Property group London and Stamford rise on ?265m sale

Company could be on the acquisition after second large disposal, says analyst

Property group London and Stamford has sold a number of sites for ?265m, prompting suggestions it could be on the acquisition trail.

The company has agreed to sell 17 properties to a business managed by affiliates of investment group Blackstone, with the news pushing its shares up 2.3p to 107.2p. Panmure Gordon analyst Mark Hughes said:

It achieved a price in excess of the most recent valuation, and has protected the income by agreeing to a completion date which coincides with its year end. [This allows] L&S to retain the benefit of this income for its full financial year, therefore protecting the dividend.

The proceeds will supplement existing cash resources of the company and provide further firepower, as L&S positions itself to take advantage of investment opportunities that we think are likely to occur in 2012.

This is the second large disposal in a short period of time. A big acquisition must be looming, in our view.

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GoDaddy Changes Its Mind on Supporting That Evil SOPA Legislation [Sopa]

Wow, GoDaddy finally does the right thing. After initially defending their stance, they've just announced that they're no longer supporting the awful, anti-internet bill known as SOPA because though 'fighting' online piracy is important, GoDaddy feels they "can clearly do better". Maybe they were scared off by Leave GoDaddy Day? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/MuvjwIbBTlo/godaddy-no-longer-supports-sopa

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"Wimpy Kid" battles trademark-eating zombies in court (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Greg Heffley had better take his vitamins and do some push-ups, because he's about to go up against a formidable foe indeed -- a zombie who bears an eerie likeness to him.

Wimpy Kid, Inc., the copyright holders of the hugely popular "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book series, has filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit against comic-book publisher Antarctic Press, claiming that Antarctic has violated Wimpy Kid's intellectual property with its book "Diary of a Zombie Kid."

According to the suit, "Zombie Kid" -- published by San Antonio-based Antarctic in August 2011 -- is "substantially similar" to the "Wimpy Kid" book line, and "obviously intended to confuse the public into believing that defendant's books are addition to such series."

In addition to depicting a backpack-carrying protagonist, the suit alleges, the "Zombie Kid" cover artwork bears a startling similarity to the "Wimpy Kid" series, including "distinctive striping along the spine, the hand-drawn pictures of the main character on the front and back covers, both illustrated so as to appear to be taped at each corner of the cover, and the miniature illustration of a male child's head located on the side of the book."

The lettering is also confusingly similar to that of the "Wimpy Kid" series, according to the suit, with letters stylized so as to look brush-painted.

The complaint, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, alleges multiple counts, including federal trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trade dress infringement, federal trademark dilution and deceptive trade practices.

Wimpy Kid, Inc., which is owned by "Wimpy Kid" creator Jeff Kinney, is asking the court to enjoin Antarctic from further alleged trademark infringement. The company is also seeking treble damages, plus attorneys' fees and Antarctic's profits from "Diary of a Zombie Kid."

The "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book series has sold more than 52 million copies in North America alone, according to the suit, and has spawned a film series starring Zachary Gordon as Heffley.

Antarctic Press did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/film_nm/us_wimpykid

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Putin loyalist resigns as parliament speaker (AP)

MOSCOW ? A loyalist to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who served as the speaker of Russia's parliament resigned Wednesday in a move that appeared to be part of the government's effort to stem public anger over alleged fraud in this month's parliamentary election.

Boris Gryzlov had served as speaker of the State Duma for eight years and helped make it a reliable rubber stamper of Putin's decisions.

Putin has ruled Russia for nearly 12 years as president, then prime minister, and he is now campaigning to reclaim the presidency in March.

However, Putin's authority has been hurt by the Dec. 4 parliamentary election, which saw his United Russia party lose about 20 percent of its parliament seats and barely retain its majority. Reports of widespread fraud in the voting also led to widespread anti-government protests across Russia last weekend, the largest the nation had seen since its Communist days.

Activists have vowed to maintain the pressure on Russia's leadership, and on Wednesday the city of Moscow gave permission for three protests later this month ? one for up to 10,000 people on Saturday, and two on Dec. 24 that can have up to 60,000 people total. All three will be held in downtown Moscow.

The U.S. government said Wednesday it hoped the tolerance of protests is a sign of progress in Russia. "We were greatly encouraged to see these rights and responsibilities carried out so well," said Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon.

Putin has promised a government reshuffle, and President Dmitry Medvedev said that their United Russia should share senior positions in parliament with other parties.

The dour Gryzlov, who served as chairman of United Russia and the speaker of the State Duma, announced Wednesday that he will not seek speaker's job but will keep his party post.

Putin is the leader of United Russia, but not a member of it, in a thinly veiled attempt to maintain his distance from the increasingly unpopular party, which has been dubbed the "party of crooks and thieves."

Gryzlov, who was evidently asked to step down, had become an emblematic figure in Putin's "managed democracy" system, which envisaged tight control over political life. Gryzlov's famous statement that "parliament isn't a place for discussion" reflected United Russia's domination of parliament and its marginalization of opposition forces.

The December election stripped Putin's party of the two-thirds majority it needed to modify the constitution, and it will now lose control of some parliamentary committees to other parties.

"Gryzlov was serving as the speaker in a predictable and comfortable situation, when United Russia had a constitutional majority," Alexei Makarkin, the deputy head of the Center for Political Technologies think-tank, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. "The new speaker must be able to conduct a dialogue with the opposition."

Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst who had close links to the Kremlin in the past, told Interfax that "Gryzlov has become a problem for United Russia."

Valery Khomyakov, the head of the Council for National Strategy think-tank, said Gryzlov's lack of charisma made him a liability for the party. "The speaker's job requires a more charismatic politician," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_election

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Torrent of bad financial news flows out of Europe

The Euro sculpture stands in front of the European Central Bank, right, in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, Dec.16, 2011.(AP Photo/Michael Probst)

The Euro sculpture stands in front of the European Central Bank, right, in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, Dec.16, 2011.(AP Photo/Michael Probst)

The Euro sculpture stands in front of the European Central Bank, right, in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, Dec.16, 2011.(AP Photo/Michael Probst)

The Euro sculpture stands in front of the European Central Bank, in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, Dec.16, 2011. Poster underneath the Euro sign reads: Let's talk about Future. At left tents of the occupy movement still remain. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi, left, and and Charles Wyplosz, director of the International Center of Money and Banking at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, arrive for a commemoration of late economist Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, in Rome, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. The Italian government faces a confidence vote over a package of austerity measures while a transport strike to protest the cuts is causing havoc for commuters across the country. Premier Mario Monti is putting his package of new and higher taxes and pension reforms to a confidence vote in the lower Chamber of Deputies to speed up its passage. The vote, which is expected by early evening Friday, will likely clear the measures, paving the way for final approval in the Senate within days. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A man walks across tram rails in Milan, Italy, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. The Italian government faces a confidence vote over a package of austerity measures while a transport strike to protest the cuts is causing Friday havoc for commuters across the country. Premier Mario Monti is putting his package of new and higher taxes and pension reforms to a confidence vote in the lower Chamber of Deputies to speed up its passage. The vote, which is expected by early evening Friday, will likely clear the measures, paving the way for final approval in the Senate within days.(AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

DUBLIN (AP) ? Alarming financial news flowed out of Europe in a torrent Friday, just a week after the EU leaders struck a deal they thought would contain the continent's debt crisis.

The bombardment shredded hopes of a lasting solution to the turmoil that is endangering the euro ? the currency used by 17 European nations ? and threatening the entire global economy.

In quick succession:

? The Fitch Ratings agency announced it was considering further cuts to the credit scores of six eurozone nations ? heavyweights Italy and Spain, as well as Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland and Slovenia. It said all six could face downgrades of one or two notches.

? Ireland's economy shrunk again much deeper than had been expected, with its third-quarter gross domestic product falling 1.9 percent. Ireland is one of three eurozone nations kept solvent only by an international bailout.

? Bankers and hedge funds were balking in talks about forgiving 50 percent of Greece's massive debts, a key issue in the debate over Greece's second rescue bailout.

? The red ink in Spain's regional governments surged 22 percent in the last year, endangering the central government's efforts to cut overall Spanish debt.

? France, the second-largest eurozone economy after Germany, warned that it faced at least a temporary recession next year.

? The euro hovered Friday just above $1.30, a cent higher than its 11-month low.

On the positive side, Fitch said France should keep its top AAA credit rating even though the country's debt load is projected to rise through 2014. Italian lawmakers overwhelmingly passed Premier Mario Monti's new austerity package in a confidence vote, even though many still objected to its pension reforms.

French officials and investors had feared that France could get downgraded, which would have immediate repercussions for the entire eurozone. France and Germany's AAA credit ratings underpin the rating for the eurozone's bailout fund.

European Union leaders confirmed Friday they have distributed the text of their proposed new budget-stability treaty, a pact designed to deter runaway deficits and supposed to become EU law by March. But as growth prospects fade across the continent, governments are facing the likelihood that Europe's debt crisis will prove longer and tougher to overcome than even their most recently revised forecasts.

Until this week, EU leaders held up Ireland as the model for how a debt-struck nation should behave ? defying economic gravity by simultaneously growing its economy while sucking billions out of that same economy in Europe's longest austerity drive.

But on Friday, Ireland announced its third-quarter gross domestic product fell 1.9 percent, its national product 2.2 percent. Economists had expected only an 0.5 percent fall for GDP and none at all for GNP. The latter figure is considered a better measure of Ireland's economic vitality because it excludes the largely exported profits of about 600 American companies based in the country.

Ireland has been cutting spending and hiking taxes since late 2008 and has plans to keep doing so through 2015. Next year's target is ?2.2 billion ($2.9 billion) in cuts and ?1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) in extra charges, including a hike in national sales tax to 23 percent and introduction of a new ?100 ($131) tax on every property.

But the country's finances this year are seriously out of whack: It is spending ?57 billion ($74.5 billion), including ?10 billion ($13 billion) to keep its five nationalized banks afloat, but collecting just ?34 billion ($44 billion) in taxes.

Labor union leaders say the unexpected slump confirmed Friday is irrefutable evidence that Ireland's 4.5 million citizens already have been squeezed too much, too quickly.

"Current policies are making recovery almost impossible," said David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. "No economy can sustain the sort of ongoing damage that is being inflicted on us."

"We need growth and we need it quickly," he added.

Ireland's year-old international bailout requires the Irish to reduce their annual deficits from an EU record 32 percent of GDP in 2010 to the traditional eurozone limit of 3 percent by 2015. But analysts agree that Ireland cannot hope to meet the 2015 goal if its economy doesn't grow sufficiently.

Ireland's recovery plan now presumes 1.6 percent growth in 2012 and 2.8 percent growth in each of the next three years ? figures many consider way too optimistic.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin, said Ireland would "do well" to reach 0.5 percent growth this year "given the deteriorating world economic backdrop and the fall-off in global demand." He said he doubted Ireland could top 1 percent growth next year.

In other developments:

ITALY:

The new premier's austerity package passed 495-88 Friday, but lawmakers on both the left and right criticized the pension reforms as too harsh. The plan raises ?30 billion ($39 billion) in extra taxes and pension reforms and plows about ?10 billion ($13 billion) of that back into growth measures.

Prosecutors in the southern region of Calabria, meanwhile, said they were investigating 10 envelopes with bullets inside found in a post office in the town of Lamezia Terme. The envelopes were addressed to the new leader Monti, his labor minister, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other top political or media figures, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

Reports said the envelopes contained notes threatening those named if the austerity package wasn't changed.

GREECE:

European officials told The Associated Press that private holders of Greek bonds were resisting EU efforts to persuade them to take a voluntary 50 percent cut in the value of their holdings. The talks in Paris between EU and Greek leaders against representatives of global banks and hedge funds have been very difficult, they said.

The proposed ?100 billion ($130.6 billion) write-off of privately held Greek bonds is supposed to be agreed upon by early next year ? and it's central to Greece's second bailout deal. Without it, Greece's debt is forecast to escalate to nearly 200 percent of GDP.

SPAIN:

A new conservative government committed to increased austerity is coming into office next week, but it faces a rapidly deteriorating financial outlook.

The Bank of Spain announced a 22 percent surge over the past year in the debts of the country's 17 regional governments to ?135.2 billion ($176.6 billion). Spain's central government debt rose 15 percent to above ?706 billion ($922.3 billion).

PORTUGAL:

The main opposition party refused Friday to support the government's plan to amend the constitution to include a budget-deficit limit. All 17 members of the eurozone are supposed to make such commitments as part of the bloc's week-old plan to enshrine spending controls in a new treaty.

In a further worrying development, ratings agency Standard & Poor's on Friday downgraded the credit rating of six leading Portuguese banks to junk status.

Portugal received its own ?80 billion ($104.5 billion) international bailout deal in April.

___

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels, Barry Hatton in Lisbon and Ciaran Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Ireland's GDP and GNP, http://bit.ly/vTKjuI

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-16-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-4fc4e2bf48274f5b9627c840026836cd

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Kim Kardashian Splashes Out $65,000 On Jewelry At Elizabeth Taylor Auction

Kim Kardashian Splashes Out $65,000 On Jewelry At Elizabeth Taylor Auction

Reality star Kim Kardashian was among the winning bidders at the Elizabeth Taylor jewelry auction in New York today. Kim paid $65,000 for three bangle [...]

Kim Kardashian Splashes Out $65,000 On Jewelry At Elizabeth Taylor Auction Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2011/12/14/kim-kardashian-splashes-out-65000-on-jewelry-at-elizabeth-taylor-auction/

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Jason Miller cornered tonight by Kevin James, Michael Bisping says it?s all part of what makes ?Mayhem? less than legit contender

Jason Miller has a lot to prove to UFC fans tonight at the Season 14 "Ultimate Fighter Finale."

He's built a nice following amongst hardcore MMA fans by augmenting his fight career with satellite radio and television shows, but his opponent says Miller's standing in the MMA world is built on a myth.

"While I've been in the UFC fighting the best fighters in the world, he's been flying around the world fighting a bunch of washed-up journeymen and not doing a very good job of it," Bisping told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "The only reason he's here now and the only reason he got "The Ultimate Fighter" spot is because he's a loudmouth TV personality."

Miller (24-7, 0-1 UFC) laughs at that assertion. He's a highly sought after teacher of the sport in southern California. Even with all of his side gigs, he still has his eyes on the fighting prize.

"It's paramount. That's what kicked off all this other stuff," Miller said. "I wouldn't have a radio career or a television career without fighting. The past year, I really put in the effort into doing the things in the gym that are going to help my fight career."

Miller will flash a little of that entertainment-world star power with "King of Queen" stars Kevin James in his corner. The 30-year-old Miller met James during the filming of MMA-themed film "Here's Comes the Boom."

Below is James speaking about the UFC-approved film.

Tips via Adam Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal and Ariel Helwani, MMAFighting.

For live undercard, main card and postfight coverage follow Cofield and Maggie Hendricks on Twitter this evening.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Jason-Miller-cornered-tonight-by-Kevin-James-Mi?urn=mma-wp10144

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Combating Depression With Meditation, Diet

In his book Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Andrew Weil writes of an 'integrative' approach to mental health, warding off mild and moderate depression with an anti-inflammatory diet, exercise and activities such as yoga and meditation, rather than antidepressants.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/02/143055122/combating-depression-with-meditation-diet?ft=1&f=1007

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How Organized Crime Infested Japan Inc. (Time.com)

Rarely in the history of Japan Inc. has there been a more remarkable board meeting. On Nov. 25, the directors of Olympus Corp. gathered at their Tokyo headquarters, their company under siege. Once a solid international brand, a maker of cameras and medical equipment, the company is now at the center of a global investigation as to whether, and to what extent, its top management was involved in funneling billions of dollars in allegedly illicit payments to offshore accounts. Investigators believe those payments, made for over a decade, may have mostly ended up in the hands of organized criminal groups in Japan. The company denies any yakuza connection, but if one is proved, Olympus will be delisted and almost certainly cease to exist in its current form.

At the center of the meeting was Michael C. Woodford, 51, the company's former president and CEO turned whistle-blower. Woodford brought his suspicions about the payments to the man who had been his mentor at Olympus, chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa. He was brushed off and then fired on Oct. 14 after asking for Kikukawa's resignation. Woodford fled Japan that same day for his native Britain. Although he didn't name specific threats, he says he did so out of fear for his safety. He then went public with his suspicions, and amid the worsening scandal, Kikukawa stepped down on Oct. 26. (See the top 10 CEO scandals.)

When Woodford returned to Tokyo for the board meeting (though fired, he was still on the board because of a quirk in Japan's corporate-governance rules), all hell had broken loose. He was mobbed by cameramen and reporters as he arrived at Narita airport and was protected by several police officers as he made his way into town. "I find myself in a John Grisham novel," Woodford later said. But the Olympus scandal is not fiction; it may, in fact, turn into the biggest corporate scandal in Japanese history.

If suspicions about yakuza involvement are proved accurate, it will not be the first time Japan Inc. has been linked to organized crime. Throughout the 1990s, the Japanese government ramped up its efforts to crack down on standard criminal activity like prostitution and gambling. In response, the yakuza went white collar. It started with small stuff like shareholder intimidation. Then, in 1997, six executives, including the chairman of what was then Japan's largest bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo, were convicted of making payments to a gangster who later admitted he was an extortionist and was also convicted. (See photos of stagnant Japanese economy.)

The yakuza continued to cast a sinister pall in ensuing years -- even over foreign-owned firms. In early 2008, Lehman Brothers' Tokyo office was defrauded of $355 million it loaned to a biotech company for what it thought was medical-equipment financing. The money was simply stolen in what investigators believed was a yakuza scam (though the suspicion was not proved). By then, according to American journalist Jake Adelstein, who for years has written about the yakuza, Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) suspected hundreds of companies of having been infiltrated by yakuza.

Read "As the Olympus Scandal Shows, Corporate Japan Is as Shoddily Governed as Ever."

The unfolding Olympus scandal also has its roots in the 1990s -- specifically in the bursting of the Japanese bubble. Before then, making money seemed effortless. Even blue-chip companies were taking funds from their traditional lines of business and pouring them into the ever rising stock and real estate markets -- a practice known as zaitech trading. Olympus was one of them. Toshiro Shimoyama, who ran the firm from 1984 to '93, admitted as much. "When the main business is struggling, we need to earn through zaitech," he told a press conference in 1986. But when the economy tanked -- Japan's leading stock index, the Nikkei, peaked in December 1989 -- zaitech profits became embarrassing losses for scores of companies, and the losses deepened as the decade progressed. That, by the company's own account, is what happened at Olympus.

Like many other corporations, Olympus tried to hide its losses through financial sleight of hand. The idea was to pay someone, or some company, to acquire the bad investments, thus getting them off the books. When the markets recovered, the investments would then be transferred back to the original owner. This process became known as tobashi (to blow away). The problem, for Olympus and many others, was that the markets never did recover. (See the top 10 crooked CEOs.)

What happened next is now at the center of the Olympus controversy. From 2006 to '08, according to the company, it paid almost $1 billion to acquire three Tokyo-based companies that had no revenue, no operating history and no relation to its core businesses. It then purchased, in 2008, British medical-equipment maker Gyrus for nearly $2 billion -- a deal on which it paid an astonishing $687 million fee to two financial-advisory firms that later shut their doors. (None of these companies have been charged with wrongdoing.) Both Shuichi Takayama, current Olympus president, and a panel the company put together to look into the payments admit they were made to disguise zaitech losses. In effect, Olympus was trying to create ostensibly legitimate transactions on its books that were roughly equivalent to the size of those losses.

The Tokyo prosecutor's office and the SESC suspect that Olympus made $6 billion in tobashi-related payouts over 10 years, much of it to entities suspected of criminal links. One such 2005 payment, first reported in the New York Times, involved $208 million that was used to acquire a tech company that authorities believe is a front set up by Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's biggest yakuza group. The probe now needs to establish if Olympus chose to run its tobashi schemes through entities that may be linked to organized crime or if it was coerced into doing so. Investigators also believe it is likely that the amount Olympus paid out exceeds its zaitech losses. "Extortion," says one source close to the affair, "is what these guys do." (Read "Olympus Scandal: A Confession, but Still No Answers.")

At the meeting on Nov. 25, Woodford said, directors agreed that the money trail needed to be followed wherever it led. He said the firm hoped to restate its accounts by Dec. 14, factoring in all payments made from 2000 to '09, but he also emphasizes that evidence of yakuza links is "not yet definitive at all." If authorities are able to confirm their suspicions, however, it could mean the dismemberment of Olympus. Delisted, its businesses would be cheap acquisitions for a competitor. (Its valuation is already down almost 75% from where it stood in early October.)

All of this may be why Woodford, who had insisted he wanted to return to help clean up the company, now says he's "not begging" for the job. His reluctance is hardly surprising. Investigators have only just begun sorting through the rot, but Olympus is already the epitome of a corporate-governance system that is at best complacent and, at worst, apparently far more sinister than that.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111203/wl_time/09171210099400

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Officials Worry EPA Fracking Rules Will Cost Jobs (ContributorNetwork)

Thousands of workers unemployed overnight. Businesses shuttered. Oil towns becoming ghost towns. This was the picture painted by the Bismarck Tribune on November 27 as what might happen if the Environmental Protection Agency puts a moratorium on fracking.

It could happen, says North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms, the Tribune reported, as soon as January, when the EPA releases its guidance document to states, governing how they must comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and how permits must be issued when diesel fuels are used in fracking fluids. Helms' department will then rewrite state rules. He believes that the process will stop the state's hydraulic fracturing program for one to two years. Although diesel is only a small part of the fluids used for fracking, he explained, North Dakota's cold requires the use of it. And it's diesel fuel and how it relates to fracking as a Class II well that seems to be causing the EPA concern.

According to Chris Faulkner, CEO of Texas-based Breitling Oil & Gas, who participated in a recent debate published by U.S. News & World Report, critics of fracking have little to worry about when it comes to the potential of groundwater pollution through the use of fracking fluids. Because fracking involves deep drilling - far below the aquifer - and the well is encased in steel pipe before fracking fluids are ever released, there is little chance of pollution happening.

Lee Fuller, Vice President of Government Relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America agrees, citing remarks by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson herself as proof. Jackson, in testimony to the House of Representatives that was covered by Fox News earlier this year, stated that she was not aware of any proven case where the fracking process has affected groundwater.

Not everyone agrees, though. In New York, on Wednesday, November 30, environmentalists called for a ban on hydraulic fracturing in that state, the Associated Press reported. New York placed a moratorium on drilling permits in 2008 and has spent the past three years reviewing its regulations. The state is now in the midst of a 90-day comment period on its review of impacts from fracking and its proposed regulations. State Sen. Tony Avella has authored a bill banning the practice, stating that the costs of regulating the industry outweigh the economic benefits of it.

6,000 people turned out for the four public hearings on New York's proposed fracking regulations, the New York Times reported, with more than 10,6000 written public comments received as of Thursday, December 1. The state's Department of Environmental Conservation extended its public comment period on the matter from Dec. 12 to Jan. 11.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111202/us_ac/10582803_officials_worry_epa_fracking_rules_will_cost_jobs

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Hope for new AIDS protection seen in mouse study

NEW YORK (AP) ? As scientists struggle to find a vaccine to prevent infection with the AIDS virus, a study in mice suggests hope for a new approach ? one that doctors now want to test in people.

The treated mice in the study appeared to have 100 percent protection against HIV. That doesn't mean the strategy will work in people. But several experts were impressed.

"This is a very important paper (about) a very creative idea," says the government's AIDS chief, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He didn't take part in the research.

The new study involved injecting mice with a protective gene, an idea that's been tested against HIV infection in animals for a decade.

In the nearly 30 years since HIV was identified, scientists haven't been able to find a vaccine that is broadly effective. One boost came in 2009, when a large study in Thailand showed that an experimental vaccine protected about a third of recipients against infection. That's not good enough for general use, but researchers are now trying to improve it.

Researchers reported the new results in mice online Wednesday in the journal Nature. They hope to test the approach in people in a couple of years. Another research team reported similar success in monkeys in 2009 and hopes to start human tests even sooner.

A traditional vaccine works by masquerading as a germ, training the body's immune system to build specific defenses in case the real germ shows up. Those defenses are generally antibodies, which are proteins in the blood that have just the right shape to grab onto parts of an invading virus. Once that happens, the virus can't establish a lasting infection and is cleared from the body.

Scientists have identified antibodies that neutralize a wide range of HIV strains, but they've had trouble getting people's immune systems to create those antibodies with a vaccine.

The gene-injection goal is straightforward. Rather than trying to train a person's immune system to devise effective antibodies, why not just give a person genes for those proteins? The genes can slip into cells in muscle or some other tissue and make them pump out lots of the antibodies.

The mouse work is reported by David Baltimore and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology.

Ordinary mice don't get infected with HIV, which attacks the immune system. So the research used mice that carried human immune system cells.

Baltimore's team used a harmless virus to carry an antibody gene and injected it once into a leg muscle. The researchers found that the mice made high levels of the antibody for more than a year. The results suggest lifetime protection for a mouse, Baltimore said, although "we simply don't know what will happen in people."

Even when the mice were injected with very high doses of HIV, they didn't show the loss of certain blood cells that results from HIV infection. Baltimore said researchers couldn't completely rule out the possibility of infection, but that their tests found no evidence of it. He said a few hundred mice appeared to be protected.

The work was funded by the federal government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Baltimore said his lab has filed for patents.

"I think it's great," said Dr. Philip R. Johnson of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who reported similar results in monkeys in 2009. "It provides additional evidence this is a concept that's worth moving forward."

Johnson said he has discussed doing a human trial with federal regulators and is preparing an application for permission to go ahead. If all goes well, a preliminary experiment to test the safety of the approach might begin in about a year, he said. Baltimore said his group is also planning human experiments that he hopes will start in the next couple years.

Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned that mouse results don't always pan out in human studies. He also said both the gene approach and standard vaccines should be pursued because it's not clear which will work better.

"We're still in the discovery stage of both of them," he said.

Dr. Harris Goldstein, director of the Einstein-Montefiore Center for AIDS Research in New York, who has done similar research in mice, called Baltimore's result a significant advance if it works in humans because it shows a single injection produces high levels of antibodies for a long time.

It might lead not only to preventing infection, but also a treatment for infected people, he said. If it allowed people with HIV to stop or reduce their medications even for temporary periods, they could avoid the inconvenience and side effects of the drugs, he said.

___

Online:

Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

___

Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://twitter.com/malcolmritter .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-11-30-HIV%20Protection/id-c868e817159b4706807d92fa838c1f78

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Your New Facebook Status: 63,206 Characters or Less (Mashable)

Twitter, as everyone and their tweeting dog knows, limits your status updates to 140 characters. But Facebook? Facebook laughs in the face of such limitations. On Facebook, 140 characters is barely clearing your throat. In a Vadim Lavrusik announced that the limit of Facebook status updates has now been upped to "more than 60,000 characters." When Mashable asked, Lavrusik explained what that meant, exactly: You can now post a status update measuring 63,206 characters.

[More from Mashable: How Does Facebook Compare to the World?s Biggest IPOs?]

But not one character more than that. Sorry, would-be Facebook novelists; you'll have to split your prose into multiple updates. (As Lavrusik points out, an average novel will now require nine status updates.) This also goes for group messages and posts on your friends' walls -- so you can now annoy the heck out of them with unreasonably long catch-up messages.

Facebook update character limits have been expanding almost as rapidly as the social network itself. Until March 2009, the limit was barely bigger than Twitter's, at 160 characters. Then 420 characters marked the end of your post's potential. This summer, it jumped from 500 to 5,000, and now the limit has hit the stratosphere.

[More from Mashable: Everything You Need to Know About Facebook?s $100B IPO]

So much for social media keeping things short and sweet. At least one Facebook user has already attempted a status update with 60,000 characters of nonsense words, but he'll need to add 3,206 more to hit the limit.

Below is Facebook's visualization of the status update limits. Would you ever post a message this long? Let us know in the comments. But please, if you can, keep it short.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20111130/tc_mashable/your_new_facebook_status_63206_characters_or_less

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200+ arrested at Occupy Los Angeles, 50 in Philly

Los Angeles police officers arrest an Occupy Los Angeles protester at the encampment at the Losd Angeles city hall on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments in both cities Wednesday, demanding protestors leave demonstration sites. (AP Photo/Mark Boster/Pool)

Los Angeles police officers arrest an Occupy Los Angeles protester at the encampment at the Losd Angeles city hall on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments in both cities Wednesday, demanding protestors leave demonstration sites. (AP Photo/Mark Boster/Pool)

Police arrest a member of Occupy Philly, Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011, in Philadelphia, after a small group refused to clear a street while police cleared the encampment at Dilworth Plaza. Police began pulling down tents early Wednesday after telling demonstrators they had to leave. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, right, and Police Chief Charlie Beck survey the park after members of Occupy Lose Angeles were successfully cleared out their camp at City Hall early Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Boster, Pool)

LAPD officers arrest an Occupy LA protester as they cleared out the Occupy L.A. camp at Los Angeles city hall on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. In a massive show of force, 1,400 police officers, some in riot gear stormed the Occupy Los Angeles camp early Wednesday, driving protesters from the park and arresting more than 200 who defied orders to leave. (AP Photo/Mark Boster, Pool)

Police officers surround the Occupy Philly encampment at Dilworth Plaza, in Philadelphia, Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011. Police began pulling down tents at early Wednesday after telling demonstrators they had to leave. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? More than 1,400 police officers, some in riot gear, cleared the Occupy Los Angeles camp early Wednesday, driving protesters from a park around City Hall and arresting more than 200 who defied orders to leave. Similar raids in Philadelphia led to 52 arrests, but the scene in both cities was relatively peaceful.

Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia moved in on Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness in an effort to clear out some of the longest-lasting protest sites since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country.

Beanbags fired from shotguns were used to subdue the final three protesters in a makeshift tree house outside Los Angeles City Hall, police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said, describing it as a minor use of force incident. No serious injuries were reported.

Police Chief Charlie Beck praised the officers and the protesters for their restraint and the peaceful way the eviction was carried out.

Officers flooded down the steps of City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp two days after a deadline passed for campers to leave the park. Officers in helmets and wielding batons and guns with rubber bullets converged on the park from all directions with military precision and began making arrests after several orders were given to leave.

There were no injuries and no drugs or weapons were found during a search of the emptied camp, which was strewn with trash after the raid. City workers put up concrete barriers to wall off the park while it is restored. As of 5:10 a.m. PST, the park was clear of protesters, said LAPD officer Cleon Joseph.

The raid in Los Angeles came after demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia marched through the streets after being evicted from their site. Over 40 protesters were arrested after refusing to clear a street several blocks northeast of City Hall, said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. They were lined up in cuffs and loaded on to buses by officers. Six others were arrested earlier after remaining on a street that police tried to clear.

"The police officers who were involved in this operation were hand-picked for this assignment," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said. "They're highly trained and disciplined and showed a tremendous amount of restraint and professionalism in carrying out this morning's operation."

Nutter said the eviction had been planned for several weeks and went off without largely without problems.

Ramsey said he would have preferred to evict the protesters without making arrests, but some refused orders to clear the street and had to be taken into custody. Three officers had minor injuries. One protester was injured when a police horse stepped on her foot, Nutter said.

The Philadelphia protesters were ordered to clear their encampment in part because a $50 million renovation project was due to start at the City Hall plaza this fall.

"Dilworth Plaza was designated as a construction site," Ramsey said. "They had to vacate. They knew that from the very beginning."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised public safety and health concerns in announcing plans for the eviction last week, while Philadelphia officials said protesters must clear their site to make room for a $50 million renovation project.

By dawn in Los Angeles, trash, flattened tents and the stench of urine were the Occupy LA legacy.

City crews were installing chain link fence and concrete barricades around once-lush lawns that are now patches of dirt strewn with tons of debris, including clothing, tents, bedding shoes, trash and two months of human flotsam. Under a tree was a guitar, a bullhorn, CDs and a black bandanna.

Defiant Los Angeles campers who were chanting slogans as the officers surrounded the park, booed when an unlawful assembly was declared, paving the way for officers to begin arresting those who didn't leave.

In the first moments of the raid, officers tore down a tent and tackled a tattooed man with a camera on City Hall steps and wrestled him to the ground. Someone yelled "police brutality."

Teams of four or five officers moved through the crowd making arrests one at a time, cuffing the hands of protesters with white plastic zip-ties. A circle of protesters sat with arms locked, many looking calm and smiling.

Opamago Cascini, 29, said the night had been a blast and he was willing to get arrested.

"It's easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk," Cascini said.

Police used a cherry picker to pluck five men from trees. Two others were in a tree house ? one wore a crown and another taunted police with an American flag.

In Philadelphia, police began pulling down tents at about 1:20 a.m. EST after giving demonstrators three warnings that they would have to leave, which nearly all of the protesters followed. Dozens of demonstrators then began marching through the streets and continued through the night.

Ramsey said breaking up the camp in the early-morning hours helped minimize any disruption to businesses and traffic.

"We acknowledge the fact that we are going to have to leave this space .... but in another sense this has been our home for almost two months and no one wants to see their home taken away from them," Philadelphia protester Bri Barton, 22, said before police began clearing out the camp.

"Whether or not we have this space or work in the city is nowhere near done," she said.

The eviction overall appeared to have been carried out without any significant scuffles or violence.

Later Wednesday morning, workers used front-end loaders to scoop up tents, trash and other debris and dump it into trucks to be hauled away, while others swept the plaza clean.

Demonstrators and city officials in both Los Angeles and Philadelphia were hoping any confrontation would be nonviolent, unlike evictions at similar camps around the country that sometimes involved pepper spray and tear gas. The movement against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed began with Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan two months ago.

The Los Angeles officers staged for hours outside Dodger Stadium before the raid. They were warned that demonstrators might throw everything from concrete and gravel to human feces at them.

"Please put your face masks down and watch each other's back," a supervisor told them. "Now go to work."

The officers came from a wide range of specialized units within the force, including the bomb squad, and the arson unit. Scores of officers in hazmat suits also were sent in to deal with potentially unsanitary conditions in the park.

Before police arrived in large numbers, protesters were upbeat and the mood was almost festive. A protester in a Santa Claus hat danced in the street. A woman showed off the reindeer antlers she had mounted on her gas mask.

___

Matheson reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writer Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-30-Occupy%20Protests/id-e7c262088e0a4996bd1abe05ded9a3d5

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'Jersey Shore's' Vinny apologizes for rap lyrics

>>> we are back now at 8:11 with " jersey shore " star snooki, back from her travels in italy, she's opening up about the show and sharing it for rocking it jersey style, in her new book "confessions of a guedette." what have you been up to?

>> promoting the book.

>> despite the headlines and what we saw in front of the cameras, did you get a chance away from the cameras to enjoy it at all?

>> not really, it was 24/7 filming.

>> does that bug you a little bit? one of the most beautiful places on earth?

>> we saw a lot. i'd like to go back without the cameras and explore.

>> how would you say the italians reacted to you and how did you react to the italians ?

>> the italians loved us. right when we got off the bus they were like woo! screaming and stuff but me to them, i had no idea what they were saying. i was like okay. they could have been calling me nasty names and i was like thanks. it sounded beautiful.

>> as long as they were smiling when they were doing it. you have a certain style to you.

>> um-hum.

>> do you think the italian women got your style and what did you think of their style?

>> well i tried to dress their style with the big hats and stuff like that but nobody wore big hats there. the style there was just normal. it wasn't anything really different.

>> but did you think they were more stylish than perhaps american men and women are?

>> i think the guys are definitely more stylish, yes.

>> guedette, the name of this. you want to tell people how to be a guedette.

>> yes.

>> when i was growing up calling a guy a guido was not the nicest thing to call somebody. do you see it as something other than a compliment in.

>> it's not really a compliment. it's a lifestyle. you can be punk, a prep, gothic, we're guedettes.

>> how do you define guedette?

>> a girl with a strong personality, doesn't let anybody bring her down, she likes tanning, very independent and loves to be like flashy, like gaudy.

>> do we ever get to see snooki the real you on this show? i mean, i think you even said something about the fact that reality tv is not normal life . it's the most dysfunctional moments rolled up in a ball, in your case, a meatball.

>> yes.

>> do we ever get to see the real snooki or the real nicole probably more appropriately on tv?

>> i think you see more of like the party side of me which i call snooki, that's kind of my alter ego. that's what you see on the snow. right now you're talking to nicole . it's like the soft, calm, like you know, business ready person.

>> so is this person, is nicole a good role model for young women versus snooki on tv?

>> snooki is definitely not a role model. snooki is there to have fun and live her life. nicole i am strong and independent and you know, i'm just loveable i guess.

>> one of the things you write about in the book, chapter called "snookin for love." it starts out funny but you do talk about wanting to be in a relationship and perhaps haven't made the right relationship. i'm not asking you to put a name on it, what type of guy would be a good partner for you?

>> i would say right now my boyfriend is amazing. i like a guy that makes me laugh, doesn't care about this, you know, the fame own the show. he just likes me for me. he likes me as nicole . so you know, you just got to make me laugh and keep up with me and you got my heart.

>> someone with a big heart.

>> yes.

>> what can match hearts with you.

>> and has a big family and loves their mom.

>> and has to be italian. you say you want to have babies with an italian because you want your kids' last name to have a vowel in it.

>> very true. a little picky.

>> nicole great to have you here.

>> thank you very much.

>> "confessions of a guedette."

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45507498/ns/today-entertainment/

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McCready talks to police; must return son Thursday (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Country singer Mindy McCready, who had been reported missing, spoke with Florida authorities Wednesday and is aware of a court order to return her 5-year-old son by Thursday afternoon, police said.

Cape Coral Police Lt. Tony Sizemore said McCready and her son are not in the Lee County, Fla., area, and that she is "currently outside of the terms of her family court stipulation." She knows that she is supposed to bring her son back to Lee County by 5 p.m. Thursday, he said. McCready, who has had drug and alcohol problems, lost custody of her son in 2007 after a fight with her mother and resisting arrest.

"The million dollar question is whether she will comply," said Sizemore.

The state Department of Children and Families said a missing person report was filed with Cape Coral police Tuesday night after McCready took her son Zander from her father's home.

McCready's mother has custody of Zandler and the singer was allowed to visit the boy at her father's home, according to a department spokesman. On Tuesday, DCF discovered that McCready and the boy were not at her father's home.

DCF spokesman Terry Field told The Associated Press the agency asked a Lee County judge for an emergency pickup order, and the judge ruled McCready must return the boy voluntarily by 5 p.m. Thursday or risk an arrest warrant.

Meanwhile, McCready said on Facebook that she is not missing.

"I have been fighting the Florida court system to protect my son, and bring him home," she posted, adding that she spoke with Cape Coral Police via Skype ? something that the agency confirmed.

The singer's brother, Josh McCready, told The Associated Press in a private Facebook message that his sister was "fine."

"Mindy is fine and so is Zander. There is nothing to worry about," he wrote.

Kat Atwood, McCready's publicist, issued a statement Wednesday saying McCready and her son are "safe, healthy and comfortable," and denies that she has done anything wrong. The statement says McCready has been awaiting a court order on whether she would be awarded custody of her son.

"No Amber Alert has been issued; this is not a missing child case," Atwood said in the statement.

According to Aimee McLaughlin of the Childrens Network of Southwest Florida, a case manager filed a missing person report with the Cape Coral Police on Tuesday. The DCF spokesman said Children's Network of Southwest Florida is the Community-Based Care agency for the area.

Since topping the country charts in the mid-1990s with her music, the troubled 36-year-old singer's life has been filled with domestic abuse, drug and DUI arrests and a suicide attempt. In August, she filed a libel suit in Palm Beach County against her own mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted her mother.

In 2010, she spoke with The Associated Press about her life.

"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just always been like that. My entire life, things have been attracted to me and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."

In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.

And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.

During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010 McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.

On the show she said she suffered from love addiction, not substance abuse. In one of the show's scarier moments, McCready suffered a seizure and was rushed to a hospital where scans showed brain damage.

Also in 2010, police went to McCready's mother's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why McCready was hospitalized.

Cape Coral is on Florida's Gulf coast, about 120 miles northwest of Miami.

McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.

A call to a lawyer representing McCready in the custody case was not immediately returned.

___

Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush

AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott and reporter Caitlin R. King contributed to this report from Nashville.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_en_ot/us_people_mccready

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