News Today

'New Moon' Breaks Box Office Record

2009-11-22T01:18:00.000-08:00

Entertainment's vampire-romance sequel "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" rung up a record $72.7 million in opening-day box office on Friday, easily topping domestic rankings.

That bested a previous single-day boxoffice mark of $ 67.2 million, set by Warner Bros.' Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" in July 2008. The first-day tally for "New Moon" included $26.3 million in boxoffice from a total 3,514 performances at 12:01 a.m. Friday, which set a record for witching-hour coin.

Consensus pre-release forecasts put the likely first-weekend tally for "New Moon" at $85 million-plus. Not even a meteoric burnout on Saturday and Sunday would keep the largely female-fueled film from soaring well past those projections.

"Dark Knight" holds the record for the biggest opening ever, at $158.4 million (more here on decade's top grossing films). Whether "New Moon" - which is playing in more than 4,024 locations this weekend -will hold up well enough in its second and third days of release to approach that record is virtually unknowable, as the sequel is traveling into uncharted territory for the franchise.

The original "Twilight" - released a year ago this weekend - collected $36million in its first day of release and $69.6 million in its first weekend. And that was considered a major over-performance at the time.

Elsewhere in the daily rankings, Warners' Sandra Bullock-toplined drama "The Blind Side" debuted with $ 10.8 million, good for second place on the day. That's a terrific start for the feel-good pigskin pic, which some thought would get blind-sided by "New Moon" and fail to rise above teen millions on the weekend.

Sony's animated feature "Planet 51" landed in fifth place with a soft $3.2 million in first-day boxoffice. But the PG-rated pic should find a more lucrative orbit once Saturday and Sunday matinees kick in.

Sony's scifi actioner "2012" -- which topped domestic rankings a week earlier -was third among all Friday grosses with $8.1 million. That gives the Roland Emmerich pic an $89.8 million cume through its first eight days in the marketplace.

Canada money launderer shows holes in Vegas casinos

2009-11-22T00:56:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Las Vegas has cleaned up since its days as a magnet for ill-gotten mobster gains, but a Canadian insider trading scam has exposed the smaller-scale money laundering still going on in the desert city's casinos.

Canadian Stanko Grmovsek admitted in a Toronto court earlier this year to making $9 million with a law school buddy in a 14-year illegal scheme. Court documents show he said he laundered some of it by gambling wads of cash on games like blackjack in Vegas's world-famous casino strip.

His confession was a flashback to an era when Las Vegas's "Sin City" image made it a playground for gangsters offloading their loot in glittering gambling parlors.

But strict controls have slashed financial crime in Vegas casinos to a fraction of what it once was, and most organized criminals use less scrutinized industries to convert illegal profits into clean money, experts say.

He said regulators and police were keeping financial crime to a minimum. "We work hand-in-hand with the casinos. We want legitimate folks coming here and having a good time. Nobody promotes this as a den of thieves."

Grmovsek's admission that he laundered chunks of money in Las Vegas came despite efforts to keep gambling parlors clean with strict controls by casinos and authorities.

Many Las Vegas casinos are publicly listed and, with their licenses at stake, they watch closely for any shenanigans at the tables. Internal Revenue Service regulations requiring cash transactions involving more than $10,000 to be reported make large-scale crime difficult.

Criminal gangs can launder money more cheaply and less conspicuously in cash-rich small businesses like used-car lots and family restaurants, yet the Grmovsek case shows casinos can still work for sums small enough to pass under the radar.

RED FLAGS

Grmovsek said he and his friend Gil Cornblum, a Toronto lawyer, made their money from Grmovsek buying stocks based on acquisition tip-offs from Cornblum, who committed suicide as the case was pending.

After cooperating with investigators, Cornblum jumped off a highway bridge and Grmovsek faces three years in jail after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

Grmovsek said he transferred profits from offshore accounts to casinos in Las Vegas and the Bahamas where he would bet on sporting events or play blackjack and cash in piles of chips.

Experts say that in a typical scheme, a money launderer approaches the cashier's cage with cash and converts it into chips using a players card to establish his identity.

He later returns without his card to exchange the chips for cash, leaving no named record of the transaction and creating the impression he has gambled away thousands of dollars.

The scheme works in reverse if he takes out a small amount of chips, establishing his identity with a players card, and returns with a large stack, withdrawn anonymously, that he claims to have won at the tables.

David Stewart, an attorney with Ropes & Gray LLP who advises casinos on money laundering, says such behavior is a red flag.

"The biggest suspicious activity you can engage in is if you go to a casino, present a fair amount of money and you don't gamble," he said. "These are publicly traded companies. No single gambler is worth losing their license."

SMALL FRY

Commercial casinos in the United States, not including those run by Indian tribes, took in $32.8 billion in gaming revenue last year, the American Gaming Association says.

Commercial and Indian casinos filed nearly 500,000reports of currency transactions of $10,000 or above in 2008 and some 11,000 reports of suspicious activity, according to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

That marks a rise from 6,000 reports in 2004 but is a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of annual transactions.

Casinos are required to file such reports for transactions totaling at least $5,000 when there is suspicion the funds were acquired illegally, the intention is money laundering or that the casino is being used to facilitate criminal activity.

Camacho said casinos tend to be scrupulous about these reports as weeding out illicit activity is in their interest.

"If a casino willfully avoids these forms it can be subject to criminal fines, so there is a huge penalty. Not only a financial penalty but also somebody can go to jail," he said.

Global intelligence consultancy Stratfor still sees money laundering in casinos as small fry compared to the billions of dollars organized crime gangs pass through small businesses, especially along the border with Mexico.

"There's pretty good oversight generally at the U.S. casinos," said Stratfor expert Fred Burton. "I don't see this being any major shift or trend of Vegas being at the center of gravity for money laundering."

Another scheme used by small-time money launders involves betting money on both sides of a sporting event. If the gambler needs to document a source of income, he shows only the winning ticket, appearing to have won big on the game. If he needs to document a loss, he offers up only the losing ticket.

"People involved in criminal activity... usually don't save their money. They want to go spend it, they want to live large, and one of their goals is to go live large in Las Vegas."

About IndobiZLine-NewsToday

2009-11-21T22:08:00.001-08:00

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Mutated form of the virus H1N1 detected in three Norwegians

2009-11-21T21:54:00.000-08:00

The level of swine flu activity in the United States appears to be declining, although officials are worried about another increase of cases during the Thanksgiving holiday when many people travel and families gather.

The number of states reporting widespread activity of the H1N1 virus dropped to 43 from 46 in the past week, and activity fell in all 10 regions of the country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But flu cases are still rising in some states, including Maine and Hawaii, and it is too soon to know whether activity will surge again, said Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

"Influenza is unpredictable, and it is so early in the year to have this much disease. We don't know if these declines will persist, what the slope will be, whether we'll have a long decline or it will start to go up again," she said Friday.

The news came as scientists in Norway announced that they had detected a mutated form of the swine flu virus in two patients who died of the flu and in a third who was severely ill. It is the most recent report of mutations in the virus that is being watched closely for any change that could make it more dangerous.

In a statement, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said the mutation "could possibly make the virus more prone to infect deeper in the airways and thus cause more severe disease," such as pneumonia.

The institute said that there was no indication that the mutation would hinder the ability of the vaccine to protect people from becoming infected or impair the effectiveness of antiviral drugs in treating people who became infected.

Scientists have been analyzing the H1N1 virus from "a number of patients as part of the surveillance of the pandemic flu virus" and have detected several mutations, the statement said. While the existence of mutations is normal, and most "will probably have little or no importance... one mutation has caught special interest."

The two patients who had the mutation and died were the first swine flu fatalities in Norway. The third patient found to have the mutated form of the virus also became severely ill.

"Based on what we know so far, it seems that the mutated virus does not circulate in the population, but might be a result of spontaneous changes which have occurred in these three patients," the statement said.

Schuchat said the mutation is no reason for alarm.

"I don't think it has the public health implications that we would wonder about," she said, noting that some patients have gotten severely ill, including developing pneumonia, after being infected with strains of the virus without the mutation.

The World Health Organization said viruses with a similar mutation had been detected in several other countries, including Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine and the United States.
"No links between the small number of patients infected with the mutated virus have been found and the mutation does not appear to spread," the WHO said in a statement.

"Influenza is a mutable virus, and changes are to be expected," said Arnold S. Monto of the University of Michigan in an e-mail. "This is typical early in the spread of a pandemic virus."

Scientists around the world have been tracking the virus carefully for any signs that it had mutated into a more dangerous form. While a variety of mutations have been detected, most have not appeared to have affected the virus in any significant way. There have been some mutations that make the virus more resistant to antiviral drugs, experts said. But like the mutation that may cause more severe illness, those too seem self-contained.

The CDC is investigating a cluster of four cases of patients at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who were found to be infected with H1N1 virus that was resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

William Schaffner, a medical professor at Vanderbilt University, said mutations that make episodes of swine flu more severe are most dangerous only if they are "easily transmissible."

"That would make it a more severe disease. Apparently this has that capacity. But in order for it to become really quote dangerous to the population it also has to be easily transmissible," he said. "That's a different characteristic. And apparently that does not appear to have happened to this virus. It does not seem to be spreading in the general population."

Detection of the mutation should be reassuring, Schaffner said, because it shows the intensity of the global effort to monitor the virus. "The virologists are keeping an eye on H1N1 and this is evidence of that," he said.

Resort island Saipan reeling after gunman opens fire; 2 children among dead

2009-11-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

After going on a shooting rampage that left a trail of victims, the gunman drove to a scenic, rocky cliff where untold numbers of Japanese men, women and children plunged to their deaths to avoid capture during World War II, according to police and witness accounts.

He parked his van and walked to edge of Banzai Cliff. But instead of jumping, the gunman shot himself - ending his life and the carnage. In total, five people were dead, including the gunman and two small children, and six were wounded in Saipan's most violent attack in recent memory, leaving this usually tranquil island reeling and shaken.

"The commonwealth has never experienced a tragic situation like this, and we are saddened by the appalling action of a single individual that has caused so much harm to our peaceful island community," Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said.

Fitial stressed the tourist haven was still a safe place and said precautions would be taken to prevent similar attacks.

Besides the gunman, the violence claimed the lives of two men, a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, all residents of the U.S. commonwealth, Public Safety spokesman Jason Tarkong said. Six people were injured: a 4-year-old local girl and five South Korean tourists, including a boy and a girl.

Police said the attack began Friday at a shooting range in the community of Kannat Tabla, where two men in their early 20s and the two children were fatally shot. The 4-year-old girl was critically injured with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Shortly after the first attack, the suspect drove several miles and began firing a rifle from a white van at a group of South Koreans visiting a World War II attraction in nearby Marpi, wounding five. Police do not believe the shooter was targeting tourists in what Tarkong termed the random drive-by shooting.

Roxanne Diaz told the Pacific Daily News about 60 people were in the area taking photos, "just like a regular tourist day."

"And next thing you know, they hear something that sounded like fireworks," followed by the bloody chaos, Diaz said.

Authorities said the suspected shooter was a contract worker in his 30s or 40s from China. His name was withheld pending notification of family, which was expected sometime Saturday. Several residents said the man was known as "Mr. Lee."

The Pacific News Center identified him as Lee Zhong Ren, an employee at the shooting range. The news station also reported that Lee left behind a suicide note that spoke of a business deal gone bad.

The telephone at the shooting range has been disconnected.

Saipan is the main island of the U.S.
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which has about 60,000residents and is about 3,800 miles southwest of Hawaii. Saipan is a popular tourist destination among South Koreans, with more than 111,000 South Koreans visiting the island in 2008, according to the Marianas Visitors Authority.

Saipan officials feared the violence would lead to a drop in tourism, which has already suffered because of the sagging global economy.

The suspect was last spotted driving toward Banzai Cliff, the site where numerous Japanese jumped to their deaths to avoid capture by American troops in 1944 after the Battle of Saipan.

When officers arrived in the area, witnesses reported a man was shooting a rifle. Police discovered the van and found three rifles inside.

Officials said the gunman's body was found along the edge off the cliff with a.22-calibre rifle strapped around his shoulder.

The South Korean tourists were sightseeing in an area known as the Last Command Post, a World War II spot featuring remnants of American tanks. A memorial in the area is dedicated to Koreans who fought in the war.

Among those injured, a 39-year-old man was critically hurt with a wound to his back. A 5-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy were treated and released from the Commonwealth Health Center.

Lt. Gov. Eloy Inos called it a sad day for the commonwealth.

"This is an unfortunate but isolated incident," he said. "It happened for reasons unbeknownst to us, but we can handle this type of situation."

The World's Most Corrupt Governments

2009-11-18T17:10:00.000-08:00

Berlin - The most corrupt countries -- Afghanistan and Iraq, which receive billions of dollars a year in U.S. and other foreign support, are among the world's most corrupt governments, a monitoring group said in a report released Tuesday.
"The results demonstrate that countries which are perceived as the most corrupt are also those plagued by long- standing conflicts, which have torn their governance infrastructure," Transparency International said in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index report.

The report measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180countries, drawing on surveys of businesses and experts. The United States is listed as the 19th least corrupt nation, with the report raising concerns about the lack of government oversight of the financial sector.
The report found that the most and least corrupt countries were:

The world's most corrupt governments:
1. Somalia
2. Afghanistan
3. Myanmar
T4. Sudan
T4. Iraq
6. Chad
7. Uzbekistan
T8. Turkmenistan
T8. Iran
T8. Haiti
T8. Burundi
T8. Guinea
T8. Equatorial Guinea

The world's least corrupt governments:
1. New Zealand
2. Denmark
T3. Singapore
T3. Sweden
5. Switzerland
T6. Finland
T6. Netherlands
T8. Australia
T8. Canada
T8. Iceland

Source: Transparency International

U.S. Residents Fight for the Right to Hang Laundry

2009-11-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.

Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.

Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.

"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn't want to look at my 'unmentionables.'"

Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.

Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.

Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.

Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.

'RIGHT TO HANG'

His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population.
About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.

Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities' developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.

The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.

"The consensus in most communities is that people don't want to see everybody else's laundry."

He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.

"There is more awareness of impact on the environment," he said. "I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions."

For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.

"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.

Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.

Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.

"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."

CREW: Bachmann Rally May Have Violated House Rules

2009-11-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

A recent rally against health-care reform, organized on the Capitol steps by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), may have violated House rules.

The good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to probe whether Bachmann misused her congressional website in publicizing the rally.

Bachmann's site urged people to come to the Capitol rally "and tell their Representatives to vote no" on the health-care reform bill. House rules prohibit members from using their sites -- which are funded by taxpayers --to conduct "grassroots lobbying or solicit support for a Member's position."

CREW also alleges that Bachmann and her allies may have violated other House rules by holding a rally without a permit.
News reports suggest the event's organizer's made an effort to call it a press conference, for which a permit wouldn't be needed. But no questions were asked at the event, and in a TV interview beforehand, Bachmann urged supporters "to come to Washington, D.C. by the car load."

"Calling a rally a press converence to circumvent congressional rules is like calling a Hummer a Prius to meet fuel efficiency standard's," said CREW's Melanie Sloan.

CREW's letter to OCE asks it to look into this issue as well.

Bing Captures Almost 10 Percent Search Share In U.S.

2009-11-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

Remember all that talk about Bing starting to fizzle in September? Well itdidn't happen, and now October numbers and Bing gained another half a point to reach 9.9 percent market share of U.S. searches, according to comScore's qSearch service. Five months after launch, Bing has steadily gained two points of market share.

And it is keeping the pressure on, with deals to index realtime data streams from both Twitter and Facebook (Google also has a deal with Twitter, but not Facebook), a deal with Wolfram Alpha for nutrition and diet data, and the constant rollout of new features such as better video search.

The biggest loser in the search wars, however, continues to be Yahoo as it awaits approval to hand over search to Bing. In a single month, Yahoo's U.S. search share dropped 0.8percent to 18 percent, and is down 3 percent since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Google seems unfazed, gaining another half point itself in October to finish with 65.4 percent share.

Bing's progress is encouraging (someone needs to compete with Google in search), but so far all Bing has shown is that it can take share away from its future partner Yahoo. Bing has yet to put a ding in Google's share. Perhaps it needs to do something radical, like cut deals with major news and media sites for exclusive rights to index their content. Otherwise it will just keep eating away at Yahoo's slice of pie, which it's already been promised anyway.

Bills Fire Coach Dick Jauron

2009-11-17T20:02:00.001-08:00

The Bills have fired coach Dick Jauron. Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell is expected to serve as interim coach, according to NFL.com.

"I am announcing today that I am relieving Dick Jauron from his duties as our head coach, effective immediately," Bills owner Ralph Wilson said in a statement. "I have tremendous respect for Dick and thank him for all of his efforts during these past four years. While this was a very difficult decision, I felt that it is one that needed to be made at this time for the best interest of our team.
We will now focus on moving forward and preparing for our game this week in Jacksonville."

Jauron had coached the Bills since 2006 and had a 24-33 record in Buffalo, which did not make the playoffs during his tenure.
The Bills have not made the postseason since 1999, the longest drought of any non-expansion team.

The Bills are 3-6 this season and last in the AFC East. They are 29th in the NFL in total offense despite the offseason addition of WR Terrell Owens, and they are 26th in total defense.

Jauron is the first NFL head coach to be fired this season.

Privacy Fears as DNA Testing Firm deCODE Genetics Goes Bust

2009-11-17T19:29:00.001-08:00

DeCODE Genetics has identifed dozens of genetic variations that affect common diseases.

A leading genetics company that has pioneered personal DNA testing in health assessments went bust yesterday, raising privacy concerns about the sensitive data it holds.

DNA profiles belonging to thousands of people who have paid up to £600 for internet genetic tests are to be transferred to a new organisation, after deCODE Genetics filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in a US court.

The fate of the Icelandic company, which has never turned a profit despite making a string of discoveries about the genetic origins of common diseases, has fuelled fresh debate about access to DNA data.

The genetic records of its customers will now be held by Saga Investments, a venture capital group that has agreed to buy deCODE's core science operations, including its deCODEme personalised genetic testing service.

Kari Stefansson, deCODE's chief executive, told The Times that ownership of genetic data remained with the company's customers and that Saga would be bound by a privacy policy that prevents disclosure of data to third parties such as insurers, employers or doctors.

Industry experts said that Saga would want to maximise returns on its investment, and could still make wider use of data that some subscribers may find uncomfortable.
Pooled and anonymised information, for example, could be sold to academic researchers or pharmaceutical companies.

Dan Vorhaus, a lawyer with the US firm Robinson, Bradshaw and Hinson, which specialises in genomics, said that while the new management would be bound by deCODE's customer agreements, these were often unclear and contradictory.

"The ownership is going to change, and the people making decisions about how to run the company are going to change," he said. "This information was held by deCODE, a scientific research organisation. What you have now is Saga, an investment company with a different agenda, very much focused on the bottom line.

"Within the range of allowable uses, deCODE's new ownership may choose to use that information in a different way, and possibly to a greater extent, than was previously the case."

Helen Wallace, of GeneWatch UK, a group that campaigns about the risks of genetic technologies, said the case showed that people who bought commercial DNA tests could not be confident that their data would not be put to other uses.

"This clearly introduces a layer of uncertainty beyond what people expected when they signed up. People do need to double check what they are signing up to. These companies often use broad consent, and I worry whether people know what their data might be used for in the long term," she added.

Dr Stefansson said: "We don't own the genetic data of our customers, they own the data. We have no access to these data for anything except doing analysis for our customers. We are not selling genetic data, we will not do that."

He likened the sale to that of a medical diagnostic company or a telecommunications business that holds sensitive data. "There is a change in ownership of a commercial enterprise with a commitment to its customers and keeping data according to certain ethical principles. That doesn't really change."

DeCODE Genetics was founded a decade ago as a commercial research business, and has identifed dozens of genetic variations that affect common diseases. Its £600 deCODEme service, which tests DNA for links to disease, was launched two years ago, though customer numbers have not been disclosed. The company has long been in financial trouble, and warned investors in April that it had insufficient funds to see out the year.

It filed a voluntary petition for chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware court yesterday, which allows it to continue operating while its assets are auctioned. Saga was named as a "stalking horse" bidder that has agreed to buy its core operations, though other companies may still top its offer. Subscribers to deCODEme were sent an e-mail yesterday saying that the service would be unaffected by the bankruptcy and sale.

Dr Stefansson said: "This is the best outcome of a bad situation for us. The silver lining is that it allows us to continue. I sit here on a strange, cold rock in the North Atlantic with a strange mix of emotions."

DeCODE's bankruptcy comes just days after its main competitor selling personalised DNA tests, 23andMe, raised its prices, prompting suggestions that the fledgling industry is struggling to make consumer genetics pay.

Police Find Body Of Missing N.C. Girl

2009-11-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) -A missing 5-year-old whose mother was accused of offering her for sex was found dead off a heavily wooded road in a rural area Monday, ending a week-long search, police said.

Searchers found Shaniya Davis' body early Monday afternoon about 100 feet off a road southeast of Sanford, in central North Carolina, FayettevillePolice spokeswoman Theresa Chance said.

She declined to comment on a cause of death or the condition of the body.

"We've got a lot of people out at the scene right now that are torn up," Chance said. "Detectives have been running off adrenaline to find this little girl and to bring her home alive. You have a lot of people in shock right now."

Two people have been charged in her disappearance, one of them her mother, Antoinette Davis, 25. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for prostitution.

Davis was calm and quiet during a five-minute court appearance Monday afternoon in Fayetteville.

She provided one-word answers to the judge's questions and held her hands in front of her, without handcuffs. She requested a court-appointed attorney and did not enter a plea.

Brenda Davis, 20, was able to speak to her sister at the jail Sunday. "I don't believe she could hurt her children," she said about the charges.

Authorities also charged Mario McNeill, 29, with kidnapping after they said surveillance footage from a Sanford hotel showed him carrying Shaniya there. Authorities said McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty.

Davis reported Shaniya missing last Tuesday. Authorities first arrested a man named Clarence Coe, but charges against him were dropped a day later when investigators tracked down McNeill after receiving a tip from a hotel employee.

Additional information led investigators to a search site near Sanford on Sunday.

On Monday, the search continued with investigators scouring miles of landscape, roads, ravines and fields on four-wheelers and with helicopters.

After Shaniya's body was found, a solemn group of searchers met quietly at a nearby fire station to ensure that all volunteers were accounted for.

"We were hoping that someone could carry her home," said Syd Severe, 42, who came from Raleigh to help with the search. "It's just sick."

A cluster of emergency vehicles and law enforcement personnel gathered where Shaniya's body was found, about a quarter-mile from North Carolina Highway 87.
Authorities blocked access to the road, a rural area popular with hunters that is less than a mile from a large lakeside community.

Chance said later Monday that authorities were waiting for an official identification but had called off the search for Shaniya.

Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, said he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother. He had pleaded for her safe return.

Lockhart told the Associated Press on Saturday that he and Davis never argued about him raising Shaniya, and Cumberland County courts had no record of a custody dispute.

Lockhart described his relationship with Davis as a "one-night stand" and said he did not know McNeill.

Davis struggled financially over the years, but she recently obtained a job and her own place, Lockhart said, so he decided to give her a chance to raise their daughter.

"I should've never let her go over there," he said Saturday night.

Before Shaniya's body was found, Lockhart said Monday on CBS' The Early Show that he remained hopeful someone would bring his daughter somewhere safe, such as a police station or hospital. "They can drop her off at Wal-Mart, I don't care," he said.

A friend at Lockhart's home Monday afternoon said Lockhart did not want to speak with reporters.

REPORT: Toyota Prius Wagon, SUV In The Works

2009-11-17T10:14:00.000-08:00

Exactly how the Prius name navigates the shift from defining the world's most famous hybrid to it's own sub-brand - "Not!" -or moniker for other Toyota hybirds - "Yes!" -has been a source of interest for quite some time.

The latest bit of speculative news comes from the Yomiuri newspaper in Japan (via Green Car Advisor) that the automaker is considering building a Prius sport wagon or a Prius SUV about 12 months from now, maybe using lithium-ion batteries (despite Toyota's public pronouncements).
Toyota officials would not comment to the Yomiuri about the report.

As we saw with the Hybrid X (above) unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 2007, Toyota has been thinking about a Prius wagon for a while.

Green Car Advisor speculates that the the Venza could be a good candidate for the production wagon, while any of Toyota's JDM wagons could make the transition to hybrids here. As for a Prius SUV?

Tone down the Lexus RX 400h and there you go.

Making A Big Deal Of Small Wind

2009-11-17T09:48:00.001-08:00

When it comes to energy, General Electric is all about big: big coal plants, big nuclear plants, big wind towers. So why would the $183-billion a year industrial conglomerate bother to invest a small amount of money -- just a few million dollars - in a small company that makes wind turbines so small they can be erected in your backyard?

Perhaps because, under the right circumstances, homeowners can make their own wind-generated, low-carbon, electricity for less than it costs to buy power from their local utility. This could turn small wind into a big deal.

Southwest Windpower, the company backed by GE, has made quite a few of those small turbines-more than 140,000 since the company was started back in 1987. The company manufacturers the wind turbines in Flagstaff, Arizona, and in a 50-50 venture with a Chinese partner in Ningbo, China. Revenues were about $24 million last year.

I met Frank Greco, Southwest Windpower's CEO, last month at the GE research center in Niskayuna, N.Y., where GE Capital was showcasing some of its venture investments. GE invested in Southwest Windpower early this year, along with Altira, Rockport Capital Partners, NGP Energy Technology Partners, and Chevron Technology Ventures, Chevron's venture capital arm. Collectively, they invested $10 million.

Greco told me he is grateful for the infusion of cash- particularly since it comes at a momentwhen raising money is very, very hard-but he is even more pleased about getting access to GE's technology and relationships. "They're already working with us on a blade coating," Greco says. "There's a natural synergy between the two companies." Besides, he added, "GE owns billions of dollars of commercial real estate. There's tremendous potential for commercial deployment where it makes sense."

Two factors are now driving Southwest Windpower's growth-generous government subsidies for small wind and a product called the Skystream (above and below, in various settings) that the company introduced three years ago that ties to the electricity grid.

Before then, most small wind turbines were sold for use off the grid. "The market was remote homes, telecommunications sites, offshore oil platforms, even sailboats -- for charging batteries," Greco says. "We've done pilot programs as far away as the Maldive Islands."

Now the uses are much more varied. Wind turbines can be found in backyards, beside small businesses that buy one to attract attention and in parking lots where they are used to power lighting that's on all night. More than 100 elementary and middle schools in Kyoto, Japan, installed Southwest turbines to teach their students about wind energy.

The economics of a backyard turbine look something like this: Fully installed and operational, a 2.4 kW Skystream costs about $12,000 to $15,000. Buyers get a 30% federal investment tax credit as well as state tax credits or rebates that, in some places, bring the after-tax cost down to as little as $5,000 or $6,000. (More than 20 states offer some subsidies.) In places where there are high winds and high electricity prices, that's a bargain.

"In some cases, the payback is less than five years," Greco says."In places where the utility rates are low and the wind resource is low, the payback can be 10 years or more."

Designing small wind turbines is not simple. "The challenge for small wind is that it needs to be productive in relatively low wind environments, where most people live, and on a relatively short tower, about 30 to 45 feet," Greco said. "Plus the turbine is living in an environment where people live. So you have aesthetics and noise emissions that you have to be very aware of."

What's not clear to me is how the costs of generating electricity from small wind turbines compares to the cost of building large wind towers or solar thermal power plants. Wouldn't the utility-scale plants be more efficient, even after the costs of transmission lines are taken into account?

Rising Obesity Will Cost U.S. Health Care $344 billion a year

2009-11-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

If Americans continue to pack on pounds, obesity will cost the USA about $344 billion in medical-related expenses by 2018, eating up about 21% of health-care spending, says the first analysis to estimate the future medical costs of excess weight.

These calculations are based on the projection that in 10 years 43% of Americans adults may be obese, which is roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight, if obesity continues to rise at the current rate. Extra weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and many types of cancer.

This report comes as the country struggles to find ways to curb medical costs and Congress debates health care legislation.

"Obesity is going to be a leading driver in rising health-care costs," says Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the department of health policy and management at Emory University in Atlanta.
Thorpe did this special analysis on obesity for America's Health Rankings, the 20th annual assessment of the nation's health on a state-by-state basis.

"There is a tsunami of chronic preventable disease about to be unleashed into our medical-care system which is increasingly unaffordable," says Reed Tuckson of United Health Foundation, sponsor of the report with the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention.

Using weight data, Census statistics and medical expenditure information, Thorpe found:

*An obese person will have an average of $8,315in medical bills a year in 2018 compared with $5,855for an adult at a healthy weight. That's a difference of $ 2,460.

*If the percentage of obese adults doesn't change but stays at the current rate of 34%, then excess weight will cost the nation about $198 billion by 2018.

*If the obesity rate continues to rise until 2018, then Colorado may be the only state with less than 30% of residents who are obese.

*More than 50% of the population in several states could be obese by 2018: Oklahoma, Mississippi, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio and South Dakota.

The report adds to the growing body of evidence of obesity's impact on medical costs. A study released in July showed that obese Americans cost the country about $147billion in weight-related medical bills in 2008, double what it was a decade ago. It now accounts for about 9.1% of medical spending.

Overall, the United States spends about $1.8 trillion a year in medical costs associated with chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and all three are linked to smoking and obesity, the nation's two largest risk factors, according to the America's Health Rankings report.

Smoking is still the No. 1preventable cause of death in the country, accounting for about 440,000 deaths annually, the report says.

About one in five Americans smoke. More than 3 million people quit smoking this past year. The percentage of people who smoke varies by state, from 9.3% in Utah to more than 25% in Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia, the study says.

"This report is an urgent call to take much more aggressive action to deal with key disease risk factors such as obesity and smoking," Tuckson says.

Health economist Eric Finkelstein, co-author of The Fattening of America, says medical costs won't go down unless Americans make a serious effort "to slim down by improving their diet and exercise patterns."

Daniel Radcliffe Actor Harry Potter Smokes Spliff At Party

2009-11-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

Harry Potter idol Daniel Radcliffe laughed his head off as he smoked pot at a party.

Dopey Daniel, 20, even wandered about the house-warming bash, babbling to other party-goers: I love weed.

And the star who has spoken about shunning drugs was so out of it he let a girl scrawl all over his face with a pen.

Guest Wadia Tazi, 26, also at the London party, said: He looked spaced out and didnt look like he knew what was going on.

Harry Potter and the Philosophers STONED -star of kids films laughs as he has joint

Giggling Daniel Radcliffe got off his face on dope as a friend scrawled a comedy moustache on him.

The party-loving Harry Potter idol, a spliff between his fingers, could barely stop chuckling as the girl daubed his face at the house bash.

Fellow reveller Wadia Tazi, 26, said: Daniel was laughing and seemed to find it funny. But he didnt really look like he knew what was going on.

The screen idol, 20, earlier lit up the joint in front of guests and repeatedly took deep drags. He also walked around the flat blurting out: I love weed.

Wadia said: I was surprised by his behaviour.

Just last year the s30million actor insisted: Ive been around some amazing people and still managed to keep a real childlike view of the world. Im not into drugs.

The get-together, at a high-rise in Camden, North London, was thrown by a friend of his on-off actress girlfriend Laura OToole.

Wadia and one of his pals arrived at around 1am to find just eight guests as festivities wound down. He said Daniel already seemed in high spirits but keen that the newcomers did not twig who he was.

Wadia said: Most of the beer had already gone and people were tucking into pizzas.

Daniel looked spaced out and away with the fairies. He didnt want us to recognise him. When I said he looked like that actor in Lord of the Rings [Elijah Wood], he got a bit funny and said, No, thats not me. He looked pretty uncomfortable.

I didnt recognise him as he looked so different to what I expected from the films. When my friend told me who he was, I was shocked.

Within minutes of arriving at the do, Wadia, his pal and the star were alone in the kitchen and Daniel began puffing on a joint.

Wadia said: He was really friendly and talking about his dad a bit.

Then he pulled out a huge joint and lit up. Daniel said he loved it. He seemed happy that neither of us knew who he was.

At one point a girl dragged him away, saying, Come on Daniel, follow me. You dont trust me, do you?

She pulled him into the toilet and started drawing a huge comedy beard on his face.

The mood almost turned sour when a man called Sam believed to be the stars minder and Laura confronted Wadia over footage they believed he had shot on his phone. They found none.

Wadia said: Laura was very protective. She said Daniel had a reputation to protect and couldnt ruin it. I presume she meant by being seen smoking. I said I didnt know what she was talking about.

But almost immediately afterwards she and Daniel left.

Last year Daniel now filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I revealed that this years Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince contained subtle drug references.

He said: There are a few drug metaphors in the film. I think any film marketed in the main for children still has humour that works on one level for them and on another level for adults.

Indonesia: The home of "Green Islam"

2009-11-17T00:35:00.000-08:00

IMOGIRI, Indonesia -Scattered on a forested hillside in this remote, almost pristine area of Central Java is the Ilmu Giri Pesantren, an Islamic boarding school that six years ago began offering a new kind of curriculum to a handful of local farmers.

Today, students of Islam, young and old and from all over the country, are flocking to this tiny, mostly outdoor campus to hear its founder, Nasruddin Anshory, preach about a Muslim's ordained responsibility to protect the environment.

"As a Muslim," he says to the students, who sit cross-legged in the dirt beneath the jungle canopy, feverishly taking notes, "you must do something."

Ilmu Giri rose to prominence during the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, where Anshory was celebrated for his teachings. But environmentalism had been taught in Indonesian Islamic boarding schools, known as pesantren, since at least the 19th Century -long before anyone paid attention to melting ice caps or rising sea levels.

On the Island of Madura in East Java is Pesantren Guluk-Guluk, also called Al-Nuqayah, which was established in 1887. Its founder, Muhammad Syarqawi, originally opened the school to spread Islam on an island that was then a lawless and often violent place.

He soon found the real problem to be the small island's devastated environment. It was desperately dry and fresh water was scarce, forcing the inhabitants to fight over resources. So Syarqawi shifted his focus to teaching the island's villagers, with the help of the Quran, about conservation.

It was hardly a stretch, says Achmad Suaedy, director of the Wahid Institute, an organization founded by Indonesia's former president Abdurrahman Wahid that promotes peaceful and pluralistic Islam, and which has been working to promote "Green Islam" within Indonesia's pesantrens.

"There are numerous passages in the Quran that refer to environmental protection," he said. "There's the line, for instance, that equates a human life with that of a tree: 'Do not kill women, elders, children, civilians or trees.'"

In fact, the very origins of Islam are thought to be partly rooted in the early Muslims' need to preserve scarce resources.

"The advent of Islam as an organized religion occurred in the desert environment of Arabia, and hence there was considerable attention paid to ecological concerns within Islamic ethics," said Saleem Ali, associate dean of graduate studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School for the Environment. "There is a reverence of nature that stems from essential pragmatism within the faith."

Still Guluk-Guluk remained the only one of its kind for more than a century. It's been only in the last five years, just as global awareness of climate change and other environmental issues have increased, that "Green Islam" here has really taken root.

Attendance at Guluk-Guluk has ballooned from 1,200 to more than 6,500 students. And a number of those new environmentalists have gone on to open their own schools in cities all over the country.

There are now ever-growing networks of pesantrens going green, making Indonesia the unlikely pioneer of environmental Islam. The Indonesian government, recognizing the potential benefits of having the country's 17,000 pesantren adopt some form of environmentalist program, has begun to vigorously promote such curriculums.

State Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta announced earlier this month that about 90 pesantrens in Central Java would take part in his new "eco-pesantren" pilot program, with the hope of broadening it to still hundreds more in the coming year.

Hatta said there are about 4 million students attending pesantrens, the world's largest network of Islamic boarding schools, who could take what they learn back to their home towns.

"Indonesia is really the world leader in this area," said Ali, adding that Islam generally trails other major religions in faith-based environmental initiatives.

At Ilmu Giri, the results of their environmentalist education have already begun to show.

Not long ago this hillside had been stripped bare by logging, which in turn gave way to a series of landslides that obliterated nearby villages.

"I remember the stories my parents told me about those landslides," said Wardoyo, a young Ilmu Giri student who grew up here. "Now, Pak Nasruddin teaches us that if we have to cut down a tree, we must plant two more."

Within several years of the school's founding, the small farming community managed to "re-green" the entire hillside.
Anshory's students now plant thousands of trees every year.

Obama, Hu Stress Cooperation

2009-11-16T23:26:00.001-08:00

BEIJING - President Barrack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao emerged from hours of intense talks Tuesday determined to marshal their combined clout on crucial issues, but still showing divisions over economic, security and human rights issues that have long bedeviled the two powers.

"The relationship between our two nations goes far beyond any single issue," Obama said in a joint appearance with Hu that followed about 2 1/2 hours of private conversations.

Both leaders spoke in bold terms of the growing relationship between the countries and emphasized cooperation on the economy, climate change, energy and the nuclear threats of Iran and North Korea.

But in those areas and others, there remained differences that underscored that tensions would hardly be erased in Obama's first, high-profile visit to China. Obama spoke at length about the nations' joint interests and said, "I do not believe that one country's success must come at the expense of another."

North Korea talks
Obama and Hu said they agreed on restarting the collapsed six-nation effort to rid North Korea of its nuclear programs. The Chinese said the effort was essential to "peace and stability in northeast Asia."

Beijing has supported sterner sanctions against Pyongyang for its continued nuclear weapons program. And, as North Korea's last major ally and a key supplier of food and energy aid, China is a partner with major leverage in six-nation talks with the North over the issue.

On Iran, where the U.S. needs China's clout to help pressure the nation to give up any of its own nuclear weapons positions, Obama spoke with sterner language than Hu.

"Iran has an opportunity to present and demonstrate its peaceful intentions, but if it fails to take this opportunity, there will be consequences," the U.S. president said. Hu made no mention of consequences, saying the Iran conflict is important to resolve through negotiations.

China has significant economic ties with Iran, and Beijing has appeared less willing to endorse a tougher approach to restrict Tehran's uranium enrichment and suspected pursuit of atomic bombs.

In a minor step forward, Obama announced that the governments will reconvene their on-again, off-again human rights dialogue early next year. Previous rounds have fallen casualty to disputes over arms sales to Taiwan and other issues.

Hu expressed disappointment with the Obama administration over its decision to impose punitive tariffs and duties on imports of Chinese tires and steel pipes. "Our two countries need to oppose and reject protectionism in all its manifestations in an even stronger stand," Hu said.

'Core interests'
The Chinese president also called on the U.S. to respect China's "core interests" - code for ending support for Taiwan and for the Dalai Lama, in his Tibetan government-in-exile.

On climate, Obama said the United States and China are looking for a comprehensive deal during next month's climate change summit that will "rally the world."

Obama said the goal at the Copenhagen meeting should be an agreement that has "immediate operational effect," not just a political declaration. As the world's two largest consumers and producers of energy, Obama said the United States and China must play a key role in negotiating an agreement.

Obama said China has helped the United States pull out of the worst recession in a generation.
He said a revised economic approach will help increase U.S. exports and create jobs while helping bring about higher living standards in China.

Obama came to China seeking help with an array of global troubles. He and Hu sought to strike a balance between trading partners and competitors during Obama's trip to China during his Asia tour.

At Least 37 BBC Executives Receive More Than The Prime Minister

2009-11-16T13:08:00.001-08:00

Nearly 300 senior BBC managers earn more than £100,000

At least 37 BBC executives receive more than the Prime Minister, it was revealed yesterday, as the corporation disclosed the scale of its senior salaries for the first time.

The broadcaster said that its 107 "most senior decision makers" earn £22 million a year and said that the disclosures made it the nation's most transparent public body.
This claim was undermined when it emerged that hundreds of its highest earners were hidden from the published figures.

Nearly 300 senior managers earning more than £100,000, were kept off the list, The Times has learnt. Some earn more than Gordon Brown. Many are paid more than double the £81,100earned by the lowest-paid manager whose salary was made public. Gordon Brown's salary is £197,689but he draws only £192,414.

The revelations put pressure on the Tories to spell out how they would restrain pay in the corporation. In his speech to the Conservative conference last month George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said: "The excessive salaries at the top have to go. In the current climate, anyone who wishes to pay a public servant more than the Prime Minister will have to put it before the Chancellor. I am not expecting a long queue."
Mr Osborne's spokesman admitted last night, however, that BBC executives in line to receive more than the Prime Minister would not be required to line up alongside other public sector chiefs.

The pay of on-screen stars, such as Jonathan Ross, who earns an estimated £6million a year, was also left out. Those who were on the list ranged from Mark Thompson, the Director-General, who earned £834,000, down to Tom Sleigh, the chief adviser for operations, earning £81,100.

The BBC's annual report shows that there are at least 281 staff earning more than Mr Sleigh but who were not featured in the disclosures. Excluded were any who work for the commercial subsidiary, BBC Worldwide, and more than 150 core staff on more than £100,000 who were deemed not to have enough responsibility.

A BBC spokesman said: "The senior managers have been selected according to their salary, responsibility, influence and membership of a BBC board. They are those who have the greatest responsibility for spending public money and for overseeing the BBC's services and operations."

Sex Infections Still Growing In U.S., Says CDC

2009-11-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States.

"Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated," said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world," Douglas added in a telephone interview.

The administration of President Barack Obama has signaled a willingness to move away from so-called abstinence-only sex education approaches promoted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, and conservative state and local governments.

Several studies have shown such approaches do not work well and that it is better to encourage abstinence while also offering children and teens information about how to protect themselves from diseases as well as pregnancy.

"We haven't been promoting the full battery of messages," Douglas said. "We have been sending people out with one seatbelt in the whole car."

SOARING RATES

The CDC 's latest study on STDs found:

1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1million in 2007.
Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.
Adolescent girls 15 to 19years had the most chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.
Blacks, who represent 12percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.
Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.
13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18 percent increase from 2007.
63 percent of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men.
Syphilis rates among women increased 36percent from 2007 to 2008.

Syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea can all be treated with antibiotics but untreated can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy and can infect newborns.

Douglas said better sex education can help.

"We are not honestly and openly dealing with this issue and it's the larger issue of sexual health," he said.

Douglas said children and teens need to know about condom use, and should limit their number of sex partners and avoid sex with people who do have many other sex partners.

"If you are a man who has sex with men you ought to be getting a battery of STD tests every year," Douglas added.

In addition, black Americans need to understand their risks. Douglas said high rates of incarceration of men in many black communities meant fewer men have sex with more women, in turn often spreading sexually transmitted diseases.

Overall, CDC estimates that 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year, almost half among 15- to 24-year-olds.

Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning

2009-11-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive.

The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting. The trick for all observers is to head outside in the wee hours of the morning -between 1 a.m. and dawn -regardless where you live.

The Leonids put on a solid show every year, if skies are clear and moonlight does not interfere. This year the moon is near its new phase, and not a factor. For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies, away from urban and suburban lighting, the show should be worth getting up early to see.

"We're predicting 20 to 30meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Other astronomers who work in the nascent field of meteor shower prediction have put out similar forecasts.

Urban dwellers and suburbanites will see far fewer, as the fainter meteors will be drowned out by local lights.

Behind the Leonids

The Leonids are created by the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which passes through the inner solar system every 33 years on its orbit around the sun. Each time by, it leaves a new river of debris, mostly bits of ice and rock no bigger than a sand grain but a few the size of a pea or marble.

Over time, these cosmic streams spread out, so predicting exactly what will happen is difficult.

"We can predict when Earth will cross a debris stream with pretty good accuracy," Cooke said.
"The intensity of the display is less certain, though, because we don't know how much debris is in each stream."

When Earth plows into the debris, the bits hit the atmosphere and vaporize, creating sometimes dramatic streaks of light and the occasional fireball with a smoky-looking trail that can remain visible for several minutes.

The Leonid stream is moving in the opposite direction of Earth, producing impact speeds of 160,000 mph (72 kilometers per second) -higher than many other meteors.

"Such speeds tend to produce meteors with hues of white, blue, aquamarine and even green," says Joe Rao, SPACE.com's skywatching columnist.

How to watch

The best viewing will be in rural areas. Get out of town if you can. If you have local lights, scout a location in advance where the lights are blocked by a building, tree or hill.

Dress warmly, and take a blanket or lounge chair so you can lie back and scan as much of the sky as possible. "At this time of year, meteor watching can be a long, cold business," Rao reminds people.

Leonids can appear anywhere, but if you trace them back, they all point to a hub, or radiant, in the constellation Leo - hence the name.
Give your eyes 15 minutes to adjust to the darkness. Then give the show at least a half-hour. The hourly rates stated above typically come in bursts, with lulls that may test your patience. No special equipment is needed. Telescopes and binoculars are of no use because meteors move too quickly.

When to watch

Earth will pass through one of the denser debris streams at around 4 a.m. EST (1 a.m. PST) Tuesday. If you have only an hour or less to watch, center it around this time. Leo will be high in the sky for East Coast skywatchers, putting more meteors into view. In the West, Leo will be low in the eastern sky at this time, so fewer shooting stars will be above the horizon, and therefore Western skywatchers should also try to stick it out until daybreak.

Across Europe, the best bet is to watch anytime between 1 a.m. and daybreak local time.

The planet will pass through an even denser stream later, just before dawn Wednesday in Indonesia and China, but that show won't be visible from North America because it will be daytime here.

One truth about the Leonids: They always produce, and they sometimes produce spectacular, unforgettable fireballs.

Alcohol Plus Caffeine Equals FDA Action

2009-11-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

Alcohol-laced energy drinks get you drunk and keep you awake at the same time. Today the Food and Drug Administration is asking manufacturers of the beverages for proof that they're safe.

MillerCoors removed caffeine from their product, Sparks, in 2008 when a lawsuit was threatened.

These combo drinks have been manufactured by companies big and small for the last couple years, and are increasingly a drink of choice among college students. A quarter of college drinkers are reaching for these alcohol and caffeine drinks when they party, according to research done by Dr. Mary Claire O'Brien, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Why? So they can stay up longer and drink more, leading to dangerous ends, she says.

Students who mix caffeine and alcohol put themselves at higher risk for injury and other alcohol-related consequences, compared to students who drink alcohol without the added caffeine, according to O'Brien's research.

The research has raised eyebrows with attorneys general and other lawmakers, especially when several state attorneys general succeeded last year in getting big-beer manufacturers Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors to pull the caffeine from their popular drinks Sparks and Tilt.

While their products have disappeared, though, others have cropped up to fill the gap. The FDA is asking nearly 30manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages to provide "scientific evidence," that their products are safe within 30 days.

According to FDA these drinks fall under a guideline that even though caffeine has already been approved, it's illegal to use in a way that hasn't been specifically approved, like mixing caffeine with alcohol. Calls to several of the companies by NPR were not returned Friday.

Once the manufacturers respond, FDA will review the evidence and decide whether or not the drinks can stay on the market.

Former NJ Governor James McGreevey : 'More than a gay American'

2009-11-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

"Five years ago a young Democratic governor, a rising star of his party, stepped down afterannouncing his resignation with the now famous words: "I am a gay American."

In an instant, a lifetime of hard work seemingly was distilled into a one-sentence legacy." New Jersey Star Ledger

Preparing now to become Episcopalian priest, former New Jersey Governor and gay advocate James McGreevey has been saluted in this poignant piece from Eric Shuffler.

Many of us recall being stunned by McGreevey's "I am a gay American speech" in 2004, and we have always believed he was too quick to turn in his resignation.

Regardless of the controversy which surrounded him, he had a great career as a Governor of a great state, and it wad cut short in a most tragic manner.

Of course for those of us who loved McGreevey, who had met him or seen him in person, his gayness was apparent to we who are discerning, wife and daughter notwithstanding. What I always found striking is just how much he encompassed gay male power: Brilliance, beauty, wit, a child-like grace, but most of all, the neonacny which is the mark of every great gay male: The taking of infant and youth traits into adulthood and maturity. Neonany is a marked trait of gay males.

Gov. Jim McGreevey was a man who struggled with his own personal issues and limitations. He brought a genuine zeal to the art of retail politics and an immense commitment to progressive social and economic policies. His early public and political support eroded in the face of a series of missteps that complicated everything he tried to achieve, but he was relentlessly optimistic with a work ethic and personality that made anything seem possible.

Despite those missteps, McGreevey was a governor whose record of accomplishment defines a legacy much greater than a few pithy words.

When he signed bi-partisan legislation to preserve 800,000 acres in the Highlands and protect the New Jersey's drinking water supply, he achieved an environmental victory that had eluded governors of both parties for thirty years. The enactment of the Highlands Preservation Act will be remembered along with Gov. Brendan Byrne's decisive action to preserve the Pinelands as the cornerstones of New Jersey's conservation efforts.

When he championed legislative deregulation of the auto insurance marketplace, he dared to do what a Republican governor could never have done. It was his own "Nixon goes to China" moment, and the best evidence of his success is that after repeatedly dominating gubernatorial elections, auto insurance has become a non issue in New Jersey politics.

McGreevey worked across party lines to open motor vehicle offices on Saturday, and the reforms he implemented made getting a driver's license or registration an example of how government could match, and even exceed, the public's expectations.
He fixed an E-ZPass system that was broke and broken, and the ultimate measure of that success was the removal of several toll booths along the Garden State Parkway. He bought bi-level rail cars to improve the commuter experience and made the Parkway and Turnpike authorities work together to rebuild the Driscoll Bridge, then merge to reduce costs.

Reform of the corporate business tax and passage of the millionaire's tax were both hard-fought and controversial but each reflected McGreevey's fundamental commitment to a more progressive tax system. New Jersey's current finances and ability to provide property tax relief would be even worse absent his decision to undertake these fights.
In hindsight, we in the administration also acquiesced too quickly to a culture of borrowing that had become pervasive in Trenton.

In health care, he was the first governor in America to commit public funds to supporting stem cell research.

In education, he made New Jersey a national leader in preschool quality and he created a public-private partnership that provides after-school programs to over 10,000 children.

On energy, he established one of America's most aggressive renewable energy portfolio standards, an achievement that created New Jersey's dominant economic position in alternative energy today.

On the judiciary and civil rights, he appointed the first Hispanic justice to the New Jersey Supreme Court and the second African-American justice; he signed domestic partner legislation and the first legislation in America to make racial profiling a crime.

He was also the first governor in the heightened security environment after 9/11, and his efforts on bioterrorism and homeland security were nationally recognized.

Five years later, I am still bewildered by how it all came crashing down so suddenly.

I don't know if there are any great lessons to be learned (outside of the obvious) from the McGreevey years. I do know this. Governing is hard. The answers aren't easy and the very real problems New Jersey faces - from property taxes to the budget - will not be addressed without controversial steps, courageous votes and a bipartisan willingness to risk the political fallout of hard choices. For better or worse, politics is a business where the backlash can be harsh and instantaneous while the benefits often go unnoticed.

At the moment, Jim McGreevey may well be defined by that one sentence he said more than five years ago but undoubtedly the passage of time will create a much different legacy for New Jersey's 52nd governor.

Geeky 'tweeters' To Report On Space Shuttle Launch

2009-11-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -Fingers will be flying when space shuttle Atlantis blasts off Monday: About 100 of NASA's geekiest fans will be on hand, pecking away at iPhones, BlackBerrys, laptops and other Twittering gadgets.

They plan to let loose with electronic messages -provided they aren't so swept away by the afternoon liftoff that they fall uncharacteristically silent for a moment or two.

"I'll be uploading stuff as it happens," promised Steve Wake, 38, a computer programmer who flew in from Denver. "On launch day, who knows? I may be too excited about everything else to even think about doing that stuff. When it's over with, I'm sure I will."

Laura Burns already has a strategy. She figures she'll have the words typed in and her finger hovering over the button so she can send a tweet at the moment of liftoff.

"I'll have to be like juggling my iPhone and my camera and my eyes, and trying to get everything all at once," said Burns, 33, a software systems engineer from Columbia, Md. She's using the Twitter name "moonrangerlaura" to chronicle her entire trip -including the drive to Cape Canaveral and a pit stop for MoonPies.

For the first time ever, NASA last month invited its Twitter followers to sign up online for the chance to see a space shuttle launch up close.

The 100 slots - and 50backup positions - filled in less than 20 minutes Oct. 16.

The two-day gathering got under way Sunday at Kennedy Space Center with talks by NASA bigwigs, including the first Twittering astronaut, Michael Massimino, aka Astro_Mike. The discussions were streamed live on the Internet, and the "tweetup" gathering was near the top of Twitter's trending topics Sunday morning.

Nearly half the attendees are from Florida, making for an easier trip, especially if the mission ends up being delayed. Atlantis' six astronauts have thousands of pounds of spare parts to deliver to the International Space Station. The 11-day flight will keep the astronauts in orbit over Thanksgiving.

Monday's launch time is 2:28 p.m. Excellent weather is forecast.

The tweeps, as they're called, represent 21 states plus the District of Columbia, as well as five countries, including Morocco and New Zealand. They're traveling on their own dime.

NASA estimates the 100have more than 150,000 Twitter followers. It's a dream outreach program for a space agency looking to drum up support.

With only six shuttle flights remaining and still no word from the White House on a future course for astronauts, NASA is tapping into social media -Twitter, Facebook and the like - to spread its stay-in-space message.

Astronauts have been tweeting from Earth and orbit since spring. While NASA already has held a few of the tweetups - so-called meet ups of people who use Twitter - it's the first for Kennedy Space Center, a high-security area requiring government clearance.

Even the most staid NASA types see the benefit of reaching out to a younger, hipper crowd.

Atlantis commander Charles Hobaugh - who acknowledged last month he doesn't even text message - assigned the crew's Twittering tasks to Dr. Robert Satcher Jr. Satcher, who will become the first orthopedic surgeon in space, uses the handle ZeroG_MD.

"It's exciting that this is generating more interest in space exploration and certainly interest in the last few missions of the shuttle, which we hope are not the last few missions of the shuttle," Satcher said.

With five children of his own, the director of NASA's space shuttle program appreciates the importance of reaching out to the next generation.

"It's the right thing to do, is to use the tools available and get them excited about things that are real, not virtual," program director John Shannon said.

Neal Wiser, a 41-year-old Internet marketing strategist from Philadelphia, is fulfilling a lifelong dream. The biggest thing he's ever seen lift off is an 8-foot model rocket.

This is Wiser's third NASA tweetup. He'll be blogging and Twittering throughout.

"We're all geeks together," he said. "I actually joked to my wife that I'm turning into a NASA groupie."

Google Makes Concessions On Digital Book Deal

2009-11-15T13:37:00.004-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO - Internet search leader Google will ease its control over millions of copyright-protected books earmarked for its digital library if a court approves a revised lawsuit settlement that addresses objections of antitrust regulators.

The offer comes two months after the U.S. Justice Department balked at Google's original agreement with authors and publishers, warning the arrangement could do more harm than good in the emerging market for electronic books.

Google Inc. is hoping to keep the deal alive with a series of new provisions. Among other things, the modified agreement provides more flexibility to offer discounts on electronic books and promises to make it easier for others to resell access to a digital index of books covered in the settlement.

Copyright holders also would have to give more explicit permission to sell digital book copies if another version is being sold anywhere else in the world.

The concessions filed late Friday in New York federal court are just the latest twist in a class-action lawsuit filed against Google four years ago by groups representing the interests of U.S. authors and publishers. The suit alleged Google's ambition to make digital copies of all the books in the world trampled their intellectual rights.

Google negotiated a $125million truce nearly 13months ago only to be attacked by a brigade of critics who protested to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who must approve the agreement before it takes effect. The financial terms of the settlement remain intact, including a promise to give 63 percent of all sales proceeds to participating authors and publishers.

Among other complaints, the opposition said the plan would put Google in charge of a literary cartel that could illegally rig the prices of electronic books -a format that is expected to become increasingly popular.

In echoing some of those concerns, the Justice Department advised Chin that the original settlement probably would break laws set up to preserve competition and protect copyright holders, even if they can't be located.

The concessions didn't go far enough to satisfy one of the most strident opponents, Open Book Alliance, a group that includes Google rivals Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

"Our initial review of the new proposal tells us that Google and its partners are performing a sleight of hand," said Peter Brantley, the Open Book Alliance's co-chairman.
"Fundamentally, this settlement remains a set-piece designed to serve the private commercial interests of Google and its partners."

In a Friday conference call, representatives for Google, the authors and publishers expressed confidence the revisions would gain court approval, although they conceded they didn't respond to all misgivings raised by the Justice Department.

Under the timeline laid out in the revised settlement, the Justice Department would have until Feb. 4 to file its opinion about the changes. The revised settlement suggests that a final hearing be scheduled for Feb. 18.

French and German officials also protested the settlement, arguing that it's so broad that it could infringe on copyrights in their countries.

The revised settlement would apply only to books registered with the U.S.
copyright office or published in Canada, the United Kingdom or Australia.

Much of the concern about the settlement has focused on whether it would give Google a monopoly on so-called "orphan works" - out-of-print books that are still protected by copyright but whose writers' whereabouts are unknown.

If the writers or their heirs don't stake a claim to their works, the original settlement calls for any money made from the sales of their books to go into a pool that eventually would be shared among the authors and publishers who had stepped forward to work with Google.

The revised settlement will designate an independent party to oversee the financial interests of the orphan books' copyright owners. Proceeds from the sales to orphan books also would be held for 10 years, up from five years in the original agreement. After that, the money would be given to charities.

The revised settlement suggests that a final hearing be scheduled for Feb. 18.

USC Tumbles, Stanford Soars In AP Poll

2009-11-15T13:21:00.002-08:00

NEW YORK - After another humiliating loss, Southern California tumbled to its worst ranking since Pete Carroll's Trojans began their run as one of college football's best programs in 2002.

USC is No. 22 in The Associated Press Top 25released Sunday, dropping 11 spots after losing 55-21to Stanford. The Trojans have been ranked in 128consecutive media polls dating to the start of the 2002 season, but never this low.

The Trojans haven't been ranked lower than No. 13since October 2002.

Meanwhile, Stanford soared up the rankings to No. 14, its best showing since being No. 11 in the last regular-season poll of 2001.

Florida remained No. 1and Alabama leapfrogged Texas into the No. 2 spot, one of only two small changes to the top 10.

The Gators received 36first-place votes. Alabama received 14 first-place votes after its most convincing victory - 31-3 at Mississippi State - in more than a month.

Texas got 10 first-place votes. The Crimson Tide and Longhorns are separated by just five points.

The other three undefeated major college teams were next, with TCU at No. 4, Cincinnati at No. 5and Boise State No. 6 for the second consecutive week.

No. 7 Georgia Tech and No. 8 Pittsburgh also held their places. No. 9 Ohio State and No. 10 LSU flip-flopped for the only other change in the top 10.

For USC, the lopsided loss to Stanford marked the second time in the last three games the Trojans were handed the worst loss of the Carroll era. Oregon beat USC 47-20 in Eugene on Halloween night.

The latest embarrassment happened at the Coliseum, where USC has lost only two of its last 49 games - both times to Stanford.

"This isn't what we grew up watching," USC freshman quarterback Matt Barkley said after the Stanford game.

Carroll's first USC team went 6-6. The Trojans then went 82-9 between 2002-08, winning at least a share of seven straight Pac-10 titles. Though USC has not been eliminated from Pac-10 title contention, it will be the Trojans' first season with more than two losses since 2001.

Only Texas with 153consecutive poll appearances has a longer streak than USC. The Trojans have a week off before playing UCLA on Nov. 28.

Six teams, including USC, ranked between 11-20 last week lost, giving the middle of the rankings a new look.

No. 11 Oregon moved up three spots, No. 12Oklahoma State jumped five and No. 13 Penn State gained six places.

Stanford made the biggest move up of all the ranked teams last week, gaining 11 spots.

Iowa held its spot at No. 15and was followed by Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Clemson, BYU and Oregon State, which moved into the rankings for the first time this season at No. 20.

Miami dropped nine spots to No. 21 and was followed by USC, Utah and Houston - all of which lost Saturday.

No. 25 Rutgers also moved into the rankings for the first time this season, and the first time since the middle of the 2007 season.

Arizona and South Florida both dropped out of the rankings after losses.

APEC urges new growth model, climate pact progress

2009-11-15T12:51:00.001-08:00

SINGAPORE - Open trade and people-centered strategies are key for sustained, stable growth, President Barack Obama and Asia-Pacific leaders said Sunday, pledging to persist with stimulus spending until a global recovery is assured.

The leaders wrapped up the annual meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum with a joint pledge to resist protectionism. They also endorsed policies to encourage more environmentally friendly growth that is "balanced, inclusive and sustainable, to ensure a durable recovery that will create jobs and benefit our people."

Growth led mainly by American consumption and borrowing and Chinese exports is not sustainable in the long term, Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's prime minister, told reporters. Neither is relying on debt-backed stimulus spending to spur demand.

"We know that the old formulas are not going to work as well in the future because it's a different world," he said. "You have to find another balance."

But despite calls for faster progress in world trade talks and efforts to craft a worldwide global warming treaty, the leaders offered no specific, new initiatives for either one - typical of the forum's nonbinding nature.

The World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate Initiative expressed disappointment that an earlier push for a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050 was omitted from the leaders' final statement.

"Leaders have to take the bull by the horns, and finally tackle the difficult questions, instead of constantly avoiding them," spokeswoman Diane McFadzien said in a statement.

The leaders, who met over breakfast to discuss global warming, committed only to working toward "an ambitious outcome" at climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month.

But Lee said he believed some countries were holding their cards for later. "This is not an occasion for negotiating climate change," he said.

The annual meeting of APEC, which was founded 20 years ago to promote closer economic ties in the diverse, wide-flung region, focused mainly on ways to ensure the recovery from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s takes hold and endures.

The overriding concern is to end imbalances in trade, investment and growth that are viewed as the underlying causes of the global financial meltdown.

"The intrinsic problems of the world economic system are yet to be solved at the source, and the effort to fully restore world economic growth is beset by uncertainties and destabilizing factors," Chinese President Hu Jintao said in a speech to fellow leaders Sunday.

"We should use the financial crisis as an opportunity to take a serious look at its root causes," said Hu, whose country expects growth of at least 8 percent this year and was widely credited by other APEC leaders with spearheading the global recovery.

Leaders pledged to pursue reforms that will "gradually unwind global imbalances," and also to put in place regulatory policies that will prevent credit and asset markets from becoming "forces of destabilization."

As it assessed progress on dismantling regional barriers to trade and investment, the group won backing for its long-term goal of creating a free-trade area covering all 21 APEC economies.

Underscoring the American commitment to a region increasingly dominated by China, now the world's third-largest economy and a growing political and military player, Obama announced Washington's interest in joining the Trans-Pacific free-trade partnership.

For now, the gesture is largely symbolic: the grouping now includes only four countries, and Obama's administration has put off work on free-trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama while it deals with domestic economic troubles and the war in Afghanistan, among other issues.

Washington is embroiled in disputes with China over trade in tires, steel and autos, among other products, and is pushing Beijing to loosen controls that it says keep the Chinese currency, the yuan, undervalued.

The yuan's weakness is unwelcome for many countries in the region that compete with Chinese export manufacturers. But the APEC leaders did not mention currency rates in their final statement, despite an earlier call by finance ministers for maintaining "market-oriented exchange rates."

Later Sunday, Obama headed to China, with a first stop in Shanghai, the mainland's commercial and financial capital.

Earlier, he joined a summit with all 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including military-ruled Myanmar. In the unusual face-to-face encounter, Obama told Myanmar's Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A joint statement issued after the summit - the first ever between a U.S. president and ASEAN -devoted an entire paragraph to Myanmar, a major irritant in relations between the two sides.

It urged Myanmar to ensure that 2010 elections are "free, fair, inclusive and transparent," but did not call for the release of political prisoners.

Obama also announced that after next year's APEC forum in Yokohama, Japan, he will host the 2011 gathering in his native Hawaii.

"I look forward to seeing you all decked out in flowered shirts and grass skirts," he told the leaders Sunday.

Can Obama Get Around China's 'Great Firewall'?

2009-11-15T12:21:00.002-08:00

The official U.S. buzzword for President Obama 's visit to China this week is "pragmatic cooperation," but behind the scenes, U.S. diplomats have been aiming for something a little closer to subversion -at least when it comes to getting around China's "great firewall" of official censorship and information control.

American officials were holding out hope that the Chinese would allow for live nationwide broadcast of the President's town hall with Chinese youth on Monday in Shanghai. But even as Obama got ready to board his flight to Shanghai on Sunday, U.S. diplomats were still negotiating the terms. "What we've said is simply that the President would like the opportunity to speak to a broad audience of the Chinese people," said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.

At the same time, White House officials have been preparing alternate means of broadcasting the town hall online. The event, which takes place Monday at 12:45 p.m. local time, will be shown live over Whitehouse.gov, and Obama plans to take a number of questions from an online Chinese audience.

The State Department has also been reaching out to Chinese bloggers in anticipation of Monday's event. On Nov. 12, the U.S. embassy in Beijing invited a dozen prominent bloggers to a briefing on American policy toward China, both in person and via live Web feeds to the U.S. consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The group included well-known free-speech advocates, as well as Rao Jin, the founder of the nationalist website Anti-CNN.com, which is critical of Western media coverage. The meeting quickly made the rounds online, with several commenters complimenting the U.S. diplomats for their openness. "The American officials showed tolerance, politeness and a democratic style because they were open to any question, even questions that are very controversial," Zhao Jing, a popular blogger who attended the meeting and writes under the pen name Michael Anti, told TIME.

There is a long history of Chinese officials censoring the comments of U.S. presidents. In 1984 when President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in Beijing, state-run China Central Television cut portions that referred to the Soviet Union, religion and democracy. During Obama's inaugural speech in January, China's state television cut away when the president referred to previous American generations that had faced down communism. The line that followed was also edited from television broadcasts and from transcripts on many Chinese news portals: "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

After a temporary easing up during the 2008 Olympics, China's system of online controls has grown noticeably stricter in recent months, and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are now blocked. The decision to block Twitter followed the Iranian use of the social networking site in June, says Xiao Qiang, the director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley. Websites discussing sensitive topics like Tibet, the Tiananmen crackdown and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement are also routinely blocked, and in the Xinjiang region, which experienced bloody ethnic riots in July, people are barred from public Internet access and international phone service. The Chinese censorship regime tends to allow some dissident information online, as long as it remains marginal. "It's not about absolute control," Xiao says. "It's about effective control."

Online outreach by the Obama Administration is designed in part to bypass such censorship, and increase direct communications with the Chinese people. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for one, has been particularly aggressive on the issue since taking office. During her first trip to Asia, she participated in a webchat interview on climate change in Beijing, hosted by the China Daily, during which she responded to questions submitted online. According to the state-owned newspaper, the chat drew more than 10.2million page views, 50,000comments and 7,000 questions.

Still, the media feeds into many misconceptions about America in China. During the U.S. embassy briefing in Beijing, Anti-CNN founder Rao told officials - in what he would later describe as an attempt at humor - that he had seen how the CIA uses extra-legal powers, on the American television show Prison Break and in the Transformers films. How could the U.S. protect Web users?, he asked. "I would recommend that you not use Prison Break and Transformers as your only guide to American culture and government," a U.S. official responded.

Film Academy Throws A Private Oscar Party

2009-11-15T11:28:00.004-08:00

LOS ANGELES - Without the burden of a live worldwide broadcast, members of the film academy threw themselves a lively yet relaxed dinner party to honor the first Oscar winners of the season.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences broke with tradition and presented its honorary Oscars off-camera Saturday night, months ahead of the televised ceremony in March.
Actress Lauren Bacall, B-movie king Roger Corman and "Godfather" cinematographer Gordon Willis each received Oscar statuettes during the black-tie banquet at the Grand Ballroom above the Kodak Theatre, the same room where the annual post-Academy Awards Governors Ball is held.

In addition, producer John Calley was honored with the Irving J. Thalberg Memorial Award, recognizing career accomplishments that include "Catch-22," " The Remains of the Day " and " The Da Vinci Code."

Each of the recipients was chosen by the academy' s Board of Governors.

Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening, Morgan Freeman and Steven Spielberg were among the 600 invited guests at the inaugural Governors Awards event.

"We're gathered here together, all artists, celebrating excellence without any television cameras - isn't it great?" said veteran producer Norman Jewison.

Warren Beatty agreed: "It's so much better... that nobody's worrying whether 36.5 million people are watching us or 29.2," he said.

Guests drank Champagne and dined on filet mignon as each honoree was celebrated with tributes, toasts and a generous montage of film clips -leisurely elements not possible in previous years when special-Oscar presentations were built into the already-crowded Oscar broadcast.

Corman, 83, was the first to be honored Saturday night. The longtime producer-director was lauded for being a champion of independent and efficient filmmaking and for promoting women to positions of leadership long before it was popular.

Quentin Tarantino said the man behind films such as " Bloody Mama " and "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes," inspired him to become a filmmaker. He praised Corman for his "undeniable impact on the industry, both as a business and as an art form."

"The movie lovers of planet earth thank you," Tarantino said.

Ron Howard credited Corman with giving him his start as a filmmaker, saying working for Corman was "a badge of honor."

Corman's advice to his peers? "Keep gambling. Keep taking chances."

Kirk Douglas honored Bacall, his friend for more than 60 years, and confessed that he once tried to seduce her -"without success."

Anjelica Huston presented the award to the legendary actress, saying she "defines what it means to be a great actress and also a huge movie star" and praising her "steadfastness, honesty and extraordinary beauty."

Ever feisty, the 85-year-old actress shooed away an escort who tried to help her to the podium to accept her Oscar.

She spoke of her late husband, "my great love" Humphrey Bogart, and her dashing leading men: Douglas, Gregory Peck and Henry Fonda.

Bacall said she did not expect to receive an Oscar but gratefully welcomed the honor.

"The thought when I get home that I'm going to have a two-legged man in my room is so exciting," she quipped.

Willis, whose cinematography credits include " The Godfather," " Annie Hall " and " All the President's Men," was honored for his decades of work. He was nominated for an Oscar twice: For " Zelig " in 1983and " The Godfather: Part III " in 1990.

Presenter Jeff Bridges noted Willis' "unsurpassed mastery of light, shadow, color and motion."

Willis, 78, told his industry peers, "Do your best. Take care of your kids."

Health concerns kept Calley from accepting his award in person, so seven previous Thalberg Award winners did it for him, including Spielberg, Jewison, Beatty and George Lucas. They lauded Calley for his willingness to support creativity throughout his career.

"Please know how proud all of us are to welcome you to our ranks," Spielberg said.

Though not televised, the Governors Awards were taped and portions will be shown during the 82nd annual Academy Awards on March 7, 2010.