The Arabs Gang Up Against Syria: Stop the Killing Or Foreigners May Intervene (Time.com)

The Arab League tightened the screws on beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, imposing economic sanctions on Damascus just weeks after suspending its membership in the 22-state body. The questions now are: what more can the League do and how ? and against whom ? might the Damascus regime retaliate?

Indeed, the unprecedented move against a fellow Arab state came with a sharp warning to Syria: Deal with us or pave the way for non-Arab intervention. "If we, as Arabs fail, do you think that the international conscience will remain silent on this issue for ever? I don't think so," Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a press conference in Cairo on Sunday. Syria says "leave us alone, you're interfering, but they're not telling us how they want to solve this," he added. "All this work we're doing is to avoid interference, but I cannot guarantee that there will be none." (See pictures of Syria's ongoing protests.)

At the press conference in Cairo, the Qatari foreign minister seemed exasperated by Syria's defiance. He described himself as almost a resident of Egypt having spent so much time there negotiating among the various representatives of the Arab states. Thani was plaintive. "We don't want to harm or not harm [the regime]. We want the Syrian brothers, the Syrian regime to understand that there is an Arab decision, in line with the Syrian people, to find a solution to this problem, to stop the killing, to stop the blood." He then appealed to the Syrian leader's conscience. "If you kill one innocent it is as if you have killed all of humanity," Thani said, quoting a verse from the Quran. "Authority means nothing if you must kill your people to keep it."

The new sanctions, which are as potent in substance as they are symbolically, reportedly include a travel ban on key Syrian officials, a halt to commercial flights into the country, a freeze on government assets, and an end to dealings with Syria's central bank as well as investments in the country. Their aim, according to Hamad and Arab League secretary general Nabil Araby, is to hurt the regime yet spare the people. Basic commodities and remittances, for example, are exempt from the list. But commercial exchanges are not exempt from the sting of the sanctions. The unstated aim, may be to force a break between the business elite in Syria's two largest cities of Damascus and Aleppo and the regime. The idea is that if the merchant class starts to think the regime is hurting its interests and will continue to be bad for business, the businesspeople will ditch Assad. (See why Assad's uncle is joining the fight against the Syrian ruler.)

Still, Syria has been used to sanctions for a while, having long been subject to Western restrictions on business. Although the United States and European Union recently introduced and strengthened their economic embargoes against Syria in a bid to further isolate the regime, Assad hasn't changed his behavior. The death toll continues to spiral (it has surpassed 3,500 in the last nine months). Security forces remain in Syria's cities and throughout the countryside. At the same time, the once largely peaceful demonstrations are morphing into armed insurrection, as military defectors get better organized and stage more offensive, rather than just defensive, actions.

But the Arab League's sanctions are nothing to be sneezed at. The asset freeze in the Gulf is expected to hurt. And the political oomph of decision is a hard slap at Damascus. Even Algeria, which has been ruled by autocratic Abdelaziz Bouteflika for decades, sided against Assad. Perhaps sensitive both to proximity and good relations with Syria's main non-Arab backer Iran, Iraq abstained from the vote.

However, Damascus still has an important pressure valve that may help it continue to withstand the sanctions. Lebanon voted against the Arab League decision. Lebanon, which threw off the shackles of 29 years of Syrian domination back in 2005, is now firmly back in Assad's palm, and as long as it remains there, its banks, porous border and labor market will continue to play their historic role as Syria's pressure valve, a buffer to absorb domestic problems and mitigate punitive international measures.(See why the Arab League cracked down on Syria.)

The political turmoil next door has already spilled overland into Lebanon, sharpening already-stark differences between the turbulent country's pro- and anti-Syrian camps. The Syrian uprising is stirring a hornet's nest of ethnic and sectarian suspicions and highlighting why it is potentially more dangerous than revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya or elsewhere in the Middle East. Syria's friends ? Iran and Lebanon's militant Hizballah movement ? are also capable of delivering a retaliatory sting.

Predictably, Syrian state media slammed the sanctions, saying the "illegal" measures were aimed at the Syrian people. The state news agency ran a report from the country's Kurdish region of Hasaka, claiming that "huge masses" in the northeastern province condemned the Arab League decision and "the conspiracy hatched against the homeland with the aim of undermining Syria's resistant role."

See TIME's special report "The Middle East in Revolt."

Who should be TIME's Person of the Year 2011? Vote for your choice here.

View this article on Time.com

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President Obama Wins The Hearts Of Bookworms Everywhere [Potus]

Yesterday President Obama upped his nerdy dad cred considerably when he took Sasha and Malia shopping at a local independent bookstore. They visited Kramerbooks, which is just a few blocks from the White House, as part of small business Saturday, an effort to get people to shop at local businesses after the big box store blowout of Black Friday. After browsing for a bit, the Obamas left with a few books, including The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, and Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.

While Obama didn't risk being trampled during the chaos of Black Friday shopping himself, his campaign website ran a Black Friday deal that offered 10% off of Obama merch, so he didn't miss out on the fun all together.

President Brings Daughters To Bookstore To Promote Small-Business Holiday Shopping [Washington Post]

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Christmas shopping is easy. Buy books. (hamptonroads)

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India urges action against Mumbai attackers (AP)

NEW DELHI ? India urged Pakistan on Saturday to take strong action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people three years ago.

India is waiting for Pakistan to act decisively after providing it with evidence on alleged perpetrators who are living in Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said.

Three years ago on Saturday, 10 Pakistan-based gunmen laid siege to India's financial hub, killing 166 people.

"No cause can justify the use of terrorism for attainment of goals," Krishna said.

India and Pakistan have recently resumed peace talks that were suspended after the attack.

India maintains that Pakistani intelligence officials helped plan the attack and that Pakistan has not done enough to crack down on those behind it.

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15-year-old 5th person to die in NC shootings (AP)

GREENSBORO, N.C. ? A 15-year old girl shot by her boyfriend's mother died on Wednesday, raising the death toll from the woman's weekend shooting spree outside Greensboro to five. One other wounded child is on life support.

Makayla Leigh Woods died Wednesday afternoon, Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said, three days after being shot by 36-year-old Mary Ann Holder, who also shot her two sons, nephew, niece and married ex-lover before killing herself.

Holder had been having an affair with Randall Lamb, 40, for almost four years, and it was coming to a bitter end Sunday when she arranged to meet him at a community college parking lot. Police say she shot him in the shoulder and he was expected to recover.

Holder then drove off to meet her 14-year-old son, Zachary Smith. Nearly half an hour after the 911 call from Lamb's wife, a sheriff's deputy spotted Holder's black SUV. Holder was found dead inside with a gunshot to the head, and Zachary was critically wounded in the back seat. Deputies found two handguns inside the vehicle, including one in Holder's lap, the sheriff said.

Officers found found her son, 17-year-old Robert Dylan Smith, dead, at Holder's home in the community of Pleasant Grove south of Greensboro. Woods and Holder's nephew, Richard Suttles, 17, were critically injured along with Holder's niece, Hannaleigh Suttles, 8. Hannaleigh died on Monday, followed a day later by Zachary Smith.

Richard Suttles remained on life support Wednesday, according to Barnes' chief deputy, Col. Randy Powers.

The victims appeared to have been shot while they slept in a bedroom and the home's living room, Powers said.

Police are continuing to investigate the case. An autopsy has been performed on Holder and police are waiting for the results of toxicology tests, but Powers said it initially appears there were no signs of drug use.

Holder, Lamb and his wife had spent months trading accusations of stalking and harassment in court documents. Lamb's wife had recently threatened to file an alienation of affection lawsuit against Holder, investigators said.

Police are investigating a $10,000 check made out to Lambs wife that Holder gave him the day before the shootings, according to an application for a search warrant obtained by The News & Record of Greensboro. Police say the check may have been for an out-of-court settlement of some kind.

Despite that, and despite two notes left by Holder taking responsibility for the shootings, police say a definite motive is not yet clear.

"This will be the $64,000 question, because we don't have anyone alive who can answer it," Powers said. "A couple of theories have gone up in the air, but we really don't know yet."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_re_us/us_greensboro_shootings

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Incorporating Finance Certifications to Your Stock Broker Resume ...

Obtaining some good finance certifications is with out a doubt extremely much proposed if you want to go after a vocation as a stock broker or a monetary analyst for a massive business. Staying a stock broker or a economic advisor can actually be attained by anybody who graduates with a degree in economy but being successful in these professions demands much more than that these days as there are some finance related certifications that you would want to get to be in a position to increase your salary base and get you to a larger amount in the financial globe, or at minimum within your organization structure. Obtaining these certifications would undoubtedly be value the problems as some firms calls for the possession of these certificates on their personnel resume need to they want to get into a increased place in the firm.

Having an employee who has finance certifications from CFP is a plus for a business as men and women who acquired CFP certifications are these who already handed their examination and comply with via an education phase required by the CFP before they are even eligible to get the examination. 1 of the demands really needs the participant to have at minimum five many years encounter in operating as a fiscal planner of which a stock broker suits into the criteria. The doing work knowledge prerequisite might be lowered to 3 many years if the participant has a bachelor diploma in finance. The type of effort that 1 would need to have to display to even take a shot for the certification would drastically boost your desirability to your business, not to point out all of the priceless expertise you would have as an individual who capable for finance certifications you would be a person who is indispensable for your business.

The regular of a stock broker salary without having certifications is around $forty,000. This may possibly go up significantly if you are operating in areas with large salary common and if you have much more than 5 several years encounter in the subject, but you could by no means get to the top of the line with no obtaining some of the finance certifications that you can get with further schooling. If you are currently obtaining a decent sum by working far more than 5 or even ten several years in the discipline, imagine how significantly money you would be finding if you put in some of that time taking basic courses every single 2 or three years to get CFP finance certifications which by the conclude of the five many years you would by now have acquired. Hope this submit was helpful in your endeavors.

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France calls for humanitarian zone in Syria (Reuters)

AMMAN/PARIS (Reuters) ? France called on Wednesday for a "secured zone to protect civilians" in Syria, the first time a major Western power has suggested international intervention on the ground in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe also described Syria's exiled opposition National Council as "the legitimate partner with which we want to work," the biggest international endorsement yet for a nascent opposition body that seeks to overthrow Assad.

Asked at a news conference after meeting the SNC president if a humanitarian corridor was an option for Syria, Juppe ruled out military intervention to create a "buffer zone" in northern Syria but suggested a "secured zone" may be feasible to protect civilians and ferry in humanitarian aid.

"If it is possible to have a humanitarian dimension for a secured zone to protect civilians, that then is a question which has to be studied by the European Union on the one side and the Arab League on the other side," Juppe said.

Further details of the proposal were not immediately available. Until now, Western countries have imposed economic sanctions on Syria but have shown no appetite for intervention on the ground in the country, which sits on the fault lines of the ethnic and sectarian conflicts across the Middle East.

"The French have tried to position themselves in a position of leadership, first with Libya and now here," said Hayat Alvi, a lecturer in National Security studies, at the U.S. Naval War College. "Military intervention in Syria is a very different prospect of that in Libya, but we could well see an increase in covert action."

The Arab League has suspended Syria's membership over the conflict, one of the most important signs of Assad's isolation, but has shown little appetite for international intervention.

Britain said it welcomed the opportunity to discuss the French proposal and repeated its call for Syria to end human rights violations.

Syria's bloodshed could pitch the Muslim world into "the darkness of the Middle Ages," Turkish President Abdullah Gul said, some of the strongest language yet showing global anxiety as one of the core Mid-East countries slides toward civil war.

A day earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan criticized the "cowardice" of Assad, once a close ally, for turning guns on his own people. Erdogan spoke of the fate of defeated dictators from Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini to Muammar Gaddafi, and bluntly told Assad to quit.

In Brussels, an EU diplomat said European Union governments were considering a new range of sanctions against Syria that would bar investment in Syrian banks, trading its government bonds and selling insurance to state bodies.

Gul told a think-tank in London: "We exerted enormous efforts in public and behind closed doors in order to convince the Syrian leadership to lead the democratic transition."

"Violence breeds violence. Now, unfortunately, Syria has come to a point of no return," he said. "Defining this democratic struggle along sectarian, religious and ethnic lines would drag the whole region into turmoil and bloodshed."

Syrian forces killed two villagers on Wednesday in an agricultural area that has served as a supply line for defectors, and clamped down on a Damascus suburb where loyalist troops have been attacked, activists and residents said.

An armored column entered the town of Hayaleen and surrounding villages on the al-Ghab Plain. Troops fired machineguns from tanks and trucks and set fire to several houses after arresting around 100 people, they said.

"Twenty-five armored vehicles entered the village of Zor al-Kaada, which has only 700 people. Thirteen people were arrested from the al-Dinawi family alone," Adnan, a farmer, told Reuters by telephone.

The region, northwest of the city of Hama, 240 km (150 miles) north of Damascus, has been a transit route for defectors operating in the province of Idlib near Turkey, activists said.

It was not possible to confirm the events independently. The authorities, who blame the unrest on "armed terrorist groups," have barred most independent media from Syria.

Thousands of soldiers have deserted the regular army since it started cracking down on the eight-month protest movement. Some have formed rebel armed units loosely linked to an umbrella "Free Syrian Army" led by officers in Turkey.

In Damascus, activists said defectors from the Obaida bin al-Jarrah brigade attacked roadblocks overnight in the suburb of Harasta, where hundreds of people have been detained since an attack by deserters last week on an airforce complex.

"Eight security police may have been killed or wounded. We heard the exchange of gunfire at around 1 am. The security police resumed house-to-house arrests today and no young male can go out in the street without risking arrest," said one activist, who gave his name as Omar.

SYRIA ARMY REINFORCES NEAR BORDER

Syrian defectors say they are hopeful that Turkish troops will create a safe haven within Syria. Defectors say they could use such a zone as a staging ground to mount a rebellion.

Turkey is reluctant to take military action across the frontier but Turkish officials say they could act to set up a sanctuary on Syrian territory if huge numbers of refugees head for the border or if massacres take place in Syrian cities.

Ground forces commander Hayri Kivrikoglu inspected troops near the border on Tuesday, Turkish state television reported.

Syrian deserters and civilians in refugee camps and villages in Turkey close to the frontier say the Syrian army has reinforced its positions in border areas.

"There are tanks in the valleys, hidden among the trees, and they've dug trenches," Syrian refugee Hamid Fayzo told Reuters in the Turkish village of Guvecci, overlooking the border.

The United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in the uprising, triggered by Arab revolts which have toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Assad, 46, seems prepared to fight it out, playing on fears of a sectarian war if Syria's complex ethno-sectarian mosaic shatters. He may calculate that neither Western powers nor Arab neighbors will risk military intervention.

Syria appears to be on the brink of a Libya-style armed insurgency. Many experts say Assad, who can depend mainly on the loyalty of two elite Alawaite units, cannot maintain current military operations without cracks emerging in the armed forces.

The U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Tuesday condemning the government crackdown. Russia and China, which vetoed a European-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution last month that would have condemned Syria, abstained. Diplomats said that could indicate a shift in their positions.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Hatay, Turkey, Jonathon Burch in Ankara, Adrian Croft in London and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Writing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/wl_nm/us_syria

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FOR KIDS: Young scientists work together and win

Broadcom MASTERS competitors qualified with individual projects, but won based on team challenges

Web edition : Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Guests checking into the posh Palomar Hotel in Washington, D.C., recently, might have been surprised to hear pounding footsteps, shrieks and laughter pouring out of a conference room late one evening. And they would have been even more surprised to see what was behind those doors: 30 of the nation?s top middle school science students, flushed and sweaty, playing dodgeball, riding piggyback on their parents and squirting one another with water bottles.

The students were finalists in the first Broadcom Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars ? or MASTERS ? challenge. The three-day competition kicked off with an evening of icebreaking and team-building activities meant to help these students from throughout the United States and Puerto Rico get to know each other.

It may have looked like all fun and games. But the purpose of these activities was to get students comfortable working in teams to solve problems creatively and to accomplish a shared goal.

What sets this new competition apart from a traditional science fair is its emphasis on teamwork. Finalists were judged not only on their individual science fair projects but also on how they demonstrated leadership and creative problem-solving while working as part of a team during a series of group challenges.

Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Young scientists work together and win

Found in: Science News For Kids

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Romney to run his first TV ad of presidential race

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to employees at BAE Systems in Nashua, N.H., Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to employees at BAE Systems in Nashua, N.H., Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) ? Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is turning President Barack Obama's own words against him in the Republican hopeful's TV first ad of his 2012 White House bid.

Romney's first television ad is set to start airing in New Hampshire on Tuesday, hours before the president visits the state. The commercial compares Obama's promises as a candidate ? to turn around the economy, stem foreclosures and rescue the middle class ? with economic statistics that suggest the incumbent president has come up short.

Romney then pledges a new direction, turning to his biography as a successful businessman.

"I'm going to do something to government," he says in the ad, using footage taken during a recent stop in Dubuque, Iowa. He then promises to repeal Democrats' health care overhaul that he says is "killing jobs."

"It's high time to bring those principles of fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C.," Romney says.

Romney's 60-second ad features clips of an Obama campaign stop in Londonderry, N.H., in October 2007 and fresh footage from Romney events from recent days. It's slated to run through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at a cost of $134,000.

"The contrast between what he said and what he did is so stark, people will recognize we really do need to have someone new lead this country," Romney said in an interview with Fox News Channel to introduce the ads Monday evening.

Romney, who is at the top of state polls and is sitting on a mound of campaign cash, has kept his focus on Obama over the past year and largely has shied from criticizing his GOP rivals.

"I want people to remember that when he was candidate Obama, that he said he was going to get this economy going, he was going to bring people together, be a real leader for change in America," Romney said.

Obama is set to arrive in New Hampshire on Tuesday to deliver an economic speech. For months, Romney has given interviews to local reporters in states Obama had on his schedule, either pre-empting the president's message or rebutting it.

On Tuesday, Romney planned to use one-time rival Tim Pawlenty and Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire to make the case for Romney as a superior choice. Both have backed Romney's presidential bid.

Yet Romney elected to use his first paid television ad not to promote himself or criticize his rivals but to take on the man he hopes to face in November 2012.

"Clearly, the president can't run on his track record," Romney said. "His track record is miserable. ... So what he'll do is try and assassinate, on a character basis, his opponents and/or his opposition. I'm hoping that's me, but I'm not looking forward to those attacks."

Even in a softer interview with People magazine, Romney kept his criticism on point. Asked by the celebrity magazine to say something nice about his potential rival, Romney praised Obama's merit pay for teachers and said Obama was "a good example of a husband and father."

Then he went back to his familiar refrain.

"But the plusses are far exceeded by the places where I'd give him a minus," Romney said.

The interview included some nonpolitical questions about his Mormon faith.

"Never had drinks or tobacco," Romney told the magazine when asked if he's ever had a beer. "It's a religious thing. I tasted a beer and tried a cigarette once, as a wayward teenager, and never did it again."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-21-Romney/id-4a5972994ccf401ca7749e980881a729

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The Note?s Must-Reads for Monday, November 21, 2011 (ABC News)

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NC sex offender gets prison for Facebook request (charlotte observer)

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Gaddafi son held as Libyans wrangle on government (Reuters)

ZINTAN/TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Saif al-Islam Gaddafi spent Sunday secreted in the militia stronghold of Zintan while in Tripoli the Libyan rebel leaders who overthrew his father tried to resolve their differences and form a government that can try the new captive.

With rival local militia commanders from across the country trying to parlay their guns into cabinet seats, officials in the capital gave mixed signals on how long the prime minister-designate, Abdurrahim El-Keib, may need to form his full team.

And though the Zintan mountain fighters who intercepted the 39-year-old heir to the four-decade Gaddafi dynasty deep in the Sahara said they would hand him over once some central authority was clear, few expect Saif al-Islam in Tripoli soon.

One senior member of the outgoing interim executive told Reuters he expected Keib to announce his line-up by Monday, ahead of a Tuesday deadline determined by a timetable that started with the killing of Muammar Gaddafi a month ago.

Members of the National Transitional Council (NTC), the self-appointed legislative panel of notables formed after February's uprising began, expect to vote on Keib's nominees, with keenest attention among the men who control the array of militias on the streets focused on the defense ministry.

One official working for the NTC said that the group from Zintan, a town of just 50,000 in the Western Mountains outside Tripoli that was a stronghold of resistance to Gaddafi, might even secure that ministry thanks to holding Saif al-Islam.

Other groups include rival Islamist and secularist militias in the capital, those from Benghazi, Libya's second city and the original seat of revolt, and the fighters from the third city of Misrata, who took credit for capturing and killing the elder Gaddafi and haggled with the NTC over the fate of his rotting corpse for several days in October.

"FINAL ACT"

"The final act of the Libyan drama," as a spokesman for the former rebels put it, began in the blackness of the Sahara night, when a small unit of fighters from the town of Zintan, acting on a tip-off, intercepted Gaddafi and four armed companions driving in a pair of 4x4 vehicles on a desert track.

It ended, after a 300-mile flight north on a cargo plane, with the London-educated younger Gaddafi held in a safe house in Zintan and the townsfolk vowing to keep him safe until he can face a judge in the capital.

The familiar sound of celebratory gunfire broke the nighttime silence but the town nestled in the rugged Western Mountains was otherwise quiet.

His captors said he was "very scared" when they first recognized him, despite the heavy beard and enveloping Tuareg robes and turban he wore. But they reassured him and, by the time a Reuters correspondent spoke to him aboard the plane, he had been chatting amiably to his guards.

"He looked tired. He had been lost in the desert for many days," said Abdul al-Salaam al-Wahissi, a Zintan fighter involved in the operation. "I think he lost his guide."

Despite a tense couple of hours on the runway on Saturday, when excited crowds rushed the plane that flew him from Obari, the Zintani fighters holding him said they were determined he would not meet the fate the Misratis reserved for his father.

Western leaders, who backed February's uprising against Gaddafi but looked on squeamishly as rebel fighters filmed themselves taking vengeance on the fallen strongman a month ago, urged Keib to seek foreign help to ensure a fair trial.

Keib, who taught engineering at U.S. universities before returning to Libya to join the rebellion, drove on Saturday the two hours from Tripoli to Zintan to pay homage to its fighters. He promised justice would be done but Saif al-Islam would not be handed over to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which had indicted him for crimes against humanity.

DEATH PENALTY

The justice minister from the outgoing executive said the younger Gaddafi was likely to face the death penalty, though the charge sheet, expected to include ordering killings as well as looting the public purse, would be drawn up by the state prosecutor after due investigation.

Word of the capture set off rejoicing in the streets of cities across the vast, oil-rich nation of just six million. Streets echoed with gunfire, from rifles but also the anti-aircraft cannon mounted on civilian pick-up trucks that became the abiding image of an eight-month civil war that ended with the ousted leader's death in his home town of Sirte.

"Finally we beat him, after all his pointing at us with his finger on television and threatening us," Waleed Fkainy, a militiaman on patrol in Tripoli, said of Saif al-Islam, whose image as a potential reformer of his father's eccentric one-man rule evaporated with his venomous response to the uprising.

"Thank God," Fkainy said. "We lived under his threats and now we have the upper hand after this victory."

Saif al-Islam's fate will be a test for Keib's incoming government as it tries to stamp its authority.

Western leaders urged Libya to work with the ICC which has also issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam, on charges of crimes against humanity during the crackdown.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both called on Libya to hand him over to the ICC and guarantee his safety.

Keib said Libya would make sure Gaddafi's son faced a fair trial and called his capture the "crowning" of the uprising.

"We assure Libyans and the world that Saif al-Islam will receive a fair trial ... under fair legal processes which our own people had been deprived of for the last 40 years," Keib told a news conference in Zintan.

Saif al-Islam, who had vowed to die fighting, was taken without a struggle, possibly as he tried to flee to Niger, officials said.

"At the beginning he was very scared. He thought we would kill him," Ahmed Ammar, one of his captors, told Reuters.

Saif al-Islam told the Reuters reporter on his plane a bandaged hand had been wounded in a NATO air strike a month ago. Asked if he was feeling all right, he said simply: "Yes."

Libyans believe Saif al-Islam knows the location of billions of dollars of public money amassed by the Gaddafi family. There was no word of the other official wanted by the ICC, former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi.

(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Alastair Macdonald, Omar Younis, Hisham El-Dani and Francois Murphy in Tripoli and Taha Zargoun in Zintan; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111120/wl_nm/us_libya_son

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Official says Wagner not a suspect in Wood death (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Actor Robert Wagner is not a suspect in the 30-year-old drowning of his actress wife, Natalie Wood, and there is nothing to indicate a crime, even though the investigation has been reopened, a sheriff's detective said Friday.

"Her death was an accident, an accidental drowning," said Sheriff's Lt. John Corina.

Officials would not say why they were taking another look at the case, although the captain of the boat where the couple had stayed blamed Wagner for Wood's death.

There have always been questions about Wood's death on Nov. 29, 1981, with renewed attention on the case as the anniversary neared. The case's re-opening and a public call for information are the first hint that the official account may need revision.

Within hours of the announcement, Corina said, several people emerged offering their recollections of what happened in the waters off Southern California's Santa Catalina Island.

But he quickly noted that nothing the agency has received so far has prompted it to change the view that there was no foul play.

The boat's captain, Dennis Davern, said Friday on NBC's "Today" show that he lied to investigators about events on the yacht Splendour when he was interviewed after Wood's death.

Davern accused Wagner of having a fight with Wood before she went missing and delaying the search for her after she disappeared.

Wagner's family released a statement through a spokesman that said they trusted detectives to evaluate any new information and determine whether it came from "a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30-year anniversary of her tragic death."

It did not mention Davern by name, and noted that detectives hadn't contacted Wagner or his family.

On the show, Davern mentioned a book he co-wrote last year on Wood's death, but refused to say precisely why he blamed Wagner for the three-time Oscar nominee's death. Davern also denied that he was seeking to profit from interest in the case.

Vanity Fair and the television program "48 Hours Mystery" have teamed up and are including Wood's case for a television special airing this weekend.

Corina said his agency would talk to Davern at some point and other witnesses would likely be interviewed. He downplayed the role Davern's book or the anniversary would play on the investigation.

"We're not concerned with the anniversary date," Corina said. "It may have jarred some other people's memories."

Wood, who was 43 when she died, received three Academy Award nominations, for "Rebel Without a Cause," "Splendor in the Grass" and "Love with the Proper Stranger." She appeared in numerous other Hollywood classics, including "West Side Story."

Wood and Wagner were married twice, first in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972. Her death during the Thanksgiving weekend in 1981 has long sparked tabloid speculation that foul play was involved.

Wood, Wagner and actor Christopher Walken and Davern spent time on Thanksgiving weekend 1981 both on Catalina Island and drinking on the yacht.

Wagner has dismissed any suggestion that the actress' death was anything more than an accident. In a 2008 autobiography, he recounted drinking with Wood and Walken at a restaurant and on the boat.

Wood went to the master cabin during an argument between the two men, Wagner said. The last time Wagner saw his wife, she was fixing her hair at a bathroom vanity and she shut the door, he wrote.

Despite various theories about what led Wood to the water, which she feared, he said, it was impossible to know what happened.

"Nobody knows," he wrote. "There are only two possibilities; either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

Coroner's officials said at the time that she was "possibly attempting to board the dinghy and had fallen into the water, striking her face."

Wood was found wearing a flannel nightgown, socks and a red down jacket, and Davern identified her body for authorities, according to an autopsy report. Her body had superficial bruises, according to the report, but those were considered consistent with drowning.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the agency hadn't been asked to do any additional investigation into Wood's case.

Wagner, star of the television series "Hart to Hart," wrote in his book that he blamed himself for his wife's death.

"Did I blame myself? If I had been there, I could have done something," he wrote. "But I wasn't there. I didn't see her."

___

Associated Press writer Alicia Rancilio contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111119/ap_en_ot/us_natalie_wood_investigation

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Syrian protesters use iPhone app Souria Wa Bas to fight government (Appolicious)

The Internet has been an important part of the efforts by protesters during 2011?s ?Arab Spring? events across the Middle East, allowing citizens to pass information back and forth and organize rallies.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have been instrumental in sharing information about protests and government crackdowns in several countries with the rest of the world, which has helped reform movements in those places to catch on and enact serious political change in many cases.

But for the first time, a revolutionary movement is turning to the iPhone for help with protests.

A new app out of Syria might be the first of its kind. An effort to battle government censorship of news events coming out of the country about political upheaval, the app Souria Wa Bas provides users with news from protesters in the country that they might not be able to get anywhere else, without requiring them to necessarily have access to a computer to check the Internet.

According to a story from The Daily Beast, the app?s creators say Souria Wa Bas is mean to counter ?deliberate attempts to distort facts? and that it compiles the most important news it can from Syrian news sources. Among the information on offer are maps of locations where protests are heavy, news articles, videos from events taking place around the country and even jokes to lighten the mood.

But it seems as though the advent of the Syrian revolution app is an important one. The government crackdown in the country has been vicious, The Daily Beast reports, with the United Nations estimating that more than 3,500 people have been killed since March. But the protest movement isn?t slowing down in Syria; it may, in fact, be picking up steam. Making and keeping information readily available through instruments like iPhones may be key to maintaining that momentum, as well as helpful in keeping people safe.

If nothing else, the use of an iPhone app demonstrates what a dynamic tool Apple?s smartphone can be. Coupled with the power of the Internet to help organize people, Apple?s device continues to have major impacts on people?s lives. Hopefully the iPhone and its apps may help people in Syria stay safe during the dangerous times in which they are engaged.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10231_syrian_protesters_use_iphone_app_souria_wa_bas_to_fight_government/43631899/SIG=13jo13dcr/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10231-syrian-protesters-use-iphone-app-souria-wa-bas-to-fight-government

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Myanmar first 'pariah' to take up Obama engagement (AP)

WASHINGTON ? In a historic opening to isolated Myanmar, President Barack Obama finally found a taker Friday for his Inauguration speech offer to extend a hand to rogue states "if you are willing to unclench your fist."

The U.S. sees Myanmar as responding to the three-year-old offer of engagement, a major shift for the former military-run dictatorship long under China's protection and influence. Sealing better relations, Obama announced he would send Hillary Rodham Clinton for what would be the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years.

China immediately responded with a veiled warning to its smaller, weaker ally not to get too close to Washington.

Obama said of Myanmar, "After years of darkness, we've seen flickers of progress in these last several weeks." He announced Clinton's trip on the sidelines of a summit in Bali, Indonesia, of East Asian leaders, including Myanmar's President Thein Sein.

The U.S. president noted the release of political prisoners, the easing of media restrictions, a tentative opening of the political system and a dialogue between the government and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party has agreed to register and participate in elections.

For Myanmar, also known as Burma, better relations with the United States may mean much-needed investment and market opportunities. It is also likely to boost Myanmar's credibility with its neighbors in Southeast Asia, many of whom view China as a growing threat.

Obama's trip to Asia this week was dominated by questions about China's changing world role, both as an economic power and an increasingly assertive military one. In Bali, Obama heard directly from participants in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations about worries over the South China Sea, where Beijing is increasingly asserting disputed territorial claims.

Reform in Myanmar will not come overnight or easily, and many remain skeptical about a commitment to democratization. But after decades of repression and isolation under the military regime that ruled for more than half a century, leaders there seem eager to come in from the cold. Clinton will test that proposition during her Dec. 1-2 trip to Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, and Myanmar's capital, Naypidaw, officials said.

Myanmar has been harshly criticized and penalized by the U.S. and its allies for widespread human rights abuses, and remains a target of sanctions.

U.S. officials denied suggestions that engagement with Myanmar is related to countering Chinese influence. Yet China reacted with apparent suspicion after questioning the appropriateness of greater military cooperation between the United States and Australia earlier in the week.

"We are willing to see the U.S. and other Western countries improve contacts with Myanmar and make better relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at Friday's daily media briefing in Beijing. "At the same time, we hope that both the domestic and foreign policies of Myanmar are conducive for the peace and stability of Myanmar."

The Obama administration hopes the Clinton trip encourages broader change by a newly elected civilian government that appears to be hedging its geopolitical bets by opening up to the West.

The cautious outreach to Myanmar also makes good on Obama's promise that he would try to talk with adversaries or disagreeable regimes when it was in the U.S. national interest. That realpolitik approach was aimed primarily at containing potential nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, but made little headway with either of those governments.

Myanmar is in an uncertain middle passage ? no longer under full control of a junta but far from a free society.

Although he stressed that Myanmar needs to do much more, Obama called its first moves "the most important steps toward reform in Burma that we've seen in years" and worthy of recognition in the form of a visit by his top diplomat. Further rewards, including upgraded diplomatic relations with the return of a U.S. ambassador ? Washington has been represented by a charge d'affaires since 1990 ? could follow as could an easing of some of wide-ranging travel and financial U.S. sanctions if further progress is made, officials said.

The U.S. has been laying the groundwork for Clinton's visit for months, beginning with a visit in September by the administration's special Burma envoy, Derek Mitchell, who returned in October and again earlier this month with the administration's top human rights diplomat, Michael Posner.

In every encounter, they stressed Obama's readiness to respond to positive changes such as freeing imprisoned members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and other dissidents and ending sporadic but fierce violence against ethnic minorities in the north and the east, the officials said. Alleged cooperation on sensitive weaponry with North Korea is also a cause for concern, they said.

A surprise move by Thein Sein in late September to halt work on a controversial $3.6 billion China-backed dam project because it went "against the will of the people" and the release last month of as many as 250 of Myanmar's more than estimated 2,000 political detainees encouraged the administration and sped up planning for Clinton's visit.

The final decision came after Obama spoke to Suu Kyi ? a fellow Nobel peace laureate ? on his way to Indonesia from Australia, officials said. She encouraged U.S. engagement with the successor to a regime that imprisoned her and launched crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters that left hundreds, maybe thousands dead in 1988 and again in 2007, and refused to hand power to her party when it overwhelmingly won elections in 1990.

U.S. officials said Suu Kyi told Obama it is "valuable and important" for the U.S. and Myanmar to have direct and clear communication and that she would welcome a Clinton visit as part of the effort to enhance dialogue between her party and the government.

___

Ben Feller reported from Indonesia.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_re_us/us_us_myanmar

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Senate to take up cyber bill in 2012 (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The Senate will take up cybersecurity legislation next year to fight online fraud, espionage and intellectual property theft whether or not Republicans and Democrats reach agreement on a comprehensive bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote on Wednesday.

In a letter to Republican leader Mitch McConnell, Reid said that lawmakers have been working on various bills for two years and on a comprehensive bill for six months. Meanwhile, the U.S. government and businesses regularly see their cyber defenses breached and losses mount.

"Given the magnitude of the threat and the gaps in the government's ability to respond, we cannot afford to delay action on this critical legislation. For that reason, it is my intent to bring comprehensive cybersecurity legislation to the Senate floor for consideration for the first senate work period next year," Reid wrote to McConnell.

Some Democrats were frustrated by a lack of progress in drafting a bill, but are now optimistic about the chances of bipartisan legislation.

"I believe the cyber threat to be of such urgency that we must act whether or not such agreement can be reached," he wrote.

A cyber task force in the U.S. House of Representatives, which is dominated by Republicans, issued a report in October also urging legislation.

Their recommendations were similar to ideas being considered by Democrats. For example, the Republican task force said that regulation may be warranted to protect critical infrastructure like power and water plants.

Reid's office has been overseeing the drafting of a comprehensive cybersecurity bill, but progress has been slow.

U.S. lawmakers have considered several cybersecurity bills in recent years, but failed to pass any despite a growing sense of urgency following high profile hacks of Google (GOOG.O), Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier, Citigroup (C.N), the International Monetary Fund and others.

Among the many obstacles to cyber legislation are overlapping jurisdictions in Congress and disagreement over how big a role government should play in regulating and protecting private networks.

The Ponemon Institute said in an August report that cyber attacks cost U.S. and multinational organizations $1.5 million to $36.5 million per year for each of the 50 companies surveyed.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111117/tc_nm/us_congress_cybersecurity

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Personal electronics' next revolution: Home printers that make 3-D objects

Public release date: 16-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

Just imagine: Instead of sending Grandma a holiday photo of the family for her fridge, you call up the image on your computer monitor, click "print," and your printer produces a three-dimensional plastic model ready for hanging on the holiday tree. Scenes like that in which homes have 3-D printers that build solid objects on demand are fast approaching reality, according to the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.

In the article, C&EN Associate Editor Lauren K. Wolf explains that 3-D printers are on the verge of a personal revolution akin to the one that began in the 1970s and transformed computers from room-size machines to devices that fit on tables and now in pockets. A similar transformation is taking place in the world of 3-D printing, where machines are shrinking and the ability to create detailed objects from a variety of materials is growing. Engineers are now able to create objects out of a number of plastics, metals, ceramics and even foods like chocolate, sometimes with details as fine as a human hair.

The technology promises to foster revolutions in venues ranging from kitchens to hospital operating rooms. Some surgeons, for instance, envision printing bone grafts or replacement blood vessels with embedded proteins and cells that will help them fuse naturally. Chefs could print designer chocolates and gourmet meals with unique textures and tastes. "In 20 years, many people will have a 3-D printer in their kitchen for printing designer foods and other products," the article quotes one scientist as saying.

###

The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 16-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

Just imagine: Instead of sending Grandma a holiday photo of the family for her fridge, you call up the image on your computer monitor, click "print," and your printer produces a three-dimensional plastic model ready for hanging on the holiday tree. Scenes like that in which homes have 3-D printers that build solid objects on demand are fast approaching reality, according to the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.

In the article, C&EN Associate Editor Lauren K. Wolf explains that 3-D printers are on the verge of a personal revolution akin to the one that began in the 1970s and transformed computers from room-size machines to devices that fit on tables and now in pockets. A similar transformation is taking place in the world of 3-D printing, where machines are shrinking and the ability to create detailed objects from a variety of materials is growing. Engineers are now able to create objects out of a number of plastics, metals, ceramics and even foods like chocolate, sometimes with details as fine as a human hair.

The technology promises to foster revolutions in venues ranging from kitchens to hospital operating rooms. Some surgeons, for instance, envision printing bone grafts or replacement blood vessels with embedded proteins and cells that will help them fuse naturally. Chefs could print designer chocolates and gourmet meals with unique textures and tastes. "In 20 years, many people will have a 3-D printer in their kitchen for printing designer foods and other products," the article quotes one scientist as saying.

###

The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/acs-pen111611.php

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FOR KIDS: Snake blood boosts mouse heart

Scientists find that a mouse?s heart swells in the presence of python blood

Web edition : 11:26 am

Maybe you think you know what happens when a mouse meets a python, but scientists recently presented a surprising twist on the typical snake-meets-mouse tale.

They found that three substances in the blood of a Burmese python cause a mouse?s heart to grow larger (though probably not fonder). When lab mice received injections of these substances, called fatty acids, their hearts grew heavier by 10 percent in a week. The larger hearts looked healthy, as though the mice had been exercising more, the scientists said.

To learn more, visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Snake blood boosts mouse heart

Found in: Life, Science News For Kids and Zoology

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336203/title/FOR_KIDS_Snake_blood_boosts_mouse_heart

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Ex-ruling party wins violence-scarred Mexican race (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? The party that held a lock on power in Mexico for seven decades appears to have won a key state election before the country's presidential race by becoming the party of change.

Monday's official vote count shows that the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or the PRI, surged to victory by winning hundreds of thousands of votes back from the leftist party that pushed it out of the governorship 10 years ago in a pattern that, according to polls, may be developing across the country.

The PRI's Fausto Vallejo Figueroa won a 35- to 33-percent victory over his closest competitor, Luisa Maria Calderon, who is the sister of President Felipe Calderon. Finishing a distant third with 29 percent was the party that has dominated the state in recent years, the Democratic Revolution Party, or the PRD.

The two parties that lost the vote immediately questioned the results and accused the PRI of aligning itself with organized crime to intimidate voters. PRD candidate Silvano Aureoles called for annulling the election.

But with local turnout higher than that seen in the last presidential election, there was more evidence that angry voters rather than armed men or threatening messages were behind the PRI's win.

"It was a referendum on the PRD during the last 10 to 12 years. Violence has increased and economic issues that have led to migration have not changed," Shannon O'Neil, an expert on Mexican politics at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The PRI itself was long the giant of Mexican politics, a system more than a party imposed by a Mexican president in 1929 to impose his power at every level of authority throughout the nation. For the next 71 years, the PRI literally beat off some challengers while buying off voters with benefits that often depended on support for the party.

But the PRI lost the presidency to Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, in 2000 and Michoacan fell to the Democratic Revolution Party a year later. The PRI can now blame growing drug violence and a tepid economy on the very parties that once argued the PRI was the source of Mexico's ills.

"We haven't forgotten that we were better off when the PRI was governing than the 10 terrible years we suffered under the PRD, and the 12 years under the PAN that hasn't been good for anything," said businessman Juan Jose Magana Torres, of Morelia in Michoacan.

"We're sick of the PRD," said homemaker Josefina Gonzalez Nieto, also of Morelia.

Polls show the PRI making a comeback across the nation, with its top candidate, former Mexico State Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto, leading in all polls ahead of the July presidential vote.

Part of the PRI's strong showing is due to weariness with the PAN after 12 years, and horror at the estimated 40,000 drug war deaths that have stained the country since Calderon ramped up the fight against cartels by sending troops into Michoacan, his home state.

At the same time, PRD, which came within 1 percentage point of beating Calderon for the presidency in 2006, has fallen apart even in its strongest states, such as Michoacan. Sunday's election showed that voters disgruntled with the PRD are voting for the PRI.

The trend is appearing in other PRD strongholds. Recent polls show that the PRI even has a chance to win back the mayorship of Mexico City that it lost to the PRD by a 6-1 margin six years ago.

In Michoacan, Calderon's PAN actually did far better than it usually did in the past. Despite weariness with the drug war, Luisa Maria Calderon got just about the same total of votes her brother did six years earlier from presidential voters in his home state.

The swing came from the PRD to the PRI, which jumped from 19 percent in the 2006 presidential race to 35 percent on Sunday, while the leftist party plummeted.

Even so, the results are not final until later in the week and the Democratic Revolution Party vows to challenge them in electoral courts, accusing both the PRI and PAN of irregularities.

"On the one hand was the illegal use of federal resources and money, and on the other this new PRI, now protected and supported in its return to power with the help of organized crime," PRD national leader Jesus Zambrano told a news conference.

Luisa Maria Calderon, too, implied that the drug gangs threatening her party's voters and poll watchers on the behalf of the PRI in retaliation for its aggressive stance against cartels. She said her team would carefully review vote tallies in parts of the state where they have received reports of armed men threatening people trying to vote.

"Allowing organized crime to manipulate elections will never lead to security," she said in an interview with the Televisa network.

Federal prosecutors said they have opened investigations into 42 alleged instances of voting irregularities, including threats purportedly used to force people to vote a certain way and people holding others' voter ID cards, which is done to prevent people from voting or to allow others to vote for them.

Concern over cartel involvement grew as the election neared in a state that is a major producer of marijuana, opium and methamphetamines.

The government is battling quasi-religious drug gangs called La Familia and the Knights Templar that claim to be following divine will and protecting the rights of Michoacan residents as well as growing into the country's biggest producer of methamphetamine.

In some regions, residents have taken to the streets, or have been forced or paid by drug gangs, to protest government crackdowns.

The PAN mayor of the city of La Piedad was gunned down as he handed out campaign literature for Calderon and other candidates less than two weeks before Sunday's election. On the day of the vote, a newspaper in the city published an unsigned note threatening PAN supporters and blaming the party for deaths in the wake of its military-led offensive against drug cartels.

"Don't wear T-shirts or PAN advertising because we don't want to confuse you and have innocent people die," read the note, which was also circulated by email. News reports said the newspaper had been forced to publish the warning.

Yet the city's voters shook off the threat. The PAN candidate received 53 percent of the vote.

___

Associated Press writer Gustavo Ruiz in Morelia, Mexico, contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects that candidate calling for annulling vote..)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_election_michoacan

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Video: Protecting children, preventing sexual abuse

Wall Street not too worried by 'supercommittee'

??Maybe it?s because investors are optimistic a deal will be reached. Or maybe it?s because they?re already expecting the worst. For whatever reason, Wall Street seems to be shrugging off next week?s looming congressional budget deadline.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45294641#45294641

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Cain accuser's lawyer says witness to speak Monday

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, speaks at the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate at the Benjamin Johnson Arena, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 in Spartanburg, S.C. The debate covered foreign policy, which has gotten little attention from the GOP candidates in recent weeks. During the debate Cain said President Barack Obama has been on the wrong side of nearly every situation in the Arab world and the United States has mishandled the uprisings in the region. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, speaks at the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate at the Benjamin Johnson Arena, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 in Spartanburg, S.C. The debate covered foreign policy, which has gotten little attention from the GOP candidates in recent weeks. During the debate Cain said President Barack Obama has been on the wrong side of nearly every situation in the Arab world and the United States has mishandled the uprisings in the region. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The lawyer for the Chicago woman who has accused Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of inappropriate sexual conduct on Monday was bringing forward a witness who could provide the first corroborating details of Sharon Bialek's claims.

Attorney Gloria Allred said a previously unidentified ex-boyfriend of Bialek's will tell his version of events at a news conference in Louisiana.

Cain's wife, Gloria, meanwhile, broke her silence to defend her husband of 43 years in a television interview airing Monday night.

Bialek last week became the first woman to publicly accuse Cain, a Georgia businessman, of inappropriate sexual conduct in the late 1990s when he was chief executive of the National Restaurant Association, a Washington trade group.

Bialek had lost her job in the association's Chicago office and had gone to Washington to meet Cain for help finding employment. The two had dinner and afterward, as they sat in a parked car, Bialek said Cain groped her.

Bialek went public with her claims at a news conference last week. Allred, who accompanied Bialek, said her client had told her then-boyfriend about the incident at the time.

At least three other women have claimed that Cain sexually harassed them. Bialek is the only one of the four to go public with their accusations.

Cain has denied behaving inappropriately with anyone or knowing Bialek.

Meanwhile, Cain's wife, Gloria says her husband would have to have a "split personality" to do the things he's been accused of doing.

In the interview set to air on Fox News Channel's "On the Record," Gloria Cain said the allegations against her husband don't ring true because he "totally respects women."

"I'm thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said," she said in excerpts of the interview that were released Sunday.

She said she cannot believe the claims.

"To hear such graphic allegations and know that that would have been something that was totally disrespectful of her as a woman and I know that's not the person he is," Gloria Cain said. "He totally respects women."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-14-Cain/id-08eee2b74d2b40e8bee8ae7a5a2297dd

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