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Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
Mohammad Shafia, center, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
Tooba Yahya is led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
Mohammad Shafia, front,Tooba Yahya, center and Hamed Shafia arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder of Mohammad Shafia's three daughters and childless first wife. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
Mohammad Shafia reacts as he his led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder of his three daughters and childless first wife. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) ? A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."
The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.
Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.
The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.
Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.
After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."
His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."
Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."
But Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."
"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."
Outside court, prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis said the verdict is a reflection of Canadian values that he hopes will resonate.
"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," Laarhuis said to cheers of approval from onlookers.
The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.
The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.
The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.
The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.
Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant.
The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing theory. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.
"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."
Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.
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BEIJING ? Militants apparently captured 29 Chinese workers after attacking a remote worksite in a volatile region of Sudan, and Sudanese forces were increasing security for Chinese projects and personnel there, China said Sunday.
China has close political and economic relations with Sudan, especially in the energy sector.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said the militants attacked Saturday and Sudanese forces launched a rescue mission Sunday in coordination with the Chinese embassy in Khartoum.
The Ministry's head of consular affairs met with the Sudanese ambassador in Beijing and "urged him to actively conduct rescue missions under the prerequisite of ensuring the safety of the Chinese personnel," the statement said.
In Khartoum, a Chinese embassy spokesman said the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement announced that 29 Chinese workers had been captured in the attack. The spokesman, who asked not be identified, gave no other details and it wasn't clear if the militants had demanded conditions for their return.
Other details weren't given. The official Xinhua News Agency cited the state governor as saying the Sudan People's Liberation Movement attacked a road-building site in South Kordofan and seized the workers.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement are a guerrilla force that has fought against Sudan's regime. Its members hail from a minority ethnic group now in control of much of South Sudan, which became the world's newest country only six months ago in a breakaway from Sudan.
Sudan has accused South Sudan of arming pro-South Sudan groups in South Kordofan. The government of South Sudan has called such accusations a smoke screen intended to justify a future invasion of the South.
China has sent large numbers of workers to potentially unstable regions such as Sudan and last year was forced to send ships and planes to help with the emergency evacuation of 30,000 of its citizens from the fighting in Libya.
China has consistently used its clout in diplomatic forums such as the United Nations to defend Sudan and its longtime leader Omar al-Bashir. In recent years, it has also sought to build good relations with leaders from the south, where most of Sudan's oil is located.
Chinese companies have also invested heavily in Sudanese oil production, along with companies India and elsewhere.
___
Associated Press writer Mohamed Saeed contributed to this report from Khartoum.
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NEW YORK ? Beware the Liam in Winter. Liam Neeson's "The Grey" topped the weekend box office with $20 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, continuing the actor's success as an action star in the winter months.
The Alaskan survivalist thriller opened above expectations with a performance on par with previous Neeson thrillers "Taken" and "Unknown." Those films, both January-February releases, opened with $24.7 million and $21.9 million, respectively.
But the R-rated "The Grey," which has received good reviews, drove home the strong appeal of Neeson, action star. It's an unlikely turn for the 59-year-old Neeson, previously better known for his dramatic performances, like those in "Schindler's List" and "Kinsey."
"Liam is a true movie star, period," said Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road Films. It's the second release for the newly formed distributor, created by theater chains AMC and Regal.
"My guess is that Liam Neeson in action thrillers would work just about any time of year."
January is often a dumping ground for less-stellar releases, a tradition held up by two badly reviewed new wide releases: "Man on a Ledge," with Sam Worthington, and "One for the Money" with Katherine Heigl.
"One for the Money" fared better, earning $11.8 million, while "Man on a Ledge" opened with $8.3 million.
Those were reasonably solid returns, and, in an unusual twist, were both ultimately for Lions Gate Entertainment. Its film studio, Lionsgate, released the romantic comedy "One for the Money." The action thriller "Man on a Ledge" was released by Summit Entertainment, which Lions Gate bought for $412.5 million earlier this month.
"One for the Money" was helped by a promotion with Groupon, the Internet discount site, with which Lionsgate previously partnered for "The Lincoln Lawyer." David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate, said the large number of older, female subscribers of Groupon matched well with the audience of "One for the Money."
Groupon email blasts, he said, had a significant promotional effect.
Last week's box-office leader, "Underworld: Awakenings," Sony's Screen Gem's latest installment in its vampire series, came in second with $12.5 million, bringing its cumulative total to $45.1 million.
The unexpectedly large haul for "The Grey," strong holdovers (such as the George Lucas-produced World War II action film "Red Tails," which earned $10.4 million in its second week) and the bump for Oscar contending films following Tuesday's nominations added up to a good weekend for Hollywood. The box office was up about 15 percent on the corresponding weekend last year.
So far, every weekend this year has been an "up" weekend, after a somewhat dismal fourth quarter in 2011.
"`Mission: Impossible,' I think, really helped reinvigorate the marketplace, and that's carried over into the first part of the year," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "That's good news for Hollywood after the down-trending box office of 2011."
Oscar favorites "The Descendants," "Hugo" and "The Artist" sought to capitalize on their recent Academy Awards nominations. Each expanded to more theaters and saw an uptick in business.
Fox Searchlight's "The Descendants," which is nominated for five Oscars including best picture, added 1,441 screens in its 11th week of release. It added $6.6 million and has now made $58.8 million, making it one of Fox Searchlight's most successful releases.
Sheila DeLoach, senior vice president of distribution for Fox Searchlight, said the film's nominations and its recent Golden Globes wins (for best drama and best actor, George Clooney) "played a big role" in its weekend box office.
Paramount's "Hugo," which led Oscar nominations with 11 including best picture, saw a 143 percent jump in business over its last weekend. In its tenth week of release, it earned $2.3 million, bringing its total to $58.7 million.
The Weinstein Co.'s "The Artist," with 10 Oscar nominations including best picture, expanded a modest 235 screens to bring it to a total of 897 screens in its 10th week of release. It earned $3.3 million, with a total of $16.7 million.
The Weinstein Co. is being careful with the black-and-white, largely silent film. Thus far, it has appealed particularly to older audiences.
"It's not the same type of picture as any other picture in the marketplace," said Erik Loomis, head of distribution for the Weinstein Co. "Now that the nominations are out, we're going to look to capitalize on it as best we can. ... We're being very, very meticulous with it. We're not throwing it out there and grabbing every theater we can. At some point, we'll open the floodgates on the movie, maybe closer to the awards."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Grey," $20 million.
2. "Underworld: Awakening," $12.5 million.
3. "One for the Money," $11.8 million.
4. "Red Tails," $10.4 million.
5. "Man on a Ledge," $8.3 million.
6. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," $7.1 million.
7. "The Descendants," $6.6 million.
8. "Contraband," $6.5 million.
9. "Beauty and the Beast," $5.3 million.
10. "Haywire," $4 million.
___
Online:
http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice
___
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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By Rosa Golijan
Fernando Ochoa / KSHB
Any university student who has ever purchased a used textbook knows that there are sometimes strange surprises hiding between those pages. Usually they come in the form of messy scribbles or perhaps even a forgotten piece of gum, but in one student's case the unexpected (and unwanted) gift-with-a-textbook-purchase was a bag of cocaine.
WPTV reports that?Sophia Stockton ??a junior at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas?? recently ordered a textbook?from an independent retailer through the Amazon online storefront. The book was intended for a spring course on terrorism and is called "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues."
When Stockton flipped through the textbook, she "discovered a bag of white powder had fallen to the ground."?According to WPTV, Stockton feared that the bag contained anthrax and took it to the local police department the next day:
"I told them white powder was in my terrorism textbook and so I put it on the table and they?re like, 'oh, okay,' And so he went back and tested it,? Stockton recalls. ? He comes back and says, ?you didn?t happen to order some cocaine with your textbook, did you?? And I was like, no!?
Gardner law enforcement officials speculate that there may have been up to $400 worth of cocaine in the bag.?
According to GardnerEdge, a Kansas area news site,?the Gardner Police Department?will destroy the cocaine at a later date, but?the officials have?not reported the incident to Amazon or any other agency.
We reached out to Amazon for more information about how such an incident could have occurred. While Stockton's textbook was purchased through the online retailer, it comes from Warehouse Deals. This Amazon storefront offers "deep discounts on open-box, like-new, refurbished, or used products that are in good condition but do not meet Amazon.com's rigorous standards as 'new.'"?
According to the Warehouse Deals' page?on Amazon, all items are inspected prior to being offered for sale:
Prior to offering an item for sale on Warehouse Deals, we verify its physical and functional condition.
Items purchased through independent sellers on the Amazon website are covered by the company's "A-to-z Guarantee," so Stockton could theoretically file?a claim on the grounds that the item she purchased was "not the item depicted in the seller's description." (We sincerely doubt that cocaine was mentioned in the product description, after all.)
At this time it remains a mystery how $400 worth of cocaine wound up in a used textbook.
But if anyone else finds a bag containing a questionable white powder in a mail-order, I would strongly suggest that he or she should not wait an entire day to alert authorities. After all, if the bag in Stockton's textbook did contain anthrax?? as she initially feared?? immediate and appropriate medical evaluation and treatment would've been essential. (For more information about anthrax, you can?consult the World Health Organization website.)
Related stories:
Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russia plans to delay the next mission carrying U.S. and Russian astronauts to the International Space Station by several weeks due to problems with the spaceship's descent vehicle, Interfax news agency quoted an industry source as saying Friday.
The expected delay follows a series of technical mishaps that marred Russia's celebration of 50 years last year since Yuri Gagarin's pioneering first human space flight.
The space industry source told Interfax that the launch, originally set for March 30, would be delayed by several weeks, possibly until May.
The source added the shell of the descent vehicle, used to carry astronauts to the surface of Earth or other celestial bodies, broke during testing ahead of the take-off.
"This descent vehicle can no longer be used in a manned flight," said the source. "Therefore the launch of the Soyuz TMA-04M will have to be rescheduled until the second half of April or the first half of May."
The Soyuz was meant to carry Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin as well as U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba to the ISS, a $100 billion research complex that orbits about 240 miles above Earth.
Alexei Krasnov, in charge of manned flights at Russian state space agency Roskosmos, told Itar-Tass there was a defective element in the descent vehicle. He said a decision might be made as soon as next week to push back the launch date.
Separately a space industry source told Itar-Tass that Saturday's launch of Dutch telecommunications satellite NSS-14 would also be delayed for the second time because of problems with the Proton-M carrier rocket.
It had first been planned for December 26, but was rescheduled for January 28. The new launch date has not yet been set.
The Proton-M has failed in the past and it was temporarily suspended after one of the rockets proved to be the cause behind the loss of a $265 million satellite last year.
(Reporting By Thomas Grove)
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By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Fri?Jan?27, 5:41?pm?ET | Here are the quarterly changes in economic activity over the past four years as measured by the gross domestic product. GDP is the total output of goods and services produced in the United States. The figures are seasonally adjusted annual rates. |
| Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 |
| 2011 0.4 percent 1.3 percent 1.8 percent 2.8 percent |
| 2010 3.9 percent 3.8 percent 2.5 percent 2.3 percent |
| 2009 -6.7 percent -0.7 percent 1.7 percent 3.8 percent |
| 2008 -1.8 percent 1.3 percent -3.7 percent -8.9 percent |
| Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis |
Copyright ? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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LOS ANGELES ? Lindsay Lohan's bad luck with cars continues after a woman who claims she was struck by the actress' sports car sued over her injuries Wednesday. Nubia Del Carmen Preza claims she was struck by Lohan's Maserati while walking through a West Hollywood intersection in September 2010.
Preza's lawsuit states she has suffered "disabling and serious personal injuries, pain, suffering and anguish" and that she is seeking damages for all her medical expenses and lost time at work. A call to her attorney, Gregory Picco, seeking additional details was not immediately returned.
It is the second lawsuit filed against Lohan this month involving an automobile mishap. A paparazzo sued Lohan Jan. 10, claiming that he was struck in January 2010 by a vehicle in which Lohan was riding. Grigor Balyan claims he was trying to shoot pictures of the actress in Hollywowhen he was hit.
Preza's lawsuit states Lohan was driving when she was hit on the afternoon of Sept. 1, 2010, at an intersection just south of the Sunset Strip. At the time, Lohan lived near the intersection.
Lohan's spokesman Steve Honig said neither Lohan nor her attorneys had been served with the lawsuit and could not comment on it.
The model and actress remains on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case filed after she was arrested twice that year on suspicion of driving while impaired.
One of the incidents sparked two civil lawsuits after Lohan chased a vehicle she thought was carrying her former assistant on Pacific Coast Highway. One of the cases has settled. The other, filed by three men who were in the SUV Lohan was driving, may go to trial in March.
Lohan's attorney in that case, Ed McPherson, has said the men had plenty of chances to get out of the vehicle and called the case "absurd."
The "Mean Girls" star has received two positive probation reports since a judge ordered her to perform weekly morgue cleanup duties in November. the actress may be off supervised probation by the end of March.
___
Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP.
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-- Bachelor Ben Flajnik picking up items from Vice Merchants and Sean John at the Talent Resources Suites while listening to Silver Medallion and Mick Boogie deejay during the Sundance Film Festival.
-- Octavia Spencer hanging at Goodnight Gansevoort sponsored by Voli Light Vodka in Park City, Utah.
-- Shailene Woodley listening to live performances at Bing Bar in Park City, Utah.
-- Jordin Sparks celebrating fashion designer Indashio?s birthday at STASH in NYC.?
-- Common performing for an intimate crowd at the official "Luv" After Party hosted by Express at Sugar Lounge in Park City, Utah.
-- Zach Booth sporting his new Superdry USA Regiment Coat on the streets of Park City, Utah.
-- Eliza Dushku checking out the Monster Booth during CES in Las Vegas.
-- Nick Lachey and Rashida Jones stopping by to celebrate the birthday of Chris Masterson and the one year anniversary of Table Manners at Gen Art's Bertolli Meal Soup Chalet in Park City, Utah.
VIDEO: Why Nick and Vanessa wrote their own vows
-- Jason Mraz and Ryan Kwanten getting pampered at the Paul Mitchell MITCH Grooming Bar at the RE:Treat lounge at Sundance.
-- Ashley Greene having her hair styled by Ted Gibson at The Residences at W Fort Lauderdale for the opening of his new salon, then joining her for dinner at Steak 954.
-- Elizabeth Banks talking with friends at a special Blackberry-sponsored Cinema Society party for Haywire at Sons of Essex.
PHOTOS: Get a sneak peek of Elizabeth in The Hunger Games
-- Henry Cavill enjoying a night out with friends hitting up dinner at Katana before throwing back some drinks at Station Hollywood in L.A.
-- Julia Stiles and boyfriend David Harbour reading some books poolside in a cabana at St. Regis Punta Mita Resort in Mexico.
-- Lil' Jon taking shots of Don Julio tequila at his 40th birthday celebration at SL in NYC.
-- Kathy Griffin enjoying a night in with friends while staying at The James Hotel Chicago.
VIDEO: Kathy sets her sights on Justin Bieber
-- Ingrid Michaelson celebrating the release of her new CD, Human Again, with a sold-out performance at Joe's Pub in NYC.
-- Christina Hendricks and her hubby Geoffrey Arend challenging each other in a video game fan at the Nintendo 3DS Experience at Sundance in Park City, Utah.
-- Hugh Jackman enjoying a family night out with pork belly lettuce wraps and samba rolls at SUSHISAMBA 7 in NYC.
-- Elizabeth Olsen picking out a stunning turquoise IceLink six time zone watches -- she also scored a pair of Ryka sneakers at the Element House in Park City, Utah.
-- Kate Bosworth visiting the PUMA Social Lounge at The T-Mobile Google Music Village at the Lift and signing a ping pong table which will be auctioned off to benefit The Boys and Girls Club in Park City, Utah.
-- Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp enjoying a date night at the Palm Steakhouse in Atlanta.
-- Ice-T watching his wife Coco try on Carlo Pazolini shoes and snack on Udi's gluten free cookies at Miami Oasis in Park City, Utah.
VIDEO: Ice-T and Coco keep things hot with "jungle sex"
-- Nick Jonas grabbing a berries and cream shake at Energy Kitchen in NYC.
-- Gilles Marini and wife Carole getting a DNA facial at the Four Seasons Westlake Village in California.
-- AnnaLynne McCord getting her hair styled with UNITE hair products at the 901 Salon in Park City, Utah.
-- Ariel Winter getting her makeup done at Blushington Makeup & Beauty Lounge in West Hollywood.
-- Rufus Wainwright introducing excerpts from his new opera Prima Donna for the New York City Opera at Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum.
-- Emma Roberts and Elijah Wood partying at The Acura Studio for the premiere of Celeste and Jesse at the Sundance Film Festival.
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Mitt Romney hasn't done anything wrong in paying a low tax rate. What?s wrong is the tax system itself?by favoring investment income, the excessive use of pass-throughs, and subsidizing debt financing.
The editorial page of the WSJ is at it again, torturing numbers until they confess to crimes they did not commit.? In this case, they?re claiming that Mitt Romney?s tax rate is a lot higher than the 15% he himself has acknowledged, and that his tax records confirm.? It?s a claim that requires considerable sleight of hand, as I?ll show.? But more importantly, when you actually start to look at the tax code that applies to rich folks like Gov Romney, with all their income from investments as opposed to earnings, you get a sense of just how tilted tax policy is in their favor.
Skip to next paragraph Jared Bernstein?
Before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow, Jared was chief economist to Vice President Joseph Biden and executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class. He is a contributor to MSNBC and CNBC and has written numerous books, including 'Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?'
The Journal?s main point is this:
One reason investment income is taxed at a lower rate than wage and salary income is because it is a double tax?profits are taxed once under the statutory 35% corporate tax rate and then again when they are paid out to individuals as dividends.
But this is almost certainly not the case with income from private equity firms like Bain Capital, because they are?invariably set up as ?pass throughs,? meaning that profits face only the individual rates of the owners, not the corporate rate.
What about the corporations in which the PE funds invest?? Don?t they pay the corporate rate and wouldn?t that be capitalized into their profits (which would be lower due to the corp tax)?? But that?s not how the PE guys roll.? They profit from buying and selling undervalued stock in the company, or for that matter, selling the undervalued company itself.? The corp rate doesn?t come into play in either scenario (Dan Shaviro makes these points here).
And to the extent that these companies are themselves pass-throughs, the corporate rate again doesn?t apply.? Based on Romney?s tax returns, it?s impossible to tell whether the capital gains he realized through these companies reflect corporate taxes at all (interestingly, Romney?s trustee actually made this point to the WSJ, which chose to ignore it).
Finally, remember this: PEs are masters of debt financing, and debt financing carries an effective tax rate of -6% because business interest can be deducted from your tax bill.??For the highly leveraged PE crowd, debt financing is a tax shelter for other liabilities they face, including any corporate income that might slip through the cracks?if I were the WSJ here, I?d crow that Romney?s tax rate is actually 9% (15-6)!
Let me be clear: I?m not saying Gov Romney did anything wrong here?though I am saying that without dealing with all of the issues above, the WSJ?s claims are clearly unfounded.? What?s wrong is the tax system itself?by favoring investment income, the excessive use of pass-throughs, and subsidizing debt financing, it?s even more distortionary and unfair than the WSJ editorial page.
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ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) ? When it comes to conserving the world's orchids, not all forests are equal. In a paper to be published Jan. 25 in the journal Molecular Ecology, Smithsonian ecologists revealed that an orchid's fate hinges on two factors: a forest's age and its fungi.
Roughly 10 percent of all plant species are orchids, making them the largest plant family on Earth. But habitat loss has rendered many threatened or endangered. This is partly due to their intimate relationship with the soil. Orchids depend entirely on microscopic fungi in the early stages of their lives. Without the nutrients orchids obtain by digesting these host fungi, their seeds often will not germinate and baby orchids will not grow. While researchers have known about the orchid-fungus relationship for years, very little is known about what the fungi need to survive.
Biologists based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center launched the first study to find out what helps the fungi flourish and what that means for orchids. Led by Melissa McCormick, the researchers looked at three orchid species, all endangered in one or more U.S. states. After planting orchid seeds in dozens of experimental plots, they also added particular host fungi needed by each orchid to half the plots. Then they followed the fate of the orchids and fungi in six study sites: three in younger forests (50 to 70 years old) and three in older forests (120 to 150 years old).
After four years they discovered orchid seeds germinated only where the fungi they needed were abundant -- not merely present. In the case of one species, Liparis liliifolia (lily-leaved twayblade), seeds germinated only in plots where the team had added fungi. This suggests that this particular orchid could survive in many places, but the fungi they need do not exist in most areas of the forest.
Meanwhile, the fungi displayed a strong preference for older forests. Soil samples taken from older forest plots had host fungi that were five to 12 times more abundant compared to younger forests, even where the research team had not added them. They were more diverse as well. More mature plots averaged 3.6 different Tulasnella fungi species per soil sample (a group of fungi beneficial to these orchids), while the younger ones averaged only 1.3. Host fungi were also more abundant in plots where rotting wood was added. These host fungi, which are primarily decomposers, may grow better in places where decomposing wood or leaves are plentiful.
All this implies that to save endangered orchids, planting new forests may not be enough. If the forests are not old enough or do not have enough of the right fungi, lost orchids may take decades to return, if they return at all.
"This study, for the first time, ties orchid performance firmly to the abundance of their fungi," said McCormick. "It reveals the way to determine what conditions host fungi need, so we can support recovery of the fungi needed by threatened and endangered orchids."
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120124162353.htm
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? Rep. Michele Bachmann predicted Sunday that the November elections will end abortion as she made her first public appearance in Minnesota since dropping out of the Republican presidential race.
Bachmann spoke to hundreds of people opposed to legal abortion who traveled on school buses from across the state Sunday to mark the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, Minnesota Public Radio reported (http://bit.ly/zIPAwh ). The annual rally was sponsored by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, which said in a statement that the event drew more than 4,000 people.
Bachmann said the Supreme Court decision should be repealed within the next year.
"Here on our watch we will stand, we will stand for life, we will never forget, we will never give up, and next year we will gather in a day of celebration when we have finally ended abortion in this all important election," she said. "Join me this year. Choose life."
Bachmann has appeared at few public events in Minnesota in the past half-year, when her focus was on her GOP presidential campaign. She dropped out of the race after finishing sixth in Iowa's leadoff caucuses in early January.
She hasn't said if she'll run for a fourth term in Congress, representing suburbs north and east of the Twin Cities. In response to a question from a reporter, she said she'll give interviews soon on the subject.
Republican Reps. Erik Paulson, Chip Cravaack and John Kline also spoke at the event.
Planned Parenthood officials said they'll oppose any action that limits women's access to health care and legal abortion.
___
Information from: Minnesota Public Radio News, http://www.mpr.org
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'I would be really grateful if it did [get nominated], but if it doesn't, I got the Super Bowl,' she tells MTV News at 'W.E.' NYC premiere.
By Jocelyn Vena
Madonna
Photo: MTV News
NEW YORK — With Madonna's "W.E." taking home a Golden Globe just over a week ago (her "Masterpiece" won Best Original Song), much of the buzz at the film's NYC premiere Monday night (January 23) was about the upcoming Oscar nominations.
"Well, the Oscars, the nominations are coming out tomorrow, and fingers crossed, I hope my movie gets nominated for something," Madonna told MTV News on the red carpet. "I would be really grateful if it did, but if it doesn't, I got the Super Bowl — keep on going," she added, looking forward to her halftime performance at the February 5 game.
When "Masterpiece" won the Globe, Madge thanked a number of her cohorts, including manager Guy Oseary, who was at the "W.E." premiere Monday; the song's producer, William Orbit; and the producer of "W.E.," Harvey Weinstein. "This is a surprise," she told the room, clutching her prize. "Thank you so much to the Hollywood Foreign Press for this acknowledgement. I need to thank my co-writers, Jimmy Harry and Julie Frost, my co-producer William Orbit, who's not here, whom I adore."
When Madonna takes the Super Bowl stage next month, her performance will reportedly be "imagined" by Cirque du Soleil and Madonna's longtime choreographer/ creative director Jamie King. The event may also feature appearances from her "Gimme All Your Luvin" collaborators, including Nicki Minaj. According to reports, the set list for the Super Bowl show will include "Luvin" as well as Madonna classics like "Ray of Light," Vogue" and "Music."
Madonna drops her album M.D.N.A. later this year.
Do you think Madonna will get an Oscar nod? Let us know in the comments!
Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677775/madonna-we-oscar-nomination.jhtml
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Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Ai Wa Sens??desu?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.I would like to reserve Demon 4 please :)
"You should look at the forest, but you keep looking at a tree..." - Verbal Jint
Tomato, Toh Mah Toh, it's the same as saying that there's plenty of other fish in the sea..
Oh well, still love those lyrics though :P
*Cheezy Grin*
Jayu, it means freedom <3
...can you guess what language?
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BAGHDAD (AP) ? An Iraqi police official says gunmen have attacked the house of a police officer near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing one of his guards.
Kirkuk's police commander Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir says the officer was unharmed in Saturday's attack in the predominantly Sunni town of Hawija, a former insurgent stronghold located 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Suspected Sunni insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi security forces to undermine the confidence in the Shiite-dominated government and its efforts to protect people from violence without American backup.
Attacks have surged amid an escalating political crisis in Iraq. At least 160 people have been killed since the beginning of the year, raising fears of civil war a month after U.S. soldiers left.
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Automotive salvaging is, in basic terms, the removing of parts from undesirable and/or inactive motor vehicles. These vehicles are ordinarily saved in salvage yards just where they might continue being for an unspecified duration of time till their parts are essential. They are chiefly organized into systematic stacks and after that inventoried to site make sourcing them a tad better. These salvage yards will obtain vehicles from owners who not demand the use of their automobiles considering of age or condition. At the time these automobiles are brought into the salvage lawn they may be saved and encoded. The codes which have been positioned on these automobiles might be entered in laptop databases just where searches may be done way more conveniently. Numerous of such automotive salvaging yards might also have indicate rooms just where car or truck parts could be viewed by possible users.
The process of marieluce.mediaactualite.info automotive salvaging starts when using the retrieval with the inactive motorcar. Most salvage yards will even pay the owners a small-scale volume for these vehicles due to the likely profit that each automobile will provide them. At the time the vehicles arrive to the ton they may be assessed by educated workers who?ll detect which parts are however working. The parts which have been performing are removed. Initially the peripheral parts are pulled as well as the headlights, the aspect mirrors, the rear-view mirrors as well as windscreen wipers. At the time they are retrieved the main parts are then examined and taken out. The parts could then be, as stated previously, set on show in showrooms. Some salvaging yards however include a you purchase it, you pull it policy where users will will need to get another person available blog to get the parts in the automobile of their deciding on. The process of salvaging motor vehicles is also beneficial to car or truck companies who could use salvage yards to acquire parts for reconditioning and resale.
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This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.Source: http://www.fcsafekids.org/2012/01/22/idaho-automotive-salvaging/
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Continue reading Samsung aggressively aggregating acronyms as eMCP assembly activated
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Full text RSS - You can now subscribe to the full text of Today on New Scientist.We don't have to take the heat death of the universe lying down - a time crystal, symmetrical in time rather than space, would have the power to survive
A gravitational lens has allowed us to detect a distant dwarf galaxy of dark matter, suggesting the Milky Way isn't as lonely as it looks to us Earthlings
Exercise-induced cellular recycling may allow cells to fine-tune their glucose metabolism and so protect against diabetes
A six-billion-year trip through history debuts on stage
Boa constrictors monitor their prey's heartbeat to decide when to relax their lethal grip
A satellite image of the Costa Concordia cruise ship shows the scale of the capsized ship as it dwarfs nearby boats and buildings
Watch an animation that illustrates why some stones are round while others are flat
Manta and mobula rays are ecotourism gold, but fishing pressure to feed Chinese medicines is threatening both groups
Initial cries of sabotage have morphed into claims that US radar brought down Phobos-Grunt by accident - but how plausible are they?
Research by the social network suggests its site encourages the spread of diverse viewpoints, despite accusations that it does just the opposite
Two performers hand over the choreography for their new show to a mathematical algorithm, with surprisingly human results
What would have made them laugh? Or cry? Did they love home more than we do? Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge reveal the real Neanderthals
A facial recognition technique that focuses on features rather than a person's whole face could nab criminals who have had plastic surgery
Computer models suggest that condoms are to be thanked for the falling HIV infection rates in South Africa since 2000
A Universe From Nothing: Why there is something rather than nothing by Lawrence Krauss is an excellent guide to new physics; less good on theology
Wikipedia has officially shut down for the day, but there are still ways to get the web's favourite encyclopaedia
Neuroscientist David Eagleman talks about his stand-up career and what gets him up in the morning
A barrage of experiments seems to show that we can predict the future - but they may tell us more about the scientific method, says Bob Holmes
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COLUMBIA, S.C. ? First, the TV ads. Then, the mailers. And now, in the final days before South Carolina's primary, the pitches are coming ever more frequently by phone: Vote for me over the other guys ? and here's why.
To a seemingly far greater degree than in Iowa and New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidates and their allies are peppering voters in South Carolina with pre-recorded phone messages, called robocalls in shorthand.
"If you're a Republican in the broadest sense, there is only one place to go right now and that's Mitt Romney," says a Romney message using rival Rick Santorum's 2008 endorsement to plug the former Massachusetts governor and GOP front-runner.
In another, a woman from Massachusetts vouches for Romney's credentials opposing abortion, saying: "I've seen him facing down hostile lawmakers every time they tried to fight their pro-choice agenda. ... He worked hard for our cause in Massachusetts and he deserves pro-life support."
Romney also talks up Santorum's earmarks, the special federal spending that brings taxpayer dollars back to politicians' districts. And top Romney surrogates like Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley are calling on his behalf, urging voters to turn out for campaign events and at the polls.
It's not just Romney.
There's also the Leesville pastor who twangs through a script noting that Rep. Ron Paul, an obstetrician before he became a congressman, delivered a lot of babies and will keep federal judges out of abortion issues. There's the one where Paul drops a big name: tea party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who is publicly neutral in this year's presidential race, saying the Texas congressman is right about limiting federal government and an unaccountable Federal Reserve. "And more and more we can see that what he's been talking about is true," DeMint says.
Newt Gingrich has been assailing Romney via voice message. Santorum, meanwhile, has tried to take the high road, condemning "these kind of smear campaigns and these smarmy robocalls."
Federal law prohibits commercial automated calls but makes exceptions for politics and marketing. In the political realm, there are requirements ? seldom enforced ? that prevent campaigns from spoofing or faking the caller ID information. Campaigns also must disclose who is paying for the call.
In South Carolina, an attorney general's opinion says the recorded automated calls can't be made to a live human being; but it is OK for the recorded message to be left on voice mail. So that explains why in many cases, people who pick up their phones often are greeted with hang-ups.
In some cases, the level of calls is so heavy that some South Carolina Republicans have reported getting several a day in the run-up to Saturday's primary.
There's a risk to the calls: Voters may find them annoying and be turned off by the flood of messages filling voice mail boxes.
"All the evidence shows they don't work at all," said Shaun Dakin, founder of the National Political Do Not Contact Registry. He says some people refuse to vote for candidates who use automated telephone pitches and says he's been hearing plenty of complaints about Romney, in particular, burning up phone lines.
"Romney, I think, is getting four or five a day out and these people are saying, `I'm not going to vote for him,'" Dakin said.
For all the complaints about such calls, campaigns find them an effective tool.
"They are the cheapest and quickest way to deliver a message to a targeted audience," said Wesley Donehue, a Columbia political consultant who estimated that hundreds of thousands of calls can go out in minutes for less than a nickel each. Conversely, he said, a piece of mail bashing a candidate may cost 60 cents each and take days to reach its audience.
In a world where mud flies, "that's dirt cheap," Donehue said.
They're also a way to precisely target a message to a voter with a specific set of attributes.
"We know who that person is on the other end of the line," including age, gender, where they live and voting history, said Walter Whetsell, a Columbia political consultant who advises Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
And they're a tool campaigns use to attack their opponents under the radar, far beyond the scope of the media.
___
Online:
National Political Do Not Contact Registry: http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org
___
Follow Jim Davenport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jimdavenport_ap
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