Canalys: Apple leading PC maker in Q4 2011, if you count iPads

Best quarter in Apple's history? Check. Retaking the smartphone crown from Samsung? Check. How about becoming the world's largest PC manufacturer? If you're Canalys and you factor iPads into the equation, then yes, another check. Per the research firm, "client PCs" (which include "desktops, netbooks, notebooks and tabs") grew by 16 percent to hit 120 million in Q4, from which Apple's 20 million units (15 million iPads + 5 million Macs) grabbed the leading 17 percent share. Cupertino's followed by HP, Lenovo, Dell and Acer in that order -- all of whom, save for Lenovo, saw their piece of the PC pie shrink. Not only did their slices shrink, but without slates the entire tart was .4 percent smaller than last year -- meaning that all of the growth in "client PC" segment was due to tablets. With that kind of statistical precedence Windows 8 can't come soon enough, right Stevie B?

Continue reading Canalys: Apple leading PC maker in Q4 2011, if you count iPads

Canalys: Apple leading PC maker in Q4 2011, if you count iPads originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nicolas Cage, Quote Machine

Actor/castle-collector Nicolas Cage has the tendency to say and do some unbelievably outlandish things. For instance, at a Romanian nightclub last year, he screamed at random strangers, telling them he would "fucking die because of honor."

However, situations like these are not just held to manic episodes in public. Sometimes, Cage will also voice strange things during interviews, like he did in a recent online chat with fans over on Empire magazine's website. Thanks to the number of wacky things uttered by the "Ghost Rider" star during this Q&A, Moviefone now presents, The 7 Most Ridiculous Things Said By Nic Cage In His Empire Interview.

(Seriously, the only thing that could top them would be Cage doing a rendition of LMFAO's "Sexy And I Know It" on live radio. Oh, wait.)

On his character in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance"
"He is a spirit of death but he loves children; he's very lustful, so he's a conflict in forces"

On how his costume in "Ghost Rider" helped him believe he was the Ghost Rider
"On my costume, my leather jacket, I would sew in ancient, thousands-of-years-old Egyptian relics, and gather bits of tourmaline and onyx and would stuff them in my pockets to gather these energies together and shock my imagination into believing that I was augmented in some way by them, or in contact with ancient ghosts. I would walk on the set looking like this, loaded with all these magical trinkets, and I wouldn't say a word to my co-stars or crew or directors. I saw the fear in their eyes, and it was like oxygen to a forest fire. I believed I was the Ghost Rider."

On his critics
There is a school of though that says if you piss the critics off, you're probably doing something right -- and all of my heroes, whether it be in music or painting or cinema, have pissed the critics off.

On his favorite line in his career
"There's a movie I made with my brother called 'Deadfall,' where I say, "Vive la fucking France, man!" That's one of my favorites."

On visiting a haunted forest while making "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance"
"I went to the Bermuda Triangle of forests, known as the Hoia-Baciu Forest, and I went for a drive through the forest and saw a man who was just walking amongst the trees, and I asked him a question, I rolled down the window and said, 'Do you live here?' He said yes. I said, 'Is this forest haunted?' He didn't answer for about a minute, he just looked at me and said, 'Yes.' I said, 'By what?' and he said, 'Have you seen the floating people with no legs?' I said, 'Not yet, but I hope to real soon.'"

On his most "mentally taxing" role
"I think that 'Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance' was mentally taxing, if only because I had to go to a Christmas party shortly after I had wrapped photography in Romania at two in the morning as the Ghost Rider. The invitation had a Christmas ornament on it with Ghost Rider's face on it as a tree. I had a couple of schnapps and went to the party; I had not entirely let go of whatever magic I had been channeling, and all hell broke lose. In fact, I think I kept saying over and over, 'Merry Christmas you assholes!' I am lucky I'm not in a Romanian prison."

On characters he would consider revisiting and directors he'd like to work with
"I would like to hook up with one of the great Japanese filmmakers, like the master that made Ringu, and I would like to take The Wicker Man to Japan, except this time he's a ghost."

[via Empire]

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924402/news/1924402/

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Paul says he has no intention of dropping out (AP)

GORHAM, Maine ? Ron Paul said Saturday the Republican presidential race has "a ways to go" and he doesn't intend to get out or get behind another candidate anytime soon.

The Texas congressman was campaigning Saturday in Maine, which holds caucuses beginning Feb. 4. He spoke to an overflow crowd at the University of Southern Maine and held an outdoor rally outside the famed L.L. Bean store in Freeport. He picked up the endorsement of Linda Bean, the granddaughter of the Bean company founder and a prominent Republican activist in the state.

Paul told reporters that it didn't make sense for him to campaign in Florida, which holds its primary Tuesday and awards all its 50 delegates to the winner. Polling indicates Mitt Romney is leading the field there.

"Some other campaigns have many, many millions of dollars to run a campaign," Paul said. "We maximize the delegates the way we're doing it."

Paul planned to campaign next week in other caucus states, including Nevada, which also holds its caucus on Feb. 4, and Colorado and Minnesota, which hold caucuses Feb. 7.

Paul dismissed suggestions he would back any of his GOP rivals.

"I think that's premature. We have a ways to go," Paul said, adding he was glad they were speaking favorably about some of his libertarian-leaning views.

"I'll work with anybody who wants to come in the direction of Constitutional government," Paul said.

He noted that Newt Gingrich had endorsed his views on monetary policy in a nationally televised debate this week. Paul has called for the Federal Reserve to be audited and ultimately eliminated, and wants the value of the dollar tied to gold.

Paul said he hoped the former House speaker and others would also adopt his noninterventionist foreign policy views, which are far outside the Republican Party mainstream.

"If he says `I agree with Ron Paul, we should bring the troops home from Afghanistan,' my ears would pop up," Paul said.

___

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_el_pr/us_paul

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Video: Thompson: ?We don?t need a bean counter?

A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/46180893#46180893

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Afghanistan's Karzai in UK for talks with Cameron (AP)

LONDON ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Britain for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, a day after France announced it would withdraw its troops a year earlier than the 2014 date agreed by NATO.

Cameron is due to meet Karzai at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat outside London. Britain's Foreign Office said the meeting "is about long-term partnership and commitment beyond 2014 and the need for progress on the political track."

It is also sure to include the effects of the announcement by President Nicolas Sarkozy that French troops would speed up their withdrawal plans and leave the country by the end of next year, instead of by 2014.

Britain has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan and says it plans to withdraw almost all of them by the end of 2014.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_afghanistan

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Mayor lifts gun ban at Town Council meetings

SILVER CITY - On Tuesday night, Silver City Mayor James Marshall quickly rescinded a ban on bringing weapons into Silver City Town Council meetings that he had enacted at the Jan. 10 town council meeting.

Mayor Marshall addressed a full room of residents at Tuesday's night's town council meeting, telling attendees he was going to "take back" the ban and later explained he realized it was unconstitutional, based on a New Mexico Supreme Court case, Baca v. New Mexico Department of Public Safety.

Marshall said he had a whole week of support, with one or two emails a day coming from residents saying they totally supported not having weapons at town council meetings. But then, after word got around and his intent was misinterpreted, opposition started rolling in.

It didn't help that the NRA apparently sent out a postcard to their chapter members in the Silver City area code with some misinformation, the mayor said.

The postcard, which the mayor said he saw, told residents that Marshall had intentions of joining the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group, a national organization of city mayors who promote tougher federal, state, and local gun regulation.

"My statement was that I was approached by the organization to sign on for Silver City and I was requesting input on whether it was a good idea or not," he said.

The mayor said Tuesday night that he is a gun owner and he had no intention of violating anyone's constitutional rights, including his own, or the

three-fifths of the council who are also gun owners. He said his intent, with enacting the ban, was just to make council meetings as comfortable an environment as possible for people to voice their opinions, and that he had been approached in the past by someone who had told him they felt intimidated by someone wearing a weapon at a town council meeting, but he didn't know who that person was with the weapon, and whether it was an undercover police officer.

Marshall said he started aggressively receiving emails opposing the ban on Monday.

"Some were very professional and educational on why this banning guns at council meetings was not a good idea," he said.

Some supported the ban on guns in council meetings but asked why he would he join the Mayors Council Against Illegal Guns.

"Some of them were just really aggressive, like if I want a New York-style gun ban I should move to New York," he said.

But the issue - and the ban - became moot when he discovered that New Mexico case law had already deemed that type of ban unconstitutional.

Baca vs. New Mexico Department of Public Safety states "the Legislature's delegation of authority to local governments to prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons in Section 29-18-11(D) violates the constitutional proscription against municipal and county regulation of an incident of the right to keep and bear arms in Article II, Section 6 of the New Mexico Constitution," and that the "Section 29-18-11(D) is not severable from the remainder of the Concealed Handgun Carry Act and that the Act as a whole is therefore unconstitutional."

The mayor said he appreciated the public's feedback.

"I'm not anti-gun," he said. "I support the Constitution. It was a shame that there was so much misrepresentation and assumptions made. The intent was that people not be intimidated."

*Source: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nm-supreme-court/1377808.html

Christine Steele can be reached at (575) 538-5893 ext. 5802

Source: http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_19823086?source=rss_viewed

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon clip breaks down shooting movies, special effects in 3D (video)

The Transformers: Dark of the Moon Limited Edition Blu-ray 3D doesn't hit the streets officially until next week, but you can get a look at one of the special features early right here. In this video clip director Michael Bay and other members of the production team explain some of the special challenges that came with shooting the special-effects heavy movie in 3D. It required changes to his usual frenetic cutting style with fewer pans and longer shots, as well as extra work by the editors on each element of animation overlaid on each frame. For a longer discussion about the background of shooting the flick you can check out an interview featuring Bay and 3D-master James Cameron here, otherwise just press play, or check out the press release after the break for a full list of special features included when he disc debuts January 31st.

Continue reading Transformers: Dark of the Moon clip breaks down shooting movies, special effects in 3D (video)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon clip breaks down shooting movies, special effects in 3D (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/26/transformers-dark-of-the-moon-clip-breaks-down-shooting-movies/

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Gingrich donor is casino mogul, Israeli hardliner (AP)

ATLANTA ? He's an ardent supporter of Israel. A megabillionaire casino mogul whose Las Vegas Sands Corp. is under federal investigation. And the self-proclaimed "richest Jew in the world."

Sheldon Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich's surging Republican presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich that is run by the former House speaker's onetime aides. Campaign finance experts say the two $5 million contributions are among the largest known political donations in U.S. history.

No other candidate in the race for president appears to be relying so heavily on the fortune of a single donor. It's been made possible by last year's Supreme Court rulings ? known as Citizens United ? that recast the political landscape by stripping away restrictions on contributions and how outside groups can spend their money.

Sheldon Adelson is Citizens United come to life.

"The bottom line is that it creates that potential for one person to have far more influence than any one person should have," said Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign finance watchdog group Democracy 21.

When any candidate is beholden to a single donor for so much money, Wertheimer said, "it opens the door to corruption and influence peddling." Wertheimer said the infusion of cash would raise questions about any decision Gingrich would make that touches on gambling, for example. And similar questions could be raised about Gingrich's Mideast policies.

Indeed, without recent disclosures by news organizations, voters would not have even known about the large contributions until campaign filings due Feb. 20. That would be long after a number of key primaries.

The outsized contributions are stirring some unease among the evangelical Protestant voters whom Gingrich is counting on to help him defeat Mitt Romney. Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called the gambling cash fueling Gingrich's bid "discomforting."

Land said Gingrich should make clear what his views are on legalized gambling.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the candidate believes it is a states' rights issue and does not gamble.

Friends say Adelson and Gingrich met when Gingrich was House speaker and Adelson was lobbying to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich backed the legislation and the two bonded over a shared hardline stance on Israel.

In Cocoa, Fla., Gingrich on Wednesday called Adelson "very deeply concerned about the survival of Israel" and the threat of a nuclear Iran. Asked if he had promised Adelson anything, Gingrich replied that he pledged "that I would seek to defend the United States and United States allies."

Those who have followed Gingrich's career say he has long staked out a tough stance on Israel that predates his friendship with Adelson.

Gingrich "has been one of the few politicians who has had the courage to tell the truth about Israel," said Morton Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America. "I think that is why they became such good friends."

In December, Gingrich proclaimed the Palestinians "an invented people." Israel's Haaretz daily reported later that month that Adelson approved of the remarks. And Gingrich has said that one of the first executive orders he would sign if elected president would move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

Through a spokesman, Adelson declined an interview request from The Associated Press.

His rags-to-riches story as the son of poor Ukrainian immigrants in Dorchester, Mass., is well-known lore in the pro-Israeli circles he inhabits and where his philanthropy is legendary.

Adelson entered the business world as a 12-year-old selling newspapers. He began to make his fortune when he founded Comdex, a trade show that became a staple for the computer industry. He then moved into the casino industry. His gambling empire stretches from Las Vegas to Macau and Singapore and includes the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas.

The FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Adelson's company for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a filing with the SEC. The company denies any wrongdoing and says the investigation stems from the allegation of a disgruntled employee.

The son of a cab driver, Adelson now ranks as the eighth wealthiest person in America, according to Forbes Magazine, which places his net worth at $21.5 billion.

Last year, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, said it received its largest private donation ever ? a $25 million gift ? from Adelson. Since 2007, he has donated more than $100 million to Birthright Israel, a group that sends young adult Jews from the United States and other countries on 10-day trips to Israel.

Adelson is an outspoken supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and owns a widely read, right-wing Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is distributed at no cost throughout Israel and is supportive of Netanyahu.

The hefty donations to Gingrich's presidential bid aren't the first checks he's written to help the former Georgia congressman. He ponied up more than $7 million to help get Gingrich's conservative political group American Solutions for Winning the Future off the ground.

The first $5 million donation from Adelson came at a critical juncture for Gingrich's campaign as he entered South Carolina, stung by a humbling fifth-place finish in New Hampshire's Republican primary. The Adelson money to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich PAC led by former Gingrich aide Rick Tyler, helped finance a 28-minute movie bashing Mitt Romney's tenure at the helm of the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Gingrich was able to leverage the support into a double-digit win in South Carolina over Romney.

Presumably pleased with his investment, Adelson doubled down in Florida, where the next Republican contest will take place Jan. 31. This week, Adelson's wife chipped in another $5 million. The money is quickly going right back out the door.

Tyler told the AP that Winning Our Future had made a $6 million ad buy in Florida. A spot is planned to take aim at Romney's health care plan as governor of Massachusetts and its connection to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, Tyler said.

___

Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Brian Bakst in Cocoa, Fla., and Jack Gillum in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Shannon McCaffrey: http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_casino_mogul

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Julie Delpy, Chris Rock talk "2 Days in New York" (Reuters)

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) ? Back in 2007, actress Julie Delpy brought to theaters a comical love story, "2 Days in Paris," that she also wrote and directed, starring Adam Goldberg as her on screen boyfriend in a romance set in the City of Light.

The movie earned positive reviews, and roughly five years later, she has returned with "2 Days in New York," only this time her character Marion has replaced Goldberg with a new beau, played by comedian Chris Rock. The two are living together in the Big Apple when her family, including a father who hardly showers and an oversexed sister, come to visit.

The amusing farce premiered on Wednesday at the Sundance Film Festival to a warm reception. And Delpy, who directed, co-wrote and stars in the film, sat down with Rock to talk about it, writing the role specifically for Rock and how it was better that he really didn't understand French when they were filming.

Q. Chris, why did you want to work with Julie? You can do any films you like?

Rock: "Really? Tom Cruise can do whatever he likes."

Delpy: "Not anymore."

Rock: "Maybe Shia LaBeouf can? I just liked the script and that is all I need. I don't get into, you know how people are like, 'I see myself as a brand and does this help my brand' and all that nonsense. If I am in a good movie, it will be good for me. I thought the story was really good. I thought the script was great and I trusted Julie and that was enough for me. I don't think I asked her another question. I had seen her other films. I loved her other films. You know, character stuff, not 'movie' stuff.,"

Q. Julie how did you end up casting Chris?

Delpy: "When I decided to make a sequel to the film I wanted him to be my new boyfriend. And I called his agent, who I happened to know, because I have been fired from every agency in town. Actually ICM fired me when I was writing "Sunset" ("Before Sunset"), because they thought I was crazy to write a sequel. They thought I was wasting my time and I was crazy. They said, 'why are your wasting your time?' But, it's OK I am not even mad with the guy that fired me, I am actually friends with him. Anyway, so I called his agent, who wasn't the guy that fired me, I knew him way before that, and basically and I said, 'I want to write a film for Chris and me, the sequel to '2 days in Paris.''... an hour later he called me back and said, 'Go For It.'"

Q. Chris, how was it working with Julie's real-life father? (French actor Albert Delpy) Any strange odors, as joked about in the film.

Rock: "No no he smelled like baby powder, he was great."

Delpy: "He didn't know what was going on between me and my father. It played favorably to have Chris not really understanding what was going on in French. It was better to keep it like that. If the film sometimes seems mayhem, like the dinner scene, it is really built that way."

"I have always been fascinated by language and being a foreigner in America and having traveled many places. I think with human beings, there is a lot of misunderstanding already, especially in relationships but it gets even more when there is language issues."

Q. Julie, you have worked with your father before, how are you similar and different?

Delpy: "My dad is more crazy than me, I am much more square than he is and more organized and much less crazy than he is."

Q. You often get compared in style to Woody Allen and you say you admire him with other directors. What do you still learn from Allen today?

Delpy: "I want to have his career. If I have his career I will be very very happy and very very lucky."

"I also love Robert Altman, I love how he created interaction between characters and this feeling that everything is totally natural and normal."

Rock: "I was going to be in his last movie, and then he died. I don't know why he did that to me."

Q. Julie the comedy was sort of old school farce, playing on cultural differences, but also felt modern. Were you aiming for that tone or style?

Delpy: "I don't really think about what I am going for in terms of the comedy, I am only thinking about what makes me laugh and what pleases me when I am writing ... I like when the cameras moves a lot and it is very lively because I like this feel of urgency and mayhem."

Q. Are you more out of place in France or America?

Delpy: "I am still treated as a French person, but sometimes people are resentful that I love it in the US,. It's a French thing you know, but most of the time I am included in being this French person that has moved. ... It is unclear to them what I am doing and what I am aiming for. They are a bit surprised and they kind of hate that because they love to put people in boxes. But I think that is here, too."

(Reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/en_nm/us_sundance_delpyrock

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Obama pitches economic message in swing states (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama embarks Wednesday on a three-day tour of politically crucial states in a post-State of the Union journey to sell his 2012 economic policy goals while pitching his presidency to a divided public.

Fresh from his address to a joint session of Congress, Obama will promote his agenda to attract more manufacturing to American soil by showcasing the bookends of American industry ? a conveyor belt maker in Iowa that evokes a resurgence of the United States' industrial prime and an Intel plant in Arizona that symbolizes the promise of high technology.

Obama will highlight energy security Thursday in Nevada and Colorado and wrap up Friday by pushing education and training proposals at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Presidential travel following the State of the Union is commonplace, allowing presidents to temporarily bask in the afterglow of their prime-time performances, milking their message before key constituencies.

Obama's trip comes amid signs of economic improvements even as battling Republican presidential contenders appeal to conservatives by sounding increasingly hostile to his policies.

Underlying the president's specific policy proposals will be the election-year economic fairness argument that he has been refining since he spelled it out in Osawatomie, Kan., last month, including higher taxes on the wealthy. Reinforcing the political subtext of the trip is the fact that four of the five states he will visit will hold Republican presidential caucuses or primaries within the next month. The two caucuses ? in Nevada and Colorado ? come within two weeks of his visit.

Obama has made a point of grabbing headlines in states in the midst of Republican presidential contests, eager not to cede the political message to his rivals.

What's more, of five paths that Obama campaign manager Jim Messina has charted to win re-election in November, all foresee winning Michigan, three require winning Iowa, two require Colorado and Nevada, and one has Arizona in the Obama win column. In 2008, of the five states he's visiting, Obama only lost Arizona, the home state of then rival John McCain.

Obama will also use his trip to grant two high-profile interviews, one to the Spanish-language television network Univision and the other to ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer. With Univision, the White House hopes to reach an important Latino voting bloc, a constituency that could be important in states such as Arizona and Nevada. The White House also likes the reach ABC gives the president because the interview will be spread among three news shows ? the evening news, "Nightline" and "Good Morning America."

As part of his focus on manufacturing on Wednesday, Obama's trip to Arizona marks his second visit to an Intel plant. He traveled to the firm's Oregon campus in 2011, when Intel announced it would spend $5 billion on a new computer chip manufacturing facility. Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini, is a member of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Looking to increase domestic manufacturing, Obama on Tuesday reiterated his proposal to eliminate tax incentives that make it more attractive for companies to ship jobs overseas. The proposal would require American companies to pay a minimum tax on their overseas profits in order to prevent other countries from attracting U.S. businesses with unusually low tax rates.

Obama also wants to eliminate tax deductions companies receive for the cost of shutting down factories and moving production overseas. He wants to create a new tax credit to cover moving expenses for companies that close production overseas and bring jobs back to the U.S. He also wants to reduce tax rates for manufacturers and double the tax deduction for high-tech manufacturers in order to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Painting computer surprises viewers with its artwork

Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV What if you were told that your favourite painting was created by a machine? Can a computer produce an artistic masterpiece?

Computer scientist Simon Colton has created software called the Painting Fool, which he claims possesses creative talents. In this video, you can see some of its recent artwork, demonstrating a range of styles. One of its pieces uses visual attributes of the human body to produce a crowd of people, while in another example it uses a more impressionistic style. What first appears to be a straightforward painting of a hand reveals a hidden dimension when turned sideways. This shows the software's ability to surprise its viewers with its creations.

The Painting Fool often seeks inspiration online by running web searches or trawling social networking sites. This approach allows it to choose topics that are relevant to humans. According to Colton, some of its paintings of fuzzy landscapes demonstrate that it has a rudimentary imagination.

For more on the Painting Fool, check out a gallery of its recent paintings or read our full feature: Art-ificial: The virtual virtuosos redefining creativity.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like to check out the work of a life-drawing robot.

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Elizabeth Banks: Platza Treatments Are Really Painful! (omg!)

Rest and relaxation? As if!

The type of spa treatments Elizabeth Banks goes for aren't quiet as and calm and laid-back as some spa-goers might prefer.

PHOTOS: Stars' biggest beauty indulgences

"The most ridiculous [spa] experience I've had was in Budapest. It's known for its bathhouses, and I'd never been to one of those. I had some giant Hungarian smack me with palm fronds," the actress told Time Out New York about her first platza treatment. "It was so painful [Laughs], but I was too embarrassed to say, "Please stop!"

PHOTOS: Skin secrets the stars use before hitting the red carpet

Like Banks describes, platza treatments are when a massage specialist continuously smacks a broom made of oak leaves soaked in warm water over your entire body. The procedure is said to be a natural way of removing toxins and skin-dulling residue from your body.

PHOTOS: See Elizabeth Banks in The Hunger Games

For a less rough-and-tumble service, Banks prefers to get wrapped up like a caterpillar.

"I recently had an amazing mud wrap [in Park City, Utah]. The aesthetician asked if I was claustrophobic, which made me wonder if I really knew what a wrap entailed," the Man on a Ledge actress continued to the weekly regional mag. "She said she was going to wrap me with foil and cover my eyes, which makes some people feel like they're in a coffin. [Laughs] I told her I thought I'd be okay, and I was."

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_elizabeth_banks_platza_treatments_really_painful214751389/44305933/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/elizabeth-banks-platza-treatments-really-painful-214751389.html

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Egypt's Islamist-led parliament meets, rivalries on display (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egypt's first free parliament in six decades got to work Monday with Islamists holding by far the most seats and opponents comparing their grip on the chamber to that enjoyed by the now defunct party of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

With almost half the seats in the assembly, the Muslim Brotherhood is promising to cooperate with the military generals, who took power last February when Mubarak was overthrown, in their transition to civilian rule.

Thousands of protesters who fear a deal between the Islamists and the army to carve up power cried "down with the military government" behind a police cordon near the parliament building, a reminder to those trying to rebuild Egypt's state institutions of the power of the street.

A credible chamber would help Egypt's new political class prove it can govern and the Brotherhood has said it wants to be inclusive and ensure all voices in Egypt are heard.

The session began in somber mood as parliament's acting speaker, automatically chosen as its oldest member, invited deputies to hold a silent prayer in memory of the hundreds who died in the uprising that ousted Mubarak in February last year.

"The blood of the martyrs is what brought this day," said acting speaker Mahmoud al-Saqa, 81. Some deputies wore yellow sashes in protest at the army's policy to try thousands of civilians in military courts.

The session became more raucous when one Islamist member, Mamdouh Ismail, read the oath that vows allegiance to the nation and its laws but added his own words "so long as it does not oppose God's law," prompting the acting speaker to tell him to repeat it without his addition.

An angry exchange erupted later as deputies worked on their first task of electing a speaker.

One candidate opposing Brotherhood nominee Mohamed Saad al-Katatni sought to introduce himself to the chamber, a move the Brotherhood opposed in a swift vote. Katatni, secretary-general of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), was then appointed.

The two deputy speaker posts went to Ashraf Sabet Saad El-Deen of the Islamist al-Nour party, runners up in the vote, and Mohamed Abdel Aleem Dawoud of the liberal Wafd party.

"We announce to the Egyptian people and the world that our revolution continues and we will not rest until all the revolution's goals are achieved," Katatni told the chamber, who thanked the army for fulfilling its promise to hold elections.

He pledged to serve all parliament without bias.

Opponents of the Brotherhood said its grip on parliament was similar to that enjoyed by Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP), which was handed large parliamentary majorities in widely discredited elections.

But unlike the NDP, the Brotherhood does not have an outright majority and must form alliances.

Hossam Hamalawy, a leftist activist, said: "I do not have any high expectations for this parliament because of the composition of the political forces inside ... It seems they're going to reinvent the old regime with very few cosmetic changes."

PROTESTS

Many Egyptians, tired of a year of turmoil, want to give the army's promised transition a chance.

"We won't see something worse than what we had ... I am one of the people ready to wait for change and I don't care if the military council is prosecuted or not," said Ahmed Hassan, a 28-year-old bank employee.

"I want them to achieve the demands that led to the revolution, restore stability and security and get the economic wheel turning again," said accountant Elhamy Abdel Aleesm.

The generals will remain in charge until after a presidential election in June when they have promised to hand over power. Many Egyptians suspect the army may seek to retain influence behind the scenes.

The Brotherhood's rise marks a sea change from Mubarak's era when it was officially banned but won some seats by running candidates as independents.

It is unclear whether it will form a single bloc in parliament, which will have a role in drafting the new constitution by picking the 100-strong assembly that will draw up the document.

"We will cooperate with everyone: with the political forces inside and outside parliament, with the interim government and with the military council until we reach safety heralded by a presidential election," said Essam el-Erian, deputy FJP head.

Liberals were pushed into third place behind the Freedom and Justice Party and the ultraconservative Islamist Salafis led by the al-Nour party. The FJP says it controls almost half the 498 elected seats, with a few re-runs to be held.

Monday's session marked the revival of an assembly that in the early 20th century was a vibrant forum for the nation's aspirations and filled with deputies who vied with the monarch and Egypt's British overlords.

Parliament's independent voice was extinguished after a 1952 coup that toppled the king and swept military-backed autocrats to power. Mubarak was a former air force commander and the ruling military council is now led by the man who was Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

Mubarak's party routinely won sweeping majorities. The best performance by the Brotherhood was when it secured 20 percent of seats in the 2005 election. In 2010, almost all the opposition was all but squeezed out. The Brotherhood and other opponents boycotted what they saw as a blatantly rigged poll.

Mubarak, 83, is now on trial for his role in the deaths of 850 people during the uprising.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan and Sherine El Madany; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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

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Russian liberal says Kremlin bars him from vote (AP)

MOSCOW ? Election officials have refused so far to allow the leader of Russia's leading liberal party to compete in March's presidential election, a move the politician said reflects the government's fear of genuine competition.

Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of Yabloko party, said authorities want to prevent him from challenging Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's bid to extend his 12-year rule by reclaiming the presidency. He said other contenders are only nominal rivals who are following the Kremlin's guidance.

"They aren't letting me join the race, because they don't want to allow an alternative ? political, economic and moral," Yavlinsky said at a news conference.

The Central Election Commission said Monday that more than 20 percent of the signatures collected in support of Yavlinsky's candidacy were found to be invalid. It said it would make the final decision on Yavlinsky's candidacy after checking another sample of the more than 2 million signatures required by law for a candidate to qualify.

Massive protests against vote-rigging that favored Putin's party erupted after December's parliamentary election, drawing tens of thousands into the streets in the largest show of public anger since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The protests have posed a surprise challenge to Putin's plan of easing back into the presidency, a post he held from 2000-2008.

Yavlinsky's party, which failed to clear a 7-percent threshold required to win seats in parliament, fielded thousands of election observers, who documented evidence of official fraud in favor of Putin's United Russia party in December's vote.

Under the law, observers at the polls can only be named by participants in the race. Yavlinsky charged that a decision to bar him from running also was rooted in authorities' reluctance to allow strong monitoring of the March 4 presidential vote.

The election commission already has registered Putin and three other contenders: Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and socialist Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov. Since their parties are represented in the parliament, their registration is easier than for other potential candidates.

Election officials also signaled Monday they would register billionaire tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, saying that a preliminary check of lists of signatures in his support had shown they correspond to legal norms. Prokhorov owns 80 percent of the New Jersey Nets basketball team.

Yavlinsky said all these candidates represent "different faces of the government" and warned that the refusal to allow him to join the race would undermine the vote's legitimacy and could foment unrest.

"The refusal to allow an alternative ? a choice ? would erode trust in the vote and deal a blow to its legitimacy," he said. "The less trust and legitimacy are there, the more unpredictable and violent the situation in the country will be."

Putin has tried to play down the massive protests against his rule, casting their leaders as Western stooges. He also has sought to portray himself as the indispensable leader who will guarantee his nation's stability, warning that his radical opponents could push Russia into chaos and violence.

Polls show that Putin continues to enjoy a strong public support, but probably not enough to win a first-round victory. Putin needs to win more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Putin has refused to take part in televised debates with other contenders, relying instead on ample coverage of his daily activities as prime minister by state-controlled nationwide television stations. He also has published articles outlining his election platform.

An article published Monday in the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta outlined Putin's views on ethnic issues. Putin suggested, among other things, that Russia should toughen registration rules for migrant workers.

That proposal is likely to please Russian nationalists, who have voiced growing resentment over the influx into Moscow and other cities of dark-skinned Muslim migrants from other ex-Soviet nations and Russia's own North Caucasus region.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_election

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Jobs, re-election frame Obama's State of the Union (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Vilified on the campaign trail by Republicans, President Barack Obama will stand before the nation Tuesday night with a State of the Union address designed to reframe the election-year debate on his terms, suggesting a stark contrast with his opponents on the economy and promising fairness and help for hurting families.

Obama is expected to offer new proposals to make college more affordable, to ease the housing crisis still slowing the economy, and to boost American manufacturing, according to people familiar with the speech. He will also promote unfinished parts of his jobs plan, including the extension of a payroll tax cut soon to expire.

In essence, this State of the Union is not so much about the year ahead as the four more years Obama wants after that.

Obama's splash of policy proposals will be less important than what he hopes they all add up to: a narrative of renewed American security. Obama will try to politically position himself as the one leading that fight for the middle class, with an overt call for help from Congress, and an implicit request for a second term from the public.

The timing comes as the nation is split about Obama's overall job performance. More people than not disapprove of his handling of the economy, he is showing real vulnerability among the independent voters who could swing the election, and most Americans think the country is on the wrong track.

So his mission will be to show leadership and ideas on topics that matter to people: jobs, housing, college, retirement security.

The White House sees the speech as a clear chance to outline a vision for re-election, yet carefully, without turning a national tradition into an overt campaign event.

On national security, Obama will defend his foreign policies but is not expected to announce new ones on Iran or any other front. He will ask the nation to reflect with him on a momentous year of change, including the end of the war in Iraq, the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the Arab Spring protests of peoples clamoring for freedom.

But it will all be secondary to jobs at home.

In a winter season of politics dominated by his Republican competition, Obama will have a grand stage to himself, in a window between Republican primaries. He will try to use the moment to refocus the debate as he sees it: where the country has come, and where he wants to take it.

In doing so, Obama will come before a divided Congress with a burst of hope because the economy ? by far the most important issue to voters ? is showing life.

The unemployment rate is still at a troubling 8.5 percent, but at its lowest rate in nearly three years. Consumer confidence is up. Obama will use that as a springboard.

The president will try to draw a contrast of economic visions with Republicans, both his antagonists in Congress and the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

The foundation of Obama's speech is the one he gave in Kansas last month, when he declared that the middle class was a make-or-break moment and railed against "you're on your own" economics of the Republican Party. His theme then was about a government that ensures people get a fair shot to succeed.

That speech spelled out the values of Obama's election-year agenda. The State of the Union will be the blueprint to back it up.

Despite low expectations for legislation this year, Obama will offer short-term ideas that would require action from Congress. His travel schedule following his speech, to politically important regions, offers clues to the policies he was expected to unveil.

Both Phoenix and Las Vegas have been hard hit by foreclosures. Denver is where Obama outlined ways of helping college students deal with mounting school loan debt. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Detroit are home to a number of manufacturers. And Michigan was a major beneficiary of the president's decision to provide billions in federal loans to rescue General Motors and Chrysler in 2009.

For now, the main looming to-do item is an extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, both due to expire by March. An Obama spokesman called that the "last must-do item of business" on Obama's congressional agenda, but the White House insists the president will make the case for more this year.

If anything, Republicans say Obama has made the chances of cooperation even dimmer just over the last several days. He enraged Republicans by installing a consumer watchdog chief by going around the Senate, which had blocked him, and then rejected a major oil pipeline project the GOP has embraced.

Obama is likely, once again, to offer ways in which a broken Washington must work together. Yet that theme seems but a dream given the gridlock he has been unable to change.

The State of the Union atmosphere offered a bit of comity last year, following the assassination attempt against Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. And yet 2011 was a year of utter dysfunction in Washington, with the partisanship getting so bad that the government nearly defaulted as the world watched in embarrassment.

The address remains an old-fashioned moment of national attention; 43 million people watched it on TV last year. The White House website will offer a live stream of the speech, promising graphics and other bonuses for people who watch it there, plus a panel of administration officials afterward with questions coming in through Twitter and Facebook.

__

AP deputy director of polling Jennifer Agiesta and Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_state_of_the_union

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Joe Paterno, revered coach tainted by scandal, dies (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? Penn State's Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football history who was fired in November over a child sexual abuse scandal involving an assistant that rocked America, died on Sunday of lung cancer. He was 85.

Paterno won adoration from fans of the highly successful and profitable Penn State football program and they unleashed invective at the university board of trustees who fired him unceremoniously after 46 years as head coach, tarnishing his outsized legacy.

Equally outraged were his critics and advocates for victims of sexual abuse who faulted Paterno for his relative inaction upon hearing an accusation that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused a young boy in the Penn State football showers in 2002.

Paterno told university officials but not police, opening him to criticism that he protected an accused child molester for nine years.

Sandusky, 67, who has maintained his innocence, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of a The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court placed him under house arrest.

Waves of mourners descended on a makeshift shrine to Paterno outside the university's Beaver Stadium. They draped an American flag on a statue of Paterno and wrapped its neck with a Penn State scarf.

Sobbing at the statue's feet was Dana Gordon, a 1982 graduate who blamed the school's board of trustees for hastening Paterno's death by firing him in a "callous way."

"The way the board treated him took a lot of the fight out of him," Gordon said.

Later, a few thousand mourners braved freezing cold temperatures to attend a vigil. Many held candles while the football team's marching band played somber music, including "Amazing Grace."

"I am not only a better player because of him, but also a better person as well," Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin said in a ceremony that made only vague references to the scandal. "This guy was not only a football coach. He was also a father, a husband, and I consider him a friend."

The scandal raised questions about the measures the university took to protect Sandusky and a football program that Forbes magazine estimated made a profit of $53 million in 2010, especially since accusations against him first surfaced in 1998. At that time a university police detective admonished Sandusky to stop showering naked with boys but stopped short of bringing criminal charges.

One of the biggest scandals in college sports history, it provoked a national discussion about pedophilia in the same way charges involving Roman Catholic priests did years earlier.

The matter also drew impassioned arguments about the balance between protecting the young and the rights of criminal defendants, who are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

"I hope his passing and the controversy surrounding Sandusky will deter other people, especially powerful people, from covering up child sex crimes," said David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group.

"Even decades of professional achievement should not obscure dreadfully reckless and callous inaction that results in child sex crimes," Clohessy said.

Sandusky issued a statement sending condolences to the Paterno family but did not mention the investigation.

"Nobody did more for the academic reputation of Penn State than Joe Paterno. He maintained a high standard in a very difficult profession," Sandusky said.

Paterno won a reputation for making sure his players graduated and one of the program's mottos was "Success With Honor."

Paterno's downfall was spectacular. For decades he was a symbol of vitality who patrolled the Penn State sidelines with unchallenged authority, easily recognizable by his thick eyeglasses and jet-black hair that grayed a little in his later years. His two national championships, in 1982 and 1986, won him enduring loyalty from fans who affectionately called him "JoePa."

In the end, he was confined to a wheelchair upon breaking his hip in a fall one month after being fired, and he wore a wig after losing his hair to chemotherapy, according to the Washington Post, which interviewed Paterno about a week before his death.

Paterno was surrounded by family when he died 9:25 a.m. on Sunday of metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung, Mount Nittany Medical Center said in a statement.

IMPACT ON CRIMINAL CASE

Paterno's death may not significantly affect the case against Sandusky, but was more likely to weaken the criminal case against two university officials charged with perjury, legal experts said.

Paterno learned of at least one accusation against Sandusky in 2002, when graduate assistant Mike McQueary told Paterno he witnessed Sandusky molesting a boy of about 10 years old in the showers of the Lasch Football Building.

Paterno told university officials but not police, a decision that ultimately led to his downfall.

Paterno, in an interview with the Washington Post published on January 14, said he was uncertain how to handle the matter and trusted the university administration.

Paterno testified before the grand jury that he informed former athletic director Tim Curley about what McQueary told him. About 10 days later, McQueary testified, he was called to a meeting with Curley and university finance official Gary Schultz to discuss what happened.

Curley and Schultz both face perjury charges based on their inaction. Schultz also testified before the grand jury he was aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky.

University President Graham Spanier was fired along with Paterno, and Curley and Schultz stepped down.

"If he (Paterno) had known the devastation that this means, he would have reacted differently," said Peter Pelullo, founder of Let Go, Let Peace Come In, a support group helping some of Sandusky's accusers with counseling.

Because Paterno was not believed to have witnessed any purported abuse, his testimony would not have been crucial to Sandusky trial, said Paul Callan, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney.

But his death could set back the criminal case against Curley and Schultz because they will be denied the chance to cross-examine an important witness.

Max Kennerly, a Philadelphia trial lawyer who has followed the case, said Paterno's death was unlikely to alter any civil litigation being contemplated by Sandusky's accusers. If any were considering suing Paterno, they could just name his estate.

"Death doesn't change your status as a party," Kennerly said.

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson, Barbara Goldberg, Noeleen Walder and Andrew Longstreth; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/us_nm/us_usa_paterno

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NES controller lets you stomp Koopas, save Princess Peach in capacitive fashion (video)

Is your NES controller in another castle? Maybe you're just pining for your smartphone's capacitive game controls for some reason. Regardless, here's a little piece of tech that just might put the fire in your flower: the capacitive touch NES controller. This sucker is milled from a copper board using a device called the MezzoMill, which -- besides making turtle-stomping peripherals -- also can be used to produce guitar effect pads, virtual keyboards, bicycle rim lights and all sorts of circuits that might tickle your fancy. Unfortunately, the creator isn't as well-funded as this inkjet-based control circuit project so he's trying to raise money through Kickstarter to make the mill in a large enough run to lower costs. Given how Kickstarter generated nearly $100 million in funding last year, maybe he's got a fighting chance. See the buttonless controller work its capacitive magic after the break.

Continue reading NES controller lets you stomp Koopas, save Princess Peach in capacitive fashion (video)

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Iran's Gulf smugglers feel blowback from tensions

KHASAB, Oman (AP) ? By dawn, the unmarked speedboats from Iran pull into port. By dusk, they are racing back across the Strait of Hormuz loaded with smuggled consumer goods ranging from Chinese-made shoes to cut flowers from Holland.

Even as sanctions squeeze Iran ever tighter, there's one clandestine route that remains open for business: A short sea corridor across the Persian Gulf connecting a rocky nub of Oman and the Iranian coast about 35 miles (60 kilometers) away.

Yet even this established smugglers' path is now feeling the bite from the pressures on Iran over its nuclear program.

Business is sharply down, the middlemen and boat crews say, as the slumping Iranian currency leaves fewer customers for the smuggled wares. At the same time, the risks of interception are higher as Iranian authorities step up patrols near the strategic oil tanker lanes at the mouth of the Gulf.

The strait, which is the only access in and out of the Gulf, has been the scene of Cold War-style brinksmanship between Iran and the West after Tehran last month threatened to block the passageway for about one-sixth of the world's oil in retaliation for new U.S. sanctions.

"We used to make two or three trips across every day. Now, it's maybe one," said an Iranian middleman, who gave only his first name Agheel to protect his identity from authorities in his homeland.

He watched crews load up a pickup truck with bolts of fabric from Pakistan and table-size boxes of cut flowers from the Netherlands, before the trucks headed off through the treeless mountains to Khasab port.

The operation smuggles in merchandise to avoid Iranian tariffs and to bring in American and European products that have disappeared from Iranian markets because of international sanctions. Experts note that the consumer items post no real challenge to efforts to block material with military or nuclear uses.

"Still, it shows you can't close off all channels into Iran no matter how hard you try," said Paul Rogers, who follows security affairs at Bradford University in Britain. "People will find a way."

On this side of the Gulf, the smugglers operate under a tacit tolerance from authorities, even though Oman and the United Arab Emirates are close U.S. allies and have pledged to enforce sanctions. The port lies in a sparsely populated peninsula enclave belonging to Oman but encircled on land by the UAE, a legacy of how the area was carved up in the final days of British rule here in the last century that resulted in Oman holding joint control with Iran over the strait.

The goods are legally imported into the UAE and truck drivers take them across the border, paying the customary 50 dirham ($13.50) entry fee, according to the smugglers interviewed by The Associated Press. In Khasab, the merchandise is taken to warehouses and then piled on the docks less than 100 yards (100 meters) from the port police headquarters.

Omani authorities did not respond to requests for comment on the traffic.

The Khasab speedboats are far from the only back channel into Iran. Drug traffickers easily cross the hinterland borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, and black market networks stretch across the frontiers with Iraq and Turkey. Authorities in Iraq's Kurdish region have been under pressure for years to crack down on fuel trucks heading into Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

But Khasab stands out for its openness and for lying on the highly sensitive Strait.

A shipment arranged by the Iranian smuggler Agheel this week was done with practiced efficiency.

A pickup truck backed into a wood-floored warehouse with hundreds of cases of cigarettes bundled three together and wrapped tightly in gray plastic weave ? in total 3,000 cigarettes under south Asian brands such as Ruby Menthol. The truck was soon sagging under the weight of boxes piled five high.

Agheel did some quick calculations: Each three-case load cost him about $1,200 and he could sell them to merchants in Iran for the equivalent of about $1,350 under current exchange rates. The truck pulling out of the warehouse represented a potential return of about $4,500.

"If we don't get caught," he added.

The smugglers have their ways of avoiding Iranian authorities.

Spotters off the coast ? on the island of Qeshm and near the port of Bandar Abbas ? call in coast guard movements to Khasab. The speedboat drivers keep close attention to the water conditions on the Strait and try to approach the Iranian coast just after sunset. The trip can take as little as 90 minutes in calm seas and up to four hours in rough water in the stripped down stripped-down 16-foot (five-meter) fiberglass boats.

Agheel's truck passed through the Khasab customs station at midday and then down a strip of hardscrabble road.

At the port ? almost in the shadow of a Costa cruise ship making a day stop ? dozens of boats were being packed and secured for the trip. There were no names or markings on the speedboats. But the items loaded on carried familiar logos: LG 42-inch flatscreen TVs, Discovery Channel DVDs, Panasonic microwaves, Yamaha motorcycle parts. Also in the stacks were textiles, satellite dishes and Chinese-made clothes and shoes.

One boat driver, who gave his name only as Aziz, had a breakfast of eggs, beans and Mountain Dew as he waited for the day's shipment to be loaded for the return run to Qeshm, a long arrow-shaped island near the Iranian coast and a main waystation for the smugglers.

Months ago, he could make as many trips as possible because the merchants in Iran were demanding goods.

But now the struggling Iranian rial ? dragged down partly by U.S.-led sanctions that could target Iran's Central Bank ? has put many things out of reach for Iranians, he said.

"No one wants to buy because the (rial) rate is not stable," he said.

He also said the Iranian coastal patrols have been boosted amid the escalating tensions over the Strait.

On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the American military is "fully prepared" to deal with any Iranian effort to close the waterway. Next month, Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard plans naval exercises in the area.

If spotted by patrols, Aziz said the two-man boat crews try to heave the goods overboard. They then must pay back the smuggling network, which can amount to thousands of dollars.

But it's worth the risk, he said.

"The situation is getting worse now," he said. "All the prices are up and Qeshm has nothing else" except smuggling.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-22-ML-Smugglers-in-the-Strait/id-e2bd6b95b8ef45589402dbff56f3a2b1

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Murdoch pays Jude Law $200K over phone hacking

LONDON?? Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper company on Thursday agreed to pay actor Jude Law 130,000 pounds (about $200,000) to settle claims against the News of the World and The Sun tabloids.

Law's settlement was among three dozen announced Thursday in payouts totaling about $1 million.

News Group Newspapers (NGN) accepted that 16 articles about Law published in the now-defunct News of the World tabloid between 2003 and 2006 had been obtained by phone hacking, and that the actor had also been placed under "repeated and sustained physical surveillance."

The company also admitted that articles in The Sun tabloid misused Law's private information but did not give further details.

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Video: Piers Morgan grilled at UK hacking probe (on this page)

The agreement with the actor was among 36 cases the company said Thursday it would be settling, including soccer player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Chris Shipman, son of a serial killer Harold Shipman.

They are among dozens of people who were suing News Group Newspapers after their mobile phone voicemails were allegedly hacked by the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid. Other cases settled include those of former government ministers Chris Bryant, Tessa Jowell, ex-model Abi Titmuss and Sara Payne, who is the mother of a murdered girl, rugby player Gavin Henson, Princess Diana's former lover James Hewitt and singer Dannii Minogue.

Actress Sienna Miller had reached an earlier settlement with the company.

News International, the parent company of Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, said it did not admit that senior staff knew of the wrongdoing and tried to cover it up ? but it said that "for the purpose of reaching these settlements only, News Group Newspapers agreed that the damages to be paid to claimants should be assessed as if this was the case."

Financial details of 15 of the payouts, totaling more than 640,000 pounds (about $1 million), were made public at a court hearing Thursday. The amounts generally ran into the tens of thousands of pounds ? although Law received 130,000 pounds (about $200,000), plus legal costs, to settle claims.

In a statement that could further damage the company's reputation, lawyers for victims who have reached settlements said the agreements were based on News Group Newspapers acknowledging senior executives tried to hide evidence.

"News Group has agreed to compensation being assessed on the basis that senior employees and directors of NGN knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence," the statement said.

Video: Celebrities testify in phone-hacking hearing (on this page)

In all, Murdoch's company was facing 60 hacking lawsuits. The settlements were made public at a court hearing in London on Thursday.

Mark Lewis, a lawyer for many of the phone hacking victims, said in an email that the fight against Murdoch's empire was not over.

"While congratulations are due to those (lawyers) and clients who have settled their cases, it is important that we don't get carried away into thinking that the war is over," Lewis said. "Fewer than 1 percent of the people who were hacked have settled their cases. There are many more cases in the pipeline. ... This is too early to celebrate, we're not even at the end of the beginning."

News International set up a compensation scheme in November to deal with phone-hacking claims, moving to contain the consequences of a scandal that has rocked the company, the British press, police and the political establishment.

It has already received more than 60 claims and police say there are almost 6,000 potential victims.

Video: Hugh Grant blasts tabloids at hearings (on this page)

Lawyers for the victims said they had obtained documents from News International that revealed its attempts to destroy evidence, partly thanks to the fact that the 12 solicitors' firms involved had joined forces to work together.

"As a result, documents relating to the nature and scale of the conspiracy, a cover up and the destruction of evidence/email archives by News Group have now been disclosed to the claimants," their statement said.

"In the face of this overwhelming evidence, the 'rogue reporter' position has disintegrated and the range, scale and extent of phone-hacking has become clear."

News International had for years claimed that any hacking was the work of a single, "rogue" reporter, who was jailed for the offence in 2007. Last year, it admitted the problem was more widespread and paid compensation to several victims.

In July, after it emerged that the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, later found dead, had been hacked by the News of the World, News Corp took the drastic step of shutting down the 168-year-old tabloid.

The scandal forced the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman, a former News of the World editor. British police were accused of failing to properly investigate the affair and top police officials resigned.

Criminal probes are now under way into the phone hacking and allegations of payoffs to police. Cameron launched a judge-led inquiry into Britain's press ethics. News Corp was forced to scrap plans to take full control of Britain's highly profitable satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Hearings in the first cases of victims who have not settled are set to begin on February 13.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46053202/ns/world_news-europe/

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