Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193460356?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Madonna feels kinship with vilified Wallis Simpson (omg!)
(Reuters) - Madonna says it's pretty obvious why she was drawn to the story of Wallis Simpson -- the American divorcee who was vilified for persuading a British king to give up his throne in order to marry her.
The sometimes prickly pop superstar said she had been fascinated for years by Simpson before deciding to write and direct her second film, "W.E", which opens widely in U.S. movie theaters on Friday.
The movie chronicles the romance and 1930s marriage of King Edward VIII and Simpson, who were shunned by British society after Edward renounced the throne to be with her.
"I could understand a lot of aspects of Wallis Simpson's life, having people ... view you from the outside, make judgments about you, have opinions about you, write things about you that are untrue - and not feel like you are able to defend yourself, that sometimes kind of makes you feel helpless," Madonna, 53, told Reuters Television in an interview.
"She didn't commit a crime, she fell in love ... She says in the film, 'If you do this, if we get married, I will be the most hated woman in the world,' and she was .... Obviously I can relate to her life on certain levels. I think that a lot of people who are public figures have the same experience," Madonna said.
Madonna, who moved to England during her second marriage, to British director Guy Ritchie, said she too has made sacrifices for love.
"Whether you move to another country and you give up your roots, or when you have children -- you love your children, but you have to give up say your free time, your sleep. So I think we are in the process of making those sacrifices for love on a daily basis if we're in relationships or if we have children," she said.
"W.E" stars Abbie Cornish as a New Yorker in the 1990s who becomes infatuated with the marriage between Edward and Simpson who is played by Andrea Riseborough.
The film has been characterized by movie critics as visually stunning but lacking in focus. But Madonna won the best original movie song Golden Globe in January for "Masterpiece" from the "W.E" soundtrack.
The first song from her new album "MDNA," which marks her return to music after focusing on the movie, is set to be released on Friday. Called "Give Me All Your Luvin," it features Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.
Madonna will be also performing on Sunday in the half-time show at the National Football League Super Bowl -- the biggest television and sporting event of the year in the United States.
(Reporting by Alicia Powell; Writing by Jill Serjeant)
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Podio Adds New Languages As It Scales Internationally
We first reviewed online workspace startup Podio on its launch in March last year, and it looked pretty promising. A little like Box.net or 37Signals, Podio is closer to a more sophisticated Yammer, with lots of customising possible via its own internal 'app' store. Today it launches in two new language, Brazilian Portuguese and Italian, adding to its existing English, German, French, Danish and Spanish translations. Spilt between San Francisco and Copenhagen offices, Podio is now in use in 170 countries so, as CEO Tommy Ahlers says, the translations now make a lot of sense. Though you would think Chinese might also be a good addition?Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/neeHTl3k8bI/
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Paul says he has no intention of dropping out (AP)
GORHAM, Maine ? Ron Paul said Saturday the Republican presidential race has "a ways to go" and he doesn't intend to get out or get behind another candidate anytime soon.
The Texas congressman was campaigning Saturday in Maine, which holds caucuses beginning Feb. 4. He spoke to an overflow crowd at the University of Southern Maine and held an outdoor rally outside the famed L.L. Bean store in Freeport. He picked up the endorsement of Linda Bean, the granddaughter of the Bean company founder and a prominent Republican activist in the state.
Paul told reporters that it didn't make sense for him to campaign in Florida, which holds its primary Tuesday and awards all its 50 delegates to the winner. Polling indicates Mitt Romney is leading the field there.
"Some other campaigns have many, many millions of dollars to run a campaign," Paul said. "We maximize the delegates the way we're doing it."
Paul planned to campaign next week in other caucus states, including Nevada, which also holds its caucus on Feb. 4, and Colorado and Minnesota, which hold caucuses Feb. 7.
Paul dismissed suggestions he would back any of his GOP rivals.
"I think that's premature. We have a ways to go," Paul said, adding he was glad they were speaking favorably about some of his libertarian-leaning views.
"I'll work with anybody who wants to come in the direction of Constitutional government," Paul said.
He noted that Newt Gingrich had endorsed his views on monetary policy in a nationally televised debate this week. Paul has called for the Federal Reserve to be audited and ultimately eliminated, and wants the value of the dollar tied to gold.
Paul said he hoped the former House speaker and others would also adopt his noninterventionist foreign policy views, which are far outside the Republican Party mainstream.
"If he says `I agree with Ron Paul, we should bring the troops home from Afghanistan,' my ears would pop up," Paul said.
___
Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Video: Researchers show how viruses evolve, and in some cases, become deadly
Friday, January 27, 2012
In the current issue of Science, researchers at Michigan State University demonstrate how a new virus evolves, which sheds light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations.
The scientists showed for the first time how the virus called "Lambda" evolved to find a new way to attack host cells, an innovation that took four mutations to accomplish. This virus infects bacteria, in particular the common E. coli bacterium. Lambda isn't dangerous to humans, but this research demonstrated how viruses evolve complex and potentially deadly new traits, said Justin Meyer, MSU graduate student, who co-authored the paper with Richard Lenski, MSU Hannah Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.
"We were surprised at first to see Lambda evolve this new function, this ability to attack and enter the cell through a new receptor ? and it happened so fast," Meyer said. "But when we re-ran the evolution experiment, we saw the same thing happen over and over."
This paper follows recent news that scientists in the United States and the Netherlands produced a deadly version of bird flu. Even though bird flu is a mere five mutations away from becoming transmissible between humans, it's highly unlikely the virus could naturally obtain all of the beneficial mutations all at once. However, it might evolve sequentially, gaining benefits one-by-one, if conditions are favorable at each step, he added.Through research conducted at BEACON, MSU's National Science Foundation Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Meyer and his colleagues' ability to duplicate the results implied that adaptation by natural selection, or survival of the fittest, had an important role in the virus' evolution.
When the genomes of the adaptable virus were sequenced, they always had four mutations in common. The viruses that didn't evolve the new way of entering cells had some of the four mutations but never all four together, said Meyer, who holds the Barnett Rosenberg Fellowship in MSU's College of Natural Science.
"In other words, natural selection promoted the virus' evolution because the mutations helped them use both their old and new attacks," Meyer said. "The finding raises questions of whether the five bird flu mutations may also have multiple functions, and could they evolve naturally?"
###
National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov
Thanks to National Science Foundation for this article.
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91% Beauty and the Beast (In 3D)
All Critics (81) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (82) | Rotten (7) | DVD (36)
The greatest animated film ever made and one of the screen's great musicals hardly needs this (3D) sort of sprucing up.
What you gain in an extra, faked dimension you lose in lively, genuine beauty.
The 3-D pops out to enhance the drama or energy of scenes in which settings are large and integral to the action.
Some youthful memories are better not revisited, but this definitely isn't one of them. Sometimes you can go home again.
It is a surprise, in a time of sequels and retreads, that the new film is so fresh and altogether triumphant in its own right.
Despite some excessive narrative streamlining, this 1991 release was the best Disney animated feature in years, full of charm and humor.
Disney's gorgeous 1991 animated version of the classic fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" gets the same 3D treatment that was recently given to "The Lion King."
Watching this in a theater definitely makes it feel less like a "cartoon" and more like a significant film. Cogsworth poking Le Fou in the butt with a sword aside.
One of the brightest jewels in Disney's crown, Beauty and the Beast's 3D reissue takes nothing away and makes the film's brilliance even easier to appreciate; the movie is more beautiful and timeless than it ever was.
Beauty and the Beast is just as enchanting 20 years after its initial release.
The apex of an art form, a justly celebrated classic, and the best animated movie of any sort ever put on screen at any time.
The lines have begun to show in Belle's tale, which remains enjoyable but feels more like a quaint artifact than the masterpiece it once was declared to be.
Both TANGLED EVER AFTER and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST are sure to enthrall audiences everywhere, even if the 3D doesn't really add much of anything to this animated classic.
A serviceable version of a classic fairy tale minus that crucial touch of magic.
And it is a joy to revisit the timeless pleasures of traditional Disney storytelling, with no attempts to add sizzle from celebrity voice talent or radio-friendly pop songs.
3D doesn't downplay the inherent artistry of the effort, but it doesn't enhance anything outside of ticket prices.
Beauty and the Beast looks beautiful and is sure to entertain, but this experience is superfluous at best-it was already a three-dimensional story long before these new technics.
Better remembered than seen, Beauty and the Beast has been treated unkindly not just by the years that have passed since it was released to enormous acclaim in 1991, but by a faddish 3D conversion.
The 3D is unnecessary - but it doesn't spoil the fun of Beauty and the Beast.
The ultimate makeover story has strong, positive messages.
...an above average (yet far-from-flawless) animated endeavor.
More Critic ReviewsSource: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_1991/
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Anxiety in New Zealand as Chinese buy dairy farms (AP)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? Chinese investors are buying New Zealand farmland for the first time as economic ties with the Asian powerhouse grow ever deeper, sparking considerable anxiety in a country where livelihoods are heavily reliant on agriculture.
New Zealand's government Friday approved the sale of 16 dairy farms to a company controlled by the Shanghai Pengxin Group, run by wealthy property developer Jiang Zhaobai. Pengxin hasn't revealed how much it is paying but says its total investment will be more than 200 million New Zealand dollars ($164 million).
New Zealand's center-right Prime Minister John Key has defended the sale, pointing out that less than 1 percent of the country's farmland has been sold to foreign investors. The central North Island farms bought by Pengxin came up for sale after a bankruptcy and total about 7,900 hectares (20,000 acres).
But nationalist voices have lined up against the sale, saying it will open the floodgates to foreign ownership. A consortium of local farmers and businessmen led by merchant banker Sir Michael Fay are taking legal action to try and stop or reverse the sale, which is due to close next week, in hopes they can buy the land themselves at a cheaper price.
"Our New Zealand farmers will never be able to compete with the overseas guys with deep pockets," said consortium spokesman Alan McDonald. "The government has just declared open season on our farms."
Some commentators have suggested there is an element of xenophobia at play, after previous sales of New Zealand farmland to investors from the U.S. and Germany went ahead without much debate.
There is little doubt, however, that the prospects for New Zealand's economy and the prosperity of its 4.4 million people are increasingly tied to China.
In 2008, the two countries signed a free-trade agreement, the first such agreement China signed with a developed nation. China has overtaken the U.S. to become New Zealand's second-largest export market, behind only neighboring Australia, and by far its largest buyer of dairy products ? a commodity that makes up a fifth of New Zealand's export earnings. And the number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand has rapidly increased as well.
Xiaoming Huang, a professor of international relations at Victoria University, said the sale marks a turning point in the relationship between the two countries. He said Chinese officials had become concerned about the opposition to the sale in New Zealand and the time it took to finalize.
"We all understand it's a sensitive issue, politically and otherwise," said Huang.
He said China does have some strategic interest in securing energy and food supplies ? but doesn't think the sale of these particular farms reflects that.
"The farm is a very small amount of land from the Chinese point of view," he said. "It doesn't much matter for them, so I don't think it's part of some huge plot. I think the system itself is more fragmented than we think."
Huang said it's inevitable that Chinese investment in New Zealand will increase as the nation of 1.3 billion looks globally to deploy its growing wealth.
In New Zealand, rural land can be sold to overseas investors only with approval from a government agency which attempts to determine whether those investors are of good character and that their investment will benefit New Zealanders.
In buying the farms, Pengxin agreed to certain conditions, such as having its milk products processed by a New Zealand-owned company. Pengxin spokesman Cedric Allan said Pengxin also intends to have New Zealanders run and manage the farms.
Allan said a growing Chinese middle class is interested in consuming a diet filled with more protein and Western-style products such as yoghurt and cheese.
He said some Chinese are wary of consuming their own dairy products after some were found to be contaminated with the chemical compound melamine that killed at least six infants and sickened 300,000 children in 2008.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Argentine leader shows off scar after cancer scare (AP)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina ? Argentina's president joked about her cancer scare Wednesday, then responded harshly to the British prime minister's claims that her government has "colonialist" aims on the Falkland Islands.
Returning to work after what proved to be a false cancer diagnosis that prompted doctors to remove her thyroid, Cristina Fernandez showed off her scar during an animated address to her ministers that was broadcast nationwide.
Questions raised by the newspaper Clarin and other opposition media about her diagnosis and operation had prompted Fernandez to release her medical records, reinforcing what her doctors and outside experts said: She is among the 2 percent of patients who have their thyroids removed only to discover they never had cancer.
"I was going to come with a handkerchief because it doesn't look very aesthetic," she said, referring to a deep horizontal crease just above her collarbone that appears to have healed nicely during her 20-day medical leave.
"But I thought, if I cover it up with a handkerchief, tomorrow Clarin will say, 'This woman wasn't operated on,'" she joked. "You all know that aesthetics are very important to me, but I told myself, 'Sweetie, politics before style.'"
Fernandez's last public appearance had been Dec. 28, the day after her office announced the cancer diagnosis. Doctors removed the entire gland Jan. 4 after discovering several more lumps during surgery. Tests then showed the growths were benign.
Speaking for nearly an hour, she directed much of her discourse at British Prime Minister David Cameron, who angered Argentines while she was away by accusing them of having "colonialist" attitudes toward the Falklands.
"I heard they're calling us colonialist. ... One is always tempted to respond, but I think it's better to avoid it. When they say these things it's exactly because they don't have reasons or arguments," she said.
Argentina has called on Britain to negotiate the sovereignty of the remote South Atlantic archipelago it calls the Malvinas. Britain has maintained a military presence there since liberating the islands in 1982 from an ill-fated Argentine attempt to take them back.
Some British analysts have accused Argentines of saber-rattling as the 30th anniversary of that war nears, but Fernandez has insisted on a peaceful resolution.
On Wednesday, she took another step, announcing that she's making public the "Rattenbach Report," a long-secret analysis of Argentine leadership failures that called the war a "military adventure" and recommended criminal penalties for those responsible. The report was prepared in 1982, just before the end of Argentina's dictatorship, but was kept classified to keep anyone from being punished.
Fernandez sought to draw a clear line between what she called the militarism of other governments and the democracy she leads.
"Next year will mark 180 years since the usurpation by the government of United Kingdom, which threw out the Argentines who were there (on the islands). They want to make us out to be the bad and violent little ones, something we're not," she said.
She noted that there are more British people living in Buenos Aires than on the disputed islands, and praised the many British businesses located in Argentina. "I would advise Cameron to have a little talk with the executives of these businesses, so that they can tell him how we Argentines are."
Twice in recent days, pro-government protesters have been pushed back by riot police from the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, chanting and carrying signs demanding that Britain turn over the islands. Falklanders have responded that they have nothing in common with the Argentines and want to remain part of the British commonwealth.
___
Associated Press writer Michael Warren contributed to this report.
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In historic shift, Fed sets inflation target (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? The Federal Reserve took the historic step on Wednesday of setting an inflation target, of 2 percent, a victory for Chairman Ben Bernanke that brings the Fed in line with many of the world's other major central banks.
The central bank, in its first ever "longer-run goals and policy strategy" statement, said, however, it was not appropriate to adopt a fixed goal for employment because the level of unemployment that can be achieved without sparking inflation is not largely determined by monetary factors.
The inflation target is at the high end of what was traditionally seen as an informal target range of roughly 1.7 percent to 2 percent and caps Bernanke's crusade to improve communications at what for years had been purposefully opaque and secretive deliberations at the Fed.
The target aims to make the central bank more effective at controlling growth.
The Fed said the 2 percent target - measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures - is the most consistent over the long run with its mandate.
"Communicating this inflation goal clearly to the public helps keep longer-term inflation expectations firmly anchored, thereby fostering price stability and moderate long-term interest rates and enhancing the committee's ability to promote maximum employment in the face of significant economic disturbances," the Fed said.
Skeptics, particularly among congressional Democrats, have in the past worried that such an explicit inflation target would relegate the Fed's other congressionally set mandate, full employment, to the back burner.
But on Wednesday the Fed said policy decisions "must be informed by assessments of the maximum level of employment, recognizing that such assessments are necessarily uncertain and subject to revision."
TIMELY MOVE
While Bernanke, the plainspoken successor of Alan Greenspan, has touted a numerical inflation goal as a cornerstone of central bank best practices for years, the move on Wednesday was timely because it could help quell nagging doubts that the Fed's unprecedented easy money policies are setting the stage for a nasty bout of inflation.
The U.S. economy strengthened toward the end of last year, with the unemployment rate dropping to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent. If the rebound falters, the inflation target could help pave the way to more bond buying.
"I think this is a dovish move showing the Fed is concerned about deflation and is willing to target somewhat more inflation," said Eric Stein, portfolio manager at Eaton Vance in Boston, who characterized the inflation target as "a big deal."
Already, the Fed gives regular quarterly projections for inflation, widely seen as the informal target. It also gives quarterly projections for unemployment.
In the inflation projection given Wednesday, the Fed suggested prices were now rising at a pace consistent with policymakers' goals. As well, estimates of officials on the Fed's policy-setting panel had a central tendency of 5.2 percent to 6.0 percent for the long-run normal rate of unemployment, higher than prior years.
The Fed will reaffirm and "make adjustments as appropriate" to the long-term goals statement each January, it said.
The statement was released simultaneously with another first for the Fed: published charts of individual policymakers' projections for the appropriate path of the benchmark federal funds rate.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Ann Saphir and Karen Brettell; Editing by Padraic Cassidy and Leslie Adler)
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Hip Fracture Patients Often Have Other Health Problems (HealthDay)
MONDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Weight loss and malnutrition are among the medical conditions that increase treatment costs and the length of hospital stays for older adults with hip fractures, a new study finds.
More than 250,000 hip fractures occur each year in the United States, often resulting in hospitalization, surgery, extended periods of rehabilitation and/or long-term disability, and admission to a nursing home.
This study looked at coexisting medical conditions (comorbidities) that affect treatment costs and the length of hospitalization for hip fracture patients. The researchers examined 2007 hospital discharge data from 32,440 patients treated at more than 1,000 hospitals in 40 states. Nearly 80 percent of the patients were 75 or older and 72 percent were women.
Most of the patients had two or three comorbidities. Only about 5 percent had no other health conditions. High blood pressure affected 67 percent of the patients and was by far the most common comorbid condition.
Other comorbidities included: deficiency anemias (disorders caused by a lack of certain nutrients, such as iron or vitamin B12); fluid and electrolyte disorders; chronic lung diseases; diabetes; neurological disorders; hypothyroidism; and congestive heart failure.
The researchers found that comorbidities significantly increase treatment cost and length of hospital stay. Hip fracture patients who were very thin or malnourished had the greatest increased costs, following by those with pulmonary circulatory disorders that affect blood flow to and from the lungs.
Recent weight loss or malnutrition also had the greatest impact on hospitalization, increasing the length of hospital stay by 2.5 days. Hospital stays were about a day longer for patients with congestive heart failure or pulmonary circulation disorders.
Other comorbidities that lengthened hospital stay were fluid and electrolyte disorders, paralysis, and conditions contributing to blood clots.
The study was published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
Two major issues require further investigation, according to Dr. Kevin Black, one of the study authors and professor and chair of orthopedics and rehabilitation at Penn State College of Medicine.
"First, we need to better understand the total cost of caring for hip-fracture patients. Our study focused only on acute hospitalization, but care typically extends well beyond this, since many patients are discharged to rehabilitation and skilled-nursing facilities," Black said in a journal news release.
"Second, this study did not investigate the quality or outcomes of care. As our population ages, there is reason to believe that the number of hip fractures will increase. Having a better understanding of the comorbidities that affect hip-fracture patients hopefully will lead to the development of strategies to more effectively care for these patients."
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about hip fractures among older adults.
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Drop in Unemployment Shows Trend in Gaming
LAS VEGAS -- The state's unemployment rate dropped in December to 12.6 percent from 13 percent the month before. While that sounds high, it is an improvement over the year before when the jobless rate in Nevada was 14.9 percent.
The state economist says the drop in unemployment is partly because people have stopped looking for work and partly because the state added 3,500 jobs in December. Hospitality and food service saw the biggest drop in jobs. The clothing industry saw the biggest jump.
David Schwartz with the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV says the slight dip in the unemployment rate shows the trend in hiring at gaming companies.
"Basically, what we can look forward to is smaller increases which are going to be a lot steadier. Hopefully, they will be more stable as these places get healthy. They are not in danger of closing so you will not have us losing as many jobs, but you are also not going to have as many created," Schwartz said.
Schwartz says as long as southern Nevada continues to see visitor volume increase, hotels, casinos and restaurants will put people back to work to maintain their level of customer service. He says right now they are just doing what they can with less.
The jobless rate in Las Vegas was 12.7 percent. Reno's rate was 11.9 percent.
?
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
Source: http://www.8newsnow.com/story/16582827/state-sees-drop-in-unemployment
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos dies in accident (omg!)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Theo Angelopoulos, an award-winning Greek filmmaker known for his slow and dreamlike style as a director, was killed in a road accident Tuesday while working on his latest movie. He was 76.
Police and hospital officials said Angelopoulos suffered serious head injuries and died at a hospital after being hit by a motorcycle while walking across a road close to a movie set near Athens' main port of Piraeus.
The driver, also injured and hospitalized, was later identified as an off-duty police officer.
The accident occurred while Angelopoulos was working on his upcoming movie "The Other Sea."
Angelopoulos had won numerous awards for his movies, mostly at European film festivals, during a career that spanned more than 40 years.
In 1995, he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for "Ulysses' Gaze," starring American actor Harvey Keitel.
Three years later, he won the main prize at the festival, the Palme d'Or, for "Eternity and a Day," starring Swiss actor Bruno Ganz.
Born in Athens in 1935, Angelopoulos lived through the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II and the ensuing 1946-49 Greek Civil War ? recurring themes in his early films.
He studied law at Athens University, but eventually lost interest and moved to France where he studied film at the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris.
After returning to Greece, he worked as a film critic for a small, left-wing newspaper and started to make films during the 1967-74 dictatorship.
Described as mild-mannered but uncompromising, Angelopoulos' often sad and slow-moving films mostly dealt with issues from Greece's turbulent recent history: war, exile, immigration and political division.
It was not until 1984 with "Voyage to Kythera" that his scripts were written in collaboration with others.
Angelopoulos mostly attracted art-house audiences, using established actors including Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau in two of his most widely acclaimed films, "The Bee Keeper" and "The Suspended Stride of the Stalk."
Bleak landscapes, the slow editing pace, and the long spells without any dialogue, common in Angelopoulos movies did not always please filmgoers or critics.
The American film critic Roger Ebert wrote of "Ulysses' Gaze": "There is a temptation to give 'Ulysses' Gaze' the benefit of the doubt: To praise it for its vision, its daring, its courage, its great length. But I would not be able to look you in the eye if you went to see it, because how could I deny that it is a numbing bore?"
In a rare television interview last year, Angelopoulos said his next film was to be about Greece's major financial crisis, and he publicly called on rival political parties to work together to try and ease the hardships facing many Greeks.
"I remain a leftist in total confusion," he told state-run NET television, in the interview given several months before the country's two main rival political parties agreed to form a coalition government.
"This is an emergency situation. We must realize this. So we must all examine what can be done ? the left and right. This is my plea," he said.
"I am afraid of what tomorrow will bring."
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Tracy Morgan of '30 Rock' out of Utah hospital (AP)
PARK CITY, Utah ? Comedian and "30 Rock" cast member Tracy Morgan has been released from a hospital after collapsing during the Sundance Film Festival, and he says he'll be back at work Tuesday.
Morgan's publicist, Lewis Kay, confirmed Monday that the actor left the Park City Medical Center after he suffered from exhaustion and altitude Sunday night in Park City, where the elevation is 7,000 feet.
Morgan posted a comment Monday on Twitter that the high altitude "shook up this kid from Brooklyn."
"Superman ran into a little kryptonite," he quipped.
He also said on Twitter that he would be back to work Tuesday on "30 Rock."
Ron Nyswaner, co-director of the Sundance film "Predisposed," in which the actor stars, said Morgan's collapse resulted from "altitude sickness combined with his diabetes. And he hadn't eaten. He hadn't had enough water."
Kay said hospital officials report no drugs or alcohol were found in Morgan's system.
Morgan had been attending an event for the Creative Coalition at which he had just received an award.
In "Predisposed," which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Melissa Leo, Morgan plays a drug dealer caught up in the push-and-pull between a piano prodigy and his troubled mother.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Study Fails to Confirm Existence of Arsenic-Based Life
News | More Science
A new analysis by open-science advocates present a 'clear refutation' of a controversial finding that appears to undermine assumptions about how essential phosphorus is for life
?| January 23, 2012
A strange bacterium found in California?s Mono Lake cannot replace the phosphorus in its DNA with arsenic, according to researchers who have been trying to reproduce the results of a controversial report published in Science in 2010.
A group of scientists, led by microbiologist Rosie Redfield at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, have posted data on Redfield's blog that, she says, present a ?clear refutation? of key findings from the paper.
?Their most striking claim was that arsenic had been incorporated into the backbone of DNA, and what we can say is that there is no arsenic in the DNA at all,? says Redfield.
But the authors of the Science paper are not retreating from their conclusions. ?We are thrilled that our results are stimulating more experiments from the community as well as ourselves,? first author Felisa Wolfe-Simon, now at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, wrote in an e-mail to Nature. ?We do not fully understand the key details of the website experiments and conditions. So we hope to see this work published in a peer-reviewed journal, as this is how science best proceeds.?
Open criticism
In the Science paper, Wolfe-Simon and her co-workers reported that they had found a bacterium called GFAJ-1 that can use the element arsenic in place of phosphorus in molecules essential to life (see Arsenic-eating microbe may redefine chemistry of life). This was surprising because phosphorus is thought to be essential for life, whereas arsenic is usually toxic.
But after Redfield and others raised numerous concerns (see Microbe gets toxic response), many of which were published as technical comments in Science, Redfield put the results to the test, documenting her progress on her blog to advance the cause of open science.
Redfield grew GFAJ-1 bacteria in arsenic and a very small amount of phosphorus, as had Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues. She then purified the DNA from the cells and sent it to Marshall Louis Reaves, a graduate student at Princeton University in New Jersey. Reaves used a caesium chloride gradient to separate the cells' DNA into fractions of varying densities, then used a mass spectrometer to identify the elements present in each fraction of DNA. He found no arsenic in any of the DNA.
But Redfield?s methods might leave defenders of the arsenic life hypothesis some wiggle room. For instance, Redfield was unable to grow any cells without adding a small amount of phosphorus. Because it is not clear how much phosphorus was used to grow the bacteria in the original paper, its authors could argue that Redfield's cells were not sufficiently phosphorus-starved to be forced to use arsenic in its place.
Wolfe-Simon also says she would not expect to find arsenic in DNA analysed on a caesium chloride gradient, because the arsenic-containing DNA might be so fragile that it would break apart and appear only in very faint bands separate from the bulk of the cell's DNA.
However, Redfield says that Reaves analysed all of the DNA purified on the gradient, so he would have detected any arsenic. Redfield also analysed the size of DNA from cells that had been stored for two months in her lab refrigerator. The DNA fragments from cells that had been grown with and without arsenic were similar sizes, indicating that DNA from arsenic-grown cells is not unstable.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=dfcf2206fde052bb9cc4e531fec3dae6
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Best Free iPhone Apps - Business Insider
We've become pretty accustomed to shelling out a dollar or two for the best iPhone apps, but many of the best apps are free.
Here are our favorite iPhone apps that won't cost you a penny, and don't include any ads!
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The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was introduced on January 9, 2007. An iPhone functions as a camera phone, including text messaging and... More ?Recent Posts About iPhone
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-free-iphone-apps-2012-1
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Rescuers flee capsized cruise liner after vessel shifts
Rescue crews working on the cruise ship that capsized off the coast of Italy are running out of time to find any possible survivors. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
By msnbc.com news services
Updated at 6:05 a.m. ET
GIGLIO, Italy -- The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch, forcing the supension Friday of search and rescue operations for the 21 people still missing.
It was not clear if the movements registered overnight by onboard sensors were just vibrations as the Costa Concordia settles on the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio or if the massive ocean liner is slipping off the reef.
"The ship is not in safe enough conditions for rescue operations to continue," Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press.
The ship's movements are being carefully monitored since any significant shift could be dangerous for divers trying to locate those missing after the Concordia ran aground Jan. 13.
Published at 2:51 a.m. ET: Italian rescue workers suspended their search of the capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia after the ship moved again on Friday, an official said.
Firefighters' spokesman Luca Cari told Reuters that?authorities were?evaluating the situation. He said he could not say by how much the ship had moved.
The seas around the island of Giglio, where the ship capsized a week ago, were choppy on Friday and the weather was predicted to worsen in the course of the day.
The ship's sudden movement on the reef Wednesday had postponed the start of a weeks-long operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel.
On Thursday, divers focused on an evacuation route on ship's fourth level, now about 60 feet below the water's surface, where five bodies were found earlier this week, Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero told Sky TG 24.
Crews set off small explosions Thursday to blow holes into hard-to-reach areas for easier access by divers.
The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-marked rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route. The ship then keeled over on its side and is still half-submerged nearly a week later.
Meanwhile,?a young Moldovan woman who translated evacuation instructions from the bridge after the Costa Concordia ran into a reef emerged as a potential new witness in the investigation into the captain's actions on that fateful night.
'He saved over 3,000 lives'
Italian media have said prosecutors want to interview 25-year-old Dominica Cermotan, who had worked for Costa as a hostess fluent in several languages but was not on duty when she boarded the ship Jan. 13 in the Italian port of Civitavecchia.
In interviews with Moldovan media and on her own Facebook page, Cermotan said she was called up to the bridge of the Concordia after it struck the reef to translate evacuation instructions for Russian passengers. She defended Capt. Francesco Schettino, who has been vilified in the Italian media for leaving his ship before everyone was evacuated safely.
"He did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives," she told Moldova's Jurnal TV.
Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.
Eleven people have been confirmed dead in the disaster and 21 others are still missing.
The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio. The company had approved a similar maneuver in August.
However, Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, says its tracking showed that the ship's August route actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused the grounding last week.
Costa is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Legal Issues Abound for Young Joc Surrounding His Former Bad ...
Yung Joc and Block Enterprises are currently being sued by an Atlanta music company claiming legal control over the rapper?s entire music career!
Diddy booted Joc from Bad Boy records several years ago, after the rapper, along with Block Enterprises were alleged to have failed their contractual agreement by refusing to fork over royalties and other fees they agreed upon.
It was rumored that Diddy blackballed Joc over the matter after Joc chose to sue Bad Boy. Fast forward through 5 years and a FREE Grind Flu mixtape, and you?ll find that the Bad Boy bug just won?t go away for Joc!
Details below?
The lawsuit claims that Joc signed an artist development and exclusive recording agreement with Master Mind Music back in February of 2005, that gave Master Mind Music ownership of each record that was created by the rapper during the duration of the deal.
But wait? that ain?t all!
Master Mind Music also reserved the exclusive right to copyright the recordings of Yung Joc in its own name.
In addition to administrative rights, the lawsuit claims that Master Mind Music was entitled to co-ownership of all of Yung Joc recordings, in addition to a 50% share of Yung Joc?s publishing during the term of the agreement.
The lawsuit claims that Master Mind Music helped with the recording and eventual release of Yung Joc?s debut album Hustlenomics, which contained the rapper?s biggest single ?Coffee Shop.?
Around October of 2005, Master Mind Music linked with Block Enterprises, in order to place Yung Joc on the Bad Boy/Atlantic Records record label.
In the lawsuit, Master Mind Music claims that Block Ent cut them out of the Bad Boy deal by presenting Yung Joc to Diddy as its sole artist. They also claim that Block Enterprises illegally granted copyright interest in Yung Joc?s recordings to Bad Boy Records.
?Block knew or should have known that he did not have the rights to the artists? exclusive recording services which he purportedly granted to Bad Boy/Atlantic,? the complaint reads. ?Further, Block never subsequently acquired those rights from Master Mind.?
According to Master Mind Music?s lawsuit, Yung Joc debut album for Bad Boy, New Jock City, sold over 1 million copies and contained the single ?It?s Goin Down.?
Master Mind Music claim that Block Enterprises didn?t have the authority to distribute Yung Joc?s master recordings and is suing for copyright infringement, breach of contract, torturous interference with contractual relations, fraudulent misrepresentation, and fraud.
F*ck You, Pay Me! Yung Joc ft. Sunny Valentine
If you get off on reading legal jargon, CLICK HERE to view all the docs?
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Obama pitches tourism, campaign on East coast
President Barack Obama arrives at JFK International Airport in New York, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, on his way to Manhattan where he is scheduled to attend several fundraisers. (AP Photo/David Karp)
President Barack Obama arrives at JFK International Airport in New York, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, on his way to Manhattan where he is scheduled to attend several fundraisers. (AP Photo/David Karp)
CORRECTS BYLINE - President Barack Obama speaks about tourism and travel, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, along Main Street USA at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
CORRECTS BYLINE - President Barack Obama speaks about tourism and travel, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, along Main Street USA at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on tourism and travel, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, along Main Street USA at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama greets guests after speaking at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
NEW YORK (AP) ? From the Magic Kingdom to the Apollo Theater, President Barack Obama on Thursday made the case for American tourism and his own re-election bid, mingling his political and economic agendas as he tried to stay ahead of the Republicans chasing after his job.
"I hope you know that the values you cherish, what you stand for, what you believe in, are the things I cherish and I believe in and I'm willing to fight for," Obama said at Daniel, an exclusive Manhattan restaurant, in the first of four glitzy fundraisers.
Presidential politics were not far from the surface during events on both ends of the East Coast, as Obama sought a piece of Florida's political spotlight ahead of a Jan. 31 Republican presidential primary with a high-profile appearance at Walt Disney World. Against the backdrop of Disney's Cinderella castle, Obama announced initiatives aimed at making it easier for citizens of China and Brazil to visit the United States.
"America is open for business," Obama said under Florida's picture-perfect blue skies. "We want to welcome you."
Later, the president told top donors in New York that he had made American foreign policy stronger during his first term, vowing that U.S. support for Israel's security is "nonnegotiable." He also defended his administration's approach to Iran, saying even Tehran has acknowledged that U.S. sanctions are having an impact.
The New York itinerary included a $35,800 per ticket fundraiser at the home of film director Spike Lee and an event starting at $100 per ticket at the famed Apollo Theater featuring performances by Al Green and India.Arie. Obama, who raised more than $220 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the end of 2011, told supporters that the 2012 campaign would be difficult.
"This is still going to be a tough race, regardless of who they nominate," he said, but told donors at another event that he was "very confident" of winning re-election.
Obama said the election would be "as stark a choice as we have seen," noting that he shared similar views with 2008 GOP nominee John McCain on banning torture, climate change and closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "If you've been listening to the Republican debates, they have moved. I've stayed here. They've gone in a different direction."
Obama's trip to Florida marked an attempt by the White House and his campaign to steal attention from Republicans vying for the GOP presidential nomination. In recent weeks Obama held a live video conference with Iowa voters during the Republican caucus, Vice President Joe Biden held a similar event with voters in New Hampshire on the night of the state's first-in-the-nation primary and next week Obama will travel to Nevada, which follows Florida on the primary calendar.
Obama was greeted in the Orlando area by ads from GOP front-runner Mitt Romney blaming the president for the state's struggling economy. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, could take a major step toward securing the Republican nomination with a win in Florida's Jan. 31 primary contest.
"I have a simple question for you: Where are the jobs?" Romney wrote in an open letter to the president on Thursday running as an ad in the Tampa Bay Times. In a conference call with reporters, Romney said Obama was "speaking from Fantasyland."
While Obama carried Florida in 2008, the state is a top target for Republicans in the November elections. Florida twice backed Republican George W. Bush, providing the decisive electoral votes in the cliffhanger 2000 election that was decided after a 36-day recount.
Tourism is a key component to the economy in Florida, which has been battered by 10 percent unemployment and rampant home foreclosures.
The White House said more than 1 million U.S. jobs could be created over the next decade, according to industry projections, if the U.S. increases its share of the international travel market.
The tourism initiative is part of an executive order Obama signed. Its goal is to boost nonimmigrant visa processing capacity in China and Brazil by 40 percent this year; expand a Visa Waiver Program that allows participating nationals to travel to the U.S. for stays of 90 days or less without a visa; appoint a new group of chief executives to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board; and direct an interagency task force to develop recommendations for a National Travel and Tourism Strategy, including promoting national parks and other sites.
The efforts to boost tourism were praised by travel and tourism groups, but one lawmaker said the decision to relax tourist visas could undermine national security. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the administration was "pushing the envelope and using their authority beyond congressional intent," noting that only two of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks were interviewed by consular offices. He said Congress moved to require visa applicants to be interviewed as a result.
The White House says the travel and tourism industry represented 2.7 percent of gross domestic product and 7.5 million jobs in 2010. But the U.S. share of spending by international travelers fell from 17 percent to 11 percent between 2000 and 2010, due to increased competition and changes in global development, as well as security measures imposed after Sept. 11, 2001, according to the White House.
The approach was welcomed by Brazilian tourists Lilian Lara and Lindbergh Souza, who shopped along the resort's streets hours before the president's speech. Souza said the visa process was expensive, at $500, and time-consuming for Brazilians who don't live close to consuls in Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo. "The whole process took me six months," Souza said.
___
Associated Press writer Mike Schneider contributed to this report.
___
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Pockets of Internet go dark to protest piracy bills (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Wikipedia, the world's free online encyclopedia, went dark on Wednesday and other Internet players including Google put black censorship bars on portions of their websites in protest of pending U.S. legislation designed to curb online piracy.
The unusual protest was visible across the Internet in many forms on Wednesday, with dozens of commercial and non-profit websites either closing down for the day or urging visitors to oppose what had until recently been a relatively obscure and technical legislative proposal.
Internet companies aim to get U.S. lawmakers to back off of bills designed to shut down access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.
The effort has gained traction. The White House over the weekend warned that overly broad legislation could harm free speech, and on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner acknowledged there was a lack of consensus on the bills.
Several members of Congress said the legislation appeared stalled, with some reversing earlier support for the measures.
The legislation, known as SOPA in the U.S. House of Representatives and PIPA in the Senate, has been a major priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical companies and many industry groups, who say it is critical to curbing online piracy that costs them billions of dollars a year.
But Internet players argue the bills would undermine innovation and free speech rights and compromise the functioning of the Internet.
"Something this big - which looks to be the largest and most prolific online protest ever in the short history of the Internet - that's bound to get the attention of lawmakers across the board," said Jeffrey Silva, an analyst at Medley Global Advisors.
Wikipedia mounted a 24-hour protest starting at midnight by converting their English page to shadowy black background and warning readers that "the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet."
It included a link to help Internet users contact their representatives.
Craigslist, the free Internet classifieds site, also went black in protest, while Google's home search page included a black bar slapped over its logo, and asked readers: "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!"
Smaller sites, such as Reddit.com and BoingBoing.net, were also dark, with BoingBoing noting that the proposed anti-piracy bills "would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had links to copyright infringement."
Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, a lobbying watchdog group, said the Internet companies' 24-hour boycott was an effective campaign.
"It's a way of engaging the public in something that had been a very much behind closed doors kind of business as usual in Washington thing. It's a way to get the public aware and alerted to it, and somewhat on their side," Allison said.
MOMENTUM COOLS
The bills were seemingly on track for approval by Congress, but sentiment has shifted in recent weeks and an implicit veto threat from the White House has cast doubt on whether legislation will pass.
Republican Representative Tom Price, head of the House Republican Policy Committee, said in a hallway interview, "I don't think it is going anywhere."
"There is real confusion about it, number one, but number two, there are real concerns about whether or not it would it would shutdown the ability of entrepreneurs, new businesses and the like to utilize the Internet for their purposes," Price said.
When asked about the anti-piracy legislation at a news conference on Wednesday, Boehner said lawmakers will continue to try to find support for it, but that it's not there now.
"It's pretty clear to many of us that there is a lack of consensus at this point," Boehner said.
STAYING ON THE SIDELINES
Big tech names including Facebook and Twitter declined to participate in a boycott despite their opposition to the legislation.
The companies were not prepared to sacrifice a day's worth of revenue and risk the ire of users for a protest whose impact on lawmakers would be hard to gauge.
Google's solution allows the search engine giant to keep revenue attached to its searches, while still highlighting the issue.
The protest drew some criticism ahead of its launch.
"This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts," Lamar Smith, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a sponsor of SOPA, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy."
Former Senator Chris Dodd, who now chairs the Motion Picture Association of America, labeled the blackout a "gimmick" and called for its supporters to "stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy."
(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Jasmin Melvin in Washington D.C.; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Tim Dobbyn)
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Iran says in touch with powers on new talks (Reuters)
TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran said it was in touch with big powers to reopen talks soon on its nuclear program, but Washington and the European Union denied this and urged Tehran to show it was ready to engage.
A year after the last talks fell apart, confrontation is brewing over Tehran's nuclear work, which the United States and other countries say is focused on developing atomic weapons. Iran dismisses the accusation.
The EU is preparing to intensify sanctions against Iran with an embargo on its economically vital oil exports. EU diplomats said on Wednesday member governments had also agreed in principle to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, but had yet to agree how to protect non-oil trade from sanctions.
Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, used for a third of the world's seaborne oil trade, if it cannot sell its own crude, fanning fears of a descent into war in the Gulf that could inflame the Middle East.
Iranian politicians said President Barack Obama had expressed readiness to negotiate in a letter to Tehran, a step that might relieve tensions behind recent oil price spikes.
"Negotiations are going on about venue and date. We would like to have these negotiations," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters during a visit to Turkey.
"Most probably, I am not sure yet, the venue will be Istanbul. The day is not yet settled, but it will be soon."
Washington denied there were any new discussions underway about resuming talks, but declined to comment on whether Obama had sent a letter to Tehran.
"There are no current talks about talks," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Wednesday.
"What we are doing, as we have said, is making clear to the Iranians that if they are serious about coming back to a conversation, where they talk openly about their nuclear program, and if they are prepared to come clean with the international community, that we are open to that," Nuland said at a media briefing.
White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to comment on the reports about a letter, telling journalists: "We don't discuss specific ... diplomatic communications."
The United States is pushing countries to reduce the volume of Iranian oil they buy in line with a new sanctions law Obama signed on December 31 that targets Tehran's ability to sell crude oil.
The State Department denial was echoed by a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, representing the six world powers trying to engage with Iran.
"There are no negotiations under way on new talks," he said in Brussels. "We are still waiting for Iran to respond to the substantive proposals the High Representative (Ashton) made in her letter from October."
SERIOUS NEGOTIATIONS
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Iran had to be ready for serious negotiations. "It is significant that when we are discussing additional sanctions in the European Union an offer of negotiations emerges from Iran," he said.
"We will not be deterred from imposing additional sanctions simply by the suggestion there may be negotiations. We want to see actual negotiations," he told a news conference in Brazil.
"In the absence of such meaningful negotiations, of course, the pressure for greater peaceful but legitimate pressure will continue," he said, referring to a meeting on Monday of EU ministers that will discuss an oil embargo on Iran.
Tehran denies wanting nuclear bombs, saying its enrichment work is for power generation and medical applications.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday only that the U.S. military was fully prepared to deal with any threats by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.
Ashton wrote to Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili to stress that the West still wanted to resume talks but Iran must be ready to engage "seriously in meaningful discussions" about ways to ensure its nuclear work would be wholly peaceful in nature.
The Islamic Republic has insisted in sporadic meetings over the past five years that talks focus on broader international security issues, not its nuclear program.
PROTRACTED IMPASSE
The last talks between Iran and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - along with Germany stalled in Istanbul a year ago, with the parties unable to agree even on an agenda.
Since then, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report has lent weight to concern that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear weapon.
EU foreign ministers are expected to approve a phased ban on imports of Iranian oil at the meeting on January 23 - three weeks after the United States passed a law that would freeze out any institution dealing with Iran's central bank, effectively making it impossible for most countries to buy Iranian oil.
"On the central bank, things have been moving in the right direction in the last hours," one EU diplomat said on Wednesday. "There is now a wide agreement on the principle. Discussions continue on the details."
Iran has said it is ready to talk but has also started shifting uranium enrichment to a deep bunker where it would be less vulnerable to the air strikes Israel says it could launch if diplomacy fails to curb Tehran's nuclear drive.
Western diplomats say Tehran must show willingness to change its course in any new talks. Crucially, Tehran says other countries must respect its right to enrich uranium, the nuclear fuel which can provide material for atomic bombs if enriched to much higher levels than that suitable for power plants.
Russia, a member of the six power group that has criticized the new EU and U.S. sanctions, said the last-ditch military option mooted by the United States and Israel would ignite a disastrous, widespread Middle East war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking during a visit to the Netherlands on Wednesday, repeated his view that "Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, period."
Earlier in the day, his Defence Minister Ehud Barak said any decision about an Israeli attack on Iran was "very far off".
THREATS, FRIENDSHIP
China, which shares Russia's dislike of the new Western moves to stop Iran exporting oil, said U.S. sanctions that Obama signed into law on December 31 had no basis in international law.
Iranian politicians said Obama had written to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responding to Tehran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions prevent it selling oil.
Several members of Iran's parliament who discussed the matter on Wednesday said it included the offer of talks.
"In this letter it was said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is our (U.S.) 'red line' and also asked for direct negotiations," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted lawmaker Ali Mottahari as saying.
(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Phil Stewart in Washington, Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Estelle Shirbon in London; Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Writing by Robin Pomeroy and David Stamp; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/wl_nm/us_iran
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