Twitter lawsuit threatened over alleged Hezbollah aid

Hezbollah-controlled al-Manar television currently maintains a Twitter account with roughly 7,500 followers.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center is threatening legal action against Twitter
• The center claims Twitter has aided Hezbollah and al-Shabaab by allowing them to use its services
• The center notes that U.S. law prohibits any aid to officially designated terrorist organizations
• A free speech advocate warns of a possible restriction of Internet freedom

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Is Twitter aiding and abetting terrorism?

The director of an Israeli legal outfit says yes, and is threatening to sue the micro-blogging site if it doesn't change its policies.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, sent a letter to Twitter on Thursday asserting that the company is violating U.S. law by allowing groups such as Hezbollah and al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab to use its popular online network.

"It has come to our attention that Twitter Inc. provides social media and associated services to such foreign terrorist organizations," Darshan-Leitner wrote.

"Please be advised that (doing so) is illegal and will expose Twitter Inc. and its officers to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to American citizens and others victimized" by Hezbollah, al-Shabaab and other foreign terrorist entities.

Twitter declined to comment when contacted by CNN.

In her letter, Darshan-Leitner noted that Hezbollah and al-Shabaab are officially designated as terrorist organizations under U.S. law. She also cited a 2010 Supreme Court case -- Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project -- which upheld a key provision of the Patriot Act prohibiting material support to groups designated as terrorist outfits.

"Your provision of social media and associated services to Hezbollah and other foreign terrorist organizations would constitute the type of seemingly innocuous material support that would render your company and you personally criminally and civilly liable," she told Twitter CEO Richard Costolo.

Hezbollah-controlled al-Manar television currently maintains a Twitter account with roughly 7,500 followers. Other groups considered terrorist organizations by the United States also maintain accounts. Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, posts regularly on at least one government-controlled account.

Darshan-Leitner says she realizes there will be stiff opposition to a potential lawsuit from free speech advocates, but told CNN she nevertheless hopes Twitter will change its policies.

"Once you bring it to their attention, they cannot say that they don't know," she said.

Aden Fine, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told CNN that the Supreme Court "has not directly addressed the issue of whether any speech allegedly supportive of a designated terrorist organization is unlawful." But "the government can't force private companies to censor lawful speech just because the government doesn't like the speech or the people making the speech," he said.

Fine noted that since the Internet depends on private companies such as Twitter to function, any clampdown or adverse ruling could be used to restrict everyone's online communications.

Social networks Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been lauded for the role they played in the Arab Spring, a series of anti-regime protests that erupted across the Middle East starting in late 2010. The online networks and instant messaging services were used extensively to spread the word about demonstrations, especially in the case of the Egyptian uprising that toppled longtime strongman President Hosni Mubarak.

A number of governments, however, have started arguing for stricter controls. Authorities in the United Kingdom say rioters used social the networks to coordinate mass civil disobedience earlier this year in London. State prosecutors in Mexico have accused two people of terrorism and sabotage by claiming that their Twitter posts helped spread false rumors about a school attack, leading to real-life violence on the streets of Veracruz.

The Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center describes itself as a civil rights organization dedicated to "combating the terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them through lawsuits litigated in courtrooms around the world." It supported a similar campaign earlier this year directed at social media giant Facebook.

Among other things, the center succeeded in getting Facebook to pull down a page created by Palestinian activists calling for a "Third Intifada" against Israel.

CNN's Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/30/world/meast/israel-twitter-lawsuit/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

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North Korea names Kim Jong-un top military commander (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) ? North Korea said Saturday it has officially appointed Kim Jong-un, anointed successor and the youngest son of the late leader Kim Jong-il, the supreme commander of North Korea's 1.2 million-strong military.

The North's state news agency KCNA said the appointment was made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party Friday.

KCNA said the Political Bureau members "courteously proclaimed the dear comrade Kim Jong-un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, assumed the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army" according to a will made by Kim Jong-il on October 8.

Since the death of Kim Jong-il this month aged 69, North Korean state media have dubbed the junior Kim in his late 20s, as "Supreme Commander." But the announcement on the politburo's decision meant an official approval of his control of one of the world's most powerful armed forces.

Kim Jong-un was not only named a four-star general but also given the vice-chairmanship of the ruling party's central military commission by his father last year.

(Reporting by Sung-won Shim)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/wl_nm/us_korea_north_military

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Pushback (TIME)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180409141?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Facebook Messenger for Windows released

Written on December 30, 2011 at 12:20 pm by Ian Dixon Filed under News {}

Yesterday Facebook?s new Messenger client for Windows was leaked so Facebook have released the client for all. If you use Facebook chat then its worth getting the download, personally I am not a big fan but if you are you can get get the download from fbcdn_dragon-a.akamaihd.net.

via

.

Source: http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index.php/2011/12/30/facebook-messenger-for-windows-released/

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Why Google Continues to Fund Firefox

Just before the holiday weekend Mozilla announced that it had renewed its long-standing search revenue agreement with Google, which will reportedly net Mozilla $300 million a year (as part of a three-year contract). The renewed contract comprises the bulk of Mozilla?s funding and is unquestionably a good deal for Mozilla. What?s less immediately clear is why Google ? which now has its own Chrome browser ? would want to continue the deal.

Indeed, why fund the competition? M.G. Siegler speculates (based on AllThingsD?s report that there was a bidding war over Mozilla) that Google is willing to spend that kind of money just to keep Microsoft from starting a partnership with Mozilla.

That?s one theory. But it may well be that the truth is much more mundane. It may be that Mozilla is just one of a number of payouts that Google makes to help drive ad sales.

In fact, as Mozilla?s Asa Dotzler points out, Google pays out roughly 24 percent of its ad revenues to drive more traffic to its ads:

Not all traffic to Google ads is ?organic? though. To help drive ad sales, Google pays for traffic to their ads. They paid out $2.21 billion, or 24% of their ad revenues in ?Traffic Acquisition Costs?. That money goes to revenue shares with their AdSense partners and to ?distribution partners? ? presumably browser makers, PC OEMs, and mobile OEMs and operators.

As Dotzler goes on to point out Google pays out similar money to Opera and Apple, which both use Google as the default search engine in their respective browsers ? again, driving eyeballs to Google ads. Dotzler?s point being that the Google-Mozilla deal is not a charitable arrangement, but a business deal built around driving eyeballs to Google ads. Firefox currently holds roughly 25 percent of the global browser market, which is certainly a healthy number of eyeballs..

Of course it?s possible that other factors may also influence Google?s decisions. Google Chrome developer Peter Kasting says that Google?s motivation for building Chrome is to ?make the web advance as much and as quickly as possible.? That means, according to Kasting, that ?it?s completely irrelevant to this goal whether Chrome actually gains tons of users or whether instead the web advances because the other browser vendors step up their game and produce far better browsers.? In other words, funding Firefox helps to further the same goal that drove the company to build Chrome in the first place ? advancing the web.

That would be somewhat easier to swallow if other parts of the Google machine didn?t build so many experiments that only work in Chrome.

Regardless of Google?s motivation for building Chrome, or for funding Mozilla, both moves have proved great news for users. And in the end the precise motivation behind the Google-Mozilla deal are something only tech writers really care about. Users care about speed and there?s no question that Chrome has helped spawned a renaissance among web browsers and helped put speed back on top of every browser makers? to-do list (the drive to adopt HTML5 has also done wonders to improve the average user?s experience on the web).

For most users the Mozilla-Google deal just means that there will continue to be a number of browsers to choose from and a number of browsers to help keep pushing the web, and each other, forward.

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5668865109

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Kelvin Frisco F Mandaza shared GS's blog post on Facebook

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Source: http://www.lilwaynesite.com/xn/detail/2086879%3ABlogPost%3A896431?xg_source=activity

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Italy probes report that Colosseum stones fall (AP)

ROME ? Italy's culture ministry said Wednesday that it is investigating reports that bits of rock have fallen from the Colosseum.

Witnesses reported seeing the fallen masonry Sunday. Italian news agency ANSA reported another bit fell Tuesday, but Colosseum director Rossella Rea denied it and blamed the false report on a "psychosis" that occurs every so often that Rome's iconic stadium is crumbling.

Italian environmental group Legambiente has frequently raised the alarm about the precarious state of the Colosseum, charging that auto exhaust fumes and vibrations from vehicles and a nearby subway are damaging the Colosseum's travertine exterior and brick and tufa interior.

A (EURO)25 million ($33 million) restoration, paid for by Diego Della Valle, founder of shoemaker Tod's, is set to begin in March.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_en_ot/eu_italy_colosseum

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Did Columbus' crew bring syphilis to Europe?

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but when he returned from 'cross the seas, did he bring with him a new disease?

New skeletal evidence suggests Columbus and his crew not only introduced the Old World to the New World, but brought back syphilis as well, researchers say.

Syphilis is caused by Treponema pallidum bacteria, and is usually curable nowadays with antibiotics. Untreated, it can damage the heart, brain, eyes and bones; it can also be fatal.

The first known epidemic of syphilis occurred during the Renaissance in 1495. Initially its plague broke out among the army of Charles the VIII after the French king invaded Naples. It then proceeded to devastate Europe, said researcher George Armelagos, a skeletal biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.

"Syphilis has been around for 500 years," said researcher Molly Zuckerman at Mississippi State University. "People started debating where it came from shortly afterward, and they haven't stopped since. It was one of the first global diseases, and understanding where it came from and how it spread may help us combat diseases today."

Stigmatized disease

The fact that syphilis is a stigmatized sexually transmitted disease has added to the controversy over its origins. People often seem to want to blame some other country for it, said researcher Kristin Harper, an evolutionary biologist at Emory. [ Top 10 Stigmatized Health Disorders ]

Armelagos originally doubted the so-called Columbian theory for syphilis when he first heard about it decades ago. "I laughed at the idea that a small group of sailors brought back this disease that caused this major European epidemic," he recalled. Critics of the Columbian theory have proposed that syphilis had always bedeviled the Old World but simply had not been set apart from other rotting diseases such as leprosy until 1500 or so.

However, upon further investigation, Armelagos and his colleagues got a shock ? all of the available evidence they found supported the Columbian theory, findings they published in 1988. "It was a paradigm shift," Armelagos says. Then in 2008, genetic analysis by Armelagos and his collaborators of syphilis's family of bacteria lent further support to the theory.

Still, there have been reports of 50 skeletons from Europe dating back from before Columbus set sail that apparently showed the lesions of chronic syphilis. These seemed to be evidence that syphilis originated in the Old World and that Columbus was not to blame.

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Armelagos and his colleagues took a closer look at all the data from these prior reports. They found most of the skeletal material didn't actually meet at least one of the standard diagnostic criteria for chronic syphilis, such as pitting on the skull, known as caries sicca, and pitting and swelling of the long bones.

"There's no really good evidence of a syphilis case before 1492 in Europe," Armelagos told LiveScience.

In the seafood?

The 16 reports that did meet the criteria for syphilis came from coastal regions where seafood was a large part of the diet. This seafood contains "old carbon" from deep, upwelling ocean waters. As such, they might fall prey to the so-called "marine reservoir effect" that can throw off radiocarbon dating of a skeleton by hundreds or even thousands of years. To adjust for this effect, the researchers figured out the amount of seafood these individuals ate when alive. Since our bodies constantly break down and rebuild our bones, measurements of bone-collagen protein can provide a record of diet.

"Once we adjusted for the marine signature, all of the skeletons that showed definite signs of treponemal disease appeared to be dated to after Columbus returned to Europe," Harper said, findings detailed in the current Yearbook of Physical Anthropology.

"What it really shows to me is that globalization of disease is not a modern condition," Armelagos said. "In 1492, you had the transmission of a number of diseases from Europe that decimated Native Americans, and you also had disease from Native Americans to Europe."

"The lesson we can learn for today from history is that these epidemics are the result of unrest," Armelagos added. "With syphilis, wars were going on in Europe at the time, and all the turmoil set the stage for the disease. Nowadays, a lot of diseases jump the species barrier due to environmental unrest."

"The origin of syphilis is a fascinating, compelling question," Zuckerman said. "The current evidence is pretty definitive, but we shouldn't close the book and say we're done with the subject. The great thing about science is constantly being able to understand things in a new light."

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45797933/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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PFT: Phillips back to work with Texans

AP

During Saturday?s loss to the Eagles, Cowboys owner Jerry Jone went down to the sideline to talk to head coach Jason Garrett, to make sure Garrett knew the Giants had won earlier in the day and therefore the Cowboys didn?t have anything to play for.

Some fans and media members have suggested that Jones was out of line by doing that, but Jones says he can?t understand why anyone would think the owner of a business shouldn?t be involved in every element of that business.

?It has amazed me to be criticized for really walking down on the floor of the company,? Jones said on KTCK-AM 1310, via the Dallas Morning News. ?The more involved your top management, the more involved ownership can be, I?ve always thought made the best way for it to work.?

Jones says he doesn?t act any differently on game days now than he did in the 1990s, and that it worked out pretty well then.

?You didn?t see that kind of criticism very early on, but we were winning Super Bowls,? Jones said. ?And it was the same exact way that we handled our decision-making and the exact same way that we handled our ultimate information gathering system. We?ve been doing it ever since I owned the team. The exact same way.?

Jones says he doesn?t tell Garrett who can play and who can?t, but he did want to make sure Garrett understood that quarterback Tony Romo didn?t need to take any chances by playing in an essentially meaningless game against the Eagles.

?That?s Jason?s decision, but he doesn?t need to be making that one by himself,? Jones said. ?So I wanted to, very briefly, step down there with just a few minutes gone in the first quarter, sit there and say, ?Here?s the lay of the land. Romo?s got a hand injury, but it looks like we?re going to have him for New York.??

And if Jones thinks his coach might not know the lay of the land, Jones is going to make sure his coach knows the lay of the land. That?s going to be the case as long as Jones owns the Cowboys.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/26/wade-phillips-is-back-to-work-with-the-texans/related/

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A Little Help from His Friends (TIME)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/179453992?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Utah woman, toddler rescued by police after seeking help with Facebook post

SALT LAKE CITY - Utah police say a woman used Facebook to get help after she and her 17-month-old son were held hostage at a residence for nearly five days.

Salt Lake County Jail documents say the woman posted on Saturday that she and her son would be "dead by morning" if they were not rescued. That prompted a welfare check at the home by Sandy police.

Officers arrested 33-year-old Troy Reed Critchfield and booked him into jail for investigation of aggravated kidnapping, forcible sodomy, aggravated assault, domestic violence, child abuse, animal cruelty and other charges.

He remained in jail on Monday.

It was not immediately clear whether Critchfield had an attorney.

Police say the woman hid in a closet and used a laptop to post the Facebook message.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/nation/136235563.html

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Back in campaign mode, presidential hopefuls focus (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Republicans in search of their party's presidential nomination are returning to campaign mode after a brief Christmas respite, with Rick Santorum planning a hunting trip with conservatives in Iowa and Mitt Romney phoning supporters.

With just a week until Iowa holds its leadoff caucuses and many still undecided, the final push ahead of the Jan. 3 contests was heading into a critical time. Campaigns planned new television ads and phone calls to persuade holdout caucusgoers still weighing their options.

Romney, who kept this state at arm's length for most of the year, seemed to increase his efforts in Iowa as polls found him in a stronger position. He planned to talk with supporters in a series of telephone calls here and to New Hampshire and Florida on Monday between working on a speech that aides described as his final pitch to Iowans. Romney planned to deliver that speech Tuesday evening and then set out on a bus tour of Iowa.

However, he was to share the highways with Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. All scheduled bus tours to start then, too.

Each is running out of time and looking to derail Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who seems to have the most sophisticated network of volunteers ready to organize ahead of the caucuses. Paul was to return to Iowa this week to meet with supporters he has kept in touch with since his unsuccessful run in 2008.

Others, too, were ready to turn on their own political machines and had fresh ads ready to air.

Gingrich, who last week criticized the negative tone of the campaign, was ready to directly challenge Romney on the economy, an issue Romney has made central to his campaign. Gingrich's standing in public and private polls has slipped as he faced unrelenting criticism from the candidates and their allies.

Gingrich was expected to use clips from Romney's previous campaigns distancing himself from President Ronald Reagan and pitch Gingrich's economic plan as "Reaganomics 2.0." Gingrich also was expected to compare Romney's tax plan with his own.

Santorum, meanwhile, planned to announce support from another wave of Iowa conservatives. He scheduled a pheasant hunting trip in Adel for Monday afternoon. While he trails in polls and has not spent significant money on ads, Santorum is hoping his nonstop courtship of Iowans yields a late surge. He visited all 99 of Iowa's counties during the summer ? an accomplishment Bachmann has feverishly tried to replicate.

Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota, last week darted through small towns, reminding voters that Santorum lost his 2006 re-election bid in a blowout and that Paul's foreign policy views were outside the party's orthodoxy. Looking to recapture voters' interest, her plan was to return to hand-to-hand campaigning on Tuesday.

Perry, too, was looking to keep up his message: his rivals are insiders unable to change Washington. He planned to return to his tour bus on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman kept his focus on New Hampshire. Early in the campaign, he said he would not compete in Iowa and instead make his start in New Hampshire, which comes second on the nominating calendar.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_gop_campaign

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Sports: 'Melo makes Knicks merry in NBA opener

NEW YORK ? Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks know it will never be easy against the Celtics.

Not to beat them in one game, and certainly not to beat them for a division title.

But pulling out the kind of nail-biter that's long gone Boston's way in this rivalry only reinforced the Knicks' belief that they can do it ? and even the Celtics see a difference.

Anthony scored 37 points, including a pair of free throws with the game tied and 16 seconds left, and New York survived a seesaw season opener Sunday to edge the Celtics, 106-104.

"Most importantly for us, as a new team, we showed something," Anthony said. "We came together as a team. Even when we got down, there wasn't no frowns. Nobody was down. Mentally, everybody was still up about it, and we willed our way to this win."

Amare Stoudemire added 21 points and Toney Douglas had 19 for the Knicks, who led by 17 in the first half, trailed by 10 in the fourth quarter, then pulled out a thrilling Christmas victory in the delayed opener to the 2011-12 season.

Rajon Rondo had 31 points and 13 assists, nearly leading the Celtics back without an injured Paul Pierce. But Kevin Garnett missed a jumper just before the buzzer, the kind of shot Boston always seems to make against the Knicks.

"They seem to have a little swag and confidence behind them," Garnett said. "It's good for the city. It's good for the Knicks. I'm going to see how consistent they are with that, but for the most part, Carmelo played really well."

Brandon Bass had 20 points and 11 rebounds in his Celtics debut, and Ray Allen added 20 points.

Garnett finished with 15 points. He and Allen had a sleepy Christmas start, with Rondo keeping the Celtics in the game until they got going in the second half.

"I thought we were as soft as you could be in the first quarter, and then I thought we joined in to the 2011-12 season, and from that point on, I was pretty happy with the way we played," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought we competed well."

But it wasn't enough against the Knicks, who withstood a costly knee injury to first-round pick Iman Shumpert to beat the team that swept them out of the first round of last season's playoffs. Shumpert will miss two to four weeks with a sprained right knee ligament.

Pierce has a bruised right heel but hopes he can return Tuesday when the Celtics visit the Miami Heat.

Even without him, the Celtics fought back to tie it at 69 on Rondo's layup midway through the third quarter. They surged ahead by eight going into the final period after Bass scored the final six points, then extended it to 89-79 on Bass' jumper to open the fourth.

Anthony, who scored 20 in the fourth, tied the game at 100 on a 3-pointer with 3:25 to play. It stayed tight until he was fouled on a drive with 16.3 seconds left, making both for a 106-104 lead. Rondo grabbed the rebound of Marquis Daniels' potential go-ahead 3-pointer to give the Celtics a final chance, but Garnett was off on his jumper, then appeared to shove the Knicks' Bill Walker away.

Coming off their first winning season in a decade, the Knicks added a defensive presence by signing Tyson Chandler away from the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks and have loftier expectations than they've seen in years. The original NBA schedule had them opening against Miami, but instead they got a chance to see if they've closed the gap against Boston.

"I think we wanted to come out and set the tone early," Stoudemire said. "It's a long year, but this game was very important for us to get off to a great start."

Though the Celtics won all eight meetings last season, the Knicks have been listed some places as the favorites in the Atlantic Division, which the Celtics have ruled since their Big Three came together in 2007.

"Everybody knows how optimism kicks in before the season starts, but then once reality sets in after the first month of the season, we'll see," Pierce said before the game. "But it's definitely a possibility. I mean, they have the talent, but we have the talent, too."

Source: http://www.stargazette.com/article/20111225/SPORTS/112250359/1119/

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Man Miraculously Saves His Life As Satellite Fragment Crashes Into His House [Wtf]

Andrei Krivorukov got a wonderful Christmas gift today: his very own life. He saved it after a titanium ball from a Russian communication satellite crashed right into its house, escaping death by just a few feet. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/T4hQRtO85JE/man-miraculously-saves-his-life-as-satellite-fragment-crashes-into-his-house

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Obesity Linked to Higher Esophageal Cancer Death Rates (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Obese people who have had surgery to treat esophageal cancer are twice as likely to have a recurrence of the disease or die from cancer within five years as patients of normal weight, according to a new study.

In the study, published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., suggested their findings could change the way some doctors treat obese patients with this type of cancer.

The investigators followed 778 people who had surgery for esophageal cancer and found that those who were classified as obese (a body mass index of 30 or higher) had a five-year survival rate of 18 percent. That survival rate jumped to 36 percent among people who were not overweight.

"Obesity is considered a risk factor in the development of this cancer, which is known to be both highly lethal and increasingly common," the study's lead investigator, Dr. Harry Yoon, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a Mayo news release. "But prior to this study, we did not really understand the impact of obesity in this upper gastrointestinal cancer."

The study authors pointed out that their findings applied only to nonsmokers who had their esophagus removed. Yoon added that previous research has linked obesity to greater risk for cancer as well as increased risk of death from other types of tumors because extra weight results in a chronic inflammatory state.

The researchers noted their findings could change the approach they take with obese patients with esophageal cancer.

"As an oncologist, I did not typically speak to my patients about excess body weight as part of their care, because we are more often concerned about weight loss and maintaining proper nutrition, but that may change," said Yoon. "It would be helpful to be able to offer patients some measures that they can take to possibly impact their prognosis."

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about obesity and cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111224/hl_hsn/obesitylinkedtohigheresophagealcancerdeathrates

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Grammy Awards 2012: Diana Ross, Steve Jobs to be Honored

Getty Images

Legendary singer Diana Ross, hip-hop forefather Gil Scott-Heron and Apple founder Steve Jobs will be among those honored at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 12.

Ross, who was a member of Motown group The Supremes until she went solo in the '70s, has received 12 Grammy nominations throughout her career -- though she has never won -- and will be honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, along with The Memphis Horns and 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' poet-singer Gil Scott-Heron, who passed away in May.

Jobs, whose life was cut short in October, after a quiet battle with pancreatic cancer, will also be posthumously recognized with a special award for his tremendous contributions to the music industry, as per an announcement made by the Recording Academy yesterday (Dec. 21). According to the Metro U.K., he is one of the first non-performers to receive such an award.

"This year's honorees offer a variety of brilliance, contributions and lasting impressions on our culture," explained Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow. "It is an honor to recognize such a diverse group of individuals whose talents and achievements have had an indelible impact on our industry."

The honorees will receive their awards at a special ceremony on Feb. 11, 2012, during Grammy Week, and will also receive mention during the 2012 Grammy Awards telecast on Feb. 12, 2012, which airs live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles at 8PM EST.

The list of nominees for the evening includes Bruno Mars, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, Adele and many more. Visit The BoomBox's list of nominees here.

Watch Diana Ross' 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love'

Watch the 2012 Grammy Nomination Recap

Source: http://www.theboombox.com/2011/12/22/grammy-awards-2012-diana-ross-steve-jobs-to-be-honored/

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Attorney: Father of bound toddler shown on Facebook 'devastated'

By Josh Levs, CNN

updated 6:52 PM EST, Thu December 22, 2011

Andre Curry, 21, has been charged with aggravated domestic battery, Chicago police said.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: The toddler was being examined by a doctor Thursday
• Andre Curry's attorney says he takes good care of the child
• He allegedly posted a photo of his toddler daughter's mouth, arms, and legs bound with tape
• He is charged with aggravated domestic battery

(CNN) -- A man who allegedly gagged and bound his toddler's arms and legs with tape and posted a photo of her on Facebook is "devastated by the situation," his attorney told CNN Thursday.

Andre Curry, 21, is charged with aggravated domestic battery, which is a felony, Chicago police said.

In court Wednesday, his bond was set at $100,000.

"It's our belief that after the investigation by the state and DCFS (the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services) is concluded, Andre Curry will be vindicated," said assistant public defender Anand Sundaram.

Curry has no history of child abuse and the girl has not shown injuries, Sundaram said, adding that the family is cooperating in the investigation.

The girl was being checked by a doctor Thursday for any injuries, whether old or new, he said.

With the photo "going viral on the Internet, things may have been blown out of proportion," Sundaram said.

Sundaram gave few details, saying he could not comment on specifics of the case.

The photo at issue shows the girl with painter's tape over her mouth and binding her wrists and ankles.

Above the photo on Curry's Facebook page were the words, "This is wut happens wen my baby hits me back. ;)"

The Facebook page appears to have been taken down. But the image was picked up by other websites. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office also told CNN that the caption was with the photo on Curry's Facebook page.

Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office, told CNN Wednesday the girl in the photo is 22 months old.

"The photo itself does not tell the story of who our client is and how well he takes care of this child," said Sundaram.

He said his client will not face the felony charge if prosecutors cannot prove the girl suffered any injuries from the incident. If that's the case, he said, prosecutors could at most seek a charge of misdemeanor battery.

Conklin said the next court date will be December 27.

In the meantime, Curry remains behind bars. He would need to post $10,000 toward his bond to leave jail, Sundaram said.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/22/justice/facebook-father-battery/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

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President Obama Makes His Case for Military Action in Libya (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama went before the American people in his speech to defend his military actions and to better outline the United States future involvement in the Libyan conflict. President Obama described intervention in Libya as a "unique ability to stop violence on a horrific scale by acting in a broad coalition with the support of Arab countries in Libya."

The no-fly zone, which is heading into its 10th day, has so far been led by U.S. military forces. Democrats and Republicans have questioned both the mission, and the cost to the American people. Many members in Congress feel that the president should have taken his case for war directly to them first before making the decision for military intervention in Libya.

The president said in his speech that intervention in Libya presented an opportunity to avoid a humanitarian crises in which innocent people were being killed by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Gadhafi has said that he would show no mercy to the rebels or his own people in order to maintain power.

The president in his speech stressed that the Libyan people in the end will be able to determine their own destiny and that the main goal was not to force a regime change through military action, but through political reform.

"If we tried to overthrow Gadhafi by force, our coalition would splinter," Obama said. "History is not on Gadhafi's side."

In the end, the American people do not know what the final price for military intervention in Libya will be, nor do we know how long we will be there. The president is convinced that "failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America," but only time will tell if he is proven right.

The United States will now have a limited role in the no-fly zone and will continue to work closely together with our allies. Command of both the no-fly zone and the task of protecting Libyan citizens will be handed over to NATO on Wednesday.

The president has a tough road ahead proving that the conflict in Libya is worth military intervention to the American public, but his speech to clarify the role of the U.S. military was a good start. In the days ahead it is important for the president to ensure that the Gadhafi dictatorship ends and a new beginning for the Libyan people begins.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111222/us_ac/8168923_president_obama_makes_his_case_for_military_action_in_libya

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UK: Analysis of activity in the energy markets 2011

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? UK: Analysis of activity in the energy markets 2011 December 22, 2011 23:20 Source: Financial Services Authorty (UK) For the tenth consecutive year, we (the FSA) have written to UK energy market brokers to ask for information about volumes and values in the gas, power, coal and emissions traded markets (?the market(s)?) they operate in. We aim to gather information on favoured routes to market and market size to help assess firms? potential market impacts. This information also helps to focus our efforts in identifying risks to the market through our market surveillance programmes. Our analysis is for the 12 months of trading to 31 July 2011 (?this year?). We surveyed the same participants as last year (12 months of trading to 31 July 2010) and, because the analysis is focused on the UK energy broker market, we have not attempted to include any exchange-traded figures. Our analysis is based on data provided by respondents, which we collated without verification. + Direct link to document (PDF; 223 KB) Category: Source: Views: 30 blog comments powered by Please note: DocuTicker's editors collect citations for full-text PDF reports freely available on the web but we do not archive these reports. When you click a link to find and/or download the report, you are leaving the DocuTicker site. DocuTicker makes no representations regarding the ongoing availability of any report or any external resource. Links were accurate as of the date of posting.

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Iraq PM tells Kurds to hand over fugitive VP

BAGHDAD?? Iraq's Shiite prime minister told Kurdish authorities Wednesday to hand over the Sunni vice president, who fled to the semiautonomous region to escape an arrest warrant on charges he ran hit squads targeting government officials.

The charges, leveled a day after the last American troops left Iraq, have opened up a new round of the Shiite-Sunni sectarian tensions that pushed the country to the brink of civil war just a few years ago.

Tariq Al-Hashemi, the country's highest-ranking Sunni political figure, said Monday the allegations by his longtime rival Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are fabricated and politically motivated. He accused al-Maliki of concentrating power in his hands and torpedoing national reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites.

"I do not allow myself and others to bargain over Iraqi blood," al-Maliki said in his first public comments on the warrant.

He said Iraq is a unified county and the Kurdish authorities should hand over al-Hashemi to the Iraqi justice system.

"We ask our brothers in the Kurdistan region to take responsibility and hand the wanted person over to the judiciary," Maliki told a press conference.

"If they will not hand him over or let him flee or escape, this will lead to problems," the premier added.

Flee to Turkey?
There has been speculation that al-Hashemi may try to flee the country to Turkey, which shares a border with the northern Kurdish region.

The Sunni minority dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein until he was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The Shiites have held power ever since, and many Sunnis feel the Shiite-led government is determined to keep the them from ever regaining positions of power.

Ex-Iraq leader says US left job undone

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The charges raised suspicions that al-Maliki ordered the arrest of al-Hashemi as part of a campaign to consolidate his hold on power out of fear that Sunnis inside and outside of Iraq are plotting against him.

Al-Hashemi denied charges he paid his bodyguards to kill government officials during the heyday of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.

Most of the accusations date back to the height of the war in 2006 and 2007, when neighbors turned on neighbors and whole sections of Baghdad were expunged of one Muslim sect or the other.

Al-Hashemi fled to the Kurdish region on Sunday, before the arrest warrant was announced and before purported confessions from his bodyguards aired on Iraqi television Monday evening. He was barred from leaving the country on Sunday.

Al-Maliki effectively runs the Interior Ministry, where the charges originated.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45750262/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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A Meteorite Didn't Start Today's Six Alarm Fire in San Francisco [Video]

Twitter is going insane with talk of a meteorite possibly causing today's fire in San Francisco's Western Addition. It's all based on a blurry (they're always burry) photograph. Guess, what, that didn't happen. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/RBK7uQnU4So/a-meteorite-didnt-start-todays-six-alarm-fire-in-san-francisco

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Gary Orfield: Southern California's Broken Economic Ladder

Southern California is in serious decline and the future of the great world megalopolis that stretches from the northern reaches of metro Los Angeles through the large and rapidly growing communities to the south and across the Mexican border is under severe threat.

A much bleaker picture of joblessness and opportunity in Southern California exists than political leaders have recognized. A new UCLA study finds not only a threatened middle class but also many more people clinging to the bottom of the state's social and economic ladder. Issued by the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, the LASANTI Project report looks at opportunity and equity in the vast 150-mile-long urbanized corridor of Southern California that runs from Los Angeles to greater Tijuana. Inclusive of underemployment rates -- percentages of workers who hold less than fulltime jobs because they cannot find fulltime work -- rather than just the numbers of unemployed, the report provides a more complete measure of the health of the labor market and highlights its ties to California's educational failures.

Southern California, one of the world's largest and most diverse urban complexes, is rapidly becoming a region of profound economic and geographic polarization. Joblessness has more than doubled during the recession and it is extremely high for black and Latino males. In addition to unemployment, the report reveals, for example, that in September 2011 in Los Angeles County 25% of Latinos and 34% of African Americans were underemployed -- forced to accept part-time work. The former white majority of Southern California has become a minority and we are failing to give millions of nonwhite youth the education they must have to survive and sustain families in years to come. The future of this region belongs to what is already a 75% nonwhite population in Southern California's public schools. Yet the good low skill jobs in manufacturing on the U.S. side of the border are now largely gone, a substantial number lost to the factories in Northern Baja but many also to Asia. The many construction jobs which once flourished during the housing boom have collapsed in one of the nation's most spectacular implosions. Southern California is firing many thousands of its teachers and has slashed state funds for college and created soaring tuitions and severely diminished student services just as the job market is contracting.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer in Southern California. Analysis of the California Budget Project shows that the average inflation-adjusted income of the top 1% of California's taxpayers increased by over 50% over the past two decades (1987-2009). In contrast, the average income of Californians in each of the bottom four fifths of the distribution lost purchasing power and people in the bottom fifth, mostly nonwhite, have seen a wrenching decline of over 19%.

For the African American communities that always live in recession conditions, there is now a depression. For Latinos, who have had high levels of employment in menial jobs that do not pay much the situation is desperate. Things are especially bad for men of color, a great many of whom are in an unforgiving and intensely competitive job market without even a high school education.

It is time for emergency help. We need to do what was done during the Great Depression and even during the 1970s under the public service employment programs in the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter -- to give those excluded from opportunity some connections, useful experience, and hope. We need expanded Job Corps, Conservation Corps, and a Neighborhood Youth Corps. President Obama's jobs bill putting teachers and public safety workers back on the job is a good idea and urgently needed, but much more will be required to reach the Latino, African American and poor white workers whose lives have been shattered by the recession. Economic research on the Carter administration's version of public service employment shows that it reached a diverse and disadvantaged population while providing needed public services, and brought into the labor force many who would have been otherwise excluded. This program, responding to much smaller recessions, reached a peak of 725,000 jobs in 1978.

For Southern California, this is not a sad story about the margins of our society but rather it is a tragic story about the center of our future society, in our vast and immensely productive region. We need urgent action at all levels of government and within our major institutions to refocus on education and substantially raise the numbers of those who graduate from high school and college -- to make this a fundamental goal -- and to put the workers whose time and talents are now wasted and atrophying back to work.

For more information on the LASANTI Project go to: www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu
______

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-orfield/southern-californias-brok_b_1160788.html

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Facebook for Android gets new Timeline feature (Appolicious)

This week, Facebook started rolling out a new feature for profiles on its website. It?s called Timeline, and it presents your Facebook activity over time in a new way.

The feature is now available for all Facebook users, just visit Facebook's Introducing Timeline page to find out more, but Facebook is already deploying it among its mobile apps. Well, not all its mobile apps. Specifically, right now, Timeline is only available on Facebook for Android.

As Fierce Mobile Content reports, the mobile Timeline view starts with a ?cover photo? that you choose, and then moves down the page in reverse-chronological order, showing photos and status updates you?ve posted ranging from the newest to the oldest. Facebook explains it a little better on its blog:

As you scroll down, you'll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the day you were born. Photo albums and other posts are horizontally swipeable, so you can quickly view multiple photos or posts inline without leaving timeline. You can also swipe through the views at the top of your timeline to navigate to your map, photos, subscribers and more.

The Timeline update to Facebook also affects other parts of the interface for viewing Facebook in general. Photos uploaded and shared with friends are larger, for example, and you can see maps showing different social interactions thanks to the Facebook Places location-based features.

Right now, interestingly, Timeline is only available to Android mobile users and on the mobile web, not on Apple?s iOS platform?s version of Facebook. That?s a reversal of history for Facebook, as it usually rolls out new features on its iPhone and iPad apps first. It?s not clear what the delay is for Apple users, but for the time being, you can only enjoy the new features at Facebook.com or on an Android device.

A Nielsen survey on smartphone users from earlier this week confirmed that among everyone with a smartphone who uses apps regularly, Facebook is the most popular. Nielsen says about 80 percent of Android users who have used any app in the last 30 days have accessed Facebook in that time ? and with 800 million users worldwide, that make sense.

It?s not clear if this might signal a change in how Facebook treats its mobile apps, given that while iOS is extremely popular, Android is still more so. But at least for the time being, it means cool new features that might make you happy you opted for Android over Apple. Given how many people are Android users and how many use Facebook, it?s likely at least a few will appreciate it.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles10520_facebook_for_android_gets_new_timeline_feature/43930782/SIG=12vajrmqu/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/10520-facebook-for-android-gets-new-timeline-feature

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Senate OKs payroll tax cut, huge spending bill

President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011 following the Senate vote to approve legislation extending a Social Security payroll tax cut and long-term jobless benefits for two months. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011 following the Senate vote to approve legislation extending a Social Security payroll tax cut and long-term jobless benefits for two months. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky leaves the floor after the Senate passed legislation extending a Social Security payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for just two months, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. The action also extends long-term unemployment benefits for another two months. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Barack Obama pauses while making a statement at the White House in Washington, on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Obama says it would be "inexcusable" for Congress not to extend a payroll tax cut for the rest of 2012 when lawmakers return from their holiday break. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, leaves after commenting to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, after the Senate passed legislation to extend Social Security payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for just two months, setting the stage for another fight in February. The action also extends long-term unemployment benefits for another two months and requires President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline within 60 days unless he declares the project would not serve the national interest. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says goodbye to staff and visitors after the Senate passed legislation extending a Social Security payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for just two months, leaving the stage for another fight in February, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. The action also extends long-term unemployment benefits for another two months and forces President Barack Obama to approve construction of a controversial oil pipeline. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate voted Saturday to temporarily avert a Jan. 1 payroll tax increase and benefit cutoff for the long-time unemployed, but forcing a reluctant President Barack Obama to make an election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.

With the still-reeling economy serving as a backdrop, the Senate's 89-10 vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that produced the compromise two-month extension of the expiring tax breaks and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors' Medicare reimbursements.

It also capped a year of divided government marked by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour deals emerge. It also put the two sides on track to revisit the payroll tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and Congress heat up.

However, House GOP leaders held a conference call Saturday with rank-and-file lawmakers in which participants said strong anger was expressed at the Senate for approving a bill that lasted just two months. No specific date was set for bringing the House back to town or for a vote, they said, injecting uncertainty into the next step.

"You can't have an economic recovery with this," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., of the uncertainty he said the temporary bill would create. "If the Senate is incapable of doing that, we don't have to accept it."

A House GOP aide said afterward, "Members are overwhelmingly disappointed in the Senate's decision to just 'kick the can down the road' for two months. No announcement was made regarding the schedule or plans."

By 67-32, senators gave final congressional approval to a separate $1 trillion bill financing the Pentagon and scores of other federal agencies through next September. That measure avoided a shuttering of government offices that otherwise would have occurred this weekend when temporary financing expired.

The tax legislation delivers tax cuts and jobless benefits that some Republicans opposed. It also represents a rebuff of Obama's original demands for a yearlong payroll tax reduction for 160 million workers that was to be even deeper than this year's cut, extended to employers and paid for by boosting taxes on the highest-earning Americans.

The measure's $33 billion price tag will be paid for instead by raising fees that government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will charge to back new mortgages or refinancings, beginning next year. When fully phased in, those increases could cost a person with a $200,000 mortgage about $17 a month.

Despite the changes, Obama praised the Senate for passing the bill and prodded the Republican-run House to give it final approval in a vote, which has been expected early next week. He exhorted lawmakers to extend the tax cuts and jobless aid for the entire year, saying it would be "inexcusable" not to.

"It should be a formality, and hopefully it's done with as little drama as possible when they get back in January" from their holiday recess, he said.

The Senate adjourned for the year after its votes Saturday.

While Obama and Democrats used the fight to portray themselves as defenders of beleaguered middle- and lower-income people, Republicans used it to cast themselves as champions of job creation.

Headlining that was a provision they inserted forcing Obama to make a decision within two months on whether to allow construction of the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which is to deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The language requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.

Unions have clamored for the thousands of jobs the project could create. Environmentalists have decried the huge amounts of energy it would take to extract the oil. Obama originally announced he was delaying a decision until 2013, which would have allowed him to avoid choosing between two Democratic constituencies before Election Day next November.

When the House inserted the language into its version of the payroll tax bill this month, Obama said he would "reject" the legislation if it retained the Keystone provision. He abandoned that stance this past week as GOP leaders said they would insist on keeping the Keystone language and the final deal jelled.

"The only thing standing between thousands of American workers and the good jobs this project will provide is a presidential decision," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

An administration official said Friday that Obama would almost surely refuse to grant the permit, a stance echoed Saturday by congressional Democrats.

"We feel we're giving them the sleeves off a vest," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Democrats said when Congress revisits the issue of renewing the tax cuts and jobless benefits early next year, they would win the political battle because they would be viewed as protecting peoples' household budgets.

Republicans, though, said they would once again focus the fight on jobs, with some predicting they would try adding provisions to repeal pollution curbs and other government regulations that they say make it harder for companies to hire people.

"There are lots of issues Republicans are interested in as job creators that will still be alive in March," said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

The tax bill would renew this year's 4.2 percent payroll tax through February, preventing the rate from bouncing back to its normal 6.2 percent on New Year's Day. Obama pushed that cut through Congress a year ago as a way to help spark the economy by leaving more money in people's pockets.

A $50,000-a-year wage earner would save about $170 during next year's first two months under the bill the Senate approved Saturday.

Obama had proposed reducing the payroll tax employees pay to 3.1 percent next year. The levy is the chief source of revenue for Social Security.

For two more months, the tax measure would also continue current jobless benefits that provide a maximum 99 weeks of coverage for people who have been out of work the longest. Without any extension, the White House said, 2.5 million people would have lost coverage by the end of February.

The bill also prevents a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors that might have induced some to stop treating the program's elderly beneficiaries.

The spending legislation carries out budget cuts across government that Republicans won earlier this year and includes GOP provisions blocking energy efficiency and coal dust requirements. Democrats fought off Republican language that would have blocked limits on greenhouse gases and hazardous emissions from utility plants and other sources.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-17-Congress%20Rdp/id-34b756704ea34a2483edbbeb9bf45881

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