On This Day in History February 8

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 326 days remaining until the end of the year (327 in leap years).

On this day in 1828, Jules Gabriel Verne is born in Nantes, Brittany in France. He was a French author who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is best known for novels such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the third most translated individual author in the world, according to Index Translationum. Some of his books have been made into films. Verne, along with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells, is often popularly referred to as the “Father of Science Fiction”.

Literary debut

After completing his studies at the lycée, Verne went to Paris to study for the bar. About 1848, in conjunction with Michel Carré, he began writing libretti for operettas. For some years his attentions were divided between the theatre and work, but some travellers’ stories which he wrote for the Musée des Familles revealed to him his true talent: the telling of delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly prepared scientific and geographical details lent an air of verisimilitude.

When Verne’s father discovered that his son was writing rather than studying law, he promptly withdrew his financial support. Verne was forced to support himself as a stockbroker, which he hated despite being somewhat successful at it. During this period, he met Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, pére, who offered him writing advice.

Verne also met Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow with two daughters. They were married on January 10 1857. With her encouragement, he continued to write and actively looked for a publisher.

Verne’s situation improved when he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one of the most important French publishers of the 19th century, who also published Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, and Erckmann-Chatrian, among others. They formed an excellent writer-publisher team until Hetzel’s death. Hetzel helped improve Verne’s writings, which until then had been repeatedly rejected by other publishers. Hetzel read a draft of Verne’s story about the balloon exploration of Africa, which had been rejected by other publishers for being “too scientific”. With Hetzel’s help, Verne rewrote the story, which was published in 1863 in book form as Cinq semaines en balloon (Five_Weeks_in_a_Balloon Five Weeks in a Baloon). Acting on Hetzel’s advice, Verne added comical accents to his novels, changed sad endings into happy ones, and toned down various political messages.

From that point, Hetzel published two or more volumes a year. The most successful of these include: Voyage au centre de la terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864); De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865); Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, 1869); and Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days), which first appeared in Le Temps in 1872. The series is collectively known as “Voyages Extraordinaires” (“extraordinary voyages”). Verne could now live on his writings. But most of his wealth came from the stage adaptations of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (1874) and Michel Strogoff (1876), which he wrote with Adolphe d’Ennery. In 1867 Verne bought a small ship, the Saint-Michel, which he successively replaced with the Saint-Michel II and the Saint-Michel III as his financial situation improved. On board the Saint-Michel III, he sailed around Europe. In 1870, he was appointed as “Chevalier” (Knight) of the Légion d’honneur. After his first novel, most of his stories were first serialised in the Magazine d’Éducation et de Récréation, a Hetzel biweekly publication, before being published in the form of books.

In his last years, Jules Verne wrote a novel called Paris in the 20th Century about a young man who lives in a world of glass skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness and comes to a tragic end. Hetzel thought the novel’s pessimism would damage Verne’s then booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was published in 1994.

In 1905, while ill with diabetes, Verne died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne).

 421 – Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

1238 – The Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.

1575 – Universiteit Leiden is founded, and given the motto Praesidium Libertatis.

1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I – the revolt is quickly crushed.

1693 – The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.

1726 – The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.

1807 – Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeats Russians under General Benigssen.

1817 – Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.

1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.

1865 – In the United States, Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)

1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.

1879 – The England cricket team led by Lord Harris is attacked during a riot during a match in Sydney.

1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

1904 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.

1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1915 – D.W. Griffith’s controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.

1922 – President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.

1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.

1942 – World War II: Japan invades Singapore.

1945 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada commence Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine.

1948 – The formal creation of the Korean People’s Army of North Korea is announced.

1949 – Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced for treason.

1952 – Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.

1955 – The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.

1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”.

1960 – The first eight brass star plaques are installed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1962 – Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.

1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.

1963 – The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Qassem is overthrown by the Ba’ath Party.

1966 – The National Hockey League awards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania a second NHL franchise, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre, an attack, that left three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on black students from South Carolina State University who were protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley.

1969 – Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.

1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launches an incursion into Laos to try and cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.

1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab returns to Earth.

1974 – Military coup in Upper Volta.

1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.

1979 – Denis Sassou-Nguesso becomes the President of the Republic of the Congo for the first time.

1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia’s second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.

1989 – An Independent Air Boeing 707 crashes into Santa Maria mountain in Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal, killing 144.

1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.

1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.

1996 – The massive Internet collaboration “24 Hours in Cyberspace” takes place.

2010 – A freak storm in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travellers.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Jerome Emiliani

         o Josephine Bakhita

         o Juventius of Pavia

         o Meingold of Huy

         o Stephen of Muret

         o February 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Earliest day on which Feast of Orthodoxy can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated 42 days before Easter. (Orthodoxy)

   * Nirvana Day (Mahayana Buddhism)

   * Preseren Day (Slovenia)

Six In The Morning

I Am President For Life And Forever  



Can Egypt’s revolution stay the distance?

After thirty unbroken years as President of Egypt, it had seemed as if Hosni Mubarak’s charmed career was finally coming to an end.

But yesterday, Cairo’s famous traffic jams were back. Businesses, shops, and banks were open across the capital. Barack Obama spoke of the “progress” the Egyptian government was making towards reform. And though still in tens of thousands, the numbers at Tahrir Square were probably down on the previous day.

Meanwhile, Mr Mubarak, the great survivor, was using all the guile that has kept him in power for so long to produce a series of sweeteners – including a 15 per cent pay rise for state employees – to widen his public support.  

Shutting Out 50% Of The Population

A women’s conference in Addis Ababa aimed to move gender issues from the margins to the forefront of debate in Africa

Women campaign to be heard at African Union summit

“We know thatt the African Union summit is still very masculine but we are trying to bring in the voices of women,” said Gertrude Mongella, former president of the Pan-African parliament, explaining the rationale behind the shadow summit organised by the Gender is my Agenda Campaign (Gimac) in Addis Ababa on 24-26 January. A difficult proposition in a forum where, at the very highest level, there is only one female representative, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia.

The women gathered here, including Elisabeth Rehn, Finland’s first female defence minister, and former Irish president and UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson were truly on the margins, tucked away in the UN headquarters across town from where the preliminary AU summit meetings were taking place.

The Stupid Burns Strong And Bright In Nicolas Sarkozy  

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is facing an unprecedented magistrates strike after claiming that the incompetence of judges and the police allowed a repeat offender to allegedly murder and dismember a teenage girl.

French magistrates strike over murder of teenage girl

Courthouses across the country on Monday decided to go on strike until February 10 in protest, while two major police unions have accused the president of exploiting the murder for political gain.

The head, arms and legs of 18-year-old Laetitia Perrais were found in a pond in the west of France last Tuesday in a case that has appalled the nation.

Police were on Monday still looking for her torso in nearby ponds.

The main suspect in her murder, Tony Meilhon, 31, had been jailed several times for crimes including sexual offences, and was released in February last year. He is now in police custody.

Were On a Plane And We Wont Complain  

‘A Warning Scream from Italian Art’

Naples Museum Requests Asylum in Germany

Like many in and near Naples, Antonio Manfredi, the director of the Contemporary Art Museum of Casoria (CAM), lives in fear. Threatening phone calls, vandals and not-so-subtle warnings — the local mafia organization, the Camorra, has left little doubt that he is on their radar. What truly frightens him, though, is just how horribly Italy treats its artistic and cultural treasures.

And now, he has decided to call wider attention to his plight. At the beginning of this month, he mailed an official letter to Angela Merkel’s Chancellery in Berlin requesting asylum for his entire museum. The letter was sent in both Italian and German, and copies were forwarded to the German Embassy in Rome, as well.

Looking down The Barrel Of A Gun  

 

An armed soldier ordered us to get out of the taxi



AT LEAST they were polite. When our taxi ran into the checkpoint in the well-to-do Cairo neighbourhood of Garden City about 9.50pm on Sunday, the serious faces of the men who took our passports suggested this might take a while.

They looked like vigilantes patrolling their street to protect it from looters. But as we watched our passports being handed from man to man we realised there was a military checkpoint about 15 metres behind us.

A soldier approached our taxi and instructed the driver to move it into the street being guarded by the army. We were ordered to stay in the car.

Who Are You?  

Allegations of spying and media manipulation lay bare the divisions in Tibetan Buddhism and tensions between China and India. Mistrust between rival Karmapas belies the image of a placid religion.

A tempest in Tibetan temples

Reporting from Dharamsala, India – He’s a “living Buddha” with movie-star good looks and an iPod, a 25-year-old who rubs shoulders with Richard Gere and Tom Cruise and is mentioned as a successor to the Dalai Lama.

Now allegations that he’s a Chinese spy, and a money launderer to boot, have laid bare divisions in the outwardly serene world of Tibetan Buddhism and longtime tensions between China and India.

There’s a lot at stake. The Karmapa is among Tibetan Buddhism’s most revered figures and heads the religion’s wealthiest sect, with property estimated at $1.2 billion worldwide.

Reporting the Revolution: Day 15 Up Date: 1900hrs EST

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This is a Live Blog and will be updated as the news is available. You can follow the latest reports from AL Jazeera English and Al-Masry Al-Youm: English Edition

class=”BrightcoveExperience”>The Guardian has a Live Blog from their reporters in Egypt that refreshes automatically every minute.

Al Jazeera has a Live Blog for Feb 8

As you can see we now have the live feed from Al Jazeera English.

It was a joyous day in the Tahrir Square with the news of the release of Google executive, Wael Ghoneim, Middle East marketing manager for Google, who was arrested on January 27 by police. Ghoneim oversaw the “Arabization” of Google’s on-line services and has participated in several projects aimed at supporting Arabic Internet content. His disappearance became a cause célèbre as Google and Human Rights organizations demanded that the Egyptian government disclose his location. Sunday the newly appointed Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafik, announced that Ghoneim would be released.

Life did start to return to some normalcy as banks and shops re-opened and once again the usual traffic jams clogged the streets. Tourism continues to suffer and tanks continue to guard government buildings, embassies and other important institutions in the capital.

On sadder note, a symbolic funeral procession was held for journalist, Ahmed Mahmoud, who was shot as he filmed the clashes between protesters and riot police from his Cairo office. The UN also reported that nearly 300 people have been killed since the unrest started on January 25th and thousands more injured.

The stand off between the Mubarak regime and the protesters demanding he leave office goes into its fifteenth day with mass demonstrations planned in Cairo.

Up Date: 1900hrs EST Bless these people. They are tenacious and will not stand down. They are not ready to make nice with the Mubarak regime.

11:31pm GMT

Here’s a brief video clip from al-Jazeera of the protesters now occupying the front of Egypt’s parliament building this evening.

Meanwhile, Tahrir Square appears to be covered in tents as a village springs up.

Protests swell at Tahrir Square

Tens of thousands pour into central Cairo seeking president Mubarak’s ouster, despite a slew of government concessions.

Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have poured into Cairo’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square as protests against Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, entered their 15th day despite a slew of concessions announced by the government.

Tens of thousands of protesters have also come out on the streets in Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city.

There were also reports of a protest outside the parliament building in the capital. Witnesses said protesters had pitched a tent in front of the building and are likely to stay there.

According to Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in the Egyptian capital, the crowd at Tahrir Square grew rapidly on Tuesday afternoon, with many first-timers joining protesters seeking Mubarak’s immediate ouster.

Freed cyber activist lauds protests

Google executive Wael Ghonim speaks after release from Egyptian custody, sparking outpouring of support from protesters.

Egyptian anti-government protesters have welcomed the release of a Google executive who disappeared in Cairo last month after playing a key role in helping demonstrators organise.

Wael Ghonim was released on Monday by Egyptian authorities, sparking a fast and explosive response from supporters, bloggers and pro-democracy activists on the internet.

Ghonim’s release came nearly two weeks after he was reported missing on January 28 during protests against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

“Freedom is a bless[ing] that deserves fighting for it,” Ghonim, Google’s head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, wrote in a message posted on his Twitter account shortly after his release.

Wael Ghonim anointed voice of the revolution by Tahrir Square faithful

Google executive behind protest-supporting Facebook page cheered by crowds in Cairo after being released by police

Egyptians renew appeal for Mubarak to resign now on biggest day of protest

Hundreds of thousands of protesters pack Tahrir Square in Cairo and reject concessions on transfer of power in September

10:45pm GMT

In the most disturbing development in days, during a private meeting today vice president Omar Suleiman warned of a coup “to protect Egypt” – the Associated Press has a piece reporting further details of Suleiman’s hostile comments:

   Vice President Omar Suleiman warned Tuesday that “we can’t put up with” continued protests in Tahrir for a long time, saying the crisis must be ended as soon as possible in a sharply worded sign of increasing regime impatience with 16 days of mass demonstrations.

   Suleiman said there will be “no ending of the regime” and no immediate departure for President Hosni Mubarak, according to the state news agency MENA, reporting on a meeting between the vice president and the heads of state and independent newspapers.

   He told them the regime wants dialogue to resolve protesters’ demands for democratic reform, adding in a veiled warning, “We don’t want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools.”

   At one point in the roundtable meeting, Suleiman warned that the alternative to dialogue “is that a coup happens, which would mean uncalculated and hasty steps, including lots of irrationalities. We don’t want to reach that point, to protect Egypt.”

   Pressed by the editors to explain the comment, he said he did not mean a military coup but that “a force that is unprepared for rule” could overturn state institutions, said Amr Khafagi, editor-in-chief of the privately-owned Shorouk daily, who attended the briefing. “He doesn’t mean it in the classical way.”

   “The presence of the protesters in Tahrir Square and some satellite stations insulting Egypt and belittling it makes citizens hesitant to go to work,” he said. We can’t put up with this for a long time, and this crisis must be ended as soon as possible.

   He warned that calls by some protesters for a campaign of civil disobedience are “very dangerous for society and we can’t put up with this at all.”

The comments sound like a worrying development after the calm of recent days. This may be Suleiman’s private face: no surrender. I bet he didn’t mention any of that in his phone chat with Joe Biden earlier today.

Syria to set Facebook status to unbanned in gesture to people

President Bashar al-Assad promises elections and press freedom after seeing groundswell of protest across Arab world

Sounds like someone is getting nervous.

France’s prime minister spent family Christmas break as guest of Mubarak

Admission from François Fillon comes as French ministers’ links with unpopular Middle East regimes come under scrutiny

Another Sarkozy lackie

Related news from various news agencies, live blogs and Twitter.

On Monday night, February 7, Tahrir Square took on a festival atmosphere, with a man playing an acoustic guitar to a crowd of hundreds.

Rumors are also running rampant from a report in Der Speigel, a German newspaper, that Mubarak could be going there for a “medical check-up”. he has been there twice for medical reasons.

The story behind what triggered the protests

Probe starts on Adly’s reported role in Alex church attrack

Ex-minister suspected behind Alex church bombing

Egypt’s general prosecutor on Monday opened probe on former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly’s reported role in the New Year’s Eve bombing of al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria in which 24 people were killed, an Egyptian lawyer told Al Arabiya.

Laywer Ramzi Mamdouh said he had presented a proclamation to Egyptian prosecutor Abd al-Majid Mahmud to investigate news media reports suggesting that the former interior ministry had masterminded the deadly church attack with the intent to blame it on Islamists, escalate government crackdown on them, and gain increased western support for the regime.

Mahmud said the information contained in some reports were “serious.”

Prosecution investigates Interior Minister’s alleged involvement in church attack

Coptic lawyer Mamdouh Ramzy had filed on Monday a complaint to General Prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud accusing former minister Habib El-Adly of organizing “militias of security personnel, former inmates and members of extremists organizations” that were responsible for bombing of the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria.

In Egypt, U.S. Weighs Push for Change With Stability

Vice President Omar Suleiman of Egypt says he does not think it is time to lift the 30-year-old emergency law that has been used to suppress and imprison opposition leaders. He does not think President Hosni Mubarak needs to resign before his term ends in September. And he does not think his country is yet ready for democracy. . . . .

After two weeks of recalibrated messages and efforts to keep up with a rapidly evolving situation, the Obama administration is still trying to balance support for some of the basic aspirations for change in Egypt with its concern that the pro-democracy movement could be “hijacked,” as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton put it, if change were to come too quickly.

The result has been to feed a perception, on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere, that the United States, for now at least, is putting stability ahead of democratic ideals, and leaving hopes of nurturing peaceful, gradual change in large part in the hands of Egyptian officials – starting with Mr. Suleiman – who have every reason to slow the process.

Faced with questions about Mr. Suleiman’s views, expressed in a series of interviews in recent days, the White House on Monday called them unacceptable.

Profile: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun is the country’s oldest and largest Islamic organisation.

Another interesting article from the NYT Magazine from this weekend chronicles the arrest, detention and escape from a prison outside of Cairo of lawyer, Sobhi Saleh, the former secretary general of the Muslim Brother­hood’s parliamentary group, and 33 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt vs Tunisia

We look at the differences between the two uprisings and how these might shape the future of the two countries.

Iran’s Opposition Seeks Rally to Back Egypt and Tunisia

Tehran – With democracy tremors rocking the Arab world, Iran’s opposition has challenged its hard-line leaders to allow a peaceful demonstration – ostensibly in support of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

The request to hold a rally on Monday falls short of an open call for supporters of Iran’s “green” movement to return to the streets after more than a year, but it is the closest that Iran’s opposition has come so far to trying to join in the historic events.

Democracy in the Arab world?

We ask if the despots of the region will be able to restore their authority through bribes and belated concessions.

Washington Post Editorial: Did Ben Bernanke cause Egypt’s revolution?

Does Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, deserve the blame – or the credit, depending on your point of view – for Hosni Mubarak’s plight? Some seem to think so. Last August, Mr. Bernanke announced further Fed asset purchases known colloquially as “quantitative easing II,” or “QEII” for short. The goal was to ease monetary conditions in the United States and fuel growth. But cheaper money lowered the costs and raised the rewards of speculating on food and energy, relative to some other investments. The latest rise in commodity prices began around the time of Mr. Bernanke’s announcement; expensive food triggered unrest first in Tunisia and then in Egypt. Ergo, Mr. Bernanke undermined Mr. Mubarak – or so the argument goes.

Mubarak further shortens curfew hours

The curfew will come into effect on Monday from 8 PM running until 6 AM the next day, according to to state-run television

Army installs Tahrir field hospital

US special envoy to Egypt recalled due to ties with Mubarak regime

Frank Wisner, Obama special envoy to Egypt, declared Saturday during a security conference in Munich that “Mubarak must stay in office in order to steer those changes through. This is an ideal moment for him to show the way forward.”

This declaration was received with surprise by pro-democracy demonstrators as it was understood as a reversal of the US diplomatic strategy. The statement was rapidly clarified by US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who said that Wisner was speaking for himself and the White House did not endorse his remarks.

Egyptian Association of Arab Tribes backs ongoing Tahrir Square demos

Egyptian govt to increase salaries and pensions by 15 percent

Reportng the Revolution:

This is a Live Blog and will be updated as the news is available. You can follow the latest reports from AL Jazeera English and Al-Masry Al-Youm: English Edition

class=”BrightcoveExperience”>The Guardian has a Live Blog from their reporters in Egypt that refreshes automatically every minute.

Al Jazeera has a Live Blog for Feb 8

As you can see we now have the live feed from Al Jazeera English.

It was a joyous day in the Tahrir Square with the news of the release of Google executive, Wael Ghoneim, Middle East marketing manager for Google, who was arrested on January 27 by police. Ghoneim oversaw the “Arabization” of Google’s on-line services and has participated in several projects aimed at supporting Arabic Internet content. His disappearance became a cause célèbre as Google and Human Rights organizations demanded that the Egyptian government disclose his location. Sunday the newly appointed Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafik, announced that Ghoneim would be released.

Life did start to return to some normalcy as banks and shops re-opened and once again the usual traffic jams clogged the streets. Tourism continues to suffer and tanks continue to guard government buildings, embassies and other important institutions in the capital.

On sadder note, a symbolic funeral procession was held for journalist, Ahmed Mahmoud, who was shot as he filmed the clashes between protesters and riot police from his Cairo office. The UN also reported that nearly 300 people have been killed since the unrest started on January 25th and thousands more injured.

The stand off between the Mubarak regime and the protesters demanding he leave office goes into its fifteenth day with mass demonstrations planned in Cairo.

Related news from various news agencies, live blogs and Twitter.

On Monday night, February 7, Tahrir Square took on a festival atmosphere, with a man playing an acoustic guitar to a crowd of hundreds.

Rumors are also running rampant from a report in Der Speigel, a German newspaper, that Mubarak could be going there for a “medical check-up”. he has been there twice for medical reasons.

In Egypt, U.S. Weighs Push for Change With Stability

Vice President Omar Suleiman of Egypt says he does not think it is time to lift the 30-year-old emergency law that has been used to suppress and imprison opposition leaders. He does not think President Hosni Mubarak needs to resign before his term ends in September. And he does not think his country is yet ready for democracy. . . . .

After two weeks of recalibrated messages and efforts to keep up with a rapidly evolving situation, the Obama administration is still trying to balance support for some of the basic aspirations for change in Egypt with its concern that the pro-democracy movement could be “hijacked,” as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton put it, if change were to come too quickly.

The result has been to feed a perception, on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere, that the United States, for now at least, is putting stability ahead of democratic ideals, and leaving hopes of nurturing peaceful, gradual change in large part in the hands of Egyptian officials – starting with Mr. Suleiman – who have every reason to slow the process.

Faced with questions about Mr. Suleiman’s views, expressed in a series of interviews in recent days, the White House on Monday called them unacceptable.

Profile: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun is the country’s oldest and largest Islamic organisation.

Another interesting article from the NYT Magazine from this weekend chronicles the arrest, detention and escape from a prison outside of Cairo of lawyer, Sobhi Saleh, the former secretary general of the Muslim Brother­hood’s parliamentary group, and 33 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt vs Tunisia

We look at the differences between the two uprisings and how these might shape the future of the two countries.

Iran’s Opposition Seeks Rally to Back Egypt and Tunisia

Tehran – With democracy tremors rocking the Arab world, Iran’s opposition has challenged its hard-line leaders to allow a peaceful demonstration – ostensibly in support of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

The request to hold a rally on Monday falls short of an open call for supporters of Iran’s “green” movement to return to the streets after more than a year, but it is the closest that Iran’s opposition has come so far to trying to join in the historic events.

Democracy in the Arab world?

We ask if the despots of the region will be able to restore their authority through bribes and belated concessions.

Washington Post Editorial: Did Ben Bernanke cause Egypt’s revolution?

Does Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, deserve the blame – or the credit, depending on your point of view – for Hosni Mubarak’s plight? Some seem to think so. Last August, Mr. Bernanke announced further Fed asset purchases known colloquially as “quantitative easing II,” or “QEII” for short. The goal was to ease monetary conditions in the United States and fuel growth. But cheaper money lowered the costs and raised the rewards of speculating on food and energy, relative to some other investments. The latest rise in commodity prices began around the time of Mr. Bernanke’s announcement; expensive food triggered unrest first in Tunisia and then in Egypt. Ergo, Mr. Bernanke undermined Mr. Mubarak – or so the argument goes.

Mubarak further shortens curfew hours

The curfew will come into effect on Monday from 8 PM running until 6 AM the next day, according to to state-run television

Army installs Tahrir field hospital

US special envoy to Egypt recalled due to ties with Mubarak regime

Frank Wisner, Obama special envoy to Egypt, declared Saturday during a security conference in Munich that “Mubarak must stay in office in order to steer those changes through. This is an ideal moment for him to show the way forward.”

This declaration was received with surprise by pro-democracy demonstrators as it was understood as a reversal of the US diplomatic strategy. The statement was rapidly clarified by US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who said that Wisner was speaking for himself and the White House did not endorse his remarks.

Egyptian Association of Arab Tribes backs ongoing Tahrir Square demos

Egyptian govt to increase salaries and pensions by 15 percent

Neglected Tropical Diseases

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Recently I wrote a diary about Dengue Fever, a tropical disease that is caused by a mosquito transmitted virus, I mentioned that it was classed as a “neglected disease” by the World Health Organization. I’d like to talk about some of the other neglected diseases, what causes them, how they are spread and, most importantly, who they affect and how they impact on the rest of the world. In up coming diaries, I will focus on each one as I did with Dengue.

First, why are these diseases neglected? It is mostly because they are diseases of of poverty. Until these diseases impact on the wealthy in some way, treatment and prevention will remain a struggle for the countries and people where they are endemic. The lives of over one billion people are impacted in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Some of these diseases have known preventive measures or acute medical treatments which are available in the developed world but which are not universally available in poorer areas. In some cases, the treatments are relatively inexpensive. For example, the treatment for schistosomiasis is $0.20 per child per year. In the last few years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Carter Center have brought attention to the diseases caused by flavivirus, trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and parasitic worms.

These are the diseases classified as neglected by WHO:

   * Buruli Ulcer

   * Chagas disease(American trypanosomiasis)

   * Cysticercosis

   * Dengue/dengue haemorrhagic fever

   * Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease)

   * Echinococcosis

   * Fascioliasis

   * Human African trypanosomiasis

   * Leishmaniasis

   * Leprosy

   * Lymphatic filariasis

   * Onchocerciasis

   * Rabies

   * Schistosomiasis

   * Soil transmitted helminthiasis

   * Trachoma

   * Yaws

I’m fairly certain most of you have never heard of most of them and might be a bit surprised by one that is on that list, Rabies, which is a virus spread by wild and domestic animal bites. It is endemic on every continent except Antarctica and is easily treatable and can be controlled and prevented. Yet, here it is on a list of neglected diseases.

I look forward to your comments and questions which I will try to answer as best I can.

The next diary will focus on Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease) and its eradication.

Sorry, Ariana and Markos, No More Free Content For You

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I know all too much about writing for free.  I do it here all the time. It’s a labor of love.  I’ve been at it for more than 900 blog posts and more than 5 years.  I know about writing without being paid for it.  Despite that, and despite my understanding that when I post at group blogs I know I won’t get paid, I am absolutely furious about the AOL-Huffington Post Deal.  Why?  Because the writers are getting screwed, and they’re not going to get a cent out of the deal. Not a sou.

The news this morning–  I’m sure you haven’t missed it–  was that that beleaguered, dinosaur of dial up AOL has bought Huffington Post and made that doyenne of self promotion and faux progressive politics, Arianna, an AOL executive.  Here’s the essence of the story from the New York Times:

The two companies completed the sale Sunday evening and announced the deal just after midnight on Monday. AOL will pay $315 million, $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock. It will be the company’s largest acquisition since it was separated from Time Warner in 2009.

The deal will allow AOL to greatly expand its news gathering and original content creation, areas that its chief executive, Tim Armstrong, views as vital to reversing a decade-long decline.

Arianna Huffington, the cable talk show pundit, author and doyenne of the political left, will take control of all of AOL’s editorial content as president and editor in chief of a newly created Huffington Post Media Group. The arrangement will give her oversight not only of AOL’s national, local and financial news operations, but also of the company’s other media enterprises like MapQuest and Moviefone.

Meanwhile, the bloggers at HuffPo, the ones who provide the “original content creation”, that was just sold for $315,000,000.00 get, wait for it, nothing.  Zilch. Nada. Zero.  And in an email this morning to bloggers, Ariana told them not to worry, no te preocupes, they could still churn out “original content creation”,  just like before, and well, continue to get the same nothing for it:

The HuffPost blog team will continue to operate as it always has. Arianna will become editor-in-chief not only of HuffPost but of the newly formed Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all of AOL’s content sites, including Patch, Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, PopEater, MapQuest, Black Voices, and Moviefone.

Together, our companies will have a combined base of 117 million unique U.S. visitors a month — and 250 million around the world — so your posts will have an even bigger impact on the national and global conversation. That’s the only real change you’ll notice — more people reading what you wrote.

Far from changing the Huffington Post’s editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, it will be like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet. We’re still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we’re now going to get there much, much faster.

When I first read this, I was furious.  I quickly penned an essay, which I published at dailyKos in which I argued that the bloggers, the writers at HuffPo were being screwed because they weren’t getting a cent out of the $315 million dollar deal.

To my amazement, many of the comments to that essay told me that I was off base.  Did I write for free and publish my writing at daily Kos?  Yes. Didn’t I do that because it would expose me to a wide audience?  Yes.  Didn’t I write it all for free, without hope of money?  Yes.  Didn’t I?  I did.  What kind of loon (I’m paraphrasing here) would think that he should write hundreds of diaries for free and that when the platform was sold, he should receive something?  You’ve already received something, it was argued, you got the exposure and a larger audience for your writing.  You don’t, it was argued, deserve anything more.  You get bupkis from the $315 million deal; you don’t deserve more than that.

That just may be so.  I never posted an essay or a comment at HuffPo.  So I don’t deserve any of the $315,000,000 Ariana and her investors are being paid.  I figure that if Ariana put 1% of the deal up and gave it to the writers, there would be $3.15 million to distribute.  How many writers could there be?  If there were 1,000, they could each be given $3,150.  They could be told, “Thank you for writing for free.  Because your writing helped me make a bundle, I’ve decided to send you this small check as a token of my appreciation.  Your writing is worth far more than this amount, but this is something I want you to have as a token of my gratitude.  It’s not pay.  It’s a gift.  You helped me make a big score, and I want to thank you for that.”

MSNBC is reporting that HuffPo had 6,000 free bloggers writing for it (last sentence of linked article).  If that’s so, the 1% gratuity would come to about $500 per person.  And the number of people who wrote so that Ariana could be well paid would be enormouse.  

At any rate, you’d expect some acknowledgment of the bloggers and writers.  You wouldn’t expect anything less from a progressive.  When somebody at the race track gives you a tip, and you bet the horse, and it wins, you always give the tipper some of the winning.  When a football quarterback wins a big game, he takes the linemen out to dinner and drinks.  You have gratitude for those who make it possible to win.  When someone in business helps you out and you have gratitude, you send flowers or wine or a fruit basket.  Or you pay for a meal.  These are expressions of gratitude for help.  They are always appreciated, especially if your original deal was that you wouldn’t be paid.

Is Ariana going to get out her check book and write a check, or is she going to sit on it?  Probably the latter.  So I won’t be signing up to write at HuffPo at any time soon.  And I’ll support Al Giordano and others who have decided to take down their writing from the site.

Which brings me to Markos and dailyKos.  I have loved writing for dailyKos over the years.  But if today’s events tell me anything, it’s that dailyKos might well be the next group web site to be sold for hundreds of millions of dollars.  And it’s the same as HuffPo in this:  there are many, many talented people writing diaries there.  There is some brilliant writing.  That writing is the value of the site.  And that writing is being given to the site and its readership for free.  And when the site is ultimately acquired by the capitalists with the big check books and they write Markos a gigantic check, what then?  Same story, different day.  I’ll be told that I agreed to write for free, that I had a large audience, and that is all.  I got what I deserve; I will get nothing more. Things will be the same with the new corporate master.   Why, I wonder, should I or anyone else contribute our writing, increase the value of the site, and then, poof, have it be sold while we receive nothing?

As America’s former poet laureate tried to say, “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”  So, no, I’m done.  I will not be moving to DK4 when the site changes over this week.  I will not be publishing any further diaries at dailyKos.  I am not willing to continue to provide value to dailyKos that will eventually be sold without any payment of any kind to me.  No.  I’m done.  I’ll stick to my blog and to the Writers Port Alliance.  You can join me there or at the other Writers Port Alliance sites (all listed at the top of this blog) .


cross posted from The Dream Antilles  

 

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for February 7, 2011-

DocuDharma

Prime Time

Solid premiers.

You know, it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.

Mortimer, your brother is not well. We better call an ambulance.

Fuck him! Now, you listen to me! I want trading reopened right now. Get those brokers back in here! Turn those machines back on!. Turn those machines back on!

Later-

Think big, think positive, never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the throat. Buy low, sell high. Fear? That’s the other guy’s problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare you for the absolute carnage you are about to witness. Super Bowl, World Series – they don’t know what pressure is. In this building, it’s either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you’re up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don’t go to college and they’ve repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me?

Dave hosts Martin Lawrence and Steel Magnolia.  Jon and Stephen in repeats from 1/25.  Alton does chocolate x 2.  Conan hosts Jeff Bridges, Nick Swardson, and Far East Movement.

Okay, pork belly prices have been dropping all morning, which means that everybody is waiting for it to hit rock bottom, so they can buy low. Which means that the people who own the pork belly contracts are saying, “Hey, we’re losing all our damn money, and Christmas is around the corner, and I ain’t gonna have no money to buy my son the G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip! And my wife ain’t gonna f… my wife ain’t gonna make love to me if I got no money!” So they’re panicking right now, they’re screaming “SELL! SELL!” to get out before the price keeps dropping. They’re panicking out there right now, I can feel it.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

from firefly-dreaming 7.2.11

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Regular Daily Features:

Essays Featured Monday, February 7th:

  • Monday Open Thoughts in which Dreamer contemplates Art, Inspiration & Organization.
  • Betsy L. Angert explores the fallacy of “He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches” and discusses teaching, teachers & learning in Those Who Can Teach
  • Ethereal Connections ~ a look into one of the strange thoughts that floated through RiaD‘s mind.
  • In Firefly Memories 1.0  Alma takes a look back at some of the Brilliant essays we’ve had in our first year in the tooobz. Today: SOC Power Politics and Economics the view from the sand box……….Pt. 1

come firefly-dreaming with me….

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 58 Top Stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Assange faces ‘denial of justice’: lawyer

by Danny Kemp, AFP

1 hr 52 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would face a “flagrant denial of justice” if extradited to Sweden over allegations of rape and molestation, his lawyer told a court Monday.

The 39-year-old Australian could face the death penalty if further extradited to the United States on separate charges relating to WikiLeaks, his lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said at the start of a two-day extradition hearing in London.

Swedish prosecutors want to question the whistle-blowing website’s chief over allegations he raped one woman in Sweden and molested another, moves which Assange claims are politically motivated.

2 Mubarak fights Egyptian protest with pay rise

by Dave Clark, AFP

2 hrs 23 mins ago

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt’s embattled President Hosni Mubarak tried to buy himself some time in the face of defiant street protests on Monday, vowing to boost public sector pay packets by 15 percent.

The 82-year-old strongman met his new-look cabinet for the first time as the regime battled to get the economy moving again despite ongoing demonstrations by pro-democracy activists who have occupied a Cairo square.

The United States, meanwhile, urged Egypt to uphold existing treaties, in apparent reference to the country’s peace agreement with Israel.

3 Egypt opposition rejects government reform offer

by Sara Hussein, AFP

Sun Feb 6, 5:55 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Opponents of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s embattled regime on Sunday dismissed as insufficient an offer to include them in political reform plans and renewed their demand that he step down.

In a landmark concession, Vice President Omar Suleiman sat down with the groups, which included the banned Muslim Brotherhood, but the talks produced no immediate breakthrough in the two-week-old standoff.

As night fell, central Cairo’s now iconic Tahrir Square was still filled with thousands of anti-regime protesters adamant that the start of dialogue would not divert them from their campaign to unseat Egypt’s strongman.

4 Egypt protesters hold square despite talks

by Jailan Zayan, AFP

Mon Feb 7, 11:51 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak came under fresh pressure on Monday to step down as opponents said concessions offered in landmark talks were not enough to halt a revolt against his 30-year rule.

Thousands of demonstrators spent a 14th day in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, which over the past two weeks has begun to resemble a tented city within the city.

Protesters sat under the tracks of army tanks deployed around the square, fearful that any movement by the military could be designed to drive out the protesters or abandon them to the mercy of pro-regime thugs.

5 Renewed pressure on Mubarak to quit as talks fail

by Ali Khalil, AFP

Mon Feb 7, 6:30 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak came under fresh pressure on Monday to step down as opponents said concessions made in landmark talks were not enough to halt a revolt against his 30-year rule.

Thousands of demonstrators spent Sunday night under blankets and tarpaulins in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, which over two weeks has begun to resemble a tented camp.

Protesters sat under the tracks of army tanks deployed around the square, fearful that any military pull-out could be designed to drive out the protesters or abandon them to the mercy of pro-regime thugs.

6 South Sudan votes 98.83 percent to secede

by Simon Martelli, AFP

1 hr 6 mins ago

KHARTOUM (AFP) – Southern Sudan was well on track to become the world’s newest state on Monday after final results of its historic independence referendum showed that 98.83 percent had voted for secession.

The results — displayed at a ceremony in Khartoum — revealed that out of 3,837,406 valid ballots cast, only 44,888 votes, or 1.17 percent, favoured the status quo of unity with the north.

“The referendum was correct, accurate and transparent and we have no objection to the results,” said Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission’s chairman.

7 UN urges restraint in deadly Thai-Cambodia clashes

by Suy Se, AFP

1 hr 4 mins ago

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodian and Thai troops clashed Monday for a fourth straight day as the UN chief called for “maximum restraint” in a border dispute that has claimed seven lives and displaced thousands.

The latest hostilities, which lasted for less than an hour, followed heavy fighting on Sunday after the collapse of a ceasefire agreed a day earlier in the wake of the worst clashes between the two neighbours in years.

Four days of violence have left five dead and 45 injured on the Cambodian side, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters, but declined to provide more details. Thailand has reported two deaths, including one civilian.

8 US not ready for Arctic oil drilling, say officials

by Karin Zeitvogel, AFP

Mon Feb 7, 9:51 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is ill-equipped to deal with a major oil catastrophe in Alaska, the Coast Guard admiral who led the US response to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and others have warned.

Only one of the US Coast Guard’s three ice breakers is operational and would be available to respond to a disaster off Alaska’s northern coast, which is icebound for much of the year, retired admiral Thad Allen told reporters this week.

Former Alaska lieutenant governor Fran Ulmer said that before drilling in the Arctic, the United States must “invest in the Coast Guard.”

9 Formula One driver Kubica on the mend doctors says

AFP

1 hr 51 mins ago

ROME (AFP) – Doctors treating Polish Formula One driver Robert Kubica, who was seriously injured in a high-speed rally crash at the weekend, said it would take at least six days to ascertain how permanent is the damage to his right hand.

The 26-year-old Lotus Renault driver was at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia, taking part in the Ronde di Andora Rally in Liguria in the north-west of Italy, when his vehicle left the road and crashed into a church wall.

He was airlifted to the Santa Corona hospital in nearby Pietra Ligure where he underwent seven hours of surgery for multiple injuries, the worst of which was to his right hand which was partially severed by a metal railing.

10 Rio horrified as Carnival preps go up in flames

by Claire de Oliveira, AFP

1 hr 45 mins ago

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) – Rio’s famed Carnival due to be held next month was dealt a devastating blow Monday when a fire destroyed workshops containing some of the floats and thousands of intricate costumes made for the event.

“We are heartbroken,” said Jorge Castanheira, president of the League of Samba Schools which puts on the yearly event. “Everything was practically ready for the Carnival.”

“A dream has been thrown in the trash. Months of work, and it’s all lost,” one costume worker, Jose da Silva Junior, lamented to reporters.

11 ‘I get it,’ Obama tells business, vows cooperation

by Tangi Quemener, AFP

1 hr 17 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama warmly courted top US executives Monday, pledging to scrap regulation and lay the groundwork for innovation in a bid to “make America the best place on Earth to do business.”

But he also stressed the “mutual responsibilities” of business and government in his speech to the US Chamber of Commerce, saying corporate profits needed to lift the standard of living for American workers, not just meet the corporate bottom line and fatten the pockets of executives.

Obama and the chamber — the most powerful business lobby in Washington — have been at odds over economic policy in his first two years in the White House.

12 World Social Forum starts as turmoil strikes Arab world

by Laurence Boutreux, AFP

Mon Feb 7, 1:10 am ET

DAKAR (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people marched through Dakar on Sunday at the start of the annual World Social Forum, an annual leftist gathering taking place as anti-government protests sweep the Arab world.

The 11th edition of the forum, an alternative to the elite World Economic Forum held in the posh Swiss ski resort of Davos last week, brings together anti-globalisation activists opposed to capitalism.

This year participants are focusing on the popular revolt spreading across northern Africa with demands for democracy and criticism of dire social conditions reflecting the crisis of capitalism.

13 Packers win NFL Super Bowl

by Greg Heakes, AFP

Mon Feb 7, 11:35 am ET

DALLAS, Texas (AFP) – The Green Bay Packers’ won their first Super Bowl title in 14 years at the hands of Aaron Rodgers, who completed 24-of-39 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns to lead a 31-25 victory over Pittsburgh.

Quarterback Rodgers, playing in his maiden Super Bowl, helped secure the victory with an eight-yard touchdown pass to receiver Greg Jennings with just under 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“It is a dream come true,” Rodgers said. “It is what I dreamed about as a little kid watching Joe Montana and Steve Young and we just won the Super Bowl.”

14 WikiLeaks’ founder Assange fights extradition to Sweden

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 1:15 pm ET

LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asked a British judge on Monday to block his extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations, arguing he would not get a fair trial and could end up facing execution in the United States.

The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, who has infuriated the U.S. government by releasing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website, is wanted in Sweden where two WikiLeaks volunteers allege sexual misconduct last August.

His lawyers argued on the first day of a two-day extradition hearing that Assange should not be sent to Sweden because rape cases there are held in private and so Assange would be denied a fair trial.

15 Egypt’s Brotherhood warns it could quit talks with government

By Yasmine Saleh and Andrew Hammond, Reuters

2 hrs 15 mins ago

CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday talks to resolve Egypt’s crisis were making progress, but the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo said it could quit the process if opposition demands were not met.

Obama’s comments seemed to contradict those by Egyptian opposition figures who reported little progress in the talks over demands that include a call for the immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak.

“Obviously, Egypt has to negotiate a path and they’re making progress,” Obama told reporters in Washington.

16 Obama confident next Egyptian government will be partner

By Thomas Ferraro, Reuters

Sun Feb 6, 6:29 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said he was confident that an orderly political transition in Egypt would produce a government that will remain a U.S. partner.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Obama also said the ideology of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which is President Hosni Mubarak’s best organized opposition group, included anti-U.S. strains.

But the Brotherhood lacked majority support, he said.

17 U.N., West warn rushed Egypt change a risk to Mideast

By Stephen Brown, Reuters

Sun Feb 6, 9:54 am ET

MUNICH (Reuters) – The United Nations on Sunday drove home the warning from Western nations that a transition to democracy in Egypt should not be rushed to avoid worsening the crisis and destabilising the entire Middle East.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed up calls at a security conference in Munich from the United States and Europe for a rapid change of power in Egypt followed by a more sedate transition through democracy and eventually free elections.

Ban told reporters he had urged authorities in Cairo “to make the necessary changes and reforms as soon as possible. I hope the leaders of Egypt heed the calls of their own people.”

18 Big U.S. banks face delayed bonuses

By Dave Clarke, Reuters

2 hrs 29 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators on Monday made their most forceful attempt yet to clamp down on bank bonuses since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, but the proposals pale in comparison to harsher restrictions already set in Europe.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp proposed that executives at the largest financial institutions have half of their bonuses deferred for at least three years.

Yet the U.S. plan is markedly softer than the European Union, which in December set guidelines that top bankers be limited to receiving 20 percent of their annual bonuses upfront in cash, with some exceptions.

19 U.S. fast food caught in immigration crosshairs

By Lisa Baertlein, Mary Milliken and Ed Stoddard, Reuters

8 mins ago

LOS ANGELES/DALLAS (Reuters) – Chipotle Mexican Grill has a lot going for it — an upscale burrito concept, a hip and eco-friendly image, expansion plans galore and a 500 percent-plus stock price gain in just over two years.

And then it has something not going its way — a federal crackdown on its immigrant labor force that has so far forced Chipotle to fire hundreds of allegedly illegal workers in the state of Minnesota, perhaps more than half its staff there.

The probe is widening. Co-Chief Executive Monty Moran told Reuters on Friday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also issued “notices of inspection” for restaurants in Washington D.C. and Virginia.

20 AOL to buy The Huffington Post for $315 million

By Anthony Boadle and Jennifer Saba, Reuters

38 mins ago

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – AOL Inc will buy Arianna Huffington’s influential website for $315 million, looking to the high-profile liberal pundit to rescue it from the dustbin of Internet history.

The move, announced Monday, comes at a hefty premium. AOL is estimated to be paying 32 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for The Huffington Post, said Benchmark Co analyst Clayton Moran.

Similar content deals, such as Hellman & Friedman’s acquisition of Internet Brands in September 2010, typically go for eight to 12 times earnings, said Moran.

21 Obama tries to woo business, assails "burdensome" tax

By Alister Bull and David Morgan, Reuters

1 hr 7 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama stepped up efforts to woo the U.S. business community on Monday, seeking their help to tackle “burdensome” corporate taxes in a speech to a business group that has long been a fierce critic.

Obama, on a drive to win over business and independent voters before the 2012 presidential election, also repeated a promise to advance trade deals with Panama and Colombia that would help U.S. companies.

“I understand the challenges you face. I understand you are under incredible pressure to cut costs and keep your margins up. I understand the significance of your obligations to your shareholders and the pressures that are created by quarterly reports. I get it,” Obama told the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has often opposed the president for what it sees as his “big government” agenda.

22 Anger simmers at German austerity plan for EU

By George Georgiopoulos and Gabriela Baczynska, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 1:17 pm ET

ATHENS/WARSAW (Reuters) – Resentment smouldered among European governments Monday over a German-instigated drive to end wage indexation, raise retirement ages and lock debt limits into national constitutions across the euro zone.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, backed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, presented proposals for a “competitiveness pact” to EU leaders at a summit last Friday, provoking strong pushback due to both a lack of prior consultation and the objectives chosen.

Merkel made clear that agreement on these measures, designed to align economic policies more closely with Berlin’s, must be sealed in March before she will agree to strengthening the rescue fund for debt-stricken euro zone countries.

23 Bush to face torture case whenever abroad: activists

By Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

2 hrs 51 mins ago

GENEVA (Reuters) – Activists vowed on Monday that former U.S. President George W. Bush will face a torture case against him wherever he travels outside the United States.

Human rights groups had planned to lodge a Swiss criminal case against Bush on Monday, before his address to a Jewish charity in Geneva on February 12. Organisers canceled his speech last weekend, invoking security concerns.

But the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights issued what they called a preliminary “indictment” to prosecute Bush abroad for the alleged torture of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody.

24 Republican foreign policy "wolf" shows her teeth

By Susan Cornwell and Pascal Fletcher, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 1:06 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For years, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has been busy lecturing world leaders over human rights abuses.

Now that she is the new Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, she has a chance to try to back up her muscular rhetoric with action.

Last month, Ros-Lehtinen was one of the first U.S. lawmakers to urge Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to hold free elections. Earlier in January, she told visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao to his face that he should free jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel peace prize winner.

25 Danaher to buy Beckman Coulter for $5.8 billion

By Nick Zieminski, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 2:33 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Danaher Corp has struck a deal to buy medical diagnostics company Beckman Coulter Inc for $5.8 billion in cash, its biggest bet yet on the medical technology business.

The deal, which would pit the combined company against 3M and General Electric, values Beckman at $83.50 a share. That’s 11 percent more than its closing price on Friday and roughly 45 percent above the company’s price in December before rumors of a takeover entered the marketplace.

Beckman shares jumped 9.8 percent to $82.51 in morning trading, a bit below the offer price — suggesting investors do not expect a higher bidder to emerge. Danaher was up 3.2 percent at $49.51 after rising to $50.29, a lifetime high.

26 Packers hold off Steelers for classic Super Bowl win

By Julian Linden, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 1:33 am ET

DALLAS (Reuters) – The Green Bay Packers reclaimed the greatest prize in North American sport when they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 on Sunday to win the 45th Super Bowl.

Inspired by their dynamic young quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the Packers gave a masterclass demonstration, opening up a 21-3 lead in the second quarter and then showing amazing courage to survive a ferocious late comeback from the Steelers.

It was game that lived up to all the hype as two of the most successful franchises in the NFL slugged it out in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 at Cowboys Stadium.

27 The Super Bowl party is over, the labor hangover begins

By Steve Keating, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 11:08 am ET

DALLAS (Reuters) – The Pittsburgh Steelers believe they have the talent to return to the Super Bowl next season.

But most of the Steelers leaving Cowboys Stadium following a 31-25 loss to Green Bay in the Super Bowl on Sunday left wondering if there will even be a next season for the NFL.

While the victorious Packers still had some celebrating to do, the party was over for the rest of NFL with an increasingly tense labor dispute taking over the football spotlight.

28 BOJ chief optimistic about economy, calls for reforms

By Leika Kihara and Rie Ishiguro, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 9:58 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan has not run out of measures to support growth but sees the economy emerging from a lull, Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Monday, reinforcing views that an imminent monetary easing is unlikely.

He was also cautious about significantly boosting the central bank’s government bond purchases, which he warned could give markets the impression that it was directly financing government debt.

Shirakawa added that easy monetary policy alone could not end deflation and fix other problems plaguing Japan’s economy, and called for deregulation and other efforts to more efficiently allocate labor and capital and boost economic growth

29 U.S. concerned over Indian trade barriers

By Matthias Williams and Rohan Dua, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 8:50 am ET

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s restrictive trade policy is impeding foreign investment and it needs to work harder to free up its economy, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Monday, despite growing economic ties between the countries.

India is only the 14th biggest trading partner for the United States despite its growing global weight and obstacles from outsourcing controversies to the Doha world trade round and market access have put the brakes on faster integration.

“Even though India has made tremendous strides to open up its economy, there is much more work that is left to be done,” Locke told a conference in New Delhi after a meeting with Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma.

30 Thai and Cambodia troops clash for fourth day on border

By Prapan Chankaew, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 2:38 pm ET

PHUM SARON, Thailand (Reuters) – Thai and Cambodian troops clashed for a fourth straight day on Monday over a disputed border area surrounding a 900-year-old mountaintop temple, deepening political uncertainty in Bangkok and prompting Cambodia to urge U.N. intervention.

Several hours of shelling and machine gun fire subsided at around 11 a.m. (11 a.m. EST on Sunday), creating an uneasy peace in the 4.6-sq-km (two-sq-mile) contested area around the Preah Vihear temple claimed by both Southeast Asian neighbors.

Cambodia’s government said Monday’s fighting had killed five people and wounded 45 others on its side of the border. It did not say whether the casualties were troops or civilians.

31 Sanofi-Genzyme takeover talks in final stretch

By Caroline Jacobs and Toni Clarke, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 8:03 am ET

PARIS/BOSTON (Reuters) – France’s Sanofi-Aventis was closing in on a roughly $20 billion deal to buy U.S. biotech group Genzyme while pausing to take a final look at the books, sources familiar with the matter said.

Talks about a takeover of Genzyme continued on Monday despite expectations that the two sides would hammer out a reconciliation at the weekend, following a testy courtship. A final deal could be announced within days, the sources said.

Shares in Sanofi rose, indicating investors remained confident the second-largest takeover deal in the history of the biotech sector would go ahead.

32 Nasdaq hackers another blow to investor confidence

By Edward Krudy, Reuters

Sun Feb 6, 3:46 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – News that computer hackers had infiltrated the operator of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange is the latest blow for Wall Street as it works to repair an image with investors and traders dented by last year’s “flash crash.”

Nasdaq OMX Group said on Saturday that it found “suspicious files” on its U.S. computer servers, but said there was no evidence hackers had accessed or acquired customer information or that its trading platforms were compromised.

The news comes as flows into U.S. equity mutual funds show signs of recovering after years of outflows following the financial crisis and the debilitating experience of the “flash crash” last May that sent U.S. indexes plunging.

33 By one measure, federal taxes lowest since 1950

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 3:39 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Taxes too high?

Actually, as a share of the nation’s economy, Uncle Sam’s take this year will be the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way.

And for the third straight year, American families and businesses will pay less in federal taxes than they did under former President George W. Bush, thanks to a weak economy and a growing number of tax breaks for the wealthy and poor alike.

34 Obama to CEOs: Ask what you can do for America

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

1 hr 14 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Echoing John F. Kennedy, President Barack Obama prodded business leaders Monday to “ask yourselves what you can do for America,” not just for company bottom lines, even as he sought to smooth his uneasy relations with the nation’s corporate executives.

Speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the president urged the business community to help accelerate the slow economic recovery by increasing hiring and unleashing some of the $2 trillion piling up on their balance sheets.

“I want to encourage you to get in the game,” Obama said.

35 Super Bowl sets record with 111M viewers in US

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

1 hr 17 mins ago

NEW YORK – For the second year in a row, the Super Bowl has set a record for American television viewing.

The Nielsen Co. said Monday that an estimated 111 million people watched the Green Bay Packers outlast the Pittsburgh Steelers in professional football’s ultimate game. That tops the 106.5 million who watched the 2010 game between New Orleans and Indianapolis.

The series finale of “M-A-S-H” had held the title of the most-watched TV show in the United States for 27 years. It is now No. 3.

36 Freed Google executive helped spark Egypt revolt

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and KARIN LAUB, Associated Press

56 mins ago

CAIRO – The young Google Inc. executive detained by Egyptian authorities for 12 days said Monday he was behind the Facebook page that helped spark what he called “the revolution of the youth of the Internet.” A U.S.-based human rights group said nearly 300 people have died in two weeks of clashes.

Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager for the Internet company, sobbed throughout an emotional television interview just hours after he was freed as he described how he spent 12 days in detention blindfolded while his worried parents didn’t know where he was. He insisted he had not been tortured and said his interrogators treated him with respect.

“This is the revolution of the youth of the Internet and now the revolution of all Egyptians,” he said, adding that he was taken aback when the security forces holding him branded him a traitor.

37 Egypt demonstrators entertain to keep morale high

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 5:23 am ET

CAIRO – Two rows of men greet demonstrators at the main entrance to Tahrir Square, clapping as people enter, and chanting in the rhythms of a traditional Egyptian wedding procession.

“We are becoming bigger!” they shout. “God is Great!”

Inside Cairo’s main square, musicians stroll, a man reads poetry to the crowd and vendors hawk potato chips, tea, hot food – even socks.

38 US presses for more inclusive Egypt talks

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

1 hr 49 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration conceded Monday that it will not endorse the demands of Egyptian protesters for embattled President Hosni Mubarak to step down immediately, saying a precipitous exit could set back the country’s democratic transition.

After several days of mixed messages about whether it wants to see Mubarak stay or go, Washington stepped up calls for a faster, more inclusive national dialogue on reform in Egypt.

Under Egypt’s constitution, Mubarak’s resignation would trigger an election in 60 days. U.S. officials said that’s not enough time to prepare.

39 US avoids predicting when Mubarak will leave

By KIMBERLY DOZIER and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 3:35 am ET

WASHINGTON – Even as the White House tries to prepare for an Egypt without longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, it won’t be drawn into predicting when the Egyptian president will step down.

“Only he knows what he’s going to do,” President Barack Obama said Sunday. “The U.S. can’t forcefully dictate, but what we can do is say the time is now for you to start making a change in your country. Mubarak has already decided he’s not going to run again.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said forcing Mubarak to leave office quickly could complicate the already enormous challenges Egypt faces in transforming itself from autocracy to democracy.

40 Arab unrest complicates counterterrorism efforts

By STEPHEN BRAUN, Associated Press

Sun Feb 6, 2:55 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The unrest engulfing Arab streets and threatening authoritarian governments in the Mideast is complicating U.S. counterterrorism efforts, scrambling the volatile battleground against al-Qaida in Yemen and raising concerns about the durability of Egypt’s stance against militants.

U.S. counterterrorism officials need to move quickly to firm up relationships with veteran Mideast intelligence and security services in the aftermath of momentous changes, experts say. Lingering confusion over who will take the reins of power could hamper instant decision-making in the short term.

Over the longer term, will the U.S. be able to work as closely against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups if important allies such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh cede power to Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood?

41 Fire in Rio destroys Carnival costumes and floats

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 2:55 pm ET

RIO DE JANEIRO – A fire Monday gutted warehouses holding many of the elaborate, feather-and-sequin costumes and extravagant floats for Rio’s Carnival parade, destroying the dreams and hard work of thousands of mostly poor Brazilians who toil year-round to stage one of world’s most spectacular celebrations.

Seamstresses, set designers and musicians watched in tears as firefighters struggled to control the blaze that raged through four warehouses. The fire devoured about 8,400 outfits and the ornate sets built each year in the battle to be the city’s top samba group.

Three hours into the early-morning blaze, the flames were controlled and 10 warehouses were unscathed, but some of the top contenders and up-and-comers in next month’s Carnival parade were knocked out of the competition.

42 AOL steps up news, ad effort with Huffington Post

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer

Mon Feb 7, 2:31 pm ET

AOL Inc., once the king of dial-up Internet access known for its ubiquitous CDs and “You’ve got mail” greeting in its inboxes, is stepping up its efforts in news and online advertising with a $315 million deal to buy news hub Huffington Post.

The acquisition announced Monday is among the most aggressive strategic moves engineered by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong in an effort to reshape a fallen Internet icon.

Perhaps just as important as picking up a news site that ranks as one of the top 10 current events and global news sites, AOL will be adding Huffington Post co-founder and media star Arianna Huffington to its management team.

43 How HuffPo became a star – and why AOL wants it

By MICHELLE CONLIN and ANDREW VANACORE, AP Business Writers

1 hr 36 mins ago

NEW YORK – Tim Armstrong has looked like the unluckiest man in media for the past year. He used to be Google’s ad sales maestro, the definition of digital success. But ever since May 2009, when he took the job of turning around AOL, he has overseen abysmal earnings, wretched morale and a local news strategy that has been slammed as a money-losing Web sweatshop.

Then, in a move that not even the most gossipy of media obsessives saw coming, Armstrong announced at the Super Bowl in Texas that AOL was buying The Huffington Post, the Internet news darling, for $315 million. Armstrong went from looking lame to looking awfully sharp. And awfully lucky.

Perhaps no online property was lusted after by media moguls like the one Arianna Huffington founded six years ago. Its traffic rivals The New York Times. Its infrastructure is virtually zero-cost. Its social media strategy is practically perfect. Oh, and it turned its first profit last year on $30 million in revenue. HuffPo expects to triple revenue by 2012.

44 Assange lawyer: Risk of ‘denial of justice’

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

2 hrs 50 mins ago

LONDON – The lawyer for Julian Assange argued Monday that the embattled WikiLeaks founder will face a secret trial that violates international standards of fairness if sent to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

Geoffrey Robertson told an extradition hearing that Assange would not get a fair trial because of his notoriety and because Swedish rape cases are customarily held without public or media present, to protect the alleged victims.

Closed-door hearings would be “a flagrant denial of justice … blatantly unfair, not only by British standards but by European standards and indeed by international standards,” Robertson said.

45 S. Sudan makes preparations for next world capital

By JASON STRAZIUSO and MAGGIE FICK, Associated Press

1 hr 58 mins ago

JUBA, Sudan – The mud-hut town of Juba has earned a promotion to world capital later this year. Only Southern Sudan needs far more than its own currency and a national anthem: Most of the roads here are dirt and even aid workers live in shipping containers.

In a little more than five months, Southern Sudan is slated to become the world’s newest country. Final results from last month’s independence referendum announced on Monday show that 98.8 percent of the ballots cast were for secession from Sudan’s north.

Juba is oil-rich but lacks the embassies and skyscrapers of other world capitals. There was only a mile or two of pavement here just a year ago, and the local archives are stored in a tent. Many, though, see great potential, and are excitedly looking forward to controlling their own destiny.

46 Packers return to Green Bay as Super Bowl champs

By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press

1 hr 23 mins ago

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Thousands of exhausted but euphoric Packers fans welcomed their cherished team home to Green Bay as Super Bowl champions on Monday after a nail-biting victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Schools dismissed early and people took time off work to watch the team’s motorcade travel from Austin Straubel International Airport to Lambeau Field along a route that included Lombardi Avenue, named in honor of the legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi.

Fans who spent Sunday night partying picked up right where they left off Monday morning, showing up hours early for the parade. They jammed Lambeau’s atrium and clogged the stadium’s pro shop as they bought piles of Super Bowl gear and memorabilia. To make room, the team finally had to herd shoppers and visitors into a line that stretched outside the stadium.

47 Super Bowl ad sends shivers through Motor City

By JEFF KAROUB and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER, Associated Press

1 hr 2 mins ago

DETROIT – To a pulsating beat, hip-hop star Eminem drives a sleek Chrysler through the streets of Detroit, proudly cruising by the city’s landmarks, towering skyscrapers and the hopeful faces of its people. His journey ends with an unapologetic message: “This is the Motor City, and this is what we do.”

A day after it aired, one of the most-talked about Super Bowl ads sent shivers of pride through the battered city, which hopes car buyers are willing to look past Chrysler’s billion-dollar bailout and embrace the idea that if a vehicle is “Imported from Detroit,” that’s reason enough to buy it.

“It’s like an anthem or rallying cry for Detroit,” Aaron Morrison of Mason City, Iowa, told The Associated Press via Facebook. “It makes me want to buy my next car made in America.”

48 Super Bowl ads: Eminem, Darth Vader, catering dogs

By MAE ANDERSON, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 12:19 pm ET

NEW YORK – In the Super Bowl of advertising, Justin Bieber replaced Ozzy Osbourne and Joan Rivers became a GoDaddy girl. But a pair of commercials by automakers took the early trophy for online buzz.

A two-minute ad for Chrysler starring Eminem and a Volkswagen ad featuring a mini-Darth Vader that went viral before it even aired were two of the most talked-about spots during advertising’s big night, the Super Bowl, in which Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25.

Chrysler was one of nine automakers that took advantage of advertising’s biggest and most expensive showcase, at $3 million for 30 seconds, to try to show they’re back after two tough years for the industry.

49 Poll: Frisky folks choose snuggling over Snuggies

By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press

2 hrs 12 mins ago

WASHINGTON – This year’s wild winter has brought everyday life to a halt for people from Boston to Austin, but freezing temperatures are still a good excuse for many Americans to cuddle, according to a new poll.

Given the choice between grabbing an extra blanket or cozying up with someone special when it’s cold, most people choose snuggling over a Snuggie, an Associated Press-Weather Underground poll finds.

All the snuggling may be an effort to counterbalance the negative impact most say winter has on their mood. Overall, four in 10 say the weather alters their attitude a good amount or more, with nearly three-quarters saying winter gives them a case of the blues.

50 Thailand, Cambodia clash again at disputed border

By SOPHENG CHEANG, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 3:17 pm ET

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Thailand accused Cambodia of refusing to negotiate to resolve a border dispute that led to the fourth straight day of fierce clashes Monday, as Phnom Penh said that only U.N. peacekeepers can stop the fighting near an 11th century temple.

Cambodia says the crumbling stone temple – classified as a World Heritage site – has been heavily damaged during several bursts of artillery fire over four days. The extent of the damage could not be confirmed.

The exchange of cross-border fire is highly unusual among members of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and has raised tensions in a region known for its stability.

51 Feds settle case of woman fired over Facebook site

By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press

51 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Employers should think twice before trying to restrict workers from talking about their jobs on Facebook or other social media.

That’s the message the government sent on Monday as it settled a closely watched lawsuit against a Connecticut ambulance company that fired an employee after she went on Facebook to criticize her boss.

The National Labor Relations Board sued the company last year, arguing the worker’s negative comments were protected speech under federal labor laws. The company claimed it fired the emergency medical technician because of complaints about her work.

52 Report: Pentagon should help traffic at bases

By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press

2 hrs 5 mins ago

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Pentagon should foot more of the bill for fixing traffic problems around military bases that are receiving thousands of new workers under a national realignment plan, a report commissioned by Congress said Monday.

Worsening traffic around some of the bases could be harmful to the military, which has previously left local and state governments to pay for most off-base transportation improvements, according to recommendations in the report by the National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board.

The report looked at six large bases: Fort Meade and the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland, Fort Belvoir in Virginia, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base and Fort Bliss, Texas.

53 Republicans out front of Obama on regulations

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press

2 hrs 35 mins ago

WASHINGTON – When President Barack Obama asked businesses for advice on creating jobs, he might have anticipated that more than 200 responses would quickly be headed his way courtesy of Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican who once called him corrupt.

A month before Obama reached out to businesses, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent 171 letters to various businesses and their trade associations. He asked for help in “identifying existing and proposed regulations that have negatively impacted job growth.”

This Thursday, Issa is giving business representatives an opportunity at a hearing by his committee to vent their frustration with government requirements issued by unelected bureaucrats. He wants Obama to include their responses in a review of government regulations the president ordered last month in the administration’s effort to find rules that cost Americans jobs.

54 Mardi Gras Indians work to copyright costumes

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 3:53 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS – Chief Howard Miller knows cameras will start clicking next month when his Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians take to the streets with their elaborately beaded and feathered costumes.

Now they and members of the city’s other tribes are working to get a slice of the profits when photos of the towering outfits they have spent the year crafting end up in books and on posters and T-shirts.

“It’s not about people taking pictures for themselves, but a lot of times people take pictures and sell them,” Miller said. “For years people have been reaping the benefits from the pictures they take of the Mardi Gras Indians.”

55 Experts: Contamination from GM alfalfa certain

By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press Writer

Mon Feb 7, 2:31 pm ET

DES MOINES, Iowa – Contamination of organic and traditional crops by recently deregulated, genetically modified alfalfa is inevitable, agriculture experts said, despite Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s recent assurances the federal government would take steps to prevent such a problem.

Many farmers had been pushing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve the use of genetically modified alfalfa. Monsanto developed the seed to resist the weedkiller Roundup, allowing farmers to use the two together to save time and labor on weeding. Supporters also say the use of the genetically modified seeds lets farmers grow more alfalfa on each acre and helps keep food prices low.

Opponents, many of them organic farmers, say widespread planting of genetically modified alfalfa will result in pollen from those plants contaminating organic and traditional crops, destroying their value. While alfalfa is mostly used as hay for cattle, some consumers don’t want to eat foods, such as milk or beef, from animals that have consumed genetically modified plants.

56 New York rail system suffers through brutal winter

CHRIS HAWLEY, Associated Press

Sun Feb 6, 10:06 pm ET

NEW YORK – When members of Congress met recently to discuss revitalizing passenger trains in the United States, they chose Grand Central Terminal, a majestic hub of New York’s vaunted mass transit system. From a balcony above the main concourse, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told lawmakers he rides the subway every day and called high-speed passenger rail “the track to the future.”

But to actual New York commuters, such talk rings hollow these days.

Mechanical breakdowns, stranded trains, rising fares and the governor’s plans to cut another $100 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s budget have left travelers fuming. An onslaught of snowstorms has exposed the rail system’s weaknesses, shorting out electric motors and snapping electric lines. On Monday the Metro-North commuter line will cut service on its popular New Haven line because half of its trains are in the shop.

57 Agencies getting tough with ship ballast dumping

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer

Sun Feb 6, 8:51 pm ET

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – After decades of delay, government officials are beginning to crack down on cargo ships that allow foreign invasive species to hitchhike to U.S. waters, where they have turned ecosystems upside down and caused billions of dollars in economic losses.

Organisms as large as adult fish and as small as bacteria lurk in ship ballast tanks, which hold millions of gallons of water and sediments that keep vessels upright in rough seas. When the soupy mixtures are dumped in harbors as freight is taken on, the stowaways often find hospitable surroundings and no natural predators. They spread rapidly, starving out native species and spreading diseases in aquatic life.

Since arriving in the Great Lakes in the mid-1980s, the zebra mussel and its cousin the quagga mussel have clogged municipal and power plant water intake pipes. They’re blamed for a Lake Huron salmon collapse and botulism that has killed thousands of shore birds. In San Francisco Bay, biologists say the Asian clam likely caused a decline of striped bass and other competitors for plankton.

58 Obama says people who hate him don’t know him

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

Sun Feb 6, 7:53 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he doesn’t take it personally when people say they hate him. And the thing he dislikes most about being president is the constant, intense scrutiny.

“The people who dislike you don’t know you. The folks who hate you, they don’t know you,” Obama said Sunday in an interview broadcast during Fox’s pre-game coverage of the Super Bowl. “What they hate is whatever funhouse mirror image of you that’s out there. They don’t know you.”

Asked by Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly whether his critics annoyed him, Obama said: “By the time you get here, you have to have had a pretty thick skin. If you didn’t, then you probably wouldn’t have gotten here.”

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