Justin Bieber Graduates To 'Adult Game' On New Album

'We've seen him [with] 'Baby,' now we're watching him grow up,' producer Kuk Harrell tells MTV News.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Vanessa White Wolf

Justin Bieber
Photo: Getty Images

Justin Bieber has said that he wants to pull a Justin Timberlake on his next album. So what exactly does that mean? His longtime vocal producer, Kuk Harrell, spoke to MTV News about the early stages of Bieber's next release.

"The only conversation we've had about Justin's album that we're about to do is it's really important that it's the proper transition because we've seen him [with] 'Baby,' now we're watching him grow up," said Harrell, who has also worked with Rihanna on her Talk That Talk record. "And we can't just throw him into the adult game right away. It has to be the proper transition. There's a record in between."

With further details on this next album being kept under wraps, Bieber is busy celebrating the holidays. He's slated to release his video for "All I Want for Christmas," co-starring Mariah Carey, on Wednesday. Harrell worked with Bieber on his Under the Mistletoe LP and says agreeing to do a Christmas album with the teen phenomenon was an easy yes.

"That's why I think this Christmas album was really important because it gave everybody the opportunity to hear him, see him and get used to his voice changing," he said. "That was a huge thing going into this album. We were able to get a running start on where he's at vocally 'cause it's a natural thing. When his proper album comes out, everybody's going to really be looking at that."

What will be noticeably different on this next album, which was teased on his holiday album, is that Bieber's voice will be much deeper. So does Harrell think it'll be changing a lot more for this next record? "I think he's pretty good right now," he said. "It's just a matter of him settling [into] where he is."

Regardless of what magic does end up making the final cut on this album, which Bieber has said may include work from Drake and Kanye West, Harrell notes that the 17-year-old is "always willing to bring a new fire."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1675015/justin-bieber-new-album.jhtml

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LA mayor launches Occupy eviction countdown

Danny Moloshok/Reuters

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, next to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck at Los Angeles City Hall on Friday, announces that City Hall Park will close at 12:01am on Monday.

By NBC Los Angeles

Occupying Angelenos have until Monday at 12:01 a.m. to pack up their tents and take down the signs that have decorated City Hall Park for the past 56 days.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced the closure of City Hall Park, the current location of Occupy LA?s encampment, Friday during a press conference.

"We are asking the participants in the Occupy LA encampment to begin to pack their belongings and to leave City Hall Park in an orderly manner," said Villaraigosa.

Officers will begin walking through the encampment with information regarding the park closure as a part of the multi-step closure process. Social workers, nearby parking and a set amount of shelter beds will be made available to occupiers as well.

In honor of the spirit of free expression, the mayor said City Hall's historic Spring Street steps, which had become the gathering place for demonstrators? free speech forums, will remain open during the park's cleaning.

Danny Moloshok/Reuters

People sit on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall as they participate in a meeting Friday at the Occupy LA protest camp, slated to be closed at 12:01 a.m. on Monday.

Talk of closing the 1.2-acre park began Monday, after Deputy Mayor Matt Szabo reportedly shared news of the pending eviction with Occupy LA representatives at a meeting. Demonstrators would be given a 72-hour window to leave the area.

"Today is merely the realization that the encampment is no longer sustainable and must end," Beck said at the conference.

He added that this doesn't mean Occupy LA's message must end.

Police will not physically remove remaining protesters past 12:01 a.m. Monday, but will have the ability to enforce the park?s 10 p.m. curfew, Beck said.

To see more on this story, visit NBC Los Angeles here.

Related story: Occupy movement targets Black Friday; 16 arrested

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/25/9026107-la-mayor-launches-occupy-eviction-countdown

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German police clear huge sit-in at nuke protest (AP)

BERLIN ? German police say they have cleared a sit-in of thousands of protesters attempting to block a shipment of nuclear waste and have detained 1,300 people.

Police said hundreds of officers started evicting protesters from the rail lines near Dannenberg in the north of the country early Sunday. Those who refused to leave were detained and are being brought before judges later.

Police put the number of protesters at 3,500 while protest organizers said 5,000 people had occupied the tracks that will be used to transport a nuclear waste shipment that has been reprocessed in France to a storage site near the town of Gorleben.

Police say two groups of about 250 activists each are currently hurling stones and fireworks at officers. They say several officers were injured and at least 10 people detained.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_nuclear_waste

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Video: Inside the first family?s Thanksgiving feast

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45427836#45427836

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JK Rowling says press left her feeling under siege (omg!)

LONDON (AP) ? Author J.K. Rowling has told a U.K. media ethics inquiry she felt under siege from intrusive journalists who staked out her house and went as far as to slip a letter into her 5-year-old daughter's school bag.

The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter says Thursday that media interest began shortly after the publication of her first novel in 1997, and soon escalated, with photographers and reporters frequently stationed outside her home.

Once, her daughter came home from primary school and Rowling found a letter from a journalist in her backpack. Rowling says she felt a huge sense of invasion at the move.

___

Leveson Inquiry: http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) ? Actress Sienna Miller told a media ethics inquiry Thursday that she was left paranoid and scared by years of relentless tabloid pursuit that ranged from paparazzi outside her house to the hacking of her mobile phone.

Miller said the surveillance, and a stream of personal stories about her in the tabloids, led her to accuse friends and family of leaking information to the media. In fact, her cell phone voice mails had been hacked at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.

Miller, 29, became a tabloid staple when she dated fellow actor Jude Law. She said the constant scrutiny left her feeling "very violated and very paranoid and anxious, constantly."

"I felt like I was living in some sort of video game," she said.

She called the paparazzi focus on her terrifying.

"For a number of years I was relentlessly pursued by 10 to 15 men, almost daily," she said. "Spat at, verbally abused.

"I would often find myself, at the age of 21, at midnight, running down a dark street on my own with 10 men chasing me. And the fact they had cameras in their hands made that legal."

Miller, the star of "Layer Cake" and "Alfie," was one of the first celebrities to take the News of the World to court over illegal eavesdropping. In May, the newspaper agreed to pay her 100,000 pounds ($160,000) to settle claims her phone had been hacked.

The newspaper's parent company now faces dozens of lawsuits from alleged hacking victims.

Miller, who looked confident as she gave evidence at London's Royal Courts of Justice, said challenging Murdoch's media conglomerate had been a difficult decision.

"I was very nervous about taking on an empire that was richer and far more powerful than I will ever be," she said. "It was very daunting."

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, who has campaigned to keep her children out of the media glare, is due to give evidence later Thursday about media intrusion.

Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry amid a still-unfolding scandal over illegal eavesdropping by the Murdoch-owned tabloid. Murdoch closed down the News of the World in July after evidence emerged that it had illegally accessed the mobile phone voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in its search of scoops.

More than a dozen News of the World journalists and editors have been arrested over allegations of illegal eavesdropping, and the scandal has also claimed the jobs of two top London police officers, Cameron's media adviser and several senior Murdoch executives.

The inquiry, led by Judge Brian Leveson, plans to issue a report next year and could recommend major changes to media regulation in Britain.

Miller took the stand after another witness was allowed to give evidence in private. The courtroom was cleared of the press as the witness, identified only as HJK, testified about suffering intrusions while in a relationship with a well-known figure, whose identity was also kept secret.

Former Formula One boss Max Mosley, who has campaigned for a privacy law since his interest in sadomasochistic sex was exposed in the News of the World, broadened the focus in testimony Thursday, discussing the difficulty of squashing malicious stories in the Internet age.

Mosley successfully sued the News of the World over a 2008 story headlined "Formula One boss has sick Nazi orgy with five hookers." Mosley has acknowledged the orgy, but argued that the story ? obtained with a hidden camera ? was an "outrageous" invasion of privacy. He said the Nazi allegation was damaging and "completely untrue."

Mosley said he has had stories about the incident removed from 193 websites around the world, and is currently taking legal action "in 22 or 23 different countries," including proceedings against search engine Google in France and Germany.

"The fundamental thing is that Google could stop this appearing but they don't or won't as a matter of principle," he said. "The really dangerous things are the search engines."

"You work all your life to try and achieve something or do something useful," Mosley added. "And suddenly something like this happens and that's what you're remembered for."

High-profile witnesses still to come include CNN celebrity interviewer Piers Morgan, who has denied using phone hacking while he was editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The hearings have heard allegations of media malpractice and intrusion that extend far beyond the News of the World.

Witnesses have included celebrities like actor Hugh Grant and ordinary people pursued in times of grief, including the parents of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, whose voice mails were accessed by the News of the World after she disappeared in 2002.

Her parents said the hacking gave them false hope their daughter was still alive during the investigation into her disappearance.

On Wednesday, the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann said they were left distraught by false stories and the publication of private information by the tabloid press.

Kate and Gerry McCann told the inquiry they felt powerless in the face of stories, based on concocted evidence, suggesting they had killed their daughter. Madeleine had vanished when she was three during the British family's 2007 vacation in Portugal.

___

Leveson Inquiry: http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_jk_rowling_says_press_left_her_feeling_under154711988/43705257/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/jk-rowling-says-press-left-her-feeling-under-154711988.html

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More victims reported in "fix-a-flat" cosmestic surgery case (Reuters)

MIAMI (Reuters) ? More alleged victims are coming forward in the case of a Florida resident accused of injecting "super glue" and flat-tire repair materials into the buttocks of a woman in a botched illegal cosmetic surgery procedure, the Florida Department of Health said on Tuesday.

Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was arrested by Miami Gardens police on Friday in Fort Lauderdale and charged with causing bodily injury and practicing healthcare without a license. Police referred to Morris as a man though he had the appearance of a woman in the arrest photo released by police.

According to the charge, Morris, acting without a required medical practitioner's license and starting in May 2010, injected substances into the buttocks of a woman client to improve their "shape and cosmetic appearance."

Morris was allegedly paid $700 for this.

"Initial laboratory analysis conducted by medical personnel determined the foreign substances injected into the victim consisted of a host of household and automotive products including superglue, mineral oil and "Fix-a-Flat" (a tire repair material)," Jennifer Hirst, deputy press secretary of Florida's Department of Health, said in an email.

This treatment resulted in "life-threatening injuries" for the victim, who was not named, according to the accusation.

"As a result of the national and international media attention that Morris' arrest has already received, several other possible victims have come forward alleging Morris performed similar procedures on them that also resulted in life-threatening injuries," the email said.

It gave no details of the additional victims.

"A joint investigation between DOH and law enforcement continues; additional arrests are possible," the Department of Health email said.

Excerpts from the report of Morris' November 18 arrest cited by NBC Miami said that the woman who allegedly underwent the 2010 treatment by Morris began feeling sick within a few hours of the injections and became "very ill."

"The injection sites were bleeding and puss was excreting," said the report quoted by NBC.

"The victim sustained extensive disfigurement to her buttocks and scarring, had to undergo several blood transfusions and multiple surgeries ... followed with home nursing care for several weeks," it added.

In comments to NBC, Miami Gardens Police Captain Ralph Suarez said Morris had displayed "no regards for human life ... no regards for health."

"We would like to keep him inside," Suarez added. After the arrest last week, Morris was transported to the Miami-Dade County Jail subject to a $15,500 bond.

(Reporting by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/od_nm/us_usa_florida_buttocks

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How to Prepare Your Couch and Living Room for Guests [Travel]

If you have guests coming in for the holidays and you don't have a spare room, the couch and the living room are generally the de facto place to put them. Even if your couch is a lumpy, uncomfortable mess, there are some tips to making the experience less terrible.

Photo by Bogdan Seredyak.

First, you want to create a space that's akin to a room. Whether it will be you, or your guests taking on the couch, you want it to feel as much like a bedroom as possible, but still be quickly changeable into a living room space. Making a room more familiar is half the battle and it might be easier to deal with an uncomfortable couch if you're comfortable with everything else.

Make the couch as much like a bed as possible: Unless you have an incredibly spectacular couch, it's probably not the most comfortable place to sleep. The first and easiest thing to do is get rid of the back cushions if you can so as much space as possible is available. Toss on some sheets, pillows, and blankets, and it's a reasonable little space to sleep on.

Perform some minor service on your couch ahead of time: On the same note, flip the bottom cushions or mattress if it's a pullout sofa before they arrive. It might not seem like much, but it makes a big difference. When you're doing that, you can clean out all the Fritos crumbs too. If your couch is still horribly uncomfortable, it might be time to pick up some new foam. This guide from eHow walks you through the simple process of installing it. If your couch doesn't use foam, you can restuff it with cheap stuffing. The nice thing about stuffing the couch with new foam is that you'll have a better couch when your guests leave then when they arrived. Of course, if you're feeling especially crafty, you can always hack a mattress into a couch.

If it's an older, saggy couch, you can also cut out a piece of plywood the size of the bottom cushions and place it underneath to add more support. It might seem like a lot of work, but you can leave it there year round to add a little comfort all around. It's worth flipping the couch over and seeing if any of the support beams have busted and repairing those as well. Most repairs and stuffings can be done for under $50 and not only will they make your couch comfortable for your guest, they'll make your couch more comfortable in the long run.

If the problem is the opposite and the couch is too firm, you can always cut a sheet of foam mattress pad to fit the couch, or if you have enough room, stuff it inside the padding. If you have camping gear, repurpose your mats for the couch. Some people might find a sleeping bag helpful as well, since the usual association with sleeping in one is of a hard, uncomfortable surface.

Photo by Stephen Pierzchala.

Convert your end tables into a nightstand: If you don't have lamps, consider moving some to the living room. You might also want to make sure there's an outlet so they can make a charging station for their phones or gadgets. You can prepare a handy information packet for them so they can contact you, log in to your Wi-Fi network or get your complicated home theater system working.

Make a fake wall: If your guests like at least a little privacy and your house or apartment can't offer it, you can easily make a fake wall from shower rod and a sheet or curtain. It's not going to work in every home, but if it does, it will at least provide a little bit of a barrier between your loud morning routine and their sleeping area.

Give them a place to store their things: If your guest is on the couch, that means all their stuff is in the living room, which might mean that a lot of junk is strewn about everywhere. If you have something in or near the living room that can be converted into a dresser, do it. It might be as simple as clearing off a bookshelf or cabinet, but as long as there things are off the floor, it will make the keep the area clean.

If you combine these tips for couch comfort with our previous guide to be a good host, you'll certainly win over your guests.

Thanks to everyone who sent tips in.

How do you usually make the couch and living room a more comfortable space?

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/vjNlp4nH3bA/how-to-prepare-your-couch-and-living-room-for-guests

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Police on leave after protesters pepper sprayed

SAN FRANCISCO ?? The president of the University of California system said he was "appalled" at images of protesters being doused with pepper spray and plans an assessment of law enforcement procedures on all 10 campuses, as two police officers and the police chief were placed on administrative leave.

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"Free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history," UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a statement Sunday in response to the spraying of students sitting passively at UC Davis. "It is a value we must protect with vigilance."

Yudof said it was not his intention to "micromanage our campus police forces," but he said all 10 chancellors would convene soon for a discussion "about how to ensure proportional law enforcement response to non-violent protest."

Protesters from Occupy Sacramento planned to travel to nearby Davis on Monday for a noon rally in solidarity with the students, the group said in a statement.

UC Davis said early Monday in a news release that it was necessary to place police Chief Annette Spicuzza on administrative leave to restore trust and calm tensions. The school refused to identify the two officers who were place on administrative leave but one was a veteran of many years on the force and the other "fairly new" to the department, Spicuzza earlier told The Associated Press. She would not elaborate further because of the pending probe.

Videos posted online of the incident clearly show one riot-gear clad officer dousing the line of protesters with spray as they sit with their arms intertwined. Spicuzza told the AP that the second officer was identified during an intense review of several videos.

Video: Did cops go too far in pepper-spraying students? (on this page)

"We really wanted to be diligent in our research, and during our viewing of multiple videos we discovered the second officer," Spicuzza said. "This is the right thing to do."

Both officers were trained in the use of pepper spray as department policy dictates, and both had been sprayed with it themselves during training, the chief noted.

Meanwhile, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said she has been inundated with reaction from alumni, students and faculty and would speed up an investigation that was to have taken three months.

"I spoke with students this weekend and I feel their outrage," Katehi said in a statement Sunday.

Katehi also set a 30-day deadline for her school's task force investigating the incident to issue its report. The task force, comprised of students, staff and faculty, will be chosen this week. She earlier had set a 90-day timetable.

She also plans to meet with demonstrators Monday at their general assembly, said her spokeswoman, Claudia Morain.

The UC Davis faculty association called for Katehi's resignation, saying in a Saturday letter there had been a "gross failure of leadership." Katehi has resisted calls for her to quit.

"I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident," Katehi said Sunday. "However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place."

Reverberations
The incident reverberated well beyond the university, with condemnations and defenses of police from elected officials and from the wider public on Facebook and Twitter.

"On its face, this is an outrageous action for police to methodically pepper spray passive demonstrators who were exercising their right to peacefully protest at UC Davis," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said in a statement Sunday. "Chancellor Katehi needs to immediately investigate, publicly explain how this could happen and ensure that those responsible are held accountable."

The protest Friday was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed by police with batons on Nov. 9.

Nine students hit by pepper spray were treated at the scene, two were taken to hospitals and later released, university officials said. Ten people were arrested.

Meanwhile Sunday, police in San Francisco, about 80 miles south of Davis, arrested six anti-Wall Street protesters and cleared about 12 tents erected in front of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Across the bay in Oakland, police made no arrests after protesters peacefully left a new encampment set up in defiance of city orders.

Photoblog: Who is occupying Wall Street?

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45385629/ns/us_news-life/

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Deal of the Day ? Samsung UN55D6000 55-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV (2011 model) + $50 Gift Card

Today?s LogicBUY Deal is the new 2011 model 55? Samsung UN55D6000 1080p LED HDTV plus a $50 Dell gift card for $1097.99.? Features: 120Hz Clear Motion Rate, ultra-slim design, 4 HDMI inputs, 2 USB ports. $2096.99 ??$999 instant savings ??= ?$1097.99 with free shipping. ?This is the lowest price found by LogicBUY and is $198 [...]

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Robin Gibb, Former Bee Gees Singer, Diagnosed with Liver Cancer

Sad news today out of the music world: Robin Gibb, the former lead singer for the Bee Gees, has been diagnosed with liver cancer.

Sources say the musician was told of the news a few months ago, but word has only recently circulated following a series of missed appearances. On Tuesday, the 61-year old was rushed to the hospital, but returned home later that day.

"We should be thinking about Robin’s incredible talent as a singer and songwriter, and the wonderful gift of music that he and his brothers gave to the world," a friend told The Daily Mail.

There has been no official word out of Gibb's camp yet, but we'll keep readers apprised of the "Stayin Alive" singer's condition. Our thoughts go out to his family.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/robin-gibb-former-bee-gees-singer-diagnosed-with-liver-cancer/

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Deficit deal failure would pose crummy choice (AP)

WASHINGTON ? If the deficit-cutting supercommittee fails, Congress will face a crummy choice. Lawmakers can allow payroll tax cuts and jobless aid for millions to expire or they extend them and increase the nation's $15 trillion debt by at least $160 billion.

President Barack Obama and Democrats on the deficit panel want to use the committee's product to carry their jobs agenda. That includes cutting in half the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax and extending jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed for more than six months.

Also caught up in what promises to be a chaotic legislative dash for the exits next month is the need to pass legislation to prevent an almost 30 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. Several popular business tax breaks and relief from the alternative minimum tax also expire at year's end.

A debt plan from the supercommittee, it was hoped, would have served as a sturdy, filibuster-proof vehicle to tow all of these expiring provisions into law. But after months of negotiations, Republicans and Democrats were far apart on any possible compromise, and there was no indication of progress Saturday.

Failure by the committee would leave lawmakers little time to pick up the pieces. And there's no guarantee it all can get done, especially given the impact of those measures on the spiraling debt.

Instead of cutting the deficit with a tough, bipartisan budget deal, Congress could pivot to spending enormous sums on expiring big-ticket policies.

If lawmakers rebel against the cost, as is possible, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help prop up the economy, to lapse.

Last year's extensions of jobless benefits and first-ever cut in the payroll tax were accomplished with borrowed money.

The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers at a total cost of $179 billion and reduce the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.

"The notion of imposing a new payroll tax on people after Jan. 1 in the midst of this recession on working families is totally counterproductive," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with 1.8 million cut off within a month.

Economist say those jobless benefits ? up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states ? are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away.

"We will have to address those issues," Durbin said.

Extending benefits to the long-term unemployed would cost almost $50 billion under Obama's plan. Preventing the Medicare payment cuts to doctors for an additional 18 months to two years would in all likelihood cost $26 billion to $32 billion more.

Lawmakers also had hoped to renew some tax breaks for business and prevent the alternative minimum tax from sticking more than 30 million taxpayers with higher tax bills. Those items could be addressed retroactively next year, but only increase the uncertainty among already nervous consumers and investors.

This time, Obama wants them to be paid for. But a move by Democrats to try to finance jobs measures with hundreds of billions of dollars in savings from drawing down troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has gotten a cold shoulder from top Republicans.

"I've made it pretty clear that those savings that are coming to us as a result of the wind-down of the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan should be banked, should not be used to offset other spending," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. He did not address whether war savings could be used to extend expiring tax cuts.

Those savings are the natural result of national security strategies unrelated to the federal budget. Deficit hawks say tapping into them is simply an accounting gimmick.

"It's just the worst of all worlds if that were to happen," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

But without the war money at their disposal, lawmakers simply can't pay for the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. Liberals such as Durbin are fine with employing deficit financing, especially if the alternative is playing Scrooge just before the holidays.

"Many people will hate to go home for Christmas saying to the American people, `Merry Christmas, your payroll taxes go up 2 percent Jan. 1 and unemployment benefits are cut off.'"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111120/ap_on_go_co/us_debt_supercommittee_what_next

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'al-Qaida sympathizer' accused of NYC bomb plots (AP)

NEW YORK ? An "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home remained in police custody after an arraignment Sunday on numerous terrorism-related charges.

Jose Pimentel of Manhattan was described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a news conference announcing Pimentel's arrest as "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan.

"He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."

Ten years after 9/11, New York remains a prime terrorism target. Bloomberg said at least 14 terrorist plots, including the latest alleged scheme, have targeted the city since the Sept. 11 attacks. No attack has been successful, however. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad is serving a life sentence for trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.

Kelly said Sunday that Pimentel was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.

A U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad," Bloomberg said.

New York police had him under surveillance for at least a year and were working with a confidential informant; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.

"He appears to be a total lone wolf," the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."

At Pimentel's arraignment, his lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client's behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.

"I don't believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe," Zablocki said. "He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. ... This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack."

Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, was denied bail and remained in custody. The bearded, bespectacled man wore a black T-shirt and black drawstring pants and smiled at times during the proceeding. His mother and brother attended the arraignment, Zablocki said.

Pimentel is accused of having an explosive device Saturday when he was arrested, one he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010, and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.

Bloomberg said at the news conference that Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.

"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.

Kelly said a confidential informant had numerous conversations with Pimentel on Sept. 7 in which he expressed interest in building small bombs and targeting banks, government and police buildings.

Pimentel also posted on his website trueislam1.com and on blogs his support of al-Qaida and belief in jihad, and promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.

Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: "People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare."

The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady. He said police in the Albany area tipped New York City police off to Pimentel's activities.

Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."

About 1,000 of the city's roughly 35,000 officers are assigned each day to counterterrorism operations. The NYPD also sends officers overseas to report on how other cities deal with terrorism. Through federal grants and city funding, the NYPD has spent millions of dollars on technology to outfit the department with the latest tools ? from portable radiation detectors to the network of hundreds of cameras that can track suspicious activity.

Alexis Smith, 22, who lives in an apartment in the same building as Pimentel, said she was shocked that he was a suspect in a terrorist plot. "He was always very courteous to us," she said, adding that Pimentel helped her carry groceries and luggage into the building.

"It's nice to know he was only working alone," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Colleen Long and AP video journalist David R. Martin contributed to this report from New York. AP writer Samantha Gross also contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_bomb_plot

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Keep MCC campus at Sibley site (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

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House GOP proposes expanded oil drilling to fund transportation spending (Washington Post)

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Corals can sense what's coming

Friday, November 18, 2011

Australian scientists have thrown new light on the mechanism behind the mass death of corals worldwide as the Earth's climate warms.

Coral bleaching, one of the most devastating events affecting coral reefs around the planet, is triggered by rising water temperatures. It occurs when the corals and their symbiotic algae become heat-stressed, and the algae which feed the corals either die or are expelled by the coral.

There have been seven major bleaching events globally in the past 30 years, the most recent being in 2010 across the Indian Ocean and Coral Triangle. Australia's Great Barrier Reef has suffered eight events since 1980, the worst being in 2002 when 55% of the total reef area was affected. The frequency of these events appears to be increasing.

Now a team of scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University has shown that a complex cascade of molecular signals leading up to the self-inflicted death of corals and their symbiotic algae is triggered as sea water begins to warm.

Working with Acropora corals from the reef at Heron Island, the researchers found the cascade begins at ocean temperatures as much as 3 degrees lower than those normally associated with coral bleaching.

And the process culminates in 'apoptosis' or programmed cell-death ? a situation in which living organisms (including corals and humans) deliberately destroy their weakened or infected body cells, effectively a form of 'cell suicide' or amputation designed to protect the organism as a whole.

"Our results suggest that the control of apoptosis is highly complex in the coral-algae symbiosis and that apoptotic cell death cascades potentially play key roles in tipping the cellular life or death balance during environmental stress prior to the onset of coral bleaching," explains lead author Dr Tracy Ainsworth.

"It is also clear that this chain reaction responds significantly to subtle, daily changes in the environment and to sea temperatures which were generally thought till now to have little impact on the function of coral and its symbiotic algae."

Paradoxically, the team's research identified molecular signals both promoting and discouraging programmed cell-death in the corals.

This has led them to a theory that corals respond to the stresses caused by warming sea water by killing off some of the cells, while strengthening others in order to stage a possible recovery after the hot water has moved off the reef and conditions have returned to normal.

"This would explain why some corals are able to recover quite quickly from a bleaching event, if it has not gone too far.

"It is far too early to speculate, but understanding the recovery process for any living organism is always a big help, as human medicine has constantly demonstrated, Dr Ainsworth says.

"The next step in our research will be to see how we can use this new insight into the processes of coral bleaching to understand their recovery mechanisms. We also need to know more about how this process works at lower temperatures, or under varying temperatures.

"That in turn will lead us to explore ways that coral reef managers and users can perhaps minimise other stresses on the reef in order to give it the best possible chance of recovery from bleaching."

However the team cautions that "further study of the tissue function and cellular differentiation and recovery processes in coral is needed before this complicated cell death system can be fully understood".

###

ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/

Thanks to ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115340/Corals_can_sense_what_s_coming_

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CA Court: Prop. 8 Supporters Can Defend Gay-Marriage Ban (Prospect)

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APNewsBreak: Demi Moore to divorce Ashton Kutcher (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Demi Moore is ending her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, she told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Moore, 49, and Kutcher, 33, were wed in September 2005.

The couple's relationship became tabloid fodder in recent months as rumors swirled about Kutcher's alleged infidelity.

"It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton. As a woman, a mother and a wife there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life. This is a trying time for me and my family, and so I would ask for the same compassion and privacy that you would give to anyone going through a similar situation," she said in her statement to the AP.

The pair frequently used Twitter to communicate with each other as millions of fans followed along.

"I will forever cherish the time I spent with Demi," Kutcher tweeted Thursday. "Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes they fail."

Moore said in 2007 that her relationship with the star of "That '70s Show" and "Punk'd" ? who is 15 years younger than Moore ? "caught us both by surprise."

"If somebody would have said, 'OK, here is the prediction: You're going to meet a man 25 years old and he's going to see being with you and having your three kids as a bonus,' I would have said, 'Keep dreaming,'" Moore said in a 2007 interview with Vanity Fair. "I think it caught us both by surprise, and particularly him."

Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly. Moore and Kutcher were photographed socializing with Willis, and the couple attended Willis' wedding to model-actress Emma Heming in 2009.

Moore and Kutcher created the DNA Foundation, also known as the Demi and Ashton Foundation, in 2010 to combat the organized sexual exploitation of girls around the globe. They later lent their support to the United Nations' efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international organization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide.

Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" as is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve," set for release next month.

Kutcher's publicist did not immediately respond to an e-mail and phone call seeking comment. No divorce papers had been filed in Los Angeles Superior Court as of Thursday afternoon.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/APsandy .

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_apnewsbreak_demi_moore_divorce_ashton_kutcher212845226/43636893/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/apnewsbreak-demi-moore-divorce-ashton-kutcher-212845226.html

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Strike on Iran could hurt world economy, US says (Reuters)

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he would raise American concerns about the unintended consequences of any military action against Iran during talks with his Israeli counterpart on Friday, including its potential impact on the world economy.

Tension over Iran's nuclear program has increased since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported last week that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a bomb and may still be conducting secret research to that end.

Panetta, speaking to reporters traveling with him to Canada, said the United States believed the most effective way to confront Iran still was to use diplomatic pressure and sanctions to try to curb the Islamic state's nuclear program.

"Obviously to go beyond that raises our concerns about the unintended consequences that could result," Panetta said.

He pointed to a U.S. analysis that a strike on Iran would set back its nuclear program, which Iran says is only for peaceful purposes, by one or two years at most. It would also have implications for U.S. forces in the region.

"And I have to tell you, thirdly, there are going to be economic consequences to that, that could impact not just on our economy but the world economy," Panetta said.

"So those things all need to be considered."

Panetta is due to attend a security forum in Halifax, Canada, where he will also hold bilateral talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday.

"I've made those points before and I'll discuss them again," Panetta said, asked about what message he would deliver to Barak.

There has been concern that if the world powers cannot settle their differences over how to nudge Iran into serious nuclear negotiations, then Israel, which feels endangered by Iranian nuclear aspirations, will attack it.

DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS

Iran has warned that it will respond to any attacks by hitting Israel and U.S. interests in the Gulf. Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 40 percent of all traded oil passes.

"The United States feels strongly that the way to deal with that is to work with our allies, to work with the international community to develop the sanctions and the diplomatic efforts that would further isolate Iran," Panetta said.

"That is the most effective way to confront them at this point."

The six powers involved in diplomacy on Iran - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - hammered out a joint resolution in intense negotiations and submitted it to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Vienna-based U.N. body, which is expected to debate and vote on it on Friday.

It aims to increase pressure on Iran to address fears about its atomic ambitions. But it is not expected to satisfy those in the West and in Israel, who had hoped IAEA document would trigger concrete international action, such as an IAEA referral of its case to the U.N. Security Council.

(Editing by Eric Beech and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/wl_nm/us_usa_iran_economy

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Man charged with trying to assassinate Obama (Reuters)

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) ? A 21-year-old man who called President Barack Obama the "devil" and "anti-Christ" was charged on Thursday with trying to assassinate the U.S. leader by opening fire on the White House with an assault rifle.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, were not in Washington at the time of the shooting Friday night and no one was hurt.

Oscar Ortega-Hernandez of Idaho Falls, Idaho, appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Pittsburgh, who ordered him transferred to Washington. He was arrested on Wednesday at a hotel near Indiana, Pennsylvania.

No one was hurt in the shooting on Friday night. The Secret Service said one bullet broke a White House window but was stopped by protective ballistic glass, and the other round struck the exterior of the building.

A witness reported seeing the occupant of a dark car shooting at the White House and speed away, while another witness reported hearing eight "popping" noises from a dark car that sped away, according to court papers.

A Honda Accord with Idaho license plates was found abandoned nearby with a semi-automatic assault rifle with a large scope as well as three loaded magazines of ammunition, nine spent shell casings, an aluminum baseball bat and brass knuckles, according to court papers.

A witness reported seeing the car's driver flee on foot. The Honda was registered to Ortega-Hernandez, the court papers said.

FBI investigators who scoured the White House grounds on Wednesday found several bullet impacts on the south side of the executive mansion on the second story or above. The president's family quarters are on those upper floors.

Ortega-Hernandez was charged with attempted assassination of the president, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Kitchen said at the court hearing.

If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

He appeared in court wearing a white jumpsuit and said nothing except "yes, ma'am," when asked by Judge Cynthia Eddy if he understood the charges against him.

A witness interviewed in Idaho who "knows Ortega-Hernandez well" said he had become increasingly agitated against the government, according to a FBI affidavit.

The witness told authorities that Ortega-Hernandez wanted to "hurt" Obama and referred to him as "the anti-Christ," according to the affidavit. Another witness interviewed in Idaho told authorities that Ortega-Hernandez "was very specific that President Obama was the problem with the government" and that he was "the devil," according to the court papers.

The witness said Ortega-Hernandez had been "preparing for something," the affidavit said.

Earlier on November 11, police in Arlington, Virginia had responded to a report of a suspicious person who identified himself as Ortega-Hernandez, the affidavit also said.

Arlington police took photos of him and released him after he declined to let them search his car, which was nearby, it said.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111117/us_nm/us_usa_security_whitehouse

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Oil firms cut petrol prices; may help ease inflation (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? State oil refiners cut petrol prices by about 3.2 percent from Wednesday, the first reduction in three years as well as since pricing controls ended 18 months ago, in a move that could help to ease inflation now near double digits.

Petrol prices will be 1.85 rupees a litre lower, excluding local taxes that vary regionally, and oil firm will now revise prices and pass on changes to customers fortnightly. The fuel will now cost 2.22 rupees cheaper at 66.42 rupees/lt in Delhi.

The cut in prices comes after the government faced criticism when state firms -- Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum -- raised petrol prices earlier this month, the sixth major rise since June 2010.

The price cut, implemented ahead of the next parliament session, could help improve the image of the ruling Congress party, with elections next year in Uttar Pradesh, a key state.

But oil firms said there had been no pressure to cut prices.

"The reduction has been possible as a result of favourable impact of the slide down both in the international prices of gasoline and in the Rupee/Dollar parity," oil companies said in a statement.

The rupee/dollar exchange rate came down marginally and was almost stable at around 49.30 rupees to a dollar in the first fortnight of this month, the basis for the current reduction.

"If the rupee/dollar parity remains at this level or moves further away, its impact would get reflected in the next pricing cycle," the statement said, referring to a falling rupee.

FORTNIGHTLY REVISION

The rupee has been Asia's worst performing currency this year and continued to trade at its lowest level in nearly 32 months at 50.67/68 per dollar.

"If the Singapore gasoline prices maintain at this range or soften, there might not be any hike in retail prices. However, if rupee depreciates further, the companies may compensate that by going in for a small hike," said a leading Asian oil trader.

Fuel retailers usually meet once a fortnight to consider petrol prices but prefer to wait for a considerable change before passing any change to customers.

"From now on every fortnight we will change petrol price instead of waiting for a considerable build up in desired price. It could go up or go down but that will bring transparency in the system," said BPCL chairman R. K. Singh.

Such a step could reflect more accurately in the country's headline inflation, which has stayed above the 9 percent mark for the eleventh straight month, in spite of 13 interest rate rises by the RBI over the past year and a half.

Petrol is nowhere near as widely used as diesel in India -- accounting for around 10 percent of fuel demand compared with about 40 percent for diesel -- but it is high-profile because it powers many of the cars owned by the growing middle class.

A reduction in petrol prices could give the government some respite as the fuel has 1.09 percent weighting in the inflation index.

The widening price gap between the two fuels has slowed the growth of gasoline consumption, which has recently fallen behind that of diesel, which is subsidised by the government.

The Asian trader said the latest reduction in prices may not impact demand as the price gap between the two fuels has narrowed only marginally.

Profitability at state-run oil refiners has been hurt as the government has held back on raising prices of subsidised fuels -- diesel, kerosene, and cooking gas -- since June despite rising global crude oil prices.

The oil firms are likely to suffer a revenue loss of 1.30 trillion rupees on their sales of subsidised fuels in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.

IOC said its revenue loss on the sale of a litre of diesel widened to 10.17 rupees from 8.58 rupees in the fortnight ended Tuesday as global prices of the fuel have firmed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111115/india_nm/india605398

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Everybody can become a better a reader, Swedish research suggests

ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2011) ? Students with cognitive impairments may learn to comprehend written texts much better than commonly thought, according to Monica Reichenberg and Ingvar Lundberg, reading researchers and professors at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

'Traditionally, we have been hesitant to challenge these students. It's like we haven't dared to expose them to certain things. As a result, we haven't given them a chance to show what they are able to do. Our research project found that their potential for development is much larger than previously believed. It is therefore important that we dare to challenge the students in their nearest development zone,' says Professor Monica Reichenberg, Department of Education and Special Education at the University of Gothenburg.

The Swedish Schools Inspectorate, Skolinspektionen, published a report in 2010 that showed that many s?rskolor, which are schools that provide compulsory schooling to children with intellectual disabilities, tend to prioritise a caring climate and a good emotional environment at the expense of reading comprehension training.

A matter of participation

'Fictional texts have typically been used in this context, but we wanted to focus on factual texts from for example newspapers. We thought this would give the kids a useful tool -- well, it's actually a matter of participation and democracy,' says Ingvar Lundberg, Professor Emeritus in Psychology and tied to the University of Gothenburg.

The project, which included 40 students in grades 7-9 and lasted for eight weeks, focused on reading of factual texts, often from 8 SIDOR -- a newspaper in easy-to-read Swedish. The reading was followed up with structured conversations about the texts where Reichenberg and the teachers focused on 'why' questions. The purpose of the conversations was to enable the students to understand and reflect upon the content of the articles.

Structured teaching

There were a total of 82 text talks performed in small groups to ensure that each student was included. It turned out that the students were surprisingly successful at comprehending the texts. 'Everybody can learn how to read between the lines and make reflections, but it requires well-structured teaching,' says Reichenberg.

The more discussions the students participated in, the more active they became. They for example started to ask more questions. The reading and talking also developed their skills. The project included pre- and post-testing of the students' reading skills, and most of them performed significantly better at the end of the period.

The project was funded by the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools.

The research project is presented in detail in the new book L?sf?rst?else genom strukturerade textsamtal (in Swedish) published by Natur & Kultur. The book is designed to be a teaching aid, and targets special needs teachers in particular.

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