Iran vows to stop "some" oil sales as inspectors visit (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions, vowing to stop oil exports soon to "some" countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to crude sales to the European Union.

The Islamic Republic declared itself optimistic about a visit by U.N. nuclear experts that began Sunday but also warned the inspectors to be "professional" or see Tehran reducing cooperation with the world body on atomic matters.

Lawmakers have raised the possibility of turning the tables on the EU which will implement its own embargo on Iranian oil by July as it tightens sanctions on Tehran over the nuclear program.

But India, the world's fourth-largest oil consumer, said it would not take steps to cut petroleum imports from Iran despite U.S. and European sanctions against Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection delegation will try to advance efforts to resolve a row about the nuclear work which Iran says is purely civilian but the West suspects is aimed at seeking a nuclear weapon.

Tension with the West rose this month when Washington and the EU imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear program. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC's second biggest Oil exporter to sell its crude.

In a remark suggesting Iran would fight sanctions with sanctions, Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would soon stop exporting crude to "some" countries.

Rostam Qasemi did not identify the countries but was speaking less than a week after the EU's 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1.

"Soon we will cut exporting oil to some countries," the state news agency IRNA quoted Qasemi as saying.

India, a major customer for Iranian crude, made clear it would not join the wider international efforts to put pressure on Tehran by cutting oil purchases.

"It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country amongst them," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on a visit to the Unites States.

The United States wants buyers in Asia, Iran's biggest oil market, to cut imports to put further pressure on Tehran.

DISCUSSION POSTPONED

Iranian lawmakers had been due to debate a bill Sunday that could have cut off oil supplies to the EU in days, in a move calculated to hit ailing European economies before the EU-wide ban on took effect.

But Iranian MPs postponed discussing the measure.

"No such draft bill has yet been drawn up and nothing has been submitted to the parliament. What exists is a notion by the deputies which is being seriously pursued to bring it to a conclusive end," Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament's Energy Committee, told Mehr news agency.

Iranian officials say sanctions have had no impact on the country. "Iranian oil has its own market, even if we cut our exports to Europe," Oil Minister Qasemi said.

Another lawmaker said the bill would oblige the government to cut Iran's oil supplies to the EU for five to 15 years, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

By turning the sanctions back on the EU, lawmakers hope to deny the bloc a six-month window it had planned to give those of its members most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile in southern Europe - to adapt.

NUCLEAR WATCHDOG

Before departing from Vienna, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said he hoped Iran would tackle the watchdog's concerns "regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program."

Mehr quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying during a trip to Ethiopia: "We are very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA delegation's visit to Iran ... Their questions will be answered during this visit."

"We have nothing to hide and Iran has no clandestine (nuclear) activities."

Striking a sterner tone, Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned the IAEA team to carry out a "logical, professional and technical" job or suffer the consequences.

"This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally," said Larijani, state media reported.

"Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency."

Iran's parliament has approved bills in the past to oblige the government to review its level of cooperation with the IAEA. However, Iran's top officials have always underlined the importance of preserving ties with the watchdog body.

The head of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said late Saturday that the export embargo would hit European refiners, such as Italy's Eni, that are owed oil from Iran as part of long-standing buy-back contracts under which they take payment for past oilfield projects in crude.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. However, analysts say the global oil market will not be overly disrupted if parliament votes for the bill that would turn off the oil tap for Europe.

Potentially more disruptive to the world oil market and global security is the risk of Iran's standoff with the West escalating into military conflict.

Iran has repeatedly said it could close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if sanctions succeed in preventing it from exporting crude, a move Washington said it would not tolerate.

(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari, Robin Pomeroy and Hossein Jaseb in Tehran, Svetlana Kovalyova in Milan and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Writing by Parisa Hafezi and Robin Pomeroy; Editing by William Maclean and David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/wl_nm/us_iran

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EU probes Samsung, Germany blocks its tablets (AP)

BRUSSELS ? Samsung took a hit in its battle against arch-rival Apple on Tuesday, when the European Union announced it will investigate whether it is illegally trying to hinder competitors and Germany blocked sales of some of its tablets.

Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc. are engaged in a strategic war over patents in many countries across the world as they try to draw market share away from each other.

The EU's antitrust watchdog thinks the South Korean company may be overstepping the bounds, however, and launched a formal investigation of whether Samsung is using law suits over key patents on 3G wireless technology to hinder competitors ? including Apple.

In Germany, an appeals court ruled in favor of Apple in a separate case, saying Samsung could not sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 nor the Galaxy Tab 8.9 in the country because they too closely resembled the iPad2, in violation of unfair competition laws.

"Samsung wrongly used the enormous reputation and prestige of the iPad," Duesseldorf state court Presiding Judge Wilhelm Berneke wrote in his ruling.

Samsung's successor tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 N, was not affected by the ruling, and the company said that while the decision was disappointing, it was largely irrelevant.

"Today's ruling is of little factual relevance due to the new model Galaxy Tab 10.1 N, and ... the decision therefore is of no indicative value with respect to other legal proceedings involving the Galaxy Tab 10.1 N," Samsung said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

"Samsung will continue to take all appropriate measures, including legal action, to ensure continued consumer access to our innovative products."

Florian Mueller, a patent analyst who has been closely following the battle between Samsung and Apple, said the German court ruling won't have a commercial impact on the South Korean company, since it has already been selling a new model of the Galaxy tablet since November.

"The defeat in Germany is more of a symbolical nature," said Mueller, whose clients include Apple competitor Microsoft.

The probe by the European Commission, however, could have a larger impact.

The Commission said it suspects Samsung of not giving other companies fair access to patents it holds on standardized 3G technology for mobile devices ? despite committing to do so in 1998.

A spokeswoman for the Commission said the probe also affects tablets such as Apple's newest iPad, which uses standardized wireless 3G technology.

The Commission said that Samsung last year sought legal injunctions against other device makers in several EU states, alleging patent infringement.

Under EU patent rules, a company that hold patents for standardized products are required to license them out indiscriminately at a fair price.

"Samsung now has to think carefully about how it wants to deal with (the probe)," said Mueller, adding that the company may be inclined to withdraw its lawsuits against Apple.

In the EU, Samsung has sued Apple in Germany, France, Italy, the U.K., the Netherlands and Spain. It also has legal proceedings against its competitor in the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Australia, Mueller said.

The battle between the two companies began in April, when Cupertino, California-based Apple sued Samsung in the United States, alleging the product design, user interface and packaging of Samsung's Galaxy devices "slavishly copy" the iPhone and iPad.

Samsung ? the global No. 1 in TVs and No. 2 in smartphones by sales ? responded by filing its own lawsuits that accused Apple of patent infringement of its wireless telecommunications technology.

A spokesman said the EU Commission launched its probe after its own investigation of the market, rather than reacting to complaints from Samsung's competitors. However, the Commission last year sent antitrust questionnaires to both Apple and Samsung.

The spokesman added that similar probes could also be launched against other companies strategically using patent suits to stop competitors from selling similar devices.

Nam Ki-yung, a spokesman at Samsung Electronics in South Korea, said his company was looking at details of the news on the probe but had no immediate comments.

EU antitrust probes don't have a deadline and the Commission stressed that its investigation does not mean Samsung did indeed breach the bloc's competition rules. Samsung now gets the chance to respond to the Commission's concerns, as will other market participants.

If Samsung is found guilty of unfairly restraining competition, it can be fined up to 10 percent of annual revenue related to the probe.

The probe and victory in the German court for Apple come after the California company has met with several setbacks recently in its fight with Samsung.

Most recently, a Dutch court ruled on Jan. 24 that Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet was not a copy of Apple's iPad, and that it could continue to be sold in the Netherlands. That came on the heels of a December decision in Sydney, where the High Court dismissed Apple's appeal and said Samsung was free to sell its Galaxy tablet computers in Australia.

___

Rising reported from Berlin; Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this story from Seoul.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_hi_te/eu_germany_samsung_apple

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Catching a mood on Facebook

Positive and negative emotions spread on social network

Web edition : 5:01 pm

SAN DIEGO ? Facebook users can spread emotions to their online connections just by posting a written message, or status update, that?s positive or negative, says a psychologist who works for the wildly successful social network.

This finding challenges the idea that emotions get passed from one person to another via vocal cues, such as rising or falling tone, or by a listener unconsciously imitating a talker?s body language, said Adam Kramer on January 27 at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Kramer works at Facebook?s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

?It?s time to rethink how emotional contagion works, since vocal cues and mimicry aren?t needed,? Kramer said. ?Facebook users? emotion leaks into the emotional worlds of their friends.?

Preliminary evidence that the emotional undercurrent of a person?s online messages affect his or her friends supports Kramer?s argument, says psychology graduate student Jamie Guillory of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Guillory and Cornell psychologist Jeffrey Hancock found that groups of three friends communicating by instant messaging used a greater number of negative words and solved a joint task better after one friend had just watched a film clip showing one child bullied by a bigger kid, versus a neutral film clip.

When one friend saw the bullying clips, Guillory suggested, his or her negative feelings spread via written messages to the others and stimulated more active group discussions about the experimental task: coming up with tips to survive freshman year in college.

Volunteers in that study reported not knowing when their friends had seen the bullying clip. Facebook members may also unknowingly pick up on what their friends feel by reading status updates, Guillory speculated.

Kramer used a computer program to identify words signifying positive and negative emotions in Facebook status updates posted by 1 million English-speaking users over three consecutive days in 2010. He did the same for status updates posted by friends of those Facebook users over the next three consecutive days. Since each user had about 150 Facebook friends, Kramer?s study included about 150 million people. More than 800 million people overall use Facebook, he said.

When a user?s status update included more positive than negative words, updates by that user?s friends posted three days later included an average of 7 percent more positive words and 1 percent fewer negative words compared with their updates just before the user?s post appeared. A corresponding pattern appeared after users posted updates with a surplus of negative words.

?That?s not a huge effect, but it?s a real effect,? Kramer said. Across the entire study group, three days after users posted positive updates, the number of updates containing positive words rose by 1.4 million and the number featuring negative words dropped by 679,000 relative to the day before, he reported.

Kramer found the same results whether users? updates were sampled at the beginning or the end of the week. So any tendency to feel happier on Friday and sadder on Monday didn?t influence emotional trends in status updates.

There?s no way to know if friends actually viewed users? updates from three days before, he acknowledged. But the findings point to a subtle form of emotional contagion that ripples across the ocean of Facebook users, he concluded.

Found in: Humans

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338007/title/Catching_a_mood_on_Facebook

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Free Android Wallpaper of the day - Green River at Crystal Geyser

Today's free Android Wallpaper of the Day comes to us from member RETG, who uploaded this pic of the Green River at Cystal Geyeser in Utah. Nice.

Also, the wallpaper gallery just eclipsed 1,000 uploads, all thanks to you folks out there. Keep it up, and be sure to share your favorite wallpapers! Just hit the link below.

 

• Download this wallpaper
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/G4rZvfPU3hM/story01.htm

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Ala. tornado survivors help after latest twisters

CLAY, Ala.?? Survivors still haunted by memories of last year's tornado outbreak that killed 250 in Alabama are writing checks, donating diapers and standing over hot grills to help victims of the latest twisters to pummel the state.

The April 27 outbreak of 62 tornadoes that swept across the state in waves caused more than $1 billion in damage, hurt more than 2,000 people and destroyed or damaged nearly 24,000 homes. The storms leveled neighborhoods and virtually wiped out some towns. The latest outbreak of at least 10 tornadoes this week ravaged central Alabama, killing two people near Birmingham and destroying or badly damaging more than 460 homes.

Rick Johnson is still living with relatives and friends after two tornadoes last year killed four people and splintered his home in rural Cordova, where the downtown area is still in shambles. When the latest twisters hit this week, Johnson stepped up. He volunteered to cook 200 pounds of donated chicken and help deliver hot meals to volunteers, workers and storm victims in Center Point, about 45 miles from his hometown.

"You know what they're going through. You know what they feel. It's hard to describe," said Johnson, 55.

Leaders from President Barack Obama on down praised the generosity and volunteering spirit of Alabamians after last year's deadly tornado outbreak. The people who needed help last year, many of whom are still removing debris and rebuilding, have been among those lending a hand this time around. The Alabama Emergency Management Agency said 2,511 victims of last year's storms were still living in temporary housing.

For Leah Bromley, helping out victims of the latest twisters is all about repaying kindness. Mountains of donated clothes and furniture flooded her hometown of Tuscaloosa after a twister killed nearly 50 people there last year.

"I just really believe in paying it forward," said Bromley, who started Rebuild Tuscaloosa, a nonprofit organization formed after last year's twisters to solicit donations and distribute money and services for relief. Now, it's helping out in communities far from Tuscaloosa.

A University of Alabama sorority from Tuscaloosa gave donations to help victims of the latest twisters northeast of Birmingham, and a group brought more from Cullman, which also got slammed last year. A school in a Walker County town that was hard hit last year donated supplies and made sandwiches for survivors in Oak Grove, which was battered both in 2011 and 2012.

Mary Foster couldn't go home for weeks after a tornado badly damaged her home in Tuscaloosa, and she's just now settling back into a normal routine nine months later. That didn't stop her from writing a check to a relief fund this week.

Foster said she was compelled to help because so many people helped her last year, including Bromley's organization and Habitat for Humanity, which helped fix her home.

"I was glad to be able to be a blessing to them because so many people were a blessing to me," Foster said.

Foster's house in east Tuscaloosa was badly damaged when a twister cut a wide swath through the city of nearly 90,000 last year, forcing her and her two daughters to move in first with a brother, then into a motel. Her home is now repaired, but broken trees and splintered, vacant homes dot the rolling hills all through her Alberta City neighborhood, providing a constant reminder of the terror that day.

"When I came out and saw people scream and hollering. ... Oh, my," said Foster, her voice trailing off.

Thanks to contributions from people in tornado-scarred towns and elsewhere, the gym is now full at Bridge Point Church in Clay, which opened a distribution center after a twister last Monday slammed neighborhoods including one where a 16-year-old girl was killed and scores of homes were destroyed or damaged. A steady stream of storm victims came by on Wednesday gathering items off of a gym floor covered with tables full of cleaning supplies and buckets, baby food and diapers, tarps and canned foods.

Pastor Mark Higdon said the outpouring of donations has been gratifying, particularly considering how many Alabama families are still struggling to recover from the tornadoes last year, which leveled entire neighborhoods and virtually wiped out some towns. The church's gym was empty at 8 a.m. Tuesday, a day after the twisters struck, and it was overflowing 24 hours later.

"The generosity of people is unbelievable," Higdon said. "They're just more than willing to give back."

A few minutes after Higdon spoke, two trucks and a trailer loaded with donations pulled into the church parking lot with donations from Rebuild Tuscaloosa, Bromley's group. Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a map of Alabama and the date of last year's twisters, Brian DeWitt helped unload boxes of food, kitchen supplies and other items. DeWitt's home was spared, but friends lost theirs and he's been helping with the relief.

DeWitt said news of the January twisters stirred up a lot of emotions from last year. Sitting back and letting someone else help wasn't an option.

"The tornadoes last April 27 kind of shook Tuscaloosa up pretty well," he said. "We all got a renewed sense of community, which is not only the people you live around and love but also anyone else you can touch in your everyday life. I knew it was important after hearing about the tornado to get up here and do what we can."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46176022/ns/weather/

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Zimbabwe doctors report 800 typhoid cases

HARARE,Zimbabwe (AP) ? An independent doctors' group in Zimbabwe is reporting 800 cases of the bacterial disease typhoid in a recent outbreak.

No deaths have been reported in the past three weeks. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said Sunday that the nation's troubled coalition government lacked urgency in dealing with public health woes.

In a statement, the group said that amid heavy rains clean water supplies were still irregular or "completely absent" in most impoverished townships in Harare. It said burst sewers were left unattended and meat and fish were sold on streets nearby.

A cholera outbreak in 2009 blamed on the collapse of water, sanitation and prevention services in Zimbabwe killed more than 4,000 people.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-01-29-AF-Zimbabwe-Typhoid/id-f458dbde38f0492abd3eecfc6f06ada3

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Despair, crackdowns breed more violence in Tibet (AP)

BEIJING ? A young man posts his photo with a leaflet demanding freedom for Tibet and telling Chinese police, come and get me. Protesters rise up to defend him, and demonstrations break out in two other Tibetan areas of western China to support the same cause.

Each time, police respond with bullets.

The three clashes, all in the past week, killed several Tibetans and injured dozens. They mark an escalation of a protest movement that for months expressed itself mainly through scattered individual self-immolations.

It's the result of growing desperation among Tibetans and a harsh crackdown by security forces that scholars and pro-Tibet activists contend only breeds more rage and despair.

That leaves authorities with the stark choice of either cracking down even harder or meeting Tibetan demands for greater freedom and a return of their Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama ? something Beijing has shown zero willingness to do.

"By not responding constructively when it was faced with peaceful one-person protests, the (Communist) party has created the conditions for violent, large-scale protests," said Robbie Barnett, head of modern Tibetan studies at New York's Columbia University.

This is the region's most violent period since 2008, when deadly rioting in Tibet's capital Lhasa spread to Tibetan areas in adjoining provinces. China responded by flooding the area with troops and closing Tibetan regions entirely to foreigners for about a year. Special permission is still required for non-Chinese visitors to Tibet, and the Himalayan region remains closed off entirely for the weeks surrounding the March 14 anniversary of the riots that left 22 people dead.

Video smuggled out by activists shows paramilitary troops equipped with assault rifles and armored cars making pre-dawn arrests. Huge convoys of heavily armored troops are seen driving along mountain roads and monks accused of sedition being frog-marched to waiting trucks.

For the past year, self-immolations have become a striking form of protest in the region. At least 16 monks, nuns and former clergy set themselves on fire after chanting for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

China, fiercely critical of the Dalai Lama, says Tibet has been under its rule for centuries, but many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for most of that time. Anger over cultural and religious restrictions is deepened by a sense that Tibetans have been marginalized economically by an influx of migrants from elsewhere in China.

In a change from the individual protests, several thousand Tibetans marched to government offices Monday in Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province. Police opened fire into the crowd, killing up to three people, witnesses and activist groups said.

On Tuesday, security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in another area of Ganzi, killing two Tibetans and wounding several more, according to the group Free Tibet.

On Thursday in southwestern Sichuan province's Aba prefecture, a youth named Tarpa posted a leaflet saying that self-immolations wouldn't stop until Tibet is free, the London-based International Campaign for Tibet said. He wrote his name on the leaflet and included a photo of himself, saying that Chinese authorities could come and arrest him if they wished, group spokeswoman Kate Saunders said in an email.

Security forces did so about two hours later. Area residents blocked their way, shouting slogans and warning of bigger protests if Tarpa wasn't released, Saunders said. Police then fired into the crowd, killing a a 20-year-old friend of Tarpa's, a student named Urgen, and wounding several others.

The incident, as with most reported clashes in Tibetan areas, could not be independently verified and exact numbers of casualties were unclear because of the heavy security presence and lack of access. The topic is so sensitive that even government-backed scholars claim ignorance of it and refuse to comment.

The government, however, acknowledged Tuesday's unrest, saying that a "mob" charged a police station and injured 14 officers, forcing police to open fire on them. The official Xinhua News Agency said police killed one rioter and injured another.

"The Chinese government will, as always, fight all crimes and be resolute in maintaining social order," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in comments on the incident.

In a commentary Sunday, the nationalist tabloid Global Times repeated accusations that the protests were inspired by Tibetan exile groups and their demands were out of step with the desire for economic development.

Yet, it also conceded that the Dalai Lama retained considerable religious influence over Tibetans, warning this created a dangerous trend of "melding the political and relgious."

The harsh response points to a deep anxiety about the self-immolations, said Youdon Aukatsang, a New Delhi-based member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.

"They're worried that there is an underground movement in Tibet that is coming to the surface," she said.

Tibetan desperation has been fed both by the harsh crackdown ? security agents reportedly outnumber monks in some monasteries ? along with a deep fear that the Dalai Lama, probably the most potent symbol of Tibet's separate identity, will never return.

The 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate handed his political powers to an elected assembly last year. That was intended to ensure the Tibetan cause would live on after him, but was met with considerable anxiety among many Tibetans who saw it as a sign he was giving up his role as leader of their struggle.

Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at London's University of Westminster, said resistance to Chinese rule is likely to grow more fierce.

"Protests will get more radicalized since the Tibetans in the region see no concession, no offer of compromise, no flexibility coming from the government," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_china_tibet_spiral_of_violence

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Obama's populist pitch unifies House Democrats (The Arizona Republic)

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Newt Gingrich was Lost in Space at Florida Debate (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Newt Gingrich's spokesman said Thursday night's GOP debate in Jacksonville, Fla., was a "push." Who is he trying to kid? Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the night in a harrowing display of debate splendor that had the well-spoken, factually armed former speaker tied in a knot.

The Ticket reported Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond tried to sell the idea of a debate draw to reporters traveling with the campaign, but it seemed to fall flat. Rightfully so. Gingrich did not have a strong appearance, failing to counter damaging attacks from Romney and Rick Santorum, who straddled him on the stage. Ron Paul provided nothing more than comic relief and proven -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- that he is unfit to be president and merely riding a 15 minutes of fame tour through these debates.

One of the former House speaker's weakest moments was the defense of his plan to build a permanent moon colony by the end of his second term as president. He is right in one respect: America needs another grand idea. Gingrich cited President John F. Kennedy's call to space in the early 1960s as an example, but that was Kennedy's moment for Kennedy's time. America needs another grand idea, but not something as outlandish as a multitrillion-dollar expense of building moon colony. After all, we just finished building the international space station and the U.S. doesn't even possess a working orbiter at the moment.

The Washington Post reported Gingrich talked Wednesday to more than 500 residents of Cocoa Beach, Fla., about his plans to develop the next great space exploration program. His idea met with resounding approval from a community largely dependent on America's space program for their jobs. During the debate, Romney accused him of pandering local issues as he campaigns. Romney got that part wrong. Candidates always talk to local crowds about very local issues to win their votes (and their wallet).

Regardless of the space discussion, Gingrich did not have a good night. My heart says Romney won the debate, but I cannot dismiss the powerful performance of Santorum. Romney will carry Florida next week, but the three-way race will continue as they all move to Nevada for the next votes. That is unless Santorum runs out of money in the meantime.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120128/pl_ac/10893553_newt_gingrich_was_lost_in_space_at_florida_debate

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NY court: Judge can't block $18B Chevron judgment (AP)

NEW YORK ? A judge overstepped his authority when he tried to ban enforcement around the world of an $18 billion judgment against Chevron Inc. for environmental damage in Ecuador, a federal appeals court said Thursday.

The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals explained why it lifted the ban last year and blocked a judge from staging a trial to decide if the judgment was obtained fairly.

It said the judge has authority to block collection if Ecuadorean plaintiffs move against Chevron in New York, but law does not give him authority "to dictate to the entire world which judgments are entitled to respect and which countries' courts are to be treated as international pariahs."

The judgment came last February after nearly two decades of litigation that stemmed from the poisoning of land in the Ecuadorean rainforest while the oil company Texaco was operating an oil consortium from 1972 to 1990 in the Amazon. Texaco became a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron in 2001.

Chevron obtained an order from U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in March blocking Ecuadorean plaintiffs from trying to collect the $18 billion until he could stage a trial to determine whether the judgment was fraudulently obtained.

The Ecuadorean plaintiffs appealed Kaplan's ruling to the 2nd Circuit. The appeals court heard oral arguments and then issued an order in September lifting Kaplan's block on collection efforts. On Thursday, it went a step further, tossing out the portion of Chevron's challenge to the judgment that sought to block its enforcement anywhere in the world.

"It is a particularly weighty matter for a court in one country to declare that another country's legal system is so corrupt or unfair that its judgments are entitled to no respect from the courts of other nations," the 2nd Circuit wrote. "In such an instance, the court risks disrespecting the legal system not only of the country in which the judgment was issued, but also of other countries, who are inherently assumed insufficiently trustworthy to recognize what is asserted to be the extreme incapacity of the legal system from which the judgment emanates."

It added that the court issuing such a ban "sets itself up as the definitive international arbiter of the fairness and integrity of the world's legal systems."

The appeals court said Kaplan had not addressed the legal rules that would "govern enforceability of an Ecuadorean judgment under the laws of France, Russia, Brazil, Singapore, Saudi Arabia or any of the scores of countries, with widely varying legal systems, in which the plaintiffs might undertake to enforce their judgment."

In a statement, Chevron said the appeals court decision was "a narrow procedural ruling" that would not affect the ultimate outcome of the case.

"Chevron believes this corrupt judgment will be unenforceable in any country that adheres to the rule of law and we will continue to defend Chevron's interests against any attempts to enforce the fraudulent judgment," it said.

Karen Hinton, a U.S. spokesperson for the Ecuadoreans, said the decision set right "a grave injustice against the Ecuadoreans."

"Once Ecuadorean law allows enforcement of the judgment, it will become even more evident that the only fraud committed in Ecuador in the context of this historic environmental litigation was Chevron's," she said.

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

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Ahmadinejad says Iran ready for nuclear talks

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran is ready to revive talks with the world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday, as toughening sanctions aim at forcing Tehran to sharply scale back its nuclear program.

Even so, he insisted that the pressures will not force Iran to give up its demands, including to continue enriching uranium, that led to the collapse of dialogue last year.

The United States and its allies want Iran to halt making nuclear fuel, which they worry could eventually lead to weapons-grade material and the production of nuclear weapons.

Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes ? generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

The 27-member European Union imposed an oil embargo against Iran on Monday, part of sanctions to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on the country's nuclear program. It follows U.S. action also aimed at limiting Iran's ability to sell oil, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue.

No date is set for the possible resumption of talks between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany. Negotiations ended in stalemate in January 2011, and Iran later rejected a plan to send its stockpile of low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for reactor-ready fuel rods.

Iran had previously indicated that it is ready for a new round of talks. Ahmadinejad is the highest-ranking official to make the offer.

He accused the West of trying to scuttle negotiations as a way to further squeeze Iran.

"It is you who come up with excuses each time and issue resolutions on the verge of talks so that negotiations collapse," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Kerman in southeastern Iran. "Why should we shun talks? Why and how should a party that has logic and is right shun talks? It is evident that those who resort to coercion are opposed to talks and always bring pretexts and blame us instead."

A senior U.N. nuclear agency team is expected to visit Tehran on Saturday, the first such mission since a report in November that alleged Iran conducted secret weapons-related tests and that Tehran was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon.

The delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency will be led by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, who is in charge of the Iran nuclear file, and include Peri Lynne Johnson, the agency's senior legal official.

Johnson will be the only American in the three-person team. While IAEA officials are formally neutral, her citizenship could bring added attention from Iranian hard-liners.

Iran begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes earlier this month, in another show of defiance against Western pressure to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.

Centrifuges at the bunker-like Fordo facility near Iran's holy city of Qom are churning out uranium enriched to 20 percent. That level is higher than the 3.5 percent being made at Iran's main enrichment plant at Natanz, central Iran, and can be turned into warhead material faster and with less work.

Iran says it won't give up its right to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel, but it has offered to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit its nuclear sites to ensure that its nuclear program won't be weaponized.

Ahmadinejad also said sanctions and oil embargo will backfire because it has minimum trade with EU.

"Americans have not purchased Iranian oil for 30 years. Our central bank has had no dealings with them ... our (total) foreign trade is about $200 billion. Between $23 billion to $24 billion of our trade is with Europeans, making up about 10 percent of our total trade ... Iran won't suffer," Ahmadinejad said. His comments were posted on state TV's website.

The EU had been importing about 450,000 barrels of oil a day from Iran, making up 18 percent of Iran's oil exports.

In Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as opposing the latest EU measures on Iran.

"To blindly pressure and impose sanctions on Iran are not constructive approaches," the statement said.

China, which is a major buyer of Iranian oil, has urged that the nuclear standoff be resolved through dialogue and consultation.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-26-Iran-Nuclear/id-772b011b9c854059907ef5addc39bb02

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Israeli-Palestinian talks end with no progress: officials (Reuters)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) -

Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at reviving peace negotiations ended in Jordan Wednesday without achieving any progress and President Mahmoud Abbas plans to consult fellow Arabs on his next move, Palestinian officials said.

The options being considered by the Palestinians include pushing ahead with United Nations membership and reconciliation with the rival Islamist Hamas group -- moves opposed by Israel.

"The Israelis brought nothing new in these meetings," said one Palestinian official familiar with the talks. "We are now going to assess our options and will consult our brothers in the Arab League on February 4."

The talks came as part of a proposal by the Quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations - which set a three-month deadline last October for the two sides to make proposals on issues of territory and security.

The aim is to reach a peace deal by the end of this year.

The European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is on a regional visit to nudge Israelis and Palestinians to maintain the talks begun this month.

She has been seeking Israeli confidence-building measures for Palestinians, including freeing some prisoners and more freedom in areas of the West Bank held by Israel.

Israelis and Palestinians held five sessions of talks, in which the Israelis offered a document comprising 21 points that Abbas had dismissed as worthless.

Despite strong opposition from the United States and Israel, the Palestinian Authority applied to the U.N. Security Council last September for U.N. membership. But a committee to consider the application failed to reach consensus, and the Palestinians have not so far requested a formal vote in the council.

Peace talks foundered in late 2010 with Palestinians demanding that Israel suspend settlement building in the occupied West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem.

Abbas also demanded that Israel agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state on all lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war before resuming negotiations.

Israel has rejected both demands and said it was ready to resume negotiations immediately with no preconditions.

(Reporting by Ali Sawaftah and Sami Aboudi in Ramallah; editing by Robert Woodward)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel

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These Are The 20 Worst Places In Europe To Be ... - Business Insider

AP

"Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy," writes Reporters Without Borders in its tenth annual ranking of press freedom.

The countries have been ranked based on scores awarded after questionnaires were completed by local journalists. There are 44 main criteria of press freedom, which takes into account violations against journalists and how the media censors itself.

While Europe dominates the top end of the list, with the top 8 featured all European, other countries have had a hard time ?? one country finally lost its media baron boss, another country descend into "fascism", and another country's problem with murdered journalists continued with little official recognition.

Check out the 20 worst places for European Press Freedom in 2011 >

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/journalists-censorship-europe-2012-1

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O2 data breach potentially shares your cellphone number with the world

There's an alarming rumor circulating that suggests that UK network O2 forwards your phone number to any website visited on a smartphone. Lewis Peckover built a site that displays the header data sent to sites you visit, finding a network-specific field called "x-up-calling-line-id" which displayed his number. Angry users who tested the site have flooded the company's official Twitter, which is currently responding with:

"Security is our top most priority, we're investigating this at the moment & will come back with more info as soon as we can."

The Next Web confirmed that Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone numbers are unaffected by the issue, but GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile (both MVNOs that operate on the same network) do. TNW's sources say it's most likely an internal testing setup, while Mr. Peckover suggests it's because the network transparently proxies HTTP traffic, using the number as a UID.

Update: We received confirmation from O2, who said that it was "investigating with internal teams and it's our top priority." Slashgear and Think Broadband were unable to replicate the problem, but in our tests (pictured) it was sharing our data with the site.

Update 2: Consumer magazine Which? contacted UK privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office which offered the following:

"Keeping people's personal information secure is a fundamental principle that sits at the heart of the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. When people visit a website via their mobile phone they would not expect their number to be made available to that website.

We will now speak to O2 to remind them of their data breach notification obligations, and to better understand what has happened, before we decide how to proceed."

We'll let you draw your own conclusions from that one, but it's not shaping up to be a good day for the company (or its users).

O2 data breach potentially shares your cellphone number with the world originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/25/o2-data-breach/

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How to Travel With Your Pets: Suggested Tips from Heidi Ganahl

1) Check all airline requirements before boarding a plane. See if your pet can travel in a carrier that can be kept under a seat in the cabin or if your pet must travel by freight.

2) Familiarize your pet with its carrier. Pets like familiarity. If you plan on keeping your pet inside a carrier while traveling, allow your pet to get used to the environment by placing it in the carrier for a few minutes each day. Gradually lengthen the time until your pet seems at ease with being placed in the carrier.

3) Don?t try sneaking your pet on the plane. Although it may seem like a good idea if your pet is small enough to fit in a carrier beneath your seat, do not sneak animals of any size on a plane. There will be repercussions for doing so. Instead, look into travel alternatives such as Pet Airways, which was created specifically for traveling with pets. Although routes are limited, traveling on pet-friendly airlines may reduce times that pets are required to be in a carrier.

4) Feed your pet no less than five or six hours before flight time. Give the pet a drink of water no less than two hours before flight. It is very easy for your dog or cat to become sick in transition.

5) Find a hotel that will allow your pet to spend the night. Most pet-friendly hotels will not allow pets to be left in the room alone, so also consider taking your dog to a nearby Camp Bow Wow doggie day care facility if you want to do things during the day. It will cost less than paying for damage incurred by leaving a dog along in a hotel room.

6) Make the animal feel at home. Use familiar dishes, blankets, toys and other items from your home to create a sense of comfort for your pet.

7) ?And If Fido can?t travel with you, leave him at one of Camp Bow Wows 100+ franchises and watch him while on-the-go, via Camp Bow Wow?s unique iPhone Application, which has a web-cam feature that is hooked up at every franchise across the country!

(Source: Heidi Ganahl, CEO and Founder of Camp Bow Wow,?http://www.campbowwow.com/)?

Source: http://www.eastcobber.com/how-to-travel-with-your-pets-suggested-tips-from-heidi-ganahl/

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Playtech gears up for global expansion (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Playtech, the world's biggest provider of online gaming software, said it saw increasing opportunities as gambling laws are relaxed across the world and was confident of meeting full year expectations following a surge in revenues.

The Estonia-based firm, which operates a joint venture with Britain's biggest bookmaker William Hill, said total revenue increased by 89 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter to 69.6 million euros ($90.8 million).

"The board is very comfortable with market expectations for the year ended December 31 2011 and looks forward to 2012 with confidence," Chief Executive Mor Weizer said in a statement on Tuesday.

Market expectations for Playtech's full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) currently range between 105.4 million euros and 120.6 million euros with the average at 116.7 million according to a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 7 analysts.

The company, in which billionaire Israeli founder Teddy Sagi holds a 46.6 percent stake, said the opening up of online gambling markets would present opportunities for global expansion.

"Playtech is well positioned to take advantage of market opportunities wherever as and when they appear," Weizer said.

Playtech raised 100 million pounds through a share placing last November to finance acquisition opportunities.

The industry is preparing itself for the possible legalization of some forms of online gambling this year.

The United States Justice Department said in December that only online betting on sporting contests is unlawful, clearing the way for other types of Internet gambling such poker and casino games to be legalized.

Playtech has already positioned itself for the U.S. market re-opening, signing a deal to provide software to the California Online Poker Association (COPA) last year.

"The U.S. Department of Justice's pre-Christmas guidance has provided further encouragement for those looking to achieve regulation in the U.S. Playtech is preparing itself for each and every market," Weizer said.

($1 = 0.7665 euros)

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; editing by Lorraine Turner)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/wr_nm/us_playtech

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Web music revenue growth stuck in single figures

LONDON (AP) ? Legitimate music downloads still aren't growing quickly enough.

A report published Monday by the recording industry's main lobby group showed that digital revenue has grown 8 percent over the past year to about $5.2 billion ? a solid figure for some industries, but not one where overall receipts have fallen by nearly two-thirds amid a shift toward online ? and in many cases illegal ? music downloads.

"The 8 percent figure should be much higher," said Frances Moore, the chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. "That's part of our task in 2012."

Moore blamed music piracy for starving online retailers and music subscription services of custom, saying the legitimate music business was working in an "extremely challenging" environment.

"It's very difficult to turn things around overnight," she said.

The IFPI's report highlighted many of those turnaround efforts, noting for example that there are around 500 legitimate music services worldwide offering up to 20 million tracks.

It said subscription services were doing particularly well in Scandinavia, the home of popular music service Spotify, whereas in France the number of subscribers nearly doubled in the first 11 months of 2011.

Music pirates remain the IFPI's No. 1 enemy, and the group's report congratulated several countries on their efforts to crack down on illegal file sharing.

It said French authorities had sent out more than 700,000 warnings to suspected copyright violators, an act it said had helped drive down file sharing on peer-to-peer networks by 26 percent since October 2010.

In the United States, the group said most major American Internet service providers had signed up to a "copyright alert system" aimed at issuing similar warnings to suspected file sharers.

Even in China, where piracy rates approached 100 percent, the IFPI said progress was being made. In June record companies joined hands with search engine Baidu to fight pirated content and create authorized digital music service Ting.

But the fight against infringement has seen some high-profile reverses, including last week's shelving of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S., which was originally intended to block access to pirate websites. Critics accused the law's backers of installing a regime of Internet censorship, and Google and Wikipedia partially obscured or entirely blacked out their websites in a dramatic and ultimately successful protest.

Moore described the bill's demise as a setback and said that the technology community "has come out a bit hysterically against this."

But she said her organization would continue to lobby internationally for website-blocking, arguing that the measure was "efficient, effective, and proportionate."

There's much at stake as the music industry struggles to build its online presence. Worldwide sales of physical music ? such as CDs ? have dropped from $28.1 billion in 2000 to $10 billion in 2011.

Independent media analyst Mark Mulligan said in the U.S. the music industry has "already lost half of the music market in the past 10 years."

He said there was no realistic hope digital music would make up for the shortfall in the near term.

"What we're talking about is: 'How much of a burning building can we save from the flames?'" he said.

___

Online:

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry: http://www.ifpi.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-EU-Digital-Music/id-dd60558df6d244de8a7865921de6a1df

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Mitt faces a perfect mess (Politico)

Perfect resume, perfect looks, perfect family, and a perfect roster of skilled campaign operatives and blue-chip endorsements: Mitt Romney has them all.

Yet he comes out of his drubbing in South Carolina with a perfect problem.

Continue Reading

Romney goes after Gingrich

Rarely has there been a figure in American politics whose personality and achievements?taken as individual parts?so powerfully conveyed both uncommon success and a kind of reassuring conventionality.

But these same traits?taken as a whole?have produced someone struggling mightily to connect with the national mood and moment, much less reassure voters that his experiences and values align with their own.

The widening gap between Romney in theory, a man who oozes plausibility as a potential president, and Romney in practice, a candidate who just might be missing some kind of intangible something, is now a dominant storyline in the GOP presidential race.

There may be many reasons Romney had troubles in South Carolina?more than 70 percent of primary voters on Saturday wanted someone else?but the fact that he lost so resoundingly to a man with a political and personal journey as turbulent as Newt Gingrich's suggests a possibility more far-reaching than last weekend?s surprise.

Americans may prefer politicians with visible flaws?outsized appetites and messy scandals like Gingrich and Bill Clinton?or at least with twisting and improbable personal journeys. Of the past two presidents, George W. Bush had two decades of drift and excess before finding direction, and Barack Obama described his own history of alienation and painful searching that preceded his political success.

By these lights, human frailties are the new political norm, and the every-hair-in-place smoothness of Romney's political persona, combined with his wealth, that comes off as insular and even odd.

?Redemption is far better box office than perfection,? said New Hampshire GOP strategist Pat Griffin.? ?We can all relate to redemption.? Very few people can look at the perfectly coiffed Romneys, all good posters for oral hygiene, and say, ?That?s me!?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories0112_71806_html/44270676/SIG=11m987utp/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71806.html

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California High School Student Develops Cure for Cancer in Spare ...

John on January 22, 2012 at 10:03 am

The amazing part isn?t that she tried but that she seems to have succeeded, at least in mice:

This is a great American story and also, obviously, a great statement about the value of legal immigration. We?re lucky to have Angela and she?s equally lucky to have this country. Talk about a win-win situation.

Category: Science & Tech |

Source: http://www.verumserum.com/?p=36999

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NATO: 4 coalition troops killed by Afghan soldier (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? An Afghan soldier shot and killed four NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, the U.S.-led coalition said. The shooting underscores the fragile relationship between Afghan and foreign troops who are partnered across the nation.

NATO said in a statement that the suspected shooter had been apprehended, but disclosed no details about the incident.

The nationalities of the troops killed were not released. Troops from several nations, including the U.S. and France, are deployed in eastern Afghanistan.

Similar attacks have raised fears of increased Taliban infiltration of the Afghan police and army as NATO speeds up the training of the security forces. In some cases the attackers were Afghan soldiers who turned on NATO troops. Others involved insurgents dressed in Afghan uniforms.

Earlier this month, a U.S. troop was killed when a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire at a base in the south of the country.

In one of the worst incidents, a veteran Afghan military pilot opened fire at Kabul airport on April 27, 2011, killing eight U.S. troops and an American civilian contractor.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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German chief calls for gays to come out

Associated Press Sports

updated 10:57 a.m. ET Jan. 17, 2012

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -The departing German football federation president says it's time for gay players to come out.

Theo Zwanziger, who will leave the post in March, called on gay players "to have the courage to declare themselves," although he conceded it was surely difficult to acknowledge one's homosexuality within a team.

Zwanziger pointed to the example of Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who came out years ago.

Speaking at a discussion on the subject organized by the federation, Zwanziger said on Tuesday that society was more understanding than a few years ago for any gays in football willing to out themselves.

Germany captain Philipp Lahm, however, disagrees.

"Football is like being the gladiators in the old times," Lahm said in an interview published Monday. "The politicians can come out these days, for sure, but they don't have to play in front of 60,000 people every week.

"I don't think that the society is that far ahead that it can accept homosexual players as something normal as in other areas."

Zwanziger said Lahm is a tolerant person "and if that's how he sees the situation, I am not going to be the one to criticize him."

No player in Germany's professional leagues has so far acknowledged his homosexuality.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Mourinho's 'woeful Barca loss

??Another loss to Barcelona has piled pressure on Jose Mourinho, with support for the Real Madrid coach ebbing after another ill-tempered and ineffective display against its biggest rival.

Robert Cianflone / Getty Images

He's back

David Beckham has re-signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy, agreeing to a new two-year contract with the Major League Soccer club.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46026118/ns/sports-soccer/

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Romney says he pays about 15 percent in income tax (AP)

FLORENCE, S.C. ? After weeks of stalling, Mitt Romney did an about-face on Tuesday and said he will release his tax returns in April and that they will show he pays close to 15 percent of his income in taxes.

Romney, a multimillionaire, has been under pressure from his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination and others to release the information. He'd previously said he wouldn't release it. He suggested Tuesday that he would make public only one year's worth of information, for 2011.

Speaking to reporters after a campaign stop in South Carolina, Romney said most of his income comes from investments, not regular wages and salary. The tax rate on investment income is 15 percent, much lower than the 35 percent rate applied to wages for those in the highest tax bracket.

"What's the effective rate I've been paying? It's probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything," Romney said. "Because my last 10 years, I've ... my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income or rather than earned annual. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much."

Romney has resisted calls to release his tax returns, insisting that he and his wife, Ann, have complied with federal law that requires them to disclose information about their financial holdings.

But in a debate Monday night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry insisted that Romney release his returns, saying that the party needs to fully scrutinize its nominee now instead of later. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he will release his tax information this week.

"I know that if I'm the nominee, people will want to see the most recent year, and see what happened in the most recent year," Romney said, suggesting he'd release the couple's 2011 tax information. "We'll wait until the tax returns for the most recent year are completed, then release them."

Romney's wealth ? he is worth between $190 and $250 million ? puts him among the wealthiest Americans. But if most of his income is from investments, it could help him to significantly lower his federal tax bill compared to people who make money in other ways.

The top federal tax rate for investment income ? qualified dividends and long-term capital gains ? is 15 percent. By comparison, the top tax rate for wages is 35 percent, on taxable income above $388,350. Wages are also subject to Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

At 15 percent, Romney's federal income tax rate would still be higher than the tax rate paid by most Americans.

On average, households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay a federal income tax rate of 5.7 percent this year, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center a Washington think tank.

However, when payroll and other taxes are included, that same household would pay an average federal tax rate of 16.6 percent.

Overall, the average American household will pay 9.3 percent in federal income taxes ? and 19.7 percent in all federal taxes.

In the 2008 presidential race, Republican John McCain released two years of his tax returns and then-Sen. Barack Obama released six years of tax information.

___

Ohlemacher reported from Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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Original Yellow Wiggle rejoins Australian band

FILE - In this June 28, 2006 file photo, Australian children's entertainers The Wiggles make a special appearance at the Australian High Commission in London. The Yellow Wiggle Greg Page, rear right, announced Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012 that he is immediately rejoining founding members Anthony Field (Blue Wiggle), Murray Cook (Red Wiggle), and Jeff Fatt (Purple Wiggle), five years after he left the group because of illness, to produce new CDs and DVDs before touring Australia, United States and Britain beginning in March. (AP Photo/Christopher Pledger, File)

FILE - In this June 28, 2006 file photo, Australian children's entertainers The Wiggles make a special appearance at the Australian High Commission in London. The Yellow Wiggle Greg Page, rear right, announced Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012 that he is immediately rejoining founding members Anthony Field (Blue Wiggle), Murray Cook (Red Wiggle), and Jeff Fatt (Purple Wiggle), five years after he left the group because of illness, to produce new CDs and DVDs before touring Australia, United States and Britain beginning in March. (AP Photo/Christopher Pledger, File)

SYDNEY (AP) ? The Yellow Wiggle is back. The original lead singer of the world-famous preschool entertainment band The Wiggles has made a surprise return, five years after he left the group because of illness.

Greg Page announced Wednesday that he is immediately rejoining founding members Anthony Field (Blue Wiggle), Murray Cook (Red Wiggle) and Jeff Fatt (Purple Wiggle) to produce new CDs and DVDs before touring Australia, United States and Britain beginning in March.

"I'm feeling great and looking forward to doing what I love," the 40-year-old said in a statement.

A rare nervous system disorder, dysautonomia, forced Page to retire in 2006. He handed over his yellow shirt to longtime understudy Sam Moran and became a spokesman for the Dysautonomia Youth Network of America.

Moran will now leave the band he has toured with for nine years.

"I am very proud of my five years as the Yellow Wiggle and the group's continued success with me as their lead singer," Moran said in a statement.

"I have enjoyed every minute of my nine years touring with the group, but I now look forward to new opportunities and more time to spend with my wife and 2-year-old daughter," he added.

Page, Field and Cook had studied early childhood education before they founded The Wiggles in Sydney in 1991. The band has sold more than 23 million DVDs and 7 million CDs worldwide, and its TV shows are broadcast in more than 100 countries, according to The Wiggles' website.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-17-AS-Australia-Wiggles/id-6fe7af43a79b48c58334fea070d2e16f

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