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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