tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38941119016707865402024-03-14T01:03:35.298-07:00Jannekevlot NewsPasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comBlogger409125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-59637170523533973982013-03-02T07:23:00.001-08:002013-03-02T07:23:08.326-08:00With record highs in sight, stocks face roadblocks<p class="first">NEW YORK (Reuters) - If <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362202326700_3">Wall Street</span> needs to climb a wall of worry, it will have plenty of opportunity next week.</p><br /><p> Major <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362202326700_7">U.S.</span> stock indexes will make another attempt at reaching all-time records, but the fitful pace that has dominated trading is likely to continue. Next Friday's unemployment report and the hefty spending cuts that look like they about to take effect will be at the forefront.</p><br /><p> The importance of whether equities can reach and sustain those highs is more than Wall Street's usual fixation on numbers with psychological significance. Breaking through to uncharted territory is seen as a test of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362202326700_2">investors</span>' faith in the rally.</p><br /><p> "It's very significant," said <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362202326700_1">Bucky Hellwig</span>, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.</p><br /><p> "The thinking is, there's just not enough there for an extended bull run," he said. "If we do break through (<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362202326700_4">record highs</span>), then maybe the charts and price action are telling us there's something better ahead."</p><br /><p> Flare-ups in the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis and next Friday's report on the U.S. labor market could jostle the market, though U.S. job indicators have generally been trending in a positive direction.</p><br /><p> Small- and mid-cap stocks hit lifetime highs in February. Now the Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> and the S&P 500 <.spx> are racing each other to the top. The Dow, made up of 30 stocks, is about 75 points - less than 1 percent - away from its record close of 14,164.53, which it hit on October 9, 2007. The broader S&P is still 3 percent away from its closing high of 1,565.15, also reached on October 9, 2007.</.spx></.dji></p><br /><p> The advantage may be in the Dow's court. So far in 2013, it has gained 7.5 percent, beating the S&P 500 by about 1 percent.</p><br /><p> THE RALLY AND THE REALITY CHECK</p><br /><p> The Dow's relative strength owes much to its unique make-up and calculation, as well as to investors' recent preference for buying value stocks likely to generate steady reliable gains, rather than growth stocks.</p><br /><p> But the more defensive stance illustrates how stock buyers are getting concerned about this year's rally. While investors don't want to miss out on gains, they're picking up companies that are less likely to decline as much as high-flying names - if a market correction comes.</p><br /><p> The Russell Value Index <.rav> is up 7.6 percent for the year so far, outpacing the Russell Growth Index's <.rag> 5.7 percent rise. Within the realm of the S&P 500, the consumer staples sector led the market in February, gaining 3.1 percent.</.rag></.rav></p><br /><p> There is some concern that growth-oriented names are being eclipsed by defensive bets, said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati.</p><br /><p> "This isn't a be-all and end-all sell signal by any means, but we would feel much more comfortable if some of the more aggressive areas, like technology and small caps, would start to gain some leadership here," Detrick said.</p><br /><p> Signs that investors are becoming concerned about the rally's pace is evident in the options market, where the ratio of put activity to call activity has recently shifted in favor of puts, which represent expectations for a stock to fall.</p><br /><p> "We are seeing some put hedging in the financials, building up for the past month," said Henry Schwartz, president of options analytics firm Trade Alert in New York.</p><br /><p> The put-to-call ratio representing an aggregate of about 562 financial stocks is 1:1, when normally, calls should be outnumbering puts.</p><br /><p> Investors have no shortage of reasons to crave the relative safety of blue chips and defensive stocks. Although markets have mostly looked past uncertainty over Washington's plans to cut the deficit, fiscal policy negotiations still pose a risk to equities.</p><br /><p> The $85 billion in spending cuts set to begin on Friday is expected to slow economic growth this year if policymakers do not reach a new deal. Markets so far have held firm despite the wrangling in Washington, but tangible economic effects could pinch stock prices going forward.</p><br /><p> The International Monetary Fund warned that full implementation of the cuts would probably take at least 0.5 percentage point off U.S. growth this year.</p><br /><p> EASY MONEY AND TEPID HIRING</p><br /><p> Investors will also take in a round of economic data at a time when concerns are percolating that the market is being pushed up less by fundamentals and more by loose monetary policy around the world.</p><br /><p> The main economic event will be Friday's non-farm payrolls report for February. The U.S. economy is expected to have added 160,000 jobs last month, only a tad higher than in January, in a sign the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362202326700_6">labor market</span> is healing at a slow pace. The U.S. unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 7.9 percent.</p><br /><p> While lackluster data has been a catalyst in the past for <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362202326700_5">stock market</span> gains as investors bet it would ensure continued stimulus from the Federal Reserve, that sentiment may be wearing thin.</p><br /><p> Markets stumbled last week following worries that the Fed might wind down its quantitative easing program sooner than expected.</p><br /><p> "It shows the underpinning of the market is being driven at this point by monetary policy," Hellwig said.</p><br /><p> With investors questioning what is behind the rally, it will make a run to record highs even more significant, Hellwig added.</p><br /><p> "There's smart people that are in the bull camp and the bear camp and the muddle-through camp," Hellwig said. "The fact that you can statistically, using historical evidence, make a case for going higher, lower, or staying the same makes this number very important this time around."</p><br /><p> (Wall St Week Ahead runs every Friday. Comments or questions on this column can be emailed to: leah.schnurr(at)thomsonreuters.com)</p><br /><p> (Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Additional reporting by Doris Frankel in Chicago; Editing by Jan Paschal)</p><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-30612046240871752692013-03-02T07:21:00.001-08:002013-03-02T07:21:09.402-08:00Japan defeats Brazil 5-3 in World Baseball Classic<br /><p class="first"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_1">FUKUOKA, Japan</span> (AP) — Two-time defending champion <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_3">Japan</span> rallied to beat <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_2">Brazil</span> 5-3 on Saturday in its opening game of the World Baseball Classic.</p><br /><p>Japan trailed 3-2 before adding three runs in the top of the eighth inning in front of a crowd of 28,181 at the Fukuoka Dome.</p><br /><p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_4">Hirokazu Ibata</span> came off the bench to tie the game with a single to right that scored <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_9">Seiichi Uchikawa</span> from second. Japan took a 4-3 lead when Ibata scored from third on a fielder's choice and added an insurance run on Nobuhiro Matsuda's single to center that scored <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_7">Hisayoshi Chono</span>.</p><br /><p>"This was a very difficult game for us," Japan manager Koji Yamamoto said. "Brazil put up a very good fight. But we got some timely hits in the eighth and were able to make a comeback."</p><br /><p>Brazil, managed by Hall of Famer <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_6">Barry Larkin</span>, looked ready to pull off an upset when the tournament debutantes took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning on a double by <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_5">Leonardo Reginatto</span> that scored Paulo Orlando from second.</p><br /><p>"These players love to compete," Larkin said. "They love a challenge and this was a challenge similar to the qualifiers when we beat Panama. I'm extremely proud of the way my players performed in this game."</p><br /><p>Japan is in Group A, which includes 2006 runner-up Cuba and China. Two teams from the group will advance to the March 8-12 second round at Tokyo Dome with a chance to move on to the March 17-19 championship round in San Francisco.</p><br /><p>Japan pitcher Tadashi Settsu, who gave up one run on two hits over three innings of relief, picked up the win. Oscar Nakaoshi took the loss after giving up two runs in the eighth.</p><br /><p>Japanese home-run king Sadaharu Oh, who managed the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362237306415_8">Japan team</span> that won the first WBC, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.</p><br /><p>Brazil silenced the near-capacity crowd by taking the lead in the bottom of the first inning when Reginatto hit a sharp single to left that scored Orlando.</p><br /><p>Japan tied the game in the top of the third when Yoshio Itoi singled to right to score Hayato Sakamoto from second.</p><br /><p>The hosts took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Sakamoto that scored Ryoji Aikawa from third.</p><br /><p>Brazil tied it 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Reginatto doubled and scored on a close play at the plate on a shot to center by Reinaldo Sato.</p><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-4493756150593012462013-03-02T07:16:00.001-08:002013-03-02T07:16:08.266-08:00U.S. evolves on same-sex marriage<br /><!--startclickprintexclude--><br /><br /><br /><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr"><br /><p><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</strong></p><br /><ul class="cnn_bulletbin cnnStryHghLght"><!--google_ad_section_start--><li>The president and the nation have shifted perspectives on same-sex marriage</li><br /><li>Supreme Court ruling on California's same-sex marriage ban a critical test</li><br /><li>Growing public support for gay marriage give proponents hope for change</li><br /><!--google_ad_section_end--><br /></ul></div></div><br /><!--endclickprintexclude--><!--google_ad_section_start--><!--startclickprintinclude--><br /><p><strong>Washington (CNN)</strong> -- The nation's growing acceptance of same-sex marriage has happened in slow and painstaking moves, eventually building into a momentum that is sweeping even the most unlikely of converts.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph2">Even though he said in 2008 that he could only support civil unions for same-sex couples, President Barack Obama nonetheless enjoyed strong support among the gay community. He disappointed many with his conspicuously subdued first-term response to the same-sex marriage debate.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph3">Last year, after Vice President Joe Biden announced his support, the president then said his position had evolved and he, too, supported same-sex marriage.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph4">So it was no small matter when on Thursday the Obama administration formally expressed its support of same-sex marriage in a court brief weighing in on California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex weddings. The administration's effort was matched by at least 100 high-profile Republicans — some of whom in elections past depended on gay marriage as a wedge issue guaranteed to rally the base — who signed onto a brief supporting gay couples to legally wed.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph5">Obama on same-sex marriage: Everyone is equal</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph6">Then there are the polls that show that an increasing number of Americans now support same-sex marriage. These polls show that nearly half of the nation's Catholics and white, mainstream Protestants and more than half of the nation's women, liberals and political moderates all support same-sex marriage.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph7">According to Pew Research Center polling, 48% of Americans support same-sex marriage with 43% opposed. Back in 2001, 57% opposed same-sex marriage while 35% supported it.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph8">In last year's presidential election, same-sex marriage scarcely raised a ripple. That sea change is not lost on the president.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph9">"The same evolution I've gone through is the same evolution the country as a whole has gone through," Obama told reporters on Friday.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph10">Craig Rimmerman, professor of public policy and political science at Hobart and William Smith colleges says there is history at work here and the administration is wise to get on the right side.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph11">"There is no doubt that President Obama's shifting position on Proposition 8 and same-sex marriage more broadly is due to his desire to situate himself on the right side of history with respect to the fight over same-sex marriage," said Rimmerman, author of "From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States."</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph12">"I also think that broader changes in public opinion showing greater support for same-sex marriage, especially among young people, but in the country at large as well, has created a cultural context for Obama to alter his views."</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph13">For years, Obama had frustrated many in the gay community by not offering full-throated support of same-sex marriage. However, the president's revelation last year that conversations with his daughters and friends led him to change his mind gave many in that community hope.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph14">Last year, the Obama administration criticized a measure in North Carolina that banned same-sex marriage and made civil unions illegal. The president took the same position on a similar Minnesota proposal.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph15">Obama administration officials point to what they see as the administration's biggest accomplishment in the gay rights cause: repealing "don't ask, don't tell," the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian members serving in the forces.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph16">Then there was the president's inaugural address which placed the gay community's struggle for equality alongside similar civil rights fights by women and African-Americans.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph17">"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well," Obama said in his address after being sworn in.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph18">In offering its support and asserting in the brief that "prejudice may not be the basis for differential treatment under the law," the Obama administration is setting up a high stakes political and constitutional showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court over a fast-evolving and contentious issue.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph19">The justices will hear California's Proposition 8 case in March. That case and another appeal over the federal Defense of Marriage Act will produce blockbuster rulings from the justices in coming months.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph20">Beyond the legal wranglings there is a strong social and historic component, one that has helped open the way for the administration to push what could prove to be a social issue that defines Obama's second term legacy, Rimmerman said.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph21">The nation is redefining itself on this issue, as well.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph22">Pew survey: Changing attitudes on gay marriage</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph23">The changes are due, in part, to generational shifts. Younger people show a higher level of support than their older peers, according to Pew polling "Millennials are almost twice as likely as the Silent Generation to support same-sex marriage."</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph24">"As people have grown up with people having the right to marry the generational momentum has been very, very strong," said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, a gay rights organization.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph25">That is not to say that there isn't still opposition.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph26">Pew polling found that most Republicans and conservatives remain opposed to same-sex marriage. In 2001, 21% of Republicans were supportive; in 2012 that number nudged slightly to 25%.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph27">Conservative groups expressed dismay at the administration's same-sex marriage support.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph28">"President Obama, who was against same-sex 'marriage' before he was for it, and his administration, which said the Defense of Marriage Act was constitutional before they said it was unconstitutional, has now flip-flopped again on the issue of same-sex 'marriage,' putting allegiance to extreme liberal social policies ahead of constitutional principle," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said in a statement.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph29">But there are signs of movement even among some high profile Republican leaders</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph30">Top Republicans sign brief supporting same-sex marriage</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph31">The Republican-penned friend of the court brief, which is designed to influence conservative justices on the high court, includes a number of top officials from the George W. Bush administration, Mitt Romney's former campaign manager and former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph32">It is also at odds with the Republican Party's platform, which opposes same-sex marriage and defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph33">Still, with White House and high-profile Republican support, legal and legislative victories in a number of states and polls that show an increasing number of Americans support same sex-marriage, proponents feel that the winds of history are with them.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph34">"What we've seen is accelerating and irrefutable momentum as Americans have come to understand who gay people are and why marriage matters," Wolfson said. "We now have a solid national majority and growing support across every demographic. We have leaders across the spectrum, including Republicans, all saying it's time to end marriage discrimination."</p><br /><p class="cnn_strycbftrtxt">CNN's Peter Hamby, Ashley Killough and Bill Mears contributed to this report. </p><br /><!--endclickprintinclude--><!--google_ad_section_end--><br /><!--no partner--><br /><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-33057995072343753072013-03-02T07:14:00.001-08:002013-03-02T07:14:09.169-08:00Man slain on way to dialysis treatment: police<br /> <br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="thumbnail"><br /> <div class="holder"><br /> <table cellspacing="0" readability="2"><tr readability="6"><td readability="7"><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-5131db18/turbine/chi-homicide-burnside-neighborhood-20130302-001/580/580x326" alt="South Side shooting" border="0" width="580" height="326" title="South Side shooting"/><p class="small"><br /> Police at the scene of a fatal shooting early Saturday at Homicide at Eberhart and 95th Streets.<br /> <span class="credit">(<span class="photographer">Peter Nickeas / Chicago Tribune</span> / <span class="dateMonth">March </span><span class="dateDay">2</span><span class="dateYear">, 2013</span>)</span><br /> </p><br /> <br /> <br /> </td></tr></table></div><br /> </div><br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <span class="toolSet" readability="-23"><br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="byline" readability="9"><br /> <br /> <br /> <span class="byline bordered">By Peter Nickeas</span><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <span class="titleline">Tribune reporter</span><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p class="date"><span class="timeString">8:47 a.m. CST</span><span class="dateTimeSeparator">, </span><span class="dateString">March 2, 2013</span></p><br /> <br /> <br /> </div><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </span><br /> <br /> <br /> <div id="story-body-text" readability="54.6159695817"><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p>A 72-year-old man was shot and killed in his gangway on the Far South Side early Saturday morning as he left a home for dialysis treatment.</p><br /><p>The man's grandson was inside and heard the shots that killed his grandfather, who was identified by family as William Strickland, of the 400 block of East 95th Street.</p><br /><p>The man was shot about 3:30 a.m. and pronounced dead about 4 a.m., according to authorities.</p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p>The motive appears to be robbery, police said, but detectives are still investigating.</p><br /><p>Detectives remained at the scene, across from Chicago State University, into the morning.</p><br /><p>Police taped off the northeast corner of 95th Street and Eberhart Avenue, surrounding the two houses between which the man was killed.</p><br /><p>Check back for more information.</p><br /><p><em><strong>pnickeas@tribune.com</strong></em><br/><em><strong>Twitter: @peternickeas</strong></em></p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </div><br /> Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-84989295286675408002013-03-01T07:23:00.001-08:002013-03-01T07:23:08.263-08:00Wall Street pares losses after strong U.S. dataPARIS, March 1 (Reuters) - Alex Ferguson's philosophy is behind the longevity of Manchester United's homegrown players, says Paris St Germain midfielder David Beckham. The former England captain and United player is still active at 37, having joined PSG on a five-month loan at the end of January. Former team mate Phil Neville, 36, plays at Everton and the 39-year-old Ryan Giggs, who started his youth career at Manchester City but ended it at United, is still at Old Trafford after signing his first professional contract there in 1990. ...Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-33104314920410120612013-03-01T07:21:00.001-08:002013-03-01T07:21:08.829-08:00McIlroy walks off course at Honda Classic<br /><p class="first"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362150906860_3">PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.</span> (AP) — <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362150906860_1">Rory McIlroy</span>'s rough start to the year has taken a bad turn. He withdrew from the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362150906860_5">Honda Classic</span> on Friday without finishing <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362150906860_4">nine holes</span>.</p><br /><p>McIlroy already was 7-over for eight holes at <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362150906860_2">PGA National</span> and certain to miss another cut. He hit his second shot into the water on the par-5 18th and was done for the week. He told reporters as he walked to the parking lot that he was not in a good place mentally.</p><br /><p>McIlroy, who signed a new equipment deal with Nike, began the year by missing the cut at Abu Dhabi. After a four-week break, he lost in the opening round of the Match Play Championship, and then made only two birdies in the 27 holes he played in the Honda Classic.</p><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-1775575745153025962013-03-01T07:18:00.001-08:002013-03-01T07:18:11.429-08:00‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night<br /><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><p class="first">“<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_1">Star Trek</span>” fans got quite a treat last night during the Academy Awards last night (Feb. 24).</p><br /><p>Actors who portray major characters from the film and television versions of the iconic science fiction series made cameo appearances during the three-hour-long ceremony celebrating the best movies of 2012.</p><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><br /><p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_2">William Shatner</span>, the actor that played <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_3">Starship Enterprise</span> captain <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_5">James T. Kirk</span> in original series helped open the awards show with host, Seth McFarlane.</p><br /><p>“I’ve come back in time from the 23rd century to stop you from destroying the Academy Awards,” joked Shatner to McFarlane.</p><br /><p>Actors <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_6">Chris Pine</span> and <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_4">Zoe Saldana</span> also had a part to play in the festivities. Pine, who plays Kirk in 2009′s “Star Trek” and its sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness “ being released later this year, and Saldana, who plays the Enterprise’s communications officer Uhura, recapped an earlier event they co-hosted on Feb. 10 called the “Sci-Tech Oscars.”</p><br /><p>The smaller ceremony is designed to showcase the technical achievements of designers and technicians on movie sets.</p><br /><p>The newest movie in the Star Trek franchise, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” is set to be released on May 17.</p><br /><p><em>Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter </em><em>@mirikramer </em><em>or SPACE.com </em><em>@Spacedotcom</em><em>. We’re also on</em> <em>Facebook</em><em> & </em><em>Google+</em><em>. </em></p><br /><p><span>Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</span><br />Space and Astronomy News Headlines – Yahoo! News</p><br /><div><br /><div itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Review-aggregate"><br /><div><br />Title Post: <span itemprop="itemreviewed"><strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong></span><br />Url Post: <strong>http://www.news.fluser.com/star-trek-beams-into-oscar-night/</strong><br />Link To Post : <strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong><br />Rating: <span itemprop="rating" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Rating"><br /><span itemprop="average">100%</span><br /></span><br />based on <span itemprop="votes">99998</span> ratings.<br /><span itemprop="count">5</span> user reviews.<br />Author: <b><span class="vcard author"><span class="fn">Fluser SeoLink</span></span></b><br />Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment</div><br /></div><br /></div><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-38433761478597886042013-03-01T07:16:00.001-08:002013-03-01T07:16:08.921-08:00Syria war is everybody's problem<br /><!--startclickprintexclude--><br /><br /><div class="cnn_stryimg640caption" readability="8"><p>Syrians search for survivors and bodies after the Syrian regime attacked the city of Aleppo with missiles on February 23.</p></div><br /><br /><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr"><br /><p><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</strong></p><br /><ul class="cnn_bulletbin cnnStryHghLght"><!--google_ad_section_start--><li>Frida Ghitis: We are standing by as Syria rips itself apart, thinking it's not our problem</li><br /><li>Beyond the tragedy in human terms, she says, the war damages global stability</li><br /><li>Ghitis: Syria getting more and more radical, jeopardizing forces of democracy</li><br /><li>Ghitis: Peace counts on moderates, whom we must back with diplomacy, training arms</li><br /><!--google_ad_section_end--><br /></ul></div></div><br /><!--endclickprintexclude--><!--google_ad_section_start--><!--startclickprintinclude--><br /><p class="cnnEditorialNote"><em><strong>Editor's note:</strong> Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter: @FridaGColumns</em></p><br /><p><strong>(CNN)</strong> -- Last week, a huge explosion rocked the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing more than 50 people and injuring hundreds. The victims of the blast in a busy downtown street were mostly civilians, including schoolchildren. Each side in the Syrian civil war blamed the other.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph3">In the northern city of Aleppo, about 58 people -- 36 of them children -- died in a missile attack last week. Washington condemned the regime of Bashar al-Assad; the world looked at the awful images and moved on.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph5">Syria is ripping itself to pieces. The extent of human suffering is beyond comprehension. That alone should be reason enough to encourage a determined effort to bring this conflict to a quick resolution. But if humanitarian reasons were not enough, the international community -- including the U.S. and its allies -- should weigh the potential implications of allowing this calamity to continue.</p><br /><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr cnn_strylccimg214"><br /><img src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/111012033349-frida-ghitis-left-tease.jpg" alt="Frida Ghitis" border="0" class="box-image" height="122" width="214"/><p>Frida Ghitis</p><br /></div></div><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph7">We've all heard the argument: It's not our problem. We're not the world's policeman. We would only make it worse.</p><br /><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph9">This is not a plea to send American or European troops to fight in this conflict. Nobody wants that.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph11">But before we allow this mostly hands-off approach to continue, we would do well to consider the potential toll of continuing with a failed policy, one that has focused in vain over the past two years searching for a diplomatic solution.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph13">U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry has just announced that the U.S. will provide an additional $60 million in non-lethal assistance to the opposition. He has hinted that President Obama, after rejecting suggestions from the CIA and previous Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to arm Syrian rebels, might be ready to change course. And not a day too soon.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph15">The war is taking longer than anyone expected. The longer it lasts, the more Syria is radicalized and the region is destabilized.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph17">If you think the Syrian war is the concern of Syrians alone, think about other countries that have torn themselves apart over a long time. Consider Lebanon, Afghanistan or Somalia; each with unique circumstances, but with one thing in common: Their wars created enormous suffering at home, and the destructiveness eventually spilled beyond their borders. All of those wars triggered lengthy, costly refugee crises. They all spawned international terrorism and eventually direct international -- including U.S. -- intervention.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph19">The uprising against al-Assad started two years ago in the spirit of what was then referred to -- without a hint of irony -- as the Arab Spring. Young Syrians marched, chanting for freedom and democracy. The ideals of equality, rule of law and human rights wafted in the air.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph21">Al-Assad responded to peaceful protests with gunfire. Syrians started dying by the hundreds each day. Gradually the nonviolent protesters started fighting back. Members of the Syrian army started defecting.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph23">The opposition's Free Syrian Army came together. Factions within the Syrian opposition took up arms and the political contest became a brutal civil war. The death toll has climbed to as many as 90,000, according to Kerry. About 2 million people have left their homes, and the killing continues with no end in sight.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph25">In fairness to Washington, Europe and the rest of the international community, there were never easy choices in this war. Opposition leaders bickered, and their clashing views scared away would-be supporters. Western nations rejected the idea of arming the opposition, saying Syria already has too many weapons. They were also concerned about who would control the weaponry, including an existing arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, after al-Assad's fall.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph27">These are all legitimate concerns. But inaction is producing the worst possible outcome.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph29">The moderates, whose views most closely align with the West, are losing out to the better-armed Islamists and, especially, to the extremists. Moderates are losing the ideological debate and the battle for the future character of a Syria after al-Assad.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph31">Radical Islamist groups have taken the lead. Young people are losing faith in moderation, lured by disciplined, devout extremists. Reporters on the ground have seen young democracy advocates turn into fervent supporters of dangerous groups such as the Nusra Front, which has scored impressive victories.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph33">The U.S. State Department recently listed the Nusra Front, which has close ties to al Qaeda in Iraq and a strong anti-Western ideology, as a terrorist organization.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph35">Meantime, countries bordering Syria are experiencing repercussions. And these are likely to become more dangerous.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph37">Jordan, an important American ally, is struggling with a flood of refugees, as many as 10,000 each week since the start of the year. The government estimates 380,000 Syrians are in Jordan, a country whose government is under pressure from its own restive population and still dealing with huge refugee populations from other wars.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph39">Turkey is also burdened with hundreds of thousands of refugees and occasional Syrian fire. Israel has warned about chemical weapons transfers from al-Assad to Hezbollah in Lebanon and may have already fired on a Syrian convoy attempting the move.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph41">Lebanon, always perched precariously on the edge of crisis, lives with growing fears that Syria's war will enter its borders. Despite denials, there is evidence that Lebanon's Hezbollah, a close ally of al-Assad and of Iran, has joined the fighting on the side of the Syrian president. The Free Syrian Army has threatened to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon if it doesn't leave Syria.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph43">The possible outcomes in Syria include the emergence of a failed state, stirring unrest throughout the region. If al-Assad wins, Syria will become an even more repressive country.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph45">Al-Assad's survival would fortify Iran and Hezbollah and other anti-Western forces. If the extremists inside the opposition win, Syria could see factional fighting for many years, followed by anti-democratic, anti-Western policies.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph47">The only good outcome is victory for the opposition's moderate forces. They may not be easy to identify with complete certainty. But to the extent that it is possible, these forces need Western support.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph48">They need training, funding, careful arming and strong political and diplomatic backing. The people of Syria should know that support for human rights, democracy and pluralism will lead toward a peaceful, prosperous future.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph50">Democratic nations should not avert their eyes from the killings in Syria which are, after all, a warning to the world.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph52"><i>Follow us on Twitter </i><i>@CNNOpinion.</i></p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph53"><i>Join us on </i><i>Facebook/CNNOpinion.</i></p><br /><p class="cnn_strycbftrtxt">The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Frida Ghitis.</p><br /><!--endclickprintinclude--><!--google_ad_section_end--><br /><!--no partner--><br /><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-72297864947740505002013-03-01T07:14:00.001-08:002013-03-01T07:14:07.826-08:00Chicago State trustees meet in midst of leadership turmoil<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p>Chicago State University's board of trustees is meeting this morning to settle the question of who is president at the South Side campus, capping a tumultuous week.</p><p>On Monday, the board announced that Wayne Watson, president since 2009, would take a yearlong sabbatical and then was expected to retire. It also said that provost Sandra Westbrooks would be the acting president.</p><p>But Watson stayed in his office this week and has maintained that he is still the president. Watson’s attorney said he viewed the sabbatical as equivalent to a vacation, not an end to his presidency. Watson’s contract goes until 2014.</p><p>The sabbatical arrangement, which Watson requested, was intended to allow him to exit without drama after the trustees decided they wanted new leadership. He was to be paid his $250,000 salary during the sabbatical, during which time he said he planned to care for his elderly father and conduct research on effective leadership at minority-serving institutions.</p><p>The board called the meeting to order shortly after 8 a.m. this morning and then recessed into a closed executive session to discuss what was described on the published agenda as employment matters, legal matters and approval of legal and consultant services. It is then expected to reconvene in an open session.</p><p>Before the meeting began, Chicago leaders well known in the African-American community crowded into the library waiting area, including former Sen. Emil Jones and Jonathan Jackson from Rainbow Push Coalition.</p><br /><p class="body">Jones, who walked the room with Watson, said: “He should be president, no question about that, because of his interest in the education of the students who go here.”</p><br /><p>The mood among the crowd was pleasant despite the differences in opinion on how the university should be lead.</p><p>"We're on the good side," said Victor P. Henderson, Watson's attorney.</p><p>Watson said: "I'm standing for the right thing."</p><p>Board Chairman Gary Rozier told the Tribune earlier this week that trustees had decided it was “time to look for new leadership.” They were disappointed with the decline in enrollment and the faculty’s no-confidence vote on Watson.</p><br /><p>Henderson has defended Watson’s tenure.</p><p>“I have not seen one iota of information which would justify changing the president’s status at the university,” Henderson said earlier this week.</p><p>Earlier this week, Watson sent a letter to trustees alleging that some board members are retaliating against him because he won’t accede to their pressures to hire and reward their friends.</p><p>In a four-page letter dated Feb. 26 and obtained by the Tribune, Watson told trustees that the “real motivation” behind the board’s efforts to replace him was his refusal “to capitulate to the incessant requests” from Rozier and Vice Chairman Z. Scott to “either hire, promote or give salary increases to their friends and associates.”</p><p>Langdon Neal, the board’s attorney, replied: “We are going to rise above this and deal with the matters that affect the students of the university and the university itself. We are not going to comment on the personal accusations.”</p><p>In the letter to trustees, Watson also wrote that there are now no financial improprieties at an institution that was plagued by fiscal mismanagement for years.</p><p>jscohen@tribune.com</p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-80439890291439521372013-02-28T07:21:00.001-08:002013-02-28T07:21:18.509-08:00Rodman tells Kim Jong Un he has 'friend for life'<br /><p class="first"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_8">SEOUL, South Korea</span> (AP) — Ex-NBA star <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_1">Dennis Rodman</span> met <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_3">North Korea</span>'s <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_2">Kim Jong Un</span> on Thursday on the third day of his improbable journey to <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_5">Pyongyang</span>, telling the leader "You have a friend for life," a delegation spokesman said.</p><br /><p>Rodman and Kim sat side by side at an exhibition game in Pyongyang, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and the U.S. play on mixed teams, <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_4">Alex Detrick</span>, a spokesman for the New York-based VICE media company, told The Associated Press.</p><br /><p>Kim, a diehard basketball fan, told Rodman he hoped the visit would break the ice between the United States and North Korea, Detrick said. Kim later invited the Americans to dinner.</p><br /><p>The encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet with the young <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_6">North Korean leader</span> since Kim took power in December 2011, and takes place against a backdrop of tension between Washington and Pyongyang.</p><br /><p>North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was aimed at sending a warning to the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362064513878_7">United States</span> to drop what it considers a "hostile" policy toward the North. The two countries fought each other during the Korean War, and do not have diplomatic relations.</p><br /><p>Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the professional Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, VICE correspondent Ryan Duffy and a VICE production crew to shoot a documentary for a new HBO TV series.</p><br /><p>The surprise visit by the flamboyant Hall of Famer known as "The Worm" makes him an unlikely ambassador at a time when North Koreans are girding for battle with the U.S. Just last week, Kim guided frontline troops in military exercises.</p><br /><p>The Korean War ended in a truce in 1953, and the two foes never signed a peace treaty.</p><br /><p>Thursday's game in a packed gymnasium ended in a 110-110 draw, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans, Detrick said.</p><br /><p>After the game, Rodman addressed Kim in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands of North Koreans, telling him, "You have a friend for life," Detrick said.</p><br /><p>The leader later plied the group with liquor, according to VICE TV producer Jason Mojica.</p><br /><p>"Um ... so Kim Jong Un just got the (hash)VICEonHBO crew wasted ... no really, that happened," Mojica wrote on his Twitter feed from Pyongyang.</p><br /><p>Duffy later invited Kim to visit the United States, a proposal met with hearty laughter from the North Korean leader, Detrick said.</p><br /><p>___</p><br /><p>Follow AP's Korea bureau chief Jean Lee at twitter.com/newsjean.</p><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-5872028443296612452013-02-28T07:18:00.001-08:002013-02-28T07:18:23.594-08:00‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night<br /><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><p class="first">“<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_1">Star Trek</span>” fans got quite a treat last night during the Academy Awards last night (Feb. 24).</p><br /><p>Actors who portray major characters from the film and television versions of the iconic science fiction series made cameo appearances during the three-hour-long ceremony celebrating the best movies of 2012.</p><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><br /><p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_2">William Shatner</span>, the actor that played <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_3">Starship Enterprise</span> captain <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_5">James T. Kirk</span> in original series helped open the awards show with host, Seth McFarlane.</p><br /><p>“I’ve come back in time from the 23rd century to stop you from destroying the Academy Awards,” joked Shatner to McFarlane.</p><br /><p>Actors <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_6">Chris Pine</span> and <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_4">Zoe Saldana</span> also had a part to play in the festivities. Pine, who plays Kirk in 2009′s “Star Trek” and its sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness “ being released later this year, and Saldana, who plays the Enterprise’s communications officer Uhura, recapped an earlier event they co-hosted on Feb. 10 called the “Sci-Tech Oscars.”</p><br /><p>The smaller ceremony is designed to showcase the technical achievements of designers and technicians on movie sets.</p><br /><p>The newest movie in the Star Trek franchise, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” is set to be released on May 17.</p><br /><p><em>Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter </em><em>@mirikramer </em><em>or SPACE.com </em><em>@Spacedotcom</em><em>. We’re also on</em> <em>Facebook</em><em> & </em><em>Google+</em><em>. </em></p><br /><p><span>Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</span><br />Space and Astronomy News Headlines – Yahoo! News</p><br /><div><br /><div itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Review-aggregate"><br /><div><br />Title Post: <span itemprop="itemreviewed"><strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong></span><br />Url Post: <strong>http://www.news.fluser.com/star-trek-beams-into-oscar-night/</strong><br />Link To Post : <strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong><br />Rating: <span itemprop="rating" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Rating"><br /><span itemprop="average">100%</span><br /></span><br />based on <span itemprop="votes">99998</span> ratings.<br /><span itemprop="count">5</span> user reviews.<br />Author: <b><span class="vcard author"><span class="fn">Fluser SeoLink</span></span></b><br />Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment</div><br /></div><br /></div><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-57340573321389641992013-02-28T07:14:00.001-08:002013-02-28T07:14:20.225-08:00Low-key departure as Pope Benedict steps down<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br/>VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict slips quietly from the world stage on Thursday after a private last goodbye to his cardinals and a short flight to a country palace to enter the final phase of his life "hidden from the world".<p>In keeping with his shy and modest ways, there will be no public ceremony to mark the first papal resignation in six centuries and no solemn declaration ending his nearly eight-year reign at the head of the world's largest church.</p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> His last public appearance will be a short greeting to residents and well-wishers at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence south of Rome, in the late afternoon after his 15-minute helicopter hop from the Vatican.<p>When the resignation becomes official at 8 p.m. Rome time (02.00 p.m. EST), Benedict will be relaxing inside the 17th century palace. Swiss Guards on duty at the main gate to indicate the pope's presence within will simply quit their posts and return to Rome to await their next pontiff.</p><p>Avoiding any special ceremony, Benedict used his weekly general audience on Wednesday to bid an emotional farewell to more than 150,000 people who packed St Peter's Square to cheer for him and wave signs of support.</p><p>With a slight smile, his often stern-looking face seemed content and relaxed as he acknowledged the loud applause from the crowd.</p><p>"Thank you, I am very moved," he said in Italian. His unusually personal remarks included an admission that "there were moments ... when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping".</p><p>CARDINALS PREPARE THE FUTURE</p><p>Once the chair of St Peter is vacant, cardinals who have assembled from around the world for Benedict's farewell will begin planning the closed-door conclave that will elect his successor.</p><p>One of the first questions facing these "princes of the Church" is when the 115 cardinal electors should enter the Sistine Chapel for the voting. They will hold a first meeting on Friday but a decision may not come until next week.</p><p>The Vatican seems to be aiming for an election by mid-March so the new pope can be installed in office before Palm Sunday on March 24 and lead the Holy Week services that culminate in Easter on the following Sunday.</p><p>In the meantime, the cardinals will hold daily consultations at the Vatican at which they discuss issues facing the Church, get to know each other better and size up potential candidates for the 2,000-year-old post of pope.</p><p>There are no official candidates, no open campaigning and no clear front runner for the job. Cardinals tipped as favorites by Vatican watchers include Brazil's Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet, Ghanaian Peter Turkson, Italy's Angelo Scola and Timothy Dolan of the United States.</p><p>BENEDICT'S PLANS</p><p>Benedict, a bookish man who did not seek the papacy and did not enjoy the global glare it brought, proved to be an energetic teacher of Catholic doctrine but a poor manager of the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that became mired in scandal during his reign.</p><p>He leaves his successor a top secret report on rivalries and scandals within the Curia, prompted by leaks of internal files last year that documented the problems hidden behind the Vatican's thick walls and the Church's traditional secrecy.</p><p>After about two months at Castel Gandolfo, Benedict plans to move into a refurbished convent in the Vatican Gardens, where he will live out his life in prayer and study, "hidden to the world", as he put it.</p><p>Having both a retired and a serving pope at the same time proved such a novelty that the Vatican took nearly two weeks to decide his title and form of clerical dress.</p><p>He will be known as the "pope emeritus," wear a simple white cassock rather than his white papal clothes and retire his famous red "shoes of the fisherman," a symbol of the blood of the early Christian martyrs, for more pedestrian brown ones.</p><p>(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; editing by Philip Pullella and Giles Elgood)</p>Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-80693260986582170472013-02-28T07:12:00.001-08:002013-02-28T07:12:22.947-08:00U.S. to give Syrian rebels medical, food aid, not arms<br /><p class="first">ROME (Reuters) - The <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_4">United States</span> will send non-lethal aid directly to Syrian rebels for the first time, Secretary of State <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_1">John Kerry</span> said on Thursday, disappointing opponents of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_3">President Bashar al-Assad</span> who are clamoring for Western weapons.</p><br /><p> But in a change of emphasis, the mainly Western and Arab "Friends of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_2">Syria</span>" group meeting in Rome "underlined the need to change the balance of power on the ground".</p><br /><p> A final communique said participants would "coordinate their efforts closely so as to best empower the Syrian people and support the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_9">Supreme Military Command</span> of the (rebel) <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_6">Free Syrian Army</span> in its efforts to help them exercise self-defense".</p><br /><p> More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed in a fierce conflict that began with peaceful anti-Assad protests nearly two years ago. Some 860,000 have fled abroad and several million are displaced within the country or need humanitarian assistance.</p><br /><p> Kerry, after the talks in Rome, said Washington would more than double its aid to the Syrian civilian opposition, giving it an extra $60 million to help provide food, sanitation and medical care to devastated communities.</p><br /><p> The United States would now "extend food and medical supplies to the opposition, including to the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_5">Syrian opposition</span>'s Supreme Military (Council)", Kerry said.</p><br /><p> In their communique, the "Friends of Syria" pledged more political and material support to the Syrian National Coalition, a fractious Cairo-based group that has struggled to gain traction inside Syria, especially among disparate rebel forces.</p><br /><p> Riad Seif, a coalition leader, said before the Rome meeting that the opposition would demand "qualitative military support".</p><br /><p> Another coalition official welcomed the result of the talks. "We move forward with a great deal of cautious optimism. We heard today a different kind of discourse," Yasser Tabbara said.</p><br /><p> But the continued U.S. refusal to send weapons may compound the frustration that prompted the coalition to say last week it would shun the Rome talks. It attended only under U.S. pressure.</p><br /><p> Many in the coalition say Western reluctance to arm rebels only plays into the hands of Islamist militants now widely seen as the most effective forces in the struggle to topple Assad.</p><br /><p> However, a European diplomat held out the possibility of Western military support, saying the coalition and its Western and Arab backers would meet in Istanbul next week to discuss military and humanitarian support to the insurgents.</p><br /><p> MEALS READY TO EAT</p><br /><p> Kerry's offer of medical aid and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), the U.S. army's basic ration, fell far short of rebel demands for sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to help turn the tables against Assad's mostly Russian-supplied forces.</p><br /><p> It also stopped short of providing other forms of non-lethal assistance such as bullet-proof vests, armored personnel vehicles and military training to the insurgents.</p><br /><p> Last week the European Union opened the way for direct aid to Syrian rebels, but did not lift an arms embargo on Syria.</p><br /><p> The Rome talks again signaled the lack of appetite among the United States and its allies for direct military intervention in <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_7">Syria</span>, after the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Iraq and the drawdown under way in Afghanistan.</p><br /><p> The communique called for an immediate halt to "unabated" arms supplies to Damascus by third countries, referring mostly to Assad's allies Russia and Iran.</p><br /><p> It also said Syria must immediately stop indiscriminate bombardment of populated areas, which it described as crimes against humanity. NATO officials say Assad's military has fired ballistic missiles within Syria, which the government denies.</p><br /><p> Human Rights Watch has reported that at least 171 civilians were killed in four Scud missile strikes last week.</p><br /><p> The "Friends of Syria" pledged "more political and material support to the coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to get more concrete assistance inside Syria", but gave no details on exactly what would be provided.</p><br /><p> Kerry said earlier this week he would not leave the Syrian opposition "dangling in the wind", unsure of getting support.</p><br /><p> But the White House continues to resist providing weaponry to the rebel forces, arguing there is no way to guarantee the arms might not fall into the hands of Islamist militants who might eventually use them against Western or Israeli targets.</p><br /><p> "HUGE DEBATE"</p><br /><p> U.S. officials have said that the U.S. Defense and State departments, under former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, privately recommended that the White House arm the rebels, but were overruled.</p><br /><p> "It's a huge debate inside the administration between those that have to deal with Syria on an everyday basis, the State Department and DoD (Defense) particularly, and the White House, which ... until now has vetoed any kind of outreach to the armed groups," said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think-tank.</p><br /><p> The United States says it has already provided more than $50 million in non-lethal assistance such as communications gear and governance training to Syria's civilian opposition.</p><br /><p> A source in the Syrian coalition, however, said even the extra $60 million promised by Washington was a pittance compared to what he said was the $40 million a day in <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1362060127927_8">humanitarian aid</span> needed for Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons.</p><br /><p> The United States has provided some $365 million in humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon and for internally displaced people, channeling this money through non-governmental organizations.</p><br /><p> More than 40,000 people a week are fleeing Syria and the total number of refugees will likely pass 1 million in less than a month, far sooner than the United Nations had forecast, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Wednesday.</p><br /><p> U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said his agency had registered 936,000 Syrians across the Middle East and North Africa, nearly 30 times as many as in April last year.</p><br /><p> "We expected to have 1.1 million Syrian refugees by June. If things continue to accelerate like this, it will take less than a month to reach that number," he told the 15-member council.</p><br /><p> (Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)</p><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-75894233862599317272013-02-27T07:23:00.001-08:002013-02-27T07:23:10.806-08:00Wall Street inches up after dataMADRID, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Lionel Messi has rarely been accused of failing to deliver in big games, having scored in two European Cup finals, but after subdued performances against AC Milan and Real Madrid, questions are being asked. The four-times World Player of the Year and leading scorer in one of the greatest club teams of all time, was a shadow of his usual self at the San Siro in a Champions League last-16 first leg last week, when Barcelona slumped to a 2-0 defeat. ...Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-82972948269147986102013-02-27T07:21:00.001-08:002013-02-27T07:21:09.160-08:00Minnesota takes down No. 1 Indiana 77-73<br /><p class="first">MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Retaining that No. 1 national ranking has been elusive throughout this wild season in college basketball, and <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_2">Indiana</span> was the latest to lose at the top — again.</p><br /><p>Most important and maybe more challenging for the Hoosiers, however, is holding on to first place in the tough-as-ever <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_7">Big Ten</span>.</p><br /><p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_1">Trevor Mbakwe</span> had 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting and 12 rebounds to help <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_3">Minnesota</span> take down top-ranked Indiana 77-73 on Tuesday night, the seventh time the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll has lost this season. Three of those losses were by the Hoosiers, who were No. 1 when they fell to Butler and Wisconsin earlier this season. All three opponents were unranked at the time.</p><br /><p>Indiana (24-4, 12-3) has held the No. 1 ranking for 10 of the 17 polls by the AP this season, including the last four, and that will likely change next week. But fending off <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_8">Michigan</span>, Michigan State and Wisconsin is what's on the minds of the Hoosiers, who'll take a one-game lead in the conference race into Saturday's game against Iowa.</p><br /><p>"Winning the Big Ten was going to be tough whether we won today or lost," said star guard <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_6">Victor Oladipo</span>, who had 16 points. "We knew it was going to be tough from the jump. Now it's even tougher. But I think my team is ready for it. We just have to go back and see what we did wrong and correct it."</p><br /><p>Andre Hollins added 16 points for the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_4">Gophers</span> (19-9, 7-8), who outrebounded <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361954108614_5">Cody Zeller</span> and the Hoosiers by a whopping 44-30 and solidified their slipping NCAA tournament hopes with an emphatic performance against the conference leader. The fired-up fans swarmed the court as the last seconds ticked off, the first time that's happened here since a 2002 win over Indiana.</p><br /><p>"There were just too many times when that first shot went up and they were there before we were because we didn't get into their bodies," Hoosiers coach Tom Crean said. "We weren't physical enough on the glass. That's the bottom line."</p><br /><p>Zeller, the second-leading shooter in the Big Ten, went 2 for 9. He had nine points with four turnovers. Minnesota had 40 points in the paint to Indiana's 22.</p><br /><p>Mbakwe, a sixth-year senior, had a lot to do with that. While positing his conference-leading seventh double-double of the season, the 24-year-old Mbakwe was a man among boys in many ways in this game, dominating both ends of the court when the Gophers needed him most. He grabbed six of Minnesota's 23 offensive rebounds, two of them to keep a key possession alive. His off-balance put-back drew contact for a three-point play with 7:22 left that gave the Gophers a 55-52 lead.</p><br /><p>Mbakwe was called for a loudly questioned blocking foul, his fourth, with 4:39 remaining on Zeller's fast-break layup and free throw that put the Hoosiers up 59-58. But Austin Hollins answered with a pump-fake layup that drew a foul for a three-point play and a two-point advantage for the Gophers.</p><br /><p>The Hoosiers didn't lead again, and Joe Coleman's fast-break dunk with 2:35 left gave Minnesota a 68-61 cushion that helped it withstand a couple of 3-pointers by Christian Watford and one by Jordan Hulls in the closing minutes. That was the only basket Hulls made after halftime. He had 17 points.</p><br /><p>"Just the way we bounced back is unbelievable. We showed that we can beat one of the best teams in the country. Now we have to build off this," said Mbakwe, whose team lost eight of its previous 11 games starting with an 88-81 loss at Indiana on Jan. 12. The Gophers were ranked eighth then. They didn't even receive a vote in the current poll. That could change next week.</p><br /><p>The Hoosiers are still in position for their first outright Big Ten regular-season championship since 1993. With another home game against Ohio State on March 5, Indiana could still clinch the title before the finale at Michigan on March 10.</p><br /><p>For now, though, the Hoosiers have to regroup and re-establish their inside game after the trampling in the post they endured here.</p><br /><p>"They were relentless on the glass. We just didn't do a great job of boxing them out," Oladipo said.</p><br /><p>___</p><br /><p>Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP</p><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-80421187936628057582013-02-27T07:18:00.001-08:002013-02-27T07:18:13.014-08:00‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night<br /><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><p class="first">“<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_1">Star Trek</span>” fans got quite a treat last night during the Academy Awards last night (Feb. 24).</p><br /><p>Actors who portray major characters from the film and television versions of the iconic science fiction series made cameo appearances during the three-hour-long ceremony celebrating the best movies of 2012.</p><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><br /><p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_2">William Shatner</span>, the actor that played <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_3">Starship Enterprise</span> captain <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_5">James T. Kirk</span> in original series helped open the awards show with host, Seth McFarlane.</p><br /><p>“I’ve come back in time from the 23rd century to stop you from destroying the Academy Awards,” joked Shatner to McFarlane.</p><br /><p>Actors <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_6">Chris Pine</span> and <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_4">Zoe Saldana</span> also had a part to play in the festivities. Pine, who plays Kirk in 2009′s “Star Trek” and its sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness “ being released later this year, and Saldana, who plays the Enterprise’s communications officer Uhura, recapped an earlier event they co-hosted on Feb. 10 called the “Sci-Tech Oscars.”</p><br /><p>The smaller ceremony is designed to showcase the technical achievements of designers and technicians on movie sets.</p><br /><p>The newest movie in the Star Trek franchise, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” is set to be released on May 17.</p><br /><p><em>Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter </em><em>@mirikramer </em><em>or SPACE.com </em><em>@Spacedotcom</em><em>. We’re also on</em> <em>Facebook</em><em> & </em><em>Google+</em><em>. </em></p><br /><p><span>Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</span><br />Space and Astronomy News Headlines – Yahoo! News</p><br /><div><br /><div itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Review-aggregate"><br /><div><br />Title Post: <span itemprop="itemreviewed"><strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong></span><br />Url Post: <strong>http://www.news.fluser.com/star-trek-beams-into-oscar-night/</strong><br />Link To Post : <strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong><br />Rating: <span itemprop="rating" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Rating"><br /><span itemprop="average">100%</span><br /></span><br />based on <span itemprop="votes">99998</span> ratings.<br /><span itemprop="count">5</span> user reviews.<br />Author: <b><span class="vcard author"><span class="fn">Fluser SeoLink</span></span></b><br />Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment</div><br /></div><br /></div><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-52062451808453865602013-02-27T07:14:00.001-08:002013-02-27T07:14:11.666-08:00Kelly says win in Congressional primary a 'message' to the NRA<p>Robin Kelly has won the Democratic Primary in the race to replace Jesse Jackson Jr. in Illinois's 2nd Congressional District.<br /></p><div id="story-body-text" readability="131.072253728"><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p>Former state Rep. Robin Kelly easily won the special Democratic primary Tuesday night in the race to replace the disgraced Jesse Jackson Jr. in Congress, helped by millions of dollars in pro-gun control ads from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political fund.</p><br /><p>A snowstorm and lack of voter interest kept turnout low as Kelly had 52 percent to 25 percent for former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson and 11 percent for Chicago 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale with 99 percent of precincts counted.</p><br /><p>Kelly will formally take on the winner of the Republican primary in an April 9 special general election in the heavily Democratic district. In the GOP contest, less than 25 votes separated convicted felon Paul McKinley and businessman Eric Wallace.</p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p>Kelly framed her win as a victory for gun control forces.</p><br /><p>"You sent a message that was heard around our state and across the nation," Kelly told supporters in a Matteson hotel ballroom. "A message that tells the NRA that their days of holding our country hostage are coming to an end.</p><br /><p>"To every leader in the fight for gun control ready to work with President (Barack) Obama and Mayor (Rahm) Emanuel to stop this senseless violence, thank you for your leadership and thank you for your courage," she said.</p><br /><p>Halvorson told supporters to rally around Kelly as the Democratic nominee. But Halvorson also made it clear she believed her biggest opponent was the mayor of New York, whose anti-gun super political action committee spent more than $2.2 million attacking her previous support from the National Rifle Association while backing Kelly.</p><br /><p>"We all know how rough it was for me to have to run an election against someone who spent ($2.2) million against me," Halvorson said at Homewood restaurant. "Every 7½ minutes there was a commercial."</p><br /><p>Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC was the largest campaign interest in the race and dominated the Chicago broadcast TV airwaves compared to a marginal buy by one minor candidate.</p><br /><p>Beale also called Bloomberg's influence "the biggest disservice in this race."</p><br /><p>"If this is the future of the Democratic Party, then we are all in big trouble," Beale said.</p><br /><p>Bloomberg, an Emanuel ally in the fight for tougher gun restrictions, called Kelly's win "an important victory for common sense leadership on gun violence" as well as sign that voters "are demanding change" in a Congress that has refused to enact tougher gun restrictions, fearing the influence of the NRA.</p><br /><p>But as much as Bloomberg sought to portray the Kelly win as a victory over the influential NRA, the national organization stayed out of the contest completely while the state rifle association sent out one late mailer for Halvorson.</p><br /><p>Be it the TV ads or a late consolidation toward Kelly in the campaign, the former Matteson lawmaker made an impressive showing with Democratic voters in suburban Cook County, where the bulk of the district's vote was located, as well as on the South Side.</p><br /><p>Despite the size of the field, Kelly got more than half of the votes cast in the two most populated areas of the district. Halvorson won by large percentages over Kelly in Kankakee County and the district's portion of Will County, but those two areas have very few votes.</p><br /><p>The special primary election, by its nature, already had been expected to be a low-turnout affair — an expedited contest with little time for contenders to raise money or mount a traditional campaign.</p><br /><p>Adding to the lack of interest was the fact that there were no other contests on the ballot in Chicago and most of the suburban Cook County portion of the district. Few contests were being held in Kankakee County and the portion of Will County within the 2nd District.</p><br /><p>Turnout was reported to be around 15 percent in the city and suburban Cook. More than 98 percent of the primary votes cast in Chicago were Democratic, as were 97 percent of those cast in suburban Cook.</p><br /><p>On the Republican side, the unofficial vote leader was McKinley, 54, who was arrested 11 times from 2003 to 2007, mostly for protesting, with almost all of the charges dropped. In the 1970s and '80s, McKinley was convicted of six felony counts, serving nearly 20 years in prison for burglaries, armed robberies and aggravated battery. He previously declined to discuss the circumstances of those crimes but has dubbed himself the "ex-offender preventing the next offender" in his campaign.</p><br /><p>Records show McKinley also owes $14,147 in federal taxes, which might explain his answer at a forum when asked if he would cut any federal programs. "Certainly," he said. "The IRS."</p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </div>Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-6139462262579875602013-02-27T07:12:00.001-08:002013-02-27T07:12:08.639-08:00Iran upbeat on nuclear talks, West wary<br /><p class="first">ALMATY (Reuters) - <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_1">Iran</span> gave an upbeat assessment of two days of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_8">nuclear talks</span> with <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_7">world powers</span> that ended on Wednesday, but <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_3">Western officials</span> said <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_9">Tehran</span> must start taking concrete steps to ease mounting concerns about its atomic activity.</p><br /><p> The first negotiations between <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_2">Iran</span> and six world powers in eight months ended without a breakthrough in <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_6">Almaty</span>, but they agreed to meet again at expert level in Istanbul next month and resume political discussions in the Kazakh city on April 5.</p><br /><p> Israel, assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, is watching the talks closely. It has strongly hinted it might attack Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop it from acquiring <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_4">nuclear weapons</span>. Iran denies any such aim.</p><br /><p> Iran's foreign minister said he was optimistic an agreement could be reached with the powers - the United States, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and China - on the country's disputed nuclear program.</p><br /><p> "Very confident," Ali Akbar Salehi told Reuters when asked on the sidelines of a U.N. conference in Vienna how confident he was of a positive outcome.</p><br /><p> The six powers offered at the February 26-27 Almaty meeting to lift some sanctions if Iran scaled back nuclear activity that the West fears could be used to build a bomb.</p><br /><p> Tehran, which says its program is entirely peaceful, did not agree to do so and the sides did not appear any closer to a deal to resolve a decade-old dispute that could lead to another war in the Middle East if diplomacy fails.</p><br /><p> But Iran still said the talks were a positive step in which the six powers tried to "get closer to our viewpoint".</p><br /><p> Western officials had made clear they did not expect major progress in Almaty, aware that the closeness of Iran's presidential election in June is raising political tensions in Tehran and makes significant concessions unlikely.</p><br /><p> "I hope the Iranian side is looking positively on the proposal we put forward," said European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who led the talks on behalf of the powers. "We have to see what happens next."</p><br /><p> The United States did not expect a breakthrough and "the result was clearly in line with those expectations," a senior U.S. official said.</p><br /><p> The meeting was "useful" as the two sides agreed dates and venues for follow-up talks but there was a need for progress on confidence building measures, the official added.</p><br /><p> UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR SITE</p><br /><p> The West's immediate priority is that Iran halts higher-grade uranium enrichment and closes an underground facility, Fordow, where this work is carried out. The material is a relatively short technical step from bomb-grade uranium.</p><br /><p> "What we care about at the end is concrete results," the U.S. official said.</p><br /><p> One diplomat in Almaty said the Iranians appeared to be suggesting at the negotiations that they were opening new avenues, but that it was not clear if this was really the case.</p><br /><p> Both sides said experts would meet for talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on March 18 and that political negotiators would return to Almaty on April 5-6.</p><br /><p> Russian negotiator Sergei Ryabkov confirmed that the powers had offered to ease sanctions on Iran if it stops enriching uranium to 20 percent fissile purity - a short technical step from weapons grade - at the Fordow underground site where it carries out its most controversial uranium enrichment work.</p><br /><p> Western officials said the offer of sanctions relief included a resumption of trade in gold and precious metals.</p><br /><p> One diplomat said that lifting an embargo on imports of Iranian petrochemical products to Europe, if Iran responded, was also on the table. But a U.S. official said the world powers had not offered to suspend oil or financial sanctions.</p><br /><p> The sanctions are hurting Iran's economy and its chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, suggested Iran could discuss its production of higher-grade nuclear fuel, although he appeared to rule out shutting Fordow.</p><br /><p> In comments in Persian translated into English, Jalili told a news conference Fordow was under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog and there was no justification for closing it.</p><br /><p> MOOD "MORE OPTIMISTIC"</p><br /><p> Asked about the production of 20-percent enriched fuel, he reiterated Iran's position that it needed this for a research reactor and had a right to produce it.</p><br /><p> Iran says its enrichment program is aimed solely at fuelling <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361969346597_5">nuclear power plants</span> so that it can export more oil, and that Israel's assumed nuclear arsenal is the main threat to peace in the region.</p><br /><p> But Jalili did indicate that Iran might be prepared to talk about the issue, saying: "This can be discussed in the negotiations ... in view of confidence building."</p><br /><p> Iran has also previously suggested that 20-percent enrichment was up for negotiation if it received the fuel from abroad instead. It also wants sanctions lifted.</p><br /><p> "While an agreement to meet again may not impress skeptics of diplomacy, an important development did occur," said Trita Parsi, an expert on Iran. "The parties began searching for a solution by offering positive measures in order to secure concessions from the other side.</p><br /><p> Another expert, Dina Esfandiary of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: "I note that the mood is more optimistic and that's great, but a deal still hasn't been reached and in my view its unlikely to be reached before the Iranian elections have come and gone."</p><br /><p> (Additional reporting Fredrik Dahl in Almaaty, Georgina Prodhan in Vienna, Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich, Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Marcus George in Dubai; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Jon Hemming)</p><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-39058959236985139722013-02-26T07:23:00.001-08:002013-02-26T07:23:10.275-08:00Bernanke, data lift Wall Street to session highsDEAR ABBY: "Harold" and I have been married for more than 20 years and have three children ranging in age from teen to toddler. We are both college graduates and held middle-management jobs until recently.Two years ago, Harold was offered a temporary job in an exotic location in another country. We jumped at the chance. I can't work due to the regulations here, but the money is good.Now that I'm not working, Harold suddenly believes he has the right to tell me what to do, how to manage daily activities, how to care for the children, etc. ...Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-74488550972627854152013-02-26T07:21:00.001-08:002013-02-26T07:21:08.227-08:00AP source: Tom Brady gets 3-year extension<br /><p class="first"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_1">Tom Brady</span> will be a Patriot until he is 40 years old.</p><br /><p>Brady agreed to a three-year contract extension with <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_4">New England</span> on Monday, a person familiar with the contract told The Associated Press. <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_7">The extension</span> is worth about $27 million and will free up nearly $15 million in salary cap room for the team, which has several younger players it needs to re-sign or negotiate new deals with.</p><br /><p>The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the extension has not been announced.</p><br /><p>Sports Illustrated first reported the extension.</p><br /><p>The 35-year-old two-time league MVP was signed through 2014, and has said he wants to play at least five more years.</p><br /><p>A three-time Super Bowl champion, Brady will make far less in those three seasons than the going rate for star quarterbacks. Brady currently has a four-year, $72 million deal with $48 million guaranteed.</p><br /><p>Drew Brees and <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_6">Peyton Manning</span> are the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_2">NFL</span>'s highest-paid quarterbacks, at an average of $20 million and $18 million a year, respectively.</p><br /><p>Brady has made it clear he wants to finish his career with the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_3">Patriots</span>, whom he led to <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_8">Super Bowl</span> wins for the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons, and losses in the big game after the 2007 and 2011 seasons. By taking less money in the extension and redoing his current contract, he's hopeful New England can surround him with the parts to win more titles.</p><br /><p>Among the Patriots' free agents are top receiver Wes Welker and his backup, Julian Edelman; right tackle Sebastian Vollmer; cornerback Aqib Talib; and running back Danny Woodhead.</p><br /><p>Brady has been the most successful quarterback of his era, of course, as well as one of the NFL's best leaders. His skill at running the no-huddle offense is unsurpassed, and he's easily adapted to the different offensive schemes New England has concentrated on through his 13 pro seasons.</p><br /><p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361833566141_5">The Patriots</span> have gone from run-oriented in Brady's early days to a deep passing team with Randy Moss to an offense dominated by throws to tight ends, running backs and slot receivers.</p><br /><p>Brady holds the NFL record for touchdown passes in a season with 50 in 2007, when the Patriots went 18-0 before losing the Super Bowl to the Giants. He has thrown for at least 28 touchdowns seven times and led the league three times.</p><br /><p>Last season, Brady had 34 TD passes and eight interceptions as the Patriots went 12-4, leading the league with 557 points, 76 more than runner-up Denver.</p><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-2769031724484578012013-02-26T07:18:00.001-08:002013-02-26T07:18:12.449-08:00‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night<br /><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><p class="first">“<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_1">Star Trek</span>” fans got quite a treat last night during the Academy Awards last night (Feb. 24).</p><br /><p>Actors who portray major characters from the film and television versions of the iconic science fiction series made cameo appearances during the three-hour-long ceremony celebrating the best movies of 2012.</p><div class="home-content-ad"><br /><div class="ad-code"><br /><br /></div></div><br /><br /><p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_2">William Shatner</span>, the actor that played <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_3">Starship Enterprise</span> captain <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_5">James T. Kirk</span> in original series helped open the awards show with host, Seth McFarlane.</p><br /><p>“I’ve come back in time from the 23rd century to stop you from destroying the Academy Awards,” joked Shatner to McFarlane.</p><br /><p>Actors <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_6">Chris Pine</span> and <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361827447006_4">Zoe Saldana</span> also had a part to play in the festivities. Pine, who plays Kirk in 2009′s “Star Trek” and its sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness “ being released later this year, and Saldana, who plays the Enterprise’s communications officer Uhura, recapped an earlier event they co-hosted on Feb. 10 called the “Sci-Tech Oscars.”</p><br /><p>The smaller ceremony is designed to showcase the technical achievements of designers and technicians on movie sets.</p><br /><p>The newest movie in the Star Trek franchise, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” is set to be released on May 17.</p><br /><p><em>Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter </em><em>@mirikramer </em><em>or SPACE.com </em><em>@Spacedotcom</em><em>. We’re also on</em> <em>Facebook</em><em> & </em><em>Google+</em><em>. </em></p><br /><p><span>Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</span><br />Space and Astronomy News Headlines – Yahoo! News</p><br /><div><br /><div itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Review-aggregate"><br /><div><br />Title Post: <span itemprop="itemreviewed"><strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong></span><br />Url Post: <strong>http://www.news.fluser.com/star-trek-beams-into-oscar-night/</strong><br />Link To Post : <strong>‘Star Trek’ Beams Into Oscar Night</strong><br />Rating: <span itemprop="rating" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Rating"><br /><span itemprop="average">100%</span><br /></span><br />based on <span itemprop="votes">99998</span> ratings.<br /><span itemprop="count">5</span> user reviews.<br />Author: <b><span class="vcard author"><span class="fn">Fluser SeoLink</span></span></b><br />Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment</div><br /></div><br /></div><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-73067702430269510242013-02-26T07:16:00.001-08:002013-02-26T07:16:10.159-08:00Vatican 'Gay lobby'? Probably not<br /><!--startclickprintexclude--><br /><br /><br /><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr"><br /><p><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</strong></p><br /><ul class="cnn_bulletbin cnnStryHghLght"><!--google_ad_section_start--><li>Benedict XVI not stepping down under pressure from 'gay lobby,' Allen says</li><br /><li>Allen: Benedict is a man who prefers the life of the mind to the nuts and bolts of government </li><br /><li>However, he says, much of the pope's time has been spent putting out fires</li><br /><!--google_ad_section_end--><br /></ul></div></div><br /><!--endclickprintexclude--><!--google_ad_section_start--><!--startclickprintinclude--><br /><p class="cnnEditorialNote"><em><strong>Editor's note:</strong> John L. Allen Jr. is CNN's senior Vatican analyst and senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.</em></p><br /><p><strong>(CNN)</strong> -- Suffice it to say that of all possible storylines to emerge, heading into the election of a new pope, sensational charges of a shadowy "gay lobby" (possibly linked to blackmail), whose occult influence may have been behind the resignation of Benedict XVI, would be right at the bottom of the Vatican's wish list.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph2">Proof of the Vatican's irritation came with a blistering statement Saturday complaining of "unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories," even suggesting the media is trying to influence the papal election.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph3">Two basic questions have to be asked about all this. First, is there really a secret dossier about a network of people inside the Vatican who are linked by their sexual orientation, as Italian newspaper reports have alleged? Second, is this really why Benedict XVI quit?</p><br /><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr cnn_strylccimg214"><br /><img src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120528080343-john-l-allen-jr-left-tease.jpg" alt="John L. Allen Jr." border="0" class="box-image" height="122" width="214"/><p>John L. Allen Jr.</p><br /></div></div><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph4">The best answers, respectively, are "maybe" and "probably not."</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph5">It's a matter of record that at the peak of last year's massive Vatican leaks crisis, Benedict XVI created a commission of three cardinals to investigate the leaks. They submitted an eyes-only report to the pope in mid-December, which has not been made public.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph6">It's impossible to confirm whether that report looked into the possibility that people protecting secrets about their sex lives were involved with the leaks, but frankly, it would be surprising if it didn't.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph7">There are certainly compelling reasons to consider the hypothesis. In 2007, a Vatican official was caught by an Italian TV network on hidden camera arranging a date through a gay-oriented chat room, and then taking the young man back to his Vatican apartment. In 2010, a papal ceremonial officer was caught on a wiretap arranging liaisons through a Nigerian member of a Vatican choir. Both episodes played out in full public view, and gave the Vatican a black eye.</p><br /><br /><div id="expand18" class="cnnGalleryContainer cnn_strylftcntnt"><br /><div class="cnnStoryElementBox"><br /><div id="expandableTarget18" class="cnnArticleExpandableTarget"><br /><br /><br /><div class="cnnArticleGalleryCaptionControl"><br /><p>Pope Benedict XVI</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p>HIDE CAPTION</p><br /><br /></div><br /><div><br /><p><span><<</span></p><br /><p><span><</span></p><br /><div class="articleGalleryNavContainer"><br /><p><br /><br /><span>1</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>2</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>3</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>4</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>5</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>6</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>7</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>8</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>9</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>10</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>11</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>12</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>13</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>14</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>15</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>16</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>17</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>18</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>19</span><br /></p><br /><p><br /><br /><span>20</span><br /></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><p><span>></span></p><br /><p><span>>></span></p><br /><br /></div><br /></div><br /><br /></div><br /></div><br /><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph8">In that context, it would be a little odd if the cardinals didn't at least consider the possibility that insiders leading a double life might be vulnerable to pressure to betray the pope's confidence. That would apply not just to sex, but also potential conflicts of other sorts too, such as financial interests.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph9">Vatican officials have said Benedict may authorize giving the report to the 116 cardinals who will elect his successor, so they can factor it into their deliberations. The most immediate fallout is that the affair is likely to strengthen the conviction among many cardinals that the next pope has to lead a serious house-cleaning inside the Vatican's bureaucracy.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph10">It seems a stretch, however, to suggest this is the real reason Benedict is leaving. For the most part, one should probably take the pope at his word, that old age and fatigue are the motives for his decision.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph11">That said, it's hard not to suspect that the meltdowns and controversies that have dogged Benedict XVI for the last eight years are in the background of why he's so tired. In 2009, at the height of another frenzy surrounding the lifting of the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying traditionalist bishop, Benedict dispatched a plaintive letter to the bishops of the world, voicing hurt for the way he'd been attacked and apologizing for the Vatican's mishandling of the situation.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph12">Even if Benedict didn't resign because of any specific crisis, including this latest one, such anguish must have taken its toll. Benedict is a teaching pope, a man who prefers the life of the mind to the nuts and bolts of government, yet an enormous share of his time and energy has been consumed trying to put out internal fires.</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph13">It's hard to know why Benedict XVI is stepping off the stage, but I doubt it is because of a "gay lobby."</p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph14"><i>Follow us on </i><i>Twitter @CNNOpinion.</i><i> </i></p><br /><p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph15"><i>Join us on </i><i>Facebook/CNNOpinion.</i></p><br /><p class="cnn_strycbftrtxt">The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John L. Allen Jr. </p><br /><!--endclickprintinclude--><!--google_ad_section_end--><br /><!--no partner--><br /><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-17670740981279692282013-02-26T07:14:00.001-08:002013-02-26T07:14:09.675-08:00Porch collapses on 2 firefighters battling extra-alarm blaze<br /> <br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p class="small">Two firefighters were hurt in an extra-alarm fire on the South Side early this morning</p><br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <span class="toolSet" readability="-23"><br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="byline" readability="9"><br /> <br /> <br /> <span class="byline bordered">By Adam Sege</span><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <span class="titleline">Tribune reporter</span><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p class="date"><span class="timeString">8:38 a.m. CST</span><span class="dateTimeSeparator">, </span><span class="dateString">February 26, 2013</span></p><br /> <br /> <br /> </div><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </span><br /> <br /> <br /> <div id="story-body-text" readability="63.2906403941"><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p>Two firefighters were hurt when a porch collapsed at an extra-alarm fire in Gresham on the South Side this morning, sending them through the floor into the basement, officials said.</p><p>The collapse trapped both firefighters and officials called a mayday as firefighters scrambled to free them. They were finally able to reach the two by breaking through a side window, and the injured firefighters were taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital.</p><p>The firefighters, both veterans of the department, suffered relatively minor injuries but the situation "could have been a lot worse," said Deputy Fire Commissioner John McNicholas.</p><p>"Had we had fire in that basement, things could have been a different story here," he said.</p><br /><p>The firefighters were brought to safety within minutes, according to Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.</p><br /><p>"Whenever you've got a mayday, you've got a tense situation," he said. “They went in right away and got them."</p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p>By 8:15 a.m., one firefighter had been released from the hospital. The other was expected to be released shortly, according to Langford.</p><br /><p>The 2-11 alarm fire broke out about 3:40 a.m. in vacant home in the 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue, spreading to a house next door. A family of five was living in the second home but escaped uninjured.</p><br /><p>The cause of the fire was under investigation.<em><strong/></em></p><br /><p><em>Tribune photographer John J. Kim contributed.</em></p><br /><p><em><strong>asege@tribune.com</strong></em></p><br /><p><em><strong>Twitter: @AdamSege</strong></em></p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </div><br /> Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-90265333339642881362013-02-26T07:12:00.001-08:002013-02-26T07:12:12.661-08:00Italy faces post-vote stalemate, spooking investors<br /><p class="first">ROME (Reuters) - The Italian stock market fell and state borrowing costs rose on Tuesday as investors took fright at political deadlock after a stunning election that saw a comedian's protest party lead the poll and no group secure a clear majority in parliament.</p><br /><p> "The winner is: Ingovernability" ran the headline in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, reflecting the stalemate the country would have to confront in the next few weeks as sworn enemies would be forced to work together to form a government.</p><br /><p> In a sign of where that might lead, former prime minister <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_1">Silvio Berlusconi</span> indicated his center-right might be open to a grand coalition with the center-left bloc of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_6">Pier Luigi Bersani</span>, which will have a majority in the lower house thanks to a premium of seats given to the largest bloc in the chamber.</p><br /><p> Results in the upper house, the Senate, where seats are awarded on a region-by-region basis, indicated the center-left would end up with about 119 seats, compared with 117 for the center-right. But 158 are needed for a majority to govern.</p><br /><p> Any coalition administration that may be formed must have a working majority in both houses in order to pass legislation.</p><br /><p> Comedian <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_7">Beppe Grillo</span>'s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement won the most votes of any single party, taking 25 percent. He shows no immediate inclination to cooperate with other groups.</p><br /><p> Despite talk of a new election, the main established parties seem likely to try to avoid that, fearing even more humiliation.</p><br /><p> World financial markets reacted nervously to the prospect of a stalemate in the euro zone's third largest economy with memories still fresh of the crisis that took the 17-member currency bloc to the brink of collapse in 2011.</p><br /><p> In a clear sign of worry at the top over what effect the elections could have on the economy, Prime Minister <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_3">Mario Monti</span>, whose austerity policies were repudiated by voters, called a meeting with the governor of the central bank, the economy minister and the European affairs minister for later on Tuesday.</p><br /><p> Other governments in the euro zone sounded uneasy. Allies of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_5">German Chancellor Angela Merkel</span> made no secret of disappointment at Monti's debacle and urged Rome to continue with economic reforms Berlin sees as vital to stabilizing the common currency.</p><br /><p> France's Socialist finance minister also expressed "worry" at the prospect of legislative deadlock in <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_2">Italy</span> but said that Italians had rejected austerity and hoped Bersani's center-left could form a stable government to help foster growth in Europe.</p><br /><p> INSTABILITY</p><br /><p> Fabio Fois, an economist at Barclays bank, said: "Political instability is likely to prevail in the near term and slow the implementation of much needed structural reforms unless a grand coalition among center-left, center-right and center is formed."</p><br /><p> Berlusconi, a media magnate whose campaigning all but wiped out Bersani's once commanding opinion poll lead, hinted in a telephone call to a morning television show that he would be open to a deal with the center-left - but not with Monti, the technocrat summoned to replace him in a crisis 15 months ago.</p><br /><p> "<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_4">Italy</span> must be governed," Berlusconi said, adding that he "must reflect" on a possible deal with the center-left. "Everyone must be prepared to make sacrifices," he said of the groups which now have a share of the legislature.</p><br /><p> The Milan bourse was down more than four percent and the premium Italy pays over Germany to borrow on 10-year widened to a yield spread of 338.7 basis points, the highest since December 10.</p><br /><p> At an auction of six-month Treasury bills, the government's borrowing costs shot up by more than two thirds. Investors demanded a yield of 1.237 percent, the highest since October and compared to just 0.730 percent in a similar sale a month ago.</p><br /><p> Berlusconi, who was forced from office in November 2011 as borrowing costs approached levels investors feared would become unsustainable, said he was "not worried" about market reaction to the election and played down the significance of the spread.</p><br /><p> The poor showing by Monti's centrist bloc reflected a weariness with austerity that was exploited by both Berlusconi and Grillo; only with the help of center-left allies did Bersani beat 5-Star, by just 125,000 votes, to control the lower house.</p><br /><p> The worries immediately went beyond Italy's borders.</p><br /><p> "What is crucial now is that a stable functioning government can be built as swiftly as possible," said <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361888117980_8">German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle</span>. "This is not only in the interests of Italy but in the interests of all Europe."</p><br /><p> The euro skidded to an almost seven-week low against the dollar in Asia on fears about the euro zone's debt crisis. It fell as far as $1.3042, its lowest since January 10.</p><br /><p> "NON-PARTY" SURGES TO THE TOP</p><br /><p> Commentators said all Grillo's adversaries underestimated the appeal of a grassroots movement that called itself a "non-party", particularly its allure among young Italians who find themselves without jobs and the prospect of a decent future.</p><br /><p> The 5-star Movement's score of 25.5 percent in the lower house was just ahead of the 25.4 percent for Bersani's Democratic Party, which ran in a coalition with the leftist SEL party, and it won almost 8.7 million votes overall - more than any other single party.</p><br /><p> "The 'non-party' has become the largest party in the country," said Massimo Giannini, commentator for Rome newspaper La Repubblica, of Grillo, who mixes fierce attacks on corruption with policies ranging from clean energy to free Internet.</p><br /><p> Grillo's surge in the final weeks of the campaign threw the race open, with hundreds of thousands turning up at his rallies to hear him lay into targets ranging from corrupt politicians and bankers to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</p><br /><p> In just three years, his 5-Star Movement, heavily backed by a frustrated generation of young Italians increasingly shut out from permanent full-time jobs, has grown from a marginal group to one of the most talked about political forces in Europe.</p><br /><p> RECESSION</p><br /><p> "It's a classic result. Typically Italian," said Roberta Federica, a 36-year-old office worker in Rome. "It means the country is not united. It is an expression of a country that does not work. I knew this would happen."</p><br /><p> Italy's borrowing costs have come down in recent months, helped by the promise of European Central Bank support but the election result confirmed fears of many European countries that it would not produce a government strong enough to implement effective reforms.</p><br /><p> A long recession and growing disillusionment with mainstream parties fed a bitter public mood that saw more than half of Italian voters back parties that rejected the austerity policies pursued by Monti with the backing of Italy's European partners.</p><br /><p> Monti suffered a major setback. His centrist grouping won only 10.6 percent and two of his key centrist allies, Pier Ferdinando Casini and lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini, both of parliamentarians for decades, were booted out.</p><br /><p> "It's not that surprising if you consider how much people were let down by politics in its traditional forms," Monti said.</p><br /><p> Berlusconi's campaign, mixing sweeping tax cut pledges with relentless attacks on Monti and Merkel, echoed many of the themes pushed by Grillo and underlined the increasingly angry mood of the Italian electorate.</p><br /><p> Even if the next government turns away from the tax hikes and spending cuts brought in by Monti, it will struggle to revive an economy that has scarcely grown in two decades.</p><br /><p> Monti was widely credited with tightening Italy's public finances and restoring its international credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, who is currently on trial for having sex with an under-age prostitute.</p><br /><p> But Monti struggled to pass the kind of structural reforms needed to improve competitiveness and lay the foundations for a return to economic growth, and a weak center-left government may not find it any easier.</p><br /><p> (Additional reporting by Barry Moody, Gavin Jones, Catherine Hornby, Lisa Jucca, Steven Jewkes, Steve Scherer and Naomi O'Leary; Writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)</p><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894111901670786540.post-43364276278022888492013-02-25T07:23:00.001-08:002013-02-25T07:23:24.431-08:00Wall Street rallies on growth optimism<p class="first">NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Monday, suggesting the equity rally was intact as investors grew more confident that the global economy would continue to grow.</p><br /><p> Stocks have been strong performers so far this year, with the S&P 500 jumping 6.2 percent in 2013 to hover around its highest levels since 2007. That has prompted many to call for a pullback, though recently any dip has been used as a buying opportunity.</p><br /><p> While the S&P fell last week, the decline was a slight 0.3 percent and was the first weekly drop after a seven-week string of gains.</p><br /><p> "The major trend is that indexes will keep moving higher, a reflection that the economy continues to grow at a moderate pace," said <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361804887204_1">Bernard Baumohl</span>, managing director at the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361804887204_2">Economic Outlook Group</span> in Princeton, New Jersey.</p><br /><p> The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 45.78 points, or 0.33 percent, at 14,046.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 6.90 points, or 0.46 percent, at 1,522.50. The <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361804887204_4">Nasdaq Composite Index</span> <.ixic> was up 16.87 points, or 0.53 percent, at 3,178.69.</.ixic></.spx></.dji></p><br /><p> Equities will face a test with the looming debate over sequestration, massive U.S. government budget cuts that will take effect on Friday if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement over spending and taxes. <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361804887204_5">The White House</span> issued warnings about the harm the cuts are likely to inflict on the economy if enacted.</p><br /><p> Early results from Italy's general election cheered markets there after the pro-reform, center-left Democratic Party was leading <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361804887204_3">Silvio Berlusconi</span>'s conservative bloc. [ID:nL6N0BPFBQ] Investors worried if the elections went the wrong way, efforts to handle Italy's debt problems would be undermined.</p><br /><p> "Odds are that there will be a coalition government that will let the austerity measures stay in place, allowing yields to come down and avoiding what would have been a headwind for U.S. markets," said Baumohl.</p><br /><p> European shares <.fteu3> rose 0.4 percent while Italy's main FTSE MIB <.ftmib> soared 3.5 percent.</.ftmib></.fteu3></p><br /><p> The Nasdaq was lifted by a rallies at SanDisk Corp <sndk.o>, which jumped 2.7 percent to $50.81, and Amgen Inc , up 3.8 percent to $90.16.</sndk.o></p><br /><p> Barnes & Noble Inc <bks.n> climbed 7.8 percent to $14.56 after the Wall Street Journal reported that Chairman Leonard Riggio was considering a bid for the company's bookstore business.</bks.n></p><br /><p> Lowe's Cos Inc <low.n> reported earnings that beat expectations, helped by rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Sandy in the United States. After climbing in premarket, shares dipped 0.7 percent to $37.42.</low.n></p><br /><p> With 83 percent of the S&P 500 having reported results, 69 percent of beat profit expectations, compared with a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p><br /><p> Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 6 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.</p><br /><p> Dynavax Technologies Inc <dvax.o> shares plunged 34 percent to $1.96 after the Food and Drug Administration denied approval for the company's adult hepatitis B vaccine and sought additional data for evaluate its safety.</dvax.o></p><br /><p> (Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)</p><br /><br />Pasukan News Sebelashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244922633027862920noreply@blogger.com