The Flack: Communications Slop

"The modern chief executive lives behind a wall of communications operatives, many of whom ladle out slop meant to obscure rather than reveal."

-- David Carr of The New York Times?lamenting the way many CEOs have long interacted with members of his profession. Not surprisingly, he lays the blame on communications professionals. The quote appears in his must-read column today on Rupert Murdoch's sudden embrace of Twitter. More on that below.

He's right, and wrong. ?Yes, the PR pro is charged with advising C-Suite executives on what to anticipate in a media interview, and how best to respond to journalists' questions. Frankly, why should only the reporter's editorial agenda be met? Shouldn't the company also use the opportunity to advance its agenda? If not, why grant the interview in the first place?

And just as a good reporter will do some homework in advance of engaging a newsmaker, the better PR people among us will strive to wrap their arms around where a reporter's journalistic proclivities will take the conversation. In fact, there is no shortage of ex-journalists making their livings as "media trainers," though few of them directly interface with reporters to ensure that the goals of?both sides of the media relations equation are met. (We take special pride in pegging reporter's questions in advance.)

Obfuscation? Maybe in the eyes of the journalist, but from the perspective of the CEO, C-Suite or Board of Directors, this is a necessary step for advancing a company's POV, let alone enhancing its reputation.

Mr. Carr does make a good point when he infers that the CEO has traditionally hidden behind the company's communications (or general counsel as was more likely the case). This began to change a bit as corporate blogging took root. The CEO of Sun, vice-chairman of General Motors, founder of Zappos were just a few of the corporate chieftans who embraced blogging early on as a means to share their (mostly) unfettered musings. It was also a way to bypass journalistic scrutiny to speak directly to core constituencies.

Ironically, it was probably the company's PR department that nudged their CEOs into this brave new medium, though a new?study of the Inc. 500 by UMass Dartmouth indicates that corporate blogging may now be on the wane:

"Small businesses are backing away from blogging as a marketing tool and shifting to other social media outlets. Bye-bye, company blog?and hello, Facebook? The number of Inc. 500 companies maintaining corporate blogs has dropped."

Are they being replaced by shorter-form, and less time-consuming tweets? Perhaps. The catalyst for Mr. Carr's piece was the unlikely embrace of Twitter by the octogenarian (and lately much beleaguered) CEO of NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch. Carr writes:

"But, Twitter has the potential to cut past all that clutter. Given its ubiquity, there?s a chance to get a glimpse into the thinking of otherwise unapproachable executives, and sometimes even have a real dialogue with them. No one can be forced to use Twitter, but some people, even captains of industry, cannot resist."

What's ironic about Mr. Carr's take on the PR profession is that the "flacks" he accuses of masking the company's real CEO are again the same folks who advised Mr. Murdoch to take to the Twittersphere. The strategy was simple. After Murdoch was hammered in the media stemming from his appearance in the British courts and subsequent revelations, someone on News Corp's comms team had an epiphany: let's use Twitter to humanize him. It worked like a charm. Mr. Carr end his piece with this:

"Mr. Murdoch?s desire to be seen as a paragon of civility in any media realm, old or new, is rich. But give him credit for engaging in the world we all now live in and for not losing sleep over what pops out."

Ironically, News Corp's top communications officer?resigned today. Was it the phone-hacking scandal or Rupert unleashed on Twitter? We'll probably never know for sure.

Source: http://theflack.blogspot.com/2012/01/communications-slop.html

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That which does not kill yeast makes it stronger: Stress-induced genomic instability facilitates rapid cellular adaption in yeast

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2012) ? Cells trying to keep pace with constantly changing environmental conditions need to strike a fine balance between maintaining their genomic integrity and allowing enough genetic flexibility to adapt to inhospitable conditions. In their latest study, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research were able to show that under stressful conditions yeast genomes become unstable, readily acquiring or losing whole chromosomes to enable rapid adaption.

The research, published in the January 29, 2012, advance online issue of Nature, demonstrates that stress itself can increase the pace of evolution by increasing the rate of chromosomal instability or aneuploidy. The observation of stress-induced chromosome instability casts the molecular mechanisms driving cellular evolution into a new perspective and may help explain how cancer cells elude the body's natural defense mechanisms or the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs.

"Cells employ intricate control mechanisms to maintain genomic stability and prevent abnormal chromosome numbers," says the study's leader, Stowers investigator Rong Li, Ph.D. "We found that under stress cellular mechanisms ensuring chromosome transmission fidelity are relaxed to allow the emergence of progeny cells with diverse aneuploid chromosome numbers, producing a population with large genetic variation."

Known as adaptive genetic change, the concept of stress-induced genetic variation first emerged in bacteria and departs from a long-held basic tenet of evolutionary theory, which holds that genetic diversity -- evolution's raw material from which natural selection picks the best choice under any given circumstance -- arises independently of hostile environmental conditions.

"From an evolutionary standpoint it is a very interesting finding," says graduate student and first author Guangbo Chen. "It shows how stress itself can help cells adapt to stress by inducing chromosomal instability."

Aneuploidy is most often associated with cancer and developmental defects and has recently been shown to reduce cellular fitness. Yet, an abnormal number of chromosomes is not necessarily a bad thing. Many wild yeast strains and their commercial cousins used to make bread or brew beer have adapted to their living environs by rejiggering the number of chromosomes they carry. "Euploid cells are optimized to thrive under 'normal' conditions," says Li. "In stressful environments aneuploid cells can quickly gain the upper hand when it comes to finding creative solutions to roadblocks they encounter in their environment."

After Li and her team had shown in an earlier Nature study that aneuploidy can confer a growth advantage on cells when they are exposed to many different types of stress conditions, the Stowers researchers wondered whether stress itself could increase the chromosome segregation error rate.

To find out, Chen exposed yeast cells to different chemicals that induce various types of general stress and assessed the loss of an artificial chromosome. This initial screen revealed that many stress conditions, including oxidative stress, increased the rate of chromosome loss ten to 20-fold, a rate typically observed when cells are treated with benomyl, a microtubule inhibitor that directly affects chromosome segregation.

The real surprise was radicicol, a drug that induces proteotoxic stress by inhibiting a chaperone protein, recalls Chen. "Even at a concentration that barely slows down growth, radicicol induced extremely high levels of chromosome instability within a very short period of time," he says.

Continued growth of yeast cells in the presence of radicicol led to the emergence of drug-resistant colonies that had acquired an additional copy of chromosome XV. Yeast cells pretreated briefly with radicicol to induce genomic instability also adapted more efficiently to the presence of other drugs including fluconazole, tunicamycin, or benomyl, when compared to euploid cells.

Interestingly, certain chromosome combinations dominated in colonies that were resistant to a specific drug. Fluconazole-resistant colonies typically gained an extra copy of chromosome VIII, tunicamycin-resistant colonies tended to lose chromosome XVI, while a majority of benomyl-resistant colonies got rid of chromosome XII. "This suggested to us that specific karyotypes are associated with resistance to certain drugs," says Chen.

Digging deeper, Chen grew tunicamycin-resistant yeast cells, which had adapted to the presence of the antibiotic by losing one copy of chromosome XVI, under drug-free conditions. Before long, colonies of two distinct sizes emerged. He quickly discovered that the faster growing colonies had regained the missing chromosome. By returning to a normal chromosome XVI number, these newly arisen euploid cells had acquired a distinctive growth advantage over their aneuploid neighbors. But most importantly, the fast growing yeast cells were no longer resistant to tunicamycin and thus clearly linking tunicamycin resistance to the loss of chromosome XVI.

Researchers who also contributed to the work include William D. Bradford and Chris W. Seidel both at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

The study was funded in part by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stowers Institute for Medical Research, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. Guangbo Chen, William D. Bradford, Chris W. Seidel, Rong Li. Hsp90 stress potentiates rapid cellular adaptation through induction of aneuploidy. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10795

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120129151104.htm

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Arrests in Oakland protests rise to more than 400 (Reuters)

OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) ? More than 400 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested in Oakland during a night of skirmishes in which police fired tear gas and bean bag projectiles, the city said on Sunday, marking one of the biggest mass arrests since nationwide economic protests began last year.

Earlier on Sunday, authorities had said that the arrest figure was between 200 and 300. But the Oakland emergency operations center said in a statement that revised that up to more than 400, and said that Oakland Police were expected to announce a more precise number later on Sunday.

Riot police on Saturday night fought running skirmishes with protesters, injuring three officers and at least one demonstrator.

The scuffles erupted in the afternoon as activists sought to take over a shuttered downtown convention center, sparking cat-and-mouse battles that lasted well into the night in a city that has seen tensions between police and protesters boil over repeatedly.

Oakland has become an unlikely flashpoint of the national "Occupy" protests against economic inequality that began last year in New York's financial district and have spread to dozens of cities across the country.

The protests in most cities have been peaceful and sparked a national debate over how much of the country's wealth is held by the richest 1 percent of the population. President Barack Obama has sought to capitalize on the attention by calling for higher taxes on the richest Americans.

Protests focused on Oakland after a former Marine, Scott Olsen, was critically injured during a demonstration in October. Protesters said he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister but authorities have never said exactly how he was hurt.

The Occupy movement appeared to lose momentum late last year as police cleared protest camps in cities across the country.

Violence erupted again in Oakland on Saturday when protesters attempted to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a new headquarters and draw attention to the problem of homelessness.

Police in riot gear moved in, firing smoke grenades, tear gas and bean-bag projectiles to drive the crowd back.

"Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares," the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. "Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas."

Some activists, carrying shields made of plastic garbage cans and corrugated metal, tried to circumvent the police line, and surged toward police on another side of the building as more smoke canisters were fired.

Oakland city officials said "extremists" were fomenting the demonstrations and using the city as a playground for the movement. Protesters have accused the city of overreacting and using heavy-handed tactics.

Across the country in New York, police said four people were arrested on Saturday night after protesters clashed with police at what demonstrators had called an "OccuParty" inside an abandoned building in the borough of Brooklyn. Protesters knocked over garbage pails and hurled objects at police, slightly injuring six officers, a police spokesman said. The four people were charged with a variety of crimes including inciting a riot.

Tension was rising in Washington as well, where the National Park Service has said it will bar Occupy protesters in the nation's capital from camping in two parks near the White House where they have been living since October.

That order, if carried out as promised on Monday, could be a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement.

(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Kim Dixon and Rachelle Younglai in Washington; Editing by Greg McCune and Corrie MacLaggan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/ts_nm/us_oakland_protests

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British police arrest 5 in tabloid bribery probe (AP)

LONDON ? The criminal investigation into British tabloid skullduggery turned full force on a second Rupert Murdoch publication Saturday, with the arrest of four current and former journalists from The Sun on suspicion of bribing police.

A serving police officer was also held, and authorities searched the newspaper's offices as part an investigation into illegal payments for information.

The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing ? which has already shut down one Murdoch paper, the News of the World ? to Britain's best-selling newspaper.

London police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London. A 42-year-old man was detained later at a London police station.

Murdoch's News Corp. confirmed that all four were current or former Sun employees. The BBC and other British media identified them as former managing editor Graham Dudman, former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, current head of news Chris Pharo and crime editor Mike Sullivan.

A fifth man, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.

Officers searched the men's homes and the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence.

The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World.

Police said Saturday's arrests were made based on information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch's News Corp., the internal body tasked with rooting out wrongdoing.

News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated," it said in a statement.

In an email to staff after the arrests, Tom Mockridge ? chief executive of Murdoch's British operation, News International ? said the internal investigation into wrongdoing at The Sun "is well advanced."

"News International is confronting past mistakes and is making fundamental changes about how we operate which are essential for our business," Mockridge said.

"Despite this very difficult news, we are determined that News International will emerge a stronger and more trusted organization," he added.

Thirteen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged. They include Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch's News International; ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson ? who is also Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief; and journalists from the News of the World and The Sun.

Two of the London police force's top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid amid a wave of public revulsion, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.

An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence that hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, who were both jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping on the phones of royal staff.

But News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.

Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.

The furor that consumed the News of the World continues to rattle other parts of Murdoch's media empire.

As well as investigating phone hacking and allegations that journalists paid police for information, detectives are looking into claims of computer hacking by Murdoch papers.

News Corp. has admitted that the News of the World hacked the emails as well as the phone of Chris Shipman, the son of serial killer Harold Shipman. And The Times of London has acknowledged that a former reporter tried to intercept emails to unmask an anonymous blogger.

News Corp. is preparing to launch a new Sunday newspaper ? likely called the Sunday Sun ? to replace the News of the World.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_phone_hacking

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Christina Aguilera Performs At Etta James? Funeral With Fluid Dripping Down Legs (VIDEO)

Christina Aguilera Performs At Etta James’ Funeral With Fluid Dripping Down Legs (VIDEO)

Christina Aguilera performed at the funeral of Etta James, who just passed away last week of leukemia, but it was her cleavage-baring ensemble and mystery [...]

Christina Aguilera Performs At Etta James’ Funeral With Fluid Dripping Down Legs (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

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Video: NBC/WSJ Poll: Gingrich Leads Over Romney

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Making memories last: Prion-like protein plays key role in storing long-term memories

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? Memories in our brains are maintained by connections between neurons called "synapses." But how do these synapses stay strong and keep memories alive for decades? Neuroscientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a major clue from a study in fruit flies: Hardy, self-copying clusters or oligomers of a synapse protein are an essential ingredient for the formation of long-term memory.

The finding supports a surprising new theory about memory, and may have a profound impact on explaining other oligomer-linked functions and diseases in the brain, including Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases.

"Self-sustaining populations of oligomers located at synapses may be the key to the long-term synaptic changes that underlie memory; in fact, our finding hints that oligomers play a wider role in the brain than has been thought," says Kausik Si, Ph.D., an associate investigator at the Stowers Institute, and senior author of the new study, which is published in the January 27, 2012 online issue of the journal Cell.

Si's investigations in this area began nearly a decade ago during his doctoral research in the Columbia University laboratory of Nobel-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel. He found that in the sea slug Aplysia californica, which has long been favored by neuroscientists for memory experiments because of its large, easily-studied neurons, a synapse-maintenance protein known as CPEB (Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding protein) has an unexpected property.

A portion of the structure is self-complementary and -- much like empty egg cartons -- can easily stack up with other copies of itself. CPEB thus exists in neurons partly in the form of oligomers, which increase in number when neuronal synapses strengthen. These oligomers have a hardy resistance to ordinary solvents, and within neurons may be much more stable than single-copy "monomers" of CPEB. They also seem to actively sustain their population by serving as templates for the formation of new oligomers from free monomers in the vicinity.

CPEB-like proteins exist in all animals, and in brain cells they play a key role in maintaining the production of other synapse-strengthening proteins. Studies by Si and others in the past few years have hinted that CPEB's tendency to oligomerize is not merely incidental, but is indeed essential to its ability to stabilize longer-term memory. "What we've lacked till now are experiments showing this conclusively," Si says.

In the new study, Si and his colleagues examined a Drosophila fruit fly CPEB protein known as Orb2. Like its counterpart in Aplysia, it forms oligomers within neurons. "We found that these Orb2 oligomers become more numerous in neurons whose synapses are stimulated, and that this increase in oligomers happens near synapses," says lead author Amitabha Majumdar, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Si's lab.

The key was to show that the disruption of Orb2 oligomerization on its own impairs Orb2's function in stabilizing memory. Majumdar was able to do this by generating an Orb2 mutant that lacks the normal ability to oligomerize yet maintains a near-normal concentration in neurons. Fruit flies carrying this mutant form of Orb2 lost their ability to form long-term memories. "For the first 24 hours after a memory-forming stimulus, the memory was there, but by 48 hours it was gone, whereas in flies with normal Orb2 the memory persisted," Majumdar says.

Si and his team are now following up with experiments to determine for how long Orb2 oligomers are needed to keep a memory alive. "We suspect that they need to be continuously present, because they are self-sustaining in a way that Orb2 monomers are not," says Si.

The team's research also suggests some intriguing possibilities for other areas of neuroscience. This study revealed that Orb2 proteins in the Drosophila nervous system come in a rare, highly oligomerization-prone form (Orb2A) and a much more common, much less oligomerization-prone form (Orb2B). "The rare form seems to be the one that is regulated, and it seems to act like a seed for the initial oligomerization, which pulls in copies of the more abundant form," Si says. "This may turn out to be a basic pattern for functional oligomers."

The findings may help scientists understand disease-causing oligomers too. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, as well as prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, all involve the spread in the brain of apparently toxic oligomers of various proteins. One such protein, strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, is amyloid beta; like Orb2 it comes in two forms, the highly oligomerizing amyloid-beta-42 and the relatively inert amyloid-beta-40. Si's work hints at the possibility that oligomer-linked diseases are relatively common in the brain because the brain evolved to be relatively hospitable to CPEB proteins and other functional oligomers, and thus has fewer mechanisms for keeping rogue oligomers under control.

Other researchers who contributed to the work include Wanda Col?n Cesario, Erica White-Grindely, Huoqin Jian, Fangzhen Ren, Mohammed 'Repon' Khan, Liying Li, Edward Man-Lik Choi, Kasthuri Kannan, Feng Li, Jay Unruh and Brian Slaughter at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri.

The research was supported by the Searle Foundation, the March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Starter Award, the Klingenstein Foundation and the McKnight Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

1. Amitabha Majumdar, Wanda Col?n Cesario, Erica White-Grindley, Huoqing Jiang, Fengzhen Ren, Mohammed ?Repon? Khan, Liying Li, Edward Man-Lik Choi, Kasthuri Kannan, Fengli Guo et al. Critical Role of Amyloid-like Oligomers of Drosophila Orb2 in the Persistence of Memory. Cell, 26 January 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.004

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/VZp3lMiJGDo/120127162409.htm

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HBT: Oswalt close to signing with Cardinals

Jim Duquette of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM reports that the Cardinals and Roy Oswalt are close to agreeing on a contract. Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald?confirms Duquette?s report, but adds that the process may take ?another day or two.?

No word on the specific terms being discussed, but Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported earlier this week that the Cardinals made an offer to Oswalt a few weeks ago ?approaching $5 million.? Strauss didn?t think that would be enough to get it done and even pegged the Rangers as the favorites.

As for Duquette, he hears that the Red Sox, Astros and Rangers remain in the mix. The Astros are a bit of a head-scratcher given that they haven?t been mentioned until this point and aren?t anywhere close to contending, but perhaps Oswalt gave some thought to going back to where it all started.

Of course, the interesting part of a potential match with the Cardinals is that they already have five starters and Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook have full no-trade clauses in their respective contracts. By the way, Lohse will make $11.57 million in 2012 while Westbrook is owed $8.5 million this season and a $1 million buyout on his $8.5 million mutual option for 2013. Oswalt has the potential to make them better, obviously, but that could be a messy situation.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/27/report-cardinals-and-roy-oswalt-close-to-agreement/related/

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Japan prices fall, mild deflation to persist (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's core consumer prices fell for the third consecutive month in the year to December, and mild deflation is expected to persist this year as energy prices stabilize and worries about Europe's debt crisis suppress wage growth and economic activity.

Core consumer prices declined an annual 0.1 percent, matching the median estimate, and a narrower measure that excludes both food and energy also fell in a sign that Japan continues to grapple with a strong yen, which pushes down import prices and makes exporters reluctant to raise salaries.

Retail sales fell 1.2 pct in 2011, the first fall in two years, and auto and machinery equipment sales posted record falls in the series, which dates back to 1980. But sales rose an annual 2.5 percent in December, the biggest increase in 16 months.

The Bank of Japan and the government concede that the economy is in a lull, and they could come under increasing pressure to support it with currency intervention and monetary policy easing as Europe's debt crisis weighs on external demand.

Europe's downturn could offset the economic benefits of rebuilding the country's earthquake-damaged northeast coast.

"The stagnation of other developed countries is likely to push back the timing of Japan beating deflation from the mid-2010s as originally thought to the late 2010s," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

"The BOJ will need to keep its ultra-easy stance in the meantime. If risks from the euro-zone debt crisis heighten, it could move for an additional easing in the near term."

Japan's core consumer price index (CPI) includes oil products but excludes volatile prices of fresh fruit, vegetables and seafood.

The so-called core-core inflation index, which excludes food and energy prices and is similar to the core index used in the United States, fell 1.1 percent in the year to December.

Core consumer prices in Tokyo, available a month before the nationwide data, fell 0.4 percent in the year to January. That compares with the median estimate for a 0.3 percent annual decline.

HARD TO EXPECT SELF-SUSTAINED RECOVERY SOON

Annual data showed the core CPI slipped 0.3 percent in 2011, the third straight yearly fall. Japan's consumer inflation has been around zero or minus for over a decade, except a 1.5 percent rise in 2008 on the back of an increase in energy prices.

"Overall consumption is relatively firm partly supported by reconstruction demand. But it is hard to expect to see a self-sustainable recovery in private spending," said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan.

"With uncertainty about the economic outlook and lackluster wage growth, consumers are unlikely to boost spending."

Nippon Keidanren, the country's largest business lobby, cited this week uncertainty about energy, the strong yen and a manufacturing shift overseas as reasons why pay raises are out of the question in annual labor union negotiations in the spring.

Japan's economy will likely show a mild contraction in the fiscal year ending in March but is expected to rebound next fiscal year, supported by reconstruction demand after the March 2011 earthquake.

Reconstruction could help narrow the gap between supply and demand but won't be enough to inflate demand in excess of supply and bring about an end to deflation, economists say.

Some Bank of Japan board members see a slight delay in post-quake reconstruction demand, and the global slowdown is somewhat more acute than previously thought, minutes of the central bank's December 20-21 meeting showed on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Rie Ishiguro; Writing by Stanley White; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/ts_nm/us_japan_economy

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Obama: Spat with Arizona governor not a big deal (reuters)

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Greek military overspending (Americablog)

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In Vt., an attorney general's losses raise doubts (AP)

MONTPELIER, Vt. ? The first was Vermont's campaign finance law setting the lowest contribution limits in the country ? shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The same fate befell the state's attempt to restrict drug company efforts to collect data on doctors' prescribing habits. On a 6-3 vote, the justices said Vermont's law was an unconstitutional infringement on free speech by drug and data collecting companies.

Now, in yet another case that has garnered national attention, the office of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell has suffered a stinging defeat, this time in a federal trial over the state's bid to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Some observers are starting to see a pattern ? one in which Sorrell and his team have gone to the legal big leagues three times and fallen flat on each attempt.

"The state now has sort of a reputation in the 2nd Circuit and the Supreme Court of not having their act together," said Patrick Parenteau, a former state commissioner of environmental conservation who is now a professor at Vermont Law School.

The losses have been costly for Vermont. The state paid out about $1.5 million to the plaintiffs in the suit that resulted in its campaign finance law being overturned in 2006. In the prescription data case, Vermont already has paid more than $1.7 million to a pharmaceutical trade group and is expected to have to pay $3.8 million to cover legal costs incurred by the data companies.

The total, at least $7 million, nearly equals the roughly $8 million annual budget of Sorrell's office. The payouts will come from the state's $1.4 billion general fund.

Sorrell, 64, was appointed attorney general in 1997 by the governor at the time, Howard Dean, and has been elected to seven two-year terms since then. He attributes the court losses essentially to a string of bad luck, some of it resulting from trying to defend Vermont's federal laws before a more conservative federal judiciary.

He also maintains that his office has its share of victories, including a 2007 case in which Vermont defended its effort to follow California in adopting new and more aggressive car fuel economy standards.

"That we tried successfully, and it now is the national standard for emissions from autos, and that will have a profound impact on the quality of our air and fuel efficiency," Sorrell said.

In the three big losses, some lawyers noted, Sorrell's office was trying to defend state legislation that courts found simply didn't pass constitutional muster.

"They've all been tough cases. Our Legislature has pushed the envelope in a number of policy issues," said Sandra Levine of the Conservation Law Foundation, which supported Vermont in both the auto emissions and Vermont Yankee cases.

Sorrell, a Democrat who was re-elected with 62 percent of the vote in 2010, appears to be on solid footing politically as this year's election season approaches. Given his closeness to Dean, still a power broker in the state, Democrats are unlikely to challenge Sorrell in a primary.

And Republican criticism likely would be muted by the fact that the three biggest cases lost by Sorrell's office came while trying to defend legislation most members of that party opposed.

Sorrell acknowledged that, with U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha's decision last week that Vermont Yankee can stay open over the state's objections, his office is coming off a loss.

"I respect the right of people to Monday morning quarterback," he said.

In at least two of the cases, some found fault in the courtroom performance of Sorrell and his team.

The book "A Good Quarrel: America's Top Legal Reporters Share Stories from Inside the Supreme Court," edited by Timothy R. Johnson and Jerry Goldberg, said Sorrell himself was caught flat-footed when trying to defend the state's campaign finance law before the Supreme Court.

"For twenty minutes, Sorrell would have a face-to-face chance to persuade any justices who might be sitting on the fence. Unfortunately for Vermont, Sorrell's appearance before the Court proved rocky," the book said.

As he began his argument, Sorrell was hit with a barrage of tough questions from Chief Justice John Roberts. The book's account says, "Off balance from the start, Sorrell never fully recovered, as other justices picked up where Roberts left off."

Before that Supreme Court appearance, legal observers said Vermont faced an uphill battle in persuading the increasingly conservative court to leave Vermont's limits on campaign contributions in place. It was largely the same court, Sorrell noted, that later decided the Citizens United case, a 2010 decision that critics say has unleashed a torrent of corporate money into trying to influence elections.

In a two-day preliminary hearing in June and a three-day trial in September on the Vermont Yankee case, other senior lawyers in Sorrell's office presented the evidence and arguments. Several observers said they were outclassed by a smoother and more high-powered presentation put on by the legal team for plant owner Entergy Corp., led by Kathleen Sullivan.

The mellifluous voice of Sullivan, a former Harvard Law School professor and Stanford Law School dean sometimes mentioned as a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, carried to the back of the courtroom, while spectators had to struggle to hear the arguments of Assistant Attorney General Bridget Asay, who handled part of the state's case.

Parenteau, who attended part of the trial in Brattleboro and has blogged about the Vermont Yankee case, faulted the state for breaking up its presentation among a team of lawyers, adding that while Entergy used more than one lawyer, Sullivan clearly led the presentation.

"She had a very powerful, cohesive, seamless narrative ? the law, the facts, the policy, everything. The state's case was more fragmented. They didn't have a clear lead who could go one on one with Sullivan," Parenteau said.

Sorrell said he expected Entergy had spent more on legal fees than the entire annual budget of his office ? about $8 million. But he said his office has always reaped more in judgments and settlements than it has paid out. Deputy Attorney General Janet Murnane provided a spreadsheet showing the office had recovered nearly $82.4 million in the past 30 months.

An Entergy spokesman could not say whether the company would try to recover those costs. The company's Chanel Lagarde said, "Right now our focus is on reviewing the court's decision."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_vermont_legal_losses

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'Open for business': Ind. House OKs right-to-work

Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, speaks during a session in the House Chamber at the Statehouse Tuesday, Jan. 24 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, speaks during a session in the House Chamber at the Statehouse Tuesday, Jan. 24 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Indiana's Republican-controlled House of Representatives cleared the way Wednesday to become the first right-to-work state in a traditionally union-heavy Rust Belt increasingly targeted by non-union foes.

The House voted 54-44 to make Indiana the nation's 23rd right-to-work state after Democrats ended a periodic boycott which had stalled the measure for weeks. The measure is expected to face little opposition in Indiana's Republican-controlled Senate and could reach Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' desk shortly before the Feb. 5 Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

"This announces especially in the Rust Belt, that we are open for business here," Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said of the right-to-work proposal that would ban unions from collecting mandatory representation fees from workers.

But Republicans have struggled with similar anti-union measures in other Rust-Belt states like Wisconsin and Ohio where they have faced a massive backlash. Ohio voters overturned Gov. John Kasich's labor measures last November and union activists delivered roughly 1 million petitions last week in an effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Indiana would mark the first win in 10 years for national right-to-work advocates who have pushed unsuccessfully for the measure in other states following a Republican sweep of statehouses in 2010.

Hundreds of union protesters packed the halls of the Statehouse again Wednesday, chanting "Kill the Bill!" and cheering Democrats who had stalled the measure since the start of the year.

"We did better than anybody ever expected," House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer told The Associated Press before debate began on the issue, adding that outnumbered Democrats fought the best they could in the divisive labor battle.

Republicans foreshadowed their strong showing Monday when they shot down a series of Democratic amendments to the measure in strict party-line votes. Democrats boycotted again for an eighth day

Republicans handily outnumber Democrats in the House 60-40, but Democrats have just enough members to deny the Republicans the 67 votes needed to achieve a quorum and conduct any business. Bosma began fining boycotting Democrats $1,000 a day last week, but a Marion County judge has blocked the collection of those fines.

The measure now moves to the Indiana Senate which approved its own right-to-work measure earlier in the week. Gov. Mitch Daniels has campaign extensively for the bill and said he would sign it into law.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-25-Indiana-Right%20to%20Work/id-585b5aaa9d0d45a3846e8ce075dcfd32

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U.S. hopeful on Myanmar sanctions but action may be slow (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States is looking at easing sanctions on Myanmar, but needs to see more democratic progress including a smooth April by-election before it can start unwinding decades of overlapping economic and political bans on the country, U.S. lawmakers said on Tuesday.

U.S. officials have said they are encouraged by Myanmar's reforms thus far, which have included the release of hundreds of political prisoners and spurred the European Union and Australia to begin easing their own sanctions.

But the U.S. sanctions, launched in 1988 and expanded by five laws and four presidential directives, could prove tough to unravel quickly as the Obama administration monitors whether Myanmar genuinely embraces democracy, promotes civil liberties and ends strife with ethnic groups.

"We're looking at it. We're reviewing right now what's available to the president, what's available to Congress, what makes the most sense," said Democratic Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"I think we have to take some measures in response to what is happening over there. But I don't think anybody's yet decided on exactly what the sequencing is," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this month announced Washington would return an ambassador to Myanmar after an absence of two decades, a significant step in the quickening but still tentative re-engagement with the country formerly known as Burma.

RAPID CHANGE

Clinton, who visited Myanmar in December, has promised to match further reform steps with more U.S. gestures, hoping to encourage political change undertaken by the new civilian-led government after decades of military rule.

Those reforms, unveiled rapidly in recent months, have included freeing longtime pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, launching peace talks with ethnic rebels, relaxing strict media censorship, lifting bans on trade unions and protests, and pulling back from the powerful economic and political orbit of neighboring China.

But Myanmar's generals still effectively control parliament after a deeply flawed 2010 election and the constitution, written in 2008, guarantees the military's dominant role in politics.

U.S. sanctions on Myanmar include a ban on investment and trade, a freeze on the assets of certain Myanmar officials and a block on U.S. support for loans from international financial institutions.

"There is a whole elaborate maze of sanctions that has been built up, and to dismantle it is going to take some time and effort," said Suzanne DiMaggio, vice president of global policy programs at the Asia Society and a Myanmar expert.

In Congress, leading lawmakers said the United States could begin loosening some sanctions soon - but probably not before the April 1 by-elections in which Suu Kyi is set to run for parliament.

"We could act fairly soon," said Republican Senator John McCain, just back from a trip to Myanmar, adding that both political parties and the Obama administration itself were consulting on the steps forward.

"The president can act on some, Congress has to act on some," McCain told Reuters.

U.S. officials have said they are looking for concrete progress on a number of fronts, including further prisoner releases, sustained peace initiatives with ethnic rebel groups and a halt to Myanmar's military cooperation with North Korea.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican who since 2003 has been a co-sponsor of annual legislation placing sanctions on Myanmar's government, said the April election would be an important test of the durability of reform.

"I recommended to them that they have international observers there. That's not uncommon in countries that are having first-time elections," McConnell, who this month visited the country for the first time, told reporters.

"If that (election) goes well, then we'll continue to take a look at what additional steps they need to take in order to warrant the removal of some or all of the sanctions."

WAIVERS AND OTHER STEPS

Analysts say the United States could take initial steps such as requesting waivers to existing sanctions, including some to permit travel by senior officials to match the move taken this week by the European Union.

Another possible step would be an administration request for a waiver to a law which requires the United States to block any full re-engagement with Myanmar by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Some sanctions might be amended, but still others would require progress on issues ranging from drug trafficking and money laundering to preventing the use of child soldiers.

DiMaggio of the Asia Society said it would be important for the United States to maintain its flexibility while encouraging further reform, particularly on the economic front.

"What is needed right now are ways and means of responding quickly," DiMaggio said. "There is an urgency because right now a lot of important decisions are being made, a lot of reforms are being implemented, and they need assistance."

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/pl_nm/us_myanmar_usa

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Analysis: Unease as countries try to cut their way to health (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? What do Nobel Prize-winning development economist Amartya Sen and IMF chief Christine Lagarde have in common? They both oppose the prevailing orthodoxy that all heavily indebted governments must cut their way back to prosperity as soon as they can.

And they are not alone.

Even as euro zone ministers thrash out the details of a "fiscal compact" requiring member states to run a more or less balanced budget over the course of an economic cycle, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is among those who have warned of the political risks posed by never-ending austerity.

He and others have called for a matching emphasis on growth, an agenda that European Union leaders will attempt to address at a summit in Brussels next Monday.

Sen, an economics professor at Harvard University, said it was folly for governments to bend all their efforts to eliminate deficit spending.

Apart from stoking democratic discontent, the "austerity disease" sweeping the West was killing the goose that laid the golden egg of growth.

"It is very hard to find adequately pragmatic grounds for severe austerity that cuts demand and makes economic expansion much more problematic," Sen said in a lecture at the London Stock Exchange last week.

Sen suggested that some governments were opting for indiscriminate cuts for ideological reasons or even regarded debt reduction as a moral imperative.

If there is one institution that is ideologically associated with austerity in the public eye, it is the International Monetary Fund. Yet the IMF was an early advocate of pump-priming to cushion the 2008 economic slump and it continues to argue against blanket belt-tightening.

"On fiscal policy, resorting to across-the-board, across-the continent, budgetary cuts will only add to recessionary pressures," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in Berlin on Monday.

"Yes, several countries have no choice but to tighten public finances, sharply and quickly. But this is not true everywhere. There is a large core where fiscal adjustment can be more gradual."

INVESTING IN PRODUCTIVITY

Business is nervous, too, that reduced state spending on education, infrastructure and services to help the unemployed back into the workforce will eventually hit productivity growth.

"In this environment where you need to cut government expenditure, you have to think where we need to keep stimulating and what are the things we can do without. That's a really difficult policy discussion, but it is one we need to have rather than cut everything across the board," said Bart van Ark, chief economist at The Conference Board, a business group.

Broad-based cuts are looming in the United States in a year's time after lawmakers failed to agree on a long-term plan to reduce the federal deficit.

Charles Dumas, an economist with Lombard Street Research in London, said financial markets were underestimating the impact of "fiscal deflation" that was already under way in the United States and would amount over 2012 and 2013 to an unprecedented 4 percent of GDP.

"What we have is a sustained downward drag from government spending, which, if anything, is going to intensify," he said.

The key for investors and policymakers, especially in the euro zone, is to judge how much more austerity is needed to put the public finances back on a sustainable path and how long voters will keep swallowing the medicine.

"Overall, the deleveraging process has only just begun," concluded a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, the consultancy's think tank.

Take Spain. The new government has already announced deficit cuts and tax increases worth around 15 billion euros. But it estimates another 25 billion euros of belt-tightening will be needed to hit this year's deficit target of 4.4 percent of GDP, down from 8.1 percent in 2011.

The corporate sector, too, still faces a long haul back to health. Spanish companies hold twice as much debt relative to national output as U.S. firms do, and six times as much as German companies, according to the MGI study.

"Debt reduction in the corporate sector may weigh on growth in the years to come," it said.

LONG HAUL

Deutsche Bank has taken a stab at assessing the adjustments still required by looking at the euro zone periphery's balance of payments.

Deflating domestic demand through budget cuts will help, in conjunction with improved price competitiveness, to correct external imbalances that have ballooned in recent years, locking Greece, Ireland and Portugal out of the bond market.

Deutsche Bank reckons Italy's GDP does not need to fall much further to achieve external balance, but Greece, Portugal and Spain require declines in the order of 25, 20 and 15 percentage points respectively.

Because their exports are not very sensitive to price changes, most of the huge adjustment will have to come through compressing domestic demand, said Thomas Mayer, Deutsche's chief European economist.

"Hence, with the achievement of sustainable balance of payments positions still not in sight for most of the problem counties, EMU seems to remain at risk for the forseeable future," Mayer wrote in a report.

Trevor Greetham, director of asset allocation at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said any attempt by southern members of the euro zone to deflate their way to competitiveness would perpetuate a spiral of falling asset prices, weak growth, climbing government bond yields and rising unemployment.

"In this context the latest proposal to enshrine balanced budget amendments in national constitutions amounts to an economic suicide pact," Greetham wrote in the January bulletin of OMFIF, a London think tank.

Today's post-bubble world is crying out for large-scale fiscal easing, not austerity, Greetham said: "If some countries need to leave the euro to make this work, it should happen sooner rather than later."

(Editing by Mike Peacock)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/bs_nm/us_economy_global_deficits

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Video: Two Horse Race: Mitt vs. Newt

Debating whether Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich is a stronger candidate to face President Obama in the 2012 election, with Dick Armey, FreedomWorks, and fmr Gov. Tim Pawlenty, (R-MN).

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Westfield Awarded $331M LAX Concessions Contract

brentwood.patch.com:

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners which oversees Los Angeles International Airport, voted unanimously today to approve a 17-year, $331 million contract for management of restaurants and shopping at two airport terminals and the Theme Building.

Read the whole story: brentwood.patch.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/westfield-awarded-331m-la_n_1229514.html

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Should the U.S. Collaborate With China in Space?

LIFTOFF: China's Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, which has helped pave the way for manned missions this year. Image: Getty Images

The next time humans set foot on the moon, they may well plant a five-starred red flag there. The Chinese space program is developing rapidly, and further progress should come this year when taikonauts, a colloquial term for Chinese astronauts, visit the Tiangong-1 space module.

The president?s chief science adviser John Holdren has said the U.S. would benefit from cooperation with China. The two countries could tackle the problem of space debris and, possibly, lay groundwork for a joint mission to Mars. His thinking fits with the Obama administration?s so-called Asian pivot, a shift in focus from the Middle East to China?s growing influence; the idea is that science and technology cooperation could be a useful lever in negotiations.

But federal legislation now prohibits NASA from pursuing any such joint efforts. The relevant clause first popped up last April in a stopgap funding bill, and in November it reappeared in the legislation funding NASA for 2012. The author of the provision is Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, who cites China?s human-rights record and the threat of espionage. The ?Wolf clause? has already had a visible effect: journalists from the state-owned Xinhua News Agency were barred from a shuttle launch last year.

One widely held concern is just who would be on the Chinese end of a hypothetical manned mission with the U.S. It is clear that the People?s Liberation Army plays a major role in China?s space missions, says Dean Cheng, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. ?It begs the question of whether there is a civilian manned space program in any meaningful sense of the word,? he says. ?

Many believe that limited collaboration, such as on unmanned missions, would be constructive. ?We found ways to cooperate with the Soviet Union during the cold war,? says Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.? ?I don?t see why we couldn?t do similar types of things with China.?

So the White House is pushing back, trading legal memos with congressional investigators on the constitutionality of the Wolf clause, which also binds Holdren?s Office of Science and Technology Policy. Although a court battle seems unlikely, a spokesperson says that Wolf plans to keep a close eye on Holdren and his colleagues in the coming year and ?hold their feet to the fire? to ensure compliance.

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Heidi Klum and Seal: Their Love Story (omg!)

As the news continues to develop about Heidi Klum filing for divorce from her husband Seal, some of the supermodel's fans are feeling the shock.

US WEEKLY LOOKS BACK AT HEIDI KLUM AND SEAL'S SWEETEST MOMENTS

And it's no wonder why -- the couple, who've been married for six years and have four children, are famously very open about their relationship and hot-and-heavy sex life.

"He's the most charming, loving, fun, gentlemanly, inspirational man I could have wished for," Klum said back in May in an interview with Good Housekeeping. "He always makes me feel I'm the only woman in the world."

PHOTOS: Heidi Klum's craziest Halloween costumes

The 38-year-old supermodel and the "Kiss from a Rose" singer, 48, met in 2003 and began dating in 2004. They got married on May 10, 2005 on a beach in Mexico.

PHOTOS: Heidi Klum, Seal, and the cutest moments in their marriage

Klum divorced from her first husband, Ric Pipino, in 2002, She briefly dated Flavio Briatore for about a year, and gave birth to their her fist child, Leni, now 7, in May 2004. Seal was present for the birth of Leni, and officially adopted her in 2009. The couple have three biological children together: Leni, 7, Henry, 6, Johan, 5 and Lou, 2.

Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly

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Sudan seized oil worth $815 million, South Sudan says (Reuters)

JUBA (Reuters) ? South Sudan said Monday it started shutting down oil production and accused Sudan of seizing $815 million worth of crude, escalating an increasingly bitter row over oil revenues between the former civil war foes.

South Sudan seceded last July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between north and south, but the two have remained locked in a dispute over how to untangle their oil industries.

The new landlocked nation needs to use a northern pipeline and the port of Port Sudan to export its crude but has failed to reach an agreement with Khartoum over a transit fee, prompting Sudan to start seizing oil as compensation.

South Sudan started shutting down oil output Sunday and expected to finish the process within two weeks, government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin told Reuters by phone.

"The task force has been formed for the shutdown and they are already in the fields carrying out the instructions," he said, listing the Thar Jath field in Unity state as one field where the shutdown had begun.

Officials said in November South Sudan was producing about 350,000 barrels of oil per day.

China is the biggest buyer of oil from the two countries, some 12.99 million barrels last year. That amounted to five percent of last year's crude imports by China, which is also the top investor in South Sudan's oilfields.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir accused Khartoum of having "looted" revenues amounting to roughly $815 million and building a tie-in pipeline to divert 120,000 barrels per day of southern production flowing through the north.

"Given our history with the administration of (Sudan's) President Bashir, we realize that, unfortunately, we must prepare for a disruption of revenue that could last many months," Kiir told parliament in Juba.

The justice ministry in South Sudan's capital Juba published a list of three vessels it said had been forced to load southern oil at Port Sudan on orders from Khartoum.

The MT Sea Sky loaded 605,784 barrels on January 13/14, the MT Al Nouf around 750,000 barrels on January 16/17 and the MT Ratna Shradha another 600,000 barrels on Jan 19/20, the ministry said.

Officials in Khartoum could not immediately be reached for comment. Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told Reuters last week that Khartoum was entitled to seize oil to compensate for transit fees.

South Sudanese officials have said they are planning to build a new pipeline to export oil through East Africa, but analysts have expressed skepticism because of the difficulty of carrying out such a project.

"The financial, technical, and political obstacles to the construction of an alternative pipeline are enormous," Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, an analyst at Control Risks, said.

"I have no doubt both Sudanese governments are under a lot of international pressure to reach an agreement, because the risks of conflict are real at this stage," Gallopin said.

NO END TO ROW

The two countries are expected to resume oil talks soon, sponsored by the African Union in Addis Ababa, after negotiations were suspended last week.

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said this month Khartoum would impose a fee since Juba had not paid anything for using northern export facilities since independence.

Khartoum is demanding $1 billion for fees since July and $36 a barrel as a transit fee, officials have said.

South Sudan's Kiir said his government was planning to reduce its dependence on oil revenues, which make up 98 percent of state income.

"We will need to find other sources of funding. In doing so I have instructed the ministry of finance to initiate contingency plans for revenue collection and allocation," he said.

Sudan's civil war devastated much of the south, leaving the new nation one of the least developed in the world.

The row with Sudan has stirred anger among some in South Sudan, where independence is often framed as the culmination of a long struggle against political and economic marginalization.

Underscoring those sentiments, around one thousand people marched to parliament Monday to support the government's decision to shut down oil production.

The crowd, mostly university students, cheered, waved their fists in the air and carried placards reading: "Looting our oil is a crime" and "We call on the international community to help the infant country."

(Reporting by Hereward Holland and Alexander Dziadosz; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexander Dziadosz, editing by Jane Baird and Jason Neely)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_nm/us_sudan_south_oil

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Environmentalists see reason for alarm in GOP race

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Allstar Building Materials in Ormond Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Allstar Building Materials in Ormond Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, speaks at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Four years after the GOP's rallying cry became "drill, baby, drill," environmental issues have barely registered a blip in this Republican presidential primary.

That's likely to change as the race turns to Florida.

The candidates' positions on environmental regulation, global warming as well as clean air and water are all but certain to get attention ahead of the Jan. 31 primary in a state where the twin issues of offshore oil drilling and Everglades restoration are considered mandatory topics for discussion.

"It's almost like eating fried cheese in Iowa," said Jerry Karnas of the Everglades Foundation. Drilling has long been banned off Florida's coasts because of fears that a spill would foul its beaches, wrecking the tourism industry, while the federal and state governments are spending billions to clean the Everglades.

Though most expect the candidates to express support for Everglades restoration ? as Mitt Romney did in his 2008 campaign ? environmentalists are noting a further rightward shift overall among the GOP field. The candidates have called for fewer environmental regulations, questioned whether global warming is a hoax and criticized the agency that implements and enforces clean air and water regulations.

"A cycle ago, there were people who actually believed in solving some of these problems," said Navin Nayak of the League of Conservation Voters. "Now we're faced with a slate that doesn't even believe in basic science."

The candidates, of course, dispute such a characterization. But their stances have generally grown more conservative. And even when they haven't, they often offer positions that aren't in line with conservationists.

?Romney heralded the passage of stricter limits on carbon emissions in 2005 when he was governor of Massachusetts but last year said it was a mistake. He previously agreed with the scientific consensus on global warming and humans' contribution to it but now says "we don't know what's causing climate change."

?Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich supported tougher environmental regulation early in his congressional career and appeared in a 2008 TV spot with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pleading for action on climate change. Now he's says appearing with the San Francisco liberal was "the dumbest thing I've done in the last couple of years" and is calling for lifting restrictions on offshore drilling and branding the Environmental Protection Agency a "job killer" that must be replaced.

?Texas Rep. Ron Paul said during his 2008 campaign that "human activity probably does play a role" in global warming. Now he calls the science on manmade global warming a "hoax."

?Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum shows fewer signs of a shift on such issues. He has called for more drilling, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and doubts research that points to a human role in global warming, calling it "junk science."

An analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found about $2.8 million in campaign donations were made by those in the energy and natural resources sector, according to Federal Elections Commission data, with about 84 percent of it going to Republicans.

Meantime, the EPA, which is responsible for policing environmental rules, has been singled out for Republican criticism this campaign season. Paul has called for its outright elimination as part of his plan to drastically curtail the federal government. Romney has said it's "out of control." Santorum has railed against the EPA's limits on mercury from coal-fired power plants. And Gingrich has called for overhauling the EPA, saying it should be converted to an "environmental solutions agency."

Nayak says: "There's no doubt that this kind of slate of presidential candidates is one of the most regressive and most closely tied to polluters that we've seen at least in decades."

Some Republican presidents and nominees have been strong environmentalists. Teddy Roosevelt was seen as a role model to environmentalists, using his presidency to establish wildlife refuges, preserve forests, and conserve water. Richard Nixon helped create the EPA that has been vilified by his successors on the campaign trail today. And the last Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, was the chief co-sponsor of a bill that sought mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

Michelle Pautz, a political science professor at the University of Dayton who focuses on environmental policy, said the current slate of Republicans may not be giving much reason to applaud their environmental stances, but it may not matter much overall with the economy taking center stage.

"The bottom line is both with the GOP primary and looking to Obama and the general election, the green vote is a non-issue," Pautz said. "There are too many other issues crowding out the environmental ones."

But Tony Cani, the national political director for the Sierra Club, said taking what he calls "extreme" views on the environment won't play well come Nov. 6.

"They're going to be hurt with young voters, women, families, Latino voters," Cani said.

Jim DiPeso, of Republicans for Environmental Protection, said he hopes to see a shift as Election Day draws closer, but that the state of politics right now has made ecological issues untouchable.

"A lot of the more pragmatic mainstream Republicans just are trying to steer clear of the issue because it's become so politically fraught," he said.

Associated Press

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