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Source: http://www.facebook.com/vrzone/posts/218992238183270
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Greek tax officials on strike (AP)
ATHENS, Greece ? Greek tax officials walked off the job Thursday at the start of a 48-hour strike to protest salary cuts and other austerity measures, as the government struggles to meet revenue targets demanded by the crisis-struck country's international creditors.
Tax offices shut down for the last two working days of the year, prompting hundreds of Greeks on Wednesday to rush to settle last-minute issues before the strike. Many handed over their car license plates, preferring to keep their vehicles off the road rather than paying an increased tax.
Greece has been surviving since May 2010 on multibillion euro rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund after years of government overspending left it with an unsustainable public debt.
In return for the euro110 billion ($144 billion) bailout, the previous Socialist government imposed harsh austerity measures, increasing taxes and retirement ages, cutting pensions and salaries, and suspending tens of thousands of civil servants on reduced pay.
"As a result of the austerity measures putting some tax officers on reduced pay, we have 5,500 fewer tax office jobs," said tax officers' union head Charalambos Nikolakopoulos.
Tax evasion has been rampant in Greece, despite repeated efforts to crack down on the practice.
The strike comes a day after the sudden resignation of two prosecutors heading the judicial task force charged with fighting tax evasion. The two, Grigoris Peponis and Spiros Mouzakitis, claimed they were being sidelined and implied government interference in their work.
They said the government was "attempting to replace and get rid of" them with a new draft law that would appoint a high court prosecutor in their stead. The finance and justice ministries said the draft plan was meant to improve the task force's functioning.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who was appointed to head an interim coalition government in November after a political crisis forced his predecessor to resign, was meeting with top judicial officials on Thursday following the resignations.
The main Supreme Court prosecutor ordered an investigation into why the two resigned and their allegations of interference.
The repeated rounds of austerity cuts have left the country struggling through a deep recession, with the economy projected to contract for a fourth year in 2012. It quickly became clear that the initial bailout would not be enough to prevent Greece from a potentially catastrophic default, and European leaders agreed in late October on a second, euro130 billion bailout for the country.
The new package includes provisions for private creditors to write off 50 percent of the value of Greek bonds they hold, potentially cutting Greece's overall debt by euro100 billion. But the details of this remain to be worked out, and the country is currently involved in tough negotiations.
If the debt writedown goes through and Greece implements all it has pledged to in the way of austerity measures and privatizations, the country is expected to reduce its debt to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, from 161 percent of GDP this year.
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Spain king's son-in-law subpoenaed in graft probe (AP)
MADRID ? A judge subpoenaed the son-in-law of Spain's King Juan Carlos on Thursday to testify as a suspect in a corruption case, deepening a public relations nightmare for the royal family at a time of acute economic crisis for everyday people.
The case surrounding Inaki Urdangarin, husband of the king's daughter Cristina, has been front-page news for weeks. But it went a big step further Thursday when Judge Jose Castro on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca named Urdangarin as a formal suspect in a criminal probe.
The Balearic Islands Superior Court of Justice said in a statement that Urdangarin has been called to testify Feb. 6 in Palma, the capital of the archipelago. The one-page document did not mention allegations.
But Spanish media say Urdangarin, 43, is suspected of siphoning money from public contracts awarded from 2004 to 2006 to a nonprofit foundation he then headed. He has not been charged with a crime.
An official at the Royal Palace declined comment Thursday other than to say it "respects the decisions of judges."
Spain has nearly 22 percent unemployment, a stagnant economy, mountains of debt and many other woes, so alleged shady business dealings by a member of the royal family look terrible for the Spanish monarchy.
On Dec. 12 the Royal Palace shocked the country by announcing Urdangarin would for the time being stop taking part in official ceremonies involving the royal family.
And in an unprecedented show of transparency, the palace this week made public the details of the stipend the royal family receives from the national budget. It said, for instance, that King Juan Carlos earns euro292,552 ($382,597) a year in salary and expenses and his son, Crown Prince Felipe, roughly half that amount.
In his yearly Christmas Eve speech, the king expressed concern over what he described as the declining confidence among Spaniards in public institutions, a remark seen as a reference to the scandal surrounding his son-in-law, a commoner who used to be a professional handball player.
Judge Castro's order Thursday made public an until-now sealed case file that the newspaper El Pais said contains 2,700 pages.
Spanish newspapers have quoted investigators as saying Urdangarin is suspected, among other things, of having taken some of about euro6 million ($8 million) his nonprofit foundation received from the regional governments in Valencia and the Balearic Islands for organizing events such as sports seminars and diverting it to for-profit companies Urdangarin ran.
The case is part of a broader, long-running corruption probe involving the regional government in the Balearic Islands.
Since 2009 Urdangarin, the princess and their four children have lived in Washington, D.C., where Urdangarin works for the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica, S.A.
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia have three children. Crown Prince Felipe is the youngest, Princess Cristina is the middle child and the eldest is Princess Elena.
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Why We Should All Give Google+ The Finger
"Google+ is about sharing the right updates with the right people - making sharing online just like sharing in real life. Just like in real life, sometimes you just want to hang out with friends. Hanging out on Google+, with your family, your friends, or new friends you don't yet know, is more than just multi-user video chat. It's about eliminating borders and bringing people together around the world. It's about people."
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ikBPZWoaIvs/
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Russia submerges nuclear submarine to douse blaze (Reuters)
MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) ? Russia said it had won the battle with a raging blaze aboard a nuclear submarine on Friday by submerging the stricken vessel at a navy shipyard after hours of dousing the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats.
There was no radiation leak, authorities said.
Television pictures showed a giant plume of smoke above the yard in the Murmansk region of northern Russia as over 100 firemen struggled to douse flames which witnesses said rose 10 metres (30 feet) above the Yekaterinburg submarine.
"The fire has been localized," Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu told officials who were leading the firefighting effort from an emergencies control room in Moscow more than nine hours after the blaze began at 1220 GMT (7:20 a.m. EDT) on Thursday.
Shoigu's comments indicate the fire was still burning but that efforts to partially sink the submarine at the dock had succeeded in reducing the intensity of the flames.
Russia said the nuclear reactor had been shut down and all weapons had been removed from the 167-metre (550 feet) Yekaterinburg, which launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea at a firing range thousands of miles away in Kamchatka as recently as July.
"Radiation levels are normal," a spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said. "No one was injured."
After hours of trying to put out the flames, officials decided to partially submerge the hull of the 18,200-tonne submarine at the Roslyakovo dock, one of the main dockyards of Russia's northern fleet 1,500 km (900 miles) north of Moscow.
Local media reports were vague, but the blaze was believed to have started when wooden scaffolding caught fire during welding repairs to the submarine, which had been hoisted into a dry dock.
The submarine can carry 16 ballistic missiles, each with four warheads. Its nuclear reactor was not damaged in the fire and Russian navy submarine reactors are built to withstand enormous shocks and high temperatures.
"The reactor has been shut down and does not pose any danger," Interfax news agency quoted a source at navy headquarters as saying.
Russia's worst post-Soviet submarine disaster occurred in August 2000 when the Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea killing all 118 crewmen aboard.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have been informed about the incident, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the military.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Peter Graff)
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Friday, December 30, 2011
No radiation threat in fire on Russian nuclear sub (AP)
MOSCOW ? A massive fire engulfed a Russian nuclear submarine at an Arctic shipyard Thursday, but there has been no radiation leak, or injuries, officials said.
The fire at the Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine occurred while it was in dock for repairs at the Roslyakovo shipyard in the Murmansk region, said Irina Gretskaya, a spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry's branch in the area.
"No one has been hurt and there has been no radiation leak," she said.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told The Associated Press that all weapons had been unloaded from the sub and its reactor had been shut down before the repairs.
Konashenkov said the fire had started on the wooden scaffolding and then engulfed the submarine's outer hull. Most modern submarines' outer hulls are covered with rubber to make them less noisy and more difficult for an enemy to detect.
He said the fire has now been contained, and there was no danger of it spreading inside.
The Yekaterinburg is a Delta-IV-class nuclear-powered submarine that normally carries 16 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was built in 1984.
Russian television stations showed footage from the scene, with flames reaching far into the night skies over the massive dock. Meanwhile, plumes of smoke engulfed the area.
The fire sparked radiation fears and talk of the possible evacuation of local residents, but officials insisted that it posed no danger. A dozen firefighting crews and a fire boat were fighting the blaze.
Military prosecutors have launched a check into the causes of the fire.
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RIM slashes BlackBerry PlayBook prices by half in India
Sure RIM might have created quite a storm with its BlackBerry smartphones since quite a while now, with most of the business world turning towards this handy device. The BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM?s rendition of a tablet however, simply failed to catch on and latch on to the hearts of users worldwide. And you wouldn?t need a clairvoyant to predict that, given the fact that Apple currently rules the tablet market today, followed by Android devices. Now, in a desperate attempt to increase sales, RIM has turned to India, offering the 16GB PlayBook for as little as Rs. 13,490 instead of the regular price tag that shoots up to Rs. 27,990. Also, RIM has on offer the 32GB and 62GB for 15,990 and 24,490 against the original prices of Rs. 32,990 and Rs. 37,990. Well, this might just work, given that quite a substantial number of smartphone users in India use BlackBerry devices, without which, the PlayBook remains a lackluster slab of technology.
[TimesOfIndia]
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
PIX: Mammootty holds grand wedding reception for son
Last updated on: December 27, 2011?15:20 IST
Malayalam star Mammootty held a grand wedding reception for his son Salman Dalquar and his new bride Sufia at the Ramada hotel in Cochin on December 26.
The reception was attended by many luminariies from films and politics.
Here, the happy couple poses with Mammootty and Union minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi.
Image: Mammootty, Sufia, Salman Dulquar and Vayalar Ravi
Last updated on: December 27, 2011?15:20 IST
The couple had got married in Chennai on December 22 in the presence of close friends and family.
Mammotty's wife Sulfath joins the family on stage with Kerala Chief Minister Ommen Chandy, who came to bless the new couple.
Image: CM Oommen Chandy, Mammootty, Sulfath, Sufia and Salman
Last updated on: December 27, 2011?15:20 IST
Union Minister A K Antony joined the family on stage for pictures and to bless the couple.
While Sufia looked radiant in bridal attire, Salman looked dapper in his suit.
Image: AK Antony, Mammootty, Sulfath, Sufia and Salman
Source: http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-mammoottys-sons-wedding-reception/20111227.htm
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NBA: Spurs quiet Clippers buzz with big 115-90 win
Published: 5:49PM Thursday December 29, 2011 Source: Reuters
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San Antonio squashed some of the hype surrounding the revamped Los Angeles Clippers this afternoon (NZT) with a 115-90 victory that lifted the Spurs to 2-0 in the new season.
A blockbuster trade for point guard Chris Paul, and the acquisition of starters Chauncey Billups and Caron Butler, created a buzz about the Clippers that only grew after their season-opening victory over Golden State on Monday.
However, San Antonio brought them crashing back to Earth this afternoon with Manu Ginobili scoring 24 points and DeJuan Blair adding 20. The Spurs shot 56 percent for the game.
San Antonio padded a four-point half-time lead into a 25-point advantage with a run of points in the third quarter.
Blake Griffin led the Clippers (1-1) with 28 points and nine rebounds. Four other Clippers finished in double digits, including Paul with 10.
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Source: http://tvnz.co.nz/basketball-news/spurs-quiet-clippers-buzz-big-nba-win-4670205?ref=rss
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Excessive levels of cancer-causing toxin found in Chinese milk
Published on Dec 27, 2011
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In this Nov 5, 2008 file photo, workers squeeze melamine-tainted milk into a drainage ditch leading to the sewage treatment plant at a Mengniu Dairy factory in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province. Mengniu, China's biggest milk producer, said it has destroyed a batch of milk after it was discovered to have excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin, in another safety scare for the country's dairy industry. -- PHOTO: AP
SHANGHAI (AFP) - China has discovered excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin in milk produced by one of the nation's leading dairy companies, the firm said, in the latest in a series of food safety alarms.
The government's quality watchdog found high levels of an aflatoxin, which is caused by mould, in milk produced by the Mengniu Dairy Group, the company said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Mengniu said the milk, produced at one of its plants in the south-western province of Sichuan, was tested before being sold so the contaminated milk never reached the market.
China is trying to crack down on product safety violations to reassure citizens and restore faith in the government after a series of high-profile scandals.
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Florida can connect with top area recruits during Gator Bowl practices
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Source: jacksonville.com --- Monday, December 26, 2011
If Florida had to end up in the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl, it picked the right year to do so. The class of 2013 in the Jacksonville area is arguably the greatest ever. One recruiting website, 247sports.com, released its list of the top juniors in the country. There were seven prospects from the area ranked in the nation?s top 195. read more ...
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
They're still shining bright: Former H-DN stars who jumped to NCAA Division-I sports doing well
On Thursday night, while working on a project, I caught glimpses of the USC vs. Kansas men's basketball game on TV. Suddenly I saw No. 2 on USC -- 6-foot-3 junior guard Greg Allen -- nail a 3-pointer from the corner. I smiled as I thought, ?I've seen that guy make that shot a few times before.?
Allen, who played prep basketball for Eureka High and then went on to Navarro College in Texas for two years, is now at USC. Last year Allen started all 31 games -- and averaged 11 points per game -- for the Bulldogs (20-11). Now in his first season at Southern California, he has started four of 11 games and is averaging 3.2 ppg in 17 minutes. Allen has nailed 8 of 24 attempts from downtown, including a trio of 3-pointers in both his 14 point-performance in the Trojans' 65-62 win over Morgan State, and in his team-high 11-point performance in USC's 56-35 win over UC Riverside.
What about other recent Humboldt-Del Norte prep athletes playing NCAA Division I sports?
Well, here's what my research has uncovered about how 10 other athletes -- in alphabetical order -- have been doing:
Andrew Ayers (St. Bernard's) showed his versatility in his second season on the baseball diamond for Sacramento State last spring. Ayers started 55 games -- 28 in right field, 24 at second base and three in center field -- and won the team's Gold Glove Award after committing just one error all season. At the plate, Ayers stroked 50 hits, batting .249. His best game may have
been in March against Cal State Northridge when he batted 4-for-4 (two singles, a double and a homer) plus a walk. As a member of the Humboldt Crabs, Ayers scored 25 runs and knocked in 23 while hitting .259.Tara Boynton (Ferndale) played her second year with the Fresno State varsity soccer team. Boynton started 16 games and played 1,191 minutes for the Bulldogs (11-5-5), members of the Western Athletic Conference. As a sophomore forward, Boynton launched 13 of her 21 shots on goal, for a solid .619 percentage, the highest among all Bulldogs who scored goals during the season. Boynton booted in the game-winning goal in the 1-0 win over Idaho. She added three assists for a total of five points during the Bulldogs' season.
David Del Grande (St. Bernard's) joined Ayers on the Sacramento State baseball team and won the Hornet's Most Improved Player award after playing in 56 games. The redshirt freshman started 50 games -- 30 at first base and 14 at second base -- and committed just nine errors out of 364 chances (.975 fielding percentage). At the plate, his .260 average was second-highest on the team. Del Grande was successful in all six of his stolen base attempts. He had a great year with the Crabs, being voted the team's Offensive Player of the year on the merits of his .340 batting average and other team-highs in hits (54) and RBIs (26).
Mallorie Franco (Fortuna) has started all 13 games for the Sacramento State varsity basketball team (5-8), who competes in the Big Sky Conference. The 5-foot-10 junior averages 23.1 minutes, and is sixth on the team in scoring (6.0 ppg). She has the team's second-highest field goal percentage (.434) among all starters. She is fourth in rebounding average (4.0 rpg), and second on the team with 23 offensive boards. Franco also has handed out 32 assists, third most on the team. She has scored 11 points in three different games, including the 89-85 home win over Eastern Illinois.
Kelsy Hintz (Del Norte) who set the all-time H-DN girls pole vault record of 12-06, is still vaulting skywards at San Diego State. After she redshirted in the 2008-09 season, Hintz finished in the top 10 in every meet she participated in during the 2009-10 season. On April 23, 2011, Hintz vaulted 13-7.25 at the UCSD Triton Invitational, tying for third place, establishing a personal best, and providing the fourth best vault in Aztecs' women's history. One week later, Hintz took first at the Steve Scott Invitational at UC Irvine with a 13-2.25. Two weeks after that, Hintz finished first at the Mountain West Conference championships at Colorado State University with a 13-04.50. On May 27, Hintz's 13-3.25 at the NCAA preliminary rounds in Eugene, Oregon qualified her for the NCAA championships in Des Moines on June 8. Although Hintz did not place, she had a fantastic season.
Kelsey Jacobs (Fortuna) has been playing as a redshirt freshman in 11 games for Wichita State (6-5) University in the Missouri Valley Conference. Jacobs recovered from the extensive ACL injury she sustained during her senior season with Fortuna, but missed most of last season with another injury. This year, the 6-foot-2 forward has averaged 3.5 rebounds, and is tied for the Shockers' team lead with 18 offensive boards despite playing just 14 minutes per game. In WSU's 64-56 home loss to the No. 20 ranked LSU Tigers, Jacobs pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds (five offensive) in just 20 minutes on the floor. She has continued to be a shot-blocking threat, with has the second most rejections on the team. Jacobs is averaging 2.9 ppg on 15-of-38 shooting (.395).
Cody Hoffman (Del Norte) has continued to put up big numbers during his sophomore year on the Brigham Young University (9-3) football team. The 6-foot-4 wide receiver has led the Cougars this year in pass receptions (53), receiving yards (821), yards/game (68.4), and hauled in 7 TD passes. On special teams, Hoffman returned 33 kickoffs for 838 yards (an average of 25.4 yards), including a 93-yard runback against Central Florida for BYU's first TD return in 13 years (158 games). As a freshman, Hoffman had 42 receptions, 527 yards and 7 TDs -- including 3 against UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl. Hoffman and the Cougars will face Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 30.
Mike Larson (McKinleyville) is ranked No. 18 among 184-pound wrestlers in D-I. As a junior at the University of Missouri --the No. 10 ranked D-I team -- Larson is 9-1, and leads the Tigers with 22 points in dual meets. On Dec. 4, Larson captured first place at the Kaufman-Brand Open in St. Louis. Last year, Larson won five matches and took the fourth-place medal out of 32 wrestlers in the 184-pound bracket at Northwestern University's prestigious 48th annual Midland Championships. Larson ended up 21-15 for the season, a year after he finished second in the Pac-10 championships while a redshirt freshman at CSU Bakersfield.
Sage Romberg (McKinleyville) is second in rebounding (4.5 rpg) and fourth in scoring (7.8 ppg) for Washington State. The 6-foot-1 sophomore is also second in blocked shots and third in steals for the Cougars (6-6). Romberg has started 8 of 12 games and averages 21.4 minutes. On Nov. 24, she tossed in a game-high 19 points, pulled down a team-high 8 rebounds and blocked two shots in WSU's 65-52 win over Marquette at the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands. As a freshman, when she led the Cougars in scoring (9.5 ppg), Romberg was selected to the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team and an honorable mention pick for the All-Pac-10 team.
Soma Vainuku (Eureka) followed up on his fantastic senior season (38 rushing TDs) for the 2009 North Coast Section Division II champion Loggers by heading south to USC. After sitting out in 2010, the 6-foot-2, 255-pound freshman did not carry the ball this year. But Vainuku, listed as the No. 3 fullback on the Trojan's depth chart (usc.rivals.com), should see plenty of action next year considering the fact that the two fullbacks ahead of Vainuku on the depth chart were both seniors. One of Vainuku's duties this year was playing the role of Notre Dame's junior middle linebacker Manti Te'o -- a finalist for The Butkus Award given to colleges' best linebacker -- for the USC scout team. The Trojans (10-2) subsequently beat the Irish 31-17.
Note: Due to time constraints, I focused this column on recent H-DN prep athletes playing NCAA Division I sports. In researching and writing about these 11 athletes playing in seven different sports, if I have inadvertently omitted any person, I apologize. Please contact me (707-441-0579 or ntarpey@times-standard.com) so I can include their information in a future column.
Source: http://www.times-standard.com/ci_19620607?source=rss_viewed
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
If a video game knows anything, Overeem is headed for an easy win over Lesnar
UFC Undisputed 3 is due out soon and the game makers teased us a bit by releasing a preview of what the Brock Lesnar-Alistair Overeem fight could look like.
Who knew Overeem was in even the game? The massive Dutchman is actually a bonus character you can unlock here on THQ's Facebook page.
[Related: Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem plan to win quickly in UFC 141]
In this simulation, Overeem is a beast. He thwarts a takedown and kicks out of another. He wins the clinch game along the cage and delivers a devastating knee. Lesnar didn't have a shot to run from this standing strike. He goes down in a heap. Mike Goldberg goes crazy and Junior dos Santos better prep for "The Reem."
Watch UFC 141 right here on Yahoo! Sports
Other popular stories on Yahoo! Sports:
? UFC fighter Urijah Faber shaves his famous locks to support sister
? MMA rankings: Jon Jones second to only one
? Air Jordan fans destroy property, trample shoppers for new shoes
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Gabrielle Union makes a splash in Miami
The 39-year-old (!) beauty has been spending a lot of time in the Sunshine State since she started dating Miami Heat shooting guard Dwayne Wade. I bumped into her during the Vogue/Missoni party at Art Basel and she is just fabulous! I?m shocked to see she is turning 40 next fall!
Even though the Heat lost last night 104-100, consider it only practice for the opener taking place against the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas Day.
I bet Ms. Union will be cheering right along with us!
[nggallery id=3535]
Photo Cred: Fame Pictures
Original Article
Source: http://accidentalsexiness.tumblr.com/post/14645973738
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Occupy LA Costs At Least $2.3 Million, Says The City Of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES -- A preliminary report released Friday by the city administrative officer estimates the nearly two-month Occupy LA encampment at City Hall cost the budget-strapped city at least $2.3 million, but officials said the sum is expected to grow by the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana told The Associated Press his office requested the cost estimates from various city departments two weeks ago.
The city attorney's office has already said it expects its previously submitted $188,000 estimate to climb significantly.
"This is based on a moment in time," Santana said. "Obviously the numbers are going to grow."
The latest tab adds to costs tallied by cities nationwide that have been dealing with the anti-Wall Street movement. An AP survey of 18 nationwide cities through mid-November found that the protests had cost local taxpayers a total of at least $13 million.
The Los Angeles report requested by the City Council includes an estimate of more than $1.6 million in overtime for police, the Department of General Services and the Office of Public Safety.
But the report notes that the estimate does not include the cost of restoring City Hall park. A rough early estimate of restoring the park to its original condition was $400,000.
At the City Attorney's Office, Chief Deputy William Carter told the AP earlier this week that the agency has spent over $500,000 so far on legal and consulting work, and handling cases involving hundreds of people arrested would likely drive costs over $1 million.
"We are still dealing with Occupy LA. We still have to prosecute these arrests. The job is not over," Carter said.
Councilman Dennis Zine, a former police officer, said he is stunned by the estimate and "had no idea it was going to be that high."
"We're $70 million in debt," he said. "This is just money we don't have that's being expended because of what Occupy LA has done. What they've basically done is cheated taxpayers out of services. I don't know who wins."
City leaders such as Zine had initially expressed sympathy with the Occupy movement and the council passed a resolution praising the "vibrant exercise in First Amendment rights."
Over time, however, critics said the encampment turned the once-lush City Hall lawns into something more closely resembling a homeless encampment with overflowing trash bins and the stench of urine and body odor hanging in the air. The tent city destroyed the grass and damaged trees. Graffiti appeared on statues and some City Hall walls.
Thefts, shoplifting and assaults spiked in the neighborhood, and film productions avoided the landmark site. Local restaurants grumbled about lost business, and weeks of media coverage of demonstrators camped on the City Hall lawn did little to help downtown's scruffy image.
Such complaints contributed to the decision by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to evict hundreds of protesters from the park in a late-night raid at the end of November, resulting in nearly 300 arrests that were largely peaceful.
Councilmembers worried the city opened itself to lawsuits if other protesters aren't granted similar, extended welcomes on public property.
Zine now regrets officials did not enforce city law requiring protesters to leave.
"Looking back on it it's a lesson we've learned about enforcing the laws and rules," he said. "The law is you can't occupy the park after a certain hour."
Occupy activists, however, were unapologetic about the damage. They believed critics were missing the big picture by focusing on inconveniences instead of the broader problems of society and the camp's efforts to raise awareness.
The Occupy Wall Street protests started Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange. It eventually spread to other cities, including Los Angeles where protests began on Oct. 1.
Villaraigosa initially supported the movement, handing out plastic ponchos one rainy day. As the population swelled in October, he said the city would remain "accommodating" but eventually with overflowing waste cans and hundreds of tents, he said the encampment was "simply not sustainable."
"The worldwide uprising that occupied cities and town squares is one of those uncommon events no one can plan for," he said. "While the city has unfortunately incurred these additional costs in the middle of a challenging budget year, our primary responsibility is to protect public safety."
___
Blood reported from Pismo Beach, Calif.
Photos of the Occupy LA encampment after the November 30th raid by Getty Images.MORE SLIDESHOWS
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Russia warns of religious rift after Arab Spring (Reuters)
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russia is concerned that the Arab Spring revolutions could sow further turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa by provoking a potentially catastrophic rift between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
In written answers to Reuters, Lavrov said the events in the region were still unfolding and cautioned that social, political and religious tensions showed signs of increasing.
"There are serious fears about the possible emergence of new zones of instability in the region that could become potential sources of challenges to international stability and security," Lavrov said.
Such threats, he said, included the spread of terrorism, contraband weapons, the narcotics business, illegal immigration and especially the use of religion to ratchet up tensions.
"Attempts to bring the religious factor into regional confrontations are especially troubling," said Lavrov, the longest serving Russian foreign minister since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
"If there were an open rift between Sunnis and Shi'ites - and such a threat is fully realistic - then the consequences could be catastrophic."
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has warned the West that meddling in rebellions across the Arab world risks bringing radical Islamists to power and undermining long-term stability in the world's biggest oil-producing region.
Lavrov, 61, is an eloquent face of Putin's assertive foreign policy which is aimed at restoring Russia's global clout as the United States, China and the European Union try to expand their influence.
"We understand that not everyone likes a strong, confident Russia," he said. "But for us external independence is a key question."
FOCUS ON SYRIA
Critics say Moscow's reaction to the relatively bloodless revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt was sometimes slow, while Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev differed in public over how to react to Western military intervention in Libya.
Russia has now shifted its focus to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has cracked down on protests against his rule. Thousands of people have been killed in the clampdown and in fighting between mutinous troops and security forces.
Moscow offered a new United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria this month to try to look less recalcitrant, without giving ground on its opposition to sanctions or foreign military interference.
Lavrov urged an end to violence in Syria but said the West should not ignore the danger posed by what he called extremist groups in the country.
"If you close your eyes to this part of the truth, the situation could disintegrate to what we saw in Libya," Lavrov said. "There, Western countries used the slogan of protecting civilians to overthrow the regime of M. (Muammar) Gaddafi."
"We categorically cannot agree with the calls of some of our partners to use the 'Libyan precedent' to resolve other conflicts," Lavrov said.
He said the patience and compromise shown by all sides involved in the conflict in Yemen, where a pact has been agreed for a peaceful power transition, was an example to follow.
"If you need a model to follow, it is without doubt the experience of the way the internal political crisis was resolved in Yemen, where all the external players worked extremely patiently and persistently with all the sides, without ultimatums, encouraging them to compromise," he said.
"That is how to act in Syria's case."
RELATIONS WITH UNITED STATES
Putin's criticism of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for questioning the validity of Russia's parliamentary election on December 4 has prompted some policy experts to suggest the "reset" in relations with the United States since Barack Obama became president is under threat.
Putin, who faces demonstrations by protesters demanding the election be rerun as he prepares to return to Russia's presidency next year, also accused Clinton of encouraging "mercenary" Kremlin opponents.
Lavrov said much had been done in the last few years to strengthen relations with the United States and that dialogue had become more "pragmatic" with Moscow's former Cold War enemy.
But differences remain over a proposed U.S. missile shield in Europe, which Washington says is meant to protect against Iran but Moscow sees as a threat to its security.
"Of course we face a difficult search for acceptable outcomes on sensitive matters, above all on anti-missile defense," Lavrov said.
"We have not yet managed to have a constructive dialogue, and the creation of a NATO anti-missile system according to the American plan is going full-steam ahead without our legitimate concerns being taken into account."
Russia, he said, was ready to look objectively at even the most difficult questions and added: "We hope that our American partners will take the same reasonable and responsible approach."
Washington helped pave the way to Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, which was approved by the global trading body this month.
Lavrov said he hoped WTO entry would help develop economic ties with the United States but added that for this to happen it was vital for the U.S. Congress to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a 1974 provision linking trade to emigration rights for Soviet Jews.
(Editing by Alistair Lyon)
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Soletron targets $60 billion streetwear market (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Soletron, a start-up backed by former Adobe Systems Chief Executive Bruce Chizen, is building an online marketplace for streetwear and sneakers, a market that is worth almost $60 billion by one estimate.
Soletron, run by Shane Robinson and Allen Steigman, raised about $250,000 from angel investors including Chizen in early 2011 and launched its market in November. The company is raising more money in a series A round of venture capital financing early next year and Chizen plans to invest in the business again then.
"Urban wear is a huge niche that no one really pays attention to," Chizen told Reuters. "To become the Etsy of the streetwear market -- that's the whole idea."
Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade and vintage products launched in 2005, now has over 12 million members and saw sales of almost $500 million this year, through November.
Soletron has about 50 streetwear and sneaker designers selling more than 1,200 products so far. Brands include Dunkelvolk, Nooka and Kanvas Kings.
The company collects transaction fees from linking designers and buyers and generates other revenue from advertising and member subscriptions.
Robinson and Steigman have big plans because their target market is potentially huge. There is little official data on this part of the apparel market, but accounting firm Grant Thorton pegged urban apparel sales at $58 billion in 2006.
U.S. teenagers aged 15 to 19 spend $22 billion a year on fashion products, according to estimates by Piper Jaffray. Action sports brands, Wall Street's term for streetwear brands like Volcom, Quiksilver and Hurley, have been the most popular among wealthier teens since late 2008, according surveys conducted by the investment bank.
Volcom was acquired by French luxury giant PPR this year, and Nike owns Hurley.
"This industry is the proverbial sleeping giant of the retail and e-commerce worlds," Robinson said.
Soletron is competing against Karmaloop, an online streetwear retailer that is on course to generate about $130 million in revenue this year. The company, run by Greg Selkoe, has an online marketplace called Kazba, which accounts for about 10 percent of sales.
"There's room for more people doing it," Selkoe said.
"18 to 24 year-olds have spending power of $90 billion in the U.S. and a good 20 percent of that money goes into buying into this type of clothing and sneakers," he added. "Extrapolate globally and that's a massive market."
(Reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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Kayak iOS apps get unified, see redesigned user interface and autofill assistant
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Friday, December 23, 2011
AlephBlog: Q&A: The ECB?s three-year loans http://t.co/gtle67kn Funny form of QE, if the banks buy government debt, which is not assured. $$
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NYPD's spying programs produced mixed results
FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2009 file photo, Najibullah Zazi leaves his apartment in Aurora, Colo., for a meeting with his attorney. When New York undercover officers and informants were infiltrating a mosque in Queens in 2006, they failed to notice the increasingly radical sentiments of a young man who prayed there. Police also kept tabs on a Muslim student group at Queens College, but missed a member?s growing anti-Americanism. Those two men and friends _ Zazi at the mosque and Adis Medunjanin at the school _ would go on to be accused of plotting a subway bombing that officials have called the most serious terrorist threat to the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2009 file photo, Najibullah Zazi leaves his apartment in Aurora, Colo., for a meeting with his attorney. When New York undercover officers and informants were infiltrating a mosque in Queens in 2006, they failed to notice the increasingly radical sentiments of a young man who prayed there. Police also kept tabs on a Muslim student group at Queens College, but missed a member?s growing anti-Americanism. Those two men and friends _ Zazi at the mosque and Adis Medunjanin at the school _ would go on to be accused of plotting a subway bombing that officials have called the most serious terrorist threat to the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
In this Jan. 9, 2010, courtroom sketch, defense attorney Robert Gottlieb, left, is seated next to his client, defendant Adis Medunjanin, at the federal courthouse in New York City. When New York undercover officers and informants were infiltrating a mosque in Queens in 2006, they failed to notice the increasingly radical sentiments of a young man who prayed there. Police also kept tabs on a Muslim student group at Queens College, but missed a member?s growing anti-Americanism. Those two men and friends _ Najibullah Zazi at the mosque and Medunjanin at the school _ would go on to be accused of plotting a subway bombing that officials have called the most serious terrorist threat to the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)
NEW YORK (AP) ? When New York undercover officers and informants were infiltrating a mosque in Queens in 2006, they failed to notice the increasingly radical sentiments of a young man who prayed there. Police also kept tabs on a Muslim student group at Queens College, but missed a member's growing anti-Americanism.
Those two men, Najibullah Zazi at the mosque and Adis Medunjanin at the school, would go on to be accused of plotting a subway bombing that officials have called the most serious terrorist threat to the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.
Ever since The Associated Press began revealing New York Police Department spying programs on mosques, student groups, Muslim businesses and communities, those activities have been stoutly defended by police and supporters as having foiled a list of planned attacks.
Recently, for instance, when three members of Congress suggested an inquiry into those programs, Republican Rep. Peter King of New York rallied to the NYPD's defense.
"Under Commissioner Ray Kelly's leadership, at least 14 attacks by Islamic terrorists have been prevented by the NYPD," King said.
But a closer review of the cases reveals a more complicated story.
The list cited by King includes plans that may never have existed as well as plots the NYPD had little or no hand in disrupting. According to a review of public documents, materials obtained by the AP and interviews with dozens of city and federal officials, the most controversial NYPD spying programs produced mixed results. The officials interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly.
There indeed have been successes, such as the 2004 plot uncovered by the NYPD to bomb the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan.
And there have been failures, like Zazi and Medunjanin, who were exactly the kind of people police intended to spot when they developed the spying programs.
And there were other efforts that compiled data on innocent people but produced no meaningful results at all.
Kelly has spent hundreds of millions of dollars transforming the department into one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. In a city that still hurts from 9/11 and still sees a hole in the ground near where the World Trade Center stood, people have had little interest in questioning whether that effort has been effective. City lawmakers, for instance, learned about many of the department's secretive programs from the AP.
For New Yorkers, the result is that fear of another terrorist attack is used to justify spying on entire neighborhoods. And the absence of another attack is held up as evidence that it works.
___
Some of the NYPD intelligence programs were born out of fear and desperation. After 9/11, police reached for whatever might work.
One idea was to use informants to trawl local mosques and monitor imams to watch for signs of radicalization. Though the NYPD denies the term exists, several former officials said the informants were known as "mosque crawlers." They would listen in mosques and report back to their handlers.
It was the CIA that first developed that idea overseas and came up with the name. The NYPD program was a version of that effort, according to former CIA officials who were familiar with it. Like many interviewed about the NYPD, they insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss intelligence programs.
Former senior CIA officials said the mosque crawlers were ineffective.
In New York, however, the program persisted. With help from the mosque crawlers and secret NYPD squads, documents show, police intelligence analysts scrutinized every mosque in and around the city and infiltrated dozens. The monitoring of imams included even those who worked closely with police and preached against violence.
These days, however, fewer imams are under investigation, an official said.
The NYPD has pledged to do all it can to prevent terrorism. So when a new intelligence program is conceived, several current and former officials said, there is little discussion of its prospects for success.
NYPD intelligence chief David Cohen, a former top CIA official, was asked about that in September 2005 during a deposition in a lawsuit over the department's policy of randomly searching the bags of subway riders. Civil rights lawyers asked how police knew whether a program deterred terrorism.
"If it works against them, then it works for us," Cohen replied. "That is deterrent to one degree or other."
Cohen was asked, How do you know it works? Is there some police methodology?
"I never bothered to look," Cohen said. "It doesn't exist, as far as I could tell."
At times, police officials themselves have raised concerns about intelligence-gathering programs. In about 2008, for instance, police began monitoring everyone in the city who legally changed names. Anyone who might be a Muslim convert or appeared to be Americanizing his or her name was investigated and personal information was put into police databases.
Current and former officials say it produced no results. Police still receive the list of names of people who change their names, court officials said. But one official said the program is on hold while its effectiveness is evaluated.
Kelly has said the NYPD does not trawl neighborhoods and instead only pursues leads. But those leads can be ambiguous, officials say, and can be used to justify widespread surveillance programs.
For example, the NYPD began the "Moroccan Initiative," a secret program that chronicled Moroccan neighborhoods, after suicide bombings killed 45 people in the Moroccan city of Casablanca in 2003, and after Moroccan terrorists were linked to the 2005 train bombing in Madrid. New York police put people, including U.S. citizens, under surveillance and catalogued where they ate, worked and prayed.
"What we were doing is following leads," Kelly told City Council members during an October hearing when asked about that program. "The Moroccan issue that was mentioned had to do with a specific investigation."
But officials involved in the program said there was no specific threat to New York from Moroccans. The Moroccan Initiative thwarted no plots and led to no arrests, officials said.
___
Much of the information in the Moroccan Initiative was gathered by a secretive squad known as the Demographics Unit. Using plainclothes officers known as "rakers," the squad infiltrated local businesses and community organizations looking for trouble or "hot spots." Their daily reports helped create searchable databases of life in New York's Muslim neighborhoods.
One NYPD official said that unit identified a Brooklyn bookstore as a hot spot. That led police to open an investigation and send in an informant and undercover detective, ultimately leading to the arrests of two men in the Herald Square case.
The work of that secret unit, the official said, helped the NYPD arrest a Pakistani immigrant named Shahawar Matin Siraj and foiled an attack.
For years, police have said publicly that the Herald Square case began with a tip but have not elaborated. Siraj's lawyer, Martin Stolar, said prosecutors provided no documents related to the Demographics Unit at trial.
Siraj was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in 2007. But defense attorneys, and even some inside the NYPD intelligence unit, said police had coaxed the men into making incriminating statements and there was no proof Siraj ever obtained explosives.
The case is arguably the NYPD's greatest counterterrorism success. But there are others.
The NYPD played an important role in the case against Carlos Amonte and Mohammed Alessa, two New Jersey men who pleaded guilty to charges they tried to leave the country in 2010 to join the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group al-Shabaab. The FBI long had been aware of the two men but had been unable to win their trust with an informant or undercover agent, federal officials said. The NYPD, with its deep roster of Muslim officers, provided the undercover officer who ultimately succeeded in winning their confidence.
When the NYPD's effectiveness is questioned, the department's most ardent supporters frequently point to a long list of terrorist plots said to have targeted New York since 9/11. The list often is described as plots thwarted by the NYPD.
"One can't argue with results," said Peter Vallone, the New York city councilman who heads the Public Safety Committee. "The results of this gargantuan effort have been that at least 13 planned attacks on New York City have been prevented."
In reality, however, the NYPD played little or no role in preventing many of those attacks.
Some, like a cyanide plot against the subway system, were discovered among evidence obtained overseas but were never set into motion. Others, like the 2006 plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners using liquid explosives, were thwarted by U.S. and international authorities, and plans never got off the ground.
And some, like the 2008 subway plot, went unnoticed by the NYPD despite the money and manpower devoted to monitoring Muslim communities, according to the NYPD files obtained by the AP. The files along with interviews show the NYPD was monitoring Zazi's mosque, and also the Muslim student organization Medunjanin attended. Zazi and Medunjanin were friends and had been praying together regularly since 9th grade. As the years passed, Zazi grew increasingly upset about civilians killed by the U.S. military in Afghanistan; Medunjanin was outraged by the way Muslims were treated at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and he promoted jihad at the mosque and after basketball games with friends, according to court documents. He said his friends didn't have the "balls" to do anything.
The plot was discovered after U.S. intelligence intercepted an email revealing that Zazi was trying to make a bomb.
Those programs, meanwhile, have widened the chasm between the police and the city's Muslims, a community the Obama administration says is a crucial partner in the effort to prevent another terrorist attack. Fed up with a decade of being under scrutiny, some Muslim groups now urge against going directly to police when someone hears radical, anti-American talk.
They reason that the person is probably a police informant.
___
Each morning at the NYPD, Cohen meets his senior officers to discuss the latest intelligence before he briefs Kelly. There is no bigger target for terrorists than New York, the nation's largest city and the heart of the financial and media world. Cohen repeatedly reminds his officers that, on any given day, they might be the only thing standing in the way of disaster. It's a mentality that officials say underscores the seriousness of the threat and the NYPD's commitment to the effort.
Several current and former officials point to that pressure to explain why programs rarely get scrapped, even when there are doubts about their effectiveness. Nobody wants to be the one to abandon a program, only to witness a successful attack that it might have prevented.
At the federal level, intelligence programs are reviewed by Congress, inspectors general and other watchdogs. The NYPD faces no such scrutiny from the City Council or city auditors. Federal officials, too, have been reluctant to question the effectiveness of the NYPD, despite spending more than $1.6 billion in federal money on the department since 9/11.
After House Democrats circulated a letter signed by 34 members of Congress recently asking for a federal review of the NYPD's intelligence programs, King, the New York Republican, accused them of smearing the police department.
The Justice Department under Eric Holder repeatedly has sidestepped questions about what it thinks about the NYPD programs revealed by the AP. Some Democrats in Congress have asked prosecutors to investigate. Since August, the department has said only that it is reviewing those requests.
During the Bush administration, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and senior Justice Department officials received a briefing in New York about the NYPD's capabilities, according to a former federal official who attended.
Gonzales left convinced, the official said, that the federal government could not replicate those programs. The NYPD had more manpower and operated under different rules than the federal government, the Justice Department concluded. And the mayor had accepted the political risk that came with the programs.
It was a policy briefing only, the former official said, meaning the federal government did not review the NYPD programs to determine whether they were lawful.
The NYPD's terrorist cases include ones the federal government has declined to prosecute. Last year, a grand jury declined to indict Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh on the most serious charge initially brought against them, a high-level terror conspiracy count that carried the potential for life in prison without parole. They were indicted on lesser state terrorism and hate crime charges, including one punishable by up to 32 years behind bars.
Last month, NYPD detectives arrested Jose Pimentel on terrorism-related charges. A state grand jury has yet to indict him on those charges. Federal and city law enforcement officials who reviewed the case told the AP there were concerns that Pimentel lacked the mental capacity to act on his own. The NYPD informant's drug use in the case also created serious issues, the officials said.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has tried to mute criticisms of the NYPD. On a visit to the Newark, N.J., FBI office a few years ago, current and former officials recall, agents asked Mueller how the NYPD was allowed to operate undercover in the state, with no FBI coordination. Mueller replied that it was a reality the bureau would have to live with, the officials said.
There will always be some debate over the effectiveness of intelligence-gathering programs, particularly ones that butt up against civil liberties. Nearly a decade after the last terrorist suspect was waterboarded in a secret CIA prison in 2003, for instance, politicians and experts still debate whether the tactic gleaned valuable information and whether it could have been obtained without such harsh methods.
During the Bush administration, officials repeatedly pointed to the years without a successful terrorist attack to justify the most contentious programs from the war on terrorism. Vice President Dick Cheney used the years without an attack to defend the secret National Security Agency wiretapping program. Gonzales credited the USA Patriot Act and military actions abroad. And President George W. Bush said the years without an attack validated his polices.
"While there's room for honest and healthy debate about the decisions I've made ? and there's plenty of debate," Bush said in the final days of his presidency, "there can be no debate about the results in keeping America safe."
When questioned about its own programs, the NYPD has made the same arguments.
During the 2005 deposition over the subway searches, lawyers pressed Cohen to explain how the NYPD could be so sure its programs really worked.
"They haven't attacked us," he said.
___
Contact the Washington investigative team at DCInvestigations(at)ap.org
Follow Apuzzo, Goldman and Sullivan at http://twitter.com/mattapuzzo and http://twitter.com/goldmandc and http://twitter.com/esullivanap
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Serbia arrests alleged ringleader of Kosovo violence (Reuters)
BELGRADE (Reuters) ? An alleged fuel smuggler accused by NATO of orchestrating violence against its troops in Kosovo last month was arrested Tuesday in Serbia, Serbian media reported.
The arrest of Zvonko Veselinovic, if confirmed, will be taken as a sign that Belgrade -- under pressure from the European Union -- is trying to ease tensions with neighboring Kosovo.
Serbs in north Kosovo reject the majority-Albanian territory's 2008 secession from Serbia, and since July they have been manning roadblocks to prevent the encroachment of the Kosovo authorities.
The north effectively functions as part of the Serbian state, and the impasse cost Belgrade candidate status for membership of the EU this month.
Western diplomats say Veselinovic provided money and trucks for the roadblocks. Serbia has called on the Kosovo Serbs to remove them, but they have refused.
Investigators in Kosovo describe Veselinovic as a major smuggler of fuel and drugs, but the European Union's police and justice mission in Kosovo and the United Nations mission before it had shied away from arresting him.
This month, NATO's top commander in Kosovo, German Major-General Erhard Drews, named him as the chief organizer of an attack in late November on NATO peacekeepers trying to remove the roadblocks.
Some 30 German and Austrian soldiers were wounded by small arms fire and Molotov cocktails, and days later Berlin said Serbia was not ready for the next step toward eventual accession to the EU.
Serbian radio B92 said police had arrested Veselinovic and his brother in the Kopaonik mountain region of southern Serbia. The Tanjug news agency said Serbia's special prosecutor for organized crime had been informed.
The Interior Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Writing by Matt Robinson)
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Gingrich says rivals' criticism taking a toll (AP)
DES MOINES, Iowa ? Newt Gingrich tried to quiet unrelenting campaign criticism that he acknowledged had taken a toll as Mitt Romney stepped up insider attacks Saturday in hopes of regaining front-runner status with the first presidential vote little more than two weeks away.
Gingrich, the former House speaker enjoying a late surge in the polls, pledged to correct what he said were his rivals' inaccurate claims about him. Romney, the ex-Massachusetts governor looking for a rebound, portrayed Gingrich as a well-heeled lobbyist since his service in Congress and predicted that conservative voters will reject Gingrich as they learn more about his lengthy Washington record.
"I'm going to let the lawyers decide what is and what is not lobbying, but when it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, typically it's a duck," Romney said.
With the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3 up for grabs, most candidates are redoubling their efforts heading into the holidays, when voters generally tune out the race.
Gingrich is their prime target. Last week alone, anti-Gingrich ads from a Romney ally outspent Gingrich by an 8-to-1 margin on television.
Gingrich cited "the extraordinary negativity of the campaign" during a call from Washington with Iowa supporters. He said he was inclined to hold teleconferences every few days so people can discuss ideas and his campaign can "encourage them to raise any of these things that you get in the mail that are junk and dishonest."
"I'll be glad to personally answer, so you're hearing it from my very own lips," he said in the forum. "We don't have our advertising versus their advertising, but you get to ask me directly."
Romney campaigned in early-voting South Carolina, where tea party activists have given Gingrich a strong lead in polls. Romney told reporters that many voters now are just beginning to pay attention to the race and will turn on Gingrich after they learn about his time in Washington and his role with mortgage company Freddie Mac, a quasi-government agency.
Gingrich's consulting firm collected $1.6 million from the company. Gingrich insists he did not lobby for them and only provided advice.
"I think as tea partyers concentrate on that, for instance, they'll say, `Wow, this really isn't the guy that would represent our views,'" Romney said after a town hall meeting with South Carolina Rep. Tim Scott. "Many tea party folks, I believe, are going to find me to be the ideal candidate."
Gingrich said the attacks on his record have been brutal, but he insisted they are exaggerated.
"I just want to set the record straight," Gingrich told his Iowa backers. "We were paid annually for six years, so the numbers you see are six years of work. Most of that money went to pay overhead ? for staff, for other things. It didn't go directly to me. It went to the company that provided consulting advice."
It's a distinction without a difference, his rivals have said. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann continued to criticize his tenure as a consultant and Texas Rep. Ron Paul continued an ad accusing him of "serial hypocrisy" for taking Freddie Mac's checks.
During a Friday appearance on Jay Leno's late-night television show, Paul also turned on Bachmann.
"She doesn't like Muslim. She hates them," said Paul, who routinely clashes with his rivals over foreign policy. "She wants to go get them."
Bachmann told reporters in Estherville that was not true.
"I don't hate Muslims. I love the American people," she said. "As president of the United States, my goal will be to keep America safe, free and sovereign."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry rumbled through rural Iowa on a bus tour. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum stuck to a plan that has won him the honor of spending the most time in the state, yet has not yet translated into support in polls.
Iowa's largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, announced its endorsement of Romney on its website Saturday evening. It was as much an endorsement of Romney as it was an indictment of his competitors.
"While other candidates have pandered to extremes with attacks on the courts and sermons on Christian values, Romney has pointedly refrained from reckless rhetoric and moralizing," the newspaper wrote.
The paper does not have a track record of predicting winners in Iowa. In 2008, the paper backed Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Four years earlier, it backed Sen. John Edwards' unsuccessful bid and in 2000 editors backed McCain and Democratic Sen. Bill Bradley. All came up short.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who early on decided against competing in Iowa, was campaigning in New Hampshire. Huntsman, who also served as President Barack Obama's ambassador to China, has kept his focus on New Hampshire, where independent voters are the largest bloc and can vote in either party's primary.
As the Iowa vote neared, Gingrich's decision to take the weekend off from campaigning raised eyebrows given his rivals' busy schedules. Gingrich called the decision "pacing."
Gingrich has prided himself on a nontraditional campaign, but his advantages in the polls could shift if the only exposure to Gingrich comes through rivals' negative ads.
Gingrich's campaign manager noted the onslaught in a fundraising pitch to donors.
"With Newt's opponents spending $9 million on attack ads in Iowa, we need to quickly ramp up our messaging," Michael Krull said Saturday.
Anti-Gingrich ads, courtesy of Romney allies, dominate in Iowa. The Restore Our Future political action committee on Friday spent an additional $1 million on airtime, and broadcast almost $790,000 in commercials against Gingrich last week alone. Gingrich, by comparison, spent roughly 100,000 on broadcast and cable ads.
That looked to continue into the final week before the Christmas holiday.
Romney, who has kept Iowa at arm's length after investing heavily here four years ago only to come up short. His advisers note they have kept in touch with supporters of his 2008 campaign that came in second place in Iowa.
___
Hunt reported from Charleston, S.C.
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