But the question lingers for [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/29/kristen-stewart-snow-white-and-the-huntsman-nick-frost/
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Kristen Stewart Is A 'Fantastic' Snow White, Says Nick Frost
After the release of an impressive first trailer, expectations for "Snow White and the Huntsman" shot sky high. All of the sudden, a film that people knew almost nothing about aside from its star-studded cast led by Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth, became one of the most anticipated movies of 2012.
But the question lingers for [...]
But the question lingers for [...]
Rapper C-Murder's conviction, sentence upheld (AP)
NEW ORLEANS ? A Louisiana appeals court has upheld the murder conviction and life sentence for rapper C-Murder.
C-Murder, whose real name is Corey Miller, was convicted of shooting a teenager to death in 2002.
A three-judge panel from the state's 5th Circuit Court of Appeal on Wednesday rejected Miller's argument that he didn't get a fair trial.
In 2009, a jury convicted Miller of second-degree murder for shooting 16-year-old Steve Thomas during a confrontation at a nightclub.
Miller claims the judge who presided over his trial allowed jurors to hear prejudicial and unsubstantiated testimony that he threatened witnesses to the shooting. He also accused prosecutors of systematically eliminating black people from the jury.
But the 5th Circuit rejected those arguments.
One of Miller's attorneys didn't immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday's College Basketball
EAST
John Jay 74, Yeshiva 61
St. John's 91, Providence 67
SOUTH
Georgia 92, Winthrop 86, OT
Southern Miss. 93, Belhaven 48
Virginia 69, Md.-Eastern Shore 42
MIDWEST
Illinois 81, Minnesota 72, 2OT
Notre Dame 72, Pittsburgh 59
Saint Louis 71, Texas Southern 39
W. Illinois 73, Eureka 52
Wisconsin 64, Nebraska 40
SOUTHWEST
North Texas 78, New Orleans 47
Texas Tech 74, CS Bakersfield 58
FAR WEST
BYU 79, CS San Marcos 51
Loyola Marymount 100, Vanguard 74
Source: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/12/27/3653843/tuesdays-college-basketball.html
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Model Alessandra Ambrosio is Pregnant with No. 2!
The Victoria's Secret stunner is expecting her second child with fiance Jamie Mazur. See more stars who are expecting
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Argentine president diagnosed with thyroid cancer (Reuters)
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) ? Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery next month, her government said on Tuesday, adding that the cancerous cells had not spread.
Fernandez, 58, was easily elected to a second four-year term in October, vowing to deepen her unorthodox policies despite complaints from business leaders who say her heavy-handed management of the economy is stifling investment.
Fernandez was diagnosed with a papillary carcinoma that has not metastasized, said her spokesman, Alfredo Scoccimarro. The operation is scheduled to take place on January 4 and she is expected to take a leave of absence until January 24.
"The thyroid gland will have to be removed," said Buenos Aires-based cancer specialist Julio Moreno. "The prognosis is very good. The chances of being cured are 90 to 98 percent."
The cancer was detected last week during a routine check. Papillary carcinoma is the most common type of thyroid cancer and normally affects people under the age of 40, especially women.
A skilled orator fond of glamorous clothes, high heels and make-up, Fernandez still wears black as she mourns her husband and closest advisor, former President Nestor Kirchner, who died late last year.
When Kirchner died, many thought it spelled the end of the couple's idiosyncratic blend of state intervention, nationalist rhetoric and the championing of human rights in grains exporting powerhouse Argentina, the world's No. 3 soybean supplier.
But Fernandez pulled off a remarkable comeback on the back of a brisk economic expansion and an outpouring of public sympathy. She was re-elected with 54 percent of the vote, promising to stay true to her policies despite objections from Wall Street and international investors.
Latin America's No. 3 economy is growing at nearly 9 percent a year. But a worsening global economic outlook combined with entrenched high inflation at home are seen reining in Argentina's growth to about 4 percent next year.
Fernandez is one of several Latin American leaders to have cancer. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent chemotherapy earlier this year while Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo's lymphatic cancer is in remission.
And former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is being successfully treated for a cancerous tumor on his Larynx, according to his doctors.
(Additional reporting by Walter Bianchi; Editing by Helen Popper and Todd Eastham)
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Nobody Chosen on the Tennessee Titans for the 2012 NFL Pro Bowl: Local Fan?s Take (Yahoo! Contributor Network)
The Tennessee Titans have it rough.
The Titans had to play the entire 2011-12 regular season without any primetime games on NBC, ESPN or the NFL Network. Yet, the Jacksonville Jaguars (whom hardly anybody outside of Northern Florida cares about, maybe Los Angeles?) were rewarded with two Monday Night Football home games and a Thursday Night game.
So the 2012 NFL Pro Bowl was supposed to be an opportunity for some of the Titans' best players to gain some national exposure. Unfortunately, nobody wants to see any of the Titans' best players. That, or they just haven't seen them play this season.
I'm not surprised. This franchise doesn't get much publicity outside of Middle Tennessee. Chris Johnson may be the only player who exudes a great deal of star power and interest from football fans in other markets. Jared Cook might become that player if offensive coordinator Chris Palmer starts incorporating him into the offense more often.
I have a friend who is a rather loyal football follower. Back in August, I asked him if he could name five players on the Titans' roster. Outside of Matt Hasselbeck and Johnson, he couldn't do more than "That receiver who's always getting busted for weed" and "that guy who tried to rob Andre Johnson on the football field." He did know who Michael Griffin was once I explained to him that he played his college football at the University of Texas.
So were there any Titans who were snubbed? I think there were two players who were borderline choices. Cortland Finnegan and Rob Bironas may have been selected had they played in bigger markets.
Finnegan has played very well this season. The problem is that it doesn't really show up in the stats. I'm not sure that he'd get selected even if he deserved it since he seems to be one of the NFL's most disliked players after his on-field behavior for the past few seasons. He's not a bad guy though: he was chosen as the Titans' Walter Payton Man of the Year for a second consecutive year in 2011.
Bironas had another fantastic season. He's 26-of-29 on the season and he's converted six of seven field goals from 50+ yards. His only miss from beyond 50 yards was a 66-yard attempt against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the regular-season opener. Sebastian Janikowski received the nod over Bironas after converting on 27-of-31 field goals. Janikowski converted on his 63-yard attempt against the Denver Broncos in the regular-season opener.
With young players like Jake Locker, Karl Klug and Colin McCarthy? This trend will hopefully expire sooner than later.
Joshua Huffman graduated from Middle Tennessee State University as a marketing major in 2009. He's been a Middle Tennessee resident from 1986-1988 and 2001-present. He lived in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin from 1988-2001 and for approximately eight months in 2009-2010 while completing a 20-game volunteer position with the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers. His favorite sports organizations include the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Cubs, and Nashville Predators. He also follows the Tennessee Titans, his favorite AFC team.
More from Yahoo! Contributor Network
The Tennessee Titans and 17 Points to the 2011-12 NFL Season: Local Fan's Review
NFL Injury Update: Houston Texans' Andre Johnson Should Play Against Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans: Fan's Week 17 NFL Pick Against the Spread
Five Players that the Chicago Cubs Should Trade Before 2012 Spring Training: Fan's Wish List
Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5670493610
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Disgraced ex-journalist Stephen Glass fights to get California law license
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A former journalist who became the subject of a Hollywood movie after he was caught fabricating articles in the late 1990s is fighting to become a lawyer in California over the objections of a state bar committee.
Stephen Glass, whose ethical missteps at The New Republic and other magazines were recounted in the film "Shattered Glass" and an autobiographical novel, has challenged the bar committee's decision to deny him a license to practice law, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.
Glass attended law school at Georgetown University and passed California's bar exam in 2007. His application for an attorney's license was turned down by the state's Committee of Bar Examiners, which judged him morally unfit for his new profession.
But an independent state bar court ruled in Glass's favor in July and the California Supreme Court has since agreed to hear the committee's appeal. No date for oral arguments has been set.
The bar association's lawyers said in written filings that even though Glass' transgressions occurred when he was in his 20s, his attempts at atonement were inadequate and in some cases coincided with the publication of his novel. They faulted him for never compensating anyone who was hurt by his falsehoods.
Law and journalism "share common core values -- trust, candor, veracity, honor, respect for others," Rachel Grunberg, a lawyer for the State Bar of California, told the Chronicle.
"He violated every one of them."The bar court that overruled the committee in July was convinced, however, that Glass was genuinely repentant and had been rehabilitated. His appeal included character references from 22 witnesses, including two judges who had employed him, two psychiatrists, and Martin Peretz, who owned The New Republic when Glass' deception occurred.
In his own statement to the bar, Glass said he was "greatly ashamed and remorseful about my lying" but "forthright and candid about my years of misconduct."
Glass tried to become a lawyer in New York after he passed that state's bar exam in 2003, but withdrew his application when his request for moral character approval from the New York bar languished.
Now 39, Glass works as a law clerk at a Beverly Hills firm. His Los Angeles-based attorney Susan Margolis declined to comment Monday evening.
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_19624006?source=rss
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Plex media app: streaming soon to Nook Tablet and Color
Plex media app: streaming soon to Nook Tablet and Color originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GigaOM | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/24/plex-media-app-streaming-soon-to-nook-tablet-and-color/
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USDA reverses decision to cut agriculture reports (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The Agriculture Department is reinstating several reports that it had targeted for elimination two months ago in a cost-cutting move.
The department says that it will reinstate reports for industries such as catfish and trout, hops, fruits and vegetables, and bees and honey.
In October, the USDA had said that eliminating or reducing the frequency of 14 crop and livestock reports would save about $10 million.
But some farmers complained that without the reports, they would be left guessing how much to produce and when to sell.
The reports influence the price and supply of many products that people wind up consuming.
The USDA said this month that several improvements to its operations have allowed the department to find money to reinstate several key reports.
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Gingrich uses precious time to get on Va. ballot (AP)
ARLINGTON, Va. ? Newt Gingrich is frantically playing catch-up in the Republican presidential race, spending precious time trying to get on Virginia's primary ballot while his rivals campaign in crucial Iowa and New Hampshire.
The former House speaker is paying a price for his late start in organizing. Gingrich had to leave New Hampshire on Wednesday and race to Virginia, where he needs 10,000 valid voters' signatures by Thursday to secure a spot on the March 6 ballot.
Virginia is an afterthought for most campaigns at this early stage. They are intensely focused on the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary, which will be followed by primaries in South Carolina and Florida.
But Gingrich's early-December rise in several polls gave him renewed hopes of carrying his campaign deep into the primary season. Failure to compete in Virginia, which is among the "Super Tuesday" primaries, would deal a huge blow to any contender who had not locked up the nomination by then.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning congressman from Texas, want to knock Gingrich out long before Virginia. Their campaigns and allied groups are saturating the Iowa airwaves with anti-Gingrich ads.
The tone has gotten so nasty that Gingrich is calling on Romney to halt the ads, or at least defend them in a 90-minute Iowa face-off. Gingrich also mounted a separate petition drive, seeking signatures from voters who don't want to see Republican candidates ripping into each other.
"Attacking fellow Republicans only helps one person: Barack Obama," the petition says.
Republican insiders see Romney, in particular, as having the money, experience and organization needed to survive a long campaign. That makes it urgent for Gingrich to get on all the big-state ballots if he hopes to win the party's nod.
Gingrich said Wednesday he had enough ballot signatures, but he wanted to come to Virginia to deliver them personally. Taking no chances, his volunteers asked everyone to sign petitions before entering Gingrich's rally Wednesday night in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from Washington.
Gingrich, who arrived more than an hour late, planned to campaign Thursday in Richmond with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has endorsed none of the nomination-seekers.
Romney, meanwhile, continued his bus tour of New Hampshire, the closest thing to a must-win state for him. For the most part, Romney is letting hard-hitting ads from the Restore Our Future "super PAC" do the ruffian's work against Gingrich. The PAC is made up of former Romney advisers.
On Wednesday, Romney taunted Gingrich, who has objected to the attacks as he falls in several polls.
"I'm sure I could go out and say, `Please, don't do anything negative,'" Romney told Fox News. "But this is politics. And if you can't stand the heat in this little kitchen, wait until Obama's Hell's Kitchen turns up the heat."
Gingrich shot back from Manchester, N.H., "If he wants to test the heat, I'll meet him anywhere in Iowa next week." He said Romney could "bring his ads and he can defend them."
In Arlington, Gingrich mocked Romney for saying he can't tell Restore Our Future to halt its ads because campaign laws require candidates and PACs to operate independently of each other. If Romney publicly announced his desire to see the ads stop, Gingrich said, those airing them probably would hear of it.
Gingrich vowed to stay positive, even as he said Romney had "no willingness to stand up and tell the truth."
Paul is campaigning this week in Iowa, a wide-open state he potentially could win. He drew large crowds at several town hall meetings in eastern Iowa on Wednesday.
But few campaign veterans think Paul, whose strong libertarian views give him an intense but limited following, can draw enough support nationwide to win the nomination.
Gingrich hopes to do well enough in the first two contests to make it to South Carolina and Florida. They border Georgia, which he represented in Congress for 20 years, ending in 1999.
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Paul John Knowles, Serial Killer, Blamed For 1974 Killing Of Ga. Girl Ima Jean Sanders
ATLANTA -- Georgia investigators used DNA and other evidence to link the slaying of a 13-year-old girl who went missing in 1974 with a serial killer who was blamed for murdering at least 18 people, authorities said Wednesday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said agents were "reasonably confident" that Ima Jean Sanders was killed 37 years ago by Paul John Knowles.
Ima Jean was living with her mother and her 4-year-old sister in Warner Robins, Ga., when she disappeared in August 1974. Her sister remembers getting upset when Ima Jean told her to stay at home while she hopped in a van with some friends. She never saw her family again.
"That's the last anyone ever heard of her," her mother Betty Wisecup told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "She up and disappeared and we had never heard anything about it."
About two years later, authorities found skeletal remains in a wooded area in Peach County in the central part of the state, but investigators at the time could only tell that they belonged to a young white female. Her family, haunted by her disappearance, was left wondering about what happened.
"It's been almost 38 years and I'm thinking maybe she has amnesia, maybe she got into a car wreck and no one ever found her," said Ima Jean's sister, Sharron Chessher "We just never knew. Now we do."
The break in the case came in January, after a Texas investigator working on another cold case realized that data from Ima Jean's killing wasn't entered into a database designed to match unidentified remains with missing persons cases. Wisecup, who lives in Beaumont, Texas, submitted DNA, and investigators said this week it matched the skeletal remains.
"If you talk about a proverbial cold case, this would have been it," said special agent Gary Rothwell. "It was the family that never forgot."
Hard-to-find documents were also used to help link Knowles to the killing. Amid the crime spree, Knowles mailed audio confessions of his crimes to a Florida attorney, but the recordings were never released publicly and the transcripts were ruined a few years ago by flooding at a Macon courthouse.
Investigators tracked down a 1975 letter buried in the state archives that was written by a former U.S. attorney who summarized Knowles' confessions.
The letter said Knowles picked up a young female hitchhiker named "Alma" in August 1974 and brought her to a wooded area outside Macon, near where the remains were found. He raped her, strangled her and then left her body, the letter said. He returned to the area about two weeks later to bury the jawbone.
Knowles was captured in November 1974 near McDonough, Ga., after he kidnapped a Florida state trooper and another man. He killed both of them. Knowles was shot to death a month later trying to escape custody.
Warner Robins police Capt. Chris Rooks, who helped investigate the killing, said he hopes it brings the family a "sense of closure they would have never had."
Ima Jean's relatives were still struggling with the news. Chessher, for one, said learning what happened to her sister was "like having the air sucked out of the room."
The family is trying to raise money to bring Ima Jean's remains to Texas, where Ima Jean's mother will place them in an urn in her living room and later bury them in a family plot. Chessher said only then will the family be able to start to heal.
"To know the details of what she saw, looking through her eyes, it doesn't get any easier," Chessher said. "Even when we get her home and properly bury her, knowing what that man did will never leave our hearts and souls. I know that we have to forgive, but it's going to take a long time."
___
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Some Russian protesters want revolution: Kremlin aide (Reuters)
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? The Kremlin's chief political strategist condemned Russian protesters on Friday, saying they wanted to turn demonstrations over a disputed election into a revolution like those that toppled leaders in the Arab world.
"There are those who want to turn the protests into a color revolution - that is for sure," the president's first deputy chief of staff, Vladislav Surkov, said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.
Tens of thousands of people have said they will protest on Saturday in Moscow as part of the biggest wave of opposition rallies since Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rose to power 12 years ago.
Surkov said the protesters were acting as though they were taking cues from the works of U.S. academic Gene Sharp, whose books on revolution have been cited as a major influence on activists who led the campaign against Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.
Opposition leaders are calling for a new vote after accusations that the December 4 election, which gave Putin's ruling party a slim majority in the State Duma lower house of parliament, was riddled with voting violations.
In the short interview, Surkov echoed opinions from Putin that some protesters were being instructed from abroad and that those attending were carefully following a preformulated script.
"(Protesters) are acting by the book, following ... new revolutionary methods," said Surkov, referring to those who want to spark a revolution as 'crooks', a word often used by protesters to describe Putin's United Russia party.
As in demonstrations in North Africa and the Middle East, the Russian protesters have relied on social media and Internet sites to organize their rallies and boost their numbers.
"For as much as it's by the book, it's boring. You want to tell these gentlemen to distance themselves from the instructions, from fantasies," he said.
DEFUSE DISCONTENT
Surkov, who is a contentious figure for the opposition, said the Russian leadership had already started loosening its political control.
"(Changes) have already happened. The system has already changed ... We just have to put these changes into law," he said, one day after President Dmitry Medvedev outlined proposals for overhauling the political system such as allowing regional governors to be elected rather than appointed by the Kremlin.
Surkov, who had been working as acting Kremlin chief of staff, was passed over for the permanent position on Thursday when Putin ally Sergei Ivanov was chosen for the job.
The move may be a sign that Putin is trying to distance himself from the figure who has drawn criticism from protesters.
The Kremlin is keen to defuse discontent before the protests planned across Russia on Saturday, following an earlier day of protests by tens of thousands of people on December 10.
Following Medvedev's proposals to simplify the electoral system, a statement on the Kremlin website said legislation had been sent to parliament to enact them.
They include moves to reduce the number of signatures needed for a party to propose a presidential candidate and measures to simplify the process for political parties to compete in elections. The changes are to go into effect in January 1, 2013.
Surkov said the protests could bring "turbulence" to Russia, whose leaders cherish the stability they say Putin brought to the country after coming to power after the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
"The future is not a calm place, but it's not worth it to be afraid," Surkov said. "Turbulence, even strong turbulence is not a catastrophe, it is an (expression of) different kinds of stability."
(Reporting By Thomas Grove Editing by Maria Golovnina)
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Fitch again warns U.S. debt burden threatens AAA rating (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fitch Ratings on Wednesday warned again that the United States' rising debt burden was not consistent with maintaining the country's top AAA credit rating, but said there would likely be no decision on whether to cut the rating before 2013.
Last month, Fitch changed its U.S. credit rating outlook to negative from stable, citing the failure of a special congressional committee to agree on at least $1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures.
"Federal debt will rise in the absence of expenditure and tax reforms that would address the challenges of rising health and social security spending as the population ages," Fitch said in a statement.
"The high and rising federal and general government debt burden is not consistent with the U.S. retaining its 'AAA' status despite its other fundamental sovereign credit strengths," the ratings agency said.
In a new fiscal projection, Fitch said at least $3.5 trillion of additional deficit reduction measures will be required to stabilize the federal debt held by the public at around 90 percent of gross domestic product in the latter half of the current decade.
Fitch, when it lowered its outlook to negative, had said it was giving the U.S. government until 2013 to come up with a "credible plan" to tackle its ballooning budget deficit or risk a downgrade from the AAA status.
"A key task of an incoming Congress and administration in 2013 is to formulate a credible plan to reduce the budget deficit and stabilize the federal debt burden. Without such a strategy, the sovereign rating will likely be lowered by the end of 2013," Fitch reiterated.
Rival ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating on the United States to AA-plus from AAA on August 5, citing concerns over the government's budget deficit and rising debt burden as well as the political gridlock that nearly led to a default.
On November 23, Moody's Investors Service, warned that its top level Aaa credit rating for the United States could be in jeopardy if lawmakers were to backtrack on $1.2 trillion in automatic deficit cuts that are set to be made over 10 years.
The plan for automatic cuts was triggered after the special congressional committee failed to reach an agreement on deficit reduction. Moody's said any pullback from the agreed automatic cuts to take effect starting in 2013 could prompt it to take action.
(Reporting By Daniel Bases; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Kindle Fire Software Update Doesn?t Fix Laggy Browser
Amazon has released a software update for its Kindle Fire tablet, promising enhanced "fluidity and performance." But the update doesn't mention anything about improved browser performance, and our own testing suggests the browser is inexplicably slow.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/3b5lW4eAFzw/
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Oscar academy plans outdoor theater in Hollywood (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? The overseers of the Academy Awards are building an outdoor theater and event space on a piece of land in Hollywood that had been intended for a film museum.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences plans to open the 17,000-square-foot amphitheater next May as a venue to show classic films.
The academy bought the land in 2005 with plans to build a world-class film museum there. Planners abandoned that idea after the economy went sour, making it impossible to raise the funds needed to build a whole new facility.
In October, the academy announced plans to lease a former May Co. department store now owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and put the movie museum there.
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SEC sues former top Fannie, Freddie executives (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sued by U.S. regulators on charges of misleading investors about the mortgage finance companies' exposure to risky home loans in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges on Friday against former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd, former Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron and four other one-time high-level executives.
Mudd, now chief executive of Fortress Investment Group, and Syron left the mortgage finance companies after they were taken over by the government in 2008 as mortgage losses spiraled. The two firms have been propped up by $169 billion in federal aid since they were seized.
The SEC is seeking to bar the defendants from serving as officers or directors of public companies, among other penalties.
Fortress, one of the few publicly traded hedge fund and private equity companies, said it would review "the matters addressed in the complaint" but noted that the lawsuit concerned Mudd's previous job at Fannie Mae.
An attorney for Syron said the SEC case was "without merit" and relied on a mistaken approach in examining the mortgage giant's disclosures, and said the firm had appropriately disclosed the amount of risk underlying its loans.
"Simply stated, there was no shortage of meaningful disclosures, all of which permitted the reader to asses the degree of risk in Freddie Mac's guaranteed portfolio. The SEC's theory and approach are fatally flawed," attorney Thomas Green said.
The other defendants include former Fannie Mae Chief Risk Officer Enrico Dallavecchia, who later became chief risk officer at PNC Financial Services. PNC spokesman Frederick Solomon said Dallavecchia stepped down from his PNC post on Friday and was on administrative leave.
Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nearly went bust, the congressionally chartered firms have repeatedly come under fire in the race for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination. The candidates say the mortgage firms are partly to blame for the foreclosure and housing crisis.
Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich has been harshly criticized by some of his opponents for accepting up to $1.6 million as a consultant to Freddie Mac from 1999 until 2008. Gingrich says he was not a lobbyist but was paid for "strategic advice."
The SEC said on Friday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will cooperate with the agency in its lawsuits and have agreed to admit responsibility for the alleged misconduct, without acknowledging or denying liability.
The firms have also entered into non-prosecution agreements with the agency, the SEC said.
MORTGAGE RISKS
In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the SEC said Mudd, Syron and others approved false statements to investors. The six defendants made it appear that their companies had far less exposure to risky mortgages in their loan portfolios than in fact existed, the SEC contends.
Attorneys for Mudd and Dallavecchia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In one episode in 2006, the SEC said, Syron said on an earnings conference call that "we, as you know, weren't really involved in underwriting much of that business, any of that business, directly," referring to the subprime loan market.
That statement, the SEC said, was "materially false and misleading," because at around that time Freddie Mac's single-family credit guarantee portfolio contained $141 billion worth of subprime loans, 10 percent of its total.
The SEC also charged Thomas Lund, a former executive vice president at Fannie Mae. His lawyer, Michael Levy, said his client "did not mislead anyone."
Former Freddie Mac executives Patricia Cook and Donald Bisenius were also charged. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The cases come as U.S. lawmakers are turning their attention to tackling the future of the nation's housing finance system. Republicans and Democrats largely agree that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac eventually need to be shut down. Both companies were chartered by Congress to foster a liquid mortgage market.
MATERIALLY FALSE AND MISLEADING
The SEC is asking the court to order the six defendants to pay back alleged illegal profits. The documents did not specify what amount the SEC would be seeking.
"The companies adopted very broad definitions of subprime, leaving reasonable investors to conclude that what was disclosed in their filings was the entirety of their subprime exposure," Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's enforcement division, said at a news conference.
"Investors were robbed of the opportunity to make informed investor choices," he said.
In the Fannie Mae complaint, the SEC said the executives made misleading statements between December 2006 and August 2008. In the Freddie Mac case, the regulator said the alleged wrongdoing took place between March 2007 and August 2008.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy loans from lenders and repackage them as guaranteed securities for sale to investors.
Freddie Mac, in a statement, said it had reached an agreement with the SEC but did not comment on the charges against its former executives. A Fannie Mae representative did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
The cases are SEC v. Daniel Mudd et al., No. 11-9202 and SEC v. Syron et. al No. 11-9201, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
(Additional reporting by Margaret Chadbourn in Washington and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Gunna Dickson and John Wallace)
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Why young couples aren't getting married -- they fear the ravages of divorce
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Cornell University
With the share of married adults at an all-time low in the United States, new research by demographers at Cornell University and the University of Central Oklahoma unveils clues why couples don't get married they fear divorce.
Among cohabitating couples, more than two-thirds of the study's respondents admitted to concerns about dealing with the social, legal, emotional and economic consequences of a possible divorce.
The study, "The Specter of Divorce: Views from Working and Middle-Class Cohabitors," is published in the journal Family Relations (December 2011) and is co-authored by Sharon Sassler, Cornell professor of policy analysis and management, and Dela Kusi-Appouh, a Cornell doctoral student in the field of development sociology. (http://bit.ly/sJqeFa).
Roughly 67 percent of the study's respondents shared their worries about divorce. Despite the concerns, middle-class subjects spoke more favorably about tying the knot and viewed cohabitation as a natural stepping stone to marriage compared to their working-class counterparts. Lower-income women, in particular, disproportionately expressed doubts about the "trap" of marriage, fearing that it could be hard to exit if things go wrong or it would lead to additional domestic responsibilities but few benefits.
The study also found working-class cohabitating couples were more apt to view marriage as "just a piece of paper," nearly identical to their existing relationship. They were twice as likely to admit fears about being stuck in marriage with no way out once they were relying on their partners' share of income to get by.
The authors hope that their findings could help premarital counselors to better tailor their lessons to assuage widespread fears of divorce and to target the specific needs of various socioeconomic classes.
###
Contact Syl Kacapyr for information about Cornell's TV and radio studios.
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Public release date: 18-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Syl Kacapyr
vpk6@cornell.edu
607-255-7701
Cornell University
With the share of married adults at an all-time low in the United States, new research by demographers at Cornell University and the University of Central Oklahoma unveils clues why couples don't get married they fear divorce.
Among cohabitating couples, more than two-thirds of the study's respondents admitted to concerns about dealing with the social, legal, emotional and economic consequences of a possible divorce.
The study, "The Specter of Divorce: Views from Working and Middle-Class Cohabitors," is published in the journal Family Relations (December 2011) and is co-authored by Sharon Sassler, Cornell professor of policy analysis and management, and Dela Kusi-Appouh, a Cornell doctoral student in the field of development sociology. (http://bit.ly/sJqeFa).
Roughly 67 percent of the study's respondents shared their worries about divorce. Despite the concerns, middle-class subjects spoke more favorably about tying the knot and viewed cohabitation as a natural stepping stone to marriage compared to their working-class counterparts. Lower-income women, in particular, disproportionately expressed doubts about the "trap" of marriage, fearing that it could be hard to exit if things go wrong or it would lead to additional domestic responsibilities but few benefits.
The study also found working-class cohabitating couples were more apt to view marriage as "just a piece of paper," nearly identical to their existing relationship. They were twice as likely to admit fears about being stuck in marriage with no way out once they were relying on their partners' share of income to get by.
The authors hope that their findings could help premarital counselors to better tailor their lessons to assuage widespread fears of divorce and to target the specific needs of various socioeconomic classes.
###
Contact Syl Kacapyr for information about Cornell's TV and radio studios.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/cu-wyc121611.php
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
China sends long-missing lawyer Gao back to jail (AP)
BEIJING ? Chinese activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has not been seen in public for more than 20 months, has been sent back to jail for three years for breaking his probation, state media reported Friday.
The brief report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency marked the first official confirmation that Gao is still alive. Rights groups have repeatedly voiced concern about Gao's situation and criticism over the government silence surrounding his case.
Xinhua said Gao "had seriously violated probation rules for a number of times, which led to the court decision to withdraw the probation."
It did not say what violations Gao had committed, or could have committed because he was thought to have been in the custody of China's security forces since he was last seen in April 2010.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, with a five-year probation period, in December 2006 for inciting to overthrow state power. The probation would have expired next Thursday.
Calls to the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court and the Beijing High Court were not answered Friday.
Gao's brother said had not heard from the authorities on Gao's case, but Gao Zhiyi said he believed the end of the probation period may have been behind the move.
"Are they sending him to a proper prison? Which prison was he at before? Where were they hiding him?" he asked.
Gao said when he approached Beijing police in September to ask about his brother, one officer told him Gao Zhisheng was a "missing person and no one knows where he is."
Gao Zhiyi said he did not know what the latest notice from the court meant.
"Why were they hiding him for such a long time, what was his crime?" he said.
One of the most high-profile targets of the crackdown on rights lawyers over the past few years, Gao is a charismatic and pugnacious lawyer who represented religious dissenters and advocated constitutional reform.
Gao has drawn international attention, including from the United States, for the unusual length of his disappearance and for his earlier reports of torture he said he endured in detention.
His case was mentioned by U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke last Saturday in a statement for International Human Rights Day.
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Video: Save yourself from dry, tired skin this winter
Lingering shortage of ADHD drugs unravels lives
??A nationwide shortage of life-saving cancer drugs and anesthesia medications has drawn most attention, but an ongoing dearth of ADHD drugs has taken a toll on millions of adults and children who need them daily to focus. Kate Skinn and her son, Markus, both take the drugs.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3041426/vp/45697055#45697055
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Italian govt calls confidence vote on austerity (AP)
ROME ? In Italy's high-stakes gambit for economic survival, new Premier Mario Monti is facing serious resistance from three tenacious forces: global financial markets, Italian politicians and Italian labor unions.
Monti's challengers are showing little restraint, even when facing a possible worst-case scenario of an Italian default on euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) in sovereign debt, an event that would break up the 17-nation eurozone and cripple the global economy.
Monti, an economist and university chief tapped last month to lead a technocratic government, pledged Thursday to overcome any naysayers by staying his course. That plan aims to reduce public debt, cut government spending, overhaul the pension system and reform the restrictive labor market to boost growth.
"Resistance is not a novelty when you want to deploy the forces of liberalization and competition," Monti said. "This is resistance that often is not won with the first strike, but with tenacity."
Monti has already issued his austerity and growth measures as an emergency decree, but Parliament must approve it. To make sure that happens, his government of technocrats has called for a confidence vote when the measures go to the lower house Friday and then to the Senate, which is to vote by Sunday. A failure would mean his government would have to step down.
Despite widespread opposition to the measures demanded by the European Union and the European Central Bank, they are expected to pass because the alternative is unthinkable.
"I have the impression that Italians, even with little sympathy for sacrifices, are realizing that the alternative is not a life without sacrifice, but a life with even greater sacrifices," Monti said.
Italy's borrowing costs spiked again Thursday in its last bond auction of the year, forcing the debt-ridden nation to pay 6.47 percent for investors to lend it euro3 billion ($3.95 billion) over five years. Italy is expected to seek to borrow over euro300 billion ($390 billion) next year ? an enormous load as rates edge closer to the 7 percent level that forced fellow eurozone nations Greece, Ireland and Portugal into bailouts.
Italy's weakness on the bond market is not all of its own doing. The eurozone's third-largest economy has been left exposed by the failure of last week's EU summit to pledge additional liquidity to protect Italy as well as Spain.
"There is no credible firewall around Italy to allay investor concerns about its colossal funding needs next year," said Nicholas Spiro of Soiron Sovereign Strategy. "Italy's predicament is dire. It has become a proxy for eurozone risk at a time when its funding requirements are about to balloon."
Monti will face even bigger tests in January, when Italy returns to the bond markets to raise money and the government seeks another round of even tougher austerity measures. Any signs his government is buckling to political interests could blunt market confidence in Italy's ability to avoid default.
"With regard to Italy, the immediate question is whether the European authorities have done enough to prevent a liquidity crisis emerging," said Neil Mellor at the Bank of New York Mellon's Global Markets. "(With) the yield on 10-year Italian government paper having shot back above 7 percent after yesterday's auction, the outlook doesn't look good."
Facing even this, political forces in Italy have refused to bite the bullet and accept sacrifice. Instead, they have bickered for changes and won some, sparing pharmacists and taxi drivers from a first round of labor law reforms.
"In a difficult moment like this, families and enterprises are hurt, and there are those even in the most difficult moments who raise objections and bring politicians to their knees," said Emma Marcegaglia, the head of Italy's industrial lobby Confindustria.
In fact, Monti has surprised even some supporters by turning to the traditional sources of revenue ? raising the sales tax and levies on cigarettes, high-powered cars and yachts ? while shying away from confrontation with trade groups blocking rules opening up restricted professions.
"To disappoint public opinion, above all that sector most able to support the sacrifices, risks being a fatal error," said Stefano Folli, respected political analyst in Il Sole 24 Ore, the newspaper of Italy's business lobby.
Confindustria delivered the news on Thursday that Italy is heading toward recession, and projected an economic contraction of 1.6 percent in 2012 ? more than double the 0.5 percent contraction forecast by Monti's technical government. Confindustria previously had forecast growth of 0.2 percent.
Confindustria economists also predicted that unemployment would rise to 9 percent in 2013, with 800,000 more people out of work than in 2008.
"The situation is even worse than we expected," said Corrado Passera, economic development minister. "We are in a recession. If anyone had any doubts about the numbers, we can no longer hide behind 'maybe not.' "
In the lower house Thursday, the speaker suspended the session and ejected two lawmakers from the right-wing Northern League who held up banners against Monti's resurrection of a tax on primary homes. Northern League lawmakers also whistled in protest of the austerity measures.
"Shepherds whistle, not lawmakers," the clearly agitated speaker, Gianfranco Fini, said as he sought to bring order.
On Wednesday, Northern League members protested with signs saying "Enough Taxes" and calling Monti's austerity program "robbery."
Discontent has spilled over into the streets, with hundreds of firefighters demonstrating outside Parliament on Thursday. They contend Monti's measures would put some 20,000 firefighters without long-term contracts out of work in January without any safety net.
"There are colleagues here with five, ten, 15, 20 years of work experience on their shoulders, and Rome does not recognize us with a full-time position," said Luca Basso, a firefighter with temporary job. "The firefighters crew is drifting, practically collapsing, understaffed in a frightening way."
A nationwide transport strike was set to begin Thursday evening and run most of Friday.
____
Barry reported from Milan.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
APNewsBreak: Ala. AG says change immigration law (AP)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. ? Alabama's attorney general has become the highest ranking Republican official to suggest throwing out parts of his state's tough new immigration law, as he recommended that lawmakers repeal some portions of the statute that have been put on hold by federal courts and clarify some others.
In a letter to legislative leaders, Attorney General Luther Strange said the proposed changes would make the law easier to defend in court and "remove burdens on law-abiding citizens."
The private letter, acquired by The Associated Press, represents the first time the attorney general has expressed concerns since he started defending the law against a federal court challenge filed by about 30 organizations and individuals.
In reaction to his letter, legislative leaders disclosed they are working with business leaders on possible changes to keep Alabama business-friendly.
Toddy Stacy , a spokesmen for House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said, "Lawmakers are right now working with industry leaders to see what updates might be necessary to maintaining what is arguably the most business-friendly environment anywhere in America."
The law is considered by both opponents and supporters as the toughest in the U.S. against illegal immigrants.
Strange recommended repealing a section that makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to fail to carry registration documents. That section has been put on hold temporarily by a federal court. Strange said it "adds little in terms of enforcement" because federal law already makes it a crime and repealing it would allow police "to focus on more important aspects of the law."
He also suggested repealing the requirement that public schools collect information on the immigration status of students. That section is also on hold.
His letter was written in response to requests from legislative leaders, including Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, who had said the Legislature would only consider changes recommended by the attorney general.
Strange said his recommendations were based only on the legal challenge to the law and on efforts to make the law clearer, but did not address policy decisions by the Legislature. "The legislative leadership asked for our opinion and we provided it," he said in an e-mail.
He said the cost of gathering the school data and the diversion of resources to do that far outweigh the need to gather the data for use in litigation.
Strange also suggested repealing two portions of the law that allow citizens to sue public officials to compel them to enforce the new law. The state's chief law officer said those sections conflict with state constitutional provisions.
"Law enforcement and district attorneys throughout the state are concerned about being sued by citizens despite their best efforts to enforce the law," Strange said.
Strange recommended clarifying a prohibition against an illegal immigrant entering into a business transaction with a state, city or county government agency. He said it has been confusing to some cities and counties, leading to long lines at some local government offices.
"Tightening up the definition of `business transaction' would help alleviate these issues," he said.
The Legislature passed the law to scare off illegal immigrants and open up jobs for legal residents in a state suffering from more than 9 percent unemployment. The law took effect in late September, except for provisions put on hold temporarily by federal courts.
Despite the jobs goal, a leading business organization in Alabama's largest urban area called for revisions Tuesday, saying it was concerned that the law taints Alabama's image around the world. The Birmingham Business Alliance said complying with the law is a burden for businesses and local governments.
"Revisions to our current law are needed to ensure that momentum remains strong in our competitive economic development efforts," said James T. McManus, chairman of the alliance and CEO of Energen Corp.
The group did not offer specific changes. The alliance voiced its opinion one day after Republican Gov. Robert Bentley said he is concerned the law might be affecting industrial recruitment. Bentley also said Monday the law needs simplifying, but it shouldn't be repealed.
An opponent of the law, Democratic Sen. Billy Beasley of Clayton, said revisions are not enough, and he will push ahead with legislation to repeal it in the legislative session starting Feb. 7.
"I don't feel that the senators who voted for it realized the fallout there would be and the effect of the law," he told reporters Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, state agriculture officials met with farmers in southwest Alabama to discuss their concerns that the law has driven off the laborers they will need to plant their crops in the spring. Officials discussed the possibility of using prison inmates to fill any farm labor shortages.
One of the attorneys challenging the law, Karen Tumlin of the Immigration Law Center, said officials are beginning to see the "devastating" impact the law is having on the state.
___
Associated Press writers Bob Johnson in Montgomery and Jay Reeves in Birmingham contributed to this report.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Trouble hearing? Advanced Bionics' waterproof implant is paddling your way
Continue reading Trouble hearing? Advanced Bionics' waterproof implant is paddling your way
Trouble hearing? Advanced Bionics' waterproof implant is paddling your way originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/02/trouble-hearing-advanced-bionics-waterproof-implant-is-paddlin/
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Mailbag: Valentine just what Red Sox need
Boston manager is a polarizing figure, but is smart and will force change
MLB EXPERT MAILBAG
updated 7:03 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2011
|
Q: Do you expect the Bobby Valentine/Red Sox combination to work?
? Dwight Williams, Boston
A: Valentine certainly has been a polarizing figure throughout his career, a real love-him-or-hate-him type. From Texas to Queens to Japan, there is no denying both the positive and negative feelings he has evoked.
He's as smart as anybody in the game, and a quarter-century ago as its youngest manager, succeeded in resurrecting ? albeit temporarily ? a terrible Rangers franchise. He then went on to win two wild cards and get to one World Series with the Mets, and win a championship with a previously unsuccessful Chibe Lotte franchise. So he knows how to win.
In fact, he's one of those great-at-anything-he-does types ? everything from football (turned down a scholarship to play tailback at USC to sign with the Dodgers) to ballroom dancing to the restaurant business to embracing the Japanese culture and even learning the language during his long tenure there.
He reached the big leagues as a 19-year old, and the only reason he didn't have a long and successful playing career was the broken lower leg bone he suffered when his spike got caught in an outfield wall on an attempted catch. The bone never healed properly due to botched medical treatment, and left him with a grotesque lump on his shin.
He can be arrogant and condescending, and maybe that stalled playing career and relatively small size (5-9) left him with a chip on his shoulder. And you can understand why opponents would dislike ? some, back in the day, even hated ? the wrist-band wearing and self-promoting side of him, and why they referred to him as a 'top-step' manager ? up where the cameras easily could find him.
Valentine's personality also has divided his own clubhouses, as well as the media contingents covering him. As being part of that dynamic a long time ago in Dallas-Fort Worth, I admit to being on the pro-Bobby V. side of things.
But the truth is, much of this is ancient history. It's been a decade since he's been in an MLB dugout, and haven't we all matured and grown wiser in the last decade ? and certainly in the last quarter-century? So for the all strong opinions both pro and con that you can find on the internet now, the fact is, he's not going to handle things exactly the same this time around.
So as for what will happen in Boston, Valentine is much different than his predecessor, Terry Francona, who fell victim to players taking advantage of his easygoing, players'-manager mentality. That's not going to be the case with Valentine, and maybe that's just what the Red Sox ownership and general manager Ben Cherington are looking for.
Valentine will force change, and those who don't like it, likely will be shipped elsewhere. He will play a major part in the re-shaping of the roster this winter, as the Red Sox ? for all their financial wherewithal ? do have some question marks to address.
It's going to be fascinating to watch, but put me in the camp thinking that after an adjustment period, the Red Sox will remain consistent threats to win another World Series in Valentine's tenure.
Q: Where do you think is the ideal landing spot for Jose Reyes?
? Caroline Rollins, San Francisco
A: Fortunately for Reyes, his timing couldn't be better, as a handful of top contenders need an elite-level shortstop. Just in the NL, you can name the Phillies (if Jimmy Rollins leaves), Braves, Giants, Cardinals and possibly the Brewers. And in the AL, you possibly could include the Tigers and Red Sox.
Money being relatively equal ? and don't kid yourself, that's almost always the determining factor ? there really isn't a wrong choice in that bunch.
The Phillies are the likeliest to win short-term, although their window for doing so is closing. The Braves, with all their young talent and more quality arms about to emerge, are the better play for the longer term. The Giants have the pitching and financial resources for a run as NL West contenders for the next several years. And the Cardinals need to keep Albert Pujols, but their track record as perennial NL Central top contender speaks for itself.
You'll notice I didn't include the Marlins, as I'm not buying them as legitimate players in this market ? yet. Yes, they're wining and dining a handful of the top names, but there's not enough substance (read: dollars) in their offers, and I'm thinking they'll get shut out on every major front, but perhaps land a second-tier name who doesn't have another better option.I'm also not buying that Hanley Ramirez is going to take kindly to a position change. But we'll see what happens at the winter meetings and beyond, as the Marlins could change their current strategy, and end up putting more money into one free agent in order to make that big splash they're looking to make going into their new ballpark.
For Reyes, what it's likely to come down to is which team will be willing to give him the most guaranteed money, given his injury history.
Q: I keep reading that the end of Type A and type B free agents, and the mandatory slotting for the June draft will combine to make it harder for small market teams to compete. Why is that so?
? Ed Horbett, Lemon Grove, Calif.
A: First of all, it should be said that both of those were flawed systems, and needed be to changed. Also, there always are unforeseen consequences with these CBA changes, so nobody knows exactly what all the affects will be at this point.
As for whether smaller-market teams will be hurt by the changes, that certainly isn't the intent of either the MLB/owners side or the players union, and from my understanding of the changes, there appears to be potential positives and negatives for smaller-market clubs.
The free-agent rankings system proved unfair to some players who received high rankings, because teams didn't want to forfeit a draft choice to sign them. Relievers in particular fell victim. The new free-agent compensation system involves qualifying offers to free agents from teams ? and that could limit small-market teams' bids.
The slotting system was ineffective because many teams ? especially in the bigger markets, but even some of the smarter smaller-market teams ? ignored it and paid bigger money than dictated by the slot.
With the institution of a pool of bonus money that teams can't exceed in signing draft picks, the overall affect could be that signing bonuses will be going down, and I don't see how that hurts smaller-market teams.
Clubs also now can trade some draft picks, which could allow a rebuilding team (usually a smaller-market team) to stockpile in an effort to change their fortunes more quickly than in the past.
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More newsDodgers getting some Magic?
HBT: Magic Johnson says he?s putting together a group to buy the Dodgers. His group includes Stan Kasten, the former president of the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals, and Mark Walter, chief executive of Guggenheim Partners.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45498567/ns/sports-baseball/
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Former South African police chief loses appeal
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? A top South African appeals court has rejected a former national police chief's appeal of his corruption conviction.
Mthunzi Mhaga, spokesman for the prosecution, says Jackie Selebi has 48 hours to report to prison officials following Friday's ruling.
Selebi was convicted in July after a nation beset by violent crime heard months of testimony that he accepted money and gifts in exchange for meeting a drug smuggler's business associates and tipping him off to investigations. A judge later sentenced Selebi, who also is a former Interpol president, to 15 years in prison.
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Pakistan buries troops amid fury over NATO strike (Reuters)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) ? Pakistan on Sunday buried 24 troops killed in a NATO cross-border air raid that has pushed a crisis in relations with the United States toward rupture.
The attack was the latest perceived provocation by the United States, starting with the secret raid which killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May, and the question is whether ties will break or whether the two sides will remain stuck in a bad marriage of convenience.
NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two Pakistan military outposts on Saturday, killing the soldiers in what Pakistan said was an unprovoked assault.
NATO and U.S. officials expressed regret about the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers, but the exact circumstances of the attack were unclear.
"U.S. stabs Pakistan in the back, again," said a headline in the Daily Times, reflecting fury over the attack in Pakistan, a regional power seen as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
Television stations showed the coffins of the soldiers draped in green and white Pakistani flags in a prayer ceremony at the headquarters of the regional command in Peshawar.
Pakistan shut down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan - used for sending in nearly half of the alliance's land shipments - in retaliation for the worst such attack since Islamabad uneasily allied itself with Washington following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
That is unlikely to cool tempers in a country where anti-American sentiment runs high even when ties between Islamabad and Washington are smooth.
About 500 members of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's most influential religious party, staged a protest in Mohmand tribal area, where the NATO attack took place.
"Down with America" and "Jihad is The Only Answer to America," they yelled.
Around 40 troops were stationed at the outposts t the time of the attack, military sources said. Two officers were reported among the dead.
"They without any reasons attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep," said a senior Pakistani officer, requesting anonymity.
BLUNT STATEMENTS
The border is often poorly marked, and Afghan and Pakistani maps have differences of several kilometers in some places, military officials have said.
Pakistan responded with unusually blunt statements condemning the incident as a violation of its sovereignty and it reserved the right to retaliate.
Pakistan is a vital land route for nearly half of NATO supplies shipped overland to its troops in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said. Land shipments account for about two thirds of the alliance's cargo shipments into Afghanistan.
A similar incident on Sept 30, 2010, which killed two Pakistani service personnel, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days. NATO apologized for that incident, which it said happened when NATO gunships mistook warning shots by Pakistani forces for a militant attack.
U.S. efforts to repair ties with Pakistan have suffered several big setbacks starting with the unilateral U.S. special forces raid that killed bin Laden in a Pakistani town where he had apparently been living for years.
Pakistan condemned the secret operation as a flagrant violation of its sovereignty, while suspicions arose in Washington that members of Pakistan's military intelligence had harbored the al Qaeda leader.
The military came under unprecedented criticism from both Pakistanis who said it failed to protect the country and American officials who said bin Laden's presence was proof the country was an unreliable ally in the war on militancy.
Pakistan's army, one of the world's largest, may see the NATO incursion from Afghanistan as a chance to reassert itself, especially since the deaths of the soldiers are likely to unite generals and politicians, whose ties are normally uneasy.
Pakistan's jailing of a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, and U.S. accusations that Pakistan backed a militant attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul have added to the tensions.
"From Raymond Davis and his gun slinging in the streets of Lahore to the Osama bin Laden incident, and now to the firing on Pakistani soldiers on the volatile Pakistan-Afghan border, things hardly seem able to get any worse," said the Daily Times.
Islamabad depends on billions in U.S. aid and Washington believes Pakistan can help it bring about a peace in Afghanistan ahead of a combat troop withdrawal at the end of 2014.
"The fact is that such incursions of our sovereignty have become routine and we have become so dependent on the U.S. that we just have to grin and bear it," said an editorial in Pakistan's Express Tribune.
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad and Ijaz Mohmand in Peshawar; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Chris Allbritton)
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