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U2's 360 Tour is the year's most profitable in the U.S. and worldwide.
By James Montgomery
U2's Bono
Photo: Harry Herd/ Getty Images
U2 didn't even release an album in 2011, but that didn't stop them raking in plenty of cash.
The iconic Irish quartet topped Pollstar's list of the year's most profitable tours, as their massive 360 Tour moved an impressive 2.4 million tickets worldwide, grossing more than $230 million globally. Their North American dates — which were postponed (and subsequently rescheduled) last year as Bono recovered from back surgery — made $156 million, good enough to give them the highest-grossing tour on this continent, too.
Taylor Swift had 2011's second most-profitable North American tour, as her expansive Speak Now jaunt racked up $97.7 million at the box office. Swift's country contemporary, Kenny Chesney, came in at #3, bringing in nearly $85 million in ticket sales, followed by Lady Gaga, who, despite wrapping up the North American leg of her Monster Ball tour in April, still managed to bring in $63.7 million at the box office. Bon Jovi rounds out Pollstar's top five, grossing more than $57 million.
Kanye West and Jay-Z's Throne tour ($48 million), Lil Wayne's "I Am Still Music" trek ($44 million), Britney Spears ($38 million) and Katy Perry ($28 million) also made the Top 25 in North America.
British boy band Take That's reunion tour came in second to U2's 360 trek based on worldwide receipts, making $224 million. Bon Jovi grossed nearly $150 million worldwide, good enough for third, with tours by Swift ($104 million worldwide) and Roger Waters ($103 million) rounding out the top five.
Also making Pollstar's worldwide list were Rihanna, the Foo Fighters, Justin Bieber, Usher and the Kings of Leon.
Did you attend any of the highest-grossing tours in 2011? Let us know in the comments!
Related Videos Related PhotosSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676586/u2-highest-grossing-tour-2012.jhtml
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SACRAMENTO, Calif.?? Rescue firefighters responded to a Southwest Airlines flight in distress after two tires blew on the runway Tuesday evening, leaving the jet and its passengers grounded.
Don't miss these Travel stories
Some new and classic theaters are luring customers with advanced technology, cool events and such gourmet treats as bacon-fat popcorn.
The left main tires blew at about 6:15 p.m. as Southwest flight 2287 was departing for Seattle, Sacramento International Airport spokeswoman Laurie Slothower said.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Katie McDonald said the pilot quickly aborted the takeoff and emergency crews were called in to hose down the 737 as a precautionary measure. They later set up a portable stairway to let the 130 passengers off the plane.
"I want to stress that there were no injuries tonight, and the tires never caught on fire," Slothower said.
McDonald said all passengers were being booked onto other flights.
Officials have not determined what caused the blowout and the incident is being investigated. In the meantime, one of the airport's two runways remains closed.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45802389/ns/travel-news/
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Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks during a campaign stop in Dubuque, Iowa, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks during a campaign stop in Dubuque, Iowa, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Chris Noth, a Ron Paul supporter, holds up a sign outside Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign stop in Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Traffic passes a campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, at an instersection in Ankeny, Iowa Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? Ron Paul wants to legalize pot and shut down the Federal Reserve. He thinks the federal government has no authority to outlaw abortion, no business bombing Iran to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and no justification to print money unless it's backed up by gold bars.
And he might win the Iowa caucuses.
The closer the first votes of the 2012 presidential campaign get, the more competitive the Texas congressman has become. It's a moment his famously fervent supporters have longed for. Plenty of others are asking: What's Ron Paul about, again?
As in his two prior quixotic campaigns for president, Paul has toiled for months as a fringe candidate best known for staking out libertarian positions. As every other Republican candidate lined up to attack President Barack Obama's health care law and to promise tax cuts, Paul again demanded audits of the Federal Reserve and a return to the gold standard.
Leading in some state polls, Paul is getting a look from mainstream voters in Iowa, where the 76-year-old obstetrician has emerged as a serious contender in the Jan. 3 caucuses ? and in other early voting states, should he pull off a victory.
The sudden rush of attention to Paul's resume hasn't been kind. He's spent the past week disowning racist and homophobic screeds in newsletters he published decades ago, including one following the 1992 riots in Los Angeles that read, "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to collect their welfare checks three days after rioting began."
"Everybody knows I didn't write them and they're not my sentiments, so it's sort of politics as usual," Paul said during a recent Iowa campaign stop.
Looking to cut into Paul's support, rivals laid into him on Tuesday.
In an interview on CNN, Newt Gingrich said Paul holds "views totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent American." And Rick Santorum chided, "The things most Iowans like about Ron Paul are the things he's least likely to accomplish and the things most Iowans are worried about about Ron Paul are the things he can accomplish."
Paul returns to Iowa on Wednesday, giving his impressive grass-roots organization in the state a last chance to present, and perhaps defend, positions he's staked out over a long political career and reiterated during the 13 Republican debates held this year.
Paul has served a dozen terms in Congress as a Republican, but he espouses views that have made him the face of libertarianism in the U.S. He blames both Republicans and Democrats for running up the federal debt and opposes any U.S. military involvement overseas. He wants to bring home all troops from all U.S. bases abroad.
He vows to do away with five Cabinet-level departments ? Commerce, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior ? and repeal the amendment to the Constitution that created the federal income tax. He opposes federal flood insurance and farm subsidies and wants to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances while allowing states to decide how to regulate it.
He says he'll cut $1 trillion out of the first budget he offers as president. He doesn't believe in a border fence but says illegal immigrants shouldn't get a free education in public schools.
He's reliably described by political pundits as non-establishment, quirky, unorthodox. During a Republican debate in Sioux City, Iowa, earlier this month, Paul defended his views and rejected the idea that they make him unelectable.
"The important thing is, the philosophy I'm talking about is the Constitution and freedom, and that brings people together," Paul said. "It brings independents in the fold and it brings Democrats over on some of these issues."
Paul doesn't always side with the most extreme conservative proposals. When it comes to Gingrich's suggestion that judges could be hauled before Congress to explain their rulings, Paul joined other Republicans in dismissing the idea.
Paul's recent surge in Iowa isn't the first time the GOP establishment has been forced to pay attention to him. A fundraising blitz that netted $5 million in one day in 2008 led Republican operatives to weigh whether he was a bigger threat to siphon votes than previously thought.
Now he may be in his best position yet to do more than just steal votes.
"I see this philosophy as being very electable, because it's an American philosophy, it's the rule of law," Paul said.
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Continue reading Engadget Primed: What is aperture, and how does it affect my photos?
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FORT WAYNE, Ind.?? A babysitter and trusted neighbor confessed that he bludgeoned a 9-year-old girl to death with a brick and then dismembered her, hiding her head, hands and feet at his home and dumping the rest of her remains nearby, police said Tuesday.
Allen County sheriff's investigators said in an affidavit that Michael Plumadore, 39, admitted he killed Aliahna Lemmon last Friday.
The girl and her family lived in the same trailer park as Plumadore. Another resident said the family had moved there so that Aliahna's mom, Tarah Souders, could help take care of her dying father, a convicted sex offender.
The park was teeming with convicted sex offenders, with one living at nearly every occupied trailer home.
Souders worried about neighbors with sex offense records who had been helping her father get by, according to trailer park residents. And before she arrived, she even asked her father if her children could be at risk for abuse from two specific men ? including Plumadore.
"He said, 'No. They will not touch your children. They're doing everything they're supposed to do,'" said Greg Shumaker, one of 15 convicted sex offenders who live at the park and the other man that Souders had inquired about.
Shumaker said Aliahna's family moved there to help take care of 66-year-old James E. "Shorty" Lemmon, who also was a convicted sex offender and died Dec. 3. He said Lemmon was "getting old" and "had trouble breathing."
Shumaker said he introduced Plumadore to Lemmon shortly after Plumadore moved into the trailer park, and Plumadore moved in with Lemmon a few days later. Shumaker said he knew Lemmon because they were both sex offenders and were in jail together.
Sheriff's department spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel confirmed that Lemmon was a sex offender. Indiana Department of Correction records show he was convicted of child molesting in March 2006.
Plumadore is not on Indiana's registered sex offenders list. But he has been on the run for 11 years for battery of a Florida law enforcement officer in 2000.
Florida Department of Correction records show that Plumadore fled the state after he was sentenced to a year in prison in May 2000. Details of the incident in Miami Beach weren't immediately available. (Read the fugitive warrant.)
No motive reported
According to the affidavit, Plumadore told police that after beating Aliahna to death, he stuffed her body into trash bags and hid her in the freezer at his trailer. He said he later chopped up her body and stuffed her remains into freezer bags.
Police said Plumadore told them he had hidden Aliahna's head, feet and hands at his trailer and that he had discarded her other remains at a nearby business. Police obtained a warrant to search his trailer on Monday and found the body parts.
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The affidavit does not provide details about why Plumadore killed the child.
A judge ordered Plumadore held without bail or bond at an initial hearing Tuesday. He has yet to be formally charged in Aliahna's death.
Aliahna and her two younger sisters were staying with Plumadore, a neighbor, for about a week because their mother had been sick with the flu.
Plumadore told The Journal Gazette on Sunday that Aliahna disappeared from his home Friday morning while he was sleeping after having gone to a gas station about a mile away to buy a cigar. Authorities have said the store's surveillance video shows him there about that time.
More than 100 emergency workers searched for her Saturday around the rundown mobile home park where Aliahna and Plumadore lived and FBI agents were there Monday.
A Facebook profile belonging to a Michael Plumadore in Fort Wayne, Ind., had a photo album called ?The kids,? which included apparent photos of a smiling Aliahna and other children. The profile, which could not be verified as belonging to the suspect, suggested he was originally from Charlotte, N.C.
Richard Patee, 58, whose trailer is next to where Plumadore was living, said he didn't think it was odd that Aliahna's mother had him watching the girls for an extended period.
"They had known each other for somewhere of three to four years, I know that, and he took care of their grandfather," Patee said. "I didn't see any reason to question it at all. I talked with Mike on and off for the past two-and-a-half years and he never had a cross word."
The discovery of her remains late Monday was a heartbreaking turn for the girl's relatives, who considered Plumadore a family friend.
"He was a trusted family friend," Aliahna's step-grandfather, David Story, told The Associated Press late Monday.
Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries said Plumadore told investigators on Monday where the girl's body could be found, ending the hopes of authorities that Aliahna would be found safe.
"It did come to a horrible conclusion," Fries told WANE-TV. "We have somebody in custody now who can pay the price for it."
Aliahna had emotional, physical problems
Souders told The Journal Gazette on Sunday that her daughter had vision, hearing and emotional problems and suffered from attention deficit disorder.
Aliahna and her sisters were staying with Plumadore because their mother had been sick with the flu and Aliahna's stepfather works at night and sleeps during the day.
"This was a child with the face of an angel," Story told the newspaper. "She truly believed everybody had good in them, it just had to be found."
The sheriff said Plumadore was arrested after being interviewed by detectives for several hours Monday ? and was also questioned Friday and Saturday.
"The story just didn't make sense to our investigators or to me when I first heard it," Fries said. "I thought this is the guy we needed to focus on. If we are going to find her, he's going to be the one who has the answers for us."
Elizabeth Watkins, who lives nearby, said residents are cautious and keep to themselves in part because of the number of sex offenders living in the mobile home park.
According to a state website, 15 registered sex offenders live in the park that numbers about two dozen homes. Watkins and she didn't know Plumadore and was shocked when told of the girl's death.
"I'm numb, I'm totally numb. I don't know what to think," she said.
This article inlcudes reporting by The Associated Press and M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45795486/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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Untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak lands on all iOS devices except for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2
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MEXICO CITY ? ?The Mexican army announced Sunday that it had captured the head of security for Sinaloa drug cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, one of the world's most wanted men.
The suspect, who was not identified by name, was captured in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan and will be presented to the media Monday morning, the army said.
Guzman, Mexico's top drug lord, is one of the world's richest men, and has eluded authorities by moving around and hiding since his 2001 escape from prison in a laundry truck.
The army said the man they had arrested also ran cartel activities in Durango and southern Chihuahua state, and was responsible for carrying out secret burials of cartel victims, kidnapping, extortion and arson. They did not say if the arrest moved the military closer to capturing Guzman, an arrest that would be seen as a major victory for the government of President Felipe Calderon.
Guzman is worth more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which has listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People." He has a $7 million bounty on his head, and thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries working on capturing him.
His cartel controls cocaine trafficking on the Mexican border with California and has moved eastward to the corridor between the Mexican state of Sonora, which borders Arizona.
Separately, Mexican soldiers discovered 13 bodies in an abandoned truck Sunday along with a message that they were killed in a war between rival drug cartels in the eastern state of Veracruz, officials said.
The bodies were found in Tamaulipas state, a few hundred yards (meters) from its border with Veracruz, according to the Tamaulipas attorney general's office.
The area has been the scene of bloody battles between the Gulf and Zetas cartels, and a pair of banners alluding to a rivalry were found in the truck, the statement from the attorney-general's office said.
On Friday, the attorney general's office in Veracruz said it had found 10 bodies in a different area along the border with Tamaulipas after receiving a tip.
On Thursday, three U.S. citizens traveling to spend the holidays with their relatives in Mexico were among those killed in a spree of shooting attacks on buses. In the spree, a group of gunmen attacked three buses in Veracruz, killing a total of seven passengers.
The Americans killed were a mother and her two daughters who were returning to visit relatives in the region.
The five gunmen who allegedly carried out the attacks were later shot to death by soldiers.
Earlier, the gunmen also killed four people in the nearby town of El Higo, Veracruz.
Local police in Veracruz have become so corrupt that on Wednesday the government decided to dissolve the entire force in the state's largest city, also known as Veracruz, and sent the Navy in to patrol. Some 800 police officers and 300 administrative employees were laid off.
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Samsung Galaxy S2, which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, received overwhelming responses from around the world. The smartphone sports Samsung's TouchWiz UI and available on AT&T for $200 on contract. However, Galaxy S2 is also available on T-Mobile and Sprint, whose version is called Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch.
Galaxy S2 comes with an 8-megapixel camera with flash and can record HD video in 1080p offering the richest video content on a smartphone. The phone also has the front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video chat.
On the other hand, HTC Rezound, the first smartphone in the U.S. with "Beats Audio" integration, was released Nov. 14 and is available at Verizon Wireless.
The smartphone is equipped with a 1.5GHz, dual-core Qualcomm MDM9600 processor with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, 4G LTE, and a 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 display and features lightweight Beats headphones, which are high-performance headphones brand-backed by Dr. Dre.
Take a look at the specifications of Samsung Galaxy S2 (AT&T version) and HTC Rezound:
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Display:??Samsung Galaxy S2 sports a 4.3-inch (4.52 for the Sprint Epic 4G Touch and T-Mobile USA's Galaxy S2) Super AMOLED screen with 800x480 screen resolutions. The 4.3-inch screen comes with 217 ppi pixel density, while the 4.52-inch screen comes with 206 ppi. Rezound sports 4.3-inch super LCD display with 720x1280 pixel resolution at 342 ppi pixel density.
Size:?Samsung Galaxy S2 has dimensions of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm and weighs 116 grams. Rezound has dimensions of 129 x 65.5 x 13.7 mm and weighs 170.1.
Operating System:?Both the smartphones run on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and would get an Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update in early 2012.
Processor:?Galaxy S2 is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Mali-400MP GPU Orion chipset. Rezound is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 processor and Adreno 220 GPU.
Camera:?Both the smartphones sport a rear-facing 8-megapixel LED flash camera with 1080p HD video capture capability and has an additional 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling.
Connectivity:?Samsung Galaxy S2 is an HSPA+ ready phone with 21Mbps download speed and 5.76Mbps upload. Rezound supports 4G LTE and Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps, HSDPA and HSUPA.
Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/USB:?Galaxy S2 has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n DLNA support and an added Wi-Fi Direct feature. Samsung's phone uses 3.0+HS version Bluetooth with A2DP and EDR along with MHL microUSB version 2.0 for HDMI support. Rezound supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot along with Bluetooth v.3.0 with A2DP and microUSB (MHL) v2.0
Storage:?Galaxy S2 boasts of 16/32GB internal storage and, via a micro SD card slot, it can be expanded up to 32GB. Rezound comes with 16GB internal memory and 1GB RAM with expandable memory up to 32GB.
Battery:?Samsung Galaxy S2 features a Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery offering talk time up to 540 minutes and standby up to 576 hours on 3G. It weighs 116g. Rezound comes with 1620mAh battery that provides talktime of over six hours and standby time of 261 hours.
Pricing:?Galaxy S2 is priced at $199.99 with a two-year contract both on AT&T. With two year contract from Verizon, Rezound is available for $299.99.
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Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/272429/20111224/samsung-galaxy-s2-vs-htc-rezound-stack.htm
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BETHLEHEM, West Bank ? Thousands of pilgrims, tourists and local Christians gathered in the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem on Saturday to begin Christmas Eve celebrations in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
Visitors gathered near the 50-foot (15-meter) Christmas tree at Manger Square Saturday morning taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine.
The main event will be Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity, built over the location where Jesus is believed to have been born.
Israel's Tourism Ministry said it expects 90,000 tourists to visit the holy land for the holiday. Ministry spokeswoman Lydia Weitzman said that number is the same as last year's record-breaking tally, but was surprisingly high considering the turmoil in the Arab world and the U.S. and European economic downturns.
Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh said he hopes this year's celebrations will bring Palestinians closer to their dream of statehood. With peace talks stalled with Israel, Palestinians this year made a unilateral bid for recognition at the United Nations and were accepted as a member by UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency.
"We are celebrating this Christmas hoping that in the near future we'll get our right to self-determination our right to establish our own democratic, secular Palestinian state on the Palestinian land. That is why this Christmas is unique," Batarseh told The Associated Press.
Bethlehem is today surrounded on three sides by a barrier Israel built to stop Palestinian militants from attacking during a wave of assaults in the last decade. Palestinians say the barrier damaged their economy.
Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the Roman Catholic Church's head clergyman in the Holy Land, crossed through a massive metal gate in the barrier, in a traditional midday procession from Jerusalem on Saturday.
"We ask the child of Bethlehem to give us the peace we are in desperate need for, peace in the Middle East, peace in the holy land, peace in the heart and in our families," Twal said.
The number of Christians in the West Bank is on the decline. While some leave for economic reasons, others talk of discrimination and harassment by the Muslim majority.
Christians have even lost their majority in Bethlehem, where more than two-thirds of the some 50,000 Palestinian residents are now Muslim.
The biblical town was bustling on Saturday, however, with Christian tourists and pilgrims.
"This is my first time in Bethlehem and it's an electrifying feeling to be here at the birthplace of Jesus during Christmas," said 49-year-old Abraham Rai from Karla, India.
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ApunKaChoice Source: http://twitter.com/ApunKaChoice/statuses/150085895444369408
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(Reuters) ? Softbank Corp will quit its domestic social networking site business after just five years, liquidating a joint venture with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for the Japanese-language version of Myspace, the Nikkei business daily reported.
The 50-50 joint venture with U.S. media group News Corp will shut down at the end of January and be liquidated, the Nikkei reported. The Japanese-language service will be taken over by U.S. firm Myspace LLC, the newspaper added.
News Corp acquired Myspace for $580 million in 2005, when it was among the world's most popular websites, and the company's success in beating out rival Viacom Inc in a bidding war was viewed as a major victory for Murdoch.
However, since then Facebook eclipsed Myspace in popularity and in June, News Corp sold the website to advertising company Specific Media LLC and singer Justin Timberlake at a fraction of what it had paid.
News Corp continues to own its stake in the Japanese unit, the Nikkei said.
Launched in November 2006, Myspace's Japanese service tied up with record labels and sought to tout itself as a way for artists to reach fans. But it failed to offer attractive content, and had only signed up about 1.08 million users as of August, not even a 10th of Facebook's tally, the paper said.
(Reporting by Ritika Rai in Bangalore; Editing by Viraj Nair)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/wr_nm/us_softbank
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L.A. Lakers star Kobe Bryant is desperate to reconcile with estranged wife Vanessa Bryant, sources say. Whether she gives him the time of day or not is another story.
Vanessa filed for divorce from Kobe last weekend, but people close to the family say his two daughters, ages 8 and 5, are playing a major role in his bid to reconcile.
Kobe is said to be "deeply depressed" over the situation and is very concerned about how his little girls will handle growing up in two separate households.
Sounds nice and all, but Vanessa Bryant decided to pull the plug on the union after catching the NBA star in an extramarital affair, and it wasn't the first time.
Some have accused Vanessa of being a gold-digger, but they were married for 10 years - before Kobe was obscenely rich - and she stood by him in 2003.
That was when he was accused of raping a girl he cheated with. They toughed it out through that, but his current affair was apparently the last straw.
Bryant's family was unaware of Kobe's efforts but they hope he and Vanessa can find a way to get along in the future if only for the sake of the kids.
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/kobe-bryant-desperate-to-reconcile-with-vanessa/
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It might be hard to picture now, but back in the mid-nineties, the threat of bankruptcy was very real for a company headquartered in Cupertino. That would all change with the purchase of NeXT on December 20, 1996 -- a move that gave the fledgling computer maker a modern OS, but more importantly brought one of its founders, Steve Jobs, back into the fold. The rest is history, as Jobs eventually secured the helm, forming a team that would go on to birth products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. But hardware innovation aside, ultimately that comeback wouldn't have been possible without OS X -- an OS which arose directly out of the ashes of NextStep. Sure, there was the occasional misstep along the way -- G4 Cube and hockey-puck mouse be damned -- but frankly we can't think of any turnaround as epic, nor relevant. Can you?Apple acquired NeXT 15 years ago, Jean-Louis Gass?e still dreaming of what could've been originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In an interview with Fox News? Chris Wallace on Saturday, Mitt Romney said he was ?delighted? that President Obama ?gave the order to take out Osama bin Laden.? It was something, Romney told Wallace, ?any president would have done.?
Not so, according to a new ad from the Democratic National Committee. The video compiles praise from prominent conservatives, all of whom commend Obama for bin Laden?s death.
?I worked with a lot of these guys, and this is one of the most courageous calls, decisions, that I think I?ve ever seen a president make,? says former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
?The president, I think, handled this brilliantly, frankly,? former Secretary of State Colin Powell says in another clip.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is also shown lauding Obama. ?It takes a lot of courage to make a decision like that. I admire him,? he says.
Watch the ad:
Credit: DemRapidResponse/YouTube
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BEIRUT, (Reuters) - An advanced team preparing the way for peace monitors will arrive in Syria this week, the Arab League chief said on Tuesday, after more than 100 people were killed in one of the bloodiest days of a revolt against President Bashar ... more
CAIRO, (Reuters) - Syria agreed on Monday to let Arab League observers into the country to monitor implementation of a deal it agreed last month to pull troops from protest-hit towns, free political prisoners and start talking to dissidents.
However, ... moreSource: http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=27785
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EAST LANSING, Mich. ? More than two years ago, Faeirouz Elbergwa was among a select group of Libyans sent by her government to an American university to train for the nation's diplomatic corps. As she prepares for the final stage of her studies, she and her colleagues now find themselves in an odd state of limbo ? a vestige of a regime that no longer exists and unsure what might await them in their much-changed homeland.
Elbergwa, 27, and 18 colleagues in a Libyan diplomatic training program at Michigan State University watched in amazement during the last year as the North African nation was convulsed by a violent revolution that ended with the overthrow and death of leader Moammar Gadhafi.
When the regime fell, many of the students were elated. Elbergwa said she and her family "took the side of the revolution from day one." But she wonders if people in her war-torn country will think of her as a would-be Gadhafi government official when it's time for her to return.
"Maybe some of them will say I'm loyal to this family," she said. "I think I don't care. It's what's in my heart that counts."
Student Mohammed Gibril also wonders about his future in Libya. "I might return home and nothing happens; I might return home and something happens," he said.
As Libya's new leaders struggle to establish order in the country, the students on the campus 5,000 miles away are trying to puzzle out their future with the help of relatives at home and authorities in the United States.
The State Department has approved the necessary visas for them to stay in the United States, and they intend to continue with their program, which will resume next month on the campus of American University in Washington, D.C. If they appear to be in danger when it's time to return to Libya later next year, the U.S. could consider granting asylum.
"The perception is just because these folks received the scholarship from the Gadhafi family they are somehow aligned ... with the Gadhafi family," said Eugenia Zacks-Carney, an immigration attorney who has been working with the Libyans at Michigan State. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
Michigan State launched the program in 2010 under a contract with Libya's National Economic Development Board to provide training in English, political science and international relations for future foreign service officials. Elbergwa, who describes her family as middle-class, was working toward a master's degree in international relations in Benghazi when she entered the program. She said that for those interested in public service in Libya, there was no alternative to dealing with the Gadhafi regime.
"Everything in the country was controlled by their family. ... We liked to call Libya `Gadhafi's farm,'" said Elbergwa, speaking in fluent English. "We lived by it. Somehow we accepted it for a long time."
When the uprising began in February, she said, her two brothers joined the fight and her father began driving an ambulance. She was heartbroken at first, seeing the broadcast images of suffering and mayhem, but then she joined anti-Gadhafi protests on campus.
Gibril also was torn. "I don't like seeing people being killed, but I was happy to see what he represented die," said Gibril, who has worked in the human rights field. "I wanted him to face justice."
About 20 students in the program, including those loyal to the Gadhafi regime, decided to return home when NATO forces began attacking government targets, but the others stayed on.
Hamza El-Najah, 28, another student in the program, said it's not clear now when stability will come to the nation.
"As the world knows, they don't have freedom for more than 42 years," said El-Najah, whose family owns a jewelry store in a town about 60 miles south of Tripoli. "Right now, they get freedom. What do you think ? use this freedom in the right way or the wrong way?"
Gibril said he would like to return home after the program ends later this year.
One concern is the dozens of militias that rose up during the war and now are reluctant to disband or submit to central authority. Also, there are still Gadhafi loyalists.
"I know there are still people killing in his name," said Elbergwa, whose father resigned from the Libyan Army two years after Gadhafi came to power in 1969.
Sipping coffee in an off-campus cafe, Elbergwa, dressed in a casual sweater and multihued headscarf, said the overthrow of Gadhafi leaves a country with "nothing" ? no infrastructure, education, health care or political culture. With a huge rebuilding process ahead, she said, she hopes her nation will accept her help.
When he returns after his diplomatic training, El-Najah said he will carry a simple message.
"We have to forgive each other," he said. "I will tell them: You should forgive if you want to build Libya."
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TOKYO ? Christmas has come early to some remote islands in the western Pacific.
Care packages full of medicine, food, toys and school supplies have been raining down on dozens of tiny Micronesian islands over the past week, with "Operation Christmas Drop," the oldest ongoing U.S. Department of Defense mission in the world, in full swing.
The humanitarian airlift mission, in its 60th year, is conducted by Air Force personnel out of Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, and includes several aircraft deployed from Yokota Air Base in Japan and a detachment from Hawaii.
On Thursday, 25 boxes of IV fluids were airlifted to the Micronesian island of Fais, which is suffering an outbreak of dengue fever, according to a statement issued by the mission's command.
The operation started Dec. 12 and ends Monday.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the following remarks during a televised program in which he answered questions from Russians nationwide.
ON ELECTIONS AND PROTESTS:
"From my point of view, the result of the (December 4) election undoubtedly reflects public opinion in the country."
"As for the fact that the ruling force, United Russia, lost certain positions, there is also nothing unusual about this. Listen, we have gone through a very difficult period of crisis, and look at what is happening in other countries."
"It's clear that this negatively affected people to a certain degree, and the standard of living decreased, some lost their jobs."
"And so it is significantly easier for the opposition to recruit people who are dissatisfied into their ranks than it was before. ... But United Russia after all retained its leading position, and that's a very good result."
"The fact that people are expressing their views about what is going on in he country in the economic, social and political spheres is absolutely normal as long as everyone acts within the framework of the law. I hope it will be this way."
"I am proposing and asking for the installation of web cameras at all the polling stations in the country."
ON ALLOWING MORE OPPOSITION PARTIES
"Well, we will register them, probably -- we'll see. We will have to change the legislation somehow. I repeat: We can liberalize things, we can move in this direction."
ON THE ECONOMY:
"We have many unresolved issues, but nevertheless some remarkable and meaningful things have been done in recent years."
"Over 10 years we have cut the number of people who live below the poverty line twofold. Today it is 12.5 percent ... now this parameter is even more modest that in European countries."
Putin said that average wages in Russia had risen sharply during his rule, outpacing the rate of inflation.
"We went through the crisis years of 2009 and 2010 much more softly than other countries."
Putin forecast that the economy would grow by 4.2-4.5 percent this year, and that inflation would fall to just over 6 percent.
"Inflation is at a record low -- a level we have never seen in Russian history."
Putin said that the Russian state pensions system needed to be strengthened by reducing the rate of early retirement, but not by raising the statutory retirement age.
ON FORMER FINANCE MINISTER KUDRIN:
"Alexei Leonidovich Kudrin never left my team. We are old comrades. He's my friend."
"He has not gone far ... I understand his position on many issues ... He did a lot for the country. I'm proud that this man worked in my government."
Putin said he had met Kudrin on Tuesday to discuss the economic situation and outlook.
"It's true that we don't agree on everything, but our differences are not cardinal."
"Such people were needed and will be needed in past and future governments."
ON PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL MIKAIL PROKHOROV:
"Mikhail Dmitrievich is a consistent person, he doesn't give up. I understand he has decided to use a new platform to promote the ideas he considers right for our country."
"I can't say I wish him success, because I am also going to run. But I think he will be a worthy -- a strong competitor."
ON GOVERNMENT MINISTERS
"They, as well as governors, are always at the forefront of criticism and of problems, and it is easy to make any of them a scapegoat. Something may be disputed, something may be criticized, but the worst we could do is turn to ministerial merry-go-round. We've had that in our history already."
"As for rotation, we have talked about it, the time will come. And of course, without any doubt, the future government needs an update."
ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
"Some want to shift Russia off to the side somewhere so that it does not interfere with them ruling the globe.
"They still are afraid of our nuclear potential. ... We have our own opinion, we conduct independent foreign policy and I hope will continue to do so in the future. This, of course, can be a hurdle for someone.
"But the West is not monolithic, and we have more friends than foes."
ON LIBYA AND JOHN MCCAIN
"Mr. McCain ... fought in Vietnam. I think he has enough blood of peaceful civilians blood on his hands. ... Maybe he can't live without horrible, disgusting scenes of Gaddafi massacre when it was shown on all TV screens around the world how he was being killed.
"Is that democracy? Who did that? Pilotless drones, including American ones. They struck his convoy. And then by radio via special forces that should not have been there anyway, brought in so-called oppositionists and fighters and destroyed him without trial or investigation."
"Mr. McCain ... was taken prisoner in Vietnam and was not just in jail, they put him in a pit and he sat there for several years. Anyone would go nuts."
ON ELECTING REGIONAL GOVERNORS
"We could think about ... all parties in regional parliaments ... proposing candidates for governors, regional leaders. These proposals would be filtered by the president and he would propose these candidates ... for election by the entire population of the region. This step seems to me absolutely possible and well founded."
ON TERRORISM:
"The most necessary thing has been done. Separatism and terrorism have bee suppressed. Look at what is happening in the Caucasus, how people suffer from these phenomena.
"As soon as you let things go a little bit, many people will appreciate 'the difficulties of today', when they will have to face bullets to fight terrorism rather than demonstrating in the squares."
ON THE NORTH CAUCASUS:
"The most important thing to do is to create jobs in the Caucasus itself. Not so long ago people were saying (Chechnya's capital) Grozny couldn't be restored; it looked like Stalingrad after the war. There are many questions for (Chechnya's leader Ramzan) Kadyrov, but Kadyrov is restoring Chechnya, and has restored Grozny like no one else has managed to."
"I am certain that corruption in Chechnya is minimal, but we need to develop enterprise, the economy, the social sphere in the Caucasus so that people would not want to leave, so they could realize their potential in their native regions. And to do that, certainly, if we want to maintain the unity of our state, we have to invest money there."
(Compiled by Steve Gutterman, Edited by Douglas Busvine)
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CLEVELAND ? As Ray Lewis watched from the sideline, Baltimore's other Ray ran roughshod over the Browns.
Ray Rice rushed for a career-high 204 yards, breaking loose on a game-changing 67-yarder in the third quarter, and the Ravens kept pace with Pittsburgh atop the AFC North by pounding Cleveland 24-10 on Sunday.
Rice and Ricky Williams had short touchdown runs and Lardarius Webb returned a punt 68 yards for a TD for the Ravens (9-3), who toyed with the Browns (4-8). Baltimore racked up 290 yards rushing, and were in such control that quarterback Joe Flacco took a knee three times to run out the final two minutes.
The Ravens turned to Rice on a blustery, misting day, when Flacco had trouble throwing and kicker Billy Cundiff missed a pair of field-goal attempts.
Cleveland lost for the fifth time in six games, and the banged-up Browns have just three days to prepare for the Steelers.
One play after Cleveland closed within 10-3, Rice broke the Browns' backs with his long run.
Taking the handoff from Flacco at his own 27, Rice swept left, found a seam and cut back to the middle of the field. He was able to pull away from a bunch of pursuing Browns near midfield before being pushed out of bounds at Cleveland's 5. From there, Williams carried twice, bowling in from the 1 to put the Ravens ahead 17-3.
For the third straight week, the Ravens were without Lewis, their motivational leader and star linebacker who has been slowed by a nagging toe injury. But the 5-foot-8, 212-pound Rice, who has become one of the NFL's best all-around backs, carried the load and made sure Baltimore didn't miss a beat.
The Ravens hadn't played since Thanksgiving and were out of sync at times. However, they were finally able to beat a weaker opponent following a quality win. Three times this season, they had stubbed their toe on the road following victories but despite two botched field goals, and a fumble that gave the Browns great field position, the Ravens pushed toward the playoffs.
The Browns have major problems.
Quarterback Colt McCoy finished just 17 of 35 for 192 yards and a TD. But he fell to 0-7 in his career against division opponents, and did little to convince Browns management that he should be their QB of the future. He's got four games left this season to make a favorable impression, assuming he's healthy enough to play.
McCoy injured his right knee early, came back after missing one play and took several hard shots in the second half.
After throwing a short pass in the first quarter, McCoy was hit by Ravens defensive end Arthur Jones as he backpedaled. At first, McCoy, whose white No. 12 jersey was smeared with grass stains and dirt, appeared to be seriously injured. He fell back to the turf, was treated by trainers and limped to the sideline. Backup Seneca Wallace came in for one play, but McCoy returned the next time Cleveland got the ball.
The Ravens thoroughly dominated the Browns in the first half, but led only 10-0 at the break after Cundiff missed field-goal attempts of 34 and 41 yards.
Baltimore had the ball for 18:49 and racked up 158 rushing yards on 28 carries in the opening 30 minutes. At halftime, the Ravens had 260 total yards to 93 for Cleveland. Amazingly, it was still a game at the break.
Following Cundiff's second miss to the right, Cleveland had a chance to run out the clock and escape to the locker room trailing just 7-0. But McCoy was intercepted by Jimmy Smith, who returned it to the Browns 15. The Ravens, who inexplicably stopped giving the ball to Rice in the final minutes of the first half, had to settle for Cundiff's 21-yard field goal with 13 seconds left.
Somehow, the Browns managed to hang around and cut it to 10-3 in the third on Phil Dawson's 21-yard field goal.
Flacco was stripped by Browns rookie defensive end Jabaal Sheard and Cleveland recovered. McCoy connected with a wide-open Peyton Hillis for 52 yards to the Baltimore 5. But the Browns couldn't score a TD as tight end Evan Moore let a pass from McCoy sail through his hands in the back of the end zone.
The missed opportunity was magnified moments later when Rice ran wild.
The Ravens rode Rice for their first score, taking a 7-0 lead in the second quarter on his 6-yard run. He darted through the line and found his way to the end zone, capping a 61-yard drive in which he carried seven times for 48.
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