Triple Town developer files lawsuit against alleged App Store copycat (Appolicious)

When it comes to the video game world, it?s nearly impossible to discuss a game without talking about all the other titles that came before it. Every game on the market, be it store shelves or the iTunes App Store, has built off the foundations of games that have come before, and that creates a tough spot for many game developers. At what point does a game stop building off another title?s ideas or being ?inspired? by another work, and start being theft of an idea?

The developer of Triple Town, Spry Fox, thinks it has some idea. According to a story from Eurogamer, Spry Fox has filed a lawsuit against another App Store developer, 6waves Lolapps, for copyright infringement. Spry Fox alleges that Lolapps? Yeti Town steals the basic idea of Triple Town, selling it with just a different coat of paint.

Both Triple Town and Yeti Town are built on an interesting hybrid of mixing the match-three genre, in which players try to get three objects of the same type together to score points (think Bejeweled) with city-building simulator games. In Triple Town, the game screen is divided into a grid and you score points by matching objects to build structures: match three bushes to make a tree, three trees to make a house, three houses to make a mansion and so on. You play until you fill all the grid squares on the screen and can?t make any more combinations.

Lots of similarities big and small

Yeti Town has all the same mechanics. Like Triple Town, you can earn coins over time which you can use to buy certain objects when you don?t have the time or space to make them, like a spare tree or bush. You also have yetis to contend with, which clog up your squares by moving around the game board and need to be eliminated. In Triple Town, you have bears, rather than yetis, which have to be defeated.

Spry Fox, which has also released Triple Town on Facebook, said in a blog post that it had worked closely with Lolapps during the development of Triple Town and had shared important aspects of the game with the other developer. It announced the lawsuit in the blog post as well. Spry Fox alleges that while Lolapps was working under a nondisclosure agreement to help develop Triple Town, it was also developing the copy of the game. The blog post points out a number of other smaller similarities between the games, like the user interface, language in the tutorials and even the prices of items in the in-game shops.

Venture Beat published a statement from 6waves Lolapps responding to the allegations, stating that the copyright claims are unjustified and ?factually inaccurate.?

Homage or copycat?

Copying can be seen as a rather big problem in the iTunes App Store, where many games seem to hew closer to established formulas of other titles than in other areas of video gaming. Last week, Zynga was bashed publicly by the three-man team that makes up NimbleBit, the developer of Apple?s 2011 iPhone Game of the Year, Tiny Tower. Zynga?s newly released Dream Heights carries pretty much the same concept and art style as Tiny Tower. Gameloft is often accused of making its own versions of popular games, like the Uncharted series, the Legend of Zelda series and the Grand Theft Auto series. And last year, indie developer Twisted Pixel accused Capcom of stealing the concept for its ?Splosion Man title on Xbox LIVE Arcade and turning it into the App Store title, MaXplosion.

Of course, plenty of games in the App Store as well as everywhere else in video games owe their underlying framework to titles like Doom, Quake or Super Mario Bros. But in the case of Triple Town and Yeti Town, it seems Spry Fox sees a lot more going on than just homage or inspiration. It will be interesting to see if the outcome of the Triple Town lawsuit affects the rest of the gaming industry and other possible copyright claims.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10909_triple_town_developer_files_lawsuit_against_alleged_app_store_copycat/44356079/SIG=13n9aebgs/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/games/articles/10909-triple-town-developer-files-lawsuit-against-alleged-app-store-copycat

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Can You Be a Pirate on Land?

Why, then, do news accounts refer to them as pirates? Because they arr. The kidnapping was reportedly carried out by a gang whose leader is a well-known pirate commander. The commander, Ali Duulaye, is thought to have helped hijack a Seychelles-flagged fishing vessel in December. A pirate source told the website Somalia Report on Saturday that Moore was being held on land, alongside two hostages taken from that vessel, though he has apparently since been moved. Somalia Report?s editor, the Canadian journalist Jay Bahadur, tells the Explainer that the proliferation of armed guards on vessels plying the Arabian Sea has forced pirate networks to focus more on land-based operations of late.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=a360fccc5af123cfe93f17180661a5f6

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Nigeria dictator's top aide sentenced to death (AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria ? A federal judge in Nigeria on Monday sentenced to death the feared right-hand man to Nigeria's former military dictator over the 1996 killing of an opposition candidate's wife.

Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha sat without expression, slowly shaking his head "no," as the high court judge ordered him to be hanged over the killing of Kudirat Abiola. His coconspirator Lateef Shofolahan received the same sentence after the two men were found guilty of murder and conspiracy charges. Shofolahan was described by the court as a trusted employee of the Abiola family who ultimately betrayed them for money and power.

Al-Mustapha was found guilty of ordering a security agent to kill the wife of Moshood Abiola, a businessman widely believed to be the winner of an annulled 1993 presidential poll in Nigeria. Al-Mustapha denied taking part in the 1996 machine-gun killing in Lagos, saying he was tortured into a false confession.

Al-Mustapha served as the chief security officer to Gen. Sani Abacha, a paranoid military ruler who stole billions from the oil-rich nation while brutally suppressing dissent.

Abiola was imprisoned by the dictator at the time of his wife's death, and died in prison a month after Gen. Abacha's own death as the nation struggled toward democracy.

Judge Mojisola Dada, though speaking in a hushed tone over the several hours it took to read her judgment Monday in the stifling hot courtroom, barely controlled her rage over the killings. Dada described Al-Mustapha as a "venomous beast" and Shofolahan as a Judas who "sold his master for 30 pieces of silver."

"I think it is amazing that those who are most willing to shed the blood of others are the ones always scared of death," Dada said when handing down the sentence.

Lead defense lawyer Olalekan Ojo said both men would appeal their sentences and file for stays of execution. He also suggested the judge showed bias by ignoring the contradictions in the prosecution's case.

The daughter of the two slain democratic activists, Hafsat Abiola, said the verdict came as a surprise after previous trials ended without convictions. Nigerian authorities still view Al-Mustapha as a security threat, holding him in Lagos' maximum-security Kirikiri prison. In 2004, officials claimed he planned to have someone shoot down a helicopter carrying then-President Olusegun Obasanjo with a Stinger missile. He's also escaped convictions in other trials.

"I feel very relieved that over 15 years after my mother was assassinated that the people who killed her have been sentenced to death," Hafsat Abiola told The Associated Press. "It is not so much you want people to believe in the death penalty, but in a country with so much abuse of power and state impunity, we need to make sure people who commit crimes have to pay for it."

Al-Mustapha, a Hausa from the country's north, still receives support from the Muslim populace there, highlighting Nigeria's religious divisions. His recent claims in court also have been driving a further wedge, as he has offered a government memorandum that says hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on visitors to Abacha's palace.

Al-Mustapha and his family claim the government and powerful politicians want him dead. But they also highlight the long unease between Nigeria's north and south, where divisions largely fall along religious lines. Tens of thousands have died in religious and ethnic rioting since the nation embraced democracy in 1999.

As Al-Mustapha left the court Monday afternoon, some supporters in the crowd cheered for him and shouted "God is great" as he stood at the top of a courthouse staircase. He smiled and waved to those below, looking like a politician, not a man sentenced minutes earlier to death.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_trial

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At least?10 killed,?20 hurt?in Fla. highway pile-ups

GAINESVILLE, Fla.?? At least 10 people died in crashes overnight apparently caused by smoke from a fire along Interstate 75 in north Florida, authorities said Sunday.

Nine people were confirmed dead at the scene, and a 10th fatality was later reported. A local hospital was treating 20 people for injuries. Their conditions were unclear.

At least four to five large commercial vehicles and 10 passenger vehicles were involved. Many were badly mangled.

Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw one tractor-trailer that was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. Bodies were still visible inside a burned-out Grand Prix. The rubber on the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

State police estimated that wreckage was strewn for nearly a mile in both directions.

Steven Camps, 23, of Gainesville, said he and a friend had stopped due to the smoke and began talking to a man in the car stopped next to them, when another vehicle hit the man's car.

Camps said the man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and his friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," he said. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of world."

He said cars and trucks were on fire and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.

"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said. "It was like a war zone. It literally looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

"That's a very scary thing when you can't see anything and hear the squealing of tires and don't know if 2,000 pounds of metal is coming at you," The Gainesville Sun quoted Alachua County Sheriff's Sgt. Todd Kelly as saying.

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"We just hit it, and you couldn't see anything," added Donna Henry, who was driving with friends when her car hit a guardrail and ended up sideways.

From the side of the road she heard more crashes. "Like 15 times somebody hit, from this side and that, north and south. It was bad."

In one crash, a pickup truck was left sitting atop a passenger car and both were up against the rear end of a FedEx tractor-trailer. All vehicles were burned out.

The pile-ups, on both north- and southbound lanes, happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75 south of Gainesville.

All lanes of the interstate remained closed as investigators began their work examining the vehicles, many of them just burned shells.

The Florida Highway Patrol had closed the highway briefly earlier overnight because of a mixture of fog and smoke from a marsh fire in the Paynes Prairie area south of Gainesville.

The agency had several troopers driving along the stretch of I-75 to access the situation early Sunday.

"When the visibility cleared, we reopened the road," said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan.

The fire was manmade and started on Saturday, police said. It was not known if it was accidentally or deliberately set.

Heavy fog and smoke were blamed for a deadly string of accidents four years ago. In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes caused by fog and smoke, including one pile-up that involved 40 vehicles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46181122/ns/us_news-life/

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RBS chief waives bonus after UK political storm (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? The chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) has decided to waive a bonus worth almost a million pounds ($1.6 million), the bank said on Sunday, after the handout angered Britons bearing the brunt of government austerity measures.

A spokesman for the partly state-owned bank said CEO Stephen Hester would no longer be taking the bonus, which was awarded at a time when most British workers are suffering wage freezes or sub-inflation rises.

"He's waived the bonus," said the spokesman for RBS, which is 83 percent owned by the British government following a state bailout during the 2008 credit crisis.

Hester had been due for the stock bonus, worth roughly 998,640 pounds based on Friday's closing price of RBS shares, on top of his basic salary of 1.2 million pounds. His decision followed a similar move by RBS Chairman Philip Hampton.

The deal had provoked a row across Britain's political spectrum, with the opposition Labor Party leading the attack.

The Liberal Democrat party, junior partner in the coalition government, also criticized the planned payment and even some members of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives joined the assault.

RBS made its announcement shortly after Labor stepped up the pressure by saying it would force a parliamentary debate in which it would have called on the government to use its 83 percent stake in RBS to cancel Hester's bonus.

Salaries at RBS and Lloyds (LLOY.L) are particularly controversial as both banks were bailed out with 66 billion pounds of taxpayers' money during the crisis. The British government owns 40 percent of Lloyds, along with its RBS stake.

DEFLECTED ATTENTION

Britain's Conservative finance minister George Osborne welcomed Hester's decision to decline his bonus.

"This is a sensible and welcome decision that enables Stephen Hester to focus on the very important job he has got to do, namely to get back billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that was put into RBS," he said.

Throughout the past week the Conservatives - the senior coalition party - had sought to deflect criticism over the government's handling of the affair by saying it was up to Hester to decide whether or not to take up his bonus.

The government had said overruling the RBS board would risk destabilizing a bank whose balance sheet is as large as Britain's entire economy. It also pointed out that the bonus scheme had been drawn up under the previous Labor government.

Hester, a former Abbey National and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) banker, joined RBS in October 2008 from property company British Land (BLND.L) as RBS was reeling from its disastrous acquisition of Dutch bank ABN AMRO and the effects of the credit crisis.

Britain used about 45 billion pounds of taxpayers' money to rescue RBS, leading to the eventual resignation of former head Sir Fred Goodwin, who was replaced by Hester.

Hester was given a brief to restructure RBS and restore its fortunes, and the bank has cut more than 30,000 jobs under him.

Like many banks, RBS's share price has fallen sharply over the last year, which again made Hester's bonus hard to justify.

Britain aims to sell its state holdings in RBS and Lloyds back to the private sector, although volatile markets have meant the timing of any disposal is uncertain.

(Editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/bs_nm/us_rbs_ceo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

?

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

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

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UN nuclear inspection gets under way in Iran (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? U.N. nuclear inspectors began a critical mission to Iran on Sunday to probe allegations of a secret atomic weapons program amid escalating Western economic pressure and warnings about safeguarding Gulf oil shipments from possible Iranian blockades.

The findings from the three-day visit could greatly influence the direction and urgency of U.S.-led efforts to rein in Iran's ability to enrich uranium ? which Washington and allies fear could eventually produce weapons-grade material. Iran has declined to abandon its enrichment labs, but claims it only seeks to fuel reactors for energy and medical research.

The International Atomic Energy Agency team is likely to visit an underground enrichment site near the holy city of Qom, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Tehran, which is carved into a mountain as protection from possible airstrikes. Earlier this month, Iran said it had begun enrichment work at the site, which is far smaller than the country's main uranium labs but is reported to have more advanced equipment.

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 that it seeks nuclear warheads.

In unusually blunt comments ahead of his arrival, the IAEA's Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts ? who is in charge of the agency's Iran file ? said he wants Tehran to "engage us on all concerns."

Iran 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.

"So we're looking forward to the start of a dialogue," Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport. "A dialogue that is overdue since very long."

In a sign of 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.

Iranian state media allege that Roshan, a chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, was interviewed by IAEA inspectors before being killed earlier this month in a targeted bomb attack that Iran claims is part of an Israeli-led covert campaign of sabotage and slayings. Roshan was at least the fourth member of Iran's scientific community to be killed in apparent assassinations.

In Vienna, the IAEA said it does not know Roshan and has never talked to him.

But the IAEA team will be looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of working on a weapons program. They also plan to inspect documents related to nuclear work and secure commitments from Iranian authorities to allow future visits. It's unclear how much assistance Iran will provide, 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.

Iran also 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.

The visit was to coincide with a vote in Iran's parliament on a bill that would require the government to immediately cut the flow of crude oil to Europe in retaliation for sanctions. Lawmakers postponed the vote Sunday to further study the bill, and no date for a vote has been set.

The draft bill is Iran's response to an EU decision last week to impose an embargo on Iranian oil. The measure is set to take full effect in July.

The head of Iran's state oil company said Sunday that pressures on Iran's oil exports ? the second biggest in OPEC ? could drive prices as high as $150 a barrel.

"It seems we will witness prices from $120 to $150 in the future," Ahmad Qalehbani was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. He did not give a timeframe for the prediction, nor any other details.

The price of benchmark U.S. crude on Friday was around $99.56 per barrel. About 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenue comes from exporting around 2.2 million barrels of oil per day.

Oil prices have been driven higher in recent weeks by Iran's warnings that it could block the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, the route for about one-fifth of the world's oil. Last week, the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, joined by French and British warships, entered the Gulf in a show of strength against any attempts to disrupt oil tanker traffic.

___

Associated Press writer George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.

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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Greece, creditors laboriously piece together debt deal (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) ? Greece and its private creditors head back to the negotiating table on Saturday to put together the final pieces of a long-awaited debt swap agreement needed to avert an unruly default.

After weeks of muddling through round after round of inconclusive talks, the negotiations appear to be in their final phase, with both sides hoping to secure a preliminary deal before Monday's European Union summit.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was expected to meet bankers' chief negotiator Charles Dallara at around 1330 GMT (8:30 a.m. EST) on Saturday, before meeting inspectors from the "troika" of foreign lenders pressing Athens to step up painful reforms.

"Today will be another tough day," said George Karatzaferis, leader of the far-right LAOS party, one of three parties in Papademos's emergency coalition government. "We will see whether we can bear the burden that lies ahead."

The debt swap, in which private creditors are to take a 50 percent cut in the nominal value of their Greek bond holdings in exchange for cash and new bonds, is a prerequisite for the country to secure a 130-billion-euro rescue package.

Papademos told Reuters in an interview on Friday he expected the debt talks to be concluded within days.

"We made significant progress over the last few weeks and in the last few days in particular. We are trying to conclude the discussions as quickly as possible. I am quite optimistic an agreement will be reached in the coming days," he said.

But concern has grown that the deal may not do enough to get the country's debt reduction plan back on track, and that Greece's European partners will be forced to stump up funds to cover the shortfall.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday that Greece's international lenders thought Athens would need 145 billion euros of public money from the euro zone for its second bailout rather than the planned 130 billion euros.

The magazine said the extra money was needed because of the deteriorating economic situation in Greece, echoing a Reuters report on Thursday.

Athens also faces problematic talks with the "troika" of foreign lenders - the European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank - who have warned it needs to do more to drive through painful reforms before they dole out any more money.

"It's all very dense, difficult and crucial," a Greek finance ministry official said. "There is optimism because the country needs to survive and we need to protect its citizens because they have suffered a lot."

Athens and its creditors have broadly agreed that new bonds under the swap would probably have a 30-year maturity and a progressive interest rate. The deal is aimed at chopping 100 billion euros off Greece's crushing 350-billion-euro debt load.

But they have wrangled for weeks over the interest rate Greece must pay on the new bonds and pressure has grown in recent days on the European Central Bank and other public creditors to accept a cut in the value of their Greek bond holdings like the private sector creditors.

A debt deal must be sealed in about three weeks as Greece has to repay 14.5 billion euros of debt on March 20. Otherwise Greece will sink into an uncontrolled default that might spread turmoil across the euro zone.

Papademos promised on Friday this would not happen. "Greece will not default," he said.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Saturday that euro zone members were making progress to overcome their crisis but must do more to strengthen their financial firewall, adding that the IMF was ready to help.

"There is progress as we see it," Lagarde told a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"But it is critical that the euro zone members actually develop a clear, simple, firewall that can operate both to limit the contagion and to provide this sort of act of trust in the euro zone so that the financing needs of that zone can actually be met."

Senior euro zone officials have expressed optimism on the Greek debt deal, though previous predictions of an imminent agreement have failed to become reality.

Greece is in its fifth year of recession, and hopes of an end to the crisis in the near term have virtually gone, because of the combination of squabbling politicians, rising social anger and its inability to get its debt load under control.

Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday.

Greece said such a move was out of the question, adding that a similar proposal had been made in the past by a Dutch minister without getting anywhere.

"There is no way we would accept such a thing," a Greek government official told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou, Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_greece

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NBC asks Romney to remove news material from ad (AP)

WASHINGTON ? NBC asked GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Saturday to pull a campaign advertisement made up almost entirely of a 1997 "Nightly News" report on Newt Gingrich's ethics committee reprimand.

The "History Lesson" ad started running in Florida on the weekend, when it is harder for stations to switch ad traffic even if they want to. Broadcast days before Tuesday's primary, the ad shows NBC anchor Tom Brokaw saying that some of Gingrich's House colleagues had raised questions about the then-speaker's "future effectiveness."

Under Brokaw's image is a line that reads ? "Paid for by Romney for President, Approved by Mitt Romney."

NBC spokeswoman Lauren Kapp says the network's legal department sent the Romney campaign a letter asking for the removal of all NBC News material from its ads. A similar request went to other campaigns that "have inappropriately" used material from "Nightly News," "Meet the Press," "Today" and MSNBC. Kapp said she was not aware of such uses by other campaigns.

NBC did not immediately respond to a request for a copy of the letter.

Romney spokesman Rick Gorka says the campaign hasn't received formal notification from NBC and had no immediate comment.

Brokaw said in a statement released by NBC that he was "extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad. I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign."

Brokaw stepped down in 2004 after 21 years as anchor and managing editor of "Nightly News," but continues to report for the network.

The House ethics panel investigated Gingrich's use of tax-exempt organizations. The case ended in January 1997 with a reprimand by the House and a $300,000 penalty against Gingrich for misleading the committee and prolonging its investigation.

Romney has sought the release of all records from the probe. The committee did make public its final report as well as exhibits ? which amounted to a comprehensive account of its findings. The head of the ethics committee during the Gingrich investigation, former Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson, said the committee traditionally does not publicly release investigative documents.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_ad

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No crowing from Donovan after win against Dempsey

Everton's Landon Donovan, left, shakes hands with Fulham's Clint Dempsey before their FA Cup fourth round soccer match at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)

Everton's Landon Donovan, left, shakes hands with Fulham's Clint Dempsey before their FA Cup fourth round soccer match at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)

Everton's Landon Donovan, left, shakes hands with Fulham's Clint Dempsey before their FA Cup fourth round soccer match at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)

Everton's Landon Donovan vies for the ball against Fulham's Bryan Ruiz, left, during their FA Cup fourth round soccer match at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)

Everton's Landon Donovan, right, vies for the ball against Fulham's Clint Dempsey during their FA Cup fourth round soccer match at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) ? There was no crowing from Landon Donovan after he led his Everton side to victory over Clint Dempsey's Fulham in England's FA Cup.

After all, the U.S. teammates will be on the same side again soon enough.

Donovan set up both Everton's goals in Friday night's 2-1 win and United States international Tim Howard was in goal for Everton.

The former New England Revolution forward has scored 15 goals for Fulham since August, including a hat trick earlier this month in a 5-2 win over Newcastle.

"It was a little bit of an American invasion. It was nice to see Clint. In my opinion, he's been one of the players of the season in the Premier League and obviously Timmy here is nice to have."

Fulham took an early 1-0 lead against Everton when Danny Murphy converted a 14th-minute penalty.

But Donovan, in the sixth game of his second loan spell from Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy, set up a 27th-minute equalizer for Denis Stracqualursi and then provided the assist for Marouane Fellaini's 73rd-minute winner.

It was a rare bright spot for Everton this season, which is in the bottom half of the Premier League, closer to the relegation zone than to England's last qualifying spot for European tournaments.

"Realistically, unless we go on some kind of amazing run, it's going to be difficult for us to finish in the top six and qualify for Europe so this is our last chance to win something," Donovan said. "It means a lot to the guys."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-28-SOC-Everton-Donovan/id-f5592c7cc7334c86918e623cc5dfad19

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Holocaust remembered across the world

ITN's Sue Saville reports.

Updated 5:20 p.m. ET: The world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday with a promise never to forget the genocide at?Auschwitz during World War II.

Friday was the 67th anniversary of the Nazi camp's liberation by Soviet troops. Jan. 27 was designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations in 2005, and marked with ceremonies across Europe.

In Poland, Kazimierz Smolen, a 91-year-old Auschwitz survivor who after World War II became director of the memorial site, died Friday on the anniversary of its liberation.

Smolen died in a hospital in Oswiecim, the southern Polish town where Nazi Germany operated Auschwitz-Birkenau during World War II, said Pawel Sawicki, a spokesman for the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum.

Sawicki said soon after Smolen's death the news was announced to Holocaust survivors who had gathered at the vast site of dilapidated barracks still enclosed in barbed-wire fencing, The Associated Press reported. They fell silent for a minute in his honor.

Smolen was born on April 19, 1920, in the southern Polish town of Chorzow Stary. He was a Pole involved in the anti-Nazi resistance who was arrested by the Germans in April 1941 and taken to Auschwitz in one of the early mass shipments of prisoners there. He left the camp on the last transport of prisoners evacuated by the Germans on Jan. 18, 1945, nine days before its liberation. He later attributed his survival to good health and extreme luck.

He once explained his decision to return to the camp to manage it as a way of honoring those who were killed there.

"Sometimes when I think about it, I feel it may be some kind of sacrifice, some kind of obligation I have for having survived," he said.

In other gestures of remembrance, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg apologized for his nation's role in arresting and deporting Jews after it was invaded by Nazi Germany. During the war, 772 Norwegian Jews and Jewish refugees were deported to Germany. Only 34 survived.

He said it's time the nation acknowledges that politicians and other Norwegians took part and expressed "our deep regrets that this could have happened on Norwegian soil." He spoke at a ceremony in Oslo attended by the last surviving Jew in a group of 532 deported from Norway in 1942.

In Turkey, state television on Thursday broadcast the epic French documentary "Shoah," about the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime. It was the first time the film has been aired on public television in a predominantly Muslim country.

"It is a historical event," filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, 87, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his home in Paris. "It is extremely important that it is being shown in a Muslim country."

Germany's Parliament also gathered Friday for a special sitting to remember the Holocaust.

Prominent survivor and literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki recalled how the Nazi SS informed members of the Warsaw ghetto's Jewish council in July 1942 of plans for the inhabitants' "resettlement" to the east.

Reich-Ranicki, 91, recounted how a "deathly silence" was followed by uproar. He said those present "seemed to sense what had happened: that the sentence had been pronounced for the biggest Jewish city in Europe. The death sentence."

The Nazis set up the Warsaw ghetto in November 1940, cramming hundreds of thousands of Jews into inhuman conditions. Most who survived disease and starvation in the ghetto were transported to death camps.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10252029-holocaust-remembered-across-the-world

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Duncan: Pay great teachers $150K (Politico)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday that the starting salaries of teachers should double, up to $65,000 a year, and that excellent teachers should be able to make up to $150,000.

?I?ve been very radical on this. I think that young teachers, we should double their salaries [to] $60,000, $65,000. I think that great teachers should be able to make $130,000, $140,000, $150,000 - pick a number,? said Duncan on MSNBC?s ?Morning Joe.?

Continue Reading

Duncan suggested those figures while responding to a question about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg?s proposal that high-performing teachers should be eligible for $20,000 bonuses.

Both base-pay increases and bonuses were necessary, he said.

?I think we need to raise the base pay [and be eligible for bonuses], I think teachers should be able to make a lot more money based on the difference they?re making in students? lives, and willingness to take on tough assignments,? he said.

The education secretary - speaking ahead of remarks by President Barack Obama at the University of Michigan on tuition affordability - said that higher wages were necessary to attract good teachers, especially with the baby boomer generation retiring.

?We have to recognize and reward excellence. We have to recruit the next generation of teachers into our nation?s classrooms, with the baby boom generation retiring. The right way to do that is offer more pay and asking more of them as well,? he said.

Duncan said that teachers have too-often been the target for criticisms about the education system.

?We have beaten down educators. We have to elevate the profession, strengthen the profession. Great teachers, great principals make a huge difference in our nation?s children,? said the education secretary.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories0112_72077_html/44327060/SIG=11muh10kg/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72077.html

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99% A Separation

All Critics (87) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (1) | DVD (2)

Asghar Farhadi's emotionally epic movie is not just a masterpiece dramatically, it is a movie dramatically of its moment.

It's small. It's real. And it's deeply moving.

This is a trenchant emotional thriller that you watch in dread, awe, and amazing aggravation.

Some films wear their artistry so lightly they appear simply to be happening, the inner workings of the story guided by an unseen hand.

The film involves its audience in an unusually direct way, because although we can see the logic of everyone's position, our emotions often disagree.

This is primarily a human story about a marriage unraveling, the husband torn between love for his daughter and devotion to his father, the daughter torn between one parent and the other.

Sometimes, in an attempt to do the best we can for the people we love, we end up wreaking irreparable damage.

[The film] puts us in the uncomfortable role of the adjudicator.

Culturally specific but universally relatable, this slowly escalating Iranian drama boasts incredibly impressive motivational clarity.

For all the stifled truths of its characters, Farhadi's film feels like a gust of brisk air.

...like being caught in a barbed-wire fence of ethical dilemmas.

Feels like a peek through a neighbor's window.

The progressively tedious atmosphere ultimately prevents the film's final scenes from making any real emotional impact...

Estabelece definitivamente Asghar Farhadi como um dos diretores mais consistentes e fascinantes do Cinema contempor?neo.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_separation_2011/

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Twitter to censor tweets in individual countries

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Twitter has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis.

The additional flexibility is likely to raise fears that Twitter's commitment to free speech may be weakening. It comes as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money.

But Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or "tweets," remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a maze of different laws around the world.

Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweets containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.

Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-26-Twitter-Censorship/id-d3741cbf56a04d6eaca6521ec6fa8645

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No Spiders Were Harmed in the Making of This Golden Silk Cape [Clothes]

The problem with silkworms is that they're single-serving workers—each worm only makes one cocoon. But spiders! Spiders are a renewable silky resource with each one capable of being "milked" of its thread every week. This incredible cape is comprised of the silk from more than a million wild Golden Orb spiders. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Prrg17dyb2U/no-spiders-were-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-golden-silk-cape

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44% of iPhone apps lose revenue during sale

Distimo released an interesting report today that examined the overall effects of different app promotions across the iPhone and iPad App Store, as well as the Android Market.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/TvXzrtT8lUU/story01.htm

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Pentagon: Army, Marines to shrink as budget slows (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Pentagon outlined a plan Thursday for slowing the growth of military spending, including cutting the size of the Army and Marine Corps, retiring older planes and trimming war costs. It drew quick criticism from Republicans, signaling the difficulty of scaling back defense budgets in an election year.

The changes Defense Secretary Leon Panetta described at a news conference are numerous but hardly dramatic. They aim to save money by delaying some big-ticket weapons like a next-generation nuclear-armed submarine, but the basic shape and structure of the military remains the same.

The Army would shrink from a peak of 570,000 to 490,000 within five years, and the Marines would drop by 20,000, to 182,000. Those are considerable declines, but both services will still be slightly larger than on 9/11, before they began a decade of war. Both will keep their footholds abroad, although the Army will decrease its presence in Europe and the Marines plan to increase theirs in Asia.

Panetta said the administration will ask Congress for $525 billion to run the Pentagon in 2013 ? $6 billion less than the current budget. War costs, which are not considered part of the base budget, would decline from $115 billion to $88 billion, reflecting the completion of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

The base budget would then increase in each year of the Pentagon's five-year plan, reaching $567 billion in 2017. A year ago the Pentagon had projected 2017 spending to reach $622 billion. The Pentagon counts those reductions in projected future spending as "defense savings."

When Obama took office in January 2009 the Pentagon's base budget was $513 billion. In 2001 it was $297 billion.

Under a budget deficit-cutting deal Congress made last summer, the Pentagon is committed to reducing projected spending by $487 billion over the next 10 years. The plan Panetta presented Thursday covers the first five years of that span and would cut a cumulative total of $259 billion in planned spending.

"We believe this is a balanced and complete package," Panetta said.

In a bid to pre-empt election-year Republican criticism, Panetta said the plan begins to shift the Pentagon's focus from the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to future challenges in Asia, the Mideast and in cyberspace. More special operations forces like the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden will be available around the world, he said, and the Pentagon will stress improvements in cyberdefenses.

Republicans were quick to pounce on the proposed Army and Marine Corps reductions.

"These cuts reflect President Obama's vision of an America that is weakened, not strengthened, by our men and women in uniform," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

McKeon voted for the bill last August that established the requirement for $487 billion in defense savings over five years.

"Taking us back to a pre-9/11 military force structure places our country in grave danger," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold hearings on the Pentagon budget plan.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the Panetta plan "ignores the lessons of history." He said it provides for a military that is "too small to respond effectively to events that may unfold over the next few years."

The military's top general, however, defended the administration's approach. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is convinced that the risks raised by cutting the size of the military are manageable. He said failing to make these changes would have meant even bigger risks.

"This budget is a first step ? it's a down payment ? as we transition from an emphasis on today's wars to preparing for future challenges," he said, adding, "This budget does not lead to a military in decline."

Among other details Panetta disclosed:

--The Air Force would retire some older planes including about two dozen C-5A cargo aircraft and 65 of its oldest C-130 cargo planes.

-- The Navy would keep a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers but retire seven cruisers earlier than planned. It also would delay purchase of some other ships, including a new Virginia-class submarine.

--Purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets, to be fielded by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, would be slowed.

--Current plans for building a new generation of submarines that carry long-range nuclear missiles would be delayed by two years. The current fleet of nuclear-capable bombers and land-based nuclear missiles would be left unchanged.

--Military pay raises will remain on track until 2015, when the pace of increase will be slowed by an undetermined amount.

--Obama will ask Congress to approve a new round of domestic base closures, although the timing of this was left vague and there is little chance that lawmakers would agree to this in a presidential election year.

The defense spending plan is scheduled to be submitted to Congress as part of the administration's full 2013 budget on Feb. 13.

The defense budget is being reshaped in the midst of a presidential contest in which Obama seeks to portray himself as a forward-looking commander in chief focusing on new security threats. Republicans want to cast him as weak on defense.

Obama has highlighted his national security successes ? the killing of bin Laden, the death of other senior al-Qaida leaders and the demise of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi ? to counter Republican criticism. He also has emphasized the completion of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq and the start of a drawdown in Afghanistan as turning points that offer new opportunities to scale back defense spending.

But several congressional Republicans see a political opening in challenging the reductions in projected military spending that the GOP and Obama agreed to last summer as part of a deal to raise the nation's borrowing authority. They've echoed Obama's potential presidential rivals Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who plead for fiscal austerity but contend that sizable cuts would gut the military.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Lolita C. Baldor and Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

___

Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_defense_budget

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Lindsay Lohan Sued After Car Crash With Nanny

Actress allegedly hit Nubia Del Carmen Preza back in 2010 when the nanny was pushing a stroller across the road.
By Kara Warner

Lindsay Lohan
Photo: Getty Images

Lindsay Lohan can't stay out of the headlines for more than a few weeks. The problem-plagued actress has been sued by a woman claiming Lohan hit her with her car.

According to TMZ, the accident occurred way back in September 2010, when Lohan was reportedly seen running a red light in West Hollywood, California, and hit a nanny, Nubia Del Carmen Preza, who was pushing a stroller across the intersection.

A witness, Brayan Jaime — who was an aspiring paparazzi photographer at the time of the hit-and-run — told the website the accident was a "major hit." He claims he saw the bumper of Lohan's sports car hit Preza in the leg and lift three of the stroller's four wheels into the air on impact.

Jaime also said he heard crying but that the child didn't appear to have been injured; he didn't comment on Preza's condition. When asked why he didn't immediately call the police after witnessing the crash, Jaime said he didn't have a good reason. "I should have. I'm not sure," he told TMZ. "I didn't want to get involved."

There was talk that Jaime and another fellow paparazzo managed to capture video of the incident, but nothing has surfaced yet. Perhaps the filing of the lawsuit will change that.

Preza has reportedly filed for unspecified damages in her suit. There is no word on whether Preza sustained any lasting injuries from the crash or why she didn't immediately file the lawsuit or police charges against Lohan at the time.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677925/lindsay-lohan-sued-car-crash.jhtml

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Britain ranks top risks posed by climate change

LONDON (AP) ? Coastlines, working patterns, and even the country's most famous meal are under threat from climate change, Britain said Thursday in its first-ever national assessment of the likely risks.

The 2.8 million pound ($4.4 million) study sets out the most pressing problems expected to affect the United Kingdom as a result of climate change, from rising sea levels to more frequent summer droughts.

In a gloomy forecast for Britain's environment department, a panel of independent analysts predicted as many as 5,900 more people could die as a result of hotter summers ? but also claimed there will be a sharp reduction in deaths currently due to cold weather by the 2050s.

Infrastructure and businesses will be badly affected by more frequent floods, with the cost of damage likely to rise from 1.3 billion pounds ($2 billion) to as much as 12 billion pounds ($18.8 billion) by the 2080s, if adequate preparations aren't taken.

By the 2050s, between 27 million and 59 million people in Britain are likely to be living in areas suffering problems with water supplies, the report claims. Britain is predicted to have a population of about 77 million by 2050.

Beaches and historic coastlines are likely to be reshaped by coastal erosion, with the rate expected to increase fourfold, the report said. "This might have significant implications for communities and habitats," it said.

Analysts predict an increase in the overheating of workplaces which would harm businesses by reducing employee productivity and increasing energy bills, because of a greater reliance on air conditioning.

Without alteration work, sewers will overflow more frequently and spill pollution into seas and rivers, while heavier rainfall is likely to cause frequent damage to roads, railway tracks and bridges.

The report also warned that Britain's stocks of cod ? a key component of the nation's beloved fish and chips ? will dwindle, but should be replaced by more plentiful numbers of fish such as plaice and sole.

However, the study also points out possible benefits to Britain. It notes that there will likely be better yields for crops of wheat, sugar beet and potatoes, that the melting of Arctic sea ice will open quicker shipping routes and that warmer temperatures will make the U.K. a more attractive tourist destination.

"Without an effective plan to prepare for the risks from climate change the country may sleepwalk into disaster," said John Krebs, chairman of a group that advises Britain's government on adapting to climate change.

Britain has pledged to cut its carbon emissions in half by 2025, though the target could be loosened if other European countries fail to cut their own emissions accordingly.

The U.K. has a legally mandated commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2030, and 80 percent by 2050.

Analysts who drafted the report said other nations likely face more significant challenges than Britain in coping with the impact of a changing climate.

"Potential climate risks in other parts of the world are thought to be much greater than those directly affecting the U.K., but could have a significant indirect impact here ... on global health, political stability and international supply chains," the report said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-01-26-EU-Britain-Climate-Change/id-3848e91ceeba48b6916b3a1c1e2ea9fe

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'The Artist' star speaks of silent-film challenge (omg!)

PARIS (AP) ? The French star of "The Artist" says its cast and crew knew their challenge by doing a silent, black-and-white film that broke many rules of movies today ? a bet that paid off with 10 Oscar nominations.

After the Academy Award nominations were announced Tuesday ? including one for him as best actor ? Jean Dujardin expressed stupefaction, humility and the difficulties in keeping a cool head amid his new stardom.

"It's a silent film, but boy are people talking about it!" said Dujardin, laughing during an interview on a white sofa at a posh hotel near Paris' Arc de Triomphe.

"The Artist," a love story that tells of the ups and downs faced by a Hollywood silent film star at the advent of talkies, reaped the second-most Oscar nominations after 11 for Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo."

French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius was nominated for writing and directing, and his wife, Berenice Bejo, won a nod in the supporting-actress category. Producer Thomas Lansmann is the son of late filmmaker Claude Berri, ne Lansmann, who produced Best Picture nominee "Tess" in 1981.

The film pays tribute to the early days of Hollywood, and while French, it sought to transcend both nationalities and ? as silent film ? languages.

"There were no American actors, no French actors," Dujardin said in French, of a cast that included James Cameron and John Goodman. "There were only silent film actors together concentrating on the same project."

Dujardin, 39, is still working on his English ? and a language coach broke in at times to help translate ? so he said a silent film was about his only way into Hollywood.

"There was an excitement to do a film that's a bit forbidden because in 2011, nobody does a silent, black-and-white film: 'It doesn't fit the economy, it's not possible.'" Dujardin said. "Well yes, it is possible."

With the nominations, could "The Artist" be for reviving silent film what "Avatar" did for 3D?

"I'm not sure there will be a trend of silent movies, but you never know," said Hazanavicius in a separate interview.

The film shot in Los Angeles wasn't meant to "change the face of the industry," the director said, but because "I thought it could be a good movie, and I took my chances."

On top of successes for the movie at the Cannes Film Festival, where Dujardin won best actor, and leading the Golden Globes with three wins this month, Hazanavicius senses his gamble has paid off.

"I really think I'm the happiest director in the world right now," he said. "Maybe not the happiest man in the world ? but the happiest director, that's for sure."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_artist_star_speaks_silent_film_challenge181539459/44288415/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/artist-star-speaks-silent-film-challenge-181539459.html

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Severe storms drench Texas, at least 3 tornadoes (AP)

HOUSTON ? Heavy rain and powerful winds that likely spawned tornadoes have swept across Texas, forcing drivers to abandon cars on flooded roads but not dropping enough water to make up for the state's historic drought.

Storms pounded Dallas and Fort Worth overnight. At dawn Wednesday, rescue workers checked to make sure people weren't stuck in cars stranded in windshield-high water.

Record rainfall drenched the Austin area, which last summer suffered the most devastating wildfires in Texas history.

The National Weather Service is working to confirm at least three tornadoes touched down, damaging homes and businesses. No injuries were reported.

The downpour was celebrated in drought-stricken Washington County near Houston. Emergency management coordinator Robert Smith says the rural area's ranches finally have water and, "I think the cows are doing a jig."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_texas_storm

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Watch a Girl Use Just a Basketball to Paint a Portrait of Yao Ming [Video]

I like that balls with baskets game very much and enjoy the hell out of Yao Ming, so it's no surprise that I really like this picture of Yao Ming miraculously painted with JUST a basketball. That's it! No brushes, no nothing. Just a basketball dipped in red paint, a few swipes and a lot of dribbles. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ba5StlwS0qY/watch-a-girl-paint-a-picture-of-yao-ming-with-only-a-basketball

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'Co-Occurring' Disorders May Explain Change in Autism Diagnosis (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Many children with autism also have other developmental or psychiatric conditions, including learning disabilities, speech delays, attention or seizure disorders and anxiety.

According to new research, some of those co-occurring conditions may explain why autism diagnoses often change as children get older.

In a survey by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, more than one-third of parents with children between 6 and 17 years old reported that their child's diagnosis of autism had changed over time.

"We don't know what changed the diagnosis. However, we want to deliver the message that it's important to look at the other coexisting conditions, evaluate them before you make a diagnosis, and also recognize these conditions vary by development age," said study author Li-Ching Lee, an associate scientist in the epidemiology and mental health departments at the School of Public Health.

Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by problems with social interaction, communication and restricted interests and behaviors.

In the study, researchers used 2007-2008 survey data from the parents of nearly 1,400 children aged 3 to 17 who had received a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including autism, Asperger disorder -- a mild form of autism, and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified.

Parents were asked if their child currently had a diagnosis of autism or an ASD, or had had one in the past.

Nearly 26 percent of parents of children aged 3 to 5 reported a change in diagnosis, the researchers said. Nearly 34 percent of parents of children aged 6 to 11 and 35 percent of the parents of 12- to 17-year-olds reported their child was diagnosed with autism at some point but no longer was considered to have autism, the researchers found.

Overall, children with two or more co-occurring developmental or psychiatric conditions were five times more likely than kids with fewer coexisting conditions to continue to have an autism diagnosis, the researchers said.

Kids who had a moderate-to-severe learning disability were 11 times more likely to continue to have an autism diagnosis over time, while kids with a developmental delay were nine times more likely to retain an autism diagnosis, the study authors said.

Researchers didn't look at why certain conditions are associated with a change in autism diagnosis. But some of the symptoms of various development and psychiatric conditions can overlap, so it's possible that having certain ones can lead to a misdiagnosis until the child gets older and their issues become more clear, according to the study.

For example, kids diagnosed with a hearing problem showed a tendency to "lose" their autism diagnosis over time. Researchers speculated that behaviors that initially resembled autism symptoms -- not responding or not engaging -- were later discovered to stem from impaired hearing.

The study is published in the February issue of Pediatrics.

Dr. Joseph Horrigan, assistant vice president and head of medical research for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, cautioned not to make too much of the findings. The children weren't actually followed over time, nor were they actually examined, a methodology that would be the "gold standard" of research.

Because the results were based on a telephone survey, Horrigan said, "I'd be a little cautious about over-interpreting whether this means there's likely to be change in an autism diagnosis or a loss of an autism diagnosis for a given individual."

Nor did researchers look at kids whose diagnosis went the other way -- that is, they were initially not diagnosed with autism but were later diagnosed with it.

However, the findings highlight how often kids with ASD experience other conditions, some of which may be treatable with medications or with educational interventions. These include anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, epilepsy and learning disabilities.

"Up until the recent past, there's been a tendency to spend most of the time and energy on the autism and the autism diagnosis, and thinking about a treatment package that's keyed directly to the autism," Horrigan said. "What's important here is they are highlighting some of the most common co-occurring disorders, a number of which are readily amenable to treatments."

An estimated one in 110 U.S. children -- many more boys than girls -- has autism, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more on autism.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120124/hl_hsn/cooccurringdisordersmayexplainchangeinautismdiagnosis

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