Keep your eye on this one.

But the math tells a different story. The housing frenzy has driven prices so high, so fast, that a crash on the scale of the real estate collapse in Japan in the 1990s is a virtual certainty. And China?s already exaggerated official growth rate could take a pounding, all the way to the zone of the unthinkable, into the low single-digits.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on blog.mises.org.

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Private investors near deal on Greek debt (AP)

ATHENS, Greece ? A disorderly and potentially devastating Greek debt default is looking much less likely.

Greece and investors who have bought its bonds have reached a tentative deal to significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed euro130 billion bailout.

Negotiators for the investors announced the tentative agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week. If the agreement works as planned, it will help Greece remain solvent and help Europe avoid a blow to its already weak financial system, even though banks and other bond investors will have to accept multibillion-dollar losses. Still, it doesn't resolve the weakening economic conditions Greece and other European nations face as they rapidly rein in spending in order to get their debts under control.

Under the agreement, the euro206 billion worth of Greek bonds that investors own would be exchanged for new bonds worth 60 percent less.

Private investors would receive new bonds whose face value is half of the existing bonds. The new bonds would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent. The existing bonds pay an average interest rate of 5 percent, according to the think tank Re-Define.

The deal would reduce Greece's annual interest expense on the bonds from about $10 billion to about $4 billion. And when the bonds mature, instead of paying bondholders euro206 billion, Greece will have to pay only euro103 billion.

Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least euro120 billion, the bonds held by banks, insurance companies and hedge funds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other countries that use the euro, which could also lose value in the event of a full-fledged Greek default. This is the scenario analysts fear most and why they hope investors will voluntarily accept a partial loss on their Greek bonds.

The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, euro130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund. Besides restructuring its debt with private investors, Greece must also take other steps before getting aid. It must cut its deficit and boost the competitiveness of its economy through layoffs of government employees and the sale of several state companies, among other moves.

This would be Greece's second bailout. The EU and the IMF signed off on a euro110 billion aid package for Greece in May 2010, most of which has already been disbursed.

Greece faces a euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.

Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 160 percent of the country's annual economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade. Without a deal, analysts forecast that ratio ballooning to 200 percent by the end of this year as the Greek economy falters.

In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors ? the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank ? have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, Greece's problems will not be fixed simply by cutting government spending. In order to bring its debts to a more manageable level, the country must also find ways boost economic output, which would enable it to collect more taxes.

If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.

Sarah Ketterer, co-manager of Causeway International Value Fund, a $1.4 billion mutual fund that invests in European stocks, said the region's markets have rebounded this month largely on expectations that negotiators would reach a deal along the lines of the one being finalized now.

Any last-minute breakdown in the talks could trigger a sharp decline in European markets, she said. But a rally is unlikely if negotiations succeed.

"The equity markets have ... largely already discounted this, and you can see that in the confidence that has returned in European equities since the end of December, and especially for financial stocks," Ketterer said.

She said there "really was no other option" than reaching a deal for bondholders to take a haircut of 50 percent or more.

Ketterer said a Greek deal could help restore bond market confidence. That would help Italy manage its own debt crisis ? one that Ketterer views as more critical than Greece's because of Italy's greater size.

The investors who own Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.

___

Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis

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Senate approves short-term extension of FAA programs for the 23rd time, long-term plan near (Star Tribune)

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Some slam Nazis, others dance at right-wing ball (AP)

VIENNA ? Participants at a memorial to 2 million Jews murdered in Adolf Hitler's Auschwitz death camp are condemning plans to hold a ball later in the day that attracts extreme rightists.

They say the timing ? and venue, just steps from their commemoration in the Austrian capital ? constitutes a macabre affront to Holocaust victims.

Ball organizers insist the fact that the event this year falls on the 67th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation is coincidental. They deny suggestions that those attending are extremists.

But opponents remained critical Friday. At a wreath-laying for Auschwitz victims, Greens Party head Eva Glavischnig suggested ball attendees "will be dancing today on the graves of Auschwitz."

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

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Russian probe crash sparks conspiracy theories, confusion

Russia's Phobos-Grunt space probesuffered a debilitating malfunction shortly after its November 2011 launch, which stranded it in low-Earth orbit for more than two months before it succumbed to gravitational forces and plummeted through the atmosphere on Jan. 15.

When an ill-fated Russian Mars probe fell to Earth over the weekend, the spacecraft's untimely demise set off a flurry of conflicting media reports and conspiracy theories.

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Russia's?Phobos-Grunt space probe?suffered a debilitating malfunction shortly after its November 2011 launch, which stranded it in low-Earth orbit for more than two months before it succumbed to gravitational forces and plummeted through the atmosphere on Jan. 15.

The $165 million spacecraft reportedly broke apart over the Pacific Ocean, but inconsistent reports soon surfaced, which sparked different theories about?where the probe had landed, and what had caused it to malfunction in the first place.

The Russian Federal Space Agency is notorious for closely controlling any information released, but part of the issue is the tricky nature of calculating re-entry predictions for dead satellites and other?pieces of orbital debris.

"Predicting an impact point is problematic because it involves fundamental factors that cannot be noted in advance and cannot be measured in real time, such as atmospheric density," space consultant James Oberg, a former NASA space shuttle mission control engineer, told SPACE.com. "These can only be averaged or guessed, sometimes even after re-entry. These known unknowns are more than enough to throw off any kind of prediction by thousands of kilometers." [Photos: Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mission to Mars Moon]

A curious case

Still, the Phobos-Grunt saga was shrouded in mystery long before it crashed back to Earth. The cause of the spacecraft's malfunction has not yet been determined, and claims ranging from accidental radar interference to outright sabotage have been reported by Russian news outlets.?

Russian space officials suggested that strong?emissions from an American radar station?on an island in the Pacific Ocean could have accidentally interfered with Phobos-Grunt, reported the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

But, these claims were later dismissed by a Russian scientist who was involved with the development of Phobos-Grunt. Alexander Zakharov, a scientist at the Russian Academy of Science Space Research Institute, told Ria Novosti that the radar theory is "far-fetched," and suggested instead that issues with the spacecraft itself were likely to blame.

American experts were also quick to write off the idea that a U.S. radar station could have been the source of the spacecraft's demise ? accidental or otherwise.

"I do not see any evidence that supports the suggestion that the United States somehow played a role in the failure of Phobos-Grunt," Brian Weeden, an orbital debris expert at the Secure World Foundation in Washington, D.C., told SPACE.com in an email. "I have examined the claims made about the U.S. tracking radar on the South Pacific potentially interfering with Phobos-Grunt and they are without any credibility whatsoever."

Following?Phobos-Grunt's fall from space, the Russian Federal Space Agency released an official statement confirming that the spacecraft had landed in the Pacific Ocean. But, the agency admitted this impact zone was based on orbital predictions, and they lacked tracking or visual?data.

This fueled speculation that the spacecraft had overshot its predicted landing zone and broke apart elsewhere along its orbital track, such as over Argentina or Brazil. [6 Biggest Spacecraft to Fall Uncontrolled From Space]

"You're never quite sure," said Emmet Fletcher, Space Surveillance and Tracking Manager at the European Space Agency (ESA). "Eyewitness accounts are good, so if someone sees it coming in and takes a picture, that can tell you about where it lands. But, if you're fortunate and it lands in the ocean, which is where we like things to go, there shouldn't be anyone there. So, if something lands in the South Pacific, you won't have anyone there to observe it."

Tracking a falling spacecraft

Fletcher is part of ESA's?Space Situational Awareness?team which monitors space junk and operates a network of tracking stations. Fletcher could not comment specifically on Phobos-Grunt, but he has worked on coordinated international efforts to deal with spacecraft and orbital debris that has re-entered the atmosphere.

"It's all a learning experience," Fletcher said. "There are lessons learned and conclusions about what we can do better. A lot of work is being done to standardize data."

Right now, different agencies and organizations have different methods for calculating re-entry predictions. This has advantages and disadvantages, Fletcher said, but ultimately, a more standardized approach could help foster more efficient cooperation between entities.

But the story of Phobos-Grunt doesn't end there.

In a recent development, the U.S. military appeared to have?removed links to Phobos-Grunt tracking dataon a public website that ordinarily details such events.

Information about the doomed Russian probe's re-entry was removed from Space Track, a website operated by U.S. Strategic Command. The military also did not publish any confirmation of the probe's fall, which breaks with standard protocol.

This handling of the data seemed unusual, said Weeden, a former U.S. Air Force officer, who once also directed the Joint Space Operations Center's orbital analyst?training?program.

"[T]he final re-entry prediction data is still missing from the U.S. military's website where they normally publish the information," Weeden said. "I do not really have any idea why they would withhold this information for Phobos-Grunt. They have published the full?re-entry prediction data?on three other space objects so far this year, and they are continuing to publish re-entry predictions as normal for the next object, Cosmos 2176, which is a Russian Kompass-2 satellite that is due to re-enter in the next several days. "

Falling spacecraft and human error

But Friday evening (Jan. 20), a spokesperson from U.S. Strategic Command told SPACE.com that data was not, in fact, removed from the Space Track website. Rather, a human error had accidentally misfiled the information.

"All actions taken during the Phobos-Grunt re-entry were designed to improve international data sharing on this event," Julie Ziegenhorn, Deputy Chief of Public Affairs at U.S. Strategic Command, said in an email statement. "Unfortunately, shortly after the re-entry event, there was human error that led to all Phobos-Grunt entries on spacetrack.org being misfiled into the year 2011 data, which made it difficult for customers to access the information. Shortly after the error was discovered, the information was re-posted to the site and is accessible at this time."

Still, experts are hoping that more precise information about Phobos-Grunt's impact zone will be released, but it's unclear which agencies will make their reports available to the public. ESA plans to release a final report on Phobos-Grunt, but officials are currently still waiting for "additional data from non-ESA sources," agency spokesperson Andreas Schepers said in an email.

The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was?designed to collect soil samples?from the Mars moon Phobos and return them to Earth in 2014. The botched mission is one of several space failures that plagued the Russian Federal Space Agency over the past year.

"It was one of the boldest cavalry charges, and they said it was a cavalry charge to restore Russia's honor in space," Oberg said. "But, cavalry charges can also wind up disastrously, so the use of that metaphor was particularly apt."

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter?@denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/VriRWoZoLG8/Russian-probe-crash-sparks-conspiracy-theories-confusion

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Kepler telescope team finds 11 new solar systems

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:45pm EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found 11 new planetary systems, including one with five planets all orbiting closer to their parent star than Mercury circles the Sun, scientists said on Thursday.

The discoveries boost the list of confirmed extra-solar planets to 729, including 60 credited to the Kepler team. The telescope, launched in space in March 2009, can detect slight but regular dips in the amount of light coming from stars. Scientists can then determine if the changes are caused by orbiting planets passing by, relative to Kepler's view.

Kepler scientists have another 2,300 candidate planets awaiting additional confirmation.

None of the newly discovered planetary systems are like our solar system, though Kepler-33, a star that is older and bigger than the Sun, comes close in terms of sheer numbers. It has five planets, compared to our solar system's eight, but the quintet all fly closer to their parent star than Mercury orbits the Sun.

The planets range in size from about 1.5 times the diameter of Earth to five times Earth's diameter. Scientists have not yet determined if any are solid rocky bodies like Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury or if they are filled with gas like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The Kepler team previously found one star with six confirmed planets and a second system with five planets, said planetary scientist Jack Lissauer, with NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

Nine of the new systems contain two planets and one has three, bringing the total number of newly discovered planets to 26. All are closer to their host stars than Venus is to the Sun.

"This has tripled the number of stars which we know have more than one transiting planet, so that's the big deal here," Lissauer told Reuters.

"We're starting to think in terms of planetary systems as opposed to just planets: Do they all tend to have similar sizes? What's the spacing? Is the solar system unusual in those regards?" he said.

Kepler is monitoring more than 150,000 stars in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

The research is published in four different papers in Astrophysical Journal and the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

(Reporting By Irene Klotz; Editing by Jane Sutton and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/9081eIRZ1AU/us-space-planets-idUSTRE80P27W20120126

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Mass Effect Universe RP anyone?

Hello I joined this site not long agon and I wanted to know

Would anyone want to RP in the Mass Effect Universe?

It would most likely be outside of the games plot line maybe hearing about it but in no way apart of it and it probably wouldn't include Commander Shepard.

I would need a co Gm for help to make this a reality but I think it'd be fun.

I'd also accept anyone who has suggestions or wants to co GM with me or what have you.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/2L1fUyW0AP4/viewtopic.php

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Nokia Series 40: over 1.5 billion served

Nokia has announced a major mobile milestone: over 1.5 billion (with a b) Series 40 handsets sold since the first device -- the 7110 -- was introduced in 1999. "We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone," wrote Nokia's Executive VP of Mobile Phones, Mary McDowell. "It is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible." Breeze on past the break for the official PR with more information about the Asha 303 handset knighted number 1,500,000,000, then feel free to weigh in on how long will take the Lumia line to reach the same milestone.

Continue reading Nokia Series 40: over 1.5 billion served

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Democrats get to break up GOP sand sculpture in SC

AAA??Jan. 23, 2012?6:00 PM ET
Democrats get to break up GOP sand sculpture in SC
AP

Members of The Democratic Women of Horry County, S.C., demolish the Republican 2012 Primary Debate sand sculpture Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, a feature from last week's televised Myrtle Beach, S.C. debate hosted by the South Carolina GOP and televised by Fox News. The organization secured the rights to demolish the sand sculpture. Dubbed ?Mount Myrtle?, the sand feature is located across the street from the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Hotel and Convention Center and encompasses over 700,000 pounds of sand. (AP Photo/The Sun News, Steve Jessmore)

Members of The Democratic Women of Horry County, S.C., demolish the Republican 2012 Primary Debate sand sculpture Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, a feature from last week's televised Myrtle Beach, S.C. debate hosted by the South Carolina GOP and televised by Fox News. The organization secured the rights to demolish the sand sculpture. Dubbed ?Mount Myrtle?, the sand feature is located across the street from the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Hotel and Convention Center and encompasses over 700,000 pounds of sand. (AP Photo/The Sun News, Steve Jessmore)

Members of The Democratic Women of Horry County, S.C., celebrate after they demolished the Republican 2012 Primary Debate sand sculpture Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, a feature from last week's televised Myrtle Beach, S.C. debate hosted by the South Carolina GOP and televised by Fox News. The organization secured the rights to demolish the sand sculpture. Dubbed ?Mount Myrtle?, the sand feature is located across the street from the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Hotel and Convention Center and encompasses over 700,000 pounds of sand. (AP Photo/The Sun News, Steve Jessmore)

Flora Pickett, left, and Elizabeth Bowns help demolish a sculpture going first for the likenesses of candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. "It felt great. I'm not a great fan of Newt so I wanted to get him first," Pickett said. The Democratic Women of Horry County secured the rights to demolish the Republican 2012 Primary Debate Sand Sculpture today Monday, January 23, 2012, a visible feature from last week's televised Myrtle Beach, SC debate hosted by the South Carolina GOP and televised by Fox News. Dubbed ?Mount Myrtle?, the sand feature is located across the street from the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Hotel and Convention Center and encompasses over 700,000 pounds of sand. ?The candidates did a lot of talking, and now we?ll clean up in the aftermath,? said the group's president Sally Howard. ?In the words of Margaret Thatcher?If you want something said, ask a man?if you want something done, ask a woman.? Sun News Photo by Steve Jessmore

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) ? In South Carolina, it's not just Republicans who have been bashing each other lately. Local Democrats picked up pink shovels and took a whack at a sand sculpture of six GOP hopefuls that had been erected at Myrtle Beach.

With the South Carolina primary over, a Democratic women's group used pink shovels Monday to begin dismantling the sand sculpture depicting the Republican contenders. The sculpture was a prominent feature of the GOP debate Jan. 16 and took more than 700,000 pounds of sand to make.

A bulldozer finished the demolition job Monday as the women in yellow hard hats cheered. The sand is to be recycled into future sculptures.

The women won the right to demolish the sculpture after making a donation to a local crime-fighting cause.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-23-GOP%20Sand%20Sculpture/id-6f227c88c0084486a2ad26e3e1feb6dd

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Sen. Rand Paul stopped by Tenn. airport security (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and a frequent critic of the Transportation Security Administration, was stopped by security at the Nashville airport Monday when a scanner set off an alarm and Paul declined to allow a security officer to subsequently pat him down. The White House said airport security acted appropriately.

Police escorted Paul away, but he was allowed to board a later flight. The security scanner identified an issue with the senator's knee, although Paul said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint.

Paul, who frequently uses the airport about an hour from his home in Bowling Green, Ky., told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security.

Paul said he was "detained" at a small cubicle and couldn't make his flight to Washington for a Senate vote scheduled later in the day.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not confirm that the incident involved Paul, but said the passenger in question was never detained. He defended the TSA.

"Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures, are denied access to the secure gate area," Carney said. "I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe and I believe that is what TSA is tasked with doing."

Paul said the situation reflects his long-standing concern that the TSA shouldn't be "spending so much time with people who wouldn't attack us."

TSA spokesman Greg Soule confirmed there was an incident but didn't identify the passenger as Paul.

"When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport," Soule said in a written statement. "Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling."

Carney said an alarm was triggered during routine screening, but the passenger refused to continue with the screening process to resolve the issue. Local police escorted Paul out of the screening area, he said.

Paul went through a millimeter wave machine that uses a generic outline of a body for all passengers, according to a TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss agency screening procedures. When an alarm goes off, TSA officers target the area of the body that triggered the alarm and pat down the passenger.

Paul's father, Ron Paul, used his son's experience to promote his "Plan to Restore America," which would cut $1 trillion of federal spending in a year and eliminate the TSA.

"The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities," Ron Paul said in a statement issued by his presidential campaign. "The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe."

Rand Paul told reporters at the airport that he had no idea why his knee raised concerns with TSA. He said he showed his knee to the security agents and doesn't have any medical hardware or issues in the knee.

"There is no problem. It was just a problem with their machine. But this is getting more frequent, and because everybody has to have a pat down it's a problem," Paul said.

Paul said he was in Denver two days ago and allowed to walk through the screener again and avoided the pat down.

He said he didn't want special treatment from TSA because he's a senator. "I think we need to treat everybody with dignity."

The TSA said Paul was allowed to board another flight after a different screening.

In a November Senate hearing, Paul asked TSA Administrator John Pistole to change the policy so that adults could go through the machines a second time when an alarm is triggered on the first attempt.

"Let us go back through the machine rather than get a pat-down. You'll get rid of a lot of the anger and animosity towards the TSA and towards what you're doing, and give us a little more dignity when we travel," Paul said. "Just let us go back through the screener again ? you know, I mean, people don't want to have a pat-down."

Paul is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee does not regulate TSA, but holds hearings about airport security.

___

Schelzig contributed to this story from Nashville. Writer Roger Alford contributed from Frankfort, Ky.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/us_rand_paul_flight

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Cakes Throughout U.S. History [INFOGRAPHIC]

America's Test Kitchen:

Interested in making these cakes?

Read the whole story "; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/cakes-throughout-history_n_1223369.html

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New US plan to stop drug flow over northern border

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) ? Federal law enforcement agencies will help tribal officers obtain equipment and training on Indian lands near the U.S.-Canadian border as part of the White House's newly released strategy for reducing the flow of illegal drugs and drug proceeds between the two countries.

Tribal officers also should be included in criminal intelligence sharing and inter-agency task forces, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy report released Friday.

"Drug smugglers have been known to seek out tribal jurisdictions in order to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States," said the report, the first of its kind since being required under the Northern Border Counternarcotics Strategy Act of 2010.

The goal is to stop Canadian marijuana, Ecstasy and methamphetamine from entering the United States and to keep cocaine that originates in South America from flowing north. Authorities have also targeted bulk cash smuggling in both directions that finances criminal organizations.

President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed a Feb. 4 agreement to share more information on travelers and better coordinate cross-border investigations.

The report identified more than 60 miles of the northern border classified as "Indian country" and under tribal jurisdiction. Tribes with lands directly adjacent to the border include Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Tribe in Michigan, the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, the Grand Portage Band and Red Lake Band of Chippewa in Minnesota and St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York.

To intercept drugs elsewhere along the more than 5,000-mile border, the policy office recommended enhancing already established partnerships among U.S. and Canadian law-enforcement counterparts, along with intelligence sharing and cooperation among federal and local agencies. The strategy also relies on those living near the long and geographically diverse border to fill in the gaps.

"The U.S.-Canada relationship already supports successful bi-national and multi-agency task forces, but it must work to improve these entities with limited resources," the report said. "Law enforcement agencies must reach out to community coalitions to develop effective prevention, treatment and law enforcement partnerships."

Agents seized about 9,470 pounds of marijuana along the northern border in fiscal 2011, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics, less than 1 percent of the roughly 2.4 million pounds seized along the southwestern border.

Recent arrests have highlighted the northern boundary's porousness. In May 2010, a Canadian kingpin confessed to running 2,000 pounds of marijuana a week through the forests of upstate New York. Later that year, in December, Canadian officials arrested 29 smugglers on charges of using boats to run tons of marijuana, Ecstasy and methamphetamine across the Great Lakes to Michigan and New York.

"Vast drug networks along our northern border are exacerbating violence in communities all across the state ... This is the right strategy to fight this scourge at its source," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said of the written strategy.

The 2010 law requires the Office of National Drug Control Policy to release a northern border plan every two years.

"Improving communications between the courts, immigration officials and law enforcement and increasing accountability, as this plan will, should enhance our ability to keep drugs off our streets and out of our schools," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-20-Border-Drug%20Strategy/id-4f575b95ad8b4a36933e155239e3b562

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La La Land Juice

La La Land Juice

Jessica Simpson Sports a Penis Mask? ?[The Frisky] Kenny G Separating from Wife [The Celebrity Cafe] Rihanna Challenges Khloe Kardashian on Twitter [The Blemish] Heather [...]

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/nAswpmSBPWI/

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At least 143 killed in north Nigeria sect attacks

KANO, Nigeria (AP) ? Coordinated attacks claimed by a radical Islamist sect killed at least 143 people in north Nigeria's largest city, a hospital official said Saturday, as gunfire still echoed around some areas of the sprawling city.

Soldiers and police officers swarmed over streets Saturday in Kano, a city of more than 9 million people that remains an important political and religious hub in Nigeria's Muslim north. But their effectiveness remains in question, as the uniformed bodies of many of their colleagues lay in the overflowing mortuary of Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano's largest hospital.

A hospital official there said at least 143 people died in the attacks Friday. The count included some bodies already claimed by families for immediate burial per Islamic law, the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to disclose the figure to journalists.

Other bodies could be lying at other clinics and hospitals in the city.

In a statement issued late Friday, federal police spokesman Olusola Amore said attackers targeted five police buildings, two immigration offices and the local headquarters of the State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police.

Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said volunteers offered first aid to the wounded, and evacuated those seriously injured to local hospitals. He said officials continued to collect corpses scattered around sites of the attacks. A survey of two hospitals by the Red Cross showed at least 50 people were injured in Friday's attack, he said.

State authorities declared a 24-hour curfew late Friday as residents hid inside their homes amid the fighting.

A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message to journalists. He said the attack came as the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by the police.

Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an AP count. So far this year, the group has been blamed for at least 219 killings, according to an AP count.

The sect's targets have included both Muslims and Christians. However, the group has begun specifically targeting Christians after promising it will kill any Christians living in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. That has further inflamed religious and ethnic tensions in Nigeria, which has seen ethnic violence kill thousands in recent years along the divide between the north and the largely Christian south.

Friday's attacks also could cause more unrest, as violence in Kano has set off attacks throughout the north in the past, including postelection violence in April that saw 800 people killed. Kano, an ancient city, remains important in the history of Islam in Nigeria and has important religious figures there today.

Amid the recent unrest and attacks, at least two journalists have been killed in Nigeria. Journalist Enenche Akogwu, who worked as a correspondent in Kano for private news station Channels Television, was shot and killed Friday while reporting on the attacks, colleagues said. In central Nigeria's city of Jos, Nansok Sallah, a news editor for a government-owned radio station called Highland FM, was found dead in a shallow stream Thursday, the victim of an apparent murder, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

___

Associated Press writer Salisu Rabiu in Kano, Nigeria contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell reported from Lagos, Nigeria and can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-21-AF-Nigeria-Violence/id-35dd5bae2931402c9dc40f12dcd7ffad

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Jay-Z spends night at his club without Beyonce

Diapers to Dom? No prob for Jay-Z!

The rapper made his first post-Blue Ivy appearance Wednesday night at the grand reopening of his 40/40 club in New York City.

Story: Five-day-old Blue Ivy cracks Billboard charts

While Jay passed on the press line, we did get a chance to tell him congratulations on his and Beyonce's latest and greatest coproduction.

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"Thank you," he answered with that new dad grin.

Story: Bootylicious! Horse fly with bling named after Beyonce

Beyonce didn't make it out (we'll have to wait to see her undoubtedly amazing post-baby bod!) and presumably stayed home with baby Blue.

Story: Complaints at NY hospital where Beyonce gave birth dismissed

But does she need to worry about her hubby's behavior in the club when she's not there?

Slideshow: Beyonce, a star at last (on this page)

MORE: So True? So False? Is Baby Blue Ivy's Birth Inspiring Jay-Z to Stop Using the Word "Bitch"?!

Not one bit! While Jay was definitely in good company (Ashanti, Spike Lee, Questlove, Warren Buffett, members of the New York Yankees and more stars came out for 40/40's big night), he mostly enjoyed the company of male friends in private areas of the crowded club.

Story: Jennifer Hudson offers Beyonce mothering advice

At one point, a beaming Jay showed a pal some pictures on his phone. He grinned ear to ear as he scrolled through the pics.

PHOTOS: Famous Families

Our guess is that this proud papa was thinking of Blue Ivy on his big night on the town!

? 2012 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46053434/ns/today-entertainment/

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The Engadget Show is live, here at 6:00PM ET!

Hey kids, it's that time again! We're kicking off the year right with an action-packed edition of the Engadget Show. The first episode of 2012 is going to be a doozy. We're going to take you through the coolest gadgets of CES and Apple's bid to transform the textbook industry. We'll also be taking a close up look at the latest camera from Red and the new MakerBot Replicator. Plus we've music from Brooklyn's Ducky and all kinds of surprises. We'll be live tonight at 6PM ET, and you can join us at this very URL -- so keep your browser locked to this spot.

Continue reading The Engadget Show is live, here at 6:00PM ET!

The Engadget Show is live, here at 6:00PM ET! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/lOscseAHziE/

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Left party backs ex-prosecutor for MexCity mayor (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? Mexico's main leftist party has chosen a former top prosecutor as its candidate in the Mexico City mayor's election in July.

The Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, says opinion polls that it commissioned show a high preference for 46-year-old ex-Mexico City Atorney General Miguel Angel Mancera and make him the strongest candidate to challenge the two other major parties.

Mexico City's mayor is one of the most important government posts in the country. And it has been held by the PRD since the job was made subject to election in 1997.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_politics

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Oil above $101 on hopes IMF to curb Europe crisis

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? Oil rose above $101 a barrel Thursday in Asia after the IMF promised to raise lending to mitigate a worsening financial crisis in Europe. Stronger U.S. economic data also gave oil a lift.

Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 66 cents at $101.25 a barrel at late afternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 12 cents to end at $100.59 on Wednesday.

"Trading has been choppy but the market recovered on news that the IMF will boost its lending capacity for Europe," said Natalie Robertson, commodities analyst with ANZ Banking Group in Melbourne.

The International Monetary Fund estimated countries around the world would need about $1 trillion in loans over the coming years and said it aimed to increase its financial firepower by around $500 billion so it can give out new loans.

The IMF has put up about a third of the financing for Europe's bailouts over the past two years, but there are growing worries that non-European countries will also need more help given the worsening economic outlook.

Robertson said prices were also supported by the American Petroleum Institute's report Wednesday showing an unexpected drop in crude inventory last week. The government is expected to release its weekly data later Thursday.

Strong U.S. housing figures, an improvement in U.S. manufacturing activity in December and increased orders and production also buoyed crude prices, she said.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch predicted limited upside, with crude prices to average $101 a barrel this year. it cited weak oil global demand after the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for oil demand growth to 1.1 million barrels a day, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3 million barrels a day.

In other energy trading, heating oil rose 0.9 cent to $3.02 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 0.5 cent to $2.83 per gallon. Natural gas fell 3.7 cents to $2.43 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-19-Oil%20Prices/id-c641af923d394b66844f23d4d2e7bb9a

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Aubrey Sarvis to Leave Servicemembers Legal Defense Network ...

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis, who led the nation's largest LGBT military advocacy group in the years leading up to repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', is leaving the organization, it announced today, and the group will search for a new leader.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) today announced the search process for a new Executive Director to be named this spring.? On the heels of the announcement of the planned departure of Army Veteran Aubrey Sarvis, SLDN's Executive Director since 2007, the SLDN Board of Directors has retained the executive search firm, McCormack & Associates of Palm Springs, CA, to manage the national recruitment process in collaboration with a designated search committee of the board.?

"The search for a new Executive Director comes at a critical moment in the fight for full LGBT equality in our armed forces.? Repeal of the discriminatory 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law, alone, is not enough.? The fight for full equality marches forward - especially for those legally married gay and lesbian service members who today do not receive the same recognition, support or benefits for their families as their straight, married peers.? The board and staff at SLDN will not rest until we overcome these and the remaining inequalities for LGBT service members," said SLDN Board Co-Chair April Heinze, who chairs the national search committee.

Said Sarvis, in a release: "Working with the team at SLDN on behalf of our nation's LGBT service members has been the great honor of my life.? But make no mistake - there is much more to be done. While I will not be on the front lines in the same way I have since 2007, I will be there nonetheless, doing all I can to help us reach a day in this country when there is full equality and every qualified patriot who wishes to serve can do so without fear, discrimination or harassment.? That day is coming sooner than many think."

Source: http://www.towleroad.com/2012/01/aubrey-sarvis-to-leave-servicemembers-legal-defense-network.html

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Yeast Reveals How Fast a Cell Can Form a Body

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Microbes grew into bodies within weeks, indicating that the transition may be easier than biologists have thought.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=af4cd0df56b611ae343d6a5fe936bba8

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Israeli-US war games postponed (AP)

JERUSALEM ? Israeli defense officials say the U.S. and Israel have postponed their largest-ever war games to avoid aggravating mounting tensions between Iran and the international community.

The missile defense exercise, "Austere Challenge 12," was scheduled for April to improve defense systems and cooperation between U.S. and Israeli forces.

Defense officials said Monday the drill won't take place before the second half of 2012. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the decision, which they say was taken on Sunday.

Thousands of American and Israeli soldiers were to take part in the exercise, which was designed to test multiple Israeli and U.S. air defense systems against incoming missiles and rockets from places as far away as Iran.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_us

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