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By Associated Press with msnbc.com staff
Two people were killed Saturday after their small plane crashed in west Georgia, authorities said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the Cessna 177 went down Saturday around 1:40 p.m. west of Tallapoosa near the Alabama state line. The crash happened close to Georgia Highway 78.
Bergen said three people were aboard the plane. Two people were killed and a third person suffered serious injuries.
Authorities did not immediately release the names of the victims.
The plane, manufactured in 1972, had been registered in Lynn Haven, Fla., The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The circumstances of the crash were not immediately clear.
Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/26/9039680-2-die-in-west-georgia-plane-crash
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The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY - Thousands of self-proclaimed "undead" have gathered in the historic center of Mexico's capital for a "Zombie Walk" that organizers hope sets a world record.
The announced 9,860 registered participants are dressed in rags and ghoulish makeup to look bloody and decaying.
Organizer Pablo Guisa says the fifth annual Mexico City event is meant to celebrate diversity and human rights. The participants also collected donations for a local food bank.
Cities around the world hold zombie walks, and Guinness World Records currently recognizes Asbury Park, New Jersey, as the record holder, with 4,093 participants on Oct. 30, 2010.
A group in Brisbane, Australia, has applied for the record, claiming it massed 8,000 "zombies" last month.
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A man dressed as a zombie gestures during the V edition of the so-called 'Zombie Walk' in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. According to the organization 'Zombie Walk Mexico', the event gathered over 9,800 participants, breaking the previous record set in Asbury Park, in New Jersey in 2010 with 4,093 participants. Guinness World Records have not officially confirmed if Mexico holds the new record. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? They are barely blips in presidential polls and their campaign cash is scarce. Some are running on empty, fueled mainly by the exposure that comes with the blizzard of televised debates in this election cycle and interviews they eagerly grant to skeptical reporters.
Yet the second-tier candidates for the Republican presidential nomination soldier on. They argue that the race is far from over and that anything can happen with polls showing a wide-open race in Iowa five weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum is typical when he resists the conventional wisdom that only candidates with a lot of cash and a big campaign can win.
"I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and I feel like I'm making a difference in the race," said Santorum, who barely registers in state surveys despite having campaigned in Iowa for more than a year. "I absolutely believe our time will come and we'll have the opportunity to have the spotlight turned on us."
Santorum, who represented Pennsylvania in Congress for 16 years, frankly acknowledges the possibility of a different outcome.
"If it doesn't, you know, it doesn't," he said.
Even more than energy and determination, also-ran candidates rely on particular issues, free media and prospects for the future to drive them to keep their small-scale operations going.
With polls and money putting candidates like Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain atop the field of Republican rivals, there's a crop of others likely to remain in the race until voters have their say. One force in that dynamic is the fluidity of this year's contest.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman, was among the many candidates who surged when they got into the race but then plummeted in the polls. She's gotten feistier as her fortunes have sagged.
"I guarantee you, with everything within my being, I have the backbone," Bachmann said. "I'll put my backbone up against any other candidate in the race."
That includes Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is adamant that he's not giving up, even as his campaign flails and his once-flush bank account suffers following a series of debate missteps that has some of his fundraisers questioning his viability. He, like Bachmann, Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, are barely blips in many surveys.
Although they don't seem to be catching fire, it turns out that the nomination itself is not the only prize to be had by seeking a presidential nomination.
Rep. Ron Paul's hard-core libertarian views energize a small but loyal base. Santorum uses his platform to hammer his hard-core anti-abortion stance. Bachmann just released a book whose sales could see a boost in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses.
And history shows that future leadership posts ? and presidential runs ? can be in the offing.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa waged a long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination in 1992, getting forced out after the early primaries. He endorsed candidate Bill Clinton, kept his seat in the Senate and became an influential voice in the Clinton White House.
Romney lost his first presidential bid in 2008 but used that experience to build a network of political and financial supporters serving him well in this election cycle.
There are other reasons too to press ahead when chances of victory seem slim, not the least of which is how quickly politics can change.
Just ask Gingrich. The former House speaker was a footnote in the race this summer after his campaign imploded. Now, as Iowa voters give him a second look, he's enjoying a rise in state and national polls. And he reports that money and manpower are now flowing his way.
It's not unusual for second-tier candidates to stick around long after they have fallen out of favor with voters and donors alike. The structure of the race in Iowa and other early voting states like New Hampshire and South Carolina is designed to make it possible for them to keep going because the states are relatively cheap places to campaign and they value hand-to-hand campaigning over pricy TV ads.
"In Iowa, you can sleep on people's couches and hang on for a long time with very little money," Republican strategist Rich Galen said. "You can live off the land in Iowa. You can't do that in Florida."
The nature of the politics of the first three states to vote also encourages longshot candidates because the contests are dominated in both parties by hard-core activists more interested in political purity than poll numbers.
Steve Scheffler, who heads the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, notes that very few people in Iowa have made firm decisions on whom to support, meaning the race could be anyone's to win.
"There's enough fluidness in the race and enough people out there who are not entrenched in stone," Scheffler said. "The verdict is still out there."
Thus, so too are the second-tier candidates.
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LONDON?? Author J.K. Rowling told the U.K. phone-hacking hearing that she felt under siege from intrusive journalists who staked out her house and went as far as to slip a letter into her 5-year-old daughter's school bag.
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The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter said Thursday that children "deserve privacy," The Guardian newspaper reported in its live blog of events.
Rowling said media interest began shortly after the publication of her first novel in 1997, and soon escalated, with photographers and reporters frequently stationed outside her home.
Once, her daughter came home from primary school and Rowling found a letter from a journalist in her backpack. Rowling said she felt a huge sense of invasion at the move.
"In the first burst of publicity surrounding [Harry Potter]. I unzipped her school bag in the evening, among the debris I found an envelope addressed to me from a journalist," she said, according to The Guardian's report.
"It's my recollection that the journalist said he intended to ask a mother at the school to put this my daughter's bag. I know no more than that, I don't know if that is how the journalist [put it in the bag]," she added.
'Angry'
"I felt such a sense of invasion that my daughter's bag ...??it's very difficult to say how angry I felt that my five-year-old daughter's school was no longer a place of complete security from journalists," Rowling said.
She also told how she had chased a photographer a week after she had given birth, The Guardian reported.
Video: Hugh Grant testifies in phone hacking inquiry (on this page)Rowling? said she had been "besieged for a week" in her house, but had thought the photographers had left. She went outside with her daughter, but then saw a paparazzi photographer with a long lens.
"How I thought I was going to outrun a 20-something paparazzi ... my daughter was saying 'Calm down, mum, calm down, it doesn't matter,' but it mattered enormously to me," Rowling said, according to The Guardian's reported.
"The cumulative effect [of the media attention] becomes quite draining," she added.
Rowling said she thought children should not be targeted by the media.
"They deserve privacy. They have no choice who their parents are how their parents behave.... Where children are concerned the issue is fairly black and white," she said.
She also told about how two journalists from a Scottish tabloid, who were outside her house, had told her they were there because it was a "boring day at the office."
"My family and I were literally under surveillance for their amusement," she said. "There's a twist in the stomach as you wonder what do they want, what have they got? It feels incredibly threatening to have people watching you."
The inquiry into media ethics and practices is being held following the phone-hacking scandal in the U.K.
No Nazi theme at orgy
Earlier, the tribunal heard first from former Formula One motorsport boss Max Mosley, who has campaigned for a privacy law since his interest in sadomasochistic sex was exposed in a tabloid.
In 2008, Mosley won ?60,000 ($93,000) in damages from the News of the World over a story in which the paper published photos of him at a sadomasochistic orgy. The paper said incorrectly that the orgy had a Nazi theme and a judge decided the article had infringed Mosley's privacy.
Mosley, a son of Sir Oswald Mosley, former leader of the British Union of Fascists, said Thursday at the hearing that he had "never" sought publicity, BBC News reported.
Story: Phone-hacking scandal: James Murdoch insists he didn't mislead British lawmakers"I first learnt of it (the article) about 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning," Mosley added, according to the BBC.
The Nazi allegations "were completely untrue and enormously damaging," he said. The journalist responsible for the story "simply invented the entire article," Mosley said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45427605/ns/world_news-europe/
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NEW YORK ? A New York City man charged with making bombs and plotting to attack police stations and post offices won't be back in court until next month.
Jose Pimentel had been scheduled to learn Friday whether he'd been indicted, but the court date has been pushed back to Dec. 5. The postponement came as a new lawyer, Lori Cohen, was appointed for him.
Authorities say Pimentel was recorded building a pipe bomb and told a confidential informant his targets included government buildings.
He was represented initially by the Legal Aid Society. Then it emerged that Legal Aid had a conflict of interest because it represented the informant in an unrelated case.
A Legal Aid lawyer also had said Pimentel wanted another attorney. His previous lawyer has said Pimentel wasn't a true threat.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Lawyers for Michael Jackson's doctor have asked that he receive probation for his involuntary manslaughter conviction, while prosecutors have urged a sentence of four years in prison.
In a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday in advance of sentencing Tuesday, prosecutor David Walgren said Dr. Conrad Murray has shown no remorse for Jackson's death and has placed blame on others.
He asked that Murray also be ordered to pay restitution to Jackson's children.
Defense attorney Nareg Gourjian, citing letters of praise from Murray's former patients, said the doctor is serving a lifetime sentence of self-punishment and asked for probation and community service in the medical field.
The two recommendations were filed with Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor. Murray was convicted Nov. 7 after a six-week trial.
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Ron Paul got more speaking time Tuesday night than he has at most of the other debates, and he used it to point out even more differences that set him far apart from his rivals and the Republican mainstream.
Turned to repeatedly by moderator Wolf Blitzer, Paul detailed his disagreements on renewing the Patriot Act, attacking Iran, supporting Israel and giving foreign aid. Those answers aren?t surprising ? he?s said most of the lines he delivered Tuesday many times before ? but with Paul?s core of support likely to keep him in the debates for months to come, they were a reminder of just how much of a thorn he has the potential to be in the side of the eventual nominee.
Continue ReadingPaul started the evening taking on former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who?d argued about the importance of preserving the Patriot Act to more effectively fight terrorism.
?I think the Patriot Act is unpatriotic because it undermines our liberty,? Paul responded. ?Today it seems too easy that our government and our congresses are so willing to give up our liberties for our security.?
As the other candidates sided with Gingrich, Paul became visibly agitated, waiting for his opportunity to respond.
?You can prevent crimes by becoming a police state,? Paul aid. ?So if you advocate the police state, yes, you can have safety and security and you might prevent a crime, but the crime then will be against the American people and against our freedoms.?
Even Mitt Romney got drawn in to the Paul orbit. Though Romney?s avoided much direct confrontation with this rivals, on Tuesday he challenged Paul on his position that foreign bases are provoking the nation?s enemies. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani used this as a tactic in the 2008 primaries, pitting himself against Paul to enhance the impression of his foreign policy strength.
On border security, Paul took issue with fellow Texas Rick Perry recommending ending the ?war on drugs? to curtail violence created by Mexican drug cartels.
?That?s another war we ought to cancel,? Paul said. ?And that?s where the violence is coming from.?
Paul made his usual comments about ending all foreign wars, which he?s kept firing hard on, even in a field comprised of several hawks who advocated hardline responses to Iran and Pakistan.
?I am convinced that needless and unnecessary wars are a great detriment,? Paul said. ?They undermine our prosperity and our liberties.?
The rest of the Republican field has positioned itself as strong supporters of Israel, but Paul said he?d be against helping if the country decided to go to war with Iran to halt nuclear proliferation.
?No, I wouldn?t do that,? Paul said when asked, prompting laughter from the audience.
Paul argued that it?s unlikely Israel would even opt to attack Iran.
?And if it did ? you?re supposing that if it did, why does Israel need our help?? he said. ?We need to get out of their way.?
While the other Republicans bemoaned possible cuts in defense spending, Paul argued the reductions aren?t as deep as others were making them out.
?There?s nothing cut against the military,? he said. ?And the people on the Hill are nearly hysterical because they?re not going ? the budget isn?t going up as rapidly as they want it to.?
And with the topics and questions continuously coming back to Paul, Rick Santorum ? who?s repeatedly locked horns with the congressman ?instead tried to insert himself into the discussion with a joke.
?I agree with Ron Paul,? Santorum said, pausing to the let the audience respond to how he?d framed his answer about how ?war on terrorism? was a misnomer.
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Hello, what do we have here? A new facial recognition mobile app? Sure looks like it. The company is called Faced.me, and its upcoming app aims to recognize faces and then connect those faces to users' social networking profiles, allowing you to friend and follow the people you see. The company emerged from November's Startup Weekend in Brazil, but hasn't yet launched publicly.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wb-KDxwyhEI/
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COMMENTARY | Newt Gingrich's words at Harvard's Kennedy School reads like something perhaps akin to a silver-lined redevelopment of Sinclair Lewis' The Jungle, but those words came from the lips of the current Republican frontrunner for the GOP nomination for president. Extolling the value of learning a good work ethic at a young age, Gingrich stated that unionization and bureaucratization slanted "against children" were at the core of younger people not learning to work at a younger age, and that such restraints were also hurting the public education system. In fact, as was reported by Politico, Gingrich said that the income equality gap was fostered more by liberal protectionist policies than anything else, that child labor laws were "stupid," and that the public school system should replace union janitors with poor schoolchildren so that they could begin "the process of rising."
"It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid," Gingrich told the Harvard gathering. The former Speaker of the House also noted that all the "really successful in one generation" had " their first job between nine and 14 years of age." He also pointed out that liberal policies toward unions kept the poorest in a cycle of attending failing public schools.
"You say to somebody, you shouldn't go to work before you're what, 14, 16 years of age, fine. You're totally poor. You're in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I've tried for years to have a very simple model," the former Speaker said. "Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they'd begin the process of rising."
Since the GOP has a tradition of not funding public education and has been the party behind not funding No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration revamping of the education system into a quasi-meritocratic system of performance-based funding, it should be apparent that many of the reasons poor schoolchildren in poor neighborhoods go to poor and failing educational institutions is partially due to lack of funding for better facilities and the hiring of better, more qualified teachers. Giving a couple of schoolchildren a job after school cleaning the halls will not start the "the process of rising," as Gingrich so euphemistically states.
What such a policy would do is bust unions, which is undoubtedly Gingrich's true focus, forcing down the standard of living by both eliminating the higher paid jobs of unionized janitors and replacing them with non-union, lesser paid schoolchildren. Another thing Gingrich's education system fix would do is ensure that the income inequality gap broadens, not decreases. Such a policy would also do damage to child protective labor laws put in place to ensure that children (remember: Gingrich suggests that to be a success, one should begin working at the ages of 9-14) are not placed at a disadvantage or forced into slave labor conditions by unscrupulous employers. Relaxing child labor laws in order for schoolchildren to be janitors also provides the slippery slope for children to be allowed to work in other industries, which would ultimately affect the health, well-being, and development of children on a national level -- and not all in a "successful" manner.
And how does this plan of replacing union janitors with young school kids in any way help turn around failing schools? Through pride in mopping floors and cleaning up other people's trash? Because the school kid janitor has a little money in his pocket from cleaning windows and emptying trash cans? And what about on an expanded national level? How exactly does a nine-year-old with a job alter the public school system in a positive manner simply on pride in his own work ethic? How does that same nine-year-old do anything other than become exploited along with his millions of co-workers throughout a nation where they are engaged in this "process of rising" vision foreseen by Gingrich?
Gingrich does not enter into his argument that many successful people -- apparently ones that he does not talk to -- were also not employed before they reached 16 years of age. Nor did the former Speaker mention that many of those that began work at such early ages were forced to by impoverishment and/or familial necessity and conditions forced upon them by a social system ill-equipped to handle economic hardship. Some got jobs -- as do many still, something else Gingrich does not mention -- because of voluntary initiative (car washes, newspaper routes, lawn work, etc.). Unfortunately, many also did so at the expense of their education. What Gingrich suggests is trading union jobs and workers who are of the age of providing for dependents for cheap child labor that will do absolutely nothing to decrease the income inequality gap, raise the standard of living for the poorest neighborhoods or the educational standard in failing schools, or provide better opportunities for "the process of rising."
No, what Gingrich's plan does is provide cheap labor at the expense of the poor and the "stupid" legal protections of America's child labor laws. It does something else as well: busting unions, altering the labor laws, and allowing school kids to clean their own schools helps provide all the non-janitorial schoolchildren targets for their wisecracks, insinuations, and bullying. Because every person that has ever been to school has had the utmost respect for the janitors that clean up after them, so imagine the disdain for the child janitors...
A few months ago, the presidential hopeful said he worried that his grandchildren would have to live in a secular atheist America ruled by Muslims. But the former Georgia representative has a way out of that contradictory and statistically ludicrous future for his grandchildren -- a union-free America where the work ethic is instilled at an early age in a public education system unfettered by liberal protections and run on pride alone (because no Republican seems to be willing to pass up government spending cuts on education while at the same time providing for measures sponsoring charter schools). But, then, Newt Gingrich's grandchildren -- and his great-grandchildren -- do not have to worry about either future, considering that they would never see the inside of an educational institution that was not a charter school or a private facility, an opportunity afforded by that income inequality gap that grandfather Newt sits at the upper end of and has struggled to -- and continues to promote -- with his "process of rising" ideations of a better America.
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BOSTON ? The Boston Red Sox said they were looking for a different voice in the clubhouse when they let Terry Francona walk after the worst September collapse in major league history. Enter Bobby Valentine.
Known for his confrontational style that rubbed some of his players the wrong way and for feuding with his bosses with the New York Mets, his last big league managing gig, Valentine formally interviewed for the Boston job on Monday when he met with general manager Ben Cherington and other members of the Red Sox brain trust.
"They have one of the best teams in baseball, one of the best organizations in baseball, one of the greatest venues in baseball, with a winning tradition over the last 10 years," he said. "Other than that there's really no reason why I want to be here."
The Red Sox had originally interviewed Gene Lamont, Torey Lovullo, Dale Sveum, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Pete Mackanin. Sveum has been hired to manage the Chicago Cubs by former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein; Mackanin had been told he was no longer in the running, and Alomar got the same news on Monday.
Working against Alomar wasn't a lack of managerial experience as much as the fact that none of his coaching experience had been in a dugout. He had worked as a bullpen catcher with the Mets and first base coach with the Cleveland Indians.
"We just felt like that is an important step for him," Cherington said. "I told him how highly I think of him and I think he's going to be a really good big league manager one day, but he wasn't going to be the choice for us in 2012."
Although Cherington had maintained that he did not expect to expand the field, he met with Valentine in Hartford earlier this month, just before the former Mets and Rangers skipper appeared on a panel with Red Sox president Larry Lucchino. Valentine has also met with Red Sox ownership, Cherington said; Lamont is scheduled to meet with the owners this week.
"This was always going to be a choice that I'm going to make with ownership," said Cherington, who was promoted when Epstein left for the Cubs. "We've known since the start of this that this was too important a decision to rush."
The Red Sox led the AL East for much of the summer, but they went 7-20 in September to blow a nine-game lead in the AL wild-card race and finish one game behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Out went Francona, who was known as a players' manager, a move that was followed by reports that pitchers were drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse during games instead of cheering their teammates on from the bench.
Asked for his philosophy of discipline, Valentine said he learned from his time in Japan that players appreciate having rules that are enforced because it helps them stay in line.
"Discipline is not 30 whacks with a whip these days," Valentine said. "But I think everyone likes discipline. I think everyone likes structure. Everyone likes to be acknowledged when they do things properly. Discipline and rules and things like that ? it's just about right and wrong."
The 61-year-old Valentine is the most experienced candidate to interview so far.
He managed the Texas Rangers (1985-92) and New York Mets (1996-02), finishing up his two major league stints 45 games above .500, and also managed in Japan from 2004-09, winning the Japan Series in '05 with the Chiba Lotte Marines.
But some of that was experience he would prefer to forget.
With the Mets, he was embroiled in a public personality clash with general manager Steve Phillips that played out almost daily with dueling pregame press gaggles. He was fired after finishing fifth in 2002 ? the first time he failed to top .500 in six full seasons in New York, and just two years after making his only appearance in the World Series.
"I hope I'll change for the better, because I never won a world championship," he said. "I've had bad experiences that I hope I've learned from, and I've had good experiences that I hope I learned from."
Cherington said Valentine, who has been working as an analyst for ESPN, needed to show that he had changed.
"He's had really good experiences. He's been to the top," Cherington said. "And he's had other experiences that haven't gone as well. But no one who's managed in the big leagues ... has had all good experiences. That's how the game works.
"Tito (Francona) hadn't had all good experiences before he got to Boston. He worked out really well," Cherington said.
Valentine said he talked to two of his mentors, New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello and longtime Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.
"They'd disown me if I didn't give this my best shot," Valentine said.
And, if he gets the job: "I would feel like it is Christmas."
"It's really kind of cool that I'm sitting here," he said.
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All Critics (114) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (103) | Rotten (11)
It's a lovely, heartfelt character study of common, everyday people trapped on the horns of an uncommon but not unheard-of dilemma.
The latest exhibit in Payne's careful dissection of the beached male, which runs from Matthew Broderick's character in "Election" to Jack Nicholson's in "About Schmidt" and Paul Giamatti's in "Sideways."
This mature, well-acted dramatic comedy is deeply satisfying, maybe even cathartic.
A tough, tender, observant, exquisitely nuanced portrait of mixed emotions at their most confounding and profound -- all at play within a deliciously damp, un-touristy Hawaii that's at once lush and lovely to look at.
A splendid comedy-drama about a father coping with his comatose wife and difficult daughters represents high points for George Clooney and Alexander Payne.
Payne has always tended to look at society from the perspective of a curious, puzzled alien, but now the alien has grown moist-eyed and affectionate.
A family drama whose distinction comes primarily from its nuances and subtleties.
Director and co-writer Alexander Payne again shows the most acute and perceptive understanding of the American psyche of any current director.
Flawless in the still manner it approaches crippling encounters with grief and disgust, dryly expressing the necessary unraveling of a distracted man. The Descendents is simply terrific, profound yet understated.
Payne has a particular skill for making movie stars seem like normal people, and the resolute normalcy of the cast helps to show Hawaii not as a resort paradise, but as a place like any other where people live, work, love, and die.
Even as Payne's weakest film, The Descendants is still worth seeing
I understand Clooney is playing a detached father and husband, but there's no explanation why a financially well-off man basically without a job has no clue about his wife and children.
Clooney will most definitely be getting an Oscar nod for his touching, open and honest work.
"The Descendants" has all the qualities of a special story. And it should be on the short list of Oscar's favorites.
The Descendants has a jaunty, energetic air about it. It's just the thing to lure you into the heart of a family tragedy.
Its pace is as leisurely as a day in its Hawaiian setting, which makes the lovely parts lovelier but its angsty moments even more torturous and uncomfortable.
It has been over seven years since Payne's last film, "Sideways," was released and the man has not lost his touch.
More Critic ReviewsSource: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_descendants_2011/
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Last year, the movie "The Runaways" was released starring Kristen Stewart of "Twilight" fame as singer Joan Jett. The band formed in 1975, with Ford on lead guitar. She was 16 at the time.
"I would love it [if a THE RUNAWAYS reunion were to happen]. I can't answer that question, but I would love it," she said. "We were ahead of our time. Now, people are realizing we were ahead of our time. We inspired so many different artists, and not just girls."
"The Runaways" was directed by Floria Sigismondi, who is best known for directing music videos by such artists as DAVID BOWIE, MARILYN MANSON, and SHERYL CROW.
Regarding her upcoming album, Lita told the Naperville Sun, "The songs are great. I'm so happy with them. It's some of the best stuff I?ve ever written. That's what good songs are made of, real-life stories."
Although the new material comes from a sad place personally, she thinks people will be able to relate to them.
"A lot of people will be able to relate in many different ways. If you lose a job or a boyfriend or a loved one, of if you're just having a bad day," she said. "There are songs about hurtful things, and songs about how to overcome those hurtful things. Musically, everything is just as rocking. . . It's a very inspiring album for a lot of people. I'm looking forward to people hearing it. It's an empowering album and it really comes from the heart."
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blabbermouth/~3/V1h13EqeVj8/news.aspx
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Regis Philbin couldn't leave without a joke.
Signing off from morning television after more than 28 years, he brought to a close his final hour hosting "Live! With Regis and Kelly" by telling viewers, "I'll always remember spending these mornings with all of you."
Then, as the studio audience's ovation subsided after the program's fade-out, he voiced a kidding postscript to that crowd in attendance.
"I just thought of something I SHOULD have said," he quipped, "I really want to stay!"
No such luck.
Philbin, who at 80 years old has logged more than 16,000 hours on television in a career that dates back to the 1950s, was making good on his decision to leave the daily TV grind, an announcement he delivered on his show last January.
And Friday's tribute ? concluding weeks of Philbin farewell mania ? was good for instant TV history, both on- and off-the-air.
The show had opened with cameras following Philbin's walk from his dressing room to the stage, knocking on Kelly Ripa's door along the way.
"I love you," she said softly as they stepped before the cameras.
Then Philbin barked out the question his fans have been asking for months.
"Where's Regis going?" he erupted with a shrug. "Regis don't know. Stop asking me!"
During the hour, past guests such as Justin Timberlake and Anne Hathaway offered brief filmed tributes.
The show was otherwise devoted to emotion-filled clip sequences of high jinks with Ripa, and such stars as Dana Carvey and Ben Affleck demonstrating their Regis impersonations.
Philbin's parting gifts included a key and a plaque. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg paid a visit to thank Philbin for making the city a big part of his show, and presented him with a symbolic key. Walt Disney Co. chief executive Bob Iger showed a plaque honoring Philbin that's newly installed on the outside of ABC's Manhattan facility from which the show originates.
But the morning's festivities had started an hour before the 9 a.m. EST airtime with a coffee-and-pastries reception for the studio audience. This was a hand-picked ? and seating-chart-arranged ? group of family, friends, past and present colleagues, and celebrities including Diane Sawyer, Bryant Gumbel, Donald Trump, Meredith Vieira, Tony Danza, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Ripa's co-host predecessor, Kathie Lee Gifford.
"The world adores Regis," said Judge Judy Sheindlin, "but his friends adore him even more ? enough to get up early in the morning, put on some makeup, come out and give him a cheer. Because, he's just a special, sweet man."
A decade ago, Philbin gained prime-time fame as the quizmaster of ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." But his enduring impact has been as a morning show host, and a raconteur adept at weaving something from nothing in the so-called "host chat," turning stories about a night on the town or his frustration with a household product into compelling TV.
Alan Alda described Philbin as "unique in all of broadcasting. He invented a form: going on the air and just telling stories about the day before, for 20 minutes."
"He has such an ease in front of the camera," said "30 Rock" star Jane Krakowski, an occasional guest host. "He's such an everyman. He makes us feel like he's one of us."
And Katie Couric hailed him as "completely upfront. You never get the sense that he's editing himself. And on television, where people are so manufactured and packaged, you rarely see that kind of thing."
Philbin's unsurpassed quantity of airtime was celebrated by the 14-member troupe from the off-Broadway musical "Rent," which sang a version of the show-stopper "Seasons of Love" tailored to Philbin's endurance: "995,600 minutes! How do you measure a career? How about love!"
Unseen by viewers during commercial breaks, Philbin schmoozed with the studio audience and occasionally cracked wise about the on-air ceremony, which clearly left him as uncomfortable as he was touched.
"Gelman's getting carried away," he said at one point, meaning longtime executive producer Michael Gelman. "He thinks he's Scorsese! He's NOT!"
And although Philbin had publicly sworn he wouldn't shed tears at his farewell, members of the studio audience were privy to displays of emotion by him that were unseen at home.
Watching one pre-taped piece where viewers held hand-lettered signs that said "Regis," he finally drew a finger across his throat in mock-desperation as if to signal "Kill it, please," then glanced heavenward as his eyes welled.
Ripa was much more demonstrative on camera, fighting tears as she recounted how terrified she was on her first day as Philbin's partner, and how he put her at ease.
As they entered the studio that day in 2001, "the audience leapt to their feet, and they were cheering and screaming," she recalled for him, "and you said, 'You see that, sweetie? That's all for you.'
"Your light is what shined around all of us," she told him, "and made us look so bright, for so long."
The show will continue with Ripa. Similar to when she was chosen to replace Gifford, a succession of co-hosts will join her, some in contention for the permanent job.
Meanwhile, Philbin has been careful to say he's not retiring. His immediate plans include a tour to promote his new book, "How I Got This Way."
"I'm so happy for Regis because he's happy," his wife, Joy Philbin, said after the show, at a champagne gathering in an adjacent studio. "He knew it was time and he wanted to do this."
And with the emotion-wracked hour done, Gelman, who will continue running things in Philbin's absence, said, "I'm relieved," and added with satisfaction, "Regis is happy.
"He doesn't like being honored," Gelman explained with a laugh. "So now he's happy, 'cause he's not being honored anymore."
___
AP Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://dadt.com/live/
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DARWIN, Australia ? Aiming to knit Asian allies ever closer as China's might rises, President Barack Obama is completing a nine-day Asia-Pacific trip with a visit to his boyhood home of Indonesia, where he'll become the first U.S. president to take part in a summit of East Asian nations.
Security issues and the U.S. vision for an increasingly robust American role in Asia are expected to be central themes for Obama's participation in the East Asia Summit in Bali, where the president was due to arrive Thursday night after traveling from Australia. But concerns over China may shadow the president's meetings Friday and Saturday with leaders of smaller Asian nations increasingly alarmed over China's claims to maritime passage and rich oil reserves in the South China Sea.
Obama will also get a chance to meet on the summit sidelines with leaders such as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with whom the president has an especially close personal relationship, as the U.S. looks to bulk up regional alliances and encourage big roles for friends.
For Obama, the visit will mark a homecoming to the country where he lived for four years as a boy after his mother married an Indonesian man and moved them to Jakarta. Obama visited Jakarta last year and spent time during that visit reflecting on his personal ties to Indonesia, something he probably won't have as much time for on this trip. But Obama's background as a Hawaii native partly raised in Indonesia has shown throughout his trip, which began with an economic summit in Honolulu and ends when he departs Bali on Saturday.
While in Bali, Obama will be aiming to expand commercial ties and export opportunities with fast-growing Asia, looking for ways to underscore the connection between his foreign travels and U.S. jobs with an election year approaching. Nuclear nonproliferation, disaster relief and maritime security also are U.S. priorities.
But behind it all, China looms large.
The centerpiece of Obama's visit to Australia was announcement of a new military agreement that will allow more U.S. military aircraft and a rotating presence of U.S. Marines into Australia, a move largely seen as a hedge against China, which immediately objected.
In Bali, Obama will encounter more allies eager for U.S. support as China and its smaller neighbors argue over the South China Sea, an area that is critical to U.S. interests as well.
He arrives after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this week signed a declaration with her counterpart from the Philippines calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes such as those over the South China Sea. Six countries in the region have competing claims, but China wants them to negotiate one-to-one ? and chafes at any U.S. involvement.
Clinton said the U.S., during the East Asia Summit, "will certainly expect and participate in very open and frank discussions," including on the maritime challenges in the region. Beijing said Tuesday it opposes bringing up the issue at the summit.
It's not clear how much will be said publicly about the dispute, but U.S. officials are quick to note the importance of the South China Sea, where $1.2 trillion in U.S. trade moves annually, according to Adm. Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific Command. Briefing reporters traveling with Obama this week, Willard called it "a vital interest to the region, a national interest to the United States, an area that carries an immense amount of commerce, and an area in which we must maintain maritime security and peace and not see disruptions as a consequence of contested areas."
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MEXICO CITY ? President Felipe Calderon named the chief of Mexico's intelligence agency on Thursday to be the new interior secretary, the country's top domestic security post.
Calderon picked Harvard-educated Alejandro Poire, the president's former security spokesman and current head of the national security agency, to replace Francisco Blake Mora, who died in a Nov. 11 helicopter crash on the outskirts of Mexico City.
Calderon said he chose Poire because of his deep knowledge of security issues and politics.
Poire will oversee the offensive against drug cartels as well as Mexico's national elections July 1. Calderon said Poire's job will be to ensure the elections are held "in a climate of peace, respect and complete legality."
The interior secretary in Mexico also acts as the president's chief negotiator with Congress and the political parties. Calderon said he will be pushing reforms for Mexico's legal framework and security laws, including proposals to formalize the role of the Mexican military in law enforcement tasks.
Poire pledged to listen to all opinions.
"I will strive to serve this administration and my country by working through dialogue, always recognizing and valuing different opinions, and seeking in this way to make progress on agreements and reforms, to contribute to harmony in our country," Poire said upon being sworn in during a televised ceremony.
Poire was at the national security agency for only about two months. Before that, he served for a little over a year as the administration's chief spokesman on the offensive against drug cartels, a battle that has cost between 35,000 and 40,000 lives since Calderon took office in late 2006.
Ironically, the drug war's toll is not clear in part because Poire had refused to release an official count of the dead since last January ? when he released with much fanfare a report listing 34,600 deaths through late 2010. Many other groups, including Mexican news media, now place the figure at well over 40,000.
Poire, who holds a doctorate in political science from Harvard, has held academic posts and worked at the country's Federal Electoral Institute from 2003 to 2005.
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Ricki Lake, Rob Kardashian and J.R. Martinez make it to the finals, with the soccer star falling short.
By Kelley L. Carter
Hope Solo and Maks Chmerkovskiy
Photo: ABC
It was no surprise that the athlete was sent home on Tuesday night's "Dancing With the Stars."
Hope Solo -- whose partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, has been going head-to-head with the judges all season -- was the lowest scorer from Monday night, and the soccer star was sent packing.
"This competition is one of the toughest competitions I've ever been a part of," Hope said. "Instead of trying to win a mirror-ball trophy, I'm going to try to win a gold medal this summer at the Olympics."
Her partner then told her, "I'm sorry. I wish I could have done better for you. But it is what it is."
The night before, the Olympian had failed to channel her sexy the way the judges had been chiding her to do all season long. Her first-round performance was the paso doble, and the judges gave her a paltry 21/30, saying it was too aggressive. Her second dance was a tango, and they said she improved, but not by much. She earned 24/30.
The final three is now set for a good showdown next week. Former talk-show hostess Ricki Lake and her partner Derek Hough, war veteran J.R. Martinez and Karina Smirnoff and reality-TV star Rob Kardashian and Cheryl Burke will all duke it out next week.
Who are you hoping wins season 13 of "Dancing With the Stars"? Share your picks in the comments below!
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674452/dancing-with-the-stars-hope-solo.jhtml
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MANILA (Reuters) ? The Philippines criticized fellow Southeast Asian nations Tuesday for failing to take a united stand against China over maritime rights in the South China Sea, a crucial commercial shipping lane thought to contain valuable oil and minerals.
The comments by Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario coincide with the arrival of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Manila for a two-day visit in which the Philippines is likely to press Washington to help resolve disputes in the sea lanes claimed by China.
"They're concerned from a security point of view and are looking at us to identify ways to work together," a senior U.S. defense official traveling with Clinton told reporters. "We're very sensitive to making sure that this does not in any way alarm or provoke anybody else."
Regional leaders gather in Bali, Indonesia, this week for back-to-back summits of the ASEAN and East Asia groupings where the issue is also expected to be raised.
The summits follow a meeting in Honolulu this past weekend of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Beijing claims that entire maritime region, which contains rich energy and fisheries resources, pitting it against coastal states Vietnam and the Philippines in a test of wills that erupted in violent clashes in recent years.
Diplomats in Vietnam and the Philippines have privately expressed concern that Beijing is using its economic influence on some members of the 10-state Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to prevent the regional bloc from steering negotiations over conflicting claims.
The Philippines has proposed a "Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship and Cooperation," or ZoPFFC, to define which areas are disputed and which are under the sovereignty of a country. That would pave the way for a joint cooperation area.
In the first sign of discord as regional foreign ministers met on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, del Rosario reprimanded Southeast Asia, suggesting it was failing to flex its diplomatic muscle in the face of pressure from China.
"We have been given the impression that political and economic considerations have hindered a fruitful and mutually acceptable outcome on the discussions of the ZoPFFC," Rosario said in a statement in Manila Tuesday that was read by his deputy at an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Bali.
"ASEAN must play a decisive role at this time if it desires to realize its aspirations for global leadership."
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, whose country holds the rotating ASEAN chairmanship, said the Philippine proposal failed to find traction in the region.
"The core problem is to define which areas are in dispute and which areas are not," he told reporters in Bali. "So to many countries, this almost appeared to be a non-starter."
OBAMA TO ADDRESS SECURITY
Maritime security will be front and center when U.S. President Barack Obama attends the East Asia Summit in Bali this weekend, the first U.S. leader to join the annual meeting of Asian leaders and dialogue partners.
Obama is expected to respond to China's territorial sea claims which the Philippines and other U.S. allies regard as economically and militarily threatening.
Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei are other claimants to parts of the South China Sea. Those countries, along with the United States and Japan, have pressured Beijing to try and seek some way forward on sovereignty, which has flared again this year with often-tense maritime stand-offs.
But China, growing in confidence and military power, sees no reason to back down.
Countries such as the Philippines are increasingly concerned and fear their Asian allies will succumb to Beijing's influence on the issue.
Del Rosario said there was no full participation of ASEAN member states in an ASEAN Maritime Legal Experts' Meeting, making it difficult to reach consensus on the issue.
Manila hosted the legal experts' meeting in September but Laos and Cambodia -- both of which have benefited from waves of Chinese investment in recent years -- did not turn up despite indicating they would, preventing a joint position.
"ASEAN is now at a critical junction of playing a positive and meaningful role to contribute in the peaceful resolution of the disputes in the South China Sea," del Rosario said.
China and Taiwan also claim the whole of the world's second-busiest sea lane, which has rich deposits of oil and gas and is also a major fisheries resource.
Beijing wants to resolve the dispute through bilateral negotiations and has rejected calls for United Nations arbitration, but other claimants prefer a multilateral approach, including an indirect role for the United States.
Washington has supported Manila's multilateral and rules-based approach to resolve the issue and has pledged military assistance to upgrade the Philippines' ability to patrol its maritime borders in the area.
Clinton will sign a partnership agreement to mark 60th anniversary of the countries' Mutual Defense Treaty.
Briefing journalists traveling with Clinton, a senior U.S. state department official said Washington will continue efforts in the country's restive south to help fight Islamic militants but "are focusing more on maritime capabilities and other aspects of expeditionary military power."
"We are working on a whole list of things that improve their own indigenous capabilities to be able to deal with maritime challenges," he said, adding the U.S. has provided the Philippines with a destroyer and a second ship will come soon.
(Additional reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. Editing by Jason Szep and Ed Lane)
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ATHENS (Reuters) ? Greece and private bondholders will begin thrashing out a deal on Thursday to halve its public debt, a key pillar of a bailout plan to save the country from bankruptcy and ejection from the euro zone, sources said on Tuesday.
While politicians debate in parliament the degree of support they are prepared to give a new coalition government to implement the fresh bailout, Greek and EU negotiators are to launch talks to flesh out the deal with the International Institute of Finance (IIF) which represents banks.
"Negotiations between the IIF, the EU and the IMF will start on Thursday. There may be some preparatory talks on Wednesday. A second meeting will follow," said a source at a major Greek bank who asked not to be named.
"The aim is to have a conclusion soon on the final proposal that will be submitted to the private bondholders. There is no specific deadline for this," the source said, adding that the main task was to convince foreign banks who hold two-thirds of the bonds.
A source familiar with the plans said IIF Managing Director Charles Dallara and Deutsche Bank's Josef Ackermann, who chairs the group, would both attend.
The new bailout, Greece's second financial rescue in little more than a year and worth a total 130 billion euros in return for more austerity measures, was agreed by euro zone leaders at a summit last month.
The deal would halve the country's 200 billion euros of obligations to private bondholders, recapitalize Greek banks and provide Athens with loans to service interest payments and running costs such as wages and pensions.
The EU has made it condition in releasing a 8 billion euro loan that all coalition parties sign a commitment to the bailout terms. But the leader of the conservative New Democracy party says he will not to sign, endangering the tranche needed to avoid default by mid-December.
BOND PLAN
New technocrat prime minister Lucas Papademos said on Monday Greece would soon make an official announcement to begin talks on the bond swap. His government is expected to receive a parliamentary vote of confidence on Wednesday.
Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported on Tuesday that Greece would propose to bankers that for every 100 euros Greece owes, bondholders should receive between 10 and 20 euros in cash, depending on the maturities of the bonds they hold.
Banks, represented by the IIF, are likely to propose that the face value of 141 billion euros of bonds be cut by 50 percent, Kathimerini said.
The remaining debt would be exchanged for bonds guaranteed by the euro zone's EFSF rescue fund and maturing in 22 years, with a fixed coupon of 7 percent or a floating-rate coupon of between 5.5 percent and 7.5 percent, the paper added.
An alternative proposal by the IIF, Kathimerini said, sets out a 37 percent haircut on 65 billion euros of bonds, with the remaining debt to be swapped for new, 15-year bonds paying a coupon of 8 percent.
Under both IIF proposals, the coupon would be linked to Greece's GDP, Kathimerini said.
Greece has been shut out of international markets for long-term financing for almost two years but occasionally taps the T-bill market. On Tuesday it auctioned 1.3 billion euros of three month Treasury bills, paying 4.63 percent -- broadly unchanged from the last sale on October 18.
AUSTERITY BACKLASH
Polls show new premier Papademos enjoys the support of three in four Greeks, but he will be conscious of the dangers of introducing yet more painful tax rises and spending cuts in return for European Union and International Monetary Fund loans.
The conservative New Democracy party, on which Papademos' government partly depends, said again on Tuesday that it would not accept additional austerity measures as the price for the EU's signoff on the proposed 130 billion euro bailout.
New Democracy MP Nikos Dendias said his party would help Greece avoid disaster but echoed leader Antonis Samaras in saying that Greek sovereignty could not compromised.
"Dictats from Brussels cannot be a legitimate policy," he told parliament during a three-day confidence debate.
Greece's economy slowed its steep slide in the third quarter but still shrank 5.2 percent from a year earlier, Eurostat data showed, as the debt-choked economy continued to plummet in a recession that looks set to head into a fifth year. The economy had contracted 7.4 percent between April and June.
Greek public sector workers are due to walk off the job for three hours on Tuesday in protest against measures passed in October to cut jobs, salaries and pensions, while private sector union GSEE is considering nationwide strikes later this month when the budget comes to parliament.
(Additional reporting by Philipp Halstrick in Frankfurt; Writing by Ben Harding; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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COMMENTARY | Tensions in Syria have grown recently and have resulted in the suspension of the country from the Arab League. Since the suspension vote, violent protests have led to embassies being stormed and foreign dignitaries being evacuated. President Obama has stated that he wants to wait to see what happens in the country before getting involved. He should stick by his words.
Right now, the entire region is volatile due to the tensions between Israel and Iran. President Obama is doing everything he can to insert himself into that issue, and that is sure to strain some of the other relationships that we have in the Middle East. Right now, the president has to realize that the region needs to take care of itself in regards to Syria.
Instead of trying to press Congress to get involved, like he did with Egypt, he needs to hold back. Instead of considering pressing more sanctions as he is with Iran, he should let the Arab League continue to the track that it is. By voting to suspend Syria, the organization has made a greater strike against the country than sanctions or gathering troops could at this point.
Syria has prided itself on being one of the great (if not the greatest) nations in the Middle East. By being suspended from the Arab League, Syria has received a slap in the face. That slap is bringing out government supporters to the streets. Those that do not agree with the nation are sure to follow. Those that are disgusted with the rule of Bashar al-Assad are sure to bring the country into a civil war that will rival Egypt and Libya.
Due to the volatility of the region, the other members of the Arab League are going to have an active hand in ensuring stability during any type of Syrian civil war. The member countries are going to patrol their borders to make sure that any rage does not enter their lands. President Obama should respect this authority and keep as much distance as possible.
As tensions grow between Israel and Iran, the president needs to ensure that the relationships with other countries in the area are strengthened. By attempting to lend any type of hand in Syria, President Obama will be giving the Arab League member nations the same type of slap that they have dished out to Syria. Not the best idea.
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