Israel must choose between settlements and peace

The year 2011 showed Palestinians and the rest of the world that creating
positive momentum in support of Palestinian self-determination and statehood is
possible. After years of trying to make Palestine disappear from the world map,
Israel witnessed an unstoppable wave of recognition for the state of Palestine
on the 1967 border, with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Today Palestine is a member of UNESCO, and the international community now has a clear mandate to protect our national and cultural heritage in addition to its responsibility and obligation to support Palestinian state-building. This international support for Palestine is an investment in peace that does not contradict the fact that a two-state solution is predicated on negotiations.

On the contrary, it strengthens and preserves the prospects for a two-state solution on the 1967 border ? a resolution to the conflict that the entire international community supports.

What has Israel?s response been to our UN bid? An aggressive, pull-no-punches diplomatic campaign opposing the initiative, which has so far proved unsuccessful. To console itself and to save face with its constituency, the Israeli government is continuing to change the facts on the ground with an escalation of Israel?s settlement program.

These Israeli actions over the past year, which defy Israel?s obligations under the Quartet?s Roadmap for Middle East peace ? not to mention international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention ? did not bring us any closer to an agreement; rather, they have shown that Israel?s chief aim is to dictate the terms of a final ?agreement.?

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu?s modus operandi is not new. His ideological inclination to favor settlements over peace has been clear during his two terms as prime minister. His great feats of oratorical gymnastics in which he attempts to criminalize Palestine?s resort to international law and UN mechanisms to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict while legitimating Israel?s population transfer and settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory are legendary. His public relations campaign and finger pointing will not detract from our national effort.

During the period between PA President Mahmoud Abbas?s speech before the UN General Assembly this last September and now, Israel has announced plans for the construction of thousands of new settlement housing units that will have the effect of putting the final nails in the coffin of a negotiated two-state solution.

How does Israel expect a viable, sovereign Palestinian state to exist without the Jordan Valley, or with the northern West Bank completely cut off from the southern West Bank as will be the case if Israel?s settlement ring around Jerusalem is completed? How will a Palestinian state will be born while its capital, east Jerusalem, is being severely punished by Israeli policies meant to change the demographic make-up of the holy city, policies which include home demolitions, Jewish-only settlement construction, and arbitrary ID revocations which result in the creation of new displaced Palestinians?

We will resist this injustice and oppression by taking our case to the international community and to international fora; submitting to Israel?s plan to isolate and marginalize us as a people is something that we will never accept. The two-state solution has been a part of the PLO?s political platform since 1988 when we recognized Israel?s right to exist on over 78 percent of historic Palestine.

This was reaffirmed in 1993 with the PLO?s signing of the Declaration of Principles, and this year with its UN bid calling upon the international community to admit the State of Palestine as a UN member on the 1967 border. However, Israel?s ongoing settlement expansion on Palestinian land is making many rethink whether the two-state solution is even viable anymore.

The Palestinian people are not just the last people to live under military occupation; they are a people nonviolently resisting an aggressive colonial settlement policy that is aimed at grabbing as much land outside of Palestinian urban areas as possible.

Unfortunately, there is no state ? largely because of the influence of the US ? willing to take clear action. As Israel?s Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya?alon confidently said a few days ago, ?we convinced the American administration that there is no way to solve the conflict in one or two years... the US is trying to manage the conflict now, rather than solve it.?

While 2012 does not seem to be a promising year for those who aspire to achieve a just peace, the Palestinian Authority will continue its peaceful efforts to achieve our overdue independence. It will continue its campaign to obtain international recognition, including admission to the United Nations.

As was the case in 2011, in this new year, Palestine will stand ready to negotiate a final status agreement with Israel. To have meaningful negotiations, however, Israel must be willing to implement its obligations under previous agreements. Negotiating peace with Israel while it takes our occupied homeland would be nonsensical.

As the Quartet recognized in its September 23, 2011 proposal for the resumption of negotiations, there must be a conducive environment for direct talks to bear fruit. Continued settlement expansion is the antithesis of a conducive environment. The Quartet Roadmap is clear: Israel must completely freeze settlement construction, including the so called ?natural growth,?on occupied Palestinian land.

As Abbas stated in his address to the United Nations: We are facing a ?moment of truth.? If the resolution to the conflict the international community seeks is two sovereign, viable and democratic states framed by the 1967 border, we all know what has to be done. If, on the contrary, the goal is to facilitate Israel?s confiscation of as much of Palestinian land as possible and to consolidate Israel?s settlement enterprise, then it would make no sense to waste our people?s trust and patience by participating in such a failed exercise.

Israel?s response to the PA?s diplomatic actions and civil society campaigns has shown political blindness. Israel will never be able to negate the existence of Palestine or its people, just as we cannot negate the existence of Israel. This new year, Israel ought to resolve to answer this moment of truth by choosing to work with Palestine towards a prosperous future of peace, justice and democracy for the sake of both countries? citizens, not by continuing to choose settlements over peace. The dreams of millions and the future of our younger generations call upon Israel and the international community to make the right choice.

The writer is an adviser to the PLO?s Negotiations Affairs Department.

Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?ID=251329&R=R1

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America's Turn From Science, a Danger For Democracy

The whole U.S. is established on the idea of God and religion.

There's a fairly large body of evidence that despite the constant mentions of "God", the founding fathers were all secular.

The separation of Church and State is one of the founding principles. As well, religious freedom is specifically addressed by the Bill of Rights, and even prior to that when the second constutional congress thought it unnecessary to enumerate what rights the State may not violate because it was so obvious.

So no, the United States was not founded on religion specifically, though religious freedom was one cause of the breakaway from British--specifically English--rule.

All of the founding fathers, and other influential people at that time, were highly educated and equally understood and accepted the founding principles of freedom.

Religion's role in politics is largely an invention of the 20th century going into the 21st century. Prior to that, it was race, which cumulated in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. And before that was the issue of slavery, which resulted in the Civil War. Interesting digression: there never was division in the government about how to treat Native Americans. Anyway, you can say that the civil rights movement was finishing what the Civil War began.

If anything, this country was founded on extreme duality and compromises. Religion just happens to be the current subject of the duality, though even that could be argued to have grown out of the race and ultimately slavery issue. But once the religion issue is settled (if it ever does), there will be the next fad.

If you take a close look at U.S. history, the root cause of all the current spate of problems goes back to the slavery issue. Religion wasn't written into the Constitution, but slavery certainly was. And the hostility towards Obama has to do with those very same sentiments (and look at how the GOP treated Herman Cain). But since race is a taboo, the same bigoted elements switched to religion, only, said elements found religion to be a much more effective motivator, and much harder to make taboo.

The unfortunate side effect of religion being the subject of the duality is that education, specifically higher education subjects including math, science, engineering, and philosophy, gets thrown under the bus. But that's what taking extreme positions on religion does. Look at the Muslim world to see the results. Look at the dark ages for an example a little closer to home (considering that the U.S. started as an extension of Europe).

There are certainly other problems caused by other deep-rooted sentiments. E.g. current and past foreign policy is largely due to manifest destiny and the way Native Americans were treated. But the extreme duality of the country with regards to religion is not ultimately about religion itself, but about race and slavery.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/YHuldwv7lsU/americas-turn-from-science-a-danger-for-democracy

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SIM-LEI EV gets a video walk-through: shaped like a fish, has a big screen (video)

We got our first whiff of the SIM-LEI, an EV from across the Pacific, in March. Back then it was just an oddly shaped prototype with an impressive range of 207 miles and a top speed of 93mph. With the SIM-Drive's concept marching closer to a planned production date sometime in 2013 the company is finally giving a more detailed look at the car at the 2011 Electrical Vehicle Industrial Exhibition. The tapered, fish-like shape reduces drag, but the tiny coefficient of 0.91 couldn't be reached without shrinking the mirrors to their legal limit. The SIM-LEI compensates for the minuscule side and rear-view reflectors with a trio of cameras that feed video to the 19-inch (yes, we said 19-inch) monitor in the dashboard. Check out the video after the break for a complete tour of its advanced motoring tech.

Continue reading SIM-LEI EV gets a video walk-through: shaped like a fish, has a big screen (video)

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Video: Fallen Marine honored at Arlington

With full military honors, Marine Staff Sgt. Vincent J. Bell was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The 28 year old, from Detroit, Michigan, ?died November 30th in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. His mother and father, Pamela Alexander and James Bell, III and his widow Karen Bell, were presented flags by Sgt. Maj. Eric Stockton.?

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45797627/

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Jones confirmed as Japan rugby coach

Updated at 6:13 am today

The former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones will replace New Zealand's John Kirwan as Japan's head coach.

The former All Blacks winger Kirwan will step down from his role when his contract expires at the end of this month.

Jones, the coach of Japan's Top League rugby side Suntory Sungoliath since 2009, has a contract from April 2012 to the end of the 2015 World Cup in England.

The 51-year-old, coached the Wallabies team beaten by England in the 2003 World Cup final but tasted success in 2007 as a consultant to the victorious South Africa team.

Masahiro Kunda will be Jones' assistant with the pair taking up their roles after the Australian finishes the season with Sungoliath, who he led to the national championship last term.

Copyright ? 2011, Radio New Zealand

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/sport/94736/jones-confirmed-as-japan-rugby-coach

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China and Japan Agree to New Currency Dealings

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Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5665329791

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ECB's Visco hints at lower rates if economy worsens (Reuters)

MILAN (Reuters) ? European Central Bank Governing Council Member Ignazio Visco said in a newspaper interview on Saturday that the bank will be attentive to the economic cycle when setting monetary policy, suggesting rates could fall more if the euro zone economy worsens.

The ECB has cut interest rates for two months in a row and this month unveiled a raft of measures to support Europe's cash-starved banks to counter a forecast recession brought on by widespread austerity measures.

"Monetary policy will be attentive to the (economic) cycle. It is thus that we defend monetary stability in the medium-term," the governor of the Bank of Italy, said in the interview in Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

Visco also said the upward trend in Italian bond yields has been stopped and turned around, even if financial markets remain very volatile.

On Friday, the yield on the 10-year Italian government bond rose above 7 percent, the highest since December 16, and the spread over the equivalent German Bund was more than 500 basis points on worries about the euro zone in 2012.

"All the same the trend for higher yields is stopped and turned around, and today we are well below the highs registered in the last few months," Visco said in the interview in Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

"Certainly there is a lot of volatility, but we know that confidence on the markets is lost quickly and regained only slowly and with a constant and continuous commitment," said Visco, who is also governor of the Bank of Italy.

Visco said that the Italian government's 33 billion euro ($43 billion) austerity package, approved definitively by the Senate on Thursday, was "indispensable," but he added that structural measures to boost growth and create jobs and wealth should be accelerated.

"It is with policies that sustain growth in a credible way that it will be possible to convince the rest of the world that - as our analyses clearly confirm - our public debt is sustainable," he said.

In an interview on Friday, Standard & Poor's top executives said the first quarter of 2012 will be a test for Italy because of the huge amount of sovereign debt it has to refinance.

The record-high yields Italy has paid at recent sales have led to concerns the euro zone's third-largest economy may have trouble refinancing the more than 150 billion euros of debt coming due between February and April next year.

The spread between the 10-year Italian bond and the equivalent Bund can fall if the growth capacity of national economies is judged favourably, on prospects for political integration in the euro zone, and international cooperation, he said.

BANK FUNDING, CAPITAL

Asked about growth and the problem of the economic cycle, Visco said: "This is the reason for which, with the last decisions of the governing board, we have made monetary policy still more accommodating than it was already before."

He added that the ECB does not only respond to short-term inflation trends when setting policy.

A year of complete stagnation awaits the euro zone economy in 2012, according to a recent Reuters poll of economists, who said a recession has already started that will last until the second quarter of next year.

European banks gobbled up nearly 490 billion euros in three-year cut-price loans from the ECB on Wednesday, easing immediate fears of a credit crunch but leaving unresolved how much will flow to needy euro zone economies.

More than a dozen Italian banks, including top lenders UniCredit (CRDI.MI) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI), tapped 116 billion euros ($143.5 billion) of the three-year loans - about a quarter of the total.

"Bank liquidity is suffering strong pressure because of the difficulty in renewing wholesale funding, which is determined by the strong increase in sovereign risks in the euro zone," Visco said in the paper.

Visco said the European Banking Authority's demand for higher capital buffers, which has come under fire in Italy, is a one-off exercise and is not aimed at deleveraging or reducing lending to the economy.

"I understand that (raising capital on the market) is not easy, but we are not talking about extraordinary figures," he said, adding that other options include cutting dividends and bonuses, and selling non-strategic assets.

(Writing by Nigel Tutt and Philip Pullella)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111224/bs_nm/us_ecb_visco

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Russian Satellite Crashes in Latest Failed Rocket Launch (SPACE.com)

This story was updated at 12:51 p.m. EST.

A Russian communications satellite crashed just after liftoff Friday (Dec. 23) when its rocket apparently failed, the latest in a series of rocket launch failures for the country this year.

An unmanned Soyuz-2 rocket launched the Meridian military communications satellite from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Russian northern region. But the rocket failed to reach orbit, making it the?fifth failed space mission for Russia?in 2011.

"This area of the space industry is in sort of a crisis," ?Russian space agency chief Vladimir Popovin told reporters in a televised press conference today. "We can say even now that the problem lies in the engine." But more analysis is needed to be certain exactly what went wrong, ?he added.

Popovin was speaking in a press conference originally aimed to celebrate the successful docking of a different Russian spacecraft, the manned Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule, at the International Space Station earlier in the day. [Cosmic Fail: Space Launch Flops of 2011]

The capsule ferried three?new crewmembers to the space station, boosting the outpost's crew size to six for the first time since September, when it dropped to three people due to delays caused by another failed Russian rocket launch in August.

"I believe that tomorrow we'll have more results that we'll be able to tell you," Popovin said during today's press conference, which was held in Russian and translated on NASA TV. Popovin and other space officials left the conference after several questions about the launch failure despite a reminder that the briefing was targeted at the successful docking.

The Soyuz-2 rocket crashed near the city of Tobolsk in Siberia,?the Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported. The Soyuz-2 rocket is an upgraded version of the country's typically dependable Soyuz booster.

Russia's space launch woes

Russia's space launch troubles this year began in February, when a Rokot launch vehicle failed to deliver a military satellite called Geo-IK2 into the proper orbit. On Aug. 18, a different rocket design, called Proton, also delivered its $300 million satellite payload into the wrong orbit.

Less than a week later, a third-stage engine problem doomed yet another rocket launch, this time a Soyuz booster carrying the robotic cargo ship Progress 44, which crashed somewhere in Siberia instead of making a routine delivery flight to the International Space Station. It was this failure of Russia's normally dependable Soyuz rockets that forced Russian and U.S. space officials to ground all Soyuz flights ? including crew launches to the space station ? until after a full investigation could be performed.

Russia resumed Soyuz rocket launches in late October with the launch of a new unmanned Progress cargo ship. Two manned Soyuz space missions followed, mid- November and most recently on Dec. 21, to bring the space station back to its full six-person crew size.

But on Nov. 8, Russia was dealt another space setback when the country's first Mars-bound spacecraft in decades failed to leave Earth orbit. The Phobos-Grunt mission aimed to land a probe on the Mars moon Phobos, collect samples of the moon and return them to Earth. The spacecraft also carried a Chinese Mars orbiter.

But Phobos-Grunt has been trapped in Earth orbit for more than a month and is expected to plunge back to Earth by Early January.

Punishments possible

According to Ria Novosti reports earlier this month, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev?has even threatened to disciplinary action, heavy fines or criminal penalties for the country's recent space woes. In December 2010, Medvedev?formally reprimanded Anatoly Perminov, the previous chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency, and outright fired two other high-ranking space officials.

Popovin said an investigation into the failure will be performed in order to develop measures to fix any flaws in the Soyuz-2 rocket engine.

The next launch of a Russian-built rocket is slated for Dec. 26, when a Proton rocket is scheduled to launch a communications satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in a mission overseen by the U.S.-based firm International Launch Services. The Proton rocket is a different design than the Soyuz-2 booster.

Another Soyuz rocket, this one managed by the European launch provider Arianespace, is scheduled to launch on Dec. 28.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111223/sc_space/russiansatellitecrashesinlatestfailedrocketlaunch

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lvgolfblogger: Gary Woodland up, Sean O'Hair down http://t.co/vsoUVfYu #Golf

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National award for University professor after landmark study

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Kim Jong-un hailed 'supreme commander' of military

Posted December 24, 2011 17:00:41

North Korean media on Saturday hailed the youngest son of late leader Kim Jong-il as "supreme commander" of the powerful military, in the latest sign that the untested successor is cementing his hold on power.

"We will uphold Comrade Kim Jong-un as our supreme commander and general and we will bring the Songun (military-first) revolution to a completion," the ruling communist party's Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial.

It is the first time that one of the North's mouthpieces has used the title supreme commander - a post previously held by his father - for the new leader, already a four-star general though still in his late 20s.

"This shows that Jong-un now has a firm grip on the military and the North is heralding this to the outside world," said professor Kim Yong-Hyun of Dongguk University in Seoul.

"It also suggests that the North will continue with its Songun policy at least in the foreseeable future."

North Korea on Monday described the untested Jong-un as the "great successor" after announcing the death of his father at age 69.

The latest acclamation is particularly significant because it came on the 20th anniversary of the declaration of Kim Jong-Il as supreme commander, said professor Yang Moo-Jin at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

"The editorial is aimed at preparing the people for Jong-un becoming the supreme commander of the military and also announcing it to the outside world," he said.

"Legal and official steps will follow sooner or later for his takeover from his deceased father as the supreme commander."

The latest dynastic ruler remains a figure of mystery to the outside world, which is seeking clues to future policy in the nuclear-armed nation.

Analysts expect little political upheaval following the death - at least for now - since regime members have an interest in preserving the status quo.

The son was appointed to senior military and party posts in September 2010, paving the way for a third-generation hereditary succession after the late Kim succeeded his own father Kim Il-Sung in the 1990s.

The country's regular armed forces total 1.19 million and the regime has a policy prioritising the military's needs over those of civilians.

Kim Jong-un issued his first military order just before his father's death was announced Monday in what was seen as an indication that he already controls the armed forces, South Korean media reported on Wednesday.

In its editorial, the Rodong Sinmun urged Jong-un to "heed the call from the people to you as the supreme commander and lead Kim Il-Sung's Korea to an eternal victory."

AFP

Topics: world-politics, korea-democratic-people-s-republic-of

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-24/kim-jong-un-hailed-supreme-commander-of-military/3746636

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[OOC] Island Asylum

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Rochester drug ring pins fall one by one (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

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Karen Dalton-Beninato: Damn You Nimrod! A Christmas Tale

I keep feeling like I should be buying a holiday present my mother neither wants nor needs. First because we didn't celebrate Christmas, and second because she died last month. We had the most Christian of all reasons not to celebrate the holiday, a faction of Evangelicals took to heart the fact that Christmas was designed to merge a new religion with worship of the birthday of Nimrod, possible builder of Babel and grandson of Ham. Not the meat. Circa 300, Christianity added the tree, the presents and viola - the holiday most Americans know as Christmas.

Our Too Religious for Christmas policy didn't always take. We lived on 40 acres with enough spare evergreens to drag one into the house and lean against a tree at some point mid-December. And you could certainly buy presents, you just weren't going to get any. To make up for the guilt trip that only a house full of non-celebrating kids can give you, we traveled the world. But it doesn't matter where I was, if at the ocean, I would kick the sand and curse Nimrod. If at home, my mom would fire up the 4 wheeler, tie an inner tube to the hitch and spin out as I hung on for dear life. You can't curse Nimrod when you're that dizzy.

In the meantime, my parents waited to shop the after-Christmas sales. As a child of the Depression, my dad couldn't imagine any other option. He had lied about his age, served in World War II and sent money home to his family before he could vote or drink. That giving spirit didn't die. He bought the town roller rink. And an oversized pony / casual horse. We caught bass from our pond, baked bread from our wheat and grew vegetables in a quarter-acre garden. My mother dressed us in L.L. Bean sweaters guaranteed to outlive their recipient. I still have a red velour model, circa 1980. It was mortifying. I wanted nothing more than flammable clothing with butterfly sleeves and platters of fast food. But she held her ground.

Asked for any holiday wishes, all my mother would ever say is: "The health and happiness of my family." She had a deft hand with sarcasm, so I always wondered if it was a trick to make us even more of a non-gift household. My first holiday with my New Orleans boyfriend's family, I took the drama up to a Heidi of the Alps level. "And what do you call this, Grandfather, Tin-sill?" He bought me too many presents. I married him a year later. We have a holiday home.

But this year we're doing something different in honor of my late parents. No gifts. No cards. No tree. Just gathering with family and wishing for the health and happiness of friends and loved ones. If there's enough karma sailing behind me, I'll throw in a wish for peace and earth, good will toward humans and other living things.

Because, really, who can stay mad at Nimrod her whole life?

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Follow Karen Dalton-Beninato on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kbeninato

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-daltonbeninato/damn-you-nimrod-a-christm_b_1166725.html

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German business morale rises, defies euro zone gloom (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? German business sentiment rose sharply in December, defying expectations for a decline and underscoring the resilience of Europe's dominant economy in the face of a sovereign debt crisis that has hammered euro zone growth.

The Munich-based Ifo think tank said on Tuesday that its business climate index, based on a monthly survey of some 7,000 companies, rose to 107.2 in December from 106.6 in November, posting its biggest monthly rise since February.

It was the second rise in a row after an equally surprising gain in November. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast a drop to 106.1.

Analysts welcomed the rise but took care not to overplay its significance, particularly in the wake of recent downbeat German export and manufacturing data, and amid continuing downward revisions to 2012 economic growth forecasts.

"The small rise in the December's Ifo index is a welcome surprise but hardly transforms the outlook for the economy," said economist Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics.

"All of the indices are still sharply down on their summer readings ... Overall, there is some encouragement here that the German economy is not currently plunging into recession, but the picture is one of very weak growth at best," he added.

News of the data helped the under-pressure euro strengthen to $1.3125. It also spurred a rebound in European stocks, following a slide of 4.3 percent over the last fortnight.

"The German economy seems to be successfully countering the downturn in Western Europe. This bodes well for Christmas," Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn said in a statement.

SLOWDOWN, BUT NO SLUMP?

The survey's coordinator, Klaus Abberger, noted the business climate in retailing and domestic construction had improved.

"At the moment I don't think we (Germany) will fall into recession again," he said.

The business expectations sub-index proved particularly strong, rising to 98.4 from a previous 97.3, the biggest gain since July 2010, and well in excess of a forecast for 97.0.

The figures dovetailed with data from the GfK institute released earlier on Tuesday showing consumer morale held steady going into January, bucking expectations for a fall, as income expectations and views of the economy improved.

Domestic demand helped the German economy grow a healthy 0.5 percent in the third quarter, but investor morale has since soured as a convincing solution to the euro zone debt crisis remains elusive, fuelling expectations of a slowdown going into the new year and depriving the euro zone of its key growth motor.

Three think tanks cut their 2012 forecasts for German GDP on Tuesday, with the IMK becoming the first major institute to predict a recession for Europe's bulwark economy.

"The main reason for the drastic economic slowdown remains now, as before, the unresolved confidence crisis in the euro zone and the high-profile austerity programs in ever more euro zone and European Union countries," the IMK institute said.

Concerns over Germany's ability to weather the crisis were underlined earlier this month, when a survey showed German manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in December and exports posted their biggest fall in October in half a year.

A survey by insurer Allianz published on Tuesday also gave a negative slant, showing that only 32 percent of those asked in the fourth quarter expressed confidence about the economy in 2012, down 11 percentage points from a year ago.

Confidence had been rattled by the debt crisis and the current economic climate, the study said.

Analyst Rainer Sartoris at HSBC Trinkaus called the Ifo index "a forgiving end to the year."

"The numbers show confidence that the German economy will not collapse. The first and second quarters of 2012 will be weak, but we expect the German economy to pick up in the course of the year."

(Reporting by Berlin bureau; Writing by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111220/bs_nm/us_germany_ifo

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Oil-drilling rig with 76 aboard overturns in Russia's Far East

By msnbc.com staff

An offshore oil-drilling rig with 76 people?on board overturned in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia?s Far East, Russia Today reported Sunday.

There was no word on survivors, the news channel said.

A distress signal was sent while the platform was being towed by an icebreaker through high seas and strong winds, Russia Today said.

The platform was?about 125 miles off Sakhalin Island.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/17/9527450-oil-drilling-rig-with-76-aboard-overturns-in-russias-far-east

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Manning's sexual orientation is raised at hearing

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, right, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, for a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. Manning is suspected of being the source in one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, right, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, for a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. Manning is suspected of being the source in one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, right, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, for a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. Manning is suspected of being the source in one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, at center wearing glasses, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, for a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. Manning is suspected of being the source in one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

David Coombs, attorney for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, walks towards the courthouse entrance at Fort Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, during a recess in a military hearing that will determine if Army Pfc. Bradley Manning should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. Manning is suspected of being the source in one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Lt. Dan Choi, gay veteran and activist, center left, and retired US Army Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, right, march with others in support of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, present on base at a military court hearing, at Ft. Meade, Md., Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Prosecutors began presenting their case that Manning was the source of the WikiLeaks website's collection of U.S. military and diplomatic secrets. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) ? The young Army intelligence specialist accused of leaking government secrets spent his 24th birthday in court Saturday as his lawyers argued his status as a gay soldier before the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" played an important role in his actions.

Lawyers for Pfc. Bradley Manning began laying out a defense to show that his struggles in an environment hostile to homosexuality contributed to mental and emotional problems that should have barred him from having access to sensitive material.

Manning is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive items to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, including Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, State Department cables and a military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.

Prosecutors at the pretrial hearing in a small courtroom on an Army post outside Washington began trying to connect Manning to the publication of that material by WikiLeaks. On Saturday, they presented six of about 20 witnesses they plan to call during the hearing being held to determine whether Manning will be court-martialed on 22 counts, including aiding the enemy.

Testimony included the first references since the hearing began Friday to Adrian Lamo, a former hacker to whom Manning allegedly confessed his ties to WikiLeaks. The basis for the charges Manning faces are transcripts of a series of online chats with Lamo.

The Obama administration says the released information has threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments. Manning's lawyers counter that much of the information that was classified by the Pentagon posed no risk.

Army criminal investigators described evidence they collected that links Manning to the WikiLeaks website's collection of U.S. military and diplomatic secrets.

But among the first issues to arise Saturday was whether Manning's sexual orientation is relevant to the case against him. The defense revealed that Manning had written to one of his supervisors in Baghdad before his arrest, saying he was suffering from gender-identity disorder. He included a picture of himself dressed as a woman and talked about how it was affecting his ability to do his job and even think clearly.

Maj. Matthew Kemkes, a defense lawyer, asked Special Agent Toni Graham, an Army criminal investigator, whether she had talked to people who believed Manning was gay or found evidence among his belongings relating to gender-identity disorder. The condition often is described as a mental diagnosis in which people believe they were born the wrong sex.

Graham said such questions were irrelevant to the investigation. "We already knew before we arrived that Pfc. Manning was a homosexual," Graham said.

Prosecutors objected several times to the questions. Kemkes responded that if the government can argue that Manning intended to leak secrets, "what is going on in my client's mind is very important."

During cross -examination of Treasury Department Special Agent Troy Bettencourt, who investigated the case, defense attorney Capt. Paul Bouchard asked him he was aware during his investigation that Manning was gay. "Yes, sir," Bettencourrt said.

Bouchard asked Bettencourt if he believes Manning's military leaders failed him, given his behavior such as overturning a table and throwing a chair in episodes of rage. Bettencourt said that in hindsight, "I would like to think that had I been in the chain of command, I would have maybe done things differently. I would have been aware of everything we now know to prevent him from deploying ? but that is with the benefit of hindsight."

Prosecutor Capt. Joe Morrow quickly asked Bettencourt if he believes people who have signed nondisclosure agreements, like Manning, "have an individual responsibility to safeguard classified information." Bettencourt replied, "Yes."

One of Manning's commanders in Baghdad, Capt. Steven Lim, said Manning should have had his security clearance suspended because of his problems. Lim said the outbursts occurred before he arrived, and that when he learned of them after Manning's arrest, he was shocked. Lim said he was also unaware that Manning believed he was suffering from gender-identity disorder.

A former platoon sergeant testified that Manning knew from training he shouldn't give classified information to people not authorized to have it. That witness, now retired Sgt. First Class Brian Madrid, said by phone from Arizona that he also had to give Manning "corrective training" in 2008 after Manning prepared a video for his family of himself talking about his daily life.

Madrid said Manning had used words in the video like "top secret" and "classified." And while he didn't reveal any secrets, those words could identify him as a person with a high-level security clearance and make him a target of those would want to compromise him.

During its cross examination of Graham, the Army criminal investigator, Manning's defense team also sought to convince the court that not all of the material he is accused of leaking is classified.

Graham, who collected evidence from Manning's living quarters and workplace, testified that among the items seized was a DVD marked "secret" that contained a military video showing the 2007 incident in which Apache attack helicopters gunned down unarmed men in Iraq.

The video was taken from the cockpit of one the helicopters. WikiLeaks posted the video in April 2010, sparking questions about the military's rules of engagement and whether more needed to be done to prevent civilian casualties. The gunners can be heard laughing and referring to the men as "dead bastards."

Kemkes asked Graham whether she knew the video was unclassified. She said she didn't. "In fact, it was an unclassified video," Kemkes said.

At the time the video was posted by WikiLeaks, the Pentagon called it a breach of national security and it was believed to be secret.

Although WikiLeaks had been posting sensitive information to the Web since 2006, release of the Apache video drew worldwide attention to the organization as it prepared to publish secret documents on the war in Afghanistan.

Manning's appearances Friday and Saturday in the Fort Meade courtroom mark the first time he has been seen in public after 19 months in detention. The Oklahoma native comes to court in Army camouflage fatigues and wearing dark-rimmed glasses. Manning sat calmly in the courtroom Saturday without appearing to react to the testimony, even when centered on his troubled mental state and homosexuality. Manning listened intently and regularly took notes.

An Army appeals court on Friday rejected a defense effort to have the presiding officer, Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, because of alleged bias. Separately, lawyers for WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange are asking the military's highest appeals court to guarantee two seats in the Fort Meade courtroom.

Manning's hearing is open to the public, with limited seating. Inside the courtroom, no civilian recording equipment is allowed. Instead of a judge, a presiding officer delivers a recommendation as to whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a suspect to trial. A military commander then makes the final decision.

The case has spawned an international support network of people who believe the U.S. government has gone too far in seeking to punish Manning.

More than 100 people gathered outside Fort Meade for a march in support of Manning, some holding signs declaring "Americans have the right to know. Free Bradley Manning" and "Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime."

Todd Anderson, 64, said he drove from New York City to take part. "I think this man showed a great deal of courage, the kind of thing I wouldn't have the courage to do, and I really consider him to be a hero," Anderson said.

Juline Jordan, 46, said she flew in from Detroit just for the day. "I support what he did because he exposed some horrific war crimes and horrific things done at the hands of the United States government and the Department of Defense, and he's a hero for that," Jordan said.

In London, several dozen protesters from gay organizations, the Occupy London protest camp and other groups rallied outside the U.S. Embassy Saturday calling for Manning's release and offering birthday wishes.

__

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Richard Lardner and Mark Sherman in Washington and Brian Witte at Fort Meade contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-17-Manning-WikiLeaks/id-7613f4299e954c44bf8b8a230e45c59a

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9 states win early education grant

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Nine states won a collective $500 million Friday from the federal government to help make pre-K and other early learning programs more accessible and better capable of narrowing the achievement gap between those who start kindergarten without any formal schooling and those who do.

California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington state were announced as winners at the White House.

"Nothing is more important than getting our babies off to a good start," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

The money to aid the nation's youngest learners is part of the administration's cornerstone education initiative ? the "Race to the Top" grant competition. It has states competing for federal dollars to create programs intended to make schools more effective in exchange for education initiatives it favors. Last year, it handed out $4 billion in similar grants focused on K-12 education.

The goal of this competition is to get more children from birth to age 5 ready for kindergarten. Thirty-five states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico applied for the chance to win between about $50 million to $100 million apiece in prize money.

The winnings are to help build statewide systems that affect all early learning programs, including child care, Head Start centers and public or private preschools.

Billions are spent annually in America on early education programs, but the quality and availability of those programs varies greatly. Roughly half of all 3-year-olds and about a quarter of 4-year-olds do not attend preschool, said Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.

Kids who attend quality early education programs have been shown to do better in school, be less likely to spend time in prison later and to make more money as adults. But children from low-income families who start kindergarten without any schooling are estimated to start school 18 months behind their peers, a gap that is extremely difficult to overcome.

Sharon Lynn Kagan, co-director of the National Center for Children and Families at Columbia University, said during a conference call with reporters that the contest has helped jumpstart what she describes as one of the most exciting times in early education in 40 years.

It's like "an alarm has gone off and finally everyone is waking up to what the research is showing for a very, very long time about the importance of intervening with very high quality programs for all young children," she said.

To win, states were asked to demonstrate a commitment to making such programs more accessible, coordinated and more effective. Providing professional development for teachers and creating ways to assess the education level of kids entering kindergarten were among the areas states were asked to focus on in their applications.

The top scoring state in the competition was North Carolina, Duncan said. The state's plan included the creation of a "transformation zone" in the distressed northeastern corner of the state where specialty services would be available.

Other states took similar but different approaches in their comprehensive proposals. Massachusetts, for example, said it will use the funding to help conduct better and earlier screenings of children's learning needs. And, Rhode Island plans to connect health care and early learning providers.

Duncan was joined at the White House by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose agency helped run the competition. HHS oversees the federal Head Start program, which provides early education to nearly 1 million low-income children.

Sebelius said the goal is to provide high-profile encouragement to programs that improve teaching skills, encourage healthy eating and exercise and get parents ? especially in low-income neighborhoods ? more directly involved.

"By pushing everyone ... to raise their game, we intend to foster innovation in early education programs around the country," Sibelius said.

Last month, Obama announced new rules that require lower-performing Head Start programs to compete for funding. The Education Department also has proposed creating a new office to oversee the grants and better coordinate early learning programs.

_____

Associated Press writer Alex Dominguez in Baltimore contributed to this report.

_____

Online: Education Department: http://www.ed.gov/

Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov/

_____

Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-16-Race%20to%20Top-Early%20Learning/id-1a29269e58eb4d348f666ad84c50f2f5

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Gov't to adopt strict new limits on chimp research

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 1961 file photo, Ham, the first higher primate launched into outer space, is comforted by an unidentified man on the deck of a rescue ship after the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Chimpanzees should hardly ever be used for medical research, a prestigious scientific group told the government Thursday _ advice that means days in the laboratory may be numbered for humans' closest relatives. The Institute of Medicine stopped short of recommending the outright ban that animal rights activists had pushed. Instead, it urged strict limits that would make invasive experiments with chimps essentially a last resort, saying today's more advanced research tools mean the primates' use only rarely will be necessary enough to outweigh the moral costs. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 1961 file photo, Ham, the first higher primate launched into outer space, is comforted by an unidentified man on the deck of a rescue ship after the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Chimpanzees should hardly ever be used for medical research, a prestigious scientific group told the government Thursday _ advice that means days in the laboratory may be numbered for humans' closest relatives. The Institute of Medicine stopped short of recommending the outright ban that animal rights activists had pushed. Instead, it urged strict limits that would make invasive experiments with chimps essentially a last resort, saying today's more advanced research tools mean the primates' use only rarely will be necessary enough to outweigh the moral costs. (AP Photo, File)

This undated photo provided by the Wildlife Way Station shows Booie the chimpanzee. Booie who kicked a smoking habit and used sign language to beg for candy has died at a California animal refuge. Martine Colette of the Wildlife WayStation says Booie, was being treated for a heart condition when he died Saturday, Dec. 11, 2011, at 44. The chimp had been living at the animal sanctuary near Los Angeles since 1995, after he retired from a research lab. Colette says she turned Booie into a non-smoker but couldn't fix his sweet tooth. (AP Photo/Wildlife Way Station, Dave Welling)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The government on Thursday said it would adopt strict new limits on using chimpanzees in medical research, after a prestigious scientific group recommended that experiments with humans' closest relative be done only as a last resort.

The National Institutes of Health agreed that science has advanced enough that chimps seldom would be needed to help develop new medicines.

NIH Director Francis Collins temporarily barred new federal funding for research involving chimps, and said a working group will review about 37 ongoing projects involving the animals to see if they should be phased out.

Chimps' similarity to people "demands special consideration and respect," Collins said.

These apes' genetic closeness to humans has long caused a quandary. It's what has made them so valuable to scientists for nearly a century. They were vital in creating a vaccine for hepatitis B, for example, and even were shot into space to make sure the trip wouldn't kill the astronauts next in line.

But that close relationship also has had animal rights groups arguing that using chimps for biomedical research is unethical, even cruel.

Chimp research already was dwindling fast as scientists turned to less costly and ethically charged alternatives.

Thursday's decision was triggered by an uproar last year over the fate of 186 semi-retired research chimps that the NIH, to save money, planned to move from a New Mexico facility to an active research lab in Texas.

Where and how to house those animals ? and others scattered around the country who probably no longer will be needed ? are among the issues that Collins said a government working group will decide as it determines how to implement the new research restrictions.

The Institute of Medicine's recommendation on Thursday stopped short of the outright ban that animal rights activists had pushed. Instead, it urged strict limits on biomedical research ? testing new drugs or giving animals a disease ? that would allow using chimps only if studies could not be done on other animals or people themselves, and if foregoing the chimp work would hinder progress against life-threatening or debilitating conditions.

The panel advised the government to limit use of chimps in behavioral and genetic research as well, saying such studies must provide insights that otherwise are unattainable ? and use techniques that minimize any pain or distress.

"We understand and feel compelled by the moral cost of using chimpanzees in research," said bioethicist Jeffrey Kahn of Johns Hopkins University, who chaired the Institute of Medicine panel. "We have established criteria that will set the bar quite high for justification of the use of chimpanzees."

The U.S. is one of only two countries known to still conduct medical research with chimpanzees; the other is Gabon, in Africa. The European Union essentially banned such research last year.

Here, too, the practice was becoming uncommon. The Institute of Medicine's investigation found over the past 10 years, the NIH has paid for just 110 projects of any type that involved chimps. There are not quite 1,000 chimps available for medical research in the country.

While it's impossible to say how many have been used in privately funded pharmaceutical research, the industry is shifting to higher-tech and less costly research methods. One drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, adopted an official policy ending its use of great apes, including chimpanzees, in research.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-15-Chimp%20Research/id-36bbfb9de9434db89bc0d526f1292cd0

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