Neeson's 'Grey' mauls box office with $19.7M

In this film image released by Open Road Films, from left, Liam Neeson is shown in a scene from "The Grey." (AP Photo/Open Road Films, Kimberley French)

In this film image released by Open Road Films, from left, Liam Neeson is shown in a scene from "The Grey." (AP Photo/Open Road Films, Kimberley French)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Liam Neeson continues to maul the competition in the winter months.

Neeson's survivalist thriller "The Grey" debuted atop the weekend box office, earning $19.7 million. The 59-year-old actor remains a big draw as an action star, following the thrillers "Taken" and "Unknown."

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. "The Grey," Open Road, $19,665,101, 3,185 locations, $6,174 average, $19,665,101, one week.

2. "Underworld Awakening," Sony/Screen Gems, $12,352,802, 3,078 locations, $4,013 average, $44,978,415, two weeks.

3. "One For the Money," Lionsgate, $11,515,790, 2,737 locations, $4,207 average, $11,515,790, one week.

4. "Red Tails," Fox, $10,370,323, 2,573 locations, $4,030 average, $33,750,118, two weeks.

5. "Man On a Ledge," Summit, $8,001,932, 2,998 locations, $2,669 average, $8,001,932, one week.

6. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," Warner Bros., $6,980,448, 2,630 locations, $2,654 average, $20,941,702, six weeks.

7. "Contraband," Universal, $6,704,360, 2,650 locations, $2,530 average, $56,573,860, three weeks.

8. "The Descendants," Fox Searchlight, $6,405,285, 2,001 locations, $3,201 average, $58,703,299, 11 weeks.

9. "Beauty and the Beast," Disney, $5,307,807, 2,145 locations, $2,475 average, $41,110,138, three weeks.

10. "Haywire," Relativity Media, $4,002,760, 2,441 locations, $1,640 average, $15,281,962, two weeks.

11. "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol," Paramount, $3,473,878, 1,654 locations, $2,100 average, $202,565,203, seven weeks.

12. "The Artist," Weinstein Co., $3,315,089, 897 locations, $3,696 average, $16,744,187, 10 weeks.

13. "The Iron Lady," Weinstein Co., $3,204,641, 1,244 locations, $2,576 average, $17,519,123, five weeks.

14. "Joyful Noise," Warner Bros., $3,188,393, 2,021 locations, $1,578 average, $26,675,903, three weeks.

15. "Hugo," Paramount, $2,510,275, 965 locations, $2,601 average, $58,925,857, 10 weeks.

16. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," Warner Bros., $2,472,141, 1,530 locations, $1,616 average, $182,211,057, seven weeks.

17. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Sony/Columbia, $2,190,290, 1,202 locations, $1,822 average, $98,185,403, six weeks.

18. "War Horse," Disney, $2,003,261, 1,861 locations, $1,076 average, $75,618,652, six weeks.

19. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," Fox, $1,782,185, 1,070 locations, $1,666 average, $127,041,507, seven weeks.

20. "We Bought a Zoo," Fox, $1,468,347, 1,089 locations, $1,348 average, $71,705,878, six weeks.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-30-Box%20Office/id-f86ab7ffa58742598dd34f1a4b6f596a

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"The Artist" director Michel Hazanavicius wins DGA award (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? "The Artist" director Michel Hazanavicius was named the year's best feature film director by the Directors Guild of America on Saturday, further positioning the silent movie-era romance as a frontrunner for Oscars.

The movie about a fading star whose career is eclipsed by the woman he loves just as talkies are putting an end to silent pictures has been a critical darling throughout the Hollywood's current awards season.

"This is really touching and moving for me," said French director Hazanavicius upon accepting his award at the Grand Ballroom adjacent to the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars, the film industry's highest honors, will be given out on February 26.

"It's maybe the highest recognition I could hope for," he said.

The DGA Awards are a key indicator of who may win Academy Awards next month because only six times since the DGA began handing out annual honors in 1948 has the its winner failed to also be named best director by Oscar voters.

More important, there is a long history among members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars, to give their Academy Award for best film to the movie made by the winner of best director.

The next stop in the race for Oscars is Sunday's Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles where "The Artist" will look to extend its streak of victories, including a Golden Globe for best film musical or comedy and honors from critics groups.

The DGA also gives out other awards, including one for best film documentary, which went to James Marsh for "Project Nim."

Among TV award winners, Patty Jenkins was given the DGA trophy for best drama series for the pilot episode of "The Killing" and Robert B. Weide took home the DGA award for best comedy series for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/people_nm/us_dgaawards

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Romney credits change in tactics for Florida surge (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Looking for a convincing win, a confident Mitt Romney said Monday the Florida primary is breaking his way and urged voters to send Newt Gingrich "to the moon." Gingrich claimed he's gaining ground and will stay in the race until summer.

"You can sense that it's coming our way," Romney told reporters. The former Massachusetts governor was already looking ahead, making plans to stop in Minnesota on his way to Nevada on Wednesday, the day after Florida votes.

A day before the voting, Romney ridiculed Gingrich, his chief rival here: "Send him to the moon," Romney said at a rally early Monday, repeating an audience member's comment and using it to poke fun at Gingrich's claim to build a moon colony as president. Romney also scoffed at "the idea of the moon as the 51st state" as "not one that's come to my mind."

Gingrich countered that Romney is "pretending he's somebody he's not" and linked Romney to Obama, calling them the "twins of the establishment." Gingrich's allies, meanwhile, urged Rick Santorum to get out of the race to clear the way for conservatives to consolidate support behind the former House speaker.

In the final hours before Tuesday's critical primary, Romney sustained his barrage against Gingrich. He said he believes he bounced back from a tough South Carolina loss by aggressively answering Gingrich's attacks and hitting him for his ties to the government-backed, mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Gingrich threatened a long slog. "I think he's going to find this a long campaign," Gingrich said.

"That's why they're trying to carpet-bomb us here in Florida," said former Gingrich aide Rick Tyler, who runs the pro-Gingrich political action committee Winning Our Future. "They're trying to end this thing. But it's not going to end."

Tyler visited the first of three rallies Romney had planned Monday to rail against Romney and urge Santorum to leave the race.

"I'm here to get as many cameras and microphones so I can talk about Mitt Romney's incessant failure to tell the truth," Tyler said, echoing Gingrich's recent claims about Romney's character. Tyler called Romney "despicable" and "disgraceful."

He also called on Santorum to leave the race to clear the way for Gingrich. "I think it would give us Mitt Romney, and I think Rick would hurt himself" by staying in, Tyler said.

Speaking to reporters, Romney said Gingrich's threats indicated desperation. "That's usually the case when you think you're going to lose," he said. "Everybody has a right to stay in as long as they think" they should, Romney said.

Gingrich kept up his attacks, saying Monday that on the big, philosophical issues, Romney "is for all practical purposes a liberal. I am a conservative."

"It's closing here in Florida," Gingrich said, "and I think the next 24 hours in going to make a big difference."

Gingrich also defended his ties to President Ronald Reagan after Romney supporters questioned Reagan's rapport with the former speaker. "Mitt Romney may not know about the Reagan years because he was not there," Gingrich told supporters in Pensacola.

Polls showed Romney running ahead of Gingrich in the state. Romney earned positive reviews after two debates last week and has put the former House speaker on the defensive over his ethics and ties to Freddie Mac.

But instead of stepping back and refocusing on President Barack Obama ? as he did in Iowa when it became clear that Gingrich had lost ? Romney is ratcheting up his rhetoric and attacking until the very end. He hopes to close the Florida campaign strongly to push Gingrich as far back as possible.

Gingrich said Monday he was closing the gap with Romney in Florida. He said the Republican Party needed a "clear conservative" to run against Obama in the fall, and that there was very little difference between Obama and Romney when it came to their policies and politics, such as health care.

"Mitt Romney will have a very, very hard time trying to differentiate himself," Gingrich said.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, who was staggered by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina on Jan. 21. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of caucuses there next Saturday, illustrating the challenge ahead for Gingrich.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, skipped campaigning to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized. He planned to campaign Monday in Missouri and Minnesota.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, also looked to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

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Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey in Pensacola, Fla., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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French government to cut 2012 growth estimate: source (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? The French government is set to revise down its estimate for 2012 economic growth in an upcoming revision to its budget bill, a government source said on Sunday.

The source told reporters following a televised interview with President Nicolas Sarkozy that the government envisages cuts to spending, rather than further tax rises, to make up for the likely shortfall.

Sarkozy's conservative government has been banking on gross domestic products growth of 1.0 percent this year.

(Reporting by Yann Le Guernigou; Editing by Catherine Bremer)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/ts_nm/us_france_sarkozy_deficit

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Abigail Noble: Impact Investing: How Do We Harness the Hype?

There is a lot of hype about impact investing. Investors speak of a 1 trillion USD sized market. Social enterprises reposition their business model and restructure their financial model to attract, absorb and grow through investor capital. Despite the enthusiasm, the actual volume of impact investment transactions remains minimal at best. The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship took this week at Davos to convene several important discussions about how to harness the hype and create results that are both practical and impactful.

On Tuesday, before the Annual Meeting began, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship hosted a private discussion on the possible future scenarios for impact investing. The participants were asked to map out what the space could ideally look like in 2030, and work backwards to identify the constraints and facilitating factors for this ideal state. The intimate discussion, which included a handful social entrepreneurs and several mainstream investors who are just entering the space, was moderated by Professor Johanna Mair, Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Later in the week, the Schwab Foundation and the investors community of the World Economic Forum co-hosted a gathering that brought together some 30 CEOs, CFOs and Chief Investment Officers of the world`s most powerful private equity, venture capital, and investment management firms with 20 leading social entrepreneurs, as well as important players in the field including foreign investment authorities, pension funds and leading business professors. In an interactive and dynamic simulation, they were challenged to build a concrete investment case comprising both an economic and ESG (environmental, social, governance) bottom line. This exercise helped build empathy and a spirit of collaboration among the diverse participant group. The ensuring dialogue created actionable next steps and helped defuse some of the hype around the impact investment class.

Discussions like these are critical to help investors and social entrepreneurs start speaking the same language. Financial institutions like UBS, which recently launched at $100 million impact investment fund, have already made large commitments to the field. However, there is still a dearth of information for newer investors on how to navigate the impact investing sector.

For this reason the Schwab Foundation partnered with Credit Suisse to produce the report Investing for impact: how social entrepreneurship is redefining the meaning of return. Contributors include Jed Emerson, Cathy Clark, and Acumen Fund's Brian Trelstad and Rob Katz. The investment profiles of five social enterprises in the Schwab Foundation network are featured in the report. Working in sectors as diverse as health care, education, and job creation, these organizations are united by their innovative yet pragmatic approaches to solving social problems. They are:

? Felipe Vergara of Lumni in the US and Latin America; investment funds would be used to set up a Chile Fund to finance the university education of low-income students
? Asher Hasan of Naya Jeevan in Pakistan; equity and grant funding would underwrite a new initiative to provide health insurance to workers making less than $6 a day
? Patrick Shofield of The Indalo Project in South Africa; grants and low-interest loans would be used to establish twelve new craft producer groups
? Bam Aquino of Hapinoy in the Philippines; investment funds would allow Hapinoy to expand its model to less developed islands in the archipelago
? Kyle Zimmer of First Book; a loan will finance expansion of their services to reach 35,000 children in Mumbai, India.

The social enterprise sector is on the cusp of achieving significant scale and impact, thanks in no small part to the recent influx of investment capital. But to ensure the capital remains a tool to build the sector and not the other way round, investors must take the longer view, get comfortable assuming greater levels of risk, and be willing to deploy a mix of financial tools most suitable for social enterprises' needs. And take heart: you are laying the foundations for a new economy.

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Follow Abigail Noble on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ab_noble

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abigail-noble/impact-investing-how-do-w_b_1240237.html

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Obama's populist pitch unifies House Democrats (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? President Barack Obama's populist election-year pitch and middle-class message have unified House Democrats. The bitter divisions among Republican White House hopefuls have helped bring them together, too.

"Long may it last," said Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., on the prospect of a drawn-out, bare-knuckle GOP nomination fight between top candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

House Democrats, who gathered for their annual three-day retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore, echoed many of the themes from Obama's State of the Union speech on economic fairness, boosting manufacturing and helping middle-class Americans, a reflection of campaign messaging and a recognition that their fate is inextricably linked to the president. They held a series of closed-door sessions on strategy for the coming year and later spoke to reporters.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will address the group on Friday. It's a more upbeat Democratic caucus than the one Obama encountered last year when backbiting and frustration split Democrats after a thrashing in the November 2010 midterm elections.

Being out of power for a year will do that. So will a week in which Democrats saw some positive signs, from Obama's address to polls showing more voters think the country is on the right track, to a daring hostage rescue of an American in Somalia. Signs of an economic rebound are prevalent; Commerce Secretary John Bryson told the Democrats that of the 3 million new jobs, 300,000 were in manufacturing.

As for the Democrats' own finances, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised more than $61 million last year and has $11.6 million cash on hand. It also eliminated a lingering debt.

"It's the first time I've seen Democrats this united," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.

That unity will be tested by months of campaigning and legislative fights as well as clear signals from Obama that he will run against Congress.

While Democrats talked about message, Obama was on a three-day, five-state swing that included a stop in Aurora, Colo., where he told the crowd, "We're not going to wait for Congress," on some issues such as producing clean energy to power 3 million homes. He made similar arguments in his speech.

Democratic leaders said Obama should run against a "do-nothing Congress" to highlight for American voters how Republicans have obstructed his agenda. Yet that kind of campaign strategy could be equally damaging to Democrats, who hold 191 seats in the House and control the Senate by a narrow margin, 51-47, plus two independents who generally vote with them. Public approval ratings for Congress have hit all-time lows, dipping to the teens. Voters easily could send scores of members from both parties packing in November.

Republicans signaled they have a ready response to the White House strategy.

"The president can blame anyone he wants, but it won't change the fact that this year will be a referendum on his economic record," said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

For now, Democrats will press ahead with an agenda and rhetoric that mirrors Obama's.

In his State of the Union speech, Obama called for requiring millionaires to pay at least 30 percent in taxes, the so-called Buffett rule, named after a recommendation by billionaire financier Warren Buffett, who benefits from a low 15 percent tax rate on investments, that he be required to pay a higher rate than his secretary. The president also pleaded for legislation that rewards companies that create jobs in the United States instead of shipping them overseas.

Senate Democrats said this week they will move ahead this year with legislation.

Obama also said he would sign a bill that would ban lawmakers from buying and selling stock based on insider information. Senate Democrats signaled they would consider a bill next week.

House Republicans, not Democrats, have the final say on what legislation comes to the floor. Still, House Democrats say the messaging is in sync.

"I think that's led to a real spirit of optimism for the election," Andrews said. "A realistic spirit but an optimistic one."

Democrats face a tough challenge in recapturing the House as Republicans have shored up their vulnerable lawmakers through redistricting. The GOP scoffs at the notion that Democrats can win the 25 seats necessary to take control.

Still, in a sign of Democratic boldness, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., sported a button that said "Thanks Obamacare," the derisive shorthand that Republicans use to describe the president's overhaul of the health care system.

Schakowsky said there may come a time when "Obamacare might be up there with Social Security."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_go_co/us_house_democrats

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Robert Hegyes, played Epstein on 'Kotter,' dies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-26-Obit-Robert%20Hegyes/id-676d7a199ef443bda1c5d6529be91707

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Can Mindfulness Help Breast Cancer Survivors? | Dialectical ...

Depression can be a factor in the treatment of an array of different health problems.? It has an impact on the treatment of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.? Depression may not be the cause of these diseases, but it often co-occurs with them and can influence whether patients follow through on treatment recommendations.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction training can help breast cancer survivors in their struggle with depression.

The number of women who survive breast cancer has increased in recent years.? However, side-effects of breast cancer treatment, including sleep problems and depression, can disrupt people?s lives and interfere with their treatment. According to a study conducted by Mary Jane Massie (2004), depression may impact as many as 50% of women with breast cancer.

In a recent study at the University of Missouri Jane Armer and other researchers found that breast cancer survivors? health improved after they completed mindfulness-based stress reduction training that incorporates meditation, yoga and physical awareness.

What is Mindfulness-based stress reduction?

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction involves learning to focus attention, on purpose.? Attention is focused on the present moment with an openness to experience.? The quality of this attention is a gentle, non-judgmental acceptance of whatever arises into awareness.

Mindfulness is often seen as a way of counteracting emotional reactivity that can leave us stressed, anxious and depressed.? Instead of simply reacting to feelings, thoughts and events in life, with mindfulness you learn to become aware of your reactions and to respond to your experience out of awareness and consciousness.

At his mindfulness based stress reduction program in Worcester, Massachusetts, Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches participants this increased awareness through meditation, yoga and dialogue in day-to-day awareness of life.? Participants attend groups and complete homework assignments that include daily meditations.

This training is aimed at teaching people to use their innate abilities to respond effectively to stress, pain and illness.? Surviving breast cancer is certainly stressful.

Studies have found that breast cancer survivors who have finished treatment experienced more depression and far higher levels of fatigue, sleep problems, and difficulty working and concentrating than healthy subjects.? Mindfulness-based stress reduction is a treatment that may be a fit for many in their recovery.

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APA Reference
Matta, C. (2012). Can Mindfulness Help Breast Cancer Survivors?. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 26, 2012, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/dbt/2012/01/can-mindfulness-help-breast-cancer-survivors/

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Source: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/dbt/2012/01/can-mindfulness-help-breast-cancer-survivors/

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RBS chief's taxper-funded bonus angers Britons (AP)

LONDON ? The chief executive of the part-nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland PLC will get a bonus worth about 963,000 pounds ($1.51 million), the bank announced Thursday, drawing the ire of many Britons and reviving questions over whether top finance figures are rewarded for failure.

Bonuses at RBS are particularly sensitive because British taxpayers took an 83 percent stake in the bank following a disastrous acquisition binge which saddled the company with billions' worth of rotten debt. Stephen Hester wasn't in charge when the bank nearly went bust, but he's been lavishly compensated by the taxpayer at a time when the bank is still struggling to reverse its fortunes.

RBS made a net profit of 1.2 billion pounds in the third quarter of last year but its share price has slumped and it has shed thousands of jobs.

The mass-market Daily Mail described the bonus as a million-pound "REWARD FOR FAILURE" on the front page of the paper's Friday edition, made available to journalists late Thursday.

Britain's opposition Labour Party agreed, saying in a statement that "anyone who thinks it is acceptable to award a bonus of almost 1 million pounds on top of a basic salary of 1.2 million pounds in these tough times is desperately out of touch with millions of people who are struggling to make ends meet."

Britain's Unite union said the bonus was "disgusting and offensive."

The massive awards executives give themselves ? even when their companies do badly ? has long been an embarrassment for both political parties, particularly when it happens at banks which had to be bailed out to the tune of several tens of billions of pounds in the wake of the credit crunch.

Last year Hester accepted a roughly 2 million pound bonus after his company reported a 1.1 billion pound loss for 2010, although that figure was an improvement on the catastrophic losses suffered by the bank in previous years.

Hester's bonus may have fallen by just over half, but it is still more than 36 times a Briton's average annual wage.

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

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Memorial exposes anger over Paterno's treatment

Members of the audience applaud at the conclusion of a video montage featuring moments from former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno's career during a memorial service in Paterno's honor at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. A capacity crowd of more than 12,000 packed Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center for one more tribute to Paterno, the Hall of Fame football coach who died Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/York Daily Record, Chris Dunn) YORK DISPATCH OUT

Members of the audience applaud at the conclusion of a video montage featuring moments from former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno's career during a memorial service in Paterno's honor at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. A capacity crowd of more than 12,000 packed Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center for one more tribute to Paterno, the Hall of Fame football coach who died Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/York Daily Record, Chris Dunn) YORK DISPATCH OUT

Phil Knight adjust the microphones before he speaks during a memorial service for former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa. Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. Knight, the Nike founder, got a standing ovation at Paterno's public memorial for defending the late coach's response to an accusation of child sex abuse against a former assistant. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Penn State University Worthington/Scranton campus students watch a live telecast of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's memorial service on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, in Dunmore, Pa. Paterno died on Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/The Scranton Times-Tribune, Butch Comegys) WILKES BARRE TIMES-LEADER OUT

Jay Paterno addresses the audience as the final speaker at "A Memorial for Joe" in memory of his late father, former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/York Daily Record, Chris Dunn) YORK DISPATCH OUT

Former Penn State football player Charles V. Pittman, senior vice president for publishing at Schurz Communications Inc., an Indiana-based company that owns television and radio stations and newspapers is interviewed as his grandson Noah, six and a half months old, looks on after the conclusion of a memorial service in honor of Joe Paterno at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa. Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. A capacity crowd of more than 12,000 packed Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center for one more tribute to Paterno, the Hall of Fame football coach who died Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? The near-capacity crowd of 12,000 seemed to be just waiting for somebody to bring up the subject. Finally, when someone rose in Joe Paterno's defense to argue that he had been made a scapegoat, the audience was instantly on its feet, applauding thunderously.

Anger and resentment came spilling out at a campus memorial service Thursday for the football coach, two months after he was summarily fired by the trustees.

It was Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight who broke the dam, defending Paterno's handling of child-sex allegations that were leveled against a former coaching assistant.

"If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno's response," Knight said. Paterno's widow, Sue, was among those rising to their feet.

Later, Paterno's son Jay received a standing ovation when he declared: "Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience."

Capping three days of mourning on campus, the 2?-hour ceremony was filled with lavish praise that probably would have embarrassed Paterno, who died Sunday of lung cancer at 85 after racking up more wins ? 409 ? than any other major-college football coach and leading his team to two national championships in 46 seasons.

One by one, Penn State football stars and others credited Paterno with building not just better athletes but better men ? and women. He was saluted for his commitment to sportsmanship, loyalty, teamwork, character, academics and "winning with honor." He was called a good father, a good husband, a good neighbor, a good friend, a good teacher.

Players from each decade of Paterno's career spoke affectionately about him, saying he rode them hard but always had their best interests at heart and encouraged them to complete their educations and make something of themselves.

Though the Penn State campus has been torn with anger over the child-sex scandal and Paterno's dismissal, Jay Paterno said his father didn't hold a grudge.

"Perhaps his truest moment, his living testimony to all that he stood for, came in the last months of his life. Faced with obstacles and challenges that would have left a lesser man bitter, he showed his truest spirit and his truest self," Paterno said.

Only one member of the university administration ? the dean of the college of liberal arts ? and no one from the Board of Trustees spoke at the memorial, which was arranged primarily by the Paterno family.

Among the speakers were Michael Robinson, who played for Paterno from 2002 to 2005, quarterback Todd Blackledge from the 1980s and Jimmy Cefalo, a star in the 1970s. All three went on to play in the NFL.

Former NFL player Charles V. Pittman, speaking for players from the 1960s, called Paterno a lifelong influence and inspiration.

Pittman said Paterno pushed his young players hard, once bringing Pittman to tears in his sophomore year. He said he realized later that the coach was not trying to break his spirit but instead was "bit by bit building a habit of excellence."

"He was building a proud program for the school, the state and the hundreds of young men he watched over for a half-century," said Pittman, now a media executive on the board of The Associated Press.

Similarly, Chris Marrone, whose playing career at Penn State was cut short by injuries, said Paterno molded him into a young man with "the strength to overcome any challenge, any adversity."

Paterno was fired Nov. 9 after he was criticized for not going to police in 2002 when he was told that a former member of his coaching staff, Jerry Sandusky, had been seen sexually assaulting a boy in the showers. Sandusky was arrested in November and is awaiting trial on charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15-year span.

As the scandal erupted, Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said Paterno may have met his legal duty but not his moral one. Penn State president Graham Spanier was also fired in the fallout.

Among those at the memorial was former athletic director Tim Curley, who is awaiting trial on charges he lied to the grand jury that investigated Sandusky.

About midway through the ceremony, Knight became the first speaker to explicitly address the scandal. He said the coach "gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chains to the head of the campus police and the president of the school. The matter was in the hands of a world-class university, and by a president with an outstanding national reputation."

Lanny J. Davis, an attorney for the board, responded after the service by saying: "All the reasons for the board's difficult and anguished decision ? made unanimously, including former football players and everyone who still loves Coach Paterno and his memory ? reached a decision which was heartfelt. All 32."

"The facts speak for themselves" and include the grand jury testimony, he said.

After the memorial, Marrone said Knight was his "new hero" for expressing the "pent-up frustration" many people are feeling.

"I think the response that he got is indicative of how folks feel," Marrone said.

Jay Paterno, who served under his father as quarterback coach, began his remarks by imitating his father's raspy, high-pitched voice, telling the audience, "Sit down! Sit down!"

Growing serious, Paterno described his last moments with his father. As Paterno lay dying, his son kissed him and whispered in his ear.

"Dad, you won," Jay Paterno said he told him. "You did all you could do. You've done enough. We all love you. We won. You can go home now."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-26-Penn%20State-Paterno/id-b32c134b391143e9b968ce2157ba10c5

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Campaigning Mitt Romney seldom notes Mexican roots (AP)

COLONIA JUAREZ, Mexico ? White House hopeful Mitt Romney rarely mentions a key fact as he works to woo Hispanics ahead of Tuesday's Republican presidential nominating contest in Florida ? his own Mexican heritage.

"I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary," he said Wednesday in an interview with Univision, a Spanish-language television network. "But I think that might be disingenuous on my part."

His father, George Romney, was born in Mexico, and his extended relatives still live in that same community, the border state of Chihuahua. The younger Romney's second cousins, tall men with light hair who speak American-accented English, share the family's last name and Mormon faith. They support his White House candidacy, but not his tough stance on immigration.

They've also never met him, though Romney's siblings have been to the house where their father was born on July 8, 1907, among a colony of Mormon pioneers in a stunning agricultural valley at the foot of the Sierra Madre. George Romney's family left Mexico when he was 5, returning to the U.S. to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution.

"A lot of people ask why hasn't Mitt come back to see where his roots are. His father left here at such a young age and I don't think that he has that culture embedded like we do," said Leighton Romney, 52, who was born in the United States and is registered to vote in Arizona. "I live here because I love my country," he added. "That's Mexico."

He manages the fruit growers cooperative Grupo Paquime in nearby Nuevo Casas Grandes, and readily showed off his elaborately researched family tree to an Associated Press reporter who visited the office where he sells fruit to Walmart de Mexico and other large chains.

A two-term Michigan governor, George Romney faced questions about his eligibility to run for president in 1968 because he wasn't born in the United States. Yet, George was born a U.S. citizen, not Mexican, because his parents were U.S. citizens. And in those days, Mexico didn't grant dual citizenship so the parents had to choose one country or the other. Mitt Romney has said neither his father nor his grandparents spoke Spanish.

Like all U.S. politicians today, Romney walks a fine line between courting voter rage against illegal immigration, mostly from Mexico, and seeking the support of Hispanics, the fastest-growing voting group in America. In the rare cases where Romney has noted that his father was born in Mexico, he has done so to illustrate how the now-wealthy family came from humble beginnings rather than using the fact as a way to discuss immigration.

He departed from that, though, during a debate in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday night, as he looked to counter a challenge by rival Newt Gingrich.

"I'm not anti-immigrant," Romney said. As proof, he added: "My father was born in Mexico."

The Romneys can trace the family history to 1555, where they have records of a Mr. Romney, no first name, born in 1555 in the town of Tonbridge, England. The Mexican roots are intertwined with their Mormon faith.

The candidate's great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, was born in 1843 in Nauvoo, Ill., where Joseph Smith founded the Mormon church. Miles Park Romney had five wives and 30 children, and fled to Mexico after passage of the 1882 Edmunson Act that barred polygamy. Among the first Mormons to settle in to the rolling Mexican valley bordering Texas, Miles Park Romney married his fifth wife after the church banned the practice in 1890.

Among the 11 children borne by Miles Park Romney's first wife were brothers Gaskell and Miles Archibold Romney.

The family fled back to the U.S. in 1912, when the Mexican Revolution struck Chihuahua and revolutionary forces invaded the English-speaking communities.

Gaskell Romney stayed in the U.S., with his five children, including Mitt's father, George.

But Gaskell's brother, Miles Archibold Romney, returned to Mexico.

The Mexican Romneys, who number about 40, live in solid brick homes with gingerbread accents and green lawns. They count themselves among the most prosperous ranchers and farmers in an area just 190 miles from the border city of El Paso, Texas. They ranch cattle and grow peaches, apples and chili peppers. They also run businesses, a prestigious school with an American football team and basketball program where the students emerge speaking flawless English.

"It is a very open community, where we have been progressive, and we have shaped a life for ourselves, our children, that we think is a healthy life," said Leighton Romney. "We have been here for generations."

Colonia Juarez and its surroundings have not escaped the drug violence that first terrorized the Mexican border and has now migrated to other parts. Meredith Romney, Leighton's brother, was kidnapped in 2009 and held hostage for two days in a cave until his family paid an undisclosed ransom.

The family says the area has gotten safer in the last year and that kidnappings have decreased. They credit Chihuahua's new governor, Cesar Duarte, who took office in 2010.

The town of 1,035 people has another emblematic symbol of the community's success: a white marble temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a golden statue of Moroni, the angel said to have visited Joseph Smith. Next to it is the LDS-affiliated Academia Juarez, with three-story brick buildings and large lawns more reminiscent of Utah than Mexico.

Leighton's nephew, Brandon Romney, 33, grows chili peppers and helps with the school's sports teams. During a recent basketball game, he ran around giving instructions in both English and Spanish to teenagers playing on the court and stopped to talk about his famous relative.

"He's just another guy to me," Brandon Romney said. "Some people get kind of a sense of pride about it. I've never known him, never talked to him."

Brandon Romney and his other relatives who are eligible to vote in America plan to support their distant cousin. Some say they will donate to him if he wins the nomination.

The family generally sees him as a smart businessman who can lead America out of its economic turmoil. They only part ways on immigration, sharing the Mexican view that migrants seeking work in the U.S. should be given a legal means to do so.

The candidate has taken a hardline against illegal immigration. He favors a U.S.-Mexico border fence and opposes education benefits for illegal immigrants. He would support legislation that seeks to award legal status to some young illegal immigrants who serve in the armed forces, but not for those who attend college.

This week, Romney said he favors policies that encourage "self-deportation," where illegal immigrants decide on their own to leave the U.S., over those that would require the government to return the immigrants to their home countries.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_romney_relatives

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World's Largest Turtle Gets New Protected Swimming Grounds (LiveScience.com)

Important marine living quarters of the world's largest turtle, the endangered leatherback, recently got some new protections, thanks to a decision from the U.S. government.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has designated roughly 42,000 square miles (108,800 square kilometers) of the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington as critical habitat for the largest marine reptiles on Earth, whose shells can reach ?6.5 feet (2 meters) in length and weigh up to 1,190 pounds (540 kilograms).

The designation will not directly affect recreational fishing, boating and other private activities within the area, only federal projects that have the potential to adversely modify or destroy critical habitat, NOAA noted in a statement.

Two other areas are already designated critical habitats for leatherback turtles?? along a beach on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and another in adjacent Atlantic waters.

NOAA is designating this additional critical habitat in the Pacific Ocean as a result of an Endangered Species Act petition to revise the existing critical habitat for leatherbacks to include important habitat off the U.S. West Coast.?

Once an Endangered Species Act petition is received, NOAA Fisheries must evaluate the petition and scientific information provided to determine if the petitioned action is warranted. If it is, the agency determines how to move forward.

The leatherback sea turtle has been listed as endangered since 1970. Leatherbacks have the largest range of any living reptile, and live throughout the world's oceans.

They feed primarily on jellyfish and lay their eggs on tropical and subtropical beaches.

Although very little is known about their lifespan, biologists estimate leatherbacks can live for 45 years or more.

Leatherbacks face many dangers, both in the marine environment and on land, including being caught in fishing gear, habitat destruction and the harvest of eggs and adults on nesting beaches.

Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120124/sc_livescience/worldslargestturtlegetsnewprotectedswimminggrounds

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Video: $30B Worth of Advice

Nigel Emmett, JPMorgan Asset Management, discusses how to invest in Europe despite continued volatility and uncertainty.

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46119361/

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Gingrich, Romney go head-to-head at Florida debate (Reuters)

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) ? Rising Republican Newt Gingrich and rival Mitt Romney squared off on Monday at a debate that will help determine which of them has the best shot at winning the pivotal Florida presidential primary on January 31.

Stung by Gingrich's convincing victory in South Carolina on Saturday, Romney desperately needs a good debate performance to help restore momentum for his campaign.

Romney has fought back against Gingrich by drawing attention to Gingrich's record as a Washington insider and former speaker of the House of Representatives who left office under an ethical cloud.

After stumbling in the last debate in South Carolina when pressed about his tax records, the former Massachusetts governor promised to release two of his annual tax returns.

But he called on Gingrich to disclose his contract for the government-sponsored mortgage financing giant Freddie Mac, for which Gingrich made $1.6 million.

Shortly before the debate, Gingrich's former consulting firm released a contract Gingrich signed with the company in 2006, but it shed little light on what Gingrich was hired to do. The document called for a $300,000 retainer and $25,000 in fees monthly for the year.

Gingrich staunchly denies his work for the mortgage giant made him a lobbyist, but Romney insists he was, making his case the Gingrich is a creature of Washington.

"If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck," Romney said.

The issue has particular resonance in Florida, one of the states hardest hit by the collapse of the U.S. real estate market, helping to contribute to a state unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, above the national average.

Florida's primary may play a huge role in determining who becomes the Republican nominee to oppose President Barack Obama's re-election bid in November.

Gingrich trounced the former Massachusetts governor in South Carolina's Republican primary, based partly on a series of strong debate performances. Aiming for another on Monday, he called Romney's attacks desperate.

"It used to be pious baloney; now it's just desperate baloney," he quipped. "As president, he'll be able to open a delicatessen."

New opinion polls show that Gingrich has already jumped into the lead in Florida.

The tense back and forth between the pair presaged a potentially bruising debate. The remaining two candidates, Texas Congressman Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum are seeking to make a mark after finishing far behind in South Carolina.

GINRICH LOOKING FOR 'KNOCKOUT PUNCH'

The contest, sponsored by NBC, National Journal and the Tampa Bay Times, is the 18th of the 2012 election cycle, and the first of two debates this week. A second is scheduled for Jacksonville on Thursday.

A Romney victory in Florida would blunt Gingrich's surge and restore the luster of his campaign. Gingrich wants to deliver what he has called "the knockout punch."

Gingrich has used the debates to his advantage, helping him rise from a bitter fourth-place finish in Iowa to victory in South Carolina.

When his ex-wife told ABC News last week that Gingrich had sought an "open marriage," Gingrich turned questions about it into an attack on the news media that thrilled conservatives and helped undecided voters swing his way.

But Romney has waged successful attacks on Gingrich. An ad campaign run by the Romney team and an outside group that backs him lampooned Gingrich in Iowa and knocked him out of the front-runner position.

Before the debate, a crowd of about 100 Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered outside the debate hall, shouting chants including, "We are the 99 percent."

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign

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Arnie visits Austrian town run on green energy (AP)

GUESSING, Austria ? It was another chance to tuck into a schnitzel. But Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit to a small eastern Austrian town had a more compelling purpose.

Austria's most famous living son is proud of his record of greening California while governor. So his visit to Guessing, which meets its energy needs through renewables, was fitting.

In both Guessing and California, "the world has already become a better one," he told fans and dignitaries gathered in his honor Sunday.

After a lunch of Wiener schnitzel and Kaiserscharrn ? chopped up pancakes with jam ? Arnie toured the village's energy plants, describing his push for green energy as "my crusade."

And yes, the "Terminator" star did say, "I'll be back."

___

Philipp Jenne contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_en_mo/eu_austria_people_schwarzenegger

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Ill. man jokes after nail removed from his brain (AP)

OAK LAWN, Ill. ? Dante Autullo thought his doctors were joking. The suburban Chicago man was sure he'd merely cut himself with a nail gun while building a shed. But they assured him the X-ray was real: A nail was lodged in the middle of his brain.

Autullo was recovering Friday after undergoing surgery at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where doctors removed the 3 1/4-inch nail. It had come within millimeters of the part of the brain that controls motor function.

"When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor `Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?'" the 32-year-old recalled. "The doctor said `No man, that's in your head.'"

As he was rushed by ambulance to another hospital for surgery, he posted a picture of the X-ray on Facebook.

Autullo, who live in Orland Park, said he was building a shed Tuesday and using the nail gun above his head when he fired it. With nothing to indicate that a nail hadn't simply whizzed by his head, his long-time companion, Gail Glaenzer, cleaned the wound with peroxide.

"It really felt like I got punched on the side of the head," he said, adding that he continued working. "I thought it went past my ear."

While there are pain-sensitive nerves on a person's skull, there aren't any within the brain itself. That's why he would have felt the nail strike the skull, but he wouldn't have felt it penetrate the brain.

Neither he nor Glaenzer thought much about it, and Autullo went on with his day, even plowing a bit of snow. But the next day when he awoke from a nap, feeling nauseated, Glaenzer sensed something was wrong and suggested they go to the hospital.

At first Autullo refused, but he relented after the two picked up their son at school Wednesday evening.

An X-ray was taken a couple hours later. And there, seeming to float in the middle of his head, was a nail.

Doctors told Autullo and Glaenzer that the nail came within millimeters from the part of the brain that controls motor function, and he was rushed by ambulance to the other hospital for more specialized care.

"He feels good. He moved all his limbs, he's talking normal, he remembers everything," Glaenzer said earlier Friday. "It's amazing, a miracle."

Neurosurgeon Leslie Schaffer acknowledged that Autullo's case was unusual, but not extremely rare. Schaffer said having a nail penetrate the skull is not like being shot in the head, noting that a bullet would break into multiple pieces.

"This (the nail) is thinner, with a small trajectory, and pointed at the end," he said. "The bone doesn't fracture much because the nail has a small tip."

Schaffer said the man's skull stopped the nail from going farther into his brain. He said he removed the nail by putting two holes in Autullo's skull, on either side of the nail, then pulled the nail out along with a piece of the skull.

The surgery took two hours, and the part of the skull that was removed for surgery was replaced with a titanium mesh, Hospital spokesman Mike Maggio said.

Glaenzer said Autullo hasn't really talked about how scared he was about what might have happened, but he did express a recognition about coming close to death.

"He was joking with me (after surgery), `We need to get the Discovery Channel up here to tape this,'" she recalled him saying. "`I'm one of those medical miracles.'"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_nail_in_the_brain

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Kristin Cavallari, Jay Cutler Expecting First Child

"We are thrilled to announce we are expecting our first child together," they tell PEOPLE exclusively.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/HP89LxXWyHY/

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France mulls early Afghanistan pullout as 4 killed

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech to present his New Year wishes to the foreign diplomatic corps at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. France is suspending its training operations in Afghanistan and threatening to withdraw its entire force from the country early, after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French troops Friday and wounded several others. (AP Photo/Charles Platiau, pool)

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech to present his New Year wishes to the foreign diplomatic corps at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. France is suspending its training operations in Afghanistan and threatening to withdraw its entire force from the country early, after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French troops Friday and wounded several others. (AP Photo/Charles Platiau, pool)

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and his Foreign Minister Alain Juppe arrive at a ceremony to present New Year wishes to the foreign diplomatic corps at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. France is suspending its training operations in Afghanistan and threatening to withdraw its entire force from the country early, after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French troops Friday and wounded several others. (AP Photo/Charles Platiau, Pool)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? France suspended its training operations in Afghanistan and threatened to withdraw its entire force from the country early after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French troops Friday and wounded 15 others.

The shooting ? the second such attack in a month ? came during a particularly deadly 24 hours for the international military coalition. Six U.S. Marines also died in a helicopter crash late Thursday.

It was the latest in a series of attacks by members of the Afghan security forces or infiltrators in disguise against coalition partners that have raised fears of increased Taliban infiltration of the Afghan police and army as foreign combat forces prepare to withdraw from the country by 2014. The impact of the French suspending training operations is unclear, but it would result in a major setback for the U.S.-led coalition if other troop-contributing nations stopped training Afghan national security forces or decided to pull out earlier than planned.

French officials said the Afghan soldier opened fire with an unspecified automatic weapon shortly after unarmed French soldiers had finished physical training exercises. French military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said the soldier appeared to have had authorization to enter Forward Operating Base in Gwan in Tagab district of Kapisa province. Three quarters of the 600 soldiers on the base are Afghan and the rest are French, Burkhard said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the French deaths in Paris and the suspension of training programs. He did not specify how many French forces or which programs would be affected.

"The French army is in Afghanistan at the service of the Afghans against terrorism and against the Taliban. The French army is not in Afghanistan so that Afghan soldiers can shoot at them," Sarkozy said.

He added that if security for troops is not restored, "then the question of an early withdrawal of the French army would arise."

Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said the French soldiers were unarmed when the attacker opened fire during a very difficult training exercise at high altitude. French military officials said 15 other French soldiers were injured

"We don't know at the moment whether it's a Taliban member who infiltrated, or someone who decided (to attack) for reasons that we don't know," Longuet said on France-2 television.

He said the Afghan was in custody of the Afghan army's 3rd brigade, held by a general "whom we trust."

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, praised the Afghan attacker but did not claim he was an infiltrator or provide other details.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed deep regret over the attack.

Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the ministry had sent a delegation to the area to investigate the shooting, he said. He said the attacker was arrested and was being questioned.

Friday was among the most deadly days for French forces in the 10 years they have been serving in the international force in Afghanistan. The latest deaths bring to 82 the number of French troops killed in the Afghan campaign.

"From now on, all the operations of training and combat help by the French army are suspended," Sarkozy said.

The defense minister and the chief of staff of the French army are heading Friday to Kabul. Once they report back, Sarkozy said, the French government will decide how to proceed.

A big part of the French role in Afghanistan recently has been training Afghan troops and police ahead of an expected pullout of the around 3,600 French troops currently there in 2014.

Unpopular at home, Sarkozy is facing a potentially tough re-election campaign for elections in April and May and appeared determined Friday to act swiftly and sternly to the latest troop deaths.

The candidate who tops opinion polls ahead of France's elections, Socialist Francois Hollande, said in a statement Friday that he would aim to pull out French forces by the end of this year if he becomes president.

Friday's attack was all the more painful for the French because it came just weeks after an Afghan army soldier shot and killed two members of the French Foreign Legion serving in the NATO force on Dec. 29. French forces fired back and killed the assailant.

It remained unclear how likely or swift a French pullout could be. France has the fourth-largest force in the international coalition.

"Today there is clearly a new truth. It is not the first time that an Afghan soldier ... assassinates French soldiers," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said. He called it a question of "responsibility to adapt our timetable for withdrawal by taking into account these new circumstances."

Longuet was more cautious, saying French officials should maintain calm when making any decisions.

Sarkozy said he'd discuss France's role in Afghanistan with Karzai when he visits Paris next week.

Afghan security forces or insurgents dressed in their uniforms have attacked and killed international troops or civilian trainers more than a dozen times in the past two years, according to an Associated Press count.

Earlier this month, a U.S. service member 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.

In Riga, Latvia, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said this was "a very sad day for our troops in Afghanistan and for the French people," but insisted that such incidents are "isolated."

The helicopter crash, which occurred in the southern Helmand province, was the deadliest in Afghanistan since August, when 30 American troops died after a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down in Wardak province in the center of the country.

The cause of Thursday's crash is still being investigated, but a coalition statement said there was no enemy activity in the area when it happened.

A senior U.S. defense official said all six reported killed were U.S. Marines and there was no indication that the helicopter had been hit by enemy fire. The defense official spoke on condition of anonymity because the U.S. command in Afghanistan had not yet publicly released details, including the nationalities of the dead.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef claimed insurgents shot down the helicopter, a Chinook, in Musa Qala district of Helmand province, killing all on board. The Taliban frequently exaggerate the number of people they claim to have killed.

___

Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton, Jamey Keaten and Samantha Bordes in Paris, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-20-AS-Afghanistan/id-78d0a35e122d4033ab98b275f2d8596f

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1st Private Rocket Launch to Space Station Delayed Until March (SPACE.com)

The launch of the first privately built spacecraft to the International Space Station has been delayed until late March at the earliest, the company building the spaceship revealed today (Jan. 20).

The California-based company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) originally planned to launch its unmanned Dragon space capsule on a maiden flight to the space station on Feb. 7, but the company ?postponed the orbital test flight to allow time for more work on the spacecraft.

Now, SpaceX officials said the flight will likely occur sometime in the spring, though NASA and SpaceX have not yet to set official launch target.

"It won't be earlier than late March," SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Grantham told SPACE.com.

In the meantime, the company will resume preparations for the upcoming flight, which aims to test the Dragon capsule's ability to rendezvous and dock with the orbiting complex.

SpaceX's Dragon capsule will launch atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket on a mission to demonstrate the vehicle's ability to carry cargo to the space station. As the spacecraft approaches, members of the space station crew will use a robotic arm to grab the vehicle and attach it to the station.

If it is successful, SpaceX will be the first commercial company to rendezvous and dock to the orbiting outpost.

This will be SpaceX's second flight under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Dragon launched on its first test flight in December 2010, completed two orbits of Earth, and then splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The mission marked the first time a commercial company launched and returned a capsule from space.

NASA's COTS program is designed to nurture the development of new private spaceships to deliver vital supplies to the space station. Under the agency's current agreement with SpaceX, the California-based company will receive up to $396 million for the successful completion of the milestones outlined in their Space Act Agreement.

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://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120120/sc_space/1stprivaterocketlaunchtospacestationdelayeduntilmarch

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Vivica Genaux offers rare vocal 'Pyrotechnics' (AP)

NEW YORK ? Sometimes Vivica Genaux loves to sing with the precision and breakneck speed of an athlete ? in "techno rhythm."

Other times, the tunes are achingly slow, but still bursting with passion.

The common thread of most of the songs she performs is that they come from obscure archives, silent for centuries.

The four-time Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano is now taking some of the forgotten works by Vivaldi and others on a U.S. tour, in a program called "Pyrotechnics," after one of her albums.

"It represents fireworks, both the flashy, really fast-moving ones, and also the more delicate ones that glitter and fall like golden fronds," says Genaux, who is featured on Vivaldi's "Ercole sul Termodonte" ("Hercules in Thermodon"), which is up for a Grammy next month for best opera recording.

The tour, with Fabio Biondi leading his Europa Galante ensemble, starts Wednesday at Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles a includes Las Vegas and Denver.

On Feb. 2 in New York, Genaux appears at Carnegie's Zankel Hall with the ensemble based in Parma, Italy ? a few hours from the home near Venice she shares with her husband.

It's far from Genaux's native Fairbanks, Alaska, where she learned to drive her family's husky-drawn dog sled, and to change a car tire in 40 degrees below zero.

She's equally at ease in a Venetian palazzo, trying on a designer stage gown.

"In Italy, I learned how to be a girl," she jokes.

In Spain, where she sang a "pants" role ? a woman singing a male part ? "I learned how to be a boy."

And this fall in France, she'll tackle the ultimate "girl" part ? Bizet's seductive 19th century "Carmen."

The 42-year-old singer is not as well known as her amazingly agile voice and musicianship deserve, perhaps because she has focused on the "Early Music" of the 1700s, with its special, smaller audience ? for pieces often so fiendishly difficult that very few can pull them off technically.

But there's much more to it.

Works like Vivaldi's "Ercole" are "very modern, really," she says in an interview at the Manhattan home of her publicist. "The songs are about relationships between people, about personal contact, and that's the same now as it was 300 years ago, as it was 1,200 years ago!"

Vivaldi wrote "The Four Seasons," now heard in everything from ringtones to car ads. But many of his other compositions might have remained voiceless if it weren't for Genaux. With the help of musicologists, she's resurrected them along with forgotten pieces by Handel, Rossini and German-born composer Johann Adolph Hasse.

Leafing through his long-lost operas, "I got goose bumps just touching these manuscripts that were there since the 1700s," she says. "That's about 95 percent of what I do ? pieces that haven't been performed since then."

It took years of soul-searching and experimenting for Genaux to figure out where her voice truly belonged.

At the University of Rochester in upstate New York, she majored in genetics, simply because she'd been surrounded by science as a child; her father was a biochemistry professor and her mother a teacher.

Music was a hobby.

Genaux played Eliza Doolittle in a high school production of "My Fair Lady," listened to ABBA's rock music and enjoyed Fairbanks' "sing-it-yourself `Messiah' where you sang the whole bloody `Messiah' ? not just two pages of the `Hallelujah'!"

Halfway through college, she switched to singing, transferring to the University of Indiana's arts school in Bloomington as a soprano, eventually becoming more comfortable as a mezzo.

In 2002 came her breakthrough ? the Grammy-nominated album "Arias for Farinelli," the infamous "castrato" who was the rock star of his time, improvising on melodies as one does in jazz.

Farinelli's voice was a force of nature. And so is Genaux's, critics says.

"Onstage, she's a powerhouse," says David Shengold, a music critic who writes for New York-based Opera News and London's Opera, the world's leading magazines on the subject. "Her florid work ? fast coloratura with clean runs, trills and wide, accurate skips ? makes for bold, astonishing vocalism."

There's one quality that Genaux lacks, though: the elitism many people associate with classical music.

"Come, wear jeans, rip holes in the jeans, put on the worst pair of tennis shoes," she says. "But come and see ... come experience something new!"

____

Online:

http://vivicagenaux.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_en_ot/us_music_vivica_genaux

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Romney tries to change the subject from his taxes (AP)

GILBERT, S.C. ? Working to fend off a surging Newt Gingrich in what's become an unexpectedly tight race, presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday tried to change the subject from his unreleased tax returns to the ethics investigation Gingrich faced 15 years ago.

Romney's campaign appeared visibly rattled the day before the South Carolina primary, his standing in polls having tumbled after a week of constant attack ads and self-made problems. The former Massachusetts governor faced a potentially difficult day Saturday, and senior aides acknowledged they wouldn't be surprised if he lost the primary.

Romney came to South Carolina after twin victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, only to see his Iowa victory thrown into question because of problems with the count. He's spent a week trying to answer questions about his personal wealth and when he will release his tax returns.

Gingrich's House reprimand in 1997 presented an opportunity to talk about something else. When asked if Gingrich should release the Ethics Committee report that resulted in the first such action against a House speaker, Romney replied, "Of course he should."

"Nancy Pelosi has the full record of that ethics investigation," he said. "You know it's going to get out ahead of the general election."

In fact, the 1,280-page committee report on Gingrich is already public. Campaign officials said Romney was referring to other documents that Gingrich has referenced and that Pelosi has also mentioned.

"Given Speaker Gingrich's newfound interest in disclosure and transparency, and his concern about an `October surprise,' he should authorize the release of the complete record of the ethics proceedings against him," Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said.

Romney's campaign is calling South Carolina voters with a recording attacking Gingrich's ethics record and calling on him to release any documents related to the inquiry.

In December, Pelosi told Talking Points Memo that she had served on the committee that conducted the investigation and implied that more information about the investigation could come to light. At the time Gingrich said the House should retaliate against Pelosi if she released any additional information.

"We turned over 1 million pages of material," Gingrich said then. "We had a huge report."

Gingrich's campaign said Romney's criticism represented a "panic attack" on the part of his campaign.

Romney on Friday said again that he wouldn't release his tax returns until April, which would probably be after Republicans choose their nominee.

"I realize that I had a lot of ground to make up and Speaker Gingrich is from a neighboring state, well-known, popular in the state," Romney said as he campaigned in Gilbert. "Frankly, to be in a neck-and-neck race at this last moment is kind of exciting."

Romney's campaign has rolled out endorsement after endorsement this week as he has tried to build a case that he is the most electable nominee. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman joined him on Thursday and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell campaigned with him Friday.

McDonnell said Friday he had been in touch with Romney's campaign for several weeks as they discussed the timing for the endorsement ? and decided it was most needed now, even as Romney looks ahead to a long campaign.

"It's the first Southern primary. I'm a Southern governor. I thought I could help," McDonnell said.

But the campaign's attack message has jumped from rival to rival and topic to topic as Romney's fought to stay afloat here.

At the beginning of the week, Romney was attacking rival Rick Santorum over voting rights for felons. Then he went after Gingrich's claims that he created jobs under President Ronald Reagan, saying Gingrich was living in "fantasyland." Meanwhile, his surrogates held a series of conference calls attacking his rivals, first calling Gingrich an unreliable leader and then pivoting to attack his ethics record.

In Thursday night's GOP debate, Romney continued his string of off-message remarks about his wealth, saying he has lived "in the real streets of America." A multimillionaire, he has three homes, one each in Massachusetts, California and New Hampshire.

Romney held three campaign events Friday in his last-ditch push to stem Gingrich's momentum. After stopping in Gilbert, he held a rally in North Charleston and flew to Greenville in the conservative upstate for a nighttime rally and a stop at his campaign headquarters before an evening event in Columbia, the state capital.

On a plane between events Friday night, Romney was outwardly cheerful in spite of a difficult day ahead, gamely bantering with reporters as he served pastries from Panera Bread.

"Pain au chocolat, smart move!" he said to one, proferring the box and a pair of tongs to take the desserts.

As he moved farther back into the plane, though, he dispensed with the tongs.

"Just use your fingers," he said. "To heck with it!"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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