Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Amazon announces Q4 2011 results: sales jump to $17.43 billion, but profits drop 58 percent

Amazon's just announced its earnings for the fourth quarter of the year, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. While net sales were up 35 percent year-over-year to $17.43 billion, net income dropped a hefty 58 percent to $177 million, or 38 cents a share -- that's off analysts' expectations, who were looking for sales in the neighborhood of $18.3 billion and earnings of 17 cents a share. As always, the company is remaining mum on any specific Kindle sales figures, but it says that sales of all Kindle devices nearly tripled over the holiday shopping season, and that the Kindle Fire remains the bestselling item across all of the products it offers; of course, the loss it's taking on each one is also one of the big reasons for that drop in profits.

Specific figures are equally hard to come by for some of Amazon's other services, but the company says the number of Appstore for Android customers has nearly tripled from the previous quarter (with them downloading more apps in Q4 than all of the previous quarters combined), and that the number of Instant Video customers has more than doubled year-over-year (with the number of streams increasing 300 percent from the previous quarter). Looking at the full year, sales for all of 2011 totaled $48.08 billion, up 41 percent from $34.2 billion in 2010, while net income dropped 45 percent to $631 million (down from $1.15 billion in 2010). And as for the future, Amazon is also lowering expectations somewhat for the first quarter of 2012, projecting that revenue will come in at $12 to $13.4 billion, and that net income could range from a $200 million loss to a gain of $100 million.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/31/amazon-announces-q4-2011-results-sales-jump-to-17-43-billion/

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Five dead at bullet-riddled home in Birmingham (Reuters)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (Reuters) ? Five people were found dead early on Sunday morning at a house riddled with bullet holes west of downtown Birmingham, the Birmingham Police Department said.

Sergeant Vincent Green declined to say whether the victims were shot, but said there was evidence of multiple gunshots at the home in the Ensley Highlands area.

"The police told us there had been murders," said Beatrice Houston, who lives across the street from the neat white house with green trim where the bodies were found.

"They said five men were dead and that two people got away," she said.

Her husband, Willie Houston, said he saw five bodies taken out of the house and placed in coroner vans.

The quiet working class neighborhood of cottages about 5 miles from downtown was lit up by flashing police cruisers that swarmed the street before dawn.

"I'm used to seeing stuff like this on TV, not in my own neighborhood," Beatrice Houston said.

Police were interviewing possible witnesses, Sergeant Green told Reuters.

Birmingham Police Sergeant Johnny William appealed for anyone with information on the case to contact police.

(Editing By Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/us_nm/us_crime_birmingham

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Monday, January 30, 2012

James Q. To The Rescue (Powerlineblog)

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Syrian troops storm areas near capital of Damascus

This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT

(AP) ? In dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, Syrian troops stormed rebellious areas near the capital Sunday, shelling neighborhoods that have fallen under the control of army dissidents and clashing with fighters. At least 62 people were killed in violence nationwide, activists and residents said.

The widescale offensive near the capital suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus, which has remained relatively quiet while most other Syrian cities descended into chaos after the uprising began in March.

The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict.

The violence has gradually approached the capital. In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests.

Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may either be losing control or setting up a trap for the fighters before going on the offensive.

Residents of Damascus reported hearing clashes in the nearby suburbs, particularly at night, shattering the city's calm.

"The current battles taking place in and around Damascus may not yet lead to the unraveling of the regime, but the illusion of normalcy that the Assads have sought hard to maintain in the capital since the beginning of the revolution has surely unraveled," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a U.S.-based Syrian dissident.

"Once illusions unravel, reality soon follows," he wrote in his blog Sunday.

Soldiers riding some 50 tanks and dozens of armored vehicles stormed a belt of suburbs and villages on the eastern outskirts of Damascus known as al-Ghouta Sunday, a predominantly Sunni Muslim agricultural area where large anti-regime protests have been held.

Some of the fighting on Sunday was less than three miles (four kilometers) from Damascus, in Ein Tarma, making it the closest yet to the capital.

"There are heavy clashes going on in all of the Damascus suburbs," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who relies on a network of activists on the ground. "Troops were able to enter some areas but are still facing stiff resistance in others."

The fighting using mortars and machine guns sent entire families fleeing, some of them on foot carrying bags of belongings, to the capital.

"The shelling and bullets have not stopped since yesterday," said a man who left his home in Ein Tarma with his family Sunday. "It's terrifying, there's no electricity or water, it's a real war," he said by telephone on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals.

The uprising against Assad, which began with largely peaceful demonstrations, has grown increasingly militarized recently as more frustrated protesters and army defectors have taken up arms.

In a bid to stamp out resistance in the capital's outskirts, the military has responded with a withering assault on a string of suburbs, leading to a spike in violence that has killed at least 150 people since Thursday.

The United Nations says at least 5,400 people have been killed in the 10 months of violence.

The U.N. is holding talks on a new resolution on Syria and next week will discuss an Arab League peace plan aimed at ending the crisis. But the initiatives face two major obstacles: Damascus' rejection of an Arab plan that it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia's willingness to use its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told reporters Sunday in Egypt that contacts were under way with China and Russia.

"I hope that their stand will be adjusted in line with the final drafting of the draft resolution," he told reporters before leaving for New York with Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim.

The two will seek U.N. support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis. The plan calls for a two-month transition to a unity government, with Assad giving his vice president full powers to work with the proposed government.

Because of the escalating violence, the Arab League on Saturday halted the work of its observer mission in Syria at least until the League's council can meet. Arab foreign ministers were to meet Sunday in Cairo to discuss the Syrian crisis in light of the suspension of the observers' work and Damascus' refusal to agree to the transition timetable, the League said.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "concerned" about the League's decision to suspend its monitoring mission and called on Assad to "immediately stop the bloodshed." He spoke Sunday at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

While the international community scrambles to find a resolution to the crisis, the violence on the ground in Syria has continued unabated.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 27 civilians were killed Sunday in Syria, most of them in fighting in the Damascus suburbs and in the central city of Homs, a hotbed of anti-regime protests. Twenty-six soldiers and nine defectors were also killed, it said. The soldiers were killed in ambushes that targeted military vehicles near the capital and in the northern province of Idlib.

The Local Coordination Committees' activist network said 50 people were killed Sunday, including 13 who were killed in the suburbs of the capital and two defectors. That count excluded soldiers killed Sunday.

The differing counts could not be reconciled, and the reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities keep tight control on the media and have banned many foreign journalists from entering the country.

Syria's state-run news agency said "terrorists" detonated a roadside bomb by remote control near a bus carrying soldiers in the Damascus suburb of Sahnaya, killing six soldiers and wounding six others. Among those killed in the attack some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the capital were two first lieutenants, SANA said.

In Irbil, a Kurdish city in northern Iraq, about 200 members of Syria's Kurdish parties were holding two days of meetings to explore ways of supporting efforts to topple Assad.

Abdul-Baqi Youssef, a member of the Syrian Kurdish Union Party, said representatives of 11 Kurdish parties formed the Syrian Kurdish National Council that will coordinate anti-government activities with Syria's opposition.

Kurds make up 15 percent of Syria's 23 million people and have long complained of discrimination.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo; Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq; and Luc van Kemenade in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-29-ML-Syria/id-35c311d0f34243b293de37b99190c910

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Iran is gearing up for elections and it isn't pretty

The arrest of at least 10 reporters since the turn of the year and new Internet restrictions point to a battening down of social control ahead of Iran's March elections.

The international focus may be on Iran's nuclear program and all the war talk that's surrounded it. But less noticed is that Iran is gearing up for parliamentary elections in March. Every early sign is that it will be as closely controlled an affair as the 2009 presidential contest that kept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power for a second term.

Skip to next paragraph

Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have called Mr. Ahmadinejad's landslide victory a "divine assessment." But forces other than God probably had a hand in Ahmadinejad's victory; there was strong evidence of widespread fraud, which sparked protests on a scale not seen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

While those protests have since been quashed, the grievances behind them remain. If anything, they have gathered in strength, with an economy suffering blows from US-led international sanctions and ongoing crackdowns against citizens. The smart money is on a parliamentary election whose results are massaged, much as the presidential elections were. But even fixed results will still show shifts in Iran's complex political landscape.

All of this matters because Iran isn't the religious dictatorship that the West imagines. A democracy? Hardly. But there are factions within the elite, and powerful forces in broader society that have influence. Supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's power may be vast, and in theory stems from him being an emissary of God on earth, but in practice he has to bow to more prosaic concerns. There has been persistent speculation throughout the year that Ayatollah Khamenei is fed up with Mr. Ahmadinejad's obsession with end-times millenarian beliefs, representing just one of the fissures on the right in Iran.

Though the country is putting on a brave face internationally, there is evidence that the contradiction of having nominally democratic institutions under a theocratic umbrella is growing ever tougher to sustain. The country is desperately trying to tamp down on the free flow of information.

Human Rights Watch reports that 10 journalists and bloggers have been arrested since the start of the year and the arrests "appear to be part of the government?s most recent campaign to disrupt the free flow of information ahead of parliamentary elections."

Most of those were arrested by armed government agents storming their homes. Human Rights Watch says all of the detainees "have been associated with reformist papers or websites critical of government policies."

The Committee to Protect Journalists says that Iran had 42 reporters locked up last year, the highest number in the world.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/SkOs8hJeWE0/Iran-is-gearing-up-for-elections-and-it-isn-t-pretty

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Sandusky asks court to allow visits with grandchildren (Reuters)

HARRISBURG, Pa (Reuters) ? Former Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky, who is under house arrest on charges of child sexual abuse, has asked a Pennsylvania court to allow supervised visits with his grandchildren that are now prohibited.

Sandusky, 67, faces 52 criminal charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15 year period and has been tethered to his house under the terms of his release on bail in December that barred contact with anyone under age 18. He has maintained his innocence.

In a motion filed Friday, Joe Amendola, attorney for the former Penn State defensive coordinator, asked the Centre County Court to modify the terms of Sandusky's release to permit supervised contact with his 11 grandchildren.

"The Defendant's minor grandchildren have expressed their sadness to their parents about not being able to visit or talk with the Defendant since November 5, 2011," Amendola wrote.

If his grandchildren were allowed to visit him at his State College home, they would be accompanied by at least one parent, according to the motion.

Amendola is also asking the court to allow Sandusky to communicate with his grandchildren by mail, email, telephone, or by Skyping, a type of video-chatting over the Internet.

Sandusky was charged November 5 with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over a 15 year period. He had been freed after posting $100,000 after those charges were filed in November.

In December, he was arrested a second time and prosecutors added charges that raised the number of sex abuse victims to 10. He has been under house arrest since he was freed on $250,000 bail following his second arrest with restrictions.

Prosecutors say Sandusky used his position as head of The Second Mile charity to find his victims. Sandusky started The Second Mile charity to help troubled disadvantaged children.

His grandchildren are not the only people Sandusky would like to be in contact with.

Amendola said Sandusky wants "reasonable visitation" by friends at his home and he wants the ability to leave his home "for the purposes of assisting his attorneys, private investigators, and other professional individuals retained by the Defendant in the preparation of his defense."

The charges against Sandusky caused an avalanche of top-down changes at Penn State. Soon after his arrest, the school's board of trustees fired iconic head football coach Joe Paterno, who died of lung cancer on Sunday, and university president Graham Spanier.

Also on Friday, Amendola followed up a request for prosecutors to turn over the names of the people who accused Sandusky and the details of those crimes. The attorney said a week had passed since his original request.

Centre County Court Judge John Cleland is scheduled to consider both matters on February 10. Prosecutors have until February 3 to file responses to the requests.

(Editing by David Bailey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/us_nm/us_crime_coach_pennstate

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Reschedule dates for Auburn Riverside and Auburn Mountainview athletics | Prep sports

With last week's winter storm forcing the cancellation of most of the high school athletic contests in the area, a slew of rescheduled dates are on the horizon for local teams.

Auburn Riverside High School has announced the following rescheduled games and meets:

? Boys swimming and diving vs. Thomas Jefferson, originally scheduled on Jan. 17, will be at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Auburn Pool.

? Wrestling vs. Tahoma and Mount Rainier, originally scheduled on Jan. 17, will be at 10 a.m. Jan. 28 at Auburn Riverside.

? Boys basketball vs. Mount Rainier, originally scheduled on Jan. 17, will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 at Mount Rainier.

? Girls basketball vs. Mount Rainier, originally scheduled on Jan. 17, will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 at Auburn Riverside.

? Boys basketball vs. Kentlake, originally scheduled on Jan. 20, will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at Auburn Riverside.

? Girls Basketball vs. Kentwood, originally scheduled on Jan. 24, will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 at Auburn Riverside.

? Boys Basketball vs. Kentwood, originally scheduled on Jan. 24, will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 at Kentwood.

??The Jan. 18 gymnastics meet with Kentwood, Mount Rainier and North Thurston will not be rescheduled.

Auburn Mountainview High School has announced the following rescheduled games and meets:

? Girls Basketball vs. Bonney Lake, originally scheduled on Jan. 20, will be at 7 p.m. Jan. 28 at Auburn Mountainview.

? Boys Basketball vs. Bonney Lake, originally scheduled on Jan. 20, will be at 8:15 p.m. Jan. 28 at Bonney Lake.

? Boys Basketball vs. Peninsula on Jan. 27 will now begin at 7:15 p.m. at Auburn Mountainview.

? The Jan. 18 gymnastics meet vs. Thomas Jefferson, Sumner and Bonney Lake has been cancelled.

? Wrestling vs. Bonney Lake, originally scheduled on Jan. 19, to be announced.

? Boys swimming and diving vs. Clover Park, originally scheduled on Jan. 17, to be announced.

? Boys swimming and diving vs. Peninsula, originally scheduled on Jan. 19, to be announced.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pnwlocalnewssports/~3/FEUOTL0my_4/137931113.html

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Old mortgages rise from dead, haunt homeowners

In July 2009, Roy and Sheila Bowers refinanced the mortgage on their suburban ranch home in Topeka, Kansas. The couple wanted to take advantage of the low interest rates that were all the rage at the time.

Roy, a truck driver, and Sheila, a former hotel housekeeping supervisor, knew their new loan from Wells Fargo would enable them to save $198.86 a month - a nice chunk to help with gas and groceries.

But what the Bowers never imagined was that their old loan, the one Wells Fargo told them was paid off, would resurrect itself, trashing their credit report, scotching their son's student loans and throwing the whole family into foreclosure. All, they say, even though they didn't miss a single mortgage payment.

The Bowers aren't alone.

More and more, homeowners say that mortgages they thought were dead and buried are springing back to life, sometimes haunting them all the way into foreclosure.

"It's the most egregious manifestation of an industry that's seriously broken," said Ira Rheingold, a lawyer who is the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocate.

Foreclosures keep pushing house prices lower

Diane Thompson, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, says she has defended hundreds of foreclosure cases, and in nearly all of them, the homeowner was not in default. "The record-keeping on the part of the mortgage servicers is not to be trusted."

The problems grew from a lot of sloppy recordkeeping that began during the housing boom, when Wall Street built a quick-and-dirty back-office operation to process mortgages quickly so lenders could sell as many loans as possible. As the loans were later sold to investors, and then resold around the world, the back office system sidestepped crucial legal procedures.

Now it's becoming clear just how dysfunctional and, according to several state attorneys general, how fraudulent the whole system was.

Depositions from "affidavit slaves" depict a surreal, assembly-line world in which the banks and their partner firms hired hair stylists, fast-food kids and Wal-Mart floor workers, paying them $10 a day, to pose as bank vice presidents, assistant secretaries and corporate attorneys.

These "robosigners" became a national sensation in the fall of 2010 when it was revealed that they faked titles, forged documents and backdated affidavits so they could make up for the bypassed procedures and foreclose on properties.

They passed around notary stamps as if they were salt. They did all of this, they testified, without verifying a single word in any of the documents - as is required by law.

And it was all done, they say, to foreclose on as many homeowners as fast as possible.

Ensnared in mortgage hell
No one collects statistics on wrongful foreclosures, or how many people are facing the phantom mortgage debts. But as the industry enters its fifth year of unwinding its mortgage morass, consumer groups, homeowner attorneys and foreclosure-fraud investigators say they are seeing more cases where people who don't owe the banks a dime are getting ensnared in the same hell as those who have missed payments.

They add that such problems are likely to intensify. Former industry employees have testified that they knowingly pushed through foreclosures on the wrong people.

It all casts a pall over a housing market in worse condition than it was during the Great Depression. By some estimates, 12.5 percent of U.S. homes with mortgages are either in foreclosure or the loans are at least 30 days past due, representing about $1 trillion in value.

"This is an epic problem that the economy hasn't even begun to digest," said Florida foreclosure analyst Lisa Epstein.

In some cases, mortgages that were supposed to die off in a refinancing are popping back up, while in others, the loans were paid in full. Homeowners who pay off their houses through bankruptcy programs are also falling prey.

So are homeowners who never even had a mortgage to begin with.

Homeowners say the banks' repo men sometimes even show up at work. Banks also hector them with threatening letters and phone calls. "It scared the hell out of him," said a Houston lawyer whose client was the target of such efforts. "He was absolutely spooked," lawyer Barry Brown said.

So was Shantell Curtis of Utah. She showed up at her accountant's office last year only to learn that she had been sued for foreclosure on a house she had sold years before. Bank of America reported the delinquency to credit bureaus, tarring Curtis's credit. It turned out the entire saga stemmed from a bank coding error. The amount the bank falsely alleged Curtis still owed on her mortgage? One dollar.

Vietnam vet Dwight Gaines fell behind on his payments on his Birmingham, Alabama, home. Gaines paid off his entire mortgage, plus all the fees and expenses he owed the bank in March 2010, as a part of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan. But Bank of America kept sending Gaines notices that he still owed $6,842.37. Nearly two years later, Gaines is still fighting the bank in court.

"In my experience, if I had not sued Bank of America, they would have eventually placed Mr. Gaines in foreclosure although he had completely paid his mortgage," said Gaines' lawyer, Wesley Phillips.

Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said the bank is working to resolve the Gaines situation. She also said that "these situations pre-date a review of our foreclosure procedures which took place in the fall of 2010. At the time, we identified areas of our process that needed to be improved, and we have been making those improvements."

Mounting pile of probes
The reincarnating mortgage is only the latest development in the megabanks' mortgage debacle, a scandal that has made them the target of a mounting pile of investigations and lawsuits. Though a settlement with most of the U.S. attorneys general may be imminent, a rogue group of AGs has peeled off to launch their own investigations.

One of those AGs, New York's Eric Schneiderman, is a part of the U.S. Justice Department task force announced by President Obama in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

Up until Obama's announcement, the federal government's response to the alleged financial misconduct was in the form of an independent review of the banks overseen by the federal Office of the Comptroller of Currency. But critics have labeled the OCC review as a farce rife with conflicts of interest.

The OCC spokesman, Bryan Hubbard, disputed that claim, saying the OCC has gone to great lengths to ensure that the independent consultants hired by the banks to review their procedures would report to regulators, not the banks. "During the selection process of the independent consultants and law firms, regulators rejected some proposed consultants and law firms to prevent conflicts of interest," said Hubbard.

Such reviews are supposed to gather information from homeowners like Jennifer Wilson, a former nursery school teacher from Philadelphia. Wilson settled a wrongful foreclosure case with Wells Fargo in June 2010. That month, court records show, Wells Fargo filed a satisfaction of mortgage document noting that the $8,000 loan on Wilson's home had been paid in full.

But more than a year later, on Dec. 8, 2011, Wilson, who is disabled and lives below the federal poverty line, answered her door to see a process servicer brandishing foreclosure warning papers from Wells Fargo. The bank's letter warned Wilson that she owed 57 months of late payments, plus expenses, totaling $18,407.55. If she did not pay within 30 days, the bank said, it would sue for foreclosure.

"I thought I'd been punked," said Wilson. Even more bizarrely, one day later, a different process server from a different company showed up on Wilson's door and handed over the exact same papers Wilson had received the day before.

"We see a lot of cases like this, where they are trying to collect even though there is no

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46145645/ns/business-real_estate/

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BeachMint Raises Another Big Round: $35 Million For Celebrity-Backed Shopping Experiences

beachmintlogoBeachMint ??an ecommerce startup that lets customers subscribe to receive products hand-picked by celebrities each month ?? has quickly become one of the hottest companies in Los Angeles. Today the company is announcing that it's raised a $35 million funding round with some big-name investors: the round is being led by Accel Partners, with participation from Goldman Sachs, New World Ventures, NYC-based and Millennium Technology Value Partners, with existing investors participating as well. Accel's Greg Waldorf will be joining BeachMint's board. This brings BeachMint's total funding to a whopping $75 million. This is obviously a big raise, and it comes only seven months after the company raised $23.5 million at a rumored $150 million valuation. Why are they raising so much? The short answer: they're growing like crazy and are planning to go international ? and they'll be fending off plenty of competition.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BX-u2ndnJac/

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Medication helps some with mild depression (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? People with mild depression may benefit from taking antidepressants, suggests a new analysis of past studies that compared symptoms in people on the drugs to those given drug-free placebo pills.

Some earlier reports had suggested that antidepressants generally only improve mood in people with severe depression.

But that might be because those studies weren't precise enough to pick up on smaller changes in symptoms that can still make a difference for people with milder forms of the disease, researchers said.

"I think there's a valid concern... that if someone has not-that-severe depression that hasn't lasted that long, maybe it will get better itself or with therapy," said Dr. David Hellerstein, from the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, who worked on the study.

Still, he said the question of whether or not to prescribe medication shouldn't necessarily come down to how severe the depression is, but how long symptoms have lasted.

People with "transient depression" that will improve with diet or exercise or after a few weeks of therapy "shouldn't be taking the risk of being on meds," he told Reuters Health.

"But people who have more persistent depression should be evaluated for treatment and medicine should be one of the options," even when the depression is more modest.

Hellerstein and his colleagues collected data from six studies done at the state's psychiatric institute between 1985 and 2000. Those included 825 people with non-severe, long-lasting depression enrolled in trials that compared symptoms with antidepressant treatment versus a placebo.

In three of the six studies, patients taking an antidepressant improved more on a widely-used scale of depression symptoms and severity than those taking a placebo, and in four studies, a higher percentage of patients taking antidepressants went into remission, meaning they were no longer considered to have clinically-significant depression.

Depending on the particular drug and study, the researchers calculated that between three and eight people with non-severe depression would have to be treated with an antidepressant for one to benefit substantially from it.

That, they wrote in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, is "a range considered by researchers as sufficiently robust to recommend treatment."

The drugs tested in those studies included Prozac, as well as older and now less-popular medications known as monoamine oxidase inhibitors and tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants. It's hard to know how well the findings would apply for newer antidepressants, the researchers said.

The results don't mean that everyone with mild depression should be on an antidepressant, a psychiatrist not involved in the study pointed out.

"People with these milder depressions also respond well to counseling and psychotherapy and can respond well to exercise," said Dr. Michael Thase, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

"This is basically saying, these antidepressants aren't that good, and you should also consider other treatment options and don't just focus on the thing that's the easiest," he told Reuters Health.

The researchers said that some combination of antidepressants and talk therapy is considered most effective in depression treatment -- but getting therapy is often more expensive and time-consuming than medication.

Talk therapy can run $100 or more per session, while generic brands of antidepressants usually cost about $20 per month. Drugs may come with side effects, including insomnia and stomach aches, but they're usually minor, according to Hellerstein.

Still, people on antidepressants should be followed closely by a doctor to see how they're responding to treatment, he said.

Several of the authors of the current study reported having received funding for other research projects from drug companies that make antidepressants.

One recent study found that some depressed people on the antidepressant Cymbalta did worse than the comparison placebo group -- but the majority got some benefit (see Reuters Health story of December 9, 2011).

"I believe the basic finding that drugs are more effective than placebo," Thase said.

But, "The benefits of antidepressants may not be that dramatic in patients with milder depressions for whom many other (non-drug) strategies can also be considered."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/yVBEdk Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, online December 27, 2011.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/hl_nm/us_medication_helps_some_with_mild_depression

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Uggie Retiring: 'The Artist' Dog's Trainer Says He's Tired

Uggie the dog is taking his final bow.

The beloved Jack Russell Terrier star of "The Artist" is being retired by his trainer, Omar Von Muller, a day after being egregiously snubbed by the Academy Awards. The black and white, silent film homage was nominated for ten trophies, and despite international acclaim and a television press tour that rivaled some of the biggest promotional pushes in Hollywood, none of those nods went to the talented canine.

"He may do a couple of little things here and there because he enjoys them, but I don't want to put him through long hours anymore. He's getting tired," Von Muller told Life & Style Magazine.

It was a banner year for Uggie, who, for his roles in both "The Artist" and the circus drama "Water for Elephants," has two nominations in the Best Dog in a Theatrical Film category in the first ever Golden Collar Awards. The show will take place on February 13th, just weeks before the big Oscar ceremony.

Von Muller is at least keeping it in the family when it comes to replacing Uggie on the big screen; the dog's brother Dash will be taking over.

"Uggie is 10 years old and has done a lot of work; he wants to relax at home," he said. "If somebody wants to do a movie with Uggie, they'll just have to deal with Dash!"

For more on this breaking development, click over to Life & Style.

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In Pakistan's urban badland, soccer offers hope

Boys play soccer near a railway track in a slum area in Karachi

updated 12:08 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2012

KARACHI - In the heart of one of Pakistan's most dangerous neighborhoods in the teeming city of Karachi, soccer pitches are keeping vulnerable teenagers from joining abundant gangs, kidnappers and extortion rackets.

Dozens of hard-scrabble soccer clubs give youngsters with few chances for education or work the opportunity to get off the streets and even dream of getting a nod to join a national team or a semi-professional club.

"There is so much talent in Lyari. It can be a great way of keeping these kids away from drugs and street crime especially if they are well paid and rewarded," said Yacoob Baloch, a soccer coach at one of the clubs.

Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally, spends less than 2 percent of its gross domestic product on education which translates into a lack of skills needed to find work for much of the young population of the country of nearly 180 million.

Pakistan's police and security forces also lack funds, making it easy for criminals to thrive in Lyari, a densely populated area in Karachi with dilapidated buildings, potholed streets and raw sewage.

More than 1,600 people were killed in Karachi last year in either political and sectarian violence or by drug dealers, mafia hitmen and extortionists, marking the worst bloodshed since the army was called in to ease street battles in the 1990s.

But soccer has proven to be a way out of the chaos for some.

"Because of my focus on football, my mind has never wandered off to other things like drugs or violence," said Muneer Aftab, 15, who led Pakistan to victory in the under-16 South Asian Football Federation Championships in 2011, defeating arch-rival India.

"Playing football runs in my blood. I just want to play forever."

But for people like Aftab, there is only limited time to practice and usually only after being worn down by the daily grind in the sprawling city of 18 million on the Arabian Sea.

He wakes up at the crack of dawn to play soccer, goes to school during the day and helps his father who drives a rickshaw along Karachi's chaotic streets, and goes back to the soccer pitch at night.

"I know I am chasing my dream. But it's not easy," said Aftab, well-built, dark-skinned and shy.

LYARI IS A LITTLE BRAZIL

Soccer has become a big hit in Lyari, no small feat because cricket is by far the most popular sport in Pakistan. There are 98 registered soccer clubs, 11 football grounds and two stadiums in Lyari, home to over 600,000 people.

If a player gets recognized in Lyari, not only the national team comes into sight, but also the chance to play for teams sponsored by corporations and banks that pay players a monthly salary.

The National Bank of Pakistan, for instance, gives Aftab 10,000 rupees ($111) a month to play in the semi-professional league.

During the last soccer World Cup, violence dropped sharply in Lyari. Residents gathered in the evening to watch matches on projector screens, a welcome change in a place where nighttime usually means gang warfare and abductions.

Ahmed Jan, a local coach and stadium manager, said Karachi's exposure to the sport began in the late 1950s.

Ships from Europe docked at the port. Sailors interacted with boys who worked as laborers and introduced them to soccer and kicked a few balls around.

The youngsters were so passionate about the game, they played barefoot and the cheap form of play spread, transcending ethnic, political and sectarian lines that brutally divide Karachi.

Still, Jan worries that without government support, the chance to get more youngsters off paths to violence remains slim.

"Most of the children's dreams get crushed. And they look towards other means of survival which a lot of the time includes picking up a gun," said January

In Karachi, youngsters who are disillusioned with the state also join militant groups like the Taliban and al Qaeda, who persuade them that holy war against the government and its Western backers is the solution to their problems.

Abdul Aziz, 24, also used soccer to improve his plight. He made it to Pakistan's national team but is pessimistic about the chances of others.

"In Pakistan there is no platform, there is no money for a secure future. And no support from the government for football," he said.

Still, despite a lack of brand name shoes and flash jerseys, soccer still serves a higher purpose in one of the world's most unstable countries, creating equality that comes as a welcome respite from fear of being targeted.

"The kids who come and play at this ground don't care which sect you belong to, what your background is," said January

"They all bond for the love of football."

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Barca awaits Real Madrid again

Real Madrid probably will abandon its defensive strategy and go on the attack against Barcelona in the second leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Reuters
That's a reason?

AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng is hurt again, and his girlfriend says it's because they have sex "7-10 times a week." Oh.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46112572/ns/sports-soccer/

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

US Supreme Court rules GPS tracking requires a warrant

Paul Marks, senior technology correspondent

Stand down those GPS jammers, Americans. The justices of the US Supreme Court have ruled that the police?will indeed continue to need a search warrant?to install a GPS tracker on a suspect's car. The decision means police cannot treat GPS tracking as a simple extension of "tailing" someone, which does not require a warrant.?The justices had been asked to consider dropping the need for a search warrant by the US Department of Justice after a nightclub owner had a life jail term quashed by a lower court. The latter did so on the grounds that a location tracking device - which gathered data on the suspect's whereabouts crucial to his conviction - had been illegally acquired. Although a warrant had initially been issued for the tracking, it had expired - and the DoJ decided to fight the need for one, saying GPS beacons are latterday crime-fighting tools the law simply needs to catch up with.The argument did not sit well with the justices - some described GPS tracking as Orwellian, worrying that even Supreme Court justices could be unknowingly tailed. "The government's attachment of the GPS device to the vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment," the justices ruled today. The Fourth Amendment protects US citizens' homes against unreasonable search and seizure by the state.

"A majority of the Court acknowledged that advancing technology, like cell phone tracking, gives the government unprecedented ability to collect, store and analyse an enormous amount of information about our private lives," says ACLU legal director Steven Shapiro. "Today's decision suggests that the court is prepared to address that problem."

When the case was heard last November, Twitter was awash in chatter about illegal GPS jammers and how they could foil warrantless tracking. Hopefully that has now been stayed - as widespread jammer use could ruin GPS reception, not only for satnavs but also for cellphone networks which use the GPS satellite network's over-the-air atomic clock signals for timing purposes.?

The privacy lobby's attention now swings to Congress, where the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillence Act (GPS Act) is pending discussion in both the Senate and the House. ACLU hopes the precedent set by the Supreme Court will similarly prevent cellphone-derived location data being seized by law enforcement without a warrant.

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[OOC] Love, Life and Duels

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I'm bringing sexy back, babe ~ Kris.

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Random Kat
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Yay! Finally a Yu-Gi-Oh! roleplay. I might make a character later today, depending on my work. :)

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Too $hort And Bow Wow To Check In With 'RapFix Live'

2 Chainz will also be in the mix Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET on MTV.com.
By Rob Markman


Bow Wow
Photo: Jerritt Clark/ Getty Images

"RapFix Live" is about to put you on to game.

Oakland, California, rap veteran Too $hort will appear on Wednesday's show and chop it up with host Sway about his come-up in the 1980s, his upcoming No Trespassing album (his 19th solo LP!) and everything in between.

Cash Money's Bow Wow will also stop by to talk about his own career evolution. The now 24-year old rapper got his start in 2000 at the age of 13. Since then, the Ohio rap representative has grown from kiddie rapper to full-grown MC and amassed a gang of hits along the way. His upcoming album Underrated will mark Bow's first release on Cash Money Records since signing with the powerhouse label in 2009.

Speaking of power moves, 2 Chainz will also appear on Wednesday's show to make a very special announcement concerning the next phase of his career. The Atlanta rap phenom made a name for himself as one-half of Playaz Circle, the group known best for their 2007 rap hit "Duffle Bag Boy" with Lil Wayne. He went by the name Tity Boy back then, but after a name change and a string of underground bangers, 2 Chainz has built a deafening buzz. His latest single, "Spend It," spread like wildfire and has recently spawned an official remix and music video with T.I.

Catch Too $hort, Bow Wow and 2 Chainz on "RapFix Live" Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET on MTV.com, and be sure to join the Twitter conversation using the hashtag #RapFixLive. Send your questions for the artists @MTVRapFiX!

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677733/too-short-bow-wow-rapfix-live.jhtml

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Rights group criticizes West on 'Arab exception'

Popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world exposed biases by Western governments that supported Arab autocratic rulers for the sake of "stability" while turning a blind eye to their repressive policies, Human Rights Watch said Sunday.

In its World Report 2012, The New-York based group urged democratic governments to adopt persistent and consistent support for peaceful protesters and to press both autocratic rulers and newly emerging democracies to avoid intolerance and seeking revenge.

"The events of the past year show that the forced silence of people living under autocrats should never have been mistaken for popular complacency," HRW's executive director Kenneth Roth said. "It is time to end the 'Arab exception.'"

The Arab Spring revolts began in Tunisia in late 2010 and quickly spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, deposing or challenging authoritarian rulers as citizens who long seemed incapable or unwilling to rise against decades of repression took to the streets in a stunning awakening.

In some ways, the unexpected uprisings amounted to a slap to the United States and other Western governments, which had supported autocratic regimes that served as bulwarks against Islamists hostile to the West and appeared to offer stability in a volatile region.

Western governments also have been accused of being selective in supporting the protesters, with NATO airstrikes proving key to the ouster of slain Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Meanwhile, the West has stood largely on the sidelines amid continued crackdowns in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria.

"The people driving the Arab Spring deserve strong international support to realize their rights and to build genuine democracies," Roth said in the group's annual report, which covers some 90 countries. He added that the Arab world is in a "transformative moment," and it will not be an easy one.

Human Rights Watch pointed to five main issues that dominated the relationship between Western governments and their Arab autocratic friends: the threat of political Islam, the fight against terrorism, support for Israel, protection of the oil flow and cooperation in stemming immigration.

Even after the leaders of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia were toppled, Western governments remained hesitant to lean too hard on other shaky authoritarian leaders, the group said.

As an example, the watchdog group singled out the United States, saying it has been reluctant to "press Egypt's ruling military council to subject itself to elected civilian rule," nearly a year after the country's longtime leader was ousted following an 18-day uprising.

Roth acknowledged Western governments were re-evaluating their policies as new governments emerge in the region, but said changes have been selective.

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"The West has not put Bahrain under pressure, and other monarchs, to carry out reforms," he told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the report's release in Cairo.

The organization also blamed the Western hesitation in part on the ascendence of political Islam in most of the countries that witnessed the fall of their autocratic rulers like Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.

HRW urged the West to recognize that Islamists are the "majority preference," while keeping pressure on the emerging new governments to respect human rights, especially regarding women and religious minorities.

Roth was cautious when asked about concerns about potential human rights violations under Islamist rule, particularly in Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafis won a majority of seats in the first post-Hosni Mubarak parliament.

He said the Muslim Brotherhood has been "saying the right things" but "we have to see how they govern and how they deal with women, religious minorities. These are the big questions."

The popular uprisings also have alarmed other repressive regimes such as China, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan, where rulers were worried about facing similar fates. The group said China and Russia in particular acted "obstructionist," using their veto power at the U.N. security council to halt pressure on Syria to stop killings of protesters.

Saudi Arabia also continues to discriminate against its citizens and workers, according to HRW, which said 9 million women, 8 million foreign workers and 2 million Shiite citizens are either suppressed or lacking rights in the country.

"As we mark the first anniversary of the Arab Spring, we should stand firmly for the rights and aspirations of the individual over the spoils of the tyrant," Roth said.

Outside the Arab world, the last year has not witnessed significant progress in countries with poor human rights records, including China and North Korea, according to the report.

Corruption, poverty and repression still prevail in Equatorial Guinea, the tiny, oil-rich nation off the western coast of Africa, which has been ruled by Africa's longest-serving ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema since he seized power in a 1979 coup, the group said.

Eritrea continues to be governed by "one of the world's most repressive governments," and its citizens are subjected to torture, detentions, restrictions on freedom of speech, HRW said.

It also cited Colombia, saying armed conflict in the South American country has displaced millions while paramilitary groups with ties to the security apparatus are on the rise.

Cuba, HRW said, remains "the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all forms of political dissent."

The group also claimed that even member states of the European Union have violated human rights through restrictive asylum and migration policies.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46091438/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Libya could fall into 'bottomless pit', leader warns

By msnbc.com stadd and news services

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), warned on Sunday the country could be heading towards a "bottomless pit" after protesters stormed a government office in Benghazi when he was inside.

A crowd demanding the resignation of the Libyan government smashed windows and forced their way into the NTC's local headquarters late on Saturday, in the most serious show of anger at the new authorities since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.


The NTC has the support of the Western powers who helped force out Gaddafi in a nine-month conflict, but it is unelected, has been slow to restore basic public services, and some Libyans say too many of its members are tarnished by ties to Gaddafi.

Speaking to reporters at a hotel in Benghazi, Abdel Jalil warned the protests risked undermining the country's already fragile stability.

"We are going through a political movement that can take the country to a bottomless pit," he said. "There is something behind these protests that is not for the good of the country."

"The people have not given the government enough time and the government does not have enough money. Maybe there are delays, but the government has only been working for two months. Give them a chance, at least two months."

The protests in Benghazi, in eastern Libya, are particularly troubling for the NTC because the city was the birthplace of the revolt against Gaddafi's 42-year rule. It was the site of the NTC's headquarters during the revolt.

Abdel Jalil said he met with religious leaders and protesters to discuss their grievances.

He said he had accepted the resignation of the head of the Benghazi local council, Saleh El-Ghazal. Like most Libyan officials, the head of the council was appointed but Abdel Jalil said his successor would be chosen through an election.

Abdel Jalil said that later on Sunday he will unveil a law on elections for a national assembly, which are scheduled to take place within about six months.

Libya's leaders hope the law will ease some of the tension by setting out a clear road-map for the replacement of the NTC with an elected body.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/22/10210037-libya-could-fall-into-bottomless-pit-leader-warns

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Democrats taunt Romney as rich, forget flip-flop charge (Daily Caller)

The Democrats? orchestrated and tweeted criticism of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney turned personal during Thursday?s South Carolina debate, and focused on his wealth and demeanor, not on his policy positions or policy changes.

Romney ?is worth a quarter of a billion dollars,? and ?is quadrupling the size of his Pacific Coast Mansion,? said tweets from Brad Woodhouse, the communications director at the Democratic National Committee, who invited his followers to share their ridicule of Romney via a tweet hashtag ?#livedintherealstreetsofAmerica.?

Romney?s wealth was also targeted by Ben LaBolt, the press secretary for Obama?s 2012 campaign. ?Speaking of vacations, when will Romney?s investments stop vacationing offshore in the Caymans?? he said halfway through the two-hour debate.

Paul Begala, a consultant who is working with the Obama campaign, tweeted out his taunts, saying one hour into the debate that ?Mitt hates, hates, HATES being questioned about his taxes.Looks like he wants to fire the peons who dare question him about taxes.?

A little earlier, Begala announced that ?Romney should save his threats of fist fights for his croquet & polo matches.?

The personal taunts, however, followed the Democrats? increased efforts to portray Romney as an out-of-touch elitist

For example, Romney ?made millions laying people off, bankrupting companies and shorting pensions and healthcare,? Woodhouse announced at 9:10 p.m.

The Democratic activists have largely dropped their previous effort to depict Romney as a flip-flopper, although Woodhouse?s DNC sent out several emails displaying a graphic that said, ?Mitt Romney; Say Anything to get elected.?

Democratic spokesmen, however, did aim some taunts at other GOP candidates, usually lamenting their failure to disagree more with Romney.

?Holy smokes. Santorum at his best. Skewers Newt for erratic, inconstant leadership as Speaker.This is getting personal. Love it,? Begala tweeted midway through the debate.

Romney ?looks like he wants to punch Rick Santorum in the mouth,? Woodhouse declared 36 minutes into the debate.

The nastiest tweet, however, came during the opening minutes of the debate from Begala, and was aimed at his old rival, former House Speaker Next Gingrich. ?Newt walks out. Unflattering profile shot. But then again, the camera adds 200 pounds,? said Begala.

Back in 1994, Gingrich helped end the Democrats? 40 years of majority control in the House of Representatives. The remarkable turnover forced Begala?s client, President Bill Clinton, to remain on political defense for the rest of his presidency.

Follow Neil on Twitter

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

What comes after hope and change? The top 10 losing Obama slogans for 2012

Santorum: 'the Internet is not a free zone where anybody can do anything they want'

Democrats taunt Romney as rich, forget flip-flop charge

CNN's John King ignores Ron Paul...met with boos

Early co-sponsor of SOPA recants, declares: 'It?s time to scrap the bill'

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20120120/pl_dailycaller/democratstauntromneyasrichforgetflipflopcharge

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