62 below: Deep freeze grips much of Alaska

Downtown Anchorage, Alaska, has seen a snowy and icy winter, including this scene from Jan. 18.

By msnbc.com staff

Even if it has been warmer than usual in much of the United States, there's no denying?Alaska is seeing a real winter, even by its standards.

Anchorage is shivering through one of its coldest January's on record, while in Fairbanks, folks preparing for a sled dog race were being tested by temperatures nearly 50 degrees below zero. Farther inland, Fort Yukon has ranged from minus 50 to minus 62 degrees over the last three days, getting close to its record of minus 78.

Anchorage's average temperature for January has been 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the Alaska Daily News reported. That's well below its average of?15 degrees, and only three other years (1947, 1925 and 1920)?have been colder, National Weather Service data show.

It's so cold for Anchorage, the Daily News reported,?that:

• Cross country ski?practices by the Junior Nordic League have been canceled due to temps dipping below the official cut-off of minus 4 degrees.
• Tow trucks are so busy helping folks with dead car batteries that it can take up to four hours to get service.
• Some schools have had only a handful of outdoor recess days this month.

In Fairbanks, where the Yukon Quest sled dog race starts on Saturday, some racers have had a hard time moving their trucks?around due to a freeze that kept engines from starting, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

Fort Yukon, for its part, dipped to 62 degrees below zero on Saturday, then hit?59 below on Sunday, the National Weather Service reported.

The deep freeze is in addition to the record snow and blizzard conditions seen earlier this month in towns like Cordova and Valdez. Even Anchorage is on track to see a record snow season, having received?more than twice its?average amount so far.

?

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/30/10270410-62-below-deep-freeze-grips-much-of-alaska

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[OOC] Atrelvium

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Obama answers questions through Google site (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is trying to rebuild the American economy, one job at a time _literally.

The president asked an online town hall questioner Monday to send him her husband's resume, insisting he wanted to look into why the man remained out of work despite his background as a semiconductor engineer.

"I meant what I said. If you send me your husband's resume I'd be interested in finding out what's happening right there," Obama told the questioner, Jennifer Weddel of Fort Worth, Texas.

He told Weddel that according to what he was hearing from industry, such high-tech fields are in great demand and her husband should be able to find work right away.

Weddel told Obama that despite what he said, her husband had been out of work for three years. She wanted to know why foreign workers were getting visas for high-skilled work.

The exchange came as Obama appeared in a live video chat room known as a "Hangout," part of online search giant Google's social networking site Google Plus. He was answering questions submitted to Google and via YouTube, as well as interacting live with Weddel and four others in the Hangout.

It's part of the White House focus on social media.

Obama was also asked to justify his administration's use of unmanned drone strikes, and contended they were being used judiciously.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Abbas: Israel to blame for failure of latest talks (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank ? The Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday blamed each other for the impasse in newly launched peace efforts, raising doubts about whether the dialogue would continue just weeks after it began.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of spoiling the low-level talks, saying it failed to present detailed proposals for borders and security requested by international mediators. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Palestinians "refused to even discuss" Israeli security needs.

For the past month, the sides have held Jordanian-mediated exploratory talks at the urging of the Quartet of international Mideast mediators ? the U.S., the U.N., the E.U. and Russia. The goal of the talks has been to find a formula to resume formal peace negotiations, with the aim of forging an agreement this year.

The Palestinians say a three-month period set by the Quartet for the exploratory talks ended last week, counting from the day the mediators issued their marching orders last October.

But Abbas, deeply skeptical about the hardline Netanyahu, is under intense international pressure to stay at the table and would risk being blamed for the failure of the latest Mideast peace efforts.

Walking away would be a risky strategy at a time when he seeks global recognition of a state of Palestine ahead of a possible border deal with Israel. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is expected in the region this week to help keep the talks alive.

Abbas said Israel's efforts so far have fallen short.

"By not presenting a clear vision on the issues of borders and security, as the Quartet demanded, Israel foiled the exploratory talks in Amman," Abbas said in remarks published late Saturday by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israel has said it wants to keep talking and is serious about reaching a deal by year's end. It says the exploratory talks should continue for another two months, starting its countdown of the Quartet's three-month period from the beginning of meetings in early January.

Addressing his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said the dialogue had gotten off to a rocky start, but held out hope the talks would continue.

"Until this moment, according to what happened in recent days, the Palestinians refused to even discuss with us the needs of Israel's security," he said. "The signs are not very good, but I hope they will come to their senses and we'll continue the talks so we can reach real negotiations."

The Quartet had asked both sides to present detailed proposals on borders and security arrangements between Israel and a future Palestinian state, in hopes the exploratory talks would evolve into full negotiations.

The Palestinians said they presented four-page proposals on each subject, but refused to elaborate. Earlier this week, Israel presented its principles for drawing a border with a future state of Palestine ? the first-ever indication by Netanyahu on how much war-won land he would be willing to relinquish.

Abbas said he remains committed to serious negotiations that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestinians want to establish their state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians, who regained control of Gaza in 2005, have said they are willing to swap some land to enable Israel to keep some of the largest of dozens of settlements it has built on occupied lands. In talks with Netanyahu's predecessor, the Palestinians suggested swapping 1.9 percent of the West Bank, while Israel proposed 6.5 percent.

Two Palestinian officials said last week that Israel proposed keeping control of east Jerusalem and essentially turning its West Bank separation barrier into the border. That would place attach roughly 10 percent of the West Bank to Israel.

Israeli officials have declined comment.

However, it is unlikely Abbas would accept any deal that leaves east Jerusalem under Israeli control and gives him only 90 percent of the West Bank.

Abbas consulted Sunday with his Fatah movement and was to talk Monday with top officials in the Palestine Liberation Organization. Abbas said he would make his final decision after briefing the Arab League at the end of the week.

In a statement after the Fatah meeting late Sunday, Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said a return to direct talks requires, among other things, a halt in Israeli settlement construction, but that a final decision on resuming exploratory talks would come only after more consultations.

Western diplomats said Quartet envoy Tony Blair will try in coming days to persuade Netanyahu to agree to incentives to salvage the talks, including the release of veteran Palestinian prisoners.

Mahmoud Aloul, a senior Fatah official, said Sunday that Fatah would likely urge Abbas to end the talks.

"There is no hope ... that these talks or any talks with this right-wing Israeli government would lead to any progress," Aloul said.

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

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Peru: 27 killed in fire at rehab center

LIMA, Peru?? A fire swept through a two-story private rehabilitation center for addicts in a poor part of Peru's capital Saturday, killing 27 people and critically injuring five as firefighters punched holes through walls to rescue residents locked inside.

The "Christ is Love" center for drug and alcohol addicts was unlicensed and overcrowded and its residents were apparently kept inside "like prisoners," Health Minister Alberto Tejada told The Associated Press.

Authorities said 26 people died at the scene, and prosecutors spokesman Raul Sanchez said Saturday night that one of six men hospitalized in critical condition died later.

Peru's fire chief, Antonio Zavala, said most of the victims died of asphyxiation. All the victims appeared to be male.

The local police chief, Clever Zegarra, said the cause of the 9 a.m. fire was under investigation.

"There has been talk of the burning of an object, of a mattress, but also of a fight that resulted in a fire. All of this is speculation," he told the AP. "I've been here at the scene from morning to evening but for the moment the exact cause of the fire is not known."

One resident of the center on a narrow dead-end street in Lima's teeming San Juan de Lurigancho district said he was eating breakfast on the second floor of the center when he saw flames coming from the first floor, where the blaze apparently began.

Gianfranco Huerta told local RPP news radio station that he leaped from a window to safety.

"The doors were locked; there was no way to get out," he told the station.

AP journalists at scene said all the windows of the building they were able to see were barred. Journalists were not allowed inside as police cordoned off the block. By early afternoon, all the dead had been removed from the center.

Most of the bodies seen by reporters were shirtless, their faces blackened. Many were also shoeless.

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"This rehabilitation center wasn't authorized. It was a house that they had taken over ... for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision," Tejada, the health minister, said.

Authorities said they did not know how many people were inside the center at the time of the fire. They said they were looking for the center's owners and staff, some of whom apparently fled the scene.

The local police chief, Zegarra, identified the owner as Raul Garcia.

'Dantesque proportions'
Zoila Chea, an aunt of one victim, said families paid Garcia $37 to treat an addicted relative and $15 a week thereafter.

She said that neighbors had constantly complained about the center and that it had been closed twice by authorities.

Chea, 45, said relatives were prohibited from seeing interned patients during the first three months of treatment, which she added consisted mainly of reading the Bible.

Her nephew, Luis Chea, was at the center for a month, she said.

Zavala, the national fire chief, said the blaze was of "Dantesque proportions." Firefighters had to punch a hole through a wall with an adjoining building to help people trapped inside the rehabilitation center.

"We've had to use electric saws to cut through the metal bars of the doors to be able to work," Zavala said.

Relatives of residents of the center gathered near the building weeping and seeking word of their loved ones. As the day wore on, nearby sidewalks filled with relatives mourning and trying to console one another.

One of them was Maria Benitez, aunt of 18-year-old Carlos Benitez, who she said was being treated at the center.

"I want to know if he is OK or not," she told ATV television.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46174608/ns/world_news-americas/

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Ashton Kutcher Is "Deeply Concerned" About Demi Moore

Ashton Kutcher may have been hanging out with supermodels in Brazil when Demi Moore was rushed to the hospital, but a friend says that Demi is still very much on Ashton's mind.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ashton-kutcher-concerned-about-demi-moore-source/1-a-422586?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aashton-kutcher-concerned-about-demi-moore-source-422586

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If I had a hat that was tippable, I'd be tipping it.

Is that even how you spell tippable? Or does it only have one 'p'? I haven't the foggiest.
Anyways! After much persuasion, my friend Hillary has gotten me to join this here forum, so I suppose it would only be proper if I introduced myself. To start things off, I'm Sparrow, first year student at art school, avid tea drinker, wearer of mis-matched socks, a green trench coat and a sock monkey hat, and have an odd love for Thursdays. (The day and the word. It's quite a lovely word, don't you think?) I love to read and obsessively watch Doctor Who, Merlin, Sherlock, and Supernatural (nothing like getting sucked into the majority of the cult tv shows, eh?) and like to put things in alphabetical order. I dunno what else to say, really. I have some characters that are just itching to be played, so I'll probably join one of the roleplays shortly.
So I guess just feel free to ask me any questions you may have or just say hello!

The sparrow king is dead || Long live the king

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Broken schools breed South Africa's "lost generation" (Reuters)

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) ? The first blow to Martha Netshiozwe's future came when her parents died of AIDS. The second came when she ran out of money and had to drop out of a South African high school.

Netshiozwe, 23, is a product of the first post-apartheid generation who entered a new and aspiring education system which aimed to heal the economic divisions created by the white-minority government. But like many, she left without the skills to qualify for anything other than manual labor.

Despite pouring billions of dollars into education, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has little to show for its money except for public primary schools regarded as among the worst in the world and millions of students destined for a life in the underclass.

"If you don't have an education, you don't have a chance in life," said Netshiozwe, who is unemployed with little prospect of finding regular work. She and her HIV-infected aunt live together and scrape by on about $100 a month in welfare benefits.

Nearly half of South Africa's 18 to 24 year olds -- the first generation educated after apartheid ended in 1994 -- are not in the education system and do not have a job, according to government data.

Academics have called this group the "lost generation" and worry it will grow larger unless the government fixes a system riddled with failing schools, unskilled educators and corruption that stops funding from reaching its intended destinations.

"This is an appalling waste of human potential and a potential source of serious social instability," the Ministry of Higher Education said this month when it unveiled sweeping plans

for boosting university enrollment and improving vocational colleges.

The lost generation poses long term risks for Africa's largest economy, which is trying to grow its tax base as it funds increased social spending.

There are about three people receiving social welfare payments for each taxpayer. While the recipients of state funds are set to increase substantially under anti-poverty programs, the number of taxpayers is not, which should cause already yawning budget deficits to widen.

Major ratings agencies are also worried.

Fitch, this month, and Moody's a few months ago, downgraded the outlook for South Africa, saying the government has not done enough to tackle structural problems including chronic unemployment, growing state debt and a broken education system.

CRIPPLED BY CORRUPTION

South Africa does not suffer a lack of plans or finances for education, the largest sector of state spending and accounting for more than 20 percent of the budget.

The problems are with implementation.

Corruption eats away at money. Teachers are poorly trained and challenged by a constantly shifting curriculum. Schools are often shut by teachers' strikes.

There have been numerous changes for the better in the ANC-run education system with more of the country's blacks, excluded from most high-quality education under apartheid, entering high-performing schools.

Once almost exclusively white, universities now reflect the racial composition of the country with more people from groups disenfranchised by apartheid climbing the ladder with a degree or diploma.

But at the same time, the number of people living in poverty has changed little since apartheid ended, with no remedy in sight given the structural problems in education.

"As things stand, the ANC is wreaking untold damage on our children and, consequently, on the country's future, just as apartheid education did in the past," said Barney Mthombothi, editor of the influential weekly Financial Mail.

Hundreds of schools do not have electricity or running water and absenteeism has become such a concern that President Jacob Zuma has begged teachers to show up for classes.

A study by graft watchdog Transparency International last year pointed to massive local level corruption resulting in millions of students not having desks, chairs or books.

The central government has been trying to take over two provincial education systems that are effectively bankrupt.

In Limpopo province, students started the school year in January without textbooks even though millions of dollars had been allocated for purchases, with media reports saying a politically connected figure may have pocketed the funds.

This month, the central government said Limpopo, which has recorded some of the country's worst results in standardized testing, had unauthorized expenditure of 2.2 billion rand ($275 million). The province had more than 2,400 teachers on the payroll, including 200 "ghost teachers" who were not in classrooms but were still paid.

TICKET OUT OF POVERTY

A university education is seen as the best ticket out of poverty. Competition is fierce and at some of the top schools, there are about 10 applicants for each place.

The desperate demand for higher education led to a stampede at the University of Johannesburg this month when thousands of applicants lined up for a few hundred available places on the final day to submit paperwork.

"The lofty status of universities is an indicator of a lack of status for any other alternative for post-school education," said Frances Faller, an education expert at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

About eight in 10 unemployed have not completed secondary education or just made it through high school. Only six percent of South Africa's jobless have a university degree, a study from the South African Institute for Race Relations said.

The odds are also stacked against those who hope to find entry-level employment. Economists say labor laws make it difficult for employers who want to take on new workers and train them for jobs.

A cozy relationship between the ANC and organized labor, formed in their partnership against apartheid, has hampered apprenticeship programs.

The ANC, which relies on the 2 million members of top labor federation COSATU as a source of votes, has put off plans denounced by unions but backed by economists to reduce youth unemployment by allowing firms to hire youths at cut-rate wages and train them up.

"We will never let them get away with making these laws even more 'flexible' to allow even higher levels of exploitation," COSATU said in a statement.

ANC governments have spent billions of dollars on job training programs only to see large sums lost to corruption, while producing few graduates with skills required by employers.

"I know what will happen to me if I don't get into school," said university applicant Eddie Ncube, 18.

"Look at what I am exposed to. I am from the ghetto. Without school, I will get into drugs and I'll never find a job."

($1 = 8.0169 South African rand)

(Additional reporting by Ndundu Sithole; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/lf_nm_life/us_safrica_education

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Iran won't move toward nuclear weapon in 2012: ISIS report (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Iran is unlikely to move toward building a nuclear weapon this year because it does not yet have the capability to produce enough weapon-grade uranium, a draft report by the Institute for Science and International Security said on Wednesday.

The report by the institute founded by nuclear expert David Albright offered a more temperate view of Iran's nuclear program than some of the heated rhetoric that has surfaced since the United States and its allies stepped up sanctions on Tehran.

"Iran is unlikely to decide to dash toward making nuclear weapons as long as its uranium enrichment capability remains as limited as it is today," the report said.

The United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over sanctions, with Iran threatening to retaliate by blocking oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States said it would not allow that to happen.

The escalating rhetoric and tensions have led to concerns about the potential for missteps between the adversaries that might spiral into a military confrontation that neither wants.

But the report, financed by a grant from the United States Institute of Peace, said Iran had not made a decision to build a nuclear bomb. The USIP is an independent, non-partisan center created by the U.S. Congress in 1984 that receives federal government funding.

"Iran is unlikely to break out in 2012, in great part because it is deterred from doing so," said the ISIS report, which has not yet been publicly released.

The report turns down the temperature, saying that sanctions and the fear of a military strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities have worked as a deterrent.

The institute has advised U.S. and foreign governments about Iran's nuclear capabilities and Albright is considered a respected expert on the issue. The report tracks closely with what is known of official U.S. government assessments.

U.S. officials say Iran has not made the decision to build a nuclear weapon and that Iranian leaders haven't made the decision because they have to weigh the cost and benefits of building a nuclear weapon.

Much of what the Iranians are doing with their nuclear program has civilian uses, but they are keeping their options open, which significantly adds to the air of ambiguity, U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Some conservative and Israeli analysts in the past have challenged these types of assessments, asserting that Iranian nuclear efforts are sufficiently advanced that they could build a bomb in a year or less.

But according to the institute's report: "Although Iran is engaged in nuclear hedging, no evidence has emerged that the regime has decided to build nuclear weapons."

"Such a decision may be unlikely to occur until Iran is first able to augment its enrichment capability to a point where it would have the ability to make weapon-grade uranium quickly and secretly," the report obtained by Reuters said.

It added that despite a report last November by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency alleging that Iran had made significant progress on nuclear weaponization, "Iran's essential challenge remains developing a secure capability to make enough weapon-grade uranium, likely for at least several nuclear weapons."

Some European intelligence officials have disputed a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate published in 2007 which said that Iran had stopped working on a program it had launched earlier to design and build a bomb.

The Europeans maintain that Iran never stopped research and scientific development efforts which could be bomb-related.

Tensions spiked after Iran announced earlier this month that it had begun to enrich uranium deep inside an underground facility near the holy city of Qom. The secretly built facility was publicly revealed by the United States in 2009.

AIRSTRIKES 'OVERSOLD'

Among possible policy options for halting Iran's nuclear program, one of the least likely to be successful is a military attack on its nuclear program, according to the institute's report.

Limited military options, such as airstrikes against nuclear facilities, are "oversold as to their ability to end or even significantly delay Iran's nuclear program," the report said. Limited bombing campaigns would be "unlikely to destroy Iran's main capability" to produce weapon-grade uranium, it said.

Iran has taken precautions by dispersing the centrifuges it uses for enrichment to multiple locations, has mastered the construction of centrifuges, and has probably stockpiled extra centrifuges, the institute said.

A bombing campaign that did not totally eliminate these capabilities would leave Iran "able to quickly rebuild" its nuclear program and even motivate it to set up a Manhattan Project-style crash program to build a bomb, which would only make the region more dangerous and unstable, according to the institute.

The report said that clandestine intelligence operations aimed at detecting secret Iranian nuclear activities, including the construction of new underground sites, are "vitally important." Known methods used by spy agencies include the recruitment of secret agents, cyber spying operations, overhead surveillance by satellites and drones, and bugging of equipment which Iran buys from foreign suppliers.

The report says another "well known tactic" used by Western spy agencies against Iran has been to infiltrate Iranian networks that smuggle nuclear-related equipment and supply them with plans or items which are faulty or sabotaged. The report says this tactic has helped the West to uncover at least one of Iran's secret nuclear sites and, according to official statements by the Iranians, has caused enrichment centrifuges to break.

Other more violent covert operations strategies, particularly the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers, have "serious downsides and implications," such as high risks of Iranian retaliation through militant attacks which could be directed against civilian targets. The United States has emphatically denied any involvement in the assassinations.

The report said that since thousands of specialists are involved in the Iranian nuclear program, assassinations were unlikely to be effective in slowing it down. It also warned that Iran could construe assassinations as acts of war and use them to justify retaliation.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

(This January 25 story was corrected in paragraph 16 to change the date of the NIE report to 2007 from 2003)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_usa_iran_nuclear

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Prosecutors ordered to identify NYC terror witness (AP)

NEW YORK ? A judge gave federal prosecutors until a week from Wednesday to give up the name of a witness they say was recruited for a chilling, al-Qaida-sanctioned plot for suicide bombers to attack the New York City subways with explosives made from beauty supplies.

Lawyers for alleged plotter Adis Madunjanin had demanded to know the identity of the man, referred to only as John Doe in court papers, before Madunjanin goes to trial later this year.

At a pretrial hearing on in Brooklyn federal court in Wednesday, prosecutors initially resisted identifying the government witness ? "Mr. John Doe" one called him ? citing concerns about his safety. But U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie said Madunjanin's lawyers had a right to know the name.

"They have to prepare a defense," the judge said.

However, the judge also agreed to allow the government to provide the name under a protective order barring the defense from disclosing it to the public.

In a revised indictment filed last week in Brooklyn, Medunjanin was hit with a new allegation that he ? along with former high school classmates from Queens, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay ? tried to recruit John Doe to travel to Pakistan "to wage violent jihad."

It was the first time the government had linked a fourth person in the U.S. for what prosecutors call three "coordinated suicide bombing attacks" on Manhattan subway lines.

Medunjanin, 27, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the new indictment, which added a charge of use of a destructive device. He had previously pleaded not guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, providing material support to a terrorist organization and other counts.

Prosecutors allege that Medunjanin, Zazi and Ahmedzay tried to recruit the fourth man before the three went to Afghanistan in 2008 to join the Taliban and fight U.S. soldiers. The three fell under tutelage of al-Qaida operatives, who gave them weapons training in their Pakistan camp and asked them to become suicide bombers, authorities say.

The new indictment doesn't say what became of the fourth man.

After returning, Zazi, a former Denver airport shuttle driver, cooked up explosives with beauty supplies and set out for New York City around the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. After becoming suspicious he was being watched by law enforcement, he abandoned the plan and returned to Colorado.

Zazi and Ahmedzay have since admitted in guilty pleas that they wanted to avenge U.S. aggression in the Arab world by becoming martyrs. Both could testify against Medunjanin at a trial expected to begin in mid-April.

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

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Analysis: Myanmar shows little sign of economic miracle (Reuters)

YANGON (Reuters) ? Business is booming at the Golden Sea employment agency in downtown Yangon, but that doesn't mean Myanmar's long-stagnant economy is improving. Quite the opposite.

"Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand," said manager Kyaw Thura, listing the countries where he helps the young men crowding his one-room office find jobs as laborers and cooks. "If there were opportunities in Myanmar, they would stay here."

Hopes of concrete economic reforms are running high among foreign business people now pouring into Myanmar, which has fanned optimism by pledging democratic reform, freeing political prisoners and setting the stage for an April by-election.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a landmark visit to the country, formerly known as Burma, two months ago and multilateral lenders such as the Asian Development Bank have taken preliminary steps toward resuming activities there.

Few argue against Myanmar's potential.

As big as France and Britain combined, the resource-rich country sits strategically between India, China and Southeast Asia with ports on the Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea, all of which have made it a coveted energy-security asset for Beijing's western provinces.

Bordering five countries, Myanmar offers multiple avenues of Asian engagement as U.S. President Barack Obama shifts focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward economic growth and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

But as tourists and investors knock on its door, the number of Burmese flowing in the opposite direction suggests that ordinary people don't expect the end of half a century of isolation to improve the economy anytime soon.

The barriers to progress are formidable: U.S. sanctions, an incoherent exchange rate regime, woeful infrastructure, weak investment laws, a crippled banking system, decades of mismanagement and a shortage of skilled Burmese.

While the European Union on Monday started unwinding sanctions, punitive U.S. measures continue to cut deep into Myanmar's economy, among Asia's most prosperous before a 1962 military coup ushered in a disastrous "Burmese Way to Socialism" that brought sweeping nationalization and global isolation.

U.S. sanctions could begin to come down if Myanmar's by-elections scheduled for April 1, contested by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are fair and open, U.S. Senator John McCain told reporters last week in Hanoi.

U.S. sanctions, imposed in response to years of human rights abuses and steadily tightened since 1988, preclude U.S. aid and rule out financial help from International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, in which the United States is a big shareholder and has veto rights.

That prevents those agencies from training government staff for long-overdue work such as drawing up a national budget or writing environmental regulations.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank ceased operations in the country in the mid-1980s and are still owed arrears, which have to be repaid before they can come back. And even when they return, their aid will require the government to respect governance standards that have eluded its leaders for decades, including budget transparency.

CURRENCY CONUNDRUM

"There's so much to be done," said Luc de Waegh, head of West Indochina, a Myanmar-focused consultancy.

"You need to rebuild the country, the roads, the infrastructure, the education system, and all this cannot be done with private money."

One of Asia's richest countries early in the 20th century, Myanmar is now one of the world's poorest after half a century of often-brutal rule by military rulers. A third of its estimated 60 million people live on less than a dollar a day.

The International Monetary Fund estimates Myanmar's gross domestic product at just over $50 billion. In contrast, neighboring Thailand, with a population of about 67 million, has GDP of $348 billion.

Among its biggest problems: a currency regime that deters investment and abets kleptocracy.

Officially, one U.S. dollar buys a little over six Myanmar kyats. Unofficially, it's more like 750 kyats.

The unofficial rate, used in most transactions, has jumped from more than 1,000 per dollar in 2009 as foreign money has flowed into the timber, energy and gem sectors. That has hurt a swathe of Burmese, from farmers and manufacturers to traders and employees of foreign firms paid in dollars.

A team of IMF advisers came in November to look at reforming the currency and unifying the rates. A two-week follow-up mission ends on Wednesday.

Myanmar is one of only 17 countries that still have dual exchange rates, and even the IMF has only three experts in the delicate task of unifying them.

The official rate is used for government revenue and for imports by some state-owned enterprises. As a result, state revenue is grossly underestimated and some critics say it is likely vast sums of that money was kept off the books and quietly smuggled out of the country into offshore banks held by cronies of the former junta.

They may also have repatriated the funds to snap up state assets that were sold off during an extremely opaque privatization boom that took place just over a year before the army's transfer of power to the civilian government.

In addition, many state firms effectively enjoy a hidden subsidy and could fail if they were forced to adopt a market rate. A wave of bankruptcies and resultant job losses could bring a backlash against much-needed reforms.

One solution might be to replace implicit subsidies with more transparent, official subsidies, said Jean-Pierre Verbiest, a former country director for the Asian Development Bank in Thailand and now an economic consultant at the Asian Development Bank Institute.

"The exchange rate, the budget, monetary policy, financial sector development -- they are all linked, and these are typically areas where IFIs can contribute and put policies in place," he said.

That is not going to happen until the West drops sanctions.

U.S. sanctions on Myanmar include visa bans on certain officials and business associates, restrictions on financial services, bans on Burmese imports, a ban on new investment and constraints on assistance to the country.

GETTING THE POOR ONSIDE

Another urgent problem is the need for reforms in the agricultural sector, which employs two-thirds of the population and suffers from low productivity and a lack of credit.

"Even on good assumptions, there will be a mess because it's very difficult to handle big changes especially in a country which is very rich but at the same time very poor," said Verbiest, meaning rich in resources and potential but also in terms of state revenue, if properly accounted for.

"So there are going to be people who will benefit much more than others," he added.

Quick reforms in agriculture could help alleviate poverty in the countryside and win support for the reform process. They could include providing credit to farmers who have to rely on money-lenders charging crippling interest rates plus investment in village infrastructure such as roads to markets, said a veteran Myanmar aid worker who asked not to be identified.

"Villagers are still driving ox carts and taking all day to go nine miles. Isolation breeds poverty," she said.

The country also badly needs better education and training.

"There's a real vacuum in capacity," the aid worker said, noting there were thousands of Burmese engineers in Singapore but engineering talent was hard to find inside Myanmar.

The brain drain has hurt the public sector, too: Myanmar lacks the technocrats that helped Indonesia, for example, move from a military dictatorship to a thriving democracy.

Much of the country's intellectual talent fled in 1988, mostly to Europe and the United States, after the army brutally crushed a student-led revolt. The government has so far made no official move to encourage them to return.

"We need 30-somethings who have MBAs and analytical skills. You're not going to find that in the generals, even if there's political will," the aid worker said.

"People have had beaten into them not to take the initiative, not to be creative, not to be innovative. In that respect I think IFIs can help. Training needs to happen on a massive scale."

(Editing by Andrew R.C. Marshall, Jason Szep and Mark Bendeich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wl_nm/us_myanmar_economy

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Oldest dinosaur nursery includes eggs containing embryos

The newly unearthed clutches of eggs, many with embryos inside, belonged to a plant-eating dinosaur, the predecessor of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth, long-necked sauropods such as Brachiosaurus.

Tiny prints from baby dinosaurs dot the oldest dino nesting site found to date, a 190-million-year-old nursery in South Africa, researchers said.

Skip to next paragraph

The hatchery and the baby footprints uncovered there are significant clues about the evolution of complex?family behaviors in early dinosaurs, providing the oldest-known evidence that dinosaur hatchlings remained at nests long enough to at least double in size.

The newly unearthed clutches of eggs, many with embryos inside, belonged to the plant-eating dinosaur?Massospondylus, a prosauropod, or predecessor of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth,?long-necked sauropods?such as?Brachiosaurus.

How to unearth a dinosaur egg

The international team of researchers conducted their excavation in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa. The nesting ground, now largely covered in reddish-brown muddy siltstone, predates?previously known nesting sites?by 100 million years.

"The eggs, embryos and nests come from the rocks of a nearly vertical road cut only 25 meters (82 feet) long," said researcher Robert Reisz, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga. "Even so, we found 10 nests, suggesting that there are a lot more in the cliff, still covered by tons of rock. We predict that many more nests will be eroded out in time as natural weathering processes continue." [Photos of dinosaur nesting sites]

The eggs and nests proved difficult to unearth because the eggshells are extremely delicate at less than 100 microns in thickness, or less than the width of a human hair, making it easy to inadvertently destroy them. "We literally spent days and days searching for the eggs and nests, spending most of our time on our hands and knees, but once we were able to recognize what to look for, we found four nests within 10 minutes," Reisz told LiveScience.

The nests unearthed to date each held up to 34 round eggs in tight clusters. The skeletal remains of the mothers suggest they were about 20 feet (6 meters) long, while their eggs were only about 2.3 to 2.7 inches (6 to 7 centimeters) wide. The mothers carefully arranged these eggs, the researchers say, basing this on the high level of organization of the nests and eggs.

Dinosaur day care

From the fine-grained nature of the sediments holding the eggs, the researchers think the nests were built near a lake or a slow-moving river. "The fact that the nests are relatively close to water, and the soil was moist, suggests that there was lots of vegetation," Reisz said. This likely made the area attractive to these herbivores.

And the site seemed to be a popular one for dino day care, as the nests were found in at least three distinct layers of rock within the excavation, each indicating a different point in time. In fact, the researchers suggest the dinosaur moms likely returned repeatedly to the site. Also, the fact that multiple nests were found within the same layers ? and thus were laid at about the same time ? reveals the dinosaurs likely gathered in groups to lay their eggs, the oldest evidence of such behavior in the fossil record.

"Even though the?fossil record of dinosaurs?is extensive, we actually have very little fossil information about their reproductive biology, particularly for early dinosaurs," said researcher David Evans, associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. "This amazing series of 190-million-year-old nests gives us the first detailed look at?dinosaur reproduction?early in their evolutionary history, and documents the antiquity of nesting strategies that are only known much later in the dinosaur record."

The researchers are now slowly uncovering?embryos within these eggs. They have embryos in several different stages of development, "allowing us to do actual comparisons between them," Reisz said. "The preservation is exquisite."

The scientists detailed their findings online today (Jan. 23) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter?@livescience?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/zGEOz1QASIA/Oldest-dinosaur-nursery-includes-eggs-containing-embryos

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Petition asks White House to probe MPAA's Chris Dodd (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES, Jan 22 (TheWrap.com) ? More than 10,000 petition signers are asking the White House to investigate comments made by MPAA chief executive Chris Dodd, who warned in an exclusive interview with Fox News that politicians who failed to back antipiracy legislation could see Hollywood dollars dry up.

Dodd's words, coming at the end of the week that saw two bills backed by the motion picture lobby -- the so-called PIPA and SOPA measures -- battered by nationwide protests and defections by formerly supportive politicians, amount to bribery, the petition claims.

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd said. "Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

Early Sunday, a petition was started.

"This is an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal. This is a brazen flouting of the 'above the law' status people of Dodd's position and wealth enjoy," the petition reads.

The petition was initiated by the New York-based educational and research group We The People Foundation. It has amassed more than 10,000 signatures.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/media_nm/us_chrisdodd_petition

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HUFFPOST HILL - GOP Primary Moves To Florida, Old People Pandering Reaches Insufferable Levels

Notoriously incomprehensible tweeter Chuck Grassley was temporarily prevented from spelling "socialist" with four letters when someone hacked his Twitter account. The frontline of the government's war on civil liberties is apparently Rand Paul's crotch. And reporters will at long last be allowed to use smart phones during the State of the Union, enabling them to tweet that they are tweeting from the State of the Union. Indeed, sunshine is truly the best disinfectant. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, January 23rd, 2012:

DEBATE TONIGHT IN FLORIDA - WILL BRIAN WILLIAMS GET OFF NEWT'S LAWN? - Newt will have to balance two competing pressures tonight. On the one hand, the debate is being co-hosted by NBC News, the parent outlet of the much-maligned MSNBC. Gingrich might feel compelled to unload on the moderators for that reason (this is how Republicans get their schadenfreude these days -- and how Newt gets attention). The thing is, one of the moderators will be Brian Williams, who has settled nicely into his role as the inoffensive but lovable newscaster -- like Walter Cronkite if Walter Cronkite's interns emailed him College Humor videos. Will America's angry grandfather (and we're talking "Who taped over my episodes of 'Antiques Roadshow'???" angry here) rip into America's cool dad? 9:00 pm on NBC.

GIFFORDS RESIGNING: SPECIAL ELECTION TAKING SHAPE - John Celock: "At least four Democrats and one Republican are mulling campaigns for Giffords' office in the special election that will be called by Gov. Jan Brewer (R) to fill the seat for the remainder of 2012 using the current district lines. The special election will likely occur around June, right as the field shapes up to elect a member of Congress for the new district encompassing parts of Tucson and the surrounding area in November. On the Democratic side, state Sen. Paula Aboud, airline pilot Jeff Latas and State Reps. Matt Heinz and Steve Farley are seriously considering entering the race, while on the Republican side state Sen. Frank Antenori is inching closer to moving his exploratory committee into full-fledged campaign mode. None of the candidates would confirm a potential race, indicating that it was too early to make an announcement." [HuffPost]

REPUBLICANS DOMINATING SUNDAY MORNING TELEVISION - Take that, infomercials, tennis matches held in Australia and Matlock reruns! Running in Roll Call tonight: "Republicans appear to have owned the news cycle in 2011. If you were watching the major Sunday morning talk shows last year, your odds of seeing a Republican Member of Congress in the guest chair were far greater than seeing a Democratic Member of Congress. GOP lawmakers appeared on the Sunday shows nearly twice as often as Democratic lawmakers in 2011, a dominance far greater than the prior two years, according to a Roll Call database of Members' television appearances. Roll Call's 'Face Time' feature has for many years tracked appearances of Members of Congress on five major Sunday talk shows: Face the Nation on CBS; NBC's Meet the Press; ABC's This Week; CNN's State of the Union; and Fox News Sunday."

DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Mitt Romney activated his rusty sympathy synapses Monday morning in Florida. Richard Wood of Bradenton told the former governor he'd folded his title insurance company in October 2010 and that he and his wife had fallen on hard times. "We have been exploring the possibility of moving to another to another country where we might be able to live on our retirement and our Social Security." "Yeah. It's just tragic, isn't it? Just tragic, just tragic," Romney said. "We're just so overleveraged, so much debt in our society, and some of the institutions that hold it aren't willing to write it off and say they made a mistake, they loaned too much, we're overextended, write those down and start over. They keep on trying to harangue and pretend what they have on their books is still what it's worth." Romney went on to note that banks have sad feelings, too. "They're afraid that if they write all these loans off, they're going to go broke. And so they're feeling the same thing you're feeling. They just want to pretend all of this is going to get paid someday so they don't have to write it off and potentially go out of business themselves." [HuffPost]

DOUBLE DOWNER - The number of homeless women veterans has more than doubled from 1,380 in fiscal 2006 to 3,328 in 2010, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office based on data from the Department of Veterans Affairs. "While we have seen a decrease in the overall number of homeless veterans, the number and needs of homeless women veterans across the country are growing and the VA is struggling to keep up," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement. The number of female veterans has grown from 4 percent of all vets in 1990 to 8 percent today, or roughly 1.8 million people. The unemployment rate for women veterans of our most recent wars shot up from 10.9 percent at the end of 2010 to 21.6 percent now. [GAO]

Don't be bashful: Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

SEN. MARK KIRK RECOVERING FROM STROKE - Mike McAuliff: "Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk (R) suffered a stroke over the weekend and is being treated in a Chicago hospital where he underwent emergency brain surgery, his office and doctors said Monday. Kirk, 52, checked himself into the local Lake Forest Hospital Saturday after suffering dizziness and headaches, doctors said. Doctors discovered a 'carotid artery dissection,' his office said, referring to a condition that involves the separation of the artery walls and that is a common cause of stroke in adults around Kirk's age. Kirk was 'transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where further tests revealed that he had suffered an ischemic stroke,' Kirk's office said in a statement. 'Early this morning the Senator underwent surgery to relieve swelling around his brain stemming from the stroke. The surgery was successful,' the statement said. 'Due to his young age, good health and the nature of the stroke, doctors are very confident in the Senator's recovery over the weeks ahead.'" [HuffPost]

MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DOES SOMETHING DIVA-ISH AND SELF-SERVING RELATING TO THE STATE OF THE UNION - If we had to guess, we're about two years away from the point at which every House Republican cups their ears and/or reads the Wall Street Journal for the the whole speech. "Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said on Monday he is boycotting President Obama's State of the Union address. In a tersely worded statement released by his office, Lamborn said he decided instead 'to pass' on attending the speech on Tuesday night, though he will watch it on television. Congressman Lamborn does not support the policies of Barack Obama,' the statement said. A spokeswoman said Lamborn was about to board a flight and was not immediately available to elaborate. But his office has already prepared a further explanation for constituents if they want to know more about his decision." [National Journal]

@THEHermanCain: I'm giving the #TeaParty Response to the SOTU! Use hashtag #CainResponse to give me your ideas of what to say.

@bigjohnrc: House for first time allowing reporters to use electronics in chamber during SOTU. prepare for everyone to live tweet the same stuff

RAND PAUL IS THE ROSA PARKS OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE HAVING THEIR NETHER REGIONS GRAZED BY A TSA AGENT'S INDEX FINGER - The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward a stubborn libertarian senator causing a scene at a Nashville airport. Amanda Terkel: "Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) staff said Monday morning that the senator was being detained by federal Transportation Security Administration agents in Nashville, Tenn. Moira Bagley, Paul's communications director, tweeted around 10:00 a.m. ET, 'Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He's currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.'...Bagley told CNN that Paul went through a scanner and set off an alarm. He reportedly wanted to go through the scanner again instead of getting a full-body pat-down, but TSA officers refused. The TSA said that Paul 'was not detained at any point.' 'The passenger triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and refused to complete the screening process in order to resolve the issue,' TSA said in a statement. 'Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures are denied access to the secure gate area. He was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement.'" Whatever, senator. Call us when you grab two beers from your plane's kitchen, activate the emergency slide and peace out. America has high standards when it comes to air travel outbursts. [HuffPost]

Ron Paul's campaign responds: "The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe."

Rand, not surprisingly, has some thoughts on the matter

REPORT: OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DOWNPLAYED DEEPWATER SPILL - MoJo: "Now, an email released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) traces efforts to downplay the spill size in the initial weeks back to the White House. The group released a May 29, 2010 email from Dr. Marcia McNutt, the director of the US Geologic Survey and head of the government's Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG), that was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The email came after scientists on the flow-rate team complained to McNutt about how the spill figures were conveyed to the press, and in response she cited pressure from the White House as the reason the numbers were low-balled. Rather than reporting that the lower-end estimate of the spill was 25,000 barrels per day, officials cited that figure as the higher-end estimate" [MoJo]

MITT ROMNEY HIRES DEBATE COACH WITH PROVEN RECORD OF TURNING ATROCIOUS PUBLIC SPEAKERS INTO TERRIBLE PUBLIC SPEAKERS - Great hire. The Times has a brief item on Bret O'Donnell, who coached John McCain during the 2008 campaign and more recently coached Michele Bachmann. Hopefully, Mitt will rock one of Bachmann's white pantsuits in the next debate. He would look fierce in one of those. "Brett's been working with us for some time, since Michele Bachmann got out of the race," a Romney spokesperson told the paper. [NYT]

@jamiedupree: CNN reports that Ron Paul won't even stay in Florida for primary night; will instead go to NV & CO to campaign

"Mitt Romney's Father Palled Around With Saul Alinsky"

ELIZABETH WARREN AND SCOTT BROWN AGREE TO NOT UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY FOR A FEW MONTHS, EVERYONE IMPRESSED - The Hill: "Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R) and his Democratic rival, Elizabeth Warren, have reached a groundbreaking agreement to deter super-PACs and outside groups from dominating their Senate race with millions of dollars of ads, Brown said Monday. The agreement marks the first attempt by candidates to wrest control of their races back from groups over whom they have no direct control, and could set a precedent for other races. It also comes almost two years to the day after the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case that unleashed the flood of outside spending." [The Hill]

DEATH FROM ABOVE, NOW WITH A SMALLER CARBON FOOTPRINT - But a larger impact crater! Kaboooom! Grist: "The Army is increasingly aware that the only way for its war machine to keep turning is for it to eliminate the long, vulnerable supply chain currently required to get energy to its soldiers. That's one reason why it just awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to build a flying drone, light enough to be carried by troops or Iranians, that supplements its power with solar energy." [Grist]

CHUCK GRASSLEY'S TWITTER ACCOUNT HACKED, MADE SURPRISINGLY COHERENT - @ChuckGrassley: Dear Iowans, vote against ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA, because this man, Chuck Grassley, wants YOUR internet censored and all of that BS... Yes, its surprising that I'm actually writing in full sentences with spaces and correct grammar/spelling... And yes, I am an Anonymous follower... uh-oh looks like Chuck is online too... Yes I was hacked..You might know me from a few weeks back.. :)... Well, this was fun, lol... #WINNING... Wow, Chuck hasn't even changed his password... Chuck is a supporter of SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, meaning he wants no privacy for private accounts...I really wanted Herman Cain to get president this year... Yes, its surprising that I'm actually writing in full sentences with spaces and correct grammar/spelling... Well, its been fun getting Chuck's account this week, so I better get off. I got nothing better to do since we got a snow day here in Osage...Hey guys let's have a contest: Whoever can change the password to this account the quickest has to tweet to me whoever got it. ok? ready?..My password is: chuck123... hurry!!... Anyone get it?... Password has been changed. Someone from the Senator's office contact me for the password. email address forthcoming... Someone from the Senators office contact me at the email i set up at grassleytwitter@gmail.com and I'll give you the new password...To clarify, I'm not the person that originally hacked the account. I think that person got their point across.

BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Dance like Internet is watching.

DC UPDATES: MEMORIALS, ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON AND HIPPIES - "As Eleanor Holmes Norton and Vincent Gray decry the proposed nationalization of D.C.'s local WWI memorial, Occupy folks target="_hplink">want a new peace memorial." [HuffPost DC ]

COMFORT FOOD
By @bradjshannon!

- 'I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rain)' [http://bit.ly/wIyY13]

- Every second, an hour of video is uploaded to YouTube. Here's a site to help (?) you comprehend that. [http://www.onehourpersecond.com]

- TMZ is low-hanging fruit, ripe for mockery. [http://bit.ly/yOfKTG]

- Educate yourself: millions fall for this scam every year. [http://bit.ly/z2IScp]

- A beautiful, though vertigo-inducing, video about BASE jumping in Singapore. [http://bit.ly/xm3ZLY]

- Sh*t Support Agents Say. [http://bit.ly/xAwjLk]

- BEARD. [http://bit.ly/xbJQqQ]

- You've seen the photos, but how about the photographers? [http://bit.ly/ygxDxm]

TWITTERAMA

@delrayser: BREAKING: @ChuckGrassley's Twitter account hacked, begins using proper syntax & grammar.

@sethdmichaels: in the future, everyone will have access to @ChuckGrassley's twitter account for 15 minutes.

@tbogg: Rand Paul's TSA inconvenience is now called an "ordeal". Somewhere between wreck of Costa Concordia and Bataan Death March.

ON TAP
By @christinawilkie

TONIGHT

7:30pm: The CEO of Panera is doing a conference call with a few members of Congress about No Labels, the cause we love to hate. [press only]

TOMORROW

5:30pm - 7:30pm: AEI gets it going early with a cattle call reception in Rayburn. Drinks are free. Vibe is painful. [Rayburn Foyer]

6:00pm - 8:00pm: Echo chamber collides with spin room, breaks DC fishbowl at the Atlantic/National Journal S.O.T.U. Party. [Library of Congress, 10 First Street SE]

6:00pm - 8:00pm: The Jefferson Island Club's S.O.T.U. Oyster Roast is hands down the best pre-game on the Hill. [2237 Rayburn]

9:00pm - Try to look interested n the State of the Union Address for at least 10 minutes. Then back to "Teen Mom." [every channel]

Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/huffpost-hill---gop-prima_n_1224905.html

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Yemen president gives farewell speech, apologizes

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

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

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is getting ready to leave the country after delivering a farewell speech on Sunday, apologizing for mistakes and saying it is time to hand over power, Yemeni officials said.

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

"I appeal to you to forgive my past mistakes," one top ruling party official quoted Saleh as saying. "Today, I leave the country in your hands," he said, according to the official, who was among those attended the event early in the morning. In November Saleh signed a power transfer deal but has balked at actually leaving.

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

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

The officials requested of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

On Saturday, Yemeni officials said that Saleh intends to leave soon to Oman, en route to medical treatment in the United States, part of an American effort to get the embattled strongman out of the country to allow a peaceful transition from his rule.

Washington has been trying for weeks to find a country where Saleh can live in exile, since it does not want him to settle permanently in the United States. The mercurial president, who has ruled for more than 33 years, has repeatedly vacillated over whether he would leave.

After nearly a year of protests demanding his ouster, Saleh signed the agreement to hand his powers over to Hadi and step down. Hadi set up a unity government between his party and the opposition.

Even so, Saleh ? still formally the president ? has continued to influence politics from behind the scenes through his family and loyalists in positions of power.

Associated Press

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Braun makes passing reference to drug test (AP)

NEW YORK ? Ryan Braun referred only in passing to his positive drug test and possible 50-game suspension as he accepted the National League MVP award at a black-tie dinner Saturday night.

After congratulating other award winners and thanking teammates, family, and the Milwaukee organization, the Brewers left fielder, speaking before a crowd of around 800 in a hotel ballroom, thanked the Major League Baseball Players Association for supporting him through his entire career, "especially for supporting me through everything I've went through over the last couple of months."

ESPN.com first reported in December that Braun had tested positive in October. Braun's grievance appeal before arbitrator Shyam Das to avoid a suspension began Thursday.

"You know, sometimes in life, we all deal with challenges we never expected to endure," Braun told the crowd. "We have an opportunity to look at those challenges and view them either as obstacles or as opportunities, and I've chosen to view every challenge I've ever faced as an opportunity and this will be no different. I have always believed that a person's character is revealed through the way they deal with those moments of adversity."

Braun, the NL Rookie of the Year in 2007, hit .312 with 33 home runs and 111 RBIs last season in leading Milwaukee to the NL Central title. He was not available to take questions from reporters Saturday night, his first public appearance since news broke about the positive test.

Braun's appearance overshadowed a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant 89th dinner of the BBWAA's New York chapter that honored, among others, former Mets catcher Gary Carter, who is fighting brain cancer. The Hall of Fame slugger was represented by his three children.

Carter received the "You Gotta Have Heart" award. Fighting tears, his pregnant daughter, Chrissy, said: "I'll tell my dad about the standing O ? he'll like that."

Also honored was Yankees head athletic trainer Gene Monahan, who retired at the end of last season after 49 years with the organization.

Monahan, the night's final award recipient, was honored for long and meritorious service to baseball. He was introduced, appropriately, by Yankees closer Mariano Rivera ? who had earlier received the "Toast of the Town" award. In an emotional speech, Monahan acknowledged late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner on several occasions and concluded by saying, "To do what you do the best and love the most, that's what happiness is all about."

Don Newcombe, 85, elicited laughter as he introduced Tigers ace Justin Verlander, who joined the former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher as the only players to win a Cy Young Award, MVP trophy and Rookie of the Year.

On a Mets-themed evening that acknowledged the 50th anniversary of the team's first season, Frank Thomas, Jay Hook and Al Jackson spoke on behalf of the 1962 Mets, remembered for their 40-120 record.

Former Mets player and manager Bobby Valentine was lightly and briefly booed when introduced as Boston's new manager. Valentine joked about traveling from the Boston chapter's Thursday dinner before introducing Yankees reliever David Robertson, who received an award for community service.

Former Mets and new Miami shortstop Jose Reyes accepted the writers' "Good Guy" award, and outfielder Tommy Davis received the "You Could Look It Up" award, honoring the 50th anniversary of his 153-RBI season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Stu Sternberg, principal owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, accepted Manager of the Year and AL Rookie of the Year on behalf of Joe Maddon and Jeremy Hellickson, respectively. Maddon, who spoke by video, is on vacation with his wife in the Greek islands, a trip planned in early September, before the Rays made their big comeback to reach the AL playoffs.

Cardinals third baseman David Freese was in attendance to accept the Babe Ruth award as postseason MVP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_bbwaa_dinner_braun

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Romney says he doesn't expect to win every contest

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Saw Mill at Larkin's in Greenville, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Saw Mill at Larkin's in Greenville, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Saw Mill at Larkin's in Greenville, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

GILBERT, S.C. (AP) ? Working to fend off a surging Newt Gingrich in what's become an unexpectedly tight race in South Carolina, presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday he expects he will lose some state contests to Gingrich during a prolonged fight for the GOP nomination.

"I expect that Newt will win some primaries and contests and I expect I will as well," Romney said on the Laura Ingraham radio show a day before voting begins in the critical South Carolina primary. "I'm not expecting to win them all."

Romney didn't directly say he expects to lose in South Carolina, and in a separate appearance Friday described the contest as "neck-and-neck." But senior aides acknowledged they wouldn't be surprised if he lost the primary.

Romney's comments were his most blunt acknowledgement yet of the trouble his campaign faced amid a reality much changed from 10 days ago when he won the New Hampshire primary in a landslide. They also recognized the possibility that Gingrich could take a South Carolina victory on to other states and win again.

Romney's campaign appeared visibly rattled the day before voting began. His standing in polls had tumbled after a week of constant attack ads and self-made problems. Senior advisers and campaign hands were preparing for a long fight.

"He will win. It's a question of when," said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who campaigned with Romney on Friday.

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

Romney tried to change the subject from his unreleased tax returns to the ethics investigation Gingrich faced 15 years ago.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-20-Romney/id-ffd433fe3f8f407ab45aafe5221f6622

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