Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193479424?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Magnitude 6.3 earthquake shakes Peru (AP)
LIMA, Peru ? The U.S. Geological Survey says an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 has struck on the coast of central Peru.
The quake was recorded at 11 minutes after midnight (local and EST; 0511 GMT), nine miles (15 kilometers) from the city of Ica, which was badly damaged by a major 8.0 earthquake in August 2007 and also suffered damage in a quake last October.
Monday's quake was at a depth of 24.4 miles (39.2 kilometers). USGS maps showed the epicenter exactly on the Pacific Ocean coastline.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. No tsunami warning was issued.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Florida highway pileup kills at least 10 people
Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least 9 people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least 9 people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Firemen spray foam on a truck that was part of a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Wrecked vehicles sit along the road at the scene of a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Firemen watch as cleanup crews work on vehicles that were involved in a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
A small passenger vehicle sits lodged beneath a semitrailer after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) ? A long line of cars and trucks collided one after another early Sunday on a dark Florida highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were instantly blinded. At least 10 people were killed.
When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile, police said.
Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup south of Gainesville on Interstate 75, which had been closed for a time before the accidents because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames.
Steven R. Camps of Gainesville said he and some friends were driving home several hours before dawn when they were drawn into the pileup.
"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," he said. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."
Photographs of the scene taken hours later revealed an aftermath that resembled a Hollywood disaster movie. Twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage.
Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.
Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.
Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and warned Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area just south of Gainesville.
A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.
"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.
Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to them when another vehicle hit the man's car.
The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.
All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.
"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."
Authorities had not released the names of victims Sunday evening, but said one passenger car had four fatalities and a "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup.
At least 18 people were taken to a hospital.
All six lanes of the interstate ? which runs virtually the entire length of Florida ? were closed most of Sunday afternoon as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames.
The northbound lanes of I-75 were reopened around 5:30 p.m. EST, but the southbound lanes remained closed.
"Our standard operating procedure is to get the road open as quickly as possible but let's not forget we have 10 people who are not with us today," said Lt. Patrick Riordan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. "So we are going to take our time assessing the situation."
It was not clear when the highway would fully reopen because part of the road melted, police said.
At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of the fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved.
Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.
Traffic was being diverted much of Sunday onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Riordan said.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service, Ludie Bond, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.
Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.
Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.
In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.
___
Associated Press Writer Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Switched On: You tell me it's the institution
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Apple rose to dominate sales of digital music by more or less mirroring the way consumers acquired music in the physical world -- that is, purchasing songs, but providing a greater degree of granularity. This worked well for music and has also held true for apps and best-selling books, but hasn't been as in step with consumer media acquisition habits for other content.
For example, before Apple brought sales of video material to iTunes, most consumers did not generally own TV shows except for perhaps a few cherished series on DVD. They either watched them as they aired as part of a cable-like subscription or paid a flat monthly fee for the privilege of recording them on a DVR to be viewed after they aired. Furthermore, both Blockbuster physical stores and later Netflix's DVD by mail feature relied on a system of one-time consumption via rental or subscription that eschewed ownership of movies. And today, Vevo.com offers free streaming of many music videos that Apple still seeks to sell. 
For example, before Apple brought sales of video material to iTunes, most consumers did not generally own TV shows except for perhaps a few cherished series on DVD. They either watched them as they aired as part of a cable-like subscription or paid a flat monthly fee for the privilege of recording them on a DVR to be viewed after they aired. Furthermore, both Blockbuster physical stores and later Netflix's DVD by mail feature relied on a system of one-time consumption via rental or subscription that eschewed ownership of movies. And today, Vevo.com offers free streaming of many music videos that Apple still seeks to sell.
Continue reading Switched On: You tell me it's the institution
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Your Chicago: West Suburban Students Become 'Cancer Smashers ...
Students at Eisenhower Junion High School attend a rally to fight cancer. (CBS)
DARIEN, Ill. (CBS) ? In 2011, cancer killed nearly 600,000 Americans nationwide.
So, when you think of a cancer fundraiser, you don?t think of something that resembles a celebration.
But you don?t know the Cancer Smashers.
In the high school gym at Eisenhower Junior High last week, a pep rally was held to end cancer, complete with videos, cheerleaders, a band and inspirational speakers.
Cancer Smashers is the brainchild of the H Foundation, which funds cancer research through the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern. Many of the 10- to 17-year-olds have already visited there.
?The kids created this. It was their vision, they wanted some friendly competition to get the word out in the community,? the foundation?s Dena Provenzano told CBS 2?s Rob Johnson.
Some of the kids in the foundation attend Eisenhower, and their vision was to challenge their rivals at nearby Lakeview Junior High in Downers Grove to a fundraiser. Several of the Lakeview kids had the courage to walk into the enemy?s lair, all in the name of cancer.
?Someone I know in my family has cancer, so it?s important for me to help end cancer for other families, too,? Sara Casey said.
For $1, the kids at each school will be buying fists in honor of someone, which will go up in the hallways of each respective school. By week?s end, the school with the most fists sold will be the winner.
Principals have stoked their kids? competitive fires, taken a fierce rivalry and turned into a teaching moment.
Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/27/your-chicago-west-suburban-students-become-cancer-smashers/
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Analysis: Banks expect to spend less on bad mortgages (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Even as President Barack Obama is calling for more assistance for struggling mortgage borrowers, major banks are looking forward to spending less to handle problem home loans.
The chief executives of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), the two biggest U.S. banks, said this month their rate of spending to handle troubled mortgages had topped out and should begin to decline soon with falling delinquency rates. Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), the fourth-biggest bank, also is counting on lower mortgage expenses this year.
With fewer problem loans to process, the banks could reduce the army of back-office staffers who handle the paperwork and phone calls required by foreclosures.
Bank executives are under pressure from investors to reduce expenses to improve profits amid weak demand for loans in the slow economy. If the three big banks are right in anticipating that the wave of mortgage defaults will subside, their bottom lines will get a lift -- and property values will firm up, to the benefit of neighborhoods across the country.
Others are not so optimistic. Executives of Citigroup Inc (C.N), the third-biggest bank, continue to caution that mortgage issues, including legal liability for alleged abuses, remain the biggest single threat to the U.S. banking industry. And some consumer advocates worry that the banks could scale back too quickly on their mortgage workout staff.
Obama, who said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that he intends to ease the mortgage burdens of "millions of innocent Americans," is sending Congress a plan to allow homeowners to refinance at lower rates even when they owe more than their homes are worth. Also under discussion: a multistate settlement in which banks could pay up to $25 billion in exchange for protection from future lawsuits about improper foreclosures and lending and servicing abuses.
After the bust in house prices, the banks built up armies of staff to handle problem loans, said Guy Cecala, publisher of industry trade journal Inside Mortgage Finance.
"I'm not passing judgment on how well it works or how efficient it is," he said. "But they have adequate staffing."
JPMorgan nearly tripled its staff over three years to 20,000 people. "That number has probably peaked, and I think you will see it coming down over the next couple years," JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon told analysts who questioned him about expenses after the company reported lower fourth-quarter profits.
Dimon forecast that two-thirds of the $925 million of expenses JPMorgan incurred to service mortgages in the quarter will go away.
JPMorgan's mortgage delinquencies are down sharply from 18 months ago, and the bank charged off less than half as much money for problem home loans in the fourth quarter as it did a year earlier.
Bank of America is working off a mountain of mortgage problems left from its 2008 purchase of subprime lender Countrywide Financial. It now has about 32,000 workers handling delinquent or other at-risk mortgage loans, more than six times the staff it had in 2008. The bank spent $2 billion in the fourth quarter, excluding litigation costs, on the issue.
Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said that over time that spending will be reduced to $300 million per quarter, even taking into account stricter servicing regulations faced by banks.
Moynihan noted that total loans more than 60 days past due declined more than 20 percent from a year earlier to about 1.1 million in the fourth quarter. He said the bank expects costs to decline in 2012 but that it could take up to two years for expenses to return to normal levels.
The resolution of problem loans will depend on how fast the economy improves and the unemployment rate declines, Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said. The bank will continue to make "investments necessary to meet the needs of our customers," he added.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo told analysts it expects to reduce its quarterly expenses for troubled mortgages and foreclosures to as low as $600 million, compared with $718 million in the fourth quarter.
"We do believe that there are some cyclically high mortgage costs that are going to roll off," CEO John Stumpf told analysts.
Dan Alpert, managing partner with investment bank Westwood Capital LLC, said, "If the expectation is that the economy is strengthening and new defaults will start to slack off, then yes, expenses should go down."
But Alpert cautioned that if the economy is doing "a head fake, like in the first and second quarters of last year, then defaults will start going up again."
Diane Thompson, an attorney with the not-for-profit National Consumer Law Center, said it is premature for banks to say their operations are ready to be scaled back.
Banks continue to lose documents, give bad information to customers and take too long to resolve loan modification applications, said Thompson, whose organization assists struggling borrowers.
Banks could also have additional costs if they agree to new servicing standards to reach a settlement with federal officials and state attorneys general investigating alleged foreclosure abuses.
Some statistics suggest the foreclosure crisis is far from over. A study last fall by the Center for Responsible Lending estimated that while more than 2.7 million homeowners who received loans between 2004 and 2008 had already lost their homes to foreclosure, another 3.6 million were still at serious risk of ending up in the same boat.
Citigroup executives cautioned last week, for the second time in three months, that overall delinquency rates had stopped falling recently because some borrowers, who previously defaulted and had their mortgages modified, had defaulted again. Citigroup also said its servicing costs increased in the fourth quarter because it spent more to comply with a settlement banks reached last year with some regulators over the handling of mortgages.
"We continue to believe mortgage-related issues are the single largest source of risk facing the U.S. banking industry," Citigroup Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach told analysts.
Alongside servicing costs for existing mortgages and potential losses on the loans, banks also still face allegations that they broke laws during the housing boom by giving loans to unqualified borrowers and then fraudulently packaged and sold mortgage-backed bonds. Obama pledged Tuesday to ramp up government investigations of those allegations, which could lead to billions of dollars of litigation expenses and penalties for banks.
But Citigroup executives also noted that repeat defaults are
not as frequent as it had expected and that early-stage delinquencies were less common in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter.
Paul Miller, a bank analyst at FBR Capital Markets, said big banks' servicing expenses are likely to fall from current levels. But he cautioned that significant relief will not come as quickly as the banks would like.
"I would think 2012 is probably the year it peaks," Miller said, "but it's not like it's going down by 50 percent."
(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina and David Henry in New York.; Editing by Alwyn Scott and John Wallace)
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Video: Fireworks from Romney, Gingrich ?in Fla. debate
>>> we begin with the race for the republican nomination and an intense debate in florida last night. peter alexander has more from miami. hey, peter. good morning.
>> reporter: ann, good morning. mitt romney 's campaign is feeling very confident that the debate gives him momentum into tuesday's vote in the state of florida now four days away. the romney campaign from the start was aggressive. mitt romney going after newt gingrich , beginning on the topic of immigration here in a state where nearly 20% of the pop population is foreign-born. embracing aggressiveness mitt romney chastised newt gingrich for calling him anti-imgrant.
>> my father was born in mexico. the idea that i'm anti-immigrant is repulsive.
>> reporter: newt gingrich fired back.
>> we're not going to grab a grandmother and kick them out.
>> the problem isn't 11 million grandmothers. [ cheers and applause ]
>> our problem is 11 million people getting job that legal immigrants would like to have.
>> reporter: romney delivered a defense of his personal wealthiest mated to be as much as $250 million.
>> it's important for people to make sure we don't castigate successful individuals. those investments lead to jobs in america. i'm proud of being successful.
>> reporter: gingrich criticized romney for profiting from investments in the federal mortgage lender freddie mac .
>> maybe in the spirit of openness governor romney should tell us how much money he's made off how many households foreclosed by his investments . let's be clear.
>> first of all, my investments are not made by me. my investments for ten years have been in a blind trust managed by a trustee. if you check your investments you also have investments in mutual funds that also invested in fannie mae and freddie mac .
>> right.
>> reporter: for his part rick santorum also went on the offensive, attacking romneycare.
>> so in massachusetts -- in massachusetts , everybody is mandated as a condition of breathing in massachusetts to buy health insurance and if you don't you have to pay a fine. what's happened in massachusetts is people are now paying the fine because health insurance is so expensive and you have a pre-existing condition clause in yours just like barack obama .
>> reporter: each candidate explained why his wife would make the best first lady.
>> she's my hero.
>> my wife is also a mom. in some respects she's a champion and a fighter.
>> she's the mother of five of our children and also the author of a very famous cookbook "the ron paul cookbook."
>> she's not necessarily in any way better. these are wonderful people who would be wonderful first ladies.
>> reporter: finally in a light moment ron paul mocked the plan of newt gingrich to build an american base on the moon.
>> well, i don't think we should go to the moon. maybe we should send some politicians up there. the crowd liked that one. if you have debate fatigue at this point, not to worry. this was the 19th debate of the gop cycle so far a. we have to wait nearly another month for the next one.
>> peter alexander , thank you so
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46161323/
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Harvard Gets Its First VC Firm: The Experiment Fund
As just about everyone should know by now, the seeds of what grew into Facebook were planted at Harvard. Might there be a bunch of mini-Zucks lurking in the dorms of Cambridge? If so, a new venture capital firm ? the first housed right on the Harvard campus ? wants to find them.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4ic_MzebaIQ/
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Lady Gaga Opens Italian Restaurant With Her Dad
Joanne Trattoria named in honor of her late aunt.
By Gil Kaufman
Lady Gaga
Photo: Alo Ceballos/FilmMagic
<P><a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lady_gaga/artist.jhtml" target="_blank">Lady Gaga</a> is know for being ostentatious, outrageous and making the biggest entrance possible. But for a star that has made her name for shocking our senses, Mother Monster's newest venture is decidedly low-key. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="id:1669247" width="240" height="211"></div><p> After dropping several mentions in interviews over the past few months about a new restaurant she planned to launch with her father, Joseph Germanotta, Joanne Trattoria will finally open its doors on Wednesday. The modest Italian neighborhood eatery on West 68th Street in New York was described by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/dining/lady-gagas-parents-to-open-joanne-trattoria.html?_r=2" target="_blank"><I>The New York Times</I></a> as having a "well-stocked bar, a cozy back patio and seating for about 70 people." The walls are covered with scenes of the Tuscan countryside and near a fireplace at the entrance diners will see some Germanotta family photos hanging by a front booth. The restaurant will be run by Joseph and Gaga's mother, Cynthia, and her proud pop admitted that his daughter "just generates a lot of sizzle," helping to get the word out about the venture. The chef and partner in the business is Art Smith, who met Gaga at a taping for the "Oprah Winfrey Show." Smith was Winfrey's personal chef for several years. The name was inspired by Joseph's late sister, Joanne, who died of lupus at age 19. Not only is Joanne Gaga's middle name, but in a number of interviews the singer has <a href="http://newsroom.mtv.com/2011/10/31/lady-gaga-dad-joseph-restaurant-joanne/" target="_blank">opened up</a> about her strong connection with her late aunt. "I thought I was gonna die," she said she said last year. "I wanted to be the artists I loved, like Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol -- and I thought the only way to do it was to live the lifestyle. But then I realized my father's sister Joanne, who'd died at 19, had instilled her spirit in me. She was a painter and a poet -- and I had a spiritual vision I had to finish her business." The <I>Times</I> noted that Gaga is not officially a part-owner of the restaurant, which Joseph said the family could have afforded to open even if his daughter had not risen to global fame. It has long been his dream to open the eatery, he said, and visitors at Joanne will dine on "Southern Italian," given that Smith is from the South and the Germanotta's are Italian. That means they will chow down on dishes such as "Papa G's chicken," traditional offerings like osso buco inspired by Joanne and Cynthia's salad, named for Gaga's mother. Hoping to temper fans' expectations, Joseph said he wasn't sure if he'd post current pics of Gaga among the family photos. Maybe, he said, just and old one in which she's not as recognizable. And though he's happy to have his eldest get the word out about the family business, if fans make the trek expecting to see a trophy case with VMAs and Grammys, "it's not going to happen," he warned.</p>
Related Videos Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677929/lady-gaga-dad-italian-restaurant.jhtml
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Cuba?s Fidel Castro derides GOP field as ?greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance? ever seen (The Envoy)
Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned over power to his brother in 2011. (AP)
Cuba's Fidel Castro weighed in on the GOP field Wednesday ahead of next week's Florida GOP primary vote.
The former Cuban leader, 85, whose 1959 Communist takeover of the island nation prompted the exodus of many of those whose families now comprise Florida's politically influential Cuban American community, took to official state media organs to blast the Republican primary contest, the Associated Press's man in Havana Paul Haven reported.
"The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is?and I mean this seriously?the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been," Castro wrote in an opinion column carried by a Cuban state paper, Haven wrote.
Castro officially stepped down as the head of the country's communist party last year, turning power over to his brother Raul Castro. His brother officially succeeded him as Cuba's president in 2008.
But the aging revolutionary still exerts a powerful psychological hold on Florida's Cuban America community---and thus on local and national politics. He has managed to outlast eleven U.S. administrations.
Asked at Monday's Tampa GOP primary debate what he would do if he got a 3 a.m. call that Castro had died, Mitt Romney responded that he would "thank Heavens" that Castro had at last "returned to his maker."
"I don't think Fidel's going to meet his maker," Newt Gingrich replied. "I think he's going to go to the other place."
Gingrich, speaking Wednesday at Florida International University, chastised President Obama for supporting the Arab spring pro-democracy revolutions, while not calling for a "Cuban spring" closer to home.
"I don't think it occurs to a single person in the White House to look south and propose a Cuban spring," Gingrich said in the speech to the Florida International University College Republicans, the Miami Herald reported.
Other popular Yahoo! News stories:
? In State of the Union, Obama warns of inequality
? Mitch Daniels: Obama divided America
? Newt Gingrich mocks Romney for his "self-deportation" plan
? "Great job": Obama praises Panetta for Somalia special ops rescue
Want more of our best national security stories? Visit?The Envoy or connect with us?on Facebook and?on Twitter.
Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr.
Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.
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Rescued aid worker is recalled as devout, driven
This undated photo taken at an unknown location and released by the Danish Refugee Council on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 shows American Jessica Buchanan from the Danish Refugee Council's de-mining unit. U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, while killing nine pirates, officials and a pirate source said. (AP Photo/Danish Refugee Council)
This undated photo taken at an unknown location and released by the Danish Refugee Council on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 shows American Jessica Buchanan from the Danish Refugee Council's de-mining unit. U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, while killing nine pirates, officials and a pirate source said. (AP Photo/Danish Refugee Council)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? An American aid worker rescued by Navy SEALs in Somalia was a student leader at her Christian grade school, attended a religious college in suburban Philadelphia and "fell in love with Africa" while doing student teaching in Nairobi.
The Rev. Don Meyer, president of Valley Forge Christian College, said everyone at the small school in suburban Philadelphia is thankful their prayers have been answered with word that 2007 graduate Jessica Buchanan, 32, was rescued along with Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Dane. The two were working with a demining unit when gunmen kidnapped them in October.
"Ever since Jessica was captured, we all as a community have been praying for her safety and for her safe release," Meyer said in a telephone interview. "The priority is just how grateful we are that she is safe."
The SEALs parachuted down in the early morning darkness Wednesday, killing nine kidnappers and freeing Buchanan and Hagen.
President Barack Obama ordered the rescue after intelligence indicated Buchanan's health was failing, according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly. A Danish Refugee Council official said Buchanan was "not that ill" but needed medicine.
The family reported that her health is good, Meyer said. Relatives did not immediately comment.
The family had asked people at the school to keep quiet about the case while authorities tried to negotiate Buchanan's release, Meyer said. Now, he said, the school wants to offer its "deep gratitude" to the people who worked to free her.
Buchanan was an elementary education major at Valley Forge Christian, which has about 1,100 students, and had done a student teaching stint at Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi as part of her course work, Meyer said.
"She fell in love with Africa," he said. "She could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes."
Minutes after giving his State of the Union address to Congress, Obama was on the phone with Buchanan's father to tell him his daughter was safe.
"Her life story is a model of what we prepare our students to do," Meyer said. "Now, the priority, though, is that she be joined with her family. ... It's thrilling beyond words."
Before Buchanan's family moved from Ohio years ago, she attended the now-closed Ridgeville Christian School, a preschool-through-12th-grade campus in Springboro, north of Cincinnati.
There, she was a student leader very involved in activities and sports, including basketball and volleyball, said retired high school science teacher Roy Merrill.
"She was an outstanding student," Merrill said. "She had a lot of drive to get things done."
Elementary school teacher Carol Richards said Buchanan and her family were "very Christian people."
"We are so excited," she said of the rescue. "Many prayers have been answered."
___
Sewell reported from Cincinnati.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Icy river sweeps girl, 6, away from father
Rescue crews continue to search for a 6-year-old Oregon girl that has been missing since Sunday, when she fell into the icy Clackamas River. KGW-TV's Mark Hanrahan reports.
?
By msnbc.com staff and news services
ESTACADA, Ore. -- An Oregon man raced along the rain-swollen Clackamas River but couldn't keep up with his 6-year-old daughter who had fallen into the stream and was swept downriver, authorities said.
Rescue workers searched without success Monday for Vinesa Snegur, who fell Sunday into the river,?running fast and cold from a recent winter storm.
The Clackamas County sheriff's office said the search would resume Tuesday.
"It was just a second of inattention," sheriff's Sgt. James Rhodes said of the little girl's fall, explaining that her father turned away, "then splash, and she fell in. He ran and tried to keep up with her, but he was unable to."
Rhodes said the girl and her parents, Igor and Marina Snegur, are from southeast Portland and drove Sunday to play in the snow. They parked near Austin Hot Springs in the Mount Hood National Forest where a road is close to the stream.
The spot is about 60 miles southeast of Portland. There's no cell service, and the family couldn't call for help until they got to a phone at a ranger station an hour later, Rhodes said.
Rick Bowmer / AP
A member of the Multnomah County Sheriff Search and Rescue team searches along the Clackamas River for 6-year-old Vinesa Snegur on Monday.
The water temperature Monday was just above freezing, and the river is carrying a heavy load of trees and roots, imperiling rescue workers, he said.
About 50 ground searchers and divers suspended their search at nightfall Monday. A helicopter with thermal imaging equipment also was used to scan the river.
Purple jacket, pink hat
Steve Duin, who joined the search and wrote about it in a column for The Oregonian, said that by noon Monday about 50 people had joined the search, including divers in the water and relatives of the child, who was wearing a purple jacket, pink hat and white pants when she fell.
"Flares have been set out on the road into Austin Hot Springs, the smoke drifting over the divers and the bridge. The black ice is long gone as I slide down the hill, but I slow each time the river comes into view, searching for a blink of purple or pink somewhere," he wrote.
The Oregonian reported that Vinesa's parents were still on the mountain "surrounded by family and trauma specialists" late on Monday.
A series of storms stretching from coast to coast brought snow and ice to the Pacific Northwest, grounded planes in Chicago and 2012's first snow to the Northeast. NBC's Bill Karins and the Weather Channel's Mike Seidel report.
At Vinesa's Mill Park Elementary School, about 140 students visited a special 21-person crisis counseling team Monday, The Oregonian reported. Barbara Kienle, students services director, said half a dozen employees, including some of Vinesa's teachers, also talked to counselors.
"She has many friends," Principal Rolando Florez told the newspaper. "There were lots of sad kids in her class today."
Like many streams in western Oregon, the Clackamas River is swollen by heavy rain that fell late last week as a winter storm moved into the region. The storm caused flooding in many communities in the Willamette Valley.
A mother and her 1-year-old son died after a creek swept away their car from an Albany, Ore., parking lot. A father and his son were able to escape.
Most streams have receded, but more rain is been forecast this week in western Oregon, raising the possibility of more floods.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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McDonald's Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly ... - Business Insider
A twitter campaign by McDonald's backfired when people started sharing the wrong kind of #McDStories (via @bored2tears).
McDonald's kicked things off on Thursday with the hashtag #MeetTheFarmers, in a campaign meant to draw attention to the brand's guarantee of fresh produce.
Later in the day, however, the burger company used a dangerously vague hashtag: "When u make something w/ pride, people can taste it," McD potato supplier #McDstories
People took this hashtag and started talking trash. The Daily Mail gathered some of the best:
UPDATE: Here's an emailed statement from McDonald's social media director Rick Wion:
Last Thursday, we planned to use two different hashtags during a promoted trend ? #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories.
While #meetthefarmers was used for the majority of the day and successful in raising awareness of the Supplier Stories campaign, #mcdstories did not go as planned. We quickly pulled #mcdstories and it was promoted for less than two hours.
Within an hour of pulling #McDStories the number of conversations about it fell off from a peak of 1600 to a few dozen. It is also important to keep those numbers in perspective. There were 72,788 mentions of McDonald's overall that day so the traction of #McDStories was a tiny percentage (2%) of that.
With all social media campaigns, we include contingency plans should the conversation not go as planned. The ability to change midstream helped this small blip from becoming something larger.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-twitter-campaign-goes-horribly-wrong-mcdstories-2012-1
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VOLNAISKRA: 5 of my favourite gaming apps
PC gaming is pretty much as male as hobbies get. As the most graphically advanced and customisable gaming platform,?it combines three of the cornerstones of being a man:
- our primal need to seek out and experience beautiful things
- our never-ending fascination with watching stuff blow up
- our compulsive desire to tinker.?
1. ? ?DXTORY?
What it does:?lets you limit your FPS to whatever you want
Dxtory is a fully-featured app that lets you take screenshots and videos of your games. It excels at this, offering more robust options than the popular Fraps. But what I love most about it is its FPS-limiter feature.
There's a myth circulating the internet that claims that humans can't see over 30 frames per second - one which has gained significant popularity among the gullible and the half-blind. But if you're neither of these, you've no doubt noticed with your own eyes that?framerates in most games tends to fluctuate a lot, which can be very noticeable and distracting (even if the overall frame rate is high and it's fluctuating between, say, 60 fps and 50fps).
Our eyes are designed to detect?aberration. If you look at a 1920x1080 screen that is all white except for a single black pixel, you'll have no problem finding that one black pixel, even though it's outnumbered by the white pixels?2,073,599 to 1. Similarly, while your peripheral vision is useless at making out the fine detail in things, it remains excellent at detecting movement. Because noticing change is what our eyes are best at.
The downside of this is that?our eyes are very good at noticing variations in the frames-per-second of games, which can be distracting and impede immersion. Some higher-end games combat this by introducing motion blur, though even that only partially alleviates the problem.?The only real solution is to try and force a constant framerate, which is where Dxtory comes in.
Among its many features, Dxtory lets you set a framerate cap for your games, on a per-profile basis. So you can set different framerate caps for different games, and dxtory will remember them and faithfully apply the right profile when you load them up. In other words, it's basically set-and-forget.
For example, I use a limit of 47 for Batman: Arkham City, which?used to fluctuate between 45 and 60 fps. 47 is still pretty decent, and now that the fps barely ever fluctuates, the overall experience feels smoother than ever.
The full version of Dxtory is a little pricey, but the free version is perfectly useable if you're just using it for FPS-limiting or screenshots, with only some minor annoyances placed in your way (you need to wait 10 seconds to launch, and it loads up a webpage when you quit).
2. ? ?EVGA PrecisionWhat it does: overclocking for dummies
Download it?here.?(note: you?don't?need an EVGA brand graphics card for it to work)? Graphics cards are built conservatively, and usually have significantly more grunt in them than what the factory settings expose. To really squeeze the maximum juice from your card, you have to enter the crazy world of water-cooling systems, voltage increases and painstaking stress-testing. But for the rest of us, a simple program like EVGA Precision can provide a modest framerate increase without much hassle or risk.Now, when it comes to overclocking, I'm strictly a layman, so if you want to do anything more than the conservative tweak I recommend here, you'll want to find a proper overclocking guide somewhere else. If you go overboard or fiddle with things you're not meant to, you can easily?damage to your machine. A gentle overclock, however, is a pretty safe and worthwhile thing to do. Please note though that even the slightest overclock will proably void your warranty and could decrease the life of your graphics card. Proceed only if these things don't concern you.
There are plenty of overclocking programs out there, though I like EVGA Precision for its simplicity. Once you load it up, it will show you your graphic card's current settings. Unless you've overclocked before or you own a factory-overclocked graphics card, these will be the defaults (to confirm what the defaults of your cards are, check the official specifications of your card on the manufacturer's website).
As a rule of thumb, increasing the core clock (aka graphics clock) and shader clock (aka processor clock) by 10% is considered quite safe. For example, a?GTX580's defaults are 772 MHz and 1544 MHz respectively, so increasing them to about 850 and 1700 should be fine. You can also slightly increase the memory clock, although this will likely have less of an impact on your gaming experience. Once you have changed your settings, check the "apply at windows startup" box and you're done. If you notice your games crashing or any weird visual artifacts (unlikely but possible), then lessen or undo these changes. Otherwise, just let EVGA Precision run in the background and do its thing.
A conservative overclock of 10% will likely give you an increase of 3-5 frames per second in most games. If this doesn't sound like much, it's because it isn't. But hey, it's essentially 'free', and takes 2 minutes to set up. The next time you're juggling a game's graphics settings to try and find the best balance between good visuals and a playable framerate, this bonus 3-5 fps will be very welcome.
3. ? ?xmouseWhat it does:?makes your extra mouse buttons work in all games
Xmouse is a little program that runs in the background that you can use to map different keys or functions to different mouse buttons. Useful if you have extra buttons on your mouse that a game doesn't recognise.It supports multiple profiles, so you can use different configurations for different games. Though personally, I just globally map my two extra mouse buttons to the F and V keys. Then, whenever I first load up a game, I just go to the control settings and make sure that F and V are mapped to something that I want quick access to?(eg. melee attack, throw grenade, use binoculars, etc).
Xmouse is useful beyond gaming too. For example, I've set it up to make tilting my scrollwheel left and right activate "back" and "forward" in my web browsers and windows explorer, which speeds up my navigation speed significantly.
4. ? ?Steam MoverWhat it does: Lets you split your Steam games library across different drives
Between auto-patching, crazy sales, and creating a thriving environment for indie developers, Steam has created a better world for PC gamers. Though it has several drawbacks too, one of which is that all your Steam games need to be on the same hard drive. Most of the time that's ok, but it can be annoying if your main hard drive is filling up while another just sits there with plenty of unused space on it. Or if you've bought a super-fast SSD, and wouldn't mind shifting a couple of games onto it - such as ones that have long load times, stuttering issues and/or cause you to die and reload a lot.
The only way I know of to split up your Steam games across more than one hard drives is to 'trick' Steam by moving your game folder from, say, drive C to drive D, but creating a 'link' between the two locations so that Steam thinks the game is still on drive C. This is fairly straightforward and can be done with some simple cmd.exe commands. But easier still is to simply use Steam Mover, which automates the process and lets you move games back and forth with a single click.5. ? ?SMAA InjectorWhat it does: adds anti-aliasing to games that don't normally support it
This wondrous little thing lets you add anti-aliasing to games even when trying to force AA via your graphics card drivers doesn't do anything. It doesn't smooth all edges perfectly, but it gets most of them, and comes at a surprisingly low performance cost. It even lets you toggle the effect on and off in real-time to see the difference.
Once you download the files, installation is easy, but be aware of a few things:
- You'll need to copy either the DX9 files or the DX10 files into the game folder; if you don't know whether your game is DX9 or DX10, just try each and see what works (try DX9 first; it's more common)
- If you experience an overly bright screen when using this in a Steam game, open up?injector.ini in notepad, and set "weird_steam_hack" to 1.?
- injector.ini also lets you select which key you want to use for toggling the effect on and off, though the author hasn't explained which keycodes correspond to which keys. This page should help you.
Source: http://www.volnaiskra.com/2012/01/5-of-my-favourite-gaming-apps.html
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
2 more cruise bodies found, oil pumping to begin (AP)
ROME ? Salvage experts can begin pumping fuel from a capsized cruise ship as early as Tuesday to avert a possible environmental catastrophe and the ship is stable enough that search efforts for the missing can continue, Italian officials said.
The decision to carry out both operations in tandem was made after instrument readings determined that the Costa Concordia was not at risk of sliding into deeper waters, Franco Gabrielli, chief of the national civil protection agency, told reporters Monday on the island of Giglio.
"The ship is stable. ... There is no problem or danger that it is about to drop onto much lower seabed," Gabrielli said.
The Concordia rammed a reef Jan. 13 on the tiny Tuscan island and capsized a few hours later just outside Giglio's port as it carried 4,200 passengers and crew on a Mediterranean cruise.
Taking advantage of calm seas, divers on Monday found the bodies of two women near the ship's Internet cafe, raising to 15 the number of confirmed dead.
There are 17 people still unaccounted for, but Gabrielli has said an unregistered Hungarian woman might have been aboard ship. The woman's relatives have told Italian authorities they haven't heard from her since she called them to say she was aboard the ship.
The ship's Italian captain, Francesco Schettino is under house arrest near Naples as prosecutor's investigate him for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his vessel while some passengers and crew were still aboard. He has insisted that he was coordinating rescue operations from a lifeboat and then from shore.
Costa Crociere SpA has distanced itself from the captain, contending that he made an unauthorized deviation from the programmed route. Schettino has reportedly told investigators that Costa officials had requested that he sail close to Giglio in a publicity move.
Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters Monday that tests on urine and hair samples found that his client had not been under the influence of alcohol or drugs before the crash. Prosecutors could not confirm the report, since they cannot speak about the investigation while it is still under way.
Despite earlier fears, officials said the crippled cruise ship, with a 70-meter (230-foot) long gash in its hull, is not expected to roll off its rocky seabed perch and be completely swallowed by the sea.
An Italian geologist, on Giglio to monitor the Concordia, told Sky TG24 Monday the ship was barely moving.
"It is moving at the rate of about one or two millimeters an hour," said Nicola Casagli, adding the ship has moved up to 3mm an hour when tides come in or out. "The ship responds to the tides."
The sea has been calm for several days but he said waves were expected to grow larger in the next few days.
In all, seven bodies await identification, but Gabrielli said officials have DNA from the relatives of all of the missing passengers and are working to confirm names and nationalities. He said the search would continue "as long as it is possible to inspect whatever can be inspected."
Meanwhile, Italian Admiral Ilarione dell'Anna said the fuel removal could begin as early as Tuesday, addressing growing concern among residents and environmentalists that the heavy, tar-like fuel could leak from the ship's 17 double-bottomed tanks.
"They should start the oil drainage operations on the ship. At this point those who died will not come back to life. Even if they pull them out later, unfortunately it won't make a difference," Andrea Ginanneschi, a resident of Giglio, told The Associated Press.
Dell'Anna predicted it would take 28 days to remove all of the fuel, without any interruptions. Officials said the first tank to be emptied will be one above the waterline.
Eight kilometers (five miles) of oil barriers, including absorbent ones, have been laid in the area to protect marine life and the coast in the pristine waters off Giglio, which are prime fishing grounds and a protected area for dolphins and whales.
Recovery experts from the Dutch salvage company Smit have previously said they will create holes in the top and the bottom of each tank, heating the fuel so it flows more easily and pumping from the top while forcing air in from the bottom. For the underwater tanks, sea water will be used to displace the fuel, which becomes thick and gooey when cooled.
Already, some diesel and lubricants have leaked into the water near the ship, probably from machinery on board. Officials have characterized the contamination as superficial.
"Smit has been ready for a week to begin pumping fuel from the tanks, awaiting only the go- ahead," said a company statement. "For this purpose, SMIT has mobilized an oil tanker with emergency response equipment including sweeping arms, booms and a skimmer."
It said the vessel arrived on Monday.
The company also said Italian authorities have indicated it can begin the removal once a second absorbent boom is in place around the ship. The booms are used "to reduce the possibility of polluting shorelines and to help make recovery easier."
Besides 2,200 metric tons of heavier fuel, there also are 185 metric tons of diesel and lubricants on board in addition to chemicals including cleaning products and chlorine.
__
Barry reported from Milan. Andrea Foa reported from Giglio.
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Gingrich, Romney Ham house standoff fizzles (AP)
GREENVILLE, S.C. ? So just where was the beef?
It turns out that the great ham house standoff had no sizzle, no matter how you sliced it.
GOP presidential rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were expected to cross paths at a campaign stop in Greenville as they rallied voters on primary day. But the much-hyped Republican run-in failed to materialize after Romney showed up at Tommy's Ham House earlier than originally planned.
A sea of "Newt 2012" and "Romney" signs jostled in the packed restaurant.
Romney departed about 20 minutes before Gingrich arrived. When Gingrich walked in he said, "where's Mitt?"
Earlier, Gingrich urged voters to support him if they want to stop Romney from winning the nomination.
Gingrich stopped by The Grapevine restaurant in Boiling Springs not long after the polls opened g. He told diners who were enjoying plates of eggs and grits that he's the "the only practical conservative vote" if Republicans want to slow Romney, described by Gingrich as a Massachusetts moderate.
Gingrich said he would put a stop to federal actions against South Carolina's voter ID and immigration laws.
The former House speaker, who has seen his support rise in the days before the primary, said "polls are good, votes are better."
After disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former House speaker hit his stride as the nation's first Southern primary neared, rallying conservatives behind him as the most viable alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.
Fueled by fiery debate performances and assisted in part by his Southern roots, Gingrich counted on a strong performance Saturday in South Carolina's GOP primary to catapult him back into the top tier of White House hopefuls.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
2 sentenced for attack on US Rep. Boswell's farm (AP)
DES MOINES, Iowa ? Two men who pleaded guilty to breaking into U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell's southern Iowa farmhouse armed with a BB gun last summer were sentenced Friday to prison.
A Decatur County judge sentenced David Dewberry, 20, of Fremont, Neb., to 25 years in prison for first-degree robbery. Cody Rollins, 20, of Lamoni, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting an attempted burglary.
On July 16, Dewberry, armed with a BB gun, forced his way into Boswell's farmhouse, grabbed the congressman's daughter and ordered her to give him money, County Attorney Lisa Jeanes said. As the 78-year-old lawmaker scuffled with Dewberry, Boswell's adult grandson pointed a shotgun at Dewberry, chasing him off. Boswell suffered minor injuries; no one was seriously injured.
Authorities said Dewberry and his family had lived in Iowa before moving to Nebraska. His mother had been friendly with Boswell's wife and Dewberry had been to the Boswell home.
Boswell was not in the courtroom Friday but submitted a statement, in which he addressed Dewberry, saying he was pleased Dewberry decided to do the "honorable thing by pleading guilty to your crime and accepting your punishment after committing the terror that you put our family through that summer night."
"What makes the whole matter more frightful and disgusting to us is that we once welcomed you into our home," the statement read. "Your sinister motives and plan were appalling. It is by God's grace that no one was seriously injured. We hope you realize how lucky you are that you weren't killed that night."
Prosecutors said Rollins helped plan the crime and drove Dewberry to Boswell's home.
"Unfortunately, this is a case where two young men made a really horrible choice, it was a big mistake and now they're going to have to pay the consequences of their actions," Jeanes said. "I am very glad no one was seriously injured."
Telephone messages left Friday for Dewberry's and Rollins' attorneys were not immediately returned.
Boswell's official residence is in Des Moines, where he moved after redistricting in 2000, but he kept his farm, in Leon located about 60 miles south of Des Moines, and visits often
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
AP sources: US seeks new home for Yemen strongman (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration is engaged in an intensive effort with Yemen's embattled strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh to find him a new home, preferably not in the United States, U.S. officials say, so that his violence-wracked Arabian homeland can proceed with a transition to democracy.
President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, is leading the diplomacy, which appears to have gained steam this week when Saleh sought out U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein in the capital, Sanaa, to discuss where he could go. The meeting came shortly after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called out Saleh for not living up to his commitments to leave Yemen and allow elections ending his 34-year dictatorship, the officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
But Saleh has few options, leaving the U.S. administration in a bind as it tries to find a nation willing to host a wily leader accused of committing gross human rights violations over a year of internal conflict. The 69-year-old leader may have transformed himself from a firm Arab ally of Saddam Hussein into a vital counterterrorism ally of the United States, but even Washington doesn't want to be the one forced to provide him a new home.
The administration's unwillingness reflects, in part, the shifting U.S. foreign policy calculus prompted by the Arab Spring.
Political asylum for Saleh in the United States, or the appearance of preferential treatment from an administration that has championed peaceful and democratic change, would be highly unpopular with Yemeni political groups likely to take part in future governments. It also could anger people across the Arab world fighting to oust corrupt and authoritarian rulers.
Despite agreeing last year to transfer power to his vice president ahead of planned February presidential elections, Saleh is continuing to wield power behind the scenes and frustrate the efforts of Yemen's would-be reformers. Talk from Saleh allies about possibly postponing next month's vote has only further enraged Yemen's opposition. Meanwhile, al-Qaida has taken advantage of the political instability to enlarge its foothold in the country.
Al-Qaida's advance, in particular, has Washington on alert. Brennan and other officials are looking for ways to remove Saleh from Yemen as soon as possible so Yemen's political elites can get back to the business of fighting terrorists instead of each other. Earlier this week al-Qaida's Yemen-based branch seized the town of Radaa, an outpost 100 miles south of the capital and a key gateway to the regional center of Zinjibar, which has been under the terror group's control since last spring.
Without an end to the power vacuum in Yemen, officials fear al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula will be able to raise funds, win recruits and increase the possibility of another international terrorist attack. The group is blamed for trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas 2009 and cargo planes bound for the United States a year later.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing sensitive diplomacy, U.S. officials said Saleh has resubmitted a visa application to enter the United States and that the administration is actively considering his request. Fearful of appearing to harbor an autocrat with blood on his hands, the U.S. has withheld approval for a visa since December when Saleh asked to visit the U.S. to get medical treatment for injuries he sustained in a June assassination attempt.
Officials had demanded assurances that Saleh wouldn't remain in the country. Some said if the U.S. were to let him in now, it would be to stay, though one administration official insisted Washington wasn't involved in any matters related to the permanent relocation of Saleh. They all said no final decision has been made.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates already have rejected Saleh, officials said. They said other possibilities are still out there, but if no country steps forward the United States might be forced to choose between Yemen's future stability and America's own popularity in the Middle East. In that case, the administration likely would let Saleh in, administration officials said.
In Sanaa, an official from Saleh's ruling party said the leader told allies at an internal meeting Friday that he once again wanted to travel abroad for medical treatment. Saleh sought approval for the trip, the official said, describing it as a delaying tactic because the Yemeni president doesn't need party authorization to go abroad.
Demonstrators began protesting against Saleh and calling for his ouster in February. The Yemeni government responded with a bloody crackdown, leaving hundreds of protesters dead and sparking wider violence in the capital with rival militia.
International pressure has mounted for months for Saleh to step aside. A June rocket attack on his compound left him badly burned and wounded, and led Saleh to seek medical treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia for three months. American officials had hoped he would remain there, but the Yemeni leader returned and violence worsened.
In November, Saleh agreed to a Saudi-backed deal to hand power to his vice president and commit to stepping down completely in exchange for immunity. The deal further angered Saleh's opponents, who demanded he be tried for his attacks on protesters. While he has transferred authority, in principle, to his vice president, he has continued to pull strings in Yemen's government through loyalists and relatives still in positions of power. Many fear he'll continue to rule in practice if he remains in Yemen.
"The instability in Yemen is of great concern, first and foremost to the Yemeni people, but also to the region and to the world," Clinton told reporters this week during a trip to the Ivory Coast.
Saleh has made "agreements with respect to the way forward that have not been fulfilled," she said. "We regret that the president has thus far failed to comply with his own commitments to leave the country, to permit elections to go forward that give the people a chance to be heard and be represented."
Even before Yemen's uprising began, it already was the poorest country in the Arab world, with a weak central government, deep tribal divisions and several separate conflicts.
___
Associated Press writer Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa contributed to this report.
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