fanny outbid: January 2012

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Nintendo posts loss on strong yen, weak sales

A boy plays Nintendo's 3DS video game at an electronics retailer in Tokyo Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Nintendo Co. sank into losses for the April-December period last year, battered by a price cut for its 3DS handheld machine and a strong yen that eroded earnings. The Japanese video game machine maker behind Super Mario and Pokemon franchises reported Thursday a loss of 48.35 billion yen ($627.9 million) for the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 2012. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

TOKYO (AP) ? Nintendo Co. sank to losses for the April-December period, battered by a price cut for its 3DS handheld, a strong yen that erodes overseas earnings and competition from mobile devices such as the iPhone that offer games-on-the-go.

The Japanese video game machine maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises said Thursday it now expects to sell far fewer of its 3DS machines, which feature three-dimensional images. It is forecasting sales of 14 million machines for the fiscal year through March 2012, down from an earlier 16 million. That's despite a price cut for the 3DS in August.

Nintendo, which also makes the Wii home console, posted a loss of 48.35 billion yen ($627.9 million) for the first nine months through December. That was a reversal from a 49.56 billion yen profit the same period in 2010. Nintendo did not break down quarterly numbers.

The company said it will have Wii U, the successor to the Wii, ready in time for the year-end holiday season. Earlier, it had said the machine, which has a touch-screen controller, will go on sale in the latter half of this year. But some had been skeptical whether it would be ready. Nintendo hasn't announced prices.

Kyoto-based Nintendo also lowered its annual earnings forecast to a 65 billion yen ($844 million) loss, much larger than the 20 billion yen ($260 million) loss projected earlier. It posted a 77.62 billion yen profit the previous fiscal year.

Nintendo's past success has come from the appeal of its products to so-called casual gamers ? people who now turn to smartphones and tablet devices such as the iPad from Apple Inc. to enjoy games.

The demand for the Wii has also diminished in recent months.

Nintendo is now expecting to sell 10 million Wii machines in the year ending March, down from an initial estimate of 13 million, which was revised lower to 12 million in July.

Nintendo's nine-month sales dropped 31.2 percent to 556.17 billion yen from the same period the previous year.

The numbers are a disappointment as they include the key year-end holiday season.

"Sales of the 3DS were strong in Japan, but Christmas shopping got to a late start overall in the U.S. and Europe," said Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa. "But we are upbeat about hardware and software sales for next fiscal year."

Worldwide sales of the 3DS for the nine months totaled 11.43 million, the company said. Game software for the 3DS like "Super Mario 3D Land" became million sellers, but games from outside companies did not fare as well, it said.

Competition in portable gaming is heating up with the arrival of the PlayStation Vita from Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. Vita went on sale in Japan in December and next month in the U.S. and Europe.

Nintendo has continuously outpaced Sony in portable game sales with its hit DS machines.

The strong yen has also hurt Nintendo's bottom line. The dollar has been trading at about 77 yen lately, down from about 83 yen a year earlier.

Nintendo stock slid 0.6 percent to 10,790 yen in Tokyo.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-26-AS-Japan-Earns-Nintendo/id-33acbce0922f457e80e59dfc5bbadb2b

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Japan logs first trade deficit since 1980 (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan logged its first annual trade deficit in more than 30 years in 2011, calling into question how much longer the country can fund its huge public debt without relying on fickle foreign investors.

The aftermath of the March earthquake raised fuel import costs while slowing global growth and the yen's strength hit exports, data released on Wednesday showed, pushing the trade balance into negative territory.

Few analysts expect Japan to immediately run a deficit in the current account, which includes trade and returns on the country's huge portfolio of investments abroad. A steady inflow of profits and capital gains from overseas still outweighs the trade deficit.

But the trade figures underscore a broader trend of Japan's declining global competitive edge and a rapidly ageing population, compounding the immediate problem of increased reliance on fuel imports due to the loss of nuclear power.

Only four of the country's 54 nuclear power reactors are running due to public safety fears following the March disaster.

"What it means is that the time when Japan runs out of savings -- 'Sayonara net creditor country' -- that point is coming closer," said Jesper Koll, head of equities research at JPMorgan in Japan.

"It means Japan becomes dependent on global savings to fund its deficit and either the currency weakens or interest rates rise."

That prospect could give added impetus to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's push to double Japan's 5 percent sales tax in two stages by October 2015 to fund the bulging social security costs of a fast-ageing society.

The biggest opposition party, although agreeing with the need for a higher levy, is threatening to block legislation in parliament's upper house in hopes of forcing a general election.

Japan logged a trade deficit of 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) for 2011, Ministry of Finance data showed, the first annual deficit since 1980, after the economy was hit by the shock of rising oil prices.

"HOLLOWING OUT", AGEING POPULATION

Total exports shrank 2.7 percent last year while imports surged 12.0 percent, reflecting reduced earnings from goods and services and higher spending on crude and fuel oil, pushing annual imports of liquefied natural gas to a record amount.

In a sign of the continuing pain from slowing global growth, exports fell 8.0 percent in December from a year earlier, roughly matching a median market forecast for a 7.9 percent drop, due partly to weak shipments of electronics parts.

Imports rose 8.1 percent in December from a year earlier, in line with a 8.0 percent annual gain expected, bringing the trade balance to a deficit of 205.1 billion yen, against 139.7 billion yen expected. It marked the third straight month of deficits.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Tuesday he did not expect trade deficits to become a pattern, and did not foresee the country's current account balance tipping into the red in the near future.

But Japan's days of logging huge trade surpluses may be over as it relies more on fuel imports and manufacturers move production offshore to cope with rising costs and a strong yen, a trend that may weaken the Japanese currency longer term.

A fast-ageing population also means a growing number of elderly Japanese will be running down their savings.

Running a current account deficit would spell trouble for Japan as it means it cannot pay the cost of financing its huge public debt -- already twice the size of its $5 trillion economy -- without overseas funds.

"It is likely that we won't be able to rely too much on the sustainability of income surplus because the IS (investment-savings) balance of the Japanese economy is likely to deteriorate. So the current account is likely to diminish around 2016-17," said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities in Tokyo.

"Now 96 percent of JGB (Japanese government bond) issuance is digested by domestic investors, but if the current account goes to negative territory, theoretically this means that JGBs are unlikely to be sustainably funded by domestic investors."

(Additional writing by Leika Kihara; Editing by Linda Sieg and Emily Kaiser)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_japan_economy

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Photos | MTV Buzzworthy: Pop Stars Making Taylor Swift Faces!

MTV Buzzworthy: Pop Stars Making Taylor Swift Faces!

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WWE responds to Conn. Senate candidate's criticism (AP)

STAMFORD, Conn. ? WWE professional wrestling is accusing Connecticut Senate candidate Chris Shays of making untrue accusations about the company once run by Linda McMahon, a fellow Republican vying for the party's nomination.

Shays told The Associated Press recently that McMahon was "basically in the soft-core porn business."

WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman released a letter to Shays on Monday, saying the former congressman visited the company's headquarters and supported its SmackDown Your Vote campaign, which encouraged young people to register.

Zimmerman also cited WWE's efforts to combat bullying, contrary to Shays' claims WWE promotes bullying.

Shays spokeswoman Amanda Bergen says books and articles have been written about WWE and "the facts are the facts." Bergen says McMahon can't talk about her business experience without talking about her business.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_el_se/us_connecticut_senate

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Facing long odds and steep climb, Santorum digs in (AP)

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich has the momentum. Mitt Romney has the money.

Rick Santorum? He has neither at the moment.

Not that he's going to let details like that stop him from pressing ahead in his White House quest. Or, for that matter, hurdles like scant cash in an expensive state and a rapidly disappearing opportunity to emerge as the consensus candidate of conservative voters now that Gingrich has emerged as the leading anti-Romney candidate.

"Our feeling is that this is a three-person race," Santorum insisted on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that he felt "absolutely no pressure at all" to abandon his bid given Gingrich's rise.

Still, Santorum acknowledged a hard road ahead in what he called "a tough state for everybody."

"It's very, very expensive. It's a very short time frame," he said.

The former Pennsylvania senator placed third in Saturday's South Carolina primary.

Gingrich scored his first win, entering the Florida campaign with the political winds pushing the former House speaker from behind. Romney, who has raised mounds of cash, came in second and was ready to regroup with sophisticated political machines in the upcoming states, Florida included.

Underscoring Santorum's challenges, he was taking a few days away from the campaign trail in Florida this week to restock his thin campaign bank accounts. He plans fundraisers in other states, leaving Gingrich and Romney with free rein in Florida, while he stops in states such as Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Money is a necessity in a state like Florida with numerous expensive media markets and where campaigns are usually won on TV.

That's not a natural fit for Santorum, who has run his campaign on a shoestring and won the Iowa caucuses ? albeit narrowly ? by spending more than a year making house calls to voters and traveling the state in a pickup truck.

To make up ground and perhaps earn some free media, Santorum is going on the attack.

Standing in a strip mall's parking lot here Sunday before heading to fundraising events, Santorum cast Romney as an inconsistent figure who would not be an effective foil to President Barack Obama's re-election bid and argued that Gingrich was too "high risk" to be the Republican standard-bearer.

"Trust is a big issue in this election," Santorum told several hundred people. "Who are you going to trust when the pressure is on, when we're in that debate? It's great to be glib, but it's better to be principled."

He also met privately Sunday with pastors and delivered a sermon at Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, where he emphasized his conservatism. Santorum, who sprinkles his campaign speeches with his Catholic faith, is banking on evangelicals to coalesce around him over the thrice-married Gingrich or Romney, a Mormon.

"Can he win? Only God knows," said David Babbin, a voter here who works at the nearby children's hospital and likes Santorum. "But I believe in miracles."

Still, he noted one of the candidate's challenges: "Rick Santorum is one of us. And that's his biggest flaw ... We live in a society that is `American Idol' and Rick Santorum is not like that."

Santorum has other hurdles beyond what even admirers call his lack of charisma.

His tough talk on Social Security and Medicare ? ending benefits for wealthier retirees, cutting payments to those who don't need them ? is going to dog him here in a state of 3.3 million seniors, or 17 percent of the population. AARP estimates that more than a third of those seniors would have incomes below the poverty line without Social Security and one in three seniors rely on Social Security as their sole source of income.

Santorum didn't mention those proposals at his first public campaign event since the primary in South Carolina.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_santorum

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THG Week in Review: January 15-21, 2012

Welcome to THG's Week in Review! Below, our staff looks back at the stories, stars and scandals that made these past seven days the craziest ALL YEAR.

If you don't already, you can FOLLOW THG on Twitter and Facebook for 24/7/365 news. Every day, week and year, let us be your celebrity gossip source!

Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip:

Jenelle Evans got arrested. Again. See her mug shots from 1/16 AND 1/10!
Seriously, she makes the rest of the Teen Mom cast look pulled together.
Other crazy D-list arrests this week: Kate Major and our man Kasey Kahl.
Mark Wahlberg's 9-11 comments sparked outcry. He later apologized.
Gene Hackman was hit by a car and hospitalized, but will be alright.
As much as tabloids try to make Angelina Jolie pregnant, she's not.

Britney Spears' Son Dancing

Britney Spears' son Sean may have inherited mom's rhythm (above).
Kim Kardashian may have staged her own proposal by Kris. Shock.
Chris Brown and Rihanna may or may not be totally hooking up again.
He and Karrueche Tran may or many not be dating. It's all unclear.
Paula Deen has diabetes. We'd be sadder, except she concealed it.
Italian cruise captain Francesco Schettino? Not popular right now.

Lana Del Rey SNL Performance

Lana Del Rey's SNL performance (above) was polarizing to say the least.
Vanessa Bryant is about to become very rich in her split from Kobe.
Marianne Gingrich threw a wrench into Newt's surging campaign.
Mena Suvari and Simone Sestito are divorcing.
Avril Lavigne and Brody Jenner broke up too.
Are Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis next?

Seth Rogen Massive Erection Joke

Seth Rogen and Kate Beckinsale gave us this classic moment (above) ...
And many people we love were among the 2012 Golden Globe winners.
Heather Locklear was hospitalized post-alleged fight with Jack Wagner.
Travis Barker wants to stop you from seeing Travis Barker nude.
Kelsey Grammer got Kayte Walsh pregnant with twins.
Is Breaking Dawn not the end of Twilight?

Phillip Phillips American Idol Audition

Phillip Phillips (above) emerged as a (very early) American Idol favorite.
The Situation was sad on his birthday on this week's Jersey Shore ...
... while The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills were just plain crazy.
The Bachelor spoilers have held true so far. But will that continue?
Emily Maynard has been named the star of The Bachelorette too!
If your team loses this weekend, try to handle it better than this girl:

Packers Fan Cries

What was the highlight of the week for you? Did we leave anything out?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/thg-week-in-review-january-15-21-2012/

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Monday, January 23, 2012

In video, Giffords' firm and touching farewell

This video image provided by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords announcing her plans to resign, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)

This video image provided by the Office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, walking. Giffords announced Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)

PHOENIX (AP) ? In part, the short video has the feel of a campaign ad: the strains of soft music, the iconic snapshots of rugged Arizona desert, the candidate earnestly engaged with her constituents.

Interspersed with the slick montage of photos and sound, though, is a video close-up of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gazing directly at the camera, offering not a campaign promise but a goodbye, a thank-you message to her supporters in a voice that is both firm and halting.

"I have more work to do on my recovery," the congresswoman says at the end of the two-minute-long "A Message from Gabby," appearing to strain with all of her will to communicate. "So to do what's best for Arizona, I will step down this week."

Arizonans had to know in their hearts that this day was coming.

A bullet to the brain, from point-blank range, is a nearly impossible obstacle to overcome, even for a congresswoman known for pluckiness and fight. Giffords seemed to accept that reality in the video announcing her resignation from Congress, which also included a promise to return one day to her mission to help Arizonans.

The clip, posted to YouTube and on her Facebook page, pastes together 13 sentences into a fluid announcement. Giffords wears a bright red jacket eerily similar to the one she was wearing a year ago when she was nearly assassinated. She looks straight into the camera, almost begging the viewer to listen.

But the video also includes images of the 41-year-old struggling at rehab and walking along a leafy street with husband Mark Kelly with an obvious limp. And Giffords acknowledges that, at least for now, she isn't up to taking on a re-election challenge.

The announcement sets off not one but two election cycles to replace her. The first will be a special primary election that Gov. Jan Brewer must call sometime in April, with a general election in June to fill out the remainder of Giffords' term.

The second cycle will concern the regular full two-year term, with the primary scheduled for August and the general election in November.

In between, the 8th Congressional District that Giffords currently represents will change under redistricting. It will be remapped to cover most of the current district but renumbered as the 2nd Congressional District.

"We've got someone that's going to move in, hold that seat for the remainder of her (term,) and then we'll have people out there ? probably at the same time ? running for that seat ... with different lines," Brewer said. "So it will confuse some people."

Brewer said she spoke with Kelly before the announcement and understood the decision. "...As her husband said, they have sat, and they have discussed this, and that it would be the best thing for her and for her recovery," Brewer said. "And I indicated on the telephone with him that knowing Gabby and what she has accomplished in this last year in her recovery, who knows what's going to happen in the next two years."

The announcement came just over a year after a gunman opened fire at Jan. 8, 2011, meeting with constituents in front of a Tucson grocery store. Six people were killed, and Giffords and 12 others wounded.

Giffords' office said she will return to Tucson Monday to complete the meet-and-greet political event that erupted in the shooting. Among those attending will be some of the wounded, those who helped them and those who subdued the gunman.

At the time of the shooting, the Democrat had just eked out a razor-thin victory against a tea party candidate in her conservative-leaning district. She won a third term with less than 1 percent margin.

Many in Arizona believed she would be handed an easy victory if she chose to seek another term this year. But Giffords elected not to try.

"A lot has happened over the past year. We cannot change that," she said.

For days after the shooting, it was touch and go. A huge memorial grew in front of the Tucson hospital where she was fighting for her life.

Then, almost miraculously, just two weeks after she was shot, she was whisked off in a jet to a rehabilitation hospital in her astronaut husband's hometown of Houston.

Months of rehab began, with Giffords struggling to learn how to walk and talk again. Just over four months after she was shot, she flew to Florida to watch Kelly, an astronaut, pilot the nation's next-to-last space shuttle mission.

But she remained out of view.

Slowly, in carefully choreographed bits, she began to emerge. The first photos in June. Her surprise August appearance in Congress to vote to raise the federal debt limit. The first halting TV shots, just a few words at a time, then a more complex recording released in November.

Sunday's recording was slightly more elaborate, but it was not a campaign Q&A or an appearance before a tough interviewer.

She's clearly not yet ready for another run for Congress. But she said in Sunday's video that she's not done yet, an assessment that she shared with a small group of supporters in Tucson just hours after her announcement Sunday.

Jim Woodbrey, who was part of that group and a state Democratic Party official, called the meeting "very tough."

"It was Gabby's individual decision, and she was not in any condition to make that decision five months ago," said Woodbrey, a senior vice chairman of the state party.

And the congresswoman said in the video that she was getting better.

"Every day my spirit is high. I will return, and we will work together for Arizona and this great country," she said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-Giffords-The%20Announcement/id-64b22df0a7994a7d9a6a8486262f0373

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Elusive Z- DNA found on nucleosomes

Friday, January 20, 2012

New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell & Bioscience is the first to show that left-handed Z-DNA, normally only found at sites where DNA is being copied, can also form on nucleosomes.

The structure of DNA which provides the blueprint for life has famously been described as a double helix. To save space inside the nucleus, DNA is tightly wound around proteins to form nucleosomes which are then further wound and compacted into chromatin, which is further compacted into chromosomes.

But this familiar image of a right handed coil (also called B-DNA) is not the only form of DNA. At sites where DNA is being copied into RNA (the messenger which is used as the instruction to make proteins) the DNA needs to unwind, and, in a process of negative supercoiling, can form a left-handed variety of the DNA double helix (Z-DNA).

It was originally thought that Z-DNA could only be formed in the presence of active RNA polymerase (the enzyme which assembles RNA). However more recently it has been discovered that SWI/SNF, a protein involved in remodeling nucleosomes and allowing RNA polymerase access to DNA, can convert certain sequences of B to Z-DNA.

The team of researchers led by Dr Keji Zhao discovered that they could convert B-DNA to Z-DNA on nucleosomes by the addition of SWI/SNF and ATP (the cell's energy source) and that the Z-nucleosome formed was a novel structure.

Dr Zhao, from the NIH, explained, "The fact that we have found Z-DNA on nucleosomes is a new step in understanding the roles of chromosome remodeling and Z-DNA in regulating gene expression. While the Z-nucleosome is likely to be a transient structure it nevertheless provides a window of opportunity for the placement of DNA binding proteins which may recruit, regulate, or block the transcription machinery and hence protein expression."

###

BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com

Thanks to BioMed Central for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116908/Elusive_Z__DNA_found_on_nucleosomes

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Wisconsin recall webcam so boring it's mesmerizing

This Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, frame grab from a webcam put up by the Government Accountability Board shows Wisconsin state workers in Madison, Wis. processing about 1.9 million petition signatures to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker and six others from office. The webcam has attracted a following of political junkies, despite there being no sound and no indication of the specific tasks each person is performing. (AP Photo/Government Accountability Board)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? You know you live in a state consumed by politics when a webcam showing bureaucrats silently shuffling around a nondescript room feeding papers into a scanner attracts tens of thousands of viewers.

Such is the case in Wisconsin.

The cam (http://mirrors.5nines.com/stream/), featuring a live look at the guarded, secret location where petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker and five other Republicans are being housed and processed, has its own account on Twitter and a growing cadre of followers who've attached nicknames to the workers, pointed out when people mug for the camera and generally mock the entire process.

Live sex shows, it ain't.

It isn't even as interesting as all those webcams that have drawn large followings in recent years to watch pandas give birth or baby eagles take flight.

But this is Wisconsin, after all, a state that's been at the center of the political universe since Walker was elected governor. He immediately turned the state upside down, taking on public sector unions and igniting a protest movement that led to the recall effort. On Tuesday, organizers said they turned in more than a 1.9 million signatures to recall Walker and the others, 3 tons of paper that would extend 66 miles if laid end to end.

And someone has got to deal with all that.

Enter the ultimate in blandly named bureaucratic bodies ? the Government Accountability Board ? which has the important job of overseeing Wisconsin's elections and determining whether recall elections can proceed.

Its task is to examine every signature and make sure that Mickey Mouses and Adolf Hitlers get caught and discarded, along with any Walker-hater who signed multiple times. But before that can happen, all 300,000 pages must be scanned in to computers.

The Government Accountability Board, or GAB as it's known in these parts, wants to be, well, accountable. So as the work proceeds at the secret location, it's letting the public eavesdrop through the webcam.

When it first got plugged in Tuesday night, the view was straight on at roughly waist level. Viewers got a chance to look at the back of the bald head of one worker and the scanner, presumably humming had there been sound, and the somewhat blank stare of the police officer sitting in the corner making sure security wasn't breached.

By Thursday, onlookers were treated to a new view of their government at work. This time the cam was positioned higher up, offering a bird's-eye view of eight computers and four folding tables arranged together where stacks of paper with post-it notes attached were picked up, moved, set back down, and moved again. All of the action takes place against a stark, white cinder block wall.

Political junkies couldn't get enough. They made observations on the Twitter account (at)recallcam.

Much of the debate focused on where in Madison the work was being done.

One tweeter posited it was Osama bin Laden's old compound.

Others comment on what the workers are wearing, noting more sweaters and scarves on a day when temperatures dipped near zero outside.

Still others came up with nicknames for the workers like "Sideburns," ''White Glasses" and "Flirty von Flirtenheimer."

Board spokesman Reid Magney, who has made cameo appearances on the cam, said at its busiest when it went online Wednesday around 400 people at the same time were watching it. By Thursday afternoon, after the tantalizing angle change, the webcam had logged 29,308 total visitors. The webcam is a first for GAB and is being provided free of charge to taxpayers by 5Nines.com of Madison, Magney said.

Magney, who acknowledged that watching the cam is as exciting as watching paint dry, was somewhat at a loss about its allure.

"People are interested in watching people do things, I guess," he said.

Part of the attraction is just how boring it is.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and some of the mystery will be revealed in coming days when the board provides more details about what each worker is doing and where the processing is happening.

"We've had some questions from the public like, 'What's the guy on the left doing?'" Magney said.

But for now, the mystery is fueling the snark, even though the business being conducted is serious and likely to be the subject of multiple lawsuits. And the end result of the work could result in Walker and the others standing for recall elections later this year.

And that will be a spectacle certain to attract far more attention than the webcam at the undisclosed, secure location.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-20-Wisconsin%20Recalls-Webcam/id-b9fd1eec91cc446a841508619feea176

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Reality-TV winner just might go into space

Danny Martindale / Getty Images

Reality-TV impresario Simon Cowell poses for photos with fans as "Britain's Got Talent" kicks off its annual talent search Friday with an event at the Lyric Theatre in Manchester.

By Alan Boyle

More than a decade after the first effort to blend reality TV with real-world spaceflight,?talent-show impresario Simon Cowell says the winner of "Britain's Got Talent" could go into outer space on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

"I love the idea that if they are up for it they have the option of performing in space,"?Cowell told?Britain's Daily Star. The comment comes as Cowell is ramping up for a new season of the show that?inspired "America's Got Talent."

Cowell has already signed up for his own flight on SpaceShipTwo, which could start flying passengers beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) boundary of outer space on $200,000 suborbital rides as early as next year. The longtime record producer, who left an enduring mark on reality-TV history as the black-garbed, brutally frank judge on "American Idol," hinted that he's worked out a deal with British?billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic.

Live Poll

Do you think Simon Cowell has a winning plan for reality TV in outer space?

173950
Yes, that'd be must-see TV.
35%
173951
No, this idea is sure to fizzle out.
48%
173952
It's a tossup.
17%

VoteTotal Votes: 113

"It's tens of millions of pounds, but Richard genuinely is up for doing it," Cowell told the Star. "I am being serious, I swear to God and on my mum?s life. Don?t worry about the details, we?ll make it happen."

If Cowell is to make it happen anytime soon, the winner would?most?probably have to travel to New Mexico to follow through on the flight plan. And it seems unlikely that going into space would be a requirement placed on the winner, whoever?he or she?turns out to be.

Producers have tried for years to put together a reality-TV show focusing on spaceflight. The highest-profile effort was "Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett's plans?in 2000?for a?show that would follow contestants through?the training routine for spaceflight. The winner would have?been sent?to?Russia's Mir space station ? but that concept fizzled out even before Mir was deorbited in 2001.

Other proposed entertainment?projects have revolved around?pop singer Lance Bass and film director James Cameron. Just last week, Beyonce and Jay-Z were said to be interested in doing a music video aboard SpaceShipTwo.

No Hollywood space effort has yet gotten off the ground, but if anyone has the required combination of guts, glitz and gold, I suppose that'd be Branson. Like Cowell, Branson is a veteran of reality TV, having starred in "The Rebel Billionaire," a series that aired on Fox in 2004-2005.

Who knows? In the next year or two, there may be more than one way for reality-TV contestants to get into outer space. Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer for XCOR Aerospace, says his company is moving ahead with its own Lynx rocket plane ? and he's not shy about courting Cowell's attention.

"If Simon wants to take a more exciting ride at half the price, I'd take his call," Nelson told me today.

More about commercial space:

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.?

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10202380-britains-got-talent-in-space

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More sharing comes to Facebook with new apps

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Facebook is adding a bevy of new applications to let users share everything from photos of what they cooked for dinner, to details on what they are wearing, to what concert they scored tickets to.

The world's largest online social network unveiled more than 60 new apps Wednesday that let users share the tiniest details of their lives on their Facebook profiles, now known as their Timeline.

Facebook users can already share the music they are listening to through apps such as Spotify, or the articles they are reading through Yahoo News and other services. Wednesday's announcement expands the number of available apps to cover a range of topics including food, fashion, travel and reading.

Facebook is calling it "frictionless sharing." It means once you sign up for the apps, they will automatically share your activity through Facebook. That said, users will be able to limit who can see this activity when they sign up for the apps, just as they can limit what friends or groups of friends can see their other Facebook updates.

The latest apps include Ticketmaster, reviews site Rotten Tomatoes and Pinterest, which bills itself as an "virtual pinboard" that lets people collect things they find around the Web. Facebook expects developers to create thousands more in the coming weeks and months.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-18-Facebook-Sharing/id-71d6a9b579ee46ff8219e5bcc4bd8995

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Friday, January 20, 2012

Kodak workers, retirees, investors brace for pain

FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2010 file photo, Kodak products are displayed in a store in Brunswick, Maine. Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach, file)

One of several empty Kodak employee parking lots is shown at the Kodak factory in Rochester, N.Y., Friday, Jan. 6, 2012. Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

An unidentified person enters Kodak Headquarters in Rochester, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) ? The ripple effect from Eastman Kodak's bankruptcy filing Thursday extends in many directions: Employees are bracing again for layoffs, retirees are fretting over health care coverage, and the photography pioneer's biggest creditors and stakeholders ? from movie studios and big-box retailers to the CEO ? are preparing to take the hit financially.

Mayor Tom Richards portrayed the decision to seek Chapter 11 reorganization as more of a psychological blow than an economic one to Rochester, where Kodak had been the engine of commerce for most of the company's 132 years. Its payroll in the medium-size city along Lake Ontario has slipped below 7,000 from a peak of 60,400 in 1983.

"We have a broader-based economy which is no longer dependent on one industry and one company," Richards said. "We're better off for it. Not what I wish this would happen, but it has happened, and we're just going to need to deal with it."

Kodak, the company that brought photography to the masses at the dawn of the 20th century and was known all over the world for its Brownie and Instamatic cameras and its yellow-and-red film boxes, was brought down first by Japanese competition and then by its inability to keep pace with the lightning shift from film to digital technology over the past decade.

The company said it has secured $950 million in financing from Citigroup and expects to continue operating and pay its employees while in bankruptcy.

In the meantime, Kodak will try to execute its plan for recovery. Since 2005, it has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into new lines of inkjet printers that are finally on the verge of turning a profit. Home photo printers, high-speed commercial inkjet presses, software and package printing are viewed as Kodak's new core.

Kodak's executives are hoping the printer, software and packaging businesses will more than double in size by 2013 and account by then for 25 percent of its revenue, or nearly $2 billion. The rest of the company's revenue comes mainly from traditional film, disposable cameras, photographic paper and chemicals.

Kodak got out of the business of making film cameras years ago, and its digital cameras are losing money.

The long-expected move to seek protection from its creditors was "a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak," CEO Antonio Perez said.

One strength Kodak can take into a restructuring effort is its powerful brand name, said Eli Lehrer, who heads the nonprofit Heartland Institute's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate in Washington. However, "that doesn't necessarily translate to people keeping their jobs, or stockholders keeping anything," Lehrer added.

Photographer Steve McCurry said the prospect that Kodak might soon fade into history is upsetting to huge numbers of Americans who remember not that long ago when its dominance in film photography was indisputable.

"That's just the nature of the world we live in," McCurry said. "We all die. Civilizations all die and famous corporations, too. Yeah, it's a sad occasion, but there's great, great respect for American brands that have endured for so long."

Best known for a Kodachrome portrait of a green-eyed Afghan refugee girl that landed on the cover of National Geographic in 1985, McCurry relied heavily on "probably the best color film ever made" for all but the last five years of a 36-year career and was entrusted with the very last spool of Kodachrome manufactured in 2009.

Veteran employees said they are scared the crisis could sink careers that somehow dodged so many previous cutbacks. And Kodak's 25,000 retirees in Rochester fear that already diminished health benefits could disappear altogether.

"Because it's unfunded and discretionary, Kodak can actually say tomorrow that we're going to drop health care," said Bob Volpe, who runs a Kodak retiree association with 3,000 members.

The company did not rule out the possibility of layoffs. It also resolved to "fairly resolve legacy liabilities," which suggests that it may try to cut its retiree health care costs, estimated at $132 million in 2011.

Kodak stock dropped in over-the-counter trading Thursday and closed at just 30 cents per share after the bankruptcy filing prompted the New York Stock Exchange to delist the securities. Perez alone owns 6 million shares.

As for the company's creditors, they could be forced by the courts under Chapter 11 to take less than they are owed.

Around Rochester, Kodak and other faded titans like Xerox Corp. and eyewear maker Bausch & Lomb are already overshadowed in the city's employer rankings by the University of Rochester and grocery-store chain Wegmans, which together employ around 34,000 people.

William Johnson Jr., a three-term mayor who served through 2005, said he shudders to think of Rochester without Kodak.

"If that corporate headquarters building all of a sudden goes dark, God, that will cast a huge shadow on this community," said Johnson, who now teaches public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology. "Even in its weakened state, Kodak still has tremendous influence over local affairs. And 7,000 jobs would be awfully hard to replace."

___

AP Business Writer Dave Carpenter in Chicago contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-19-Kodak%20Bankruptcy/id-d89e8193c41248efb66db660883a5464

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Combination of oral drugs suppresses common type of hepatitis C

Thursday, January 19, 2012

A new combination of investigational drugs successfully suppressed hepatitis C genotype 1 infection in a high percent of patients who had not responded to previous treatment in a study led by a University of Michigan hepatologist.

The study, which will be published Jan. 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on hepatitis C genotype 1, which is predominant in the United States and the most difficult to treat. Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver and can cause liver cancer and liver cirrhosis. It is transmitted through direct contact with infected blood and blood products.

In this pilot study, patients with hepatitis C genotype 1 infection, who had not responded to previous treatment with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin, were given a combination of two investigational direct-acting antiviral agents (daclatasvir and asunaprevir) alone, or were given these two antiviral agents along with PEG-interferon alfa-2a and ribavirin. All the patients saw their hepatitis C viral load drop rapidly, says Anna S. Lok, M.D., professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of the study.

All 10 patients given the four drug treatment -- two direct-acting antiviral agents (daclastasvir and asunaprevir) that block the NS3 and NS5A regions of the hepatitis C virus plus PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin -- had sustained virologic response with undetectable virus at the end of treatment and at 12 weeks after stopping treatment. Four of the 11 patients given the two direct-acting antiviral agents only also achieved sustained virologic response.

A sustained virologic response or SVR means there is no detectable Hepatitis C virus in a patient's blood after treatment is stopped. Achieving sustained virologic response is important, because research has shown that late relapse is rare.

"The two recently approved hepatitis C drugs ? telaprevir or boceprevir -- combined with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin have limited success in patients who have not responded to previous treatment with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin. Because of this high unmet medical need, there is a necessity for new combination regimens that can increase response rates in that population," says Lok, who also is Director of Clinical Hepatology at U-M. "The high rate of sustained virologic response in patients who received the four drug regimen is very exciting. Although only four of 11 patients given the two direct-acting antiviral agents only achieved sustained virologic response, this is the first study to show that sustained virologic response can be achieved without the use of interferon or ribavirin. These data are very encouraging because PEG-interferon alfaand ribavirin are associated with many side effects and many patients with hepatitis C choose not to receive treatment for fear that they cannot tolerate those drugs."

An estimated 170 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C, with genotype 1 being the most prevalent genotype. Up to 80 percent of those infected with hepatitis C will become chronically infected. Twenty percent of people with chronic hepatitis C will develop cirrhosis and, of those, up to 25 percent may progress to liver cancer. Although there is no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C, it is a potentially curable disease.

In the Phase II clinical trial, Lok, along with a team of researchers including scientists from Bristol-Myers Squibb, studied patients with Hepatitis C genotype 1, who had not responded to prior therapy with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin. The study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

"Overall, these results suggest that further research into combinations of direct-acting antiviral agents, with or without PEG-interferon and ribavirin, should be encouraged," Lok says. "Caution must be exercised in selecting the right combination of direct-acting antiviral agents in studies of interferon-free regimens because in this study, all 7 patients who received only two direct-acting antiviral agents that did not achieve sustained virologic response had emergence of drug resistance variants to both drugs."

In this study there were no serious adverse events on treatment or discontinuations due to adverse events. Diarrhea was the most common adverse event in both groups, but it was mild or moderate in all cases.

###

University of Michigan Health System: http://www.med.umich.edu

Thanks to University of Michigan Health System for this article.

This press release has been viewed 49 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116853/Combination_of_oral_drugs_suppresses_common_type_of_hepatitis_C

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Trans fat ban proposed for Colorado schools

Ed Andrieski / AP

Maria Salas prepares salads for lunch in the kitchen at Kepner Middle School in Denver on Wednesday,

By Sylvia Wood, msnbc.com

Colorado lawmakers are considering whether to require school districts to do away with margarine, vegetable shortening and other trans fats in what would be the nation?s toughest ban on unhealthy fats in school foods.

The proposal?comes as federal authorities are already taking steps to minimize the amount of trans fat in schools as part of an overall plan to improve the health and nutrition of school lunches.?Health experts?have long warned that the consumption of trans fat, also known as partially hydrogenated oil, increases the risk of coronary heart disease. The American Heart Association, for example, recommends limiting the intake of trans fat to no more than 2 grams per day, about the amount found naturally in milk and meat.

?This would put Colorado one step of what?s going to happen,? said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. ?The USDA is going to do this nationally.?

But sponsors of the bill in Colorado say they don?t want to wait. The state, despite its reputation for being one of the healthiest in the nation, has one of the higher rates of childhood obesity, with 14.2 percent of children and adolescents considered obese.

?We?re trying to address that,? said state Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs.

Many school districts are already limiting the amount of trans fat in their school lunches by baking instead of frying potatoes or serving non-breaded meat products and increasing the amount of vegetables and whole grains on the menu.

But Colorado?s ban would go one step further than other states by applying the law to breakfasts and after-school snacks served in schools.? California, for example, bans trans fats during the school day but not during after-school events. Delaware also has a ban, but it doesn?t apply to school breakfasts or snacks.

State Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, said she was glad to hear that the federal government was taking steps to remove trans fat from school lunches but that a new state law would protect the health of Colorado youngsters even sooner, particularly since many children eat breakfast and lunch at school, and then go to district-sponsored programs at the end of the school day where they are served a snack.

?They?re eating more of their meals in a school setting than they are at home,? she said.

Neither Guzman nor Massey say they?ve seen any organized opposition to the proposal so far, but the track record for such legislation is not encouraging. Six other states last year considered but did not approve school trans fat bans, according to a recent report by the Associated Press, citing the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Regardless of what happens this spring in Colorado, school districts across the country should anticipate major changes in the school lunch program this fall under new rules expected soon from the USDA. The result will be twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, all low-fat milk and less salt on the menu.

?Under the new standard, school meals will get much better,? Wootan said.??

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10191223-trans-fat-ban-proposed-for-colorado-schools

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Peace Corps pullout a new blow to Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras?? The U.S. government's decision to pull out all its Peace Corps volunteers from Honduras for safety reasons is yet another blow to a nation still battered by a coup and recently labeled the world's most deadly country.

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Neither U.S. nor Honduran officials have said what specifically prompted them to withdraw the 158 Peace Corps volunteers, which the U.S. State Department said was one of the largest missions in the world last year.

It is the first time Peace Corps missions have been withdrawn from Central America since civil wars swept the region in the 1970s and 1980s. The Corps closed operations in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1991 and in El Salvador from 1980 to 1993 for safety and security reasons, but has since returned to both countries.

But the wave of violence and drug cartel-related crime hitting the Central American country had affected volunteers working on HIV prevention, water sanitation and youth projects, President Porfirio Lobo acknowledged.

Monday's pullout also comes less than two months after U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to reconsider sending police and military aid to Honduras as a response to human rights abuses.

'Disastrous situation'
"It's a welcome step toward the United States recognizing that they have a disastrous situation in Honduras," said Dana Frank, a University of California Santa Cruz history professor who has researched and traveled in Honduras.

The decision to pull out the entire delegation came 18 days after a Dec. 3 armed robbery in a bus where a female volunteer was shot in the leg in the violence-torn city of San Pedro Sula.

Hugo Velasquez, a spokesman for the country's National Police, said 27-year-old Lauren Robert was wounded along with two other people. One of the three alleged robbers was killed by a bus passenger, Velasquez said. The daily La Prensa said Robert was from Texas.

Most areas of San Pedro Sula, like other especially violent parts of Honduras, had been declared "banned or highly discouraged for volunteers," according to the June 2011 edition of the Corps' "Welcome Book." Also banned were "all beaches at night" and a large part of the country's Atlantic coast.

The U.S. also announced it was suspended training for new volunteers in El Salvador and Guatemala, though they kept open the possibility of sending new teams of volunteers once a review of security conditions is finished. El Salvador has 113 volunteers, and there are 215 in Guatemala, where the head of the Peace Corps pledged the program would continue.

The three countries make up the so-called northern triangle of Central America, a region plagued by drug trafficking and gang violence. El Salvador has the second highest homicide rate with 66 killings per 100,000 inhabitants, the U.N. said.

Numerous non-governmental aid groups work in the region and the Peace Corps decision has raised concerns that they too could be affected.

'Not a good moment'
"This is not a good moment for Honduran NGOs," said Oscar Anibal Puerto, director of the Honduran Institute for Rural Development, which works on school construction and water projects, often with Spanish financing and sometimes in informal cooperation with Peace Corps volunteers.

He said financing from Spain has begun to dry up because of that country's debt crisis, and while the Peace Corps withdrawal "has not significantly affected us," he said he worried it could set an example for other donor countries to pull out.

But Puerto said he could understand the U.S. decision.

"Their concerns are justified, until the security situation in Honduras improves," he said. "Human values have been lost. Crime is the order of the day."

Honduras joins Kazakhstan and Niger as countries that have recently had their volunteers pulled out. The Kazakhstan decision followed reports of sexual assaults against volunteers. The Niger decision came after the kidnapping and murder of two French citizens claimed by an al-Qaida affiliate.

A U.N. report, released in October 2011, said Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world with 6,200 killings, or 82.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010.

"Violence affects all Hondurans. It wouldn't be surprising if Peace Corps members, too," said Jose Rolando Bu, president of a group that represents non-governmental agencies.

9 US citizens killed
Between June 2010 and June 2011, nine U.S. citizens were killed in Honduras, most in San Pedro Sula or northern coastal areas.

The Peace Corps had sent volunteers to Honduras since 1962, and around 1982 it was the largest mission in the world, according to the U.S. State Department. The U.S. sent more people to help after Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The volunteers in Honduras had been working on projects focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, water sanitation and youth development. It was not clear what effect their departure would have on those efforts; no other aid agency immediately announced any pullout based on security concerns.

Peace Corps volunteer Claire Krebs, an engineer from Houston, Texas, described her work in the mid-sized city of Choluteca on the Peace Corps Journals blog site. Krebs wrote that she surveyed, planned and designed water systems for rural Honduran villages, which involved visits to rural areas in the country's somewhat more tranquil southern region, where there were few apparent security problems.

Krebs was training Hondurans to do the work she was doing, but it was unclear if they could yet replace her.

Berman said in the Nov. 28, 2011, letter to Clinton that he worried that some murders in Honduras appeared to be politically motivated because high-profile victims included people related to or investigating abuses by police and security forces, or to the June 28, 2009, ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. The coup lead to the temporary diplomatic isolation of Honduras.

On Tuesday, a Honduran lawyer who had reported torture and human rights violations by police officers was killed by gunmen, authorities said.

Three men stormed into the office of Ricardo Rosales, 42, shot him dead and escaped, said Hector Turcios, the police chief of Tela, a city 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of the capital.

Rosales had told local press that officers had tortured jail inmates in his city.

__________

Adriana Gomez Licon reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46044373/ns/world_news-americas/

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Sudan dismisses fear of looming humanitarian crisis (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) ? Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday dismissed U.N. and U.S. concerns about a mounting humanitarian crisis in two Sudanese border states, saying the situation there was "normal."

Khartoum's U.N. Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman was responding to a letter to the Security Council from U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, who voiced "grave concern about the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Sudanese states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile."

Rice said in the letter, which was obtained by Reuters, that Khartoum was preventing U.N. and non-governmental humanitarian aid organizations from accessing large parts of both states, which border newly independent South Sudan.

"The humanitarian situation in the Blue Nile and in Southern Kordofan is normal," Osman told reporters. "The government of Sudan is cooperating with (U.N. agencies) ... to channel relief materials to all needy people in the areas which were captured from the rebels by the Sudanese Armed Forces."

Earlier this month the U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, said the United Nations had received alarming reports of malnutrition in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, where the Sudanese army is fighting insurgents.

Rice said that if Khartoum does not allow "immediate and meaningful humanitarian access to the conflict zones in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile ... we will likely see famine conditions in parts of Sudan."

She cited forecasts by food security analysts who predict that the situation in the two Sudanese states will deteriorate sharply by March if aid flows to the region do not increase.

Osman denied that there were any restrictions on aid agencies accessing Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. However, he later said that aid agencies were not welcome in areas where rebel groups, which he accused South Sudan of aiding, were concentrated.

"These areas are not safe for the humanitarian personnel," he said. "It is our moral obligation to protect the humanitarian personnel from the danger which can be caused by the rebels. Until we find a solution to that it would be difficult for them to have full access to those few pockets."

He added that some countries and individual aid agency personnel sympathized with the rebels and were supplying them with weapons and ammunition.

Such rebel sympathizers might "want the agencies to provide the rebels with food," which Osman said was not the responsibility of the Sudanese government.

Fighting broke out in June between the Sudanese army and SPLM-North rebels in South Kordofan and spread in September to the state of Blue Nile.

The violence has already forced about 417,000 people to flee their homes, more than 80,000 of them to South Sudan, the United Nations estimates. Locals have faced air raids and sporadic ground fighting, according to rights groups and refugees.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/wl_nm/us_sudan_un

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Obama names Zients as acting budget chief (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama named senior aide Jeffrey Zients on Tuesday to serve as acting chief of the Office of Management and Budget, the White House said.

Zients, a deputy director and chief performance officer in Obama's budget office, will step in for Jack Lew, named last week as White House chief of staff to replace Bill Daley.

There was no immediate word whether Zients' appointment, which comes as Obama prepares to roll out his new budget proposal in coming weeks, means he is in the running to be nominated as OMB director.

Obama's plans for filling the position remain unclear as he seeks re-election in November. Naming Zients on an interim basis could allow the president to avoid a contentious confirmation fight with Senate Republicans who have stalled many of his nominations.

"Since day one, Jeff has demonstrated superb judgment and has provided sound advice on a whole host of issues," Obama said in a statement. "I'm confident in his ability to help us rebuild an economy where hard work and responsibility pay off and the middle class has a chance to get ahead."

Lew will be a hard act to follow. With Daley resigning after a troubled one-year tenure at the White House, Lew was chosen in part because he is well-versed in congressional politics and has forged strong relations with Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Zients has worked at OMB since 2009 and served briefly as acting director in 2010. His 20 years of business experience includes work as a management consultant. He was CEO of the The Advisory Board Company and chairman of the Corporate Executive Board.

(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/pl_nm/us_obama_budget

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