BSkyB to launch online TV service to spur growth (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? BSkyB, Britain's dominant pay-TV group, is to launch an online offering to enable it to better take on the likes of Lovefilm and Netflix, following some signs of slowing growth at its main satellite business.

BSkyB said on Tuesday it would launch the new service to tap in to the 13 million homes which do not pay for its television service, offering movies and sports without the need for a contract or satellite dish.

BSkyB made the announcement as it revealed it had added 40,000 net new customers to its main TV service in the second quarter, slightly below expectations despite being helped by strong customer loyalty.

With a strong focus on cost control and a new strategy of selling more products to existing customers, the group however posted strong first-half results and increased its dividend.

"Sky shares should bounce on strong financial and operating trends but medium-term worries will persist, potentially exacerbated rather than assuaged by Sky proposing to retail BT's Infinity and to introduce a broadband-delivered low-cost Sky Movies product," analysts at investment bank Morgan Stanley said in a note.

Shares in BSkyB were up 3 percent at 685.5 pence by 4:37 a.m. ET, having fallen 11 percent year to date over fears the group would have to invest in faster broadband services, spend heavily to acquire soccer rights and compete with the likes of Lovefilm.

On Tuesday BSkyB said instead of investing in its own fiber network it would use BT Group Plc's superfast infrastructure known as BT Infinity on a wholesale basis to offer its customers speeds of 40 megabits per second.

SUPERFAST SPEEDS

The faster broadband speeds, which have proved popular with customers of rival Virgin Media inc, could help compliment BSkyB's push in watching more content online.

BSkyB has offered its own customers the opportunity to watch programming online before, but the push to offer its content to non-Sky customers is a new tactic for the group.

It follows the recent launch of the U.S. online DVD rental company Netflix Inc in Britain and Ireland, which prompted Amazon-owned rival Lovefilm to offer a new cut-price service. BSkyB has not yet set out its pricing plans.

The new offering will launch in the first half of 2012 and will enable customers to watch Sky content including movies and eventually sports on a range of flexible tariffs and without signing a contract.

BSkyB -- which also said it would create 1,300 new jobs in Britain and Ireland in a drive to improve customer service -- has grown through the economic downturn by attracting consumers to its range of sports, movies and broadband, but it has started to show signs of slowing in recent quarters.

The 40,000 net new customers added in the second quarter was above the 26,000 it added in the first quarter but below the 140,000 added in the second quarter a year ago. Analysts had expected net new TV customers of 58,000.

To balance out the slowing growth it sold an increasing number of different services to existing customers, such as high-definition TV or broadband, enabling it to post strong first-half results.

Revenue was up 6 percent to 3.4 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) and adjusted operating profit grew 16 percent to 601 million.

"Amidst all the Netflix noise comes a reminder that Sky is not about to give up its crown lightly," said Richard Hunter, head of equities at brokerage Hargreaves Lansdown. "The launch of its online offering further complements its existing technical reach alongside the potential for new customers.

"The positive reaction to today's news should at least consolidate the market consensus of the shares as a cautious buy."

The company did not make any new comment on the position of its chairman James Murdoch, who has come under pressure for his handling of a phone hacking scandal at News Corp's UK newspaper arm. News Corp owns almost 40 percent of BSkyB.

($1 = 0.6377 British pounds)

(Editing by Matt Scuffham and David Holmes)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/wr_nm/us_bskyb

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Edinburgh Zoo pandas back on display after illness (AP)

LONDON ? Two giant pandas on loan to a Scottish zoo are back on public display after they were removed to be treated for colic.

Edinburgh Zoo officials say male panda Yang Guang, diagnosed with the condition earlier this month, is recovering steadily.

They added Monday that the female, Tian Tian, is much better after she, too, fell ill with the same condition on Saturday.

Zoo vet Romain Pizzi said colic is common in giant pandas, which have sensitive digestive systems. He said it is likely that the 8-year-old pandas are just adapting to eating different bamboo than what they were used to.

The animals ? whose names mean Sunshine and Sweetie ? arrived from China in December, and are the first pandas to live in Britain in nearly two decades.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/pets/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_sick_pandas

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I?m still not clear on why conservatives don?t want people voting early, yet they do want people voting absentee (Balloon Juice)

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

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Gingrich says commission should look at in vitro clinic management of embryos (Star Tribune)

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Lark Wristband Reveals the Best Lifestyle Choices For a Good Night?s Sleep

The Lark isn't the first wearable device to track one's sleep patterns, but the system adds a clever coaching element that other sleep trackers don't include. It's an important addition, as competing devices tend to smother the user in sleep data, but don't provide many tools to make sense of the data in an actionable way.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/5YbZJPslJso/

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Would your city want a nuclear waste site?

If the price is right, would your town want a nuclear waste site?

A panel of experts said today that finding a volunteer community is the best way to pick a place for a waste repository that could outlast human civilization. The site would store spent nuclear fuel that has been piling up at the nation's 104 nuclear reactors.

The President's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future released its final report Thursday with eight key recommendations about how to kick-start a federal waste disposal policy that it says "has been troubled for decades and has now all but completely broken down."

Congress picked Yucca Mountain, Nev., as a permanent repository in 2002, but the Obama administration nixed the plan in 2010 after disputes with state officials. Even with the closure, the Department of Energy will have spent $10 billion on Yucca Mountain by 2020, according to estimates by the General Accountability Office.

The nuclear waste panel said that it's better to convince a local town or tribe to take the facility, rather than selecting a site and then trying to convince local residents afterward.

"I don't have a secret recipe," said Allison Macfarlane, a panel member and environmental science professor at George Mason University. "But the community should get what they want, jobs, university scholarships, the options are endless."

Macfarlane cited two successful examples. In the 1970s, residents of Carlsbad, N.M., agreed to host a disposal site for waste generated by the nearby nuclear weapons labs. After decades of delays, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) began taking shipments in 1998.

The town got 1,300 jobs, several factories and a youth sports complex ? as well as $300 million in highway funds.

In Sweden, federal officials tried several times to site a long-term waste disposal site until they asked for volunteers. Two communities vied for the project, which is now under way.

Macfarlane said that state governments have to be on board before moving forward. Opposition from state officials in both Nevada and Utah killed previous plans for nuclear waste sites.

ANALYSIS: Is Nuclear Energy Safe?

Consumers have been paying a tax on their utility bills from nuclear-generated electric power to build such a long-term storage site for several decades. Katrina McMurrian is executive director of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a group of utilities, state officials and advocacy groups pushing for a disposal location. She says now it's time for the government to step up and get the job done.

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"Rate-payers across the country have been paying to have this taken care of in return for a resting place established for used nuclear fuel," McMurrian said. "We simply want the government to make good on its promise."

The new report said deep geologic disposal is the best way to safely store spent nuclear fuel, material that will remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Big metal canisters made of either stainless steel (France), copper-steel (Sweden) or a nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy (planned for Yucca Mountain) would be lowered into a mine 900 feet to 2500 feet below ground.

The canisters could be put into granite, clay or salt, as long as the surrounding formations are geologically stable, Macfarlane said. That means below potable groundwater, away from heat sources and fissures.

Ideas for putting nuclear waste under the seabed or in orbit were rejected as either in violation of international treaties (sea) or too risky (space).

"We can't send up every single rocket with a 100 percent guarantee that it won't blow up," Macfarlane said.

? 2012 Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46168836/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Samsung 4Q profit rises 17 pct on smartphone sales (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? Samsung Electronics Co. reported a 17 percent jump in fourth quarter profit on the strength of smartphone sales even as the company battled claims it had copied Apple's iPhone.

Samsung said Friday in a regulatory filing that its net profit reached 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in the three months that ended in December. The company earned 3.4 trillion won in the same quarter a year earlier.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company said its operating profit jumped 75.8 percent to 5.3 trillion won in the fourth quarter. The figure was closely in line with the company's estimate earlier this month of a 73 percent rise.

The company, however, posted an operating loss of 220 billion won in its display division in the fourth quarter despite a sales increase of 19 percent from the previous year.

"If profit in handsets continues to stream in, this year will also likely be a solid one for Samsung," said Jae Lee, an analyst at Daiwa Securities in Seoul. "The biggest threat would be if the global economy worsens."

Samsung, the world's biggest manufacturer of memory chips and liquid crystal displays, said demand for semiconductors in mobile products and servers remained solid despite weakness in personal computers, which face stiff competition from the rising popularity of tablets.

Samsung has over the decades grown into a key global manufacturer of components that let PCs, digital music players and handsets store data and display it on flat, high-resolution screens. The company has recently been stepping up its challenge against Apple Inc. in the global smartphone business, releasing models such as the Galaxy S II.

Cupertino, California-based Apple, which spurred the smartphone boom with the launch of its iPhone in 2007, has accused Samsung of "slavishly" copying its smartphone and iPad in design, user interface and packaging. Apple sued Samsung in April last year in the United States.

The legal battle has now spilled into 10 countries, according to Samsung officials. Court rulings so far have tended to side with Apple.

Lee said legal battles with Apple would start weighing less on Samsung this year as the South Korean company is expected to release models with new designs.

The quarterly profit brought 2011 net profit to 13.7 trillion won, down 15 percent from the previous year.

Samsung shares rose 0.4 percent to 116,000 won in Seoul.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_hi_te/as_skorea_earns_samsung

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Soldiers overthrow Papua New Guinea defense chief (AP)

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea ? Rebel soldiers have staged an apparently bloodless mutiny in the Papua New Guinea capital on Thursday and installed a new military leader, a news agency and Australian officials reported.

The new crisis comes during a turbulent period in the South Pacific's most populous island nation, where two political leaders claim to be the rightful prime minister. Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that the rebel troops are loyal to ousted prime minister Sir Michael Somare, but it is unclear whether the mutiny amounts to an attempted coup.

Between 12 and 20 soldiers overpowered guards at the Taurama Barracks in Port Moresby before dawn, ABC reported, citing an unnamed senior source in the Papua New Guinea defense force.

The rebel soldiers then moved to the military headquarters at Murray Barracks and placed the head of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force, Brigadier General Francis Agwi, under house arrest.

Papua New Guinea's former defense attache to Indonesia, Colonel Safa, has declared himself defense chief, ABC reported. There have been no reports of bloodshed.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has the largest diplomatic mission of any country in Port Moresby, confirmed that the defense chief had been overthrown.

"We are concerned about these developments overnight in Port Moresby," the department said in a statement, without detailing those developments.

"We urge that the situation be resolved as soon as possible, and that the PNGDF chain of command is restored," it added.

New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill had told Australia ? Papua New Guinea's former colonial master and main provider of foreign aid ? that "authorities were taking steps to manage the situation," the department said.

O'Neill had yet to publicly comment on the situation, his office told The Associated Press.

A reporter at the Papua New Guinea's leading Post-Courier newspaper told the AP that the newspaper is still trying to figure out exactly what has taken place.

There has been a power struggle going on for months in Papua New Guinea between Somare and O'Neill.

Last month, the country's Supreme Court and Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio backed Somare, who the court ruled was illegally removed as prime minister while getting medical treatment outside the country.

But Ogio changed his mind days later, saying bad legal advice had led him to incorrectly reinstate Somare as prime minister.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_as/as_papua_new_guinea_mutiny

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Researchers Spot Potential Bile Duct Cancer Drug Targets (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers who identified a new genetic signature associated with bile duct cancer say their discovery could lead to targeted treatment for the deadly cancer.

The team at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center screened samples from 287 patients with gastrointestinal tumors and found that growth-enhancing mutations in two genes (IDH1 and IDH2) may account for nearly one-fourth of bile duct tumors that develop in the liver.

Mutations in IDH1 were found in 13 percent of all bile duct tumors and in 23 percent of those within the liver itself. Mutations in IDH2 were less common.

It may be possible to develop drugs that target this mutation in order to control tumor growth, they said.

The findings were published online in The Oncologist.

Bile duct cancer occurs in a duct that carries bile from the liver to the small intestine.

"Patients with bile duct cancer have a generally poor prognosis. Most of them are diagnosed with advanced or metastatic disease, so surgical resection [removal] is not feasible," study co-senior author Dr. Andrew Zhu, director of Liver Cancer Research at the MGH Cancer Center, said in a hospital news release.

"Identifying this new and relatively common mutation in intrahepatic [within the liver] bile duct cancer may have significant implications for the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of patients whose tumors harbor this mutation," Zhu added.

Currently, there are no drugs that target IDH mutations, but extensive efforts are underway to develop such drugs, the researchers say.

Each year in the United States, 12,000 people are diagnosed with cancers of the gallbladder and bile duct, but only 10 percent of those cancers are discovered early enough for successful surgical treatment. Average survival, even with chemotherapy, is less than a year.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about bile duct cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120126/hl_hsn/researchersspotpotentialbileductcancerdrugtargets

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Delta 4Q profit soars on higher fares, demand (AP)

MINNEAPOLIS ? Delta Air Lines' quarterly profit soared as higher fares offset a bigger fuel bill.

Like other carriers, Delta was able to raise fares by cutting the amount of flying it did in the fourth quarter. The money it made flying a passenger a single mile rose 12 percent.

The company's fourth-quarter net income rose to $425 million, or 50 cents per share, compared with $19 million, or 2 cents, a year earlier, when it was hit with charges from early debt repayment and consolidation of airport operations.

Revenue rose 8 percent to $8.4 billion in the final three months of 2011, countering a 5-percent rise in fuel expenses on its mainline operations. Other costs were flat.

Before one-time gains and losses, Delta earned 45 cents per share in the latest quarter, easily beating Wall Street expectations of 37 cents.

Delta's 2011 profit totaled $854 million, 44 percent higher than in 2010. Revenue rose 11 percent to $35 billion. The Atlanta-based airline has turned a profit two years in a row.

Delta's strategy of reducing flying to match demand will continue. The carrier said Wednesday that it will cut flying capacity 3 percent to 5 percent during the first quarter of 2012.

The airline's stock price rose 67 cents, or 7.1 percent, to $10.05 in midday trading.

___

AP Airlines Writer Samantha Bomkamp in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_delta

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Plant flavonoid luteolin blocks cell signaling pathways in colon cancer cells

ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2012) ? Luteolin is a flavonoid commonly found in fruit and vegetables. This compound has been shown in laboratory conditions to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties but results from epidemiological studies have been less certain. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Gastroenterology shows that luteolin is able to inhibit the activity of cell signaling pathways (IGF and PI3K) important for the growth of cancer in colon cancer cells.

Colon cancer is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death in the Western World. Colon cancer cells have elevated levels of IGF-II compared to normal colon tissues. It is thought that this is part of the mechanism driving uncontrolled cell division and cancer growth. Researchers from Korea showed that luteolin was able to block the secretion of IGF-II by colon cancer cells and within two hours decreased the amount of receptor (IGF-IR) precursor protein. Luteolin also reduced the amount of active receptor (measured by IGF-I dependent phosphorylation).

Luteolin inhibited the growth stimulatory effect of IGF-I and the team led by Prof Jung Han Yoon Park found that luteolin affected cell signaling pathways which are activated by IGF-I in cancer. Prof Jung Han Yoon Park explained, "Luteolin reduced IGF-I-dependent activation of the cell signaling pathways PI3K, Akt, and ERK1/2 and CDC25c. Blocking these pathways stops cancer cells from dividing and leads to cell death."

Prof Jung Park continued, "Our study, showing that luteolin interferes with cell signaling in colon cancer cells, is a step forward in understanding how this flavonoid works. A fuller understanding of the in vivo results is essential to determine how it might be developed into an effective chemopreventive agent."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Do Young Lim, Han Jin Cho, Jongdai Kim, Chu Won Nho, Ki Won Lee and Jung Han Yoon Park. Luteolin decreases IGF-II production and downregulates insulin-like growth factor-I receptor signaling in HT-29 human colon cancer cells. BMC Gastroenterology, 2012 [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120122201213.htm

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Obama to take on economy in State of the Union (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Addressing a divided nation amid a determined GOP campaign to take his job, President Barack Obama is preparing to issue a populist cry for economic fairness as he aims to corral the sympathies of middle-class voters 10 months before Election Day.

Obama delivers his third State of the Union address Tuesday in a capital and country shot through with politics, with his re-election campaign well under way and his potential GOP opponents lobbing attacks against him daily as they scrap for the right to take him on.

Obama's 9 p.m. EST address to a joint session of Congress and millions of television viewers will be as much as anything an argument for his re-election, the president's biggest, best chance so far to offer a vision for a second term.

"Almost by definition it's going to be at least as much a political speech as a governing speech," said Bill Galston, a former Clinton administration domestic policy adviser now at the Brookings Institution.

"The president must run on his record," Galston said, "and that means talking candidly and persuasively with the country about the very distinctive nature of the challenges the American economy faced when he took office and what has gone right for the past three years, and what needs to be done in addition."

With economic anxiety showing through everywhere, the speech will focus on a vision for restoring the middle class, with Obama facing the tricky task of persuading voters to stick with him even as joblessness remains high at 8.5 percent. Obama can point to positive signs, including continued if sluggish growth; his argument will be that he is the one to restore economic equality for middle-class voters.

Implicit in the argument, even if he never names Republican presidential frontrunners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, is that they are on the other side. Obama's speech will come as Gingrich and Romney have transformed the Republican campaign into a real contest ahead of Florida's crucial primary next week. And he'll be speaking on the same day that Romney, a multimillionaire, released his tax returns, offering a vivid illustration of wealth that could play into Obama's argument about the growing divide between rich and poor.

Obama will frame the campaign to come as a fight for fairness for those who are struggling to keep a job, a home or college savings and losing faith in how the country works.

The speech will feature the themes of manufacturing, clean energy, education and American values. The president is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose ways to make college more affordable, offer new steps to tackle a debilitating housing crisis and push to help U.S. manufacturers expand hiring.

The lines of argument between Obama and his rivals are already stark, with America's economic insecurity and the role of government at the center.

The president has offered signals about his speech, telling campaign supporters he wants an economy "that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few." Gingrich, on the other hand, calls Obama "the most effective food stamp president in history." Romney says Obama "wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society."

Obama will make bipartisan overtures to lawmakers but will leave little doubt he will act without their help when it's necessary and possible, an approach his aides say has let him stay on offense.

The public is more concerned about domestic troubles over foreign policy than at any other time in the past 15 years, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Some 81 percent want Obama to focus his speech on domestic affairs, not foreign ones; just five years ago, the view was evenly split.

On the day before Obama's speech, his campaign released a short Web ad showing monthly job losses during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, with positive job growth for nearly two Obama years. Republicans assail him for failing to achieve a lot more.

House Speaker John Boehner, responding to reports of Obama's speech themes, said it was a rehash of unhelpful policies. "It's pathetic," he said.

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that Obama is not conceding the next 10 months to "campaigning alone" when people need economic help. On the goals of helping people get a fair shot, Carney said, "There's ample room within those boundaries for bipartisan cooperation and for getting this done."

For three days following his speech, Obama will promote his ideas in five states key to his re-election bid: Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan. Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.

___

AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_state_of_the_union

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Report: OPEC wants to stay out of Iran-West spat

CAIRO (AP) ? OPEC's acting president said the producer group should stay out of political battles, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Sunday, an apparent bid by the bloc to steer clear of a potential showdown between Tehran and the U.S. over threats to close the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Karim Elaibi said that while Iran's "enemies" have imposed various sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' main focus should be protecting its members' interest and not being dragged into a political struggle over oil.

Elaibi, who is also OPEC's current president, last week said he was going to Tehran to warn against closing the strait, through which about a sixth of the world's crude flows daily. IRNA did not say whether the tension over the waterway was raised during the oil minister's meetings with officials.

Instead, the language reflected the warmer relations between Iran and Iraq since a U.S.-led coalition had ousted former strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Shiite government in Baghdad is seen as increasingly close to Tehran, and Iran is investing heavily in Iraq.

Iran has warned repeatedly it would choke off the strait if sanctions affect its oil sales. The U.S. has enacted, but not yet put into force, sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and, by extension, the country's ability to be paid for its oil. The European Union, a major buyer of Iranian oil, is considering sanctions on Iranian crude.

The tension over the strait and the potential impact it would have not only on global oil supplies, but also the price of crude and the economies of the countries that buy Iranian oil, have weighed heavily on consumers and traders.

Gulf nations have offered assurances that they would step in and provide any additional crude needed by the global market. Iran interpreted the offer as an attempt to undercut it and issued a quick warning to the Gulf Arab producers to not try to offset its exports with their own.

Elaibi's remarks appear to be an attempt to pull the producer bloc out of the political fray, but they also reflect the uneasy balance Iraq faces.

Iraq exports most of its crude through the strait, and any attempt to shut the waterway could be a severe blow to its economy. At the same time, it appears reluctant to come across as being too harsh on its neighbor, in part because of the investments Iran provides and its ideological weight as the region's strongest Shiite government.

His visit to Tehran came just days before Iraq inaugurates a new oil export outlet in the Gulf with a capacity of up to 900,000 barrels a day. It would be the first of five floating facilities that would eventually handle about 5 million barrels a day.

The new outlet will help Iraq, limited now by infrastructure bottlenecks, to export more oil.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-22-ML-Iran-Oil/id-5651316598b046c3ac818a761e65b93c

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Facing long odds and steep climb, Santorum digs in

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, talks with supporters at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, talks with supporters at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, speaks at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla. Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) ? Newt Gingrich has the momentum. Mitt Romney has the money.

Rick Santorum? He has neither at the moment.

Not that he's going to let details like that stop him from pressing ahead in his White House quest. Or, for that matter, hurdles like scant cash in an expensive state and a rapidly disappearing opportunity to emerge as the consensus candidate of conservative voters now that Gingrich has emerged as the leading anti-Romney candidate.

"Our feeling is that this is a three-person race," Santorum insisted on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that he felt "absolutely no pressure at all" to abandon his bid given Gingrich's rise.

Still, Santorum acknowledged a hard road ahead in what he called "a tough state for everybody."

"It's very, very expensive. It's a very short time frame," he said.

The former Pennsylvania senator placed third in Saturday's South Carolina primary.

Gingrich scored his first win, entering the Florida campaign with the political winds pushing the former House speaker from behind. Romney, who has raised mounds of cash, came in second and was ready to regroup with sophisticated political machines in the upcoming states, Florida included.

Underscoring Santorum's challenges, he was taking a few days away from the campaign trail in Florida this week to restock his thin campaign bank accounts. He plans fundraisers in other states, leaving Gingrich and Romney with free rein in Florida, while he stops in states such as Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Money is a necessity in a state like Florida with numerous expensive media markets and where campaigns are usually won on TV.

That's not a natural fit for Santorum, who has run his campaign on a shoestring and won the Iowa caucuses ? albeit narrowly ? by spending more than a year making house calls to voters and traveling the state in a pickup truck.

To make up ground and perhaps earn some free media, Santorum is going on the attack.

Standing in a strip mall's parking lot here Sunday before heading to fundraising events, Santorum cast Romney as an inconsistent figure who would not be an effective foil to President Barack Obama's re-election bid and argued that Gingrich was too "high risk" to be the Republican standard-bearer.

"Trust is a big issue in this election," Santorum told several hundred people. "Who are you going to trust when the pressure is on, when we're in that debate? It's great to be glib, but it's better to be principled."

He also met privately Sunday with pastors and delivered a sermon at Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, where he emphasized his conservatism. Santorum, who sprinkles his campaign speeches with his Catholic faith, is banking on evangelicals to coalesce around him over the thrice-married Gingrich or Romney, a Mormon.

"Can he win? Only God knows," said David Babbin, a voter here who works at the nearby children's hospital and likes Santorum. "But I believe in miracles."

Still, he noted one of the candidate's challenges: "Rick Santorum is one of us. And that's his biggest flaw ... We live in a society that is 'American Idol' and Rick Santorum is not like that."

Santorum has other hurdles beyond what even admirers call his lack of charisma.

His tough talk on Social Security and Medicare ? ending benefits for wealthier retirees, cutting payments to those who don't need them ? is going to dog him here in a state of 3.3 million seniors, or 17 percent of the population. AARP estimates that more than a third of those seniors would have incomes below the poverty line without Social Security and one in three seniors rely on Social Security as their sole source of income.

Santorum didn't mention those proposals at his first public campaign event since the primary in South Carolina.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-22-Santorum/id-cd7ae785d1da49c5ac11e77b877fe2bb

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Sean Penn shares film's dream of ducking stardom

Sean Penn, a cast member in "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sean Penn, a cast member in "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sean Penn, a cast member in "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sean Penn, a cast member in the film "This Must Be The Place," poses at the premiere of the film at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) ? Sean Penn's new movie casts him as a former rock star who turns his back on stardom and goes into exile overseas.

Penn can relate. He says he's thought often enough about ducking out of the limelight.

"This Must Be the Place" had its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where Penn first came 27 years ago with "The Falcon and the Snowman."

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, "This Must Be the Place" stars Penn as Cheyenne, a raven-maned, mascara-caked former pop icon whose look was inspired by Robert Smith of the Cure.

After his father's death, lost soul Cheyenne embarks on a road trip to track down a former Nazi who brutalized his dad in a concentration camp.

The film opens in the U.S. in March.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-22-Film-Sundance-Sean%20Penn/id-4fe7102e875848c192c3bba59f7f6a38

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Horrific murder no surprise in meth capital of US (AP)

FRESNO, Calif. ? When a 23-year-old Fresno woman fatally shot her two toddlers and a cousin, critically wounded her husband then turned the gun on herself last Sunday, investigators immediately suspected methamphetamine abuse in what otherwise was inexplicable carnage. It turned out the mother had videotaped herself smoking meth hours before the shooting.

In family photos, the children are adorable, the mother pretty. They lived in a large apartment complex near a freeway with neatly clipped lawns and mature trees. The father was recently laid off from a packing house job.

"When you get this type of tragedy, it's not a surprise that drugs were involved," said Lt. Mark Salazar, the Fresno Police Department's homicide commander. "Meth has been a factor in other violent crimes."

A Bakersfield mother was sentenced Tuesday for stabbing her newborn while in a meth rage. An Oklahoma woman drowned her baby in a washing machine in November. A New Mexico woman claiming to be God stabbed her son with a screwdriver last month, saying, "God wants him dead."

"Once people who are on meth become psychotic, they are very dangerous," said Dr. Alex Stalcup, who treated Haight Ashbury heroin users in the 1960s, but now researches meth and works with addicts in the San Francisco Bay Area suburbs. "They're completely bonkers; they're nuts. We're talking about very extreme alterations of normal brain function. Once someone becomes triggered to violence, there aren't any limits or boundaries."

The Central Valley of California is a hub of the nation's methamphetamine distribution network, making extremely pure forms of the drug easily available locally. And law enforcement officials say widespread meth abuse is believed to be driving much of the crime in the vast farming region.

Chronic use of the harsh chemical compound known as speed or crank can lead to psychosis, which includes hearing voices and experiencing hallucinations. The stimulant effect of meth is up to 50 times longer than cocaine, experts say, so users stay awake for days on end, impairing cognitive function and contributing to extreme paranoia.

"Your children and your spouse become your worst enemy, and you truly believe they are after you," said Bob Pennal, a recently retired meth investigator from the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Methamphetamine originally took root in California's agricultural heartland in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a poor man's cocaine. Its use initially creates feelings of euphoria and invincibility, but experts say repeated abuse can alter brain chemistry and sometimes cause schizophrenia-like behavior.

Meth's availability and its potential for abuse combine to create the biggest drug threat in the Central Valley, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Justice's Drug Intelligence Center. From 2009 to 2010 methamphetamine busts in the Central Valley more than tripled to 1,094 kilograms, or more than 2,400 pounds, the report says.

Large tracts of farmland with isolated outbuildings are an ideal place to avoid detection, which is why the region is home to nearly all of the nation's "super labs," controlled by Mexican drug trafficking organizations, said John Donnelly, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in Fresno.

"They have the potential to make 150 pounds per (each) cook," he said. "There are more super labs in California than anywhere else. Every week another office calls us ? St. Paul, Dayton, Kansas, Texas ? and says, `We've got a meth case here' and they say the suspects are from Turlock or Visalia. We're slinging it all over the country from here."

Last month, a drug task force working in four central California counties busted 24 alleged members of the Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana with 14 pounds of powdered meth, 30 gallons of meth solution, 17 guns, $110,000 in cash and a fleet of vehicles with sophisticated hidden compartments for smuggling.

Most law enforcement agencies don't keep statistics on how many homicides, burglaries and thefts are meth-related, but those responding to the National Drug Intelligence Center's 2011 survey said the drug is the top contributor to violent crimes and thefts.

"It drives more crime than other drugs do. Meth is in its own category, because it's so much more addictive than other drugs," said Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims.

Across the valley, meth addicts steal any metal they can resell ? agricultural plumbing, copper wiring, lawn sprinklers.

"We lose five to 10 manhole covers a week," said Ceres Police Chief Art de Werk, who said a woman was injured recently when she fell into an unprotected drain in a shopping center. "Meth is the poor man's drug and frankly the Central Valley is an impoverished geographic area."

Authorities say the science involved in creating the chemical compound continues to evolve, including an easier recipe called "Shake and Bake" that is available on the Internet. Last month, an Oklahoma woman was arrested as she walked around a WalMart store ? for six hours before she was noticed ? mixing ingredients for Shake and Bake.

In one of the recent attacks by meth users, Aubrey Ragina Mailloux received a nine- month sentence in Bakersfield Tuesday for stabbing her 6-week-old infant in the back and cutting her along her abdomen, jaw and neck during a binge. The baby survived.

"It's not illegal because we don't want people to feel better. It's illegal because it makes good people do crazy things," said Mailloux's defense attorney, Mark Anthony Raimondo.

In Oklahoma, authorities charged Lyndsey Fiddler with second-degree manslaughter after an aunt found her infant daughter in a washing machine thudding off balance in the spin cycle. The aunt told authorities that Fiddler had been up for three days using meth.

In Albuquerque, N.M., last month Liehsa Henderson, high on meth, claimed to be God and told police God wanted her son to die after allegedly stabbing him in the neck with a screwdriver. The boy survived.

Last Sunday, Fresno police found Aide Mendez dead on the bathroom floor of her home. Her children ? 17-month-old Aliyah Echevarria and Isaiah Echevarria, 3 ? were in the bathtub. Mendez's cousin was dead in the kitchen. She had shot each in the head. The children's father remains hospitalized with stabbing and gunshot wounds.

Police recovered 10 grams of meth, $8,000 and scales ? and the iPad the young mother used to videotape herself smoking meth.

"If she had been on it for any length of time, well it deteriorates your brain and central nervous system," said Sue Webber-Brown, a former DA investigator in Butte County who now advocates nationally for children in drug cases. "If you are already depressed or feel like a loser mom and you don't have a support system and there is no hope, the meth just fuels that."

____

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_us/us_meth_boom_violence

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Climbing higher at German wind farm

A German wind farm offers a ropes course at the foot of a towering wind turbine, providing an alternative view of green energy.

? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

Skip to next paragraph

Welcome to the world?s first ropes course ever installed on a wind farm. Built by the Juwi Group, one of Germany?s leading renewable-energy companies, and located at the foot of one of the farm?s 10 towering wind turbines, it?s attracting tourists in droves.

Why would a green company also build a climbing ropes course?

Think you know Europe? Take our geography quiz.

?We wanted to make the windmills more inviting,? says Ricarda Schuller, a spokesperson for Juwi. As interest in green energy use grows, the interactive course could help provide an alternative view of wind farms, which are often criticized here for being eyesores.

The course also fits into the company?s overall philosophy of providing attractive services to its employees: In addition to the ropes course, Juwi has a kindergarten, a swimming pool, and a beach volleyball court.

Think you know Europe? Take our geography quiz.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/YlMLxyBagxY/Climbing-higher-at-German-wind-farm

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iBooks 2 tackles textbooks and the education market

Today, Apple held their education event in New York, and one of their announcements was iBooks 2, and update on their book store which sets textbooks in the iPad’s

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/56fUrJP6i0I/story01.htm

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Wall St Week Ahead: Strong start for stocks, but what's changed? (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks rising, bulls rampant are motifs you might pick if designing a coat of arms for Wall Street at the moment. But the motto should read: Caveat emptor. Yes, buyer beware.

The S&P 500, a broad measure of the market valuation of the biggest U.S. publicly traded companies, is up 20 percent from its October closing low. It keeps climbing on a mixed bag of fourth-quarter earnings, improving U.S. economic data, and easing credit conditions in Europe. It now stands at its highest level since early last August.

We have already seen what is probably the first upgrade of a target level for the index this year courtesy of Credit Suisse.

The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX (.VIX), a measure of what investors are paying to protect themselves against the risk of losses, is at its lowest level in seven months.

So it raises the question: Is this another Jackson Hole moment for risk assets?

At the Wyoming retreat in late August 2010, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sparked what was the second major leg of the stock market's rally from bear market lows the year before.

Is this the start of the third?

FRIENDLIER FOOTING FOR STOCKS

For Andrew Garthwaite, the Credit Suisse analyst behind the firm's more bullish stance, there are big changes afoot that are creating a more benign environment for stocks.

First, the European Central Bank's long-term repo operations are succeeding in reducing stresses in the region's banking sector. This week, three-month dollar Libor, the cost at which European banks can borrow dollars, marked its ninth straight day of declines.

Analysts say heavy cash infusions from the European Central Bank since late last year and signs of revived willingness to lend by U.S. investors in the new year show the banking system is flush with cash.

The U.S. economy is looking stronger than thought, with notable movement in the long-dormant housing market, where sales of previously owned homes just rose to an 11-month high.

In China, the engine of global growth whose manufacturing sector has been showing worrying signs of slowing, policymakers have demonstrated willingness to make conditions easier by lowering banks' reserve requirements.

"As we approach our year-end target two weeks into January, we have to ask ourselves the following questions: What has changed? Will equities rally further?," Garthwaite said in a research note.

His answer to the second question was yes. Credit Suisse raised its year-end S&P 500 target to 1,400 from 1,340. Critically, however, the firm did not overweight equities, saying the risks of a more severe recession in Europe and a slowdown stateside were still there.

HEALTHY DOSE OF SKEPTICISM

For Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York, the rally remains largely untested. More scary headlines from Europe or any signs that the global economy is deteriorating could spark a sharp reversal.

Heading into the weekend, Greece was closing in on an initial deal with private bondholders that would prevent it from tumbling into a chaotic default. Creditors faced to 70 percent of the loans they have given to Athens.

"It's a confidence-based rally with the overhang of several still meaningful events to come," Colas said. "It is all well and good to say that the Greek default is well understood, but we haven't gone through it."

Outside the United States, there are mixed signals from the global economy, too.

China's factory activity likely fell for a third successive month in January. The HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), the earliest indicator of China's industrial activity, stood below 50.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index (.BADI), which tracks rates to ship dry commodities and can be a useful gauge of economic activity, fell to its lowest level in three years on Friday on a growing surplus of vessels and a slump in cargo demand.

That is at odds with the work of RBC technical analyst Robert Sluymer. He sees growing outperformance of industrial metal copper to the safe-haven bet of gold as well as an upturn in a basket of Asian currencies as a bullish sign for the economy.

The caution generated by the mismatches in the various data points is perhaps reflected in by U.S. interest rates.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note has hovered at 2 percent or just below for the last month despite a brief spike in mid-December. That suggests bondholders are not eagerly embracing the improving economy thesis for the moment.

"There is still a lot of skepticism about recovery, about moving into risk assets, about a lot of things," Colas said.

"If you really wanted to believe this about incrementally economic certainty and expansion ... I would have thought you'd expect to see the 10-year back over 2 percent."

EARNINGS, DATA AND THE FED

A blitz of earnings and economic indicators next week will provide an important gauge of the economy's health.

What's more, the Federal Reserve's policymakers will convene their first meeting of the year with a two-day session that starts on Tuesday. The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's rate-setting panel, will release its policy statement on Wednesday. No fireworks are expected, but a decision to release individual policymakers' interest-rate forecasts could alter expectations for rates on the margins.

Monday will start one of the two most hectic weeks of the earnings season. Marquee names due to report earnings on Monday include Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.O) and Halliburton Co (HAL.N), followed by Apple Inc (AAPL.O), DuPont (DD.N), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), McDonald's Corp (MCD.N), Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Yahoo! Inc (YHOO.O) - all on Tuesday.

Boeing (BA.N), ConocoPhillips (COP.N) and United Technologies (UTX.N) are set to release results on Wednesday. Thursday's earnings line-up includes 3M Co (MMM.N), AT&T Inc (T.N), Starbucks (SBUX.O) and Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N). On Friday, earnings are expected from Chevron Corp (CVX.N), Honeywell International (HON.N) and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG.N)

In the coming week, economic indicators to watch will include December pending home sales data, a key measure of the housing market, on Wednesday as well as the latest weekly claims for jobless benefits on Thursday. December durable goods orders and new home sales for December also will be released on Thursday.

The week will wrap up with the Commerce Department's first look at fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product and the final reading for January on consumer sentiment from Reuters and the University of Michigan.

In terms of companies beating expectations, fourth-quarter earnings season has not been as good as previous ones. Of the approximately 70 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 60 percent have exceeded analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In comparison, in the third quarter at this early point in the reporting cycle, 68 percent had beaten Wall Street's forecasts - well below the 78 percent in that category in the second quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed.

There have also been some high-profile misses on both revenue and earnings.

General Electric Co's (GE.N) fourth-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street's expectations, with Europe's weakening economy and weak appliance sales the main culprits.

On the other hand, banks' earnings have served as a positive catalyst for the stock market so far. The sector has been one of the market's leaders despite mixed earnings, a sign that investors' worst fears did not materialize.

(Reporting By Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/bs_nm/us_usa_stocks_weekahead

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Debate Morning After (Balloon Juice)

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A Q&A on contested Internet anti-piracy bills (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Online piracy costs U.S. copyright owners and producers billions of dollars every year, but legislation in Congress to block foreign Internet thieves and swindlers has met strong resistance from high-tech companies, spotlighted by Wikipedia's protest blackout on Wednesday, warning of a threat to Internet freedom.

House and Senate bills that once seemed to be on a path toward approval now face a rockier future. House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday said it was "pretty clear to many of us that there is a lack of consensus at this point."

Amid the high-tech campaign against the bills, several lawmakers came out in opposition. At least four Senate Republicans who had previously cosponsored the Senate bill ? Orrin Hatch of Utah, Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boozman of Arkansas and Charles Grassley of Iowa ? issued statements Wednesday saying they were withdrawing their support. Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland last week said that, after listening to constituent concerns, he could not vote for the Senate bill as it is currently written.

On the House side, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., issued a statement that he had heard from many of his constituents and come to the conclusion that the House and Senate bills "create unacceptable threats to free speech and free access to the Internet."

Here are some of the some of the questions being raised about the bills being considered:

Q. Why is legislation needed?

A. There's no argument that more needs to be done to protect artists, innovators and industries from copyright thieves and shield consumers from products sold on the Internet that are fake, faulty and unsafe. Creative America, a coalition of Hollywood studios, networks and unions, says content theft costs U.S. workers $5.5 billion a year. The pharmaceutical industry loses billions to Internet sellers of drugs that are falsely advertised and may be harmful.

Q. What is Congress trying to accomplish?

A. The two main bills are the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA, in the Senate, and the similar Stop Online Privacy Act, or SOPA, in the House. There are already laws on the books to combat domestic websites trafficking in counterfeit or pirated goods, but little to counter foreign violators.

The bills would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of perpetrating or facilitating copyright infringement. While there is little the United States can do to take down those websites, the bills would bar online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies and PayPal from doing business with an alleged violator. It also would forbid search engines from linking to such sites.

The original bills would have let copyright holders and Internet service providers block access to pirate websites. Critics and Internet engineers complained that would allow copyright holders to interfere in the behind-the-scenes system that seamlessly directs computer users to websites. They said that causing deliberate failures in the lookup system to prevent visits to pirate websites could more easily allow hackers to trick users into inadvertently visiting websites that could infect their computers. The White House also took issue with that approach, saying "We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet."

Responding to the critics, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said he is taking the blocking measure out of his bill. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., also is reworking his bill to address those cybersecurity issues.

Q. What are other concerns with the bills?

A. Critics say they would constrain free speech, curtail innovation and discourage new digital distribution methods. NetCoalition, a group of leading Internet and technology companies, says they could be forced to pre-screen all user comments, pictures and videos ? effectively killing social media. Search engines, Internet service providers and social networks could be forced shut down websites linked to any type of pirated content.

In addition, critics contend that young, developing businesses and smaller websites could be saddled with expensive litigation costs. And, they contend existing rights holders could impede new investment in the technology sector.

The White House said it would "not support any legislation that reduces freedom of expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

Leahy responded that there is nothing in the legislation that would require websites, Internet service providers, search engines, ad networks, payment processors or others to monitor their networks. He said his bill protects third parties from liability that may arise from actions to comply with a court order.

Michael O'Leary, a senior vice president at the Motion Picture Association of America, a key supporter of the legislation, said his industry is built upon a vibrant First Amendment. "We would never support any legislation that would limit this fundamental American right," he said. Neither PIPA nor SOPA "implicate free expression but focus solely on illegal conduct, which is not free speech."

Q. Who else supports the bills?

A. The most visible supporters are entertainment-related groups such as the MPAA and the National Music Publishers' Association. But the bills also enjoy support from the pharmaceutical industry, which is trying to shut down illegal online drug operations, and electronic and auto industries concerned about people going online to buy counterfeit parts that may be substandard. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several law enforcement groups also back the legislation.

Q. Who are the opponents?

A. In addition to Wikipedia, many major Internet and technology companies, including Google, Yahoo!, Amazon.com and eBay, are part of the NetCoalition group opposing the bills. Disparate political groups such as the liberal Democracy for America and the conservative Heritage Action have also voiced concerns about censorship.

Q. What is the status of the bills?

A. Momentum for the bills has slowed, giving the edge to Silicon Valley over Hollywood. The Senate, as its first major business when it returns to session next Tuesday, is to vote on whether to take up the bill. Sixty votes are needed to clear that legislative hurdle. It's unclear whether supporters have the votes.

Six Republicans on the Judiciary Committee last week wrote Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., saying that while the problem of intellectual property theft must be addressed, "the process at this point is moving too quickly" and a vote on moving to the bill "may be premature."

Reid replied that the vote will occur as scheduled, saying that while the bill was not perfect and he had urged Leahy to make changes, the issue was "too important to delay."

In the House, Judiciary Committee Chairman Smith said his panel would resume deliberations on SOPA in February. Meanwhile, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and an ally of the high-tech industry, said he had received assurances from GOP leaders that anti-piracy legislation would not move to the House floor this year unless there is a consensus on it.

Issa, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are pushing an alternative to SOPA and PIPA that would make the International Trade Commission, which already is in charge of patent infringements, responsible for taking steps to prevent money and advertising from going to rogue sites.

Issa formally introduced his bill Wednesday, saying the Internet blackout had "underscored the flawed approach taken by SOPA and PIPA" and his bill was "a smarter way to protect taxpayers' rights while protecting the Internet."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_go_co/us_internet_piracy_q_a

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Obama hosts ambassadors and mayors; meets with Geithner (Star Tribune)

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