Samsung Galaxy S Advance gets official: 1GHz dual-core CPU, Super AMOLED and Gingerbread

Samsung added a new star to its Galaxy universe today, with the release of the Galaxy Advance S. Powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU, this handset boasts a four-inch, 480 x 800 Super AMOLED display, and packs up to 16GB of memory, along with 768MB of RAM. The device also supports HSPA connections at speeds of up to 14.4Mbps, and boasts a five megapixel rear-facing camera, along with a 1.3 megapixel shooter, up front. As far as software goes, the Advance S will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, plus a full suite of Samsung's apps, available via its Hubs and ChatON services. No word yet on pricing, but the Korean manufacturer plans to roll out its latest smartphone on a gradual basis, beginning with Russia next month, followed by Europe, Africa, Middle East, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China. Notably absent from that list, of course, is the US. Find more details in the full press release after the break, as well as the gallery of press shots, below.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy S Advance

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S Advance gets official: 1GHz dual-core CPU, Super AMOLED and Gingerbread

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Iraqi Sunni-backed lawmakers end parliament ban (AP)

BAGHDAD ? Iraq's Sunni-backed political alliance ended a parliament boycott Sunday, officials said, but the bloc's ministers will stay away from Cabinet meetings to protest arrests and prosecution of Sunni officials.

The decision underlines sectarian tensions in the Shiite-dominated government as violence surges just weeks after U.S. troops left the country.

The political crisis erupted last month after Iraq's Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on terrorism charges. In protest, Iraqiya lawmakers and ministers boycotted parliament and Cabinet sessions, bringing government work to a standstill.

Maysoun al-Damlouji, a spokeswoman for the Iraqiya bloc, said its lawmakers will return to the parliament when it reconvenes Tuesday. She said Iraqiya's leaders decided during a meeting Sunday that the bloc's ministers will not attend the weekly meeting of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Cabinet the same day.

Iraqiya Sunni lawmaker Etab al-Dori said the decision to end the parliament ban is aimed at restoring some stability to the country's turbulent political processes and "serve the nation in the best way possible."

That includes participating in a vote on the country's budget and pushing through a resolution that would end persecution of Sunnis by security forces that are mainly Shiite, al-Dori said.

Iraqiya leaders accuse al-Maliki of efforts to marginalize the Sunni minority and cement his own grip on power.

Al-Maliki's security forces have launched a widespread crackdown against Sunnis, detaining hundreds for alleged ties to the deposed Baath Party of Saddam Hussein. Iraqiya officials said 89 of its members have been detained in the past three months.

Al-Hashemi, the Sunni vice president, denied the charges of running death squads and fled to the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, out of reach of authorities in Baghdad. He is refusing to return for trial in Baghdad.

The political battle coincides with a wave of bombing attacks, most of them targeting Shiites, killing more than 200 this month.

The twin crises have raised fears of a reprise of a conflict five years ago, when heavily armed Shiite and Sunni militias battled each other and brought the nation to the brink of civil war.

Although there were no claims of responsibility for the attacks, recent bombings resemble previous ones by al-Qaida in Iraq. The group has stepped up attacks since the U.S. completed its withdrawal, in apparent efforts to provoke a counterattack by Shiite militias on Sunnis that could re-ignite sectarian warfare.

On Friday, a suicide car bomber struck a Shiite funeral procession in southwestern Baghdad, killing 33 people and injuring 65.

___

Associated Press writers Mazin Yahya and Bushra Juhi in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

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Zimbabwe doctors report 800 typhoid cases

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

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

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

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

Associated Press

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

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SAG Awards 2012 Winners List

'The Help' nabs Best Ensemble' in a stunning upset, while awards-show fave 'The Artist' leaves light on wins.
By Eric Ditzian

Octavia Spencer at the SAG Awards on Sunday
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

The SAG Awards, as we have noted, often have a curious way of letting us know what the Oscars are going to deliver. So when the Screen Actors Guild doled out its golden statuettes on Sunday night (January 29), we couldn't help but feel there were more than a few hints at how the Academy Awards might shake out in a few weeks.

What are we to make of the upset SAG win for "The Help" in outstanding cast in a movie, for instance? Where does this leave "The Artist," which had been looking increasingly, inevitably like the big champ come Oscar night, yet only won outstanding male performance (Jean Dujardin) at the SAGs?

Things were more predictable on the TV side of things. In 2012, for the second year in a row, "Modern Family" (Outstanding Cast in a Comedy) and "Boardwalk Empire" (Outstanding Cast in a Drama and a Lead Actor win for Steve Buscemi) had strong showings. Check out the full list of winners:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
"Bridesmaids"
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"The Help"
"Midnight in Paris"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
George Clooney, "The Descendants"
Demian Bichir, "A Better Life"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "J. Edgar"
Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"
Brad Pitt, "Moneyball"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Michelle Williams, "My Week With Marilyn"
Glenn Close, "Albert Nobbs"
Viola Davis, "The Help"
Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady"
Tilda Swinton, "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Nick Nolte, "Warrior"
Kenneth Branagh, "My Week With Marilyn"
Armie Hammer, "J. Edgar"
Jonah Hill, "Moneyball"
Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Octavia Spencer, "The Help"
Berenice Bejo, "The Artist"
Jessica Chastain, "The Help"
Melissa McCarthy, "Bridesmaids"
Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs"

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
"The Adjustment Bureau"
"Cowboys & Aliens"
"Harry Potter and the Deahtly Hallows - Part 2"
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
"X-Men: First Class"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie Or Miniseries
Laurence Fishburne, "Thurgood"
Paul Giamatti, "Too Big to Fail"
Greg Kinnear, "The Kennedys"
Guy Pearce, "Mildred Pierce"
James Woods, "Too Big to Fail"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie Or Miniseries
Diane Lane, "Cinema Verite"
Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"
Emily Watson, "Appropriate Adult"
Betty White, "The Lost Valentine"
Kate Winslet, "Mildred Pierce"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
Patrick J. Adams, "Suits"
Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire"
Kyle Chandler, "Friday Night Lights"
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad"
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Kathy Bates, "Harry's Law"
Glenn Close, "Damages"
Jessica Lange, "American Horror Story"
Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"
Ty Burrell, "Modern Family"
Steve Carell, "The Office"
Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men"
Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Julie Bowen, "Modern Family"
Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie"
Tina Fey, "30 Rock"
Sofia Vergara, "Modern Family"
Betty White, "Hot In Cleveland"

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
"Boardwalk Empire"
"Breaking Bad"
"Dexter"
"Game of Thrones"
"The Good Wife"

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
"30 Rock"
"The Big Bang Theory"
"Glee"
"Modern Family"
"The Office"

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series
"Dexter"
"Game of Thrones"
"Southland"
"Spartacus: Gods of the Arena"
"True Blood"

Screen Actors Guild Awards 48th Annual Life Achievement Award
Mary Tyler Moore

Stick with MTV News all night for the 2012 SAG Awards winners, and don't miss all the fashion from the red carpet!

Related Photos

• Backstage At The 2012 SAG Awards

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678105/screen-actors-guild-sag-awards-winners-list.jhtml

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UN nuclear team arrives in Iran (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? A U.N. nuclear team arrived in Tehran early Sunday for a mission expected to focus on Iran's alleged attempt to develop nuclear weapons.

The U.N. nuclear agency delegation includes two senior weapons experts ? Jacques Baute of France and Neville Whiting of South Africa ? suggesting that Iran may be prepared to address some issues related to the allegations.

The delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency is led by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, who is in charge of the Iran nuclear file. Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's right-hand man.

In unusually blunt comments ahead of his arrival in Tehran, Nackaerts urged Iran to work with his mission on probing the allegations about Iran's alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons, reflecting the importance the IAEA is attaching to the issue.

Tehran has refused to discuss the alleged weapons experiments for three years, saying they are based on "fabricated documents" provided by a "few arrogant countries" ? a phrase authorities in Iran often use to refer to the United States and its allies.

Ahead of his departure, Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport he hopes Iran "will engage with us on all concerns."

"So we're looking forward to the start of a dialogue," he said: "A dialogue that is overdue since very long."

In a sign of the difficulties the team faces and the tensions that surround Iran's disputed nuclear program, a dozen Iranian hard-liners carrying photos of slain nuclear expert Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan were waiting at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport early Sunday to challenge the team upon arrival.

That prompted security officials to whisk the IAEA team away from the tarmac to avoid any confrontation with the hard-liners.

Iran's official IRNA news agency confirmed the team's arrival and said the IAEA experts are likely to visit the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of the capital, Tehran.

During their three-day visit, the IAEA team will be looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of working on a weapons program, inspect documents related to such suspected work and secure commitments from Iranian authorities to allow future visits to sites linked to such allegations. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from Iran's frequent simple refusal to talk about them.

The United States and its allies want Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium, which they worry could eventually lead to weapons-grade material and the production of nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

Iran has accused the IAEA in the past of security leaks that expose its scientists and their families to the threat of assassination by the U.S. and Israel.

Iranian state media say Roshan, a chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, was interviewed by IAEA inspectors before being killed in a brazen bomb attack in Tehran earlier this month.

Iranian media have urged the government to be vigil, saying some IAEA inspectors are "spies," reflecting the deep suspicion many in Iran have for the U.N. experts sent to inspect Iran's nuclear sites.

___

AP writer George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear

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Self as Symbol

This essay is part of Demystifying the Mind, a special report on the new science of consciousness. The next installments will appear in the February 25 and March 10 issues of Science News.

When Francis Crick decided to embark on a scientific research career, he chose his specialty by applying the ?gossip test.? He?d noticed that he liked to gossip about two especially hot topics in the 1940s ? the molecular basis for heredity and the mysteries of the brain. He decided to tackle biology?s molecules first. By 1953, with collaborator James Watson (and aided by data from competitor Rosalind Franklin), Crick had identified the structure of the DNA molecule, establishing the foundation for modern genetics.

A quarter century later, he decided it was time to try the path not taken and turn his attention to the brain ? in particular, the enigma of consciousness.

At first, Crick believed the mysteries of consciousness would be solved with a striking insight, similar to the way the DNA double helix structure explained heredity?s mechanisms. But after a while he realized that consciousness posed a much tougher problem. Understanding DNA was easier because it appeared in life?s history sooner; the double helix template for genetic replication marked the beginning of evolution as we know it. Consciousness, on the other hand, represented evolution?s pinnacle, the outcome of eons of ever growing complexity in biochemical information processing.

?The simplicity of the double helix ? probably goes back to near the origin of life when things had to be simple,? Crick said in a 1998 interview. ?It isn?t clear there will be a similar thing in the brain.?

In fact, it has become pretty clear that deciphering consciousness will definitely be more difficult than describing the dynamics of DNA. Crick himself spent more than two decades attempting to unravel the consciousness riddle, working on it doggedly until his death in 2004. His collaborator, neuroscientist Christof Koch of Caltech, continues their work even today, just as dozens of other scientists pursue a similar agenda ? to identify the biological processes that constitute consciousness and to explain how and why those processes produce the subjective sense of persistent identity, the self-awareness and unity of experience, and the ?awareness of self-awareness? that scientists and philosophers have long wondered about, debated and sometimes even claimed to explain.

So far, no one has succeeded to anyone else?s satisfaction. Yes, there have been advances: Understanding how the brain processes information. Locating, within various parts of the brain, the neural activity that accompanies certain conscious perceptions. Appreciating the fine distinctions between awareness, attention and subjective impressions. But yet with all this progress, the consciousness problem remains popular on lists of problems that might never be solved.

Perhaps that?s because the consciousness problem is inherently similar to another famous problem that actually has been proved unsolvable: finding a self-consistent set of axioms for deducing all of mathematics. As the Austrian logician Kurt G?del proved eight decades ago, no such axiomatic system is possible; any system as complicated as arithmetic contains true statements that cannot be proved within the system.

G?del?s proof emerged from deep insights into the self-referential nature of mathematical statements. He showed how a system referring to itself creates paradoxes that cannot be logically resolved ? and so certain questions cannot in principle be answered. Consciousness, in a way, is in the same logical boat. At its core, consciousness is self-referential awareness, the self?s sense of its own existence. It is consciousness itself that is trying to explain consciousness.

Self-reference, feedback loops, paradoxes and G?del?s proof all play central roles in the view of consciousness articulated by Douglas Hofstadter in his 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop. Hofstadter is (among other things) a computer scientist, and he views consciousness through lenses unfamiliar to most neuroscientists. In his eyes, it?s not so bizarre to compare math and numbers to the mind and consciousness. Math is, after all, deeply concerned with logic and reason ? the stuff of thought. Mathematical paradoxes, Hofstadter points out, open up ?profound questions concerning the nature of reasoning ? and thus concerning the elusive nature of thinking ? and thus concerning the mysterious nature of the human mind itself.?

Enter the loop

In particular, Hofstadter seizes on G?del?s insight that a mathematical formula ? a statement about a number ? can itself be represented by a number. So you can take the number describing a formula and insert that number into the formula, which then becomes a statement about itself. Such a self-referential capability introduces a certain ?loopiness? into mathematics, Hofstadter notes, something like the famous Escher print of a right hand drawing a left hand, which in turn is drawing the right hand. This ?strange loopiness? in math suggested to Hofstadter that something similar is going on in human thought.

So when he titled his book ?I Am a Strange Loop,? Hofstadter didn?t mean that he was personally loopy, but that the concept of an individual ? a persistent identity, an ?I,? that accompanies what people refer to as consciousness ? is a loop of a certain sort. It?s a feedback loop, like the circuit that turns a whisper into an ear-piercing screech when the microphone whispered into is too close to the loudspeaker emitting the sound.

But consciousness is more than just an ordinary feedback loop. It?s a strange loop, which Hofstadter describes as a loop capable of perceiving patterns in its environment and assigning common symbolic meanings to sufficiently similar patterns. An acoustic feedback loop generates no symbols, just noise. A human brain, though, can assign symbols to patterns. While patterns of dots on a TV screen are just dots to a mosquito, to a person, the same dots evoke symbols, such as football players, talk show hosts or NCIS agents. Floods of raw sensory data trigger perceptions that fall into categories designated by ?symbols that stand for abstract regularities in the world,? Hofstadter asserts. Human brains create vast repertoires of these symbols, conferring the ?power to represent phenomena of unlimited complexity and thus to twist back and to engulf themselves via a strange loop.?

Consciousness itself occurs when a system with such ability creates a higher-level symbol, a symbol for the ability to create symbols. That symbol is the self. The I. Consciousness. ?You and I are mirages that perceive themselves,? Hofstadter writes.

This self-generated symbol of the self operates only on the level of symbols. It has no access to the workings of nerve cells and neurotransmitters, the microscopic electrochemical machinery of neurobiological life. The symbols that consciousness contemplates don?t look much like the real thing, the way a map of Texas conveys nothing of the grass and dirt and asphalt and bricks that cover the physical territory.

And just like a map of Texas remains remarkably stable over many decades ? it doesn?t change with each new pothole in a Dallas street ? human self-identity remains stable over a lifetime, despite constant changes on the micro level of proteins and cells. As an individual grows, matures, changes in many minute ways, the conscious self?s identity remains intact, just as Texas remains Texas even as new skyscrapers rise in the cities, farms grow different crops and the Red River sometimes shifts the boundary with Oklahoma a bit.

If consciousness were merely a map, a convenient shortcut symbol for a complex mess of neurobiological signaling, perhaps it wouldn?t be so hard to figure out. But its mysteries multiply because the symbol is generated by the thing doing the symbolizing. It?s like G?del?s numbers that refer to formulas that represent truths about numbers; this self-referentialism creates unanswerable questions, unsolvable problems.

A typical example of such a G?delian paradox is the following sentence: This sentence cannot be true.

Is that sentence true? Obviously not, because it says it isn?t true. But wait ? then it is true. Except that it can?t be. Self-referential sentences seem to have it both ways ? or neither way.

And so perceptual systems able to symbolize themselves ? self-referential minds ? can?t be explained just by understanding the parts that compose them. Simply describing how electric charges travel along nerve cells, how small molecules jump from one cell to another, how such signaling sends messages from one part of the brain to another ? none of that explains consciousness any more than knowing the English alphabet letter by letter (and even the rules of grammar) will tell you the meaning of Shakespeare?s poetry.

Hofstadter does not contend, of course, that all the biochemistry and cellular communication is irrelevant. It provides the machinery for perceiving and symbolizing that makes the strange loop of consciousness possible. It?s just that consciousness does not itself deal with molecules and cells; it copes with thoughts and emotions, hopes and fears, ideas and desires. Just as numbers can represent the complexities of all of mathematics (including numbers), a brain can represent the complexities of experience (including the brain itself). G?del?s proof showed that math is ?incomplete?; it contains truths that can?t be proven. And consciousness is a truth of a sort that can?t be comprehended within a system of molecules and cells alone.

That doesn?t mean that consciousness can never be understood ? G?del?s work did not undermine human understanding of mathematics, it enriched it. And so the realization that consciousness is self-referential could also usher in a deeper understanding of what the word means ? what it symbolizes.

Information handler

Viewed as a symbol, consciousness is very much like many of the other grand ideas of science. An atom is not so much a thing as an idea, a symbol for matter?s ultimate constituents, and the modern physical understanding of atoms bears virtually no resemblance to the original conception in the minds of the ancient Greeks who named them. Even Francis Crick?s gene made from DNA turned out to be much more elusive than the ?unit of heredity? imagined by Gregor Mendel in the 19th century. The later coinage of the word gene to describe such units long remained a symbol; early 20th century experiments allowed geneticists to deduce a lot about genes, but nobody really had a clue what a gene was.

?In a sense people were just as vague about what genes were in the 1920s as they are now about consciousness,? Crick said in 1998. ?It was exactly the same. The more professional people in the field, which was biochemistry at that time, thought that it was a problem that was too early to tackle.?

It turned out that with genes, their physical implementation didn?t really matter as much as the information storage and processing that genes engaged in. DNA is in essence a map, containing codes allowing one set of molecules to be transcribed into others necessary for life. It?s a lot easier to make a million copies of a map of Texas than to make a million Texases; DNA?s genetic mapping power is the secret that made the proliferation of life on Earth possible. Similarly, consciousness is deeply involved in representing information (with symbols) and putting that information together to make sense of the world. It?s the brain?s information processing powers that allow the mind to symbolize itself.

Koch believes that focusing on information could sharpen science?s understanding of consciousness. A brain?s ability to find patterns in influxes of sensory data, to send signals back and forth to integrate all that data into a coherent picture of reality and to trigger appropriate responses all seem to be processes that could be quantified and perhaps even explained with the math that describes how information works.

?Ultimately I think the key thing that matters is information,? Koch says. ?You have these causal interactions and they can be quantified using information theory. Somehow out of that consciousness has to arrive.? An inevitable consequence of this point of view is that consciousness doesn?t care what kind of information processors are doing all its jobs ? whether nerve cells or transistors.

?It?s not the stuff out of which your brain is made,? Koch says. ?It?s what that stuff represents that?s conscious, and that tells us that lots of other systems could be conscious too.?

Perhaps, in the end, it will be the ability to create unmistakable features of consciousness in some stuff other than a biological brain that will signal success in the quest for an explanation. But it?s doubtful that experimentally exposing consciousness as not exclusively human will displace humankind?s belief in its own primacy. People will probably always believe that it can only be the strange loop of human consciousness that makes the world go ?round.

?We ? draw conceptual boundaries around entities that we easily perceive, and in so doing we carve out what seems to us to be reality,? Hofstadter wrote. ?The ?I? we create for each of us is a quintessential example of such a perceived or invented reality, and it does such a good job of explaining our behavior that it becomes the hub around which the rest of the world seems to rotate.?

Read Laura Sanders's feature on consciousness, "Emblems of Awareness."

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/337947/title/Self_as_Symbol

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Paterno's son: 'Dad, you won. You can go home now' (AP)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ? Jay Paterno leaned over his dying father, gave him a kiss, and whispered in his ear.

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

Joe Paterno died Sunday of lung cancer at age 85.

At a memorial service Thursday that drew some 12,000 people to the Penn State basketball arena, Jay Paterno reflected on what he called the "magnificent daylight" of his legendary father's life. It was primarily a glowing tribute to Paterno and his accomplishments during 46 years as Penn State's football coach ? but also an opportunity to defend his legacy against criticism that he failed to do more when told about an alleged child sexual assault involving one of his former assistants.

Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight won a thunderous standing ovation when he defended Paterno's handling of the 2002 allegations against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Paterno, he hinted, had been made a scapegoat.

"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.

Capping three days of mourning on campus, the 2 1/2-hour ceremony was filled with lavish praise for the man called "JoePa." Paterno racked up more wins ? 409 ? than any other major-college football coach, led his team to two national championships, and preached "success with honor" while insisting his athletes focus on academics. The Paternos donated millions to Penn State.

The family on Friday offered their thanks for the outpouring of support through an ad on the back page of the campus student-run newspaper, The Daily Collegian. The family plans to run similar ads in other papers as well.

"Thank you," read the ad which featured the picture of the smiling Paterno used throughout services and tributes this week. "You have touched our hearts and lifted our spirits. The Paterno Family."

Though the campus and surrounding community have been torn with anger over the Sandusky scandal and Paterno's summary dismissal by the board of trustees two months before his death, Jay Paterno said his father didn't hold a grudge.

"Despite all that had happened to him, he never wavered in his belief, in his dream, of Penn State. He told me he wanted to use his remaining time on earth to see Penn State continue to thrive. He never spoke ill and never wanted anyone to feel badly for him," Paterno said.

Players from each decade of Paterno's career as the Nittany Lions' coach spoke in loving terms about their mentor, saying he rode them hard, but always had their best interests at heart and encouraged them to complete their educations and become productive members of their communities.

Among the speakers were Michael Robinson, who played for Paterno from 2002 to 2005 and flew in from Hawaii, where he was practicing for his first Pro Bowl; star quarterback Todd Blackledge from the 1980s; and Jimmy Cefalo, a star in the 1970s. Like Robinson, Blackledge and Cefalo 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 challenged his young players, once bringing Pittman to tears in his sophomore year. He said he realized later that the coach was molding him into the man he would become.

"What I now know is that Joe wasn't trying to build perfection. That doesn't exist and he knew it. He was, bit by bit, building a habit of excellence," said Pittman, now a media executive on the board of The Associated Press.

Paterno was fired Nov. 9 after he was criticized for not going to police in 2002 when he was told that 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.

Knight, appearing about midway through the memorial, 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.

Chris Marrone, another former player who eulogized Paterno, said Knight was his "new hero" for expressing the "pent-up frustration" of Paterno's supporters.

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

People said it felt good to remember and celebrate the good times.

Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak, who played for Paterno, said he attended the service "because I'm a part of his legacy."

"It was not only about football," Munchak said. "It was about life and how he affected all of us as men."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_penn_state_paterno

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Drew Carey and Nicole Jaracz: It's Over!

It's game over for Drew Carey and Nicole Jaracz.

The Price Is Right host and his fiancee have ended their nearly five-year relationship. "He and Nicole still have a great deal of love and affection for one another," Carey's rep said.

"He will still be very involved with their son's life."

Drew Carey, 53, and Nicole Jaracz announced their engagement in October 2007. At the time, Jaracz had recently graduated from culinary school.

"They are both very happy and excited about their future together," Carey's rep said at the time, adding that no wedding date had been set then ... or ever.

In 2010, Carey dropped 80 lbs., and attributed his significant weight loss to the strong inspiration of his fiancée and her son, Connor, now 6.

Sad news, but we wish them both the best in this tough time.

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/drew-carey-and-nicole-jaracz-its-over/

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A Step Forward and a Step Back for Same Sex Marriage (ABC News)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/191469101?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Nokia releases Q4 2011 earnings report: operating profits drop, Lumia sales break one million

Nokia released its latest quarterly earnings report today, following up on a somewhat disappointing Q3 with a similarly bleak Q4. The Finnish manufacturer finished 2011 with a little more than €10 billion ($13.1 billion) in net sales -- 11 percent higher than Q3, but 21 percent lower than 2010, when Nokia raked in about €12.7 billion (approximately $16.7 billion). Operating profit, meanwhile, rose by 90 percent over Q3, but is still down on the year by a whopping 56 percent; this quarter, in fact, saw an operating loss of €954 million (about $1.3 billion). Its net cash and liquid assets also dropped by €1.4 billion over the year, marking a 20 percent decline. The general takeaway, then, is that things are looking better than they were last quarter, but worse than they were last year.

To date, the company has sold "well over" one million Lumia devices, but this Windows Phone surge has apparently come at Symbian's expense. "In certain markets, there has been an acceleration of the anticipated trend towards lower-priced smartphones with specifications that are different from Symbian's traditional strengths," CEO Stephen Elop said in a statement. "As a result of the changing market conditions, combined with our increased focus on Lumia, we now believe that we will sell fewer Symbian devices than we previously anticipated." Looking forward, Nokia expects to break even during the first quarter of 2012, due in part to lower than expected seasonal sales and what it calls "competitive industry dynamics." For the full report, check out the source link below.

Nokia releases Q4 2011 earnings report: operating profits drop, Lumia sales break one million originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/26/nokia-releases-q4-2011-earnings-report-operating-profits-drop/

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Mourinho defiant despite rising pressure

Associated Press Sports

updated 2:32 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2012

MADRID (AP) -Appearing angry and irritable, Jose Mourinho claimed all was well at Real Madrid on Tuesday despite reported divisions within his squad following the loss last week to Barcelona causing speculation to mount about his future.

Mourinho has come under criticism from his usually staunch allies - Madrid fans and the local media - for his tactics against Barcelona in the 2-1 home loss in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals last Wednesday.

During a tense news conference on Tuesday, the Portuguese coach was quick to dismiss all questions regarding his future and the mood among the players inside the changing room, answering "I don't know" on each occasion.

Mourinho was similarly dismissive when asked if this is his most difficult period since joining Madrid in 2010 after having guided Inter Milan to the Champions League title.

"It's a very nice moment," countered Mourinho, whose team leads the league by five points from Barcelona.

Mourinho was hired by president Florentino Perez to not only win trophies but ensure Madrid beats Barcelona. Last season's victory in the Copa del Rey final, however, is his lone win in nine games against the club where he once worked as an assistant coach.

"When I first arrived, this club's (cup) tradition was elimination at the hands of smaller teams, and last year we won the Copa," Mourinho said in one of his few lengthy answers. "When we got to Real Madrid we weren't even a top seed (in the Champions League), and now we've managed a record number of victories in the first half of the season and we're leading the championship.

"We're not doing too bad."

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported details Tuesday of discussions between Mourinho and his players after the 2-0 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals in which he reportedly said the series was over ahead of the return leg.

That follows sports daily Marca revealing a critical exchange between Mourinho and defender Sergio Ramos after last week's loss to Barcelona.

"I've never lacked respect for a coach at any point of my career," Ramos wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday. "With that, I deny these things said of me, that I never said. The coach and I are fighting for the same interests."

Although stating that Pepe was available for Wednesday's second leg if he escapes a ban for stomping on Lionel Messi, Mourinho was less forthcoming about whether he is ready to abandon his defensive game plan.

"I don't have to reveal how we are going to play the game at the Camp Nou," Mourinho said, adding: "Tomorrow's game will not have an impact on my time at Real Madrid."

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

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Stefano Rellandini / Reuters

That's a reason?

AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng is hurt again, and his girlfriend says it's because they have sex "7-10 times a week." Oh.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45447222/ns/sports-soccer/

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Stuttering Reflects Irregularities in Brain Setup

Head Lines | Mind & Brain See Inside

A stutter indicates a massive change in brain wiring that affects more than just speech

By Carrie Arnold ?| January 23, 2012?|

Put on a pair of headphones and turn up the volume so that you can?t even hear yourself speak. For those who stutter, this is when the magic happens. Without the ability to hear their own voice, people with this speech impediment no longer stumble over their words?as was recently portrayed in the movie The King?s Speech. This simple trick works because of the unusual way the brain of people who stutter is organized?a neural setup that affects other actions besides speech, according to a new study.

Normal speech requires the brain to control movement of the mouth and vocal chords using the sound of the speaker?s own voice as a guide. This integration of movement and hearing typically happens in the brain?s left hemisphere, in a region of the brain known as the premotor cortex. In those who stutter, however, the process occurs in the right hemisphere?prob?ably because of a slight defect on the left side, according to past brain-imaging studies. Singing requires a similar integration of aural input and motor control, but the processing typically occurs in the right hemi?sphere, which may explain why those who stutter can sing as well as anyone else. (In a related vein, The King?s Speech also mentioned the common belief that people who stutter are often left-handed, but studies have found
no such link.)

In the new study, published in the September issue of Cortex, re?searchers found that the unusual neural organization underlying a stutter also includes motor tasks completely unrelated to speech. A group of 30 adults, half of whom stuttered and half of whom did not, tapped a finger in time to a metronome. When the sci?entists interfered with the function of their left hemisphere using trans?cranial magnetic stimulation, a non?invasive technique that temporarily dampens brain activity, nonstutterers found themselves unable to tap in time?but those who stuttered were unaffected. When the researchers interfered with the right hemisphere, the results were reversed: the stut?tering group was impaired, and the nonstutterers were fine.

According to lead author Martin Sommer, a neuroscientist at the University of G?ttingen in Germany,the results suggest that the left-hemisphere defect underlying a stutter causes trouble with sensory integra?tion in general, rather than specifically speech-related problems as was his?torically thought. ?Like in stroke pa?tients, the right side seems to jump in and compensate,? Sommer ex?plains. But that part of the brain did not evolve to handle those tasks, so problems?such as a stutter?can emerge.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=cc8443646b40f32dcf36efb262d1fae7

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Altitude sickness causes Tracy Morgan Sundance collapse (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? "30 Rock" actor Tracy Morgan collapsed at the Sundance film festival over the weekend and is being treated for exhaustion and altitude sickness, his publicist said on Monday.

Spokesman Lewis Kay said initial reports that Morgan was drunk were untrue.

"From a combination of exhaustion and altitude, Tracy is seeking medical attention. He is with his fianc? and grateful to the Park City Medical Center for their care. Any reports of Tracy consuming alcohol are 100% false," Kay said in a statement.

Morgan, 43, was taken to the hospital in Park City, Utah, on Sunday while attending a charity event during the annual Sundance film festival in the ski resort.

The actor's new comedy "Predisposed" is one of the dozens of films at the festival, which champions independent movies.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/tv_nm/us_tracymorgan

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Wall Street rests after rally; bellwether earnings ahead (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks finished almost flat on Monday as investors took a break from a recent rally, awaiting earnings from bellwethers such as Apple later in the week.

The S&P 500 is up nearly 5 percent so far this year as an improving U.S. economy has bolstered investor optimism. The Dow and the S&P 500 both had their best weekly performances in a month last week.

"Investors are reserved after a mixed bag of results. Many companies have announced sluggish results, portraying a cautious environment going forward," said Robert Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Massachusetts.

"The expectations are very moderate in the market, so a little bit of good news could lead to a significant pop in a stock."

According to Thomson Reuters data, 15 percent of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings, and just 59 percent posted results above Wall Street's expectations. That percentage trails the average of about 70 percent, though the rate is expected to improve as the earnings season gathers steam.

Among the 117 S&P 500 companies expected to report earnings this week is tech company Apple Inc (AAPL.O), due after the closing bell on Tuesday.

The euro-zone crisis remained in the background for the market but has had less of an effect on stocks lately. Germany and France pushed for a deal between Greece and its private creditors, and the two said they still were dedicated to a new bailout that Athens needs by March to stave off default.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) slipped 11.66 points, or 0.09 percent, to end at 12,708.82. But the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) inched up 0.62 point, or 0.05 percent, to close at 1,316.00. And the Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) dipped 2.53 points, or 0.09 percent, to end at 2,784.17.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS UP LATE

After the bell, Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.O) shares rose 2.5 percent to $34.00 after reporting higher-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue.

In addition to Apple, a number of Dow components are due to report earnings on Tuesday, notably Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), Travelers Companies Inc (TRV.N), McDonald's Corp (MCD.N), DuPont (DD.N) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N).

Wall Street's agenda includes the Federal Reserve's first policymaking meeting of the year, which will begin on Tuesday and conclude on Wednesday with a statement. The Fed is likely to say that it will not start raising interest rates again until the first half of 2014, more than five years after cutting them to near zero, a Reuters poll of leading Wall Street economists showed.

The U.S. central bank will begin a new practice of announcing policymakers' interest-rate projections when this week's meeting ends on Wednesday.

During Monday's regular session, Halliburton Co (HAL.N) shares fell 2.1 percent to $35.44 after the world's second-largest oilfield services group warned that the deep slump in U.S. natural gas prices could cause near-term disruptions that pinch first-quarter earnings.

On a positive note, Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N) gained 6.3 percent to $22.28 after it said it will reduce dry gas drilling and cut production in response to natural gas prices falling below "economically attractive" levels. Natural gas companies' shares were among the day's best performers, with an index of those stocks (.XNG) rising 3.6 percent.

Research In Motion Ltd (RIM.TO)(RIMM.O) fell 8.5 percent to $15.56 as analysts were skeptical about the resignation of the BlackBerry maker's co-chief executives.

Sears Holding Corp (SHLD.O) fell 3.3 percent to $47.39 after rising as high as $54.76 in what analysts said could be a short squeeze.

The stock is the most shorted stock in the S&P 500, according to Data Explorers, with 94 percent of shares available used to sell short. The retailer has been the best-performing stock in the index for the year, up more than 50 percent.

"That is a classic short squeeze. There have been headlines all over the name now for the better part of a month or so, and it's largely been quite negative," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Trading volume was at about 6.6 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, in line with the daily average of 6.68 billion.

Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a ratio of about 3 to 2. In contrast, on the Nasdaq, about six stocks fell for every five that rose.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and; Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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Mobile Miscellany: week of January 16, 2012

This week may not have been incredibly packed with news in the mobile world, but it was still easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of January 16, 2012:

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of January 16, 2012

Mobile Miscellany: week of January 16, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/22/mobile-miscellany/

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Ship search finds 12th body, captain's documents

An Italian fireman descends from an helicopter to the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

An Italian fireman descends from an helicopter to the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

A woman checks if her clothes are dry as the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen in background, off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain, Capt. Francesco Schettino, who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia lays off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

An Italian Coast Guard boat patrols the area around the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Fuel spilling experts work on the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) ? Divers plumbing the capsized Costa Concordia's murky depths pulled out the body of a woman in a life vest Saturday, while scuba-diving police swam through the captain's cabin to retrieve a safe and documents belonging to the man who abandoned the cruise liner after it was gashed by a rocky reef on the Tuscan coast.

Hoping for a miracle ? or at least for the recovery of bodies from the ship that has become an underwater tomb ? relatives of some of the 20 missing appealed to survivors of the Jan. 13 shipwreck to offer details that could help divers reach loved ones while it is still possible to search the luxury liner. The clock is ticking because the craft is perched precariously on a rocky ledge of seabed near Giglio island.

"We are asking the 4,000 persons who were on board to give any information they can about any of the persons still missing," said Alain Litzler, a Frenchman who is the father of missing passenger Mylene Litzler. "We need precise information to help the search and rescue teams find them."

Early Sunday, instruments monitoring any movement of the Concordia indicated that vessel had shifted slightly, so search efforts were suspended for the night, Italian state radio reported.

The death toll rose to at least 12 Saturday after a water-logged body was extracted from a passageway near a gathering point for evacuation by lifeboats in the rear of the vessel, Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said. It was not immediately clear if the woman was a passenger or crew member. A female Peruvian bartender and several adult female passengers were among the 21 people listed as missing before the latest corpse was found.

Relatives of the bartender and of an Indian crewman, along with two children of an elderly couple from Minnesota who are among the missing, boarded a boat Saturday to view the wrecked Concordia Saturday, said a maritime official, Fabrizio Palombo.

Family members tossed flowers near the site while islanders standing on the rocky edge of the island also strew bouquets on the water in a tribute to the victims.

Another Coast Guard official, Cosimo Nicastro, said the woman's body was found during a particularly risky inspection.

"The corridor was very narrow, and the divers' lines risked snagging" on furniture and objects floating in the passageway, Nicastro said. To help the coast guard divers reach the area, Italian navy divers had preceded them, setting off charges to blast holes for easier entrance and exit.

Meanwhile, police divers, carrying out orders from prosecutors investigating Captain Francesco Schettino for suspected manslaughter and abandoning the ship, swam through the cold, dark waters to reach his cabin. State TV and the Italian news agency ANSA reported that the divers located and remove his safe and two suitcases. His passport and several documents were also pulled out, state media said.

Searchers inspecting the bridge Saturday also found a hard disk containing data of the voyage, Sky TG24 TV reported.

Three bodies were found in waters around the ship in the first hours after the accident. Since then, divers have gone inside the Concordia to recover all the remaining victims, who were apparently unable to escape the lurching ship during a chaotic evacuation launched almost an hour after the liner hit a reef.

Some survivors who couldn't board lifeboats waited for hours aboard the capsizing craft for rescue by helicopters while others jumped into the water and swam to safety.

The last survivor, found aboard 36 hours after the crash, was an Italian crewman who broke his leg in the confusion and couldn't leave the ship.

The Concordia hit the reef, well-marked on maritime and even tourist maps, while most of the passengers sat down to dinner in the main restaurant, about two hours after the ship had set sail from the port of Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Costa Crociere, the ship's operator and subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said the captain had deviated without permission from the vessel's route in an apparent maneuver to sail close to the island of Giglio and impress passengers.

Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying Coast Guard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel. He has said he coordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.

The effort to find survivors and bodies has postponed an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia's tanks; specialized equipment has been standing by for days.

Light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized ship, was spotted in nearby waters, authorities said Saturday.

But Nicastro said there was no indication that any of the nearly 500,000 gallons (2,200 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship's double-bottomed tanks, seen as a risk if the ship's position changes. He said the leaked substance appears to be diesel, which is used to fuel rescue boats and dinghies and as a lubricant for ship machinery.

There are 185 tons of diesel and lubricants on board the crippled vessel, which is lying on its side just outside Giglio's port. Nicastro described the fuel in the sea as "very light, very superficial" and appearing to be under control.

But an official leading rescue, search and anti-pollution efforts for the ship suggested that the luxury liner would have leaked contaminants on board when it tipped over.

"We must not forget that on that ship there are oils, solvents, detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs," Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, told reporters in Giglio.

Gabrielli was referring to the roughly 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew who were aboard the cruise liner when it ran into the reef and, with seawater rushing into a 230-foot (70-meter) gash in its hull, listed and fell onto its side. "Contamination of the environment, ladies and gentlemen, already occurred" when the liner capsized, Gabrelli said.

Vessels equipped with machinery to suck out the light fuel oil were in the area. Earlier on Saturday, crews removed oil-absorbing booms used to prevent environmental damage in case of a leak. Originally white, the booms were grayish.

Schettino, is under house arrest for investigation of alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all were evacuated.

The search had been suspended Friday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears the ship could roll off a rocky ledge of sea bed and plunge deeper into the pristine waters around Giglio, part of a seven-island Tuscan archipelago.

___

D'Emilio reported from Rome. Colleen Barry contributed from Milan and Andrea Foa from Giglio.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-21-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-5babbe3aff9048afa65f7d6befb715f5

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Yemeni president departs for Oman

FILE - In this Friday, April 8, 2011 file photo, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh reacts while looking at his supporters, not pictured, during a rally supporting him, in Sanaa,Yemen. Yemeni officials say outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave soon to Oman, en route to medical treatment in the United States. Washington has been trying to get Saleh out of Yemen _ though not to settle in the U.S. _ to allow a peaceful transition from his rule. However, there appear to be differences whether Saleh would remain in exile. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)

FILE - In this Friday, April 8, 2011 file photo, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh reacts while looking at his supporters, not pictured, during a rally supporting him, in Sanaa,Yemen. Yemeni officials say outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave soon to Oman, en route to medical treatment in the United States. Washington has been trying to get Saleh out of Yemen _ though not to settle in the U.S. _ to allow a peaceful transition from his rule. However, there appear to be differences whether Saleh would remain in exile. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? A spokesman for Yemen's embattled president says Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the country for the Persian Gulf country of Oman.

Ahmed al-Soufi said Saleh flew out of Yemen's capital Sanaa late Sunday.

Saleh's departure follows a farewell speech in which he passed power to his deputy, slated to be rubber-stamped as the country's new leader on Feb. 21. The move could help push forward a U.S.-backed deal brokered by Yemen's neighbors that seeks to end the country's political crisis.

For nearly a year, Yemeni protesters have called for the end of Saleh's 33-year rule. Protesters and human rights groups have criticized the power transfer deal for granting Saleh immunity from prosecution. They want to see him tried for his alleged role in protester deaths.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Sunday he will travel to Washington for medical treatment and he asked Yemenis for forgiveness, saying it is time to hand over power in a farewell speech, state media reported.

The mercurial president told Yemeni TV networks that he had formally handed power to his vice president but would return to his homeland before early presidential elections scheduled for next month as the head of the General People's Congress Party.

An official at Sanaa airport said that a presidential plane had left the country Sunday morning, but he declined to say who was on board. Two other airport officials said that Saleh had already left the country, but the claims could not be confirmed.

The reports come a day after Yemeni parliament approved a law that gives Saleh immunity from prosecution and is in line with the timetable set in a U.S.-backed power-transfer deal aimed at ending months of political stalemate and violence.

Facing continued protests demanding his ouster, Saleh in November agreed to step down. A unity government between his party and the opposition has since been created. However, Saleh ? still formally the president ? has continued to influence politics from behind the scenes through his family and loyalists in power positions.

The deal was widely rejected by millions of street protesters who have staged anti-Saleh demonstrations inspired by the Arab \ of revolutions that have successfully led to the ouster of autocratic leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Protesters reject the immunity clause, insisting Saleh should be prosecuted for the alleged killings of protesters and corruption.

The president, who has ruled for more than 33 years, left the country once before, traveling to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after coming under attack and he has repeatedly gone back and forth on whether he would leave again.

His remarks, reported by the official Yemeni news agency, were the strongest indication that he was preparing to leave as he said Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi "is the one responsible now" and urged rival political parties and youth to unite and achieve "reconciliation."

Saleh gave no date for his departure, and it was not clear if he would go directly to Washington. Yemeni officials said Saturday that the president planned to travel to Oman first.

Washington has been trying for weeks to find a country where Saleh could live in exile to allow a peaceful transition from his rule of more than 33 years, since it does not want him to settle permanently in the United States.

Aides to the president told The Associated Press that Saleh gathered top political, military and security officials and announced Hadi to the rank of marshal. He is set to replace Saleh.

"I appeal to you to forgive my past mistakes," one top ruling party official who was there quoted Saleh as saying. "Today, I leave the country in your hands," he was quoted as saying.

Another aide who attended the meeting quoted Saleh as saying, "I am leaving this good country, today. I want to bid you farewell from this place. I thank each one of you and offer my apology to the people and ask for forgiveness."

A third official said that Saleh declined to hold a public departure ceremony and preferred to offer his farewell behind closed doors.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

After signing the deal in November, civil servants and employees have staged almost daily protests, each in front of their institution and agency demanding uprooting Saleh's regime members from the top government positions.

Among the latest protests, army forces used armored vehicles to briefly close runways at the military air base, which is attached to Sanaa airport, early Sunday, demanding that the commander of the country's air force be replaced. The commander is Saleh's brother, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Saleh.

Later Sunday, Republican Guard forces, which are commanded by Saleh's son, Ahmed, stormed the airport, fired rubber bullets and water cannons, dispersing the protesters and reopening the airport.

In the southern city of Taiz, security officers staged similar protests demanding the ouster of their commander.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-22-ML-Yemen/id-0c4711cb2fbd4362819fcbe4a007fbbd

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Romney braces for final full day in South Carolina (AP)

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Front-runner Mitt Romney and his presidential pursuers enter the final full day of campaigning in a South Carolina GOP primary contest significantly altered from just 24 hours earlier.

The former Massachusetts governor is looking to fend off challenges to his fragile lead from more conservative rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. The entire field, including Ron Paul, scrambled for the shreds of support left by Texas Gov. Rick Perry who quit the race Thursday.

Perry's departure, a raucous Charleston debate and fresh reminders of Gingrich's tumultuous personal life promised to make the dash to Saturday's voting frenetic and the intra-party attacks increasingly sharp.

"I've been fighting for health reform, private sector, bottom-up ... for 20 years, while these two guys were playing footsies with the left," Santorum said of Romney and Gingrich during a heated debate exchange.

With Romney clinging to a narrow lead in South Carolina polls and Gingrich closing in, Santorum was aiming for the top tier. Paul was also a factor as the four remaining GOP hopefuls planned to scatter across the Palmetto State on Friday.

Romney, whose lead has shrunk in the race's closing days, planned stops along the coast, in the state's midlands and conservative north. Gingrich, gaining fast and buoyed by Perry's endorsement, was planning a half-dozen stops concentrating in the south, especially the heavily pro-military Charleston area.

Meanwhile, Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator seeking to consolidate conservatives, planned to rally supporters in four stops statewide, including the conservative upstate, the home of his evangelical base.

The libertarian-leaning Paul, whose support has slipped with his light campaign effort here, hoped to whip up his supporters with a six-city fly-around.

The GOP race spun wildly Thursday, beginning with news that Santorum had edged Romney in Iowa, a reversal of the first nominating contest more than two weeks past.

Perry, having struggled in vain to build support in his native South, quit and endorsed Gingrich. Gingrich, meanwhile, faced stunning new allegations from an ex-wife that he had sought an open marriage before their divorce. An aggressive debate punctuated the day.

Santorum played aggressor during the faceoff, trying to inject himself into what seemed increasingly like a Romney-Gingrich race after Perry's endorsement of his onetime rival.

"Newt's not perfect, but who among us is," Perry said in backing Gingrich. "The fact is, there is forgiveness for those who seek God and I believe in the power of redemption, for it is a central tenet of my own Christian faith."

Gingrich angrily denounced the news media for putting his ex-wife front and center in the final days of the race and spreading her accusations. "Let me be clear, the story is false," he said when asked at the opening of the debate about her interview.

Santorum, Romney and Paul steered clear of the controversy.

"Let's get onto the real issues, that's all I've got to say," said Romney, although he pointed out that he and his wife, Ann, have been married for 42 years.

Gingrich and Santorum challenged Romney over his opposition to abortion, a well-documented shift but a potent one in evangelical-heavy South Carolina.

Recent polls, coupled with Perry's endorsement, suggested Gingrich was the candidate with the momentum and Romney the one struggling to validate his standing as front-runner.

Gingrich released his income tax records during the course of the debate, paving the way to discussing Romney's. The wealthy former venture capitalist has said he will release them in April, prompting Gingrich to suggest that would be too late for voters to decide if they presented evidence Obama could exploit.

"If there's anything that's in there that's going to help us lose the election, we should know before the election. If there's not, why not release it?" Gingrich said. His effective tax rate, roughly 31.6 percent of his adjusted income, was about double what Romney told reporters earlier this week he had paid.

Gingrich grappled with problems of a different, possibly even more crippling sort in a state where more than half the Republican electorate is evangelical.

Marianne Gingrich told ABC's "Nightline" that her ex-husband had wanted an "open marriage" so he could have both a wife and a mistress. She said Gingrich conducted an affair with Callista Bistek, now his wife, "in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington" while she was elsewhere.

"He was asking to have an open marriage and I refused. That is not a marriage," she said in excerpts released by the network well ahead of the debate.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Casper Smart, J.Lo defend their love on Twitter

Jennifer Lopez and dancer Casper Smart have faced criticism over their 18-year age difference since going public with their relationship in November, and now, they?re defending their romance on Twitter.

?Age, status, n opinions of others are irrelevant,? Smart, 24, tweeted on Wednesday. ?Our hearts are endless and our souls infinite ?.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Celebrity May-December Romances

?Our ages are mere reminders of the hours logged on this earth and the precious time remaining,? he added. ?We should all honor our time here by indulging our passion and dreams. So, close your ears and open your hearts; Love and be happy!?

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Smart's ladylove must?ve liked what she read, as she re-Tweeted all of her beau?s philosophic Tweets to her 4.3 million followers.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: She?s Still Just Jenny From The Block! Hot Shots Of Jennifer Lopez!

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Lopez?s soon-to-be ex-husband, Marc Anthony, is also reportedly dating a 24-year-old ? Venezuelan model Shannon de Lima.

Anthony, 43, tweeted a photo of the beauty in early January with the caption, ?To Shannon, my statue of Liberty. Kisses baby,? in Spanish.

He also posted a photo on his Facebook page of himself, embracing and kissing the model.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Jennifer Lopez?s Loves Over The Years: On-Screen & Off!

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Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46060142/ns/today-entertainment/

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