US man leaves Aruba jail in missing case (AP)

ORANJESTAD, Aruba ? U.S. businessman Gary Giordano has been released from jail in Aruba after nearly four months of detention as a suspect in the disappearance of his traveling companion, Robyn Gardner.

Giordano is now free to leave the Dutch Caribbean island but his immediate plans are not clear. Prosecutors still consider him a suspect in Gardner's presumed death. He left the jail with his lawyers.

A judge allowed his pretrial detention order to expire Tuesday, ruling prosecutors failed to present enough evidence to continue holding him as a suspect in the presumed death of Robyn Gardner.

Giordano has denied wrongdoing. He says she was swept out to sea while they were snorkeling.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_aruba_missing_american

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Reports: Zynga Launches Dog And Pony Show Ahead Of Mid-December IPO

Top social game developer Zynga has been widely expected to go public anytime... for months. But now we have a date range -- mid-December, according to DealBook. That follows?up on an earlier report today by Fortune?that Zynga is?starting a "road show" to prospective public investors on Monday to stir up interest ahead of the offering. An amended S-1 is also expected that day detailing the number and price of shares, as?Inside Mobile Apps?also hears. Finally, after months of media scrutiny about Zynga's business and traffic (that the company has been legally prevented from responding to), and many a cancelled conference appearance by Zynga executives, public investors will get to decide what they really think. If Zynga is going to go public as it had said it intended to in its original S-1 filing this past June, the time is now. Macroeconomic conditions are especially uncertain due to big questions around how Europe is going to get out of its ongoing financial crisis. If the eurozone falls apart?within the next few weeks or months (or days), investors are likely to have even less interest in a new-fangled type of tech company. Larger fears could be contributing to the poor recent performance of other recent tech IPOs, like Groupon, and Zynga now has to convince the world that it's different in a good way. And obviously, how Zynga does could shape the perception around the forthcoming IPO of its main platform provider, Facebook.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7TGkPMCcSqY/

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RolePlayGateway?

This is war. It's not black and white. It's not glorious. There is no winning side. A pessimistic view to be sure, but war isn't won by mere optimism alone. It's won by strength. Strength of mind, strength of body, and strength of heart. All qualities you should remember if you ever find yourself in battle. Don't fight for glory alone, fighting for glory ends up with your ass getting skewered by a ranger's arrow or a halfling's dagger in your back. Keep your head down, keep your shield up, and maybe, if Gods willing, just maybe you'll survive the night soldier. Now get some rest, we have a long day of marching tomorrow.

This is Nomad. This chunk of land we call home. Who are we you ask? We who fight for a single Nomad. We the Dwarves, We the Humans, We the Orcs, We the Goblins and everyone in between. This is our home, and we will fight to see her reunited once again.

As you can see, this isn't going to be your average war story. Nomad is a land of fey and magic yes, but also one of blood and violence. You are more likely to see an elf put a blade in someone's gut as opposed to frolicking in the forest. A split has caused two factions, the West Marches and Fera's Promised to clutch at each others throat. Political intrigue, broken oaths, under the table deals, and other noble ideals run rampant among the upper echelons of these two factions, but that's above your head, isn't it soldier?

You won't have to worry about that for now, for your enemies will be more... forthright about your demise. We are in the army of West Marches, more specifically the expeditionary force. We are the ones testing the strength of Fera's Promised, as they us. Whether you are here by choice, by force, or by the simple allure of gold, we all share one thing in common now. Be you a mage, a rogue, or a simple warrior, we are all in the same boa. Fight hard so you shall see tomorrow, or die. Our story begins within one of the first skirmishes of the war.

Good luck, you'll need it before this bloody war is over

---

A simple intro for something I hope can snowball into some greater. That is a mere snippet of what I want this to evolve into. Yet... It is far from completion. First things first, I'll say where I want to go with this. Yes, it's a war story, and yes, it's fantasy. Magic, bards, swords, axes, the whole shebang. Original, I know. Sarcasm aside, where I want the true originality to come from is from the story we tell. This isn't going to be some light-hearted romp through the forgotten realms. This is going to deal with the themes of war, of loss, perhaps a dash of dark humor, some twists. Not to be all doom and gloom though, I fully expect there to be light moments, and humor sprinkled in. Perhaps a glimpse of hope before I dash it? Does that sound like the ingredients to a cake you'd like a bite of? Thought so.

What I'm looking for in a player is If you can post a decently, your character is interesting, and hitting an average of 500+ words per post isn't an issue, then your golden.

Now that, was an intro after an intro. Amazing. Anyway, to see this come to fruition, I'm going to need help. I've GMed a couple of RPs, but none of them really took flight, and I'm hoping an extra pair of hands can help with this. This is an invitation for a Co-GM. Now, not to be a stick in the mud, but I'd like someone committed to this project. Someone to bounce ideas around with. Someone to help iron out the story into a coherent narrative. Now that my plea invitation is out there...

Comments, questions, criticisms, oh holy crap I want in this right now?

*Note: This message is subject to change.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

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Video: N.H. paper endorses Gingrich as primary nears (cbsnews)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/167094887?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Smoking cessation interventions appear to be effective for some current smokers

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) ? Nicotine replacement therapy and smoking cessation intervention programs are associated with positive outcomes among current smokers, according to two studies in the November 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"Despite advances in clinical care and policy, rates of smoking cessation have held constant in the past decade, indicating a need for novel approaches," the authors write as background information in one of the articles.

In the first article, Matthew J. Carpenter, Ph.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, and colleagues conducted a nationwide randomized clinical trial to examine the efficacy of a smoking cessation intervention among current smokers with no motivation to quit. A total of 849 current smokers unmotivated to quit were randomized to a practice quit attempt (PQA) alone or to nicotine replacement therapy (NT) sampling within the context of a PQA (PQA + NT). The PQA was designed to increase motivation, confidence and coping skills, while the combination of a PQA with nicotine therapy sampling added samples of nicotine lozenges to enhance attitudes toward pharmacotherapy and to promote use of additional cessation resources.

Across the intervention period, 82 percent of PQA + NT participants and 85 percent of PQA participants engaged in at least one PQA. By four weeks following the end of treatment, 22 percent of PQA + NT participants and 13 percent of PQA participants had made a 24-hour quit attempt. By 12 weeks following the end of treatment, the rates were 32 percent and 23 percent respectively, while at the final follow-up, the PQA + NT group had a significantly higher incidence of any quit attempt (49 percent vs. 40 percent) and any 24-hour quit attempt (43 percent vs. 34 percent) when compared with the PQA group.

"In summary, providing brief NT sampling to smokers who do not want to quit, when used within a behavioral exercise of a PQA, is efficacious to motivate unmotivated smokers toward quitting," the authors conclude. "Considering the stagnant incidence of quit attempts in the past decade, this novel and easy-to-use cessation induction strategy holds promise for translation to primary care settings."

In a second report, Anne M. Joseph, M.D., of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare telephone-based chronic disease management (one-year; longitudinal care) with evidence based treatment (eight weeks; usual care) for tobacco dependence. The trial included 443 current smokers who each received five telephone counseling calls and nicotine replacement therapy by mail for four weeks. Participants were then randomized to usual care (UC; two additional telephone calls) or longitudinal care (LC; continued counseling and nicotine replacement therapy for an additional 48 weeks).

At 18 months, six-month prolonged abstinence was 30.2 percent in the LC group and 23.5 percent in the UC group. Additional analysis showed that the LC treatment arm, quit attempts in the previous year, cigarettes per day at baseline and cigarettes smoked in the past week (as reported at day 21) were significantly associated with prolonged abstinence at 18 months. The median (midpoint) percentage of days reporting no cigarette use was 57.1 percent in the LC group and 30.1 percent in the UC group.

The authors also found that participants in the LC group made significantly more quit attempts than those in the UC group. Among participants who did not quit smoking, there was more smoking reduction in the LC group compared with the UC group, but these differences were statistically significant only at 12 months.

"This randomized controlled trial shows that a smoking intervention based on chronic disease management principles of care -- targeting the goal of quitting smoking but incorporating failures, setting interim goals and continuing care until the desired outcome is achieved -- is approximately 75 percent more effective at accomplishing long-term abstinence than delivery of a discrete episode of care for smoking cessation," the authors conclude.

Additionally, two research letters examine smoking cessation rates in two long-term follow-up studies. In the first research letter, Yin Cao, M.P.H., with Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues examined the relationship of time since quitting and age at smoking cessation with total and cause-specific mortality among U.S. male physicians. Using data from the Physicians' Health Study, the authors examined data on 19,705 male physicians, 41.7 percent of whom were past smokers, and 6.7 percent were current smokers. A total of 5,594 deaths occurred during the 386,772 person-years of follow up, and the crude mortality rates were 11.5, 16.6 and 26.1 per 1,000 person-years for never, past, and current smokers, respectively. Among 612 deaths in current smokers, 13.7 percent died before the age of 65 years, compared with 8.3 percent of never smokers.

Compared with current smokers, risk of death was significantly reduced among past smokers within 10 years of quitting. By 20 years after quitting, the risk was further reduced, to the level of never smokers. Although current heavy smokers had the highest risk of death compared with current light and past smokers, the risk of death could be reduced by 44 percent for this group within 10 years of quitting and reach a similar risk as never smokers after more than 20 years.

A second research letter provides follow-up results for smoking behavior three decades after participation in the Whitehall Smoking Cessation Survey, a study of male civil servants in London, England. G. David Batty, Ph.D., of University College London, England, and colleagues mailed surviving Whitehall study members a questionnaire regarding current smoking behavior and health to assess the long-term impact of a smoking cessation intervention.

The original study included 1,445 men who were randomized to the intervention group or "normal care" group. The intervention included a 15-minute consultation with one of the study's clinical staff during which the risks of smoking were outlined at length, followed-up with another appointment one week later at which each member was given a smoking record card to be completed daily over the following three weeks. Further 15-minute interviews took place at the research center at 10 weeks and six months. The "usual care" group received no smoking cessation intervention.

At the one-year follow-up, the prevalence of self-reported abstinence from smoking in the intervention group (39 percent) was substantially higher that in the normal care group (9 percent). Corresponding figures for the three-year follow-up were 36 percent and 14 percent, respectively. A re-survey of participants after 30 years showed that most survivors in both the intervention and control groups had stopped smoking (81 percent and 79 percent, respectively). Additionally, the authors found that overall risk of death was slightly lower for participants in the intervention group than for those in the control group. Although the difference was not statistically significant, it corresponds to an estimated 0.4 life-years gained.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal References:

1. M. J. Carpenter, J. R. Hughes, K. M. Gray, A. E. Wahlquist, M. E. Saladin, A. J. Alberg. Nicotine Therapy Sampling to Induce Quit Attempts Among Smokers Unmotivated to Quit: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011; 171 (21): 1901 DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.492
2. A. M. Joseph, S. S. Fu, B. Lindgren, A. J. Rothman, M. Kodl, H. Lando, B. Doyle, D. Hatsukami. Chronic Disease Management for Tobacco Dependence: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011; 171 (21): 1894 DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.500
3. Y. Cao, S. Kenfield, Y. Song, B. Rosner, W. Qiu, H. D. Sesso, J. M. Gaziano, J. Ma. Cigarette Smoking Cessation and Total and Cause-Specific Mortality: A 22-Year Follow-up Study Among US Male Physicians. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011; 171 (21): 1956 DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.539
4. G. D. Batty, M. J. Shipley, M. Kivimaki, G. D. Smith, R. West. Impact of Smoking Cessation Advice on Future Smoking Behavior, Morbidity, and Mortality: Up to 40 Years of Follow-up of the First Randomized Controlled Trial of a General Population Sample. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011; 171 (21): 1950 DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.543

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111128182428.htm

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oceanshaman: rt @hornets NBA and NBA Players reached a tentative agreement early this morning. Get the latest NBA Labor news here: http://t.co/cJNNDsfD

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rt @hornets NBA and NBA Players reached a tentative agreement early this morning. Get the latest NBA Labor news here: on.nba.com/ugRIAi Il y a environ 3 heures via web en r?ponse ? hornets

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'Twilight' keeps shining with $42M second weekend (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The latest "Twilight" movie has plenty of daylight left with a second-straight win at the weekend box office.

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" took in $42 million domestically over the three-day weekend and $62.3 million in the five-day Thanksgiving boom time from Wednesday to Sunday. That raised its domestic total to $221.3 million, while the Summit Entertainment release added $71.5 million overseas to lift the international total to $268 million and the worldwide take to $489.3 million.

Debuting at No. 2 was Disney's family flick "The Muppets," with $29.5 million for the three-day weekend and $42 million over the five-day holiday haul.

Three other family films rounded out the top-five: the Warner Bros. sequel "Happy Feet Two" at No. 3 with a three-day total of $13.4 million and $18.4 million for five days; Sony's animated comedy "Arthur Christmas" at No. 4 with $12.7 million for three days and $17 million for five days; and Paramount's epic adventure "Hugo" at No. 5 with $11.4 million for three days and $15.4 million for five days.

Between "Breaking Dawn" and the blitz of family films, analysts thought Hollywood had a shot at record revenue over Thanksgiving, one of the year's busiest weekends at movie theaters. But viewers did not come in anywhere close to record numbers.

"I was pretty surprised by this. I just thought this was the perfect combination of films in the marketplace," said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "Maybe there was just too much out there."

Domestic revenue totaled $234 million from Wednesday to Sunday, well below the $273 million record set two years ago, when "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" led the Thanksgiving weekend, according to Hollywood.com. Receipts also fell short of last Thanksgiving's $264 million haul, when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" finished on top.

Studio executives concede it's growing harder to lure fans into theaters given all the portable games, devices and other electronics people have to fill up their entertainment time. A so-so Thanksgiving on a weekend with such a good variety of movies could be a sign that Hollywood simply has to live with diminished expectations.

"I don't know that choice is ever a bad thing, and in terms of a weekend for families, this is one of the best," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney, which brought "The Muppets" back to the big-screen after a 12-year absence. "The challenge is breaking through and being relevant and meaningful and fresh enough to take the more finicky customers and have them choose you."

Disney reported that "The Muppets" drew a good mix of families and couples without children who fondly remember Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest of the gang on "The Muppet Show." The film stars Jason Segel and Amy Adams as fans helping to reunite the Muppets for a telethon to save their decaying studio.

"Breaking Dawn" was holding close to the pattern set by "New Moon" two years ago, though domestic revenues were off slightly. Factoring in higher ticket prices since "New Moon," the audience shrank even further for "Breaking Dawn."

"I think the audience has changed a bit. Everybody's grown a little older, and I guess we lose a few of our patrons to age," said Richie Fay, head of distribution for Summit.

With no big new releases coming next weekend, though, "Breaking Dawn" has a shot at making up some ground, Fay said.

"Happy Feet Two" has failed to live up to its Academy Award-winning predecessor, a blockbuster that took in nearly $200 million domestically. The sequel about dancing penguins has managed just $43.8 million since opening Nov. 18, a 10-day total that barely matches the opening-weekend gross of the 2006 original.

"Arthur Christmas," from the British animation unit Aardman that made "Chicken Run" and the "Wallace and Gromit" films, has long-haul potential because of its good reviews and holiday story line. The voice cast includes James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie and Jim Broadbent in a Christmas Eve romp about a child's present that falls through the cracks in Santa Claus' high-tech delivery operation.

"To have the one picture that really is kind of carrying the torch as a Christmas picture really bodes well for the future," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony.

Distributor Paramount has similar long-term hopes for Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," which also has great reviews. Based on a children's book, "Hugo" follows the adventures of an orphan boy who tends the clocks in a Paris train station and becomes caught up in unraveling a mystery that connects a surly old man (Ben Kingsley) and a mechanical automaton the youth is trying to repair.

Paramount scaled back "Hugo" from a full wide release over Thanksgiving, opening it in 1,277 theaters, about a third the number for most other top movies. The studio plans to roll the film out more gradually, spreading its marketing budget over the coming weeks to capitalize on the critical word of mouth and potential awards buzz leading up to the Jan. 24 Oscar nominations.

Critics have praised "Hugo" for Scorsese's dazzling use of 3-D. Unlike 3-D fatigue that set in for some other recent movies, whose 3-D business dipped below half of total revenues, "Hugo" audiences have been willing to pay an extra few dollars to see it in three dimensions. About 75 percent of the film's revenue came from 3-D screenings, according to Paramount.

"People are reading the reviews that say, `You've got to see it in 3-D,' and they're going out and voting with their dollars," said Don Harris, head of distribution at Paramount.

In narrower release, the Marilyn Monroe drama "My Week with Marilyn" opened solidly with a $1.8 million weekend and $2.1 million since opening Wednesday. The Weinstein Co. release stars Michelle Williams as Monroe during her tumultuous time filming Laurence Olivier's "The Prince and the Showgirl."

Playing in 244 theaters, "My Week with Marilyn" had a weekend average of $7,266 a cinema, compared with a $10,330 average in 4,066 locations for "Breaking Dawn."

Another Weinstein release, the black-and-white silent film "The Artist," had a big opening in limited release with a three-day haul of $210,414 in just four New York City and Los Angeles theaters. That gave the film an average of $52,604 a theater.

"The Artist" traces the fall of a silent-film star (Jean Dujardin) and the rise of a new screen sensation (Berenice Bejo) as talking pictures take over in the 1920s and `30s. The acclaimed film gradually expands to nationwide release during the buildup to the Oscar nominations.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1," $42 million ($71.5 million international).

2. "The Muppets," $29.5 million ($1.6 million international).

3. "Happy Feet Two," $13.4 million ($10 million international).

4. "Arthur Christmas," $12.7 million ($11.9 million international).

5. "Hugo," $11.4 million.

6. "Jack and Jill," $10.3 million.

7. "Immortals," $8.8 million ($8 million international).

8. "Puss in Boots," $7.5 million ($9 million international).

9. "Tower Heist," $7.3 million ($7.3 million international).

10. "The Descendants," $7.2 million.

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1," $71.5 million.

2. "Arthur Christmas," $11.9 million.

3. "The Adventures of Tintin," $11.5 million.

4. "Happy Feet Two," $10 million.

5. "Puss in Boots," $9 million.

6. "Immortals," $8 million.

7. "Tower Heist," $7.3 million.

8. "In Time," $6 million.

9. "Real Steel," $5.1 million.

10. "Moneyball," $3.3 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_en_ot/us_box_office

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Investing in land plots that are offered for sale abroad can create ...

Investing in land plots which are offered on the market overseas can generate far better returns if the focus is paid out to the land location and its potential customers. Within the Cayman Islands, a British Abroad Territory within the Caribbean, the prospective customers of land worth appreciation and returns on the investment are fantastic, as an example.

Take into account the circumstance and prospective customers. Cayman has a number of the finest tourist attractions, for instance the 7 Mile Beach, The Bluff and the Bloody Bay wall diving facility. It?s also one of the leading monetary centres in the globe; in reality this small nation has the fifth greatest economic centre, with countless financial institution offices in its funds, George City.

Tourism is really a key contributor to the Cayman Island economic climate and with the present global advertising and marketing campaign and government incentives to ensure continued development, , the need for accommodation is expected to improve. There is certainly also the fact the Cayman attracts wealthy retirees who will would like to by land plots and villas in the island. Lastly, the large net really worth staff on the financial centre can also be potential customers of land and villas.

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Land Plots on the market in the Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands consist of Grand Cayman, the greatest and most created island, and its ?sister islands? of Cayman Brac and Small Cayman. All the three islands have their own special tourist sights. Even though the Grand Cayman has the 7 Mile Seaside, a turtle farm along with the North Sound lagoon, Cayman Brac has The Bluff, a steep cliff increasing one hundred forty ft above the Caribbean Sea and Little Cayman has the Bloody Bay exactly where an underwater cliff goes vertically down a thousand feet to the ocean bottom.

Developed plots in authorized layouts are readily available for sale on all the three islands.
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In unprecedented step, Arab League sanctions Syria

A Syrian immigrant shows a V-sign decorated as the revolutionary Syrian flag during a rally against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Sofia, on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. More than 3,500 people have died in months of anti-government protests in Syria, according to the UN. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

A Syrian immigrant shows a V-sign decorated as the revolutionary Syrian flag during a rally against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Sofia, on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. More than 3,500 people have died in months of anti-government protests in Syria, according to the UN. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

A protester walks under revolutionary Syrian flag during a rally against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. More than 3,500 people have died in months of anti-government protests in Syria, according to the UN. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour for the media, Syrian army officers carry the coffin of one of the 17 army members, including six elite pilots and four technical officers who the military said were killed in an ambush on Thursday during their funeral procession, in Homs province, Syria, on Saturday Nov. 26, 2011. The military blamed terrorists for the ambush and has vowed to "cut every evil hand" that targets the country's security. Syria is facing mounting international pressure to end a bloody crackdown on an uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad that the U.N. says has killed more than 3,500 people. The Arab League was meeting Saturday to consider the possibility of sweeping economic sanctions. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)

BEIRUT (AP) ? In an unprecedented move against an Arab nation, the Arab League on Sunday approved economic sanctions on Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly suppression of an 8-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.

But even as world leaders abandon Assad, the regime has refused to ease a military assault on dissent that already has killed more than 3,500 people. On Sunday, Damascus slammed the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity and insisted a foreign conspiracy was behind the revolt, all but assuring more bloodshed will follow.

The sanctions are among the clearest signs yet of the isolation Syria is suffering because of the crackdown. Damascus has long boasted of being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism, but Assad has been abandoned by some of his closest allies and now his Arab neighbors. The growing movement against his regime could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.

At a news conference in Cairo, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said 19 of the League's 22 member nations approved a series of tough punishments that include cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank, halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria and freezing government assets. Those sanctions are to take effect immediately.

Other steps, including halting flights and imposing travel bans on some, as-yet unnamed Syrian officials, will come later after a committee reviews them.

"The Syrian people are being killed but we don't want this. Every Syrian official should not accept killing even one person," bin Jassim said. "Power is worth nothing while you stand as an enemy to your people."

He added that the League aims to "to avoid any suffering for the Syrian people."

Iraq and Lebanon ? important trading partners for Syria ? abstained from the vote, which came after Damascus missed an Arab League deadline to agree to allow hundreds of observers into the country as part of a peace deal Syria agreed to early this month to end the crisis.

Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said the bloc will reconsider the sanctions if Syria carries out the Arab-brokered plan, which includes pulling tanks from the streets and ending violence against civilians.

The regime, however, has shown no signs of easing its crackdown, and activist groups said more than 30 people were killed Sunday. The death toll was impossible to confirm. Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting inside the country.

The Local Coordinating Committees, a coalition of Syrian activist groups, praised the sanctions but called for a mechanism to ensure compliance.

"The sanctions leave open the opportunity for the regime to commit fraud and strip the sanctions of any substance, thereby prolonging the suffering of the Syrian people at the hands of an oppressive and brutal regime," the group said.

The Arab League move is the latest in a growing wave of international pressure pushing Damascus to end its crackdown. The European Union and the United States already have imposed sanctions, the League has suspended Syria's membership and world leaders increasingly are calling on Assad to go. But as the crisis drags on, the violence appears to be spiraling out of control as attacks by army defectors increase and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves.

Syria has seen the bloodiest crackdown against the Arab Spring's eruption of protests, and has descended into a deadly grind. Though internationally isolated, Assad appears to have a firm grip on power with the loyalty of most of the armed forces, which in the past months have moved from city to city to put down uprisings. In each place, however, protests have resumed.

The escalating bloodshed has raised fears of civil war ? a worst-case scenario in a country that is a geographical and political keystone in the heart of the Middle East.

Syria borders five countries with whom it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel's case, a fragile truce. Its web of allegiances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran's Shiite theocracy. Chaos in Syria could send unsettling ripples across the region.

For now, Assad still has a strong bulwark to prevent his meeting the same fate as the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia or Libya anytime soon. His key advantages are the support of Russia and China, fear among many Syrians about a future without Assad, and the near-certainty that foreign militaries will stay away.

But the unrest is eviscerating the economy, threatening the business community and prosperous merchant classes that are key to propping up the regime. An influential bloc, the business leaders have long traded political freedoms for economic privileges.

The opposition has tried to rally these largely silent, but hugely important, sectors of society. But Assad's opponents have failed so far to galvanize support in Damascus and Aleppo ? the two economic centers in Syria.

Sunday's sanctions, however, could chip away at their resolve.

Since the revolt began, the regime has blamed the bloodshed on terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to divide and undermine Syria. The bloodshed has laid bare Syria's long-simmering sectarian tensions, with disturbing reports of Iraq-style sectarian killings.

Syria is an overwhelmingly Sunni country of 22 million, but Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect. Assad, and his father before him, stacked key military posts with Alawites to meld the fates of the army and the regime ? a tactic aimed at compelling the army to fight to the death to protect the Assad family dynasty.

Until recently, most of the bloodshed was caused by security forces firing on mainly peaceful protests. Lately, there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad's forces ? a development that some say plays into the regime's hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force.

___

Youssef reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Adam Schreck contributed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-27-Syria/id-e6189864dc2d4bbe9bfbd1ba4bb0765d

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Primal Wisdom: Study Indicates Prostate Cancer Is Reversible By Diet

According to the National Cancer Institute, each year in the U.S., 240,890 men get diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 33,720 men die from it.

According to the American Cancer Society,

"About 1 man in 6 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. More than 2 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.

"Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer. About 1 man in 36 will die of prostate cancer."

I have a family history of prostate cancer, so I have a personal interest in prevention and remedy for this disease of civilization.

According to some people, whole grains and legumes cause or promote the diseases of civilization, including cancer.

If this disease is caused by eating grains and legumes, then any diet based on grains and legumes should promote cancer.? If you give men living with prostate cancer a diet rich in whole grains and legumes, you should see a promotion of the cancer.

My friend, Gordon Saxe, M.P.H., Ph.D., M.D., professor of medicine at U.C.S.D.,? has actually tested this hypothesis, albeit unintentionally.

Gordon has lead pilot research in which men with diagnosed with prostate cancer were taught to eat a diet consisting of whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, while eliminating animal? products, based on evidence [discussed here] that this dietary pattern may reduce the risk or progression of prostate cancer.

If whole grains and legumes promote prostate cancer then these men should have had an accelerated progression of their cancers.? However, in the first study, over six months, this intervention produced just the opposite effect:? a 100-fold reduction in the rate of rise of their disease, as measured by the rate of change in levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA).? As stated by Saxe et al:

"The rate of PSA increase decreased in 8 of 10 men, while 3 had a decrease in absolute PSA. Results of the signed rank test indicated a significant decrease in the rate of increase in the intervention period (p = 0.01). Estimated median doubling time increased from 6.5 months (95% confidence interval 3.7 to 10.1) before to 17.7 months (95% confidence interval 7.8 to infinity) after the intervention. Nine of 10 participants in the study had reduction in the rate of rise of their PSA, a marker for progression of disease."

When 9 of 10 people respond in the very same way to an intervention, in this case with a reduction in rate of rise of PSA, this tends to suggest that the effect is no accident and most likely indicates a definite therapeutic effect of the intervention.

In the second study, involving 14 men, Saxe et al produced a similar result.? In this second study they explored the biological mechanisms involved:

"During the first 3 months of the intervention, as both median WHR and body weight declined significantly, the median rate of PSA rise not only declined but became negative, reflecting a slight reduction in absolute PSA and possibly disease regression in patients with absolute reductions. Conversely, during the second 3 months of the intervention, when median body weight increased (though not significantly), median PSA began to rise again, albeit more slowly than during the period prior to Baseline."

This second study suggested that weight-related metabolic changes may have mediated the reduction in rate of PSA increase.? In other words, the intervention resulted in a loss of body fat and concommitant metabolic changes related to reduction of body fatness, including an increase in sex hormone binding globulin, that influence prostate cancer.

"Assuming that the attenuation of PC progression was mediated by weight-related metabolic changes, a question arises as to what aspect of intervention brought about the observed reduction in adiposity. Earlier ⁵³, we described large increases during months 0?3 in intake of whole grains and vegetables, food groups which are fiber and water-rich, very low in fat, and therefore of low energy density. However, intake of these foods declined slightly during months 3?6. Weight loss during the first three months may possibly have resulted from replacing energy-rich foods with energy-poor foods, and the slight increase in body weight during the second three months may have resulted from a small degree of dietary recidivism."?

So this intervention, based on increasing intake of whole grains, legumes, etc., resulted in body fat reduction during the period when the subjects ate the most of these foods, and body weight increased during the period when these subjects ate less of these foods.? This clearly undermines the idea that diets rich in grains and legumes cause two of the major diseases of civilization, i.e. obesity and cancer.

Saxe et al consider the possibility that any diet that induces weight loss may reduce cancer progression.

"A second question that naturally arises regarding the reduction in adiposity is whether it matters, in terms of effects on prostate cancer progression, how it is achieved. One aspect of this question has to do with the preferred dietary strategy for reducing energy intake. Another facet regards whether it is more desirable to increase energy expenditure or decrease intake to achieve this end. Although our study and its findings did not address these issues, they remain important ones that warrant consideration in the planning and design of future behavioral approaches to the management of progressive PC. What can be said is that while both a plant-based diet and a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet high in foods of animal origin (such as the popular Atkins diet) may both result in weight loss, the former is far more consistent with the dietary cancer prevention guidelines of various agencies (69).⁵⁴ "

Some people reject those cancer prevention guidelines of various agencies, which emphasize increased consumption of whole plant foods and decreased consumption of animal products, claiming that whole grains and legumes are the true causes of diseases of civilization.?? These two studies, among others, weaken that claim.?

So far, the only studies I can find testing the effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on prostate cancer were done with mice, not men.? In this one, researchers from Duke Prostate Center fed mice with prostate cancer either a "Western" diet,? "low-fat high-carbohydrate" diet, or a zero-carbohydrate diet.? The results:

"Fifty-one days after injection [with xenograft tumors], NCKD mice tumor volumes were 33% smaller than Western mice (rank-sum, P = 0.009). There were no differences in tumor volume between low-fat and NCKD mice. Dietary treatment was significantly associated with survival (log-rank, P = 0.006), with the longest survival among the NCKD mice, followed by the low-fat mice."

I don't have access to the full text, but if done in a typical fashion, all diets would have been pellets made from isolated nutrients (e.g. casein, starch, sugar, etc.) so this can't tell us much about what would happen in humans if we compared a whole foods vegan diet (whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds) to a zero-carbohydrate diet (meat and fat only).? The effects of a casein-based zero-carbohydrate diet on mice might be very different from the effects of a meat-based zero-carbohydrate diet on humans.

In a second study, Masko et al fed mice diets containing 0, 10, or 20 percent carbohydrate and again injected them with prostate cancer cells.? As a 'control' they fed a group of mice a 12% fat diet, but they did not inject cancer cells into these mice--which to me means they weren't much of a control group, because they differed from the others not only in dietary composition but also in absence of tumor injection.

The full text of this study tells us the components of all diets:? corn oil, lard, milk fat, casein, dl-methionine, dextrine, maltodextrine, corn starch, sucrose, and isolated vitamins and minerals.?

In the low-fat arm, 72% of calories came from carbohydrate, and 50% of total calories came from sucrose, which means that about 25% of total calories came from refined fructose.? Meanwhile, in the 10% and 20% carbohydrate arms, all of the carbohydrate was provided in the form of corn starch.?

This makes me wonder again about diet composition in the other Duke University study cited above.? Were those mice on the low fat diet also eating a 50% sucrose/25% fructose diet?? If so, did this rig the study, intentionally or not, so that the low fat group would have more body fat and shorter lifespan than the zero-carbohydrate group??

Moving on, all the mice got all of their protein from casein-plus-methionine, none ate any meat.? Most people eating low carbohydrate diets eat cooked meats, not isolated casein, as their main protein source.? Meat is nutritionally complex, and affected by cooking process, in ways that may result in it having a different effect on prostate cancer than casein-plus-methionine.? For example, unlike the casein-methionine mix fed to these mice, meat contains heme iron and if cooked at high heat, heterocyclic amines, all of which have been linked to prostate cancer causation or promotion [e.g. Sinha et al full text].? So it is not clear how a study of mice eating a low carbohydrate diet wherein casein is the main protein will apply to people eating low carbohydrate diets wherein cooked meat, poultry, and fish are the main protein sources.

Masko et al found that the survival rates of the mice in the 0, 10, and 20 percent carbohydrate groups were similar.? They liked this finding because, as they say, people find it extremely difficult to follow zero-carbohdyrate diets, so now they are ready to test the 20 percent carbohydrate diet on human prostate cancer patients.?

Masko et al also found that the mice in the 20% carbohydrate group had the lowest insulin level, about which they comment:

"It was unexpected that the lowest levels of insulin were observed in mice fed with 20% carbohydrate, but there are possible explanations for this phenomenon. First, there is always the possibility for a type I error in the analysis. Second, it is known that low-carbohydrate diets promote insulin sensitivity in animals (38) and humans (39, 40). Thus, it is possible that a diet containing a small amount of carbohydrates may actually improve insulin sensitivity compared with a diet completely lacking of carbohydrates."

Perhaps unknown to Masko et al, it is also 'possible' that a diet containing an even large amount of carbohydrate may actually improve insulin sensitivity compared to a diet with only 20% carbohydrate. In 1971, Brunzell et al [abstract only] evaluated the effect of increased dietary carbohydrate at the expense of fat in humans, both non-diabetic and mildly diabetic.? In the New England Journal of Medicine they reported that after feeding these subjects a diet providing 85 percent of energy as carbohydrate for 10 days,

"Fasting plasma glucose levels fell in all subjects and oral glucose tolerance (0 to 120-minute area) significantly improved ..... Fasting insulin levels also were lower on the high carbohydrate diet; however, insulin responses to oral glucose did not significantly change. These data suggest that the high carbohydrate diet increased the sensitivity of peripheral tissues to insulin."

?An diet supplying 85 percent of energy as carbohydrate is by necessity very low in fat, so perhaps Brunzell et al could have emphasized that this very low fat diet increased insulin sensitivity.? The mice of Masko et al that got the 20 percent carbohydrate diet had a lower fat intake than the mice on the zero-carbohydrate diet; rather than increasing carbohydrate being responsible for promoting insulin sensitivity, perhaps it is reducing fat (replacing it with starch) that does the trick.?

Anyway, the Masko et al study has a few features that make me skeptical that they will have similar results in humans.? I feel curious to see if their approach will have results as good as those found by Saxe et al.

Source: http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2011/11/study-indicates-prostate-cancer-is.html

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India retail opening cheers big local firms, disappoints others (Reuters)

MUMBAI (Reuters) ? India's move to open its supermarket sector to foreign investors brought relief to its capital-starved local chains but failed to impress small-shop owners who dominate retail in the country, despite rules intended to safeguard small operators.

New Delhi approved its biggest reform in years by allowing global supermarket giants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Tesco to enter India with a 51 percent stake in the hope it would attract capital to build much-needed supply chains and improve efficiency to alleviate food-driven inflation.

"This is an extremely important step for domestic retailers as this will get in much-needed capital, apart from domain knowledge," said Thomas Varghese, chief executive of Aditya Birla Retail.

Chain stores account for just 6 percent of a $500 billion retail market dominated by street stalls and corner shops.

Many Indian chains are cash-strapped and loss-making, struggling to build scale given high costs, poor supply chains and scarce real estate and have been eyeing equity investments and joint venture partnerships with global firms to build scale.

Vijay Karwal, head of consumer, retail and healthcare for Asia at Royal Bank of Scotland based in Hong Kong expects more than $5 billion in foreign investment into the Indian retail sector over the next five to seven years.

Given the relative lack of modern retail infrastructure in India, and particularly in the enabling back-end infrastructure ... the vast majority of investment this change is expected to trigger would be greenfield investment into new retail sites and infrastructure," he said.

Shares in Indian retailers Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers Stop, Trent jumped -- bucking a fall in the wider stock market -- on expectations that they will form tie-ups with foreign players, and not just compete with them.

Debashish Mukherjee, partner and vice-president at consultancy firm AT Kearney, expects joint ventures and investments in local players from overseas operators over the next six months.

"The set of transactions which will happen fast is foreign players who are in existing joint ventures with Indian firms, the increase or decrease in stake, will happen quickly," he said. "The second are a set of deals that are waiting to happen and have been just waiting for the announcement."

SMALL SHOPS UNHAPPY

To appease opponents, the government said foreign stores will only be permitted in cities of more than 1 million -- of which India has more than 50 -- and individual states can decide whether to allow global players on to their patch.

It also insists that foreign retailers source almost a third of their produce from small industries, invest at least $100 million in India and spend half of that on infrastructure such as cold storage and warehouses.

Many small shop owners fear for their livelihoods.

"It will affect my business as families prefer going to air-conditioned stores with fancy packaged goods these days," said Vinod Jain, a 27-year-old small grocery shop owner in the Lower Parel neighborhood of central Mumbai.

A trade group representing so-called "kirana" shop owners is planning protests.

"The move to let the foreign retailers in will most certainly lead to job losses," said Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders.

"They should have worked on some kind of protectionist mechanism for smaller traders before coming out with this policy," he said.

Foreign retailers who welcomed the Indian government's move to open the sector also view the entry conditions with caution.

"Some of the conditions look quite stringent. The investment in particular -- it's all quite big money. We'd need to know the details, and how that would be accounted for," said an official with a major global retailer who did not wish to be identified.

(Additional reporting by Sumedha Deo in Mumbai, Saeed Azhar in Singapore and Mark Potter in London, Editing by Tony Munroe)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/india_nm/india607327

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Boy, 14, jailed for buying drugs on resort island

BALI, Indonesia?? An Australian teen was sentenced to two months in detention Friday for buying drugs while vacationing with family on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.

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Presiding Judge Amzer Simanjuntak told the packed Denpasar district court that ? when taking into account time already served ? the 14-year-old would be freed in just over a week and immediately deported.

"It's better to give a jail sentence, but the shortest possible, which would enable him to be given back to his parents sooner," Simanjuntak said, according to a report in the Herald Sun newspaper.

The prosecutors had asked for a three-month sentence.

The boy, who cannot be identified by name because of his age, sat sobbing, his head bowed down, as his father patted him on the back consolingly while the judge spoke.

Remorse
Though he could have faced up to 12 years under Indonesia's tough narcotics laws, the panel of three judges said it decided to be lenient because he admitted to buying 0.13 ounces of marijuana from a man in front of a supermarket and repeatedly expressed remorse.

The teen, who has been in an immigration detention center since his Oct. 4 arrest, earlier promised to enter a drug rehabilitation program if he was allowed to return to his home in Morrisset Park, north of Sydney.

He said he had been struggling for some time with his addiction.

Australia ? which has seen dozens of its citizens jailed or placed on death row for drug possession in Indonesia ? had been closely watching the trial.

'Lessons to be learned'
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd welcomed the court verdict that he said meant the boy and his family would probably be back home by Christmas.

"I'm sure there are lessons to be learned by this young man as well," he told the Sun Herald.

Many argued the boy was too young to be jailed.

But critics noted that dozens of Indonesian children tied up in people-smuggling cases have been languishing for years in Australian detention centers.

The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45433766/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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UN: 'Numerous' reports of child torture by Syria

A U.N. human rights panel expressed alarm Friday at reports it has received of Syrian security forces torturing children.

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The Committee Against Torture said it had received "numerous, consistent and substantiated reports" of widespread abuse in the country.

The chair of the panel, Claudio Grossman, told reporters in Geneva that the reports referring to the abuse of children were of "particular concern."

The U.N. human rights office says more than 3,500 people have been killed in the eight-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

Meanwhile, Syria ignored a deadline imposed by the Arab League to allow an observer mission into the country or face economic sanctions, a senior Arab League diplomat said Friday.

The diplomat said the Friday afternoon deadline passed with no word from Damascus. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The 22-nation bloc had given Syria 24 hours to agree to the observer mission, saying it would meet to decide on punishing measures that could include a freeze on financial dealings and assets if the deadline was missed.

Patience 'running out'
Syria is the scene of the deadliest crackdown against the Arab Spring's eruption of protests and international pressure has been mounting on Assad to stop the bloodshed.

Earlier Friday, before the deadline passed, Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Syria faced a test of goodwill over the proposal and said the country "must open its doors to observers."

Davutoglu said the patience of Turkey and Arab countries was "running out over the bloodshed in Syria."

He spoke during a joint news conference with Italy's new Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi in Istanbul.

Terzi described the situation in Syria as a "worrying tragedy."

Syria had previously slammed the Arab League's ultimatum, which increased the international pressure on Assad's government following France's proposal for "humanitarian corridors" to be set up to alleviate civilian suffering.

However, Russia, China and their partners in the BRICS group of emerging economies warned against foreign intervention without U.N. backing and urged Assad to start talks with the opposition.

Story: 5 children among 23 civilians killed in Syria, rights group says

Under an Arab League initiative, Syria had agreed to withdraw troops from urban centers, release political prisoners, start a dialogue with the opposition and allow monitors and international media into the country.

Since then hundreds of people, including civilians, security forces and army deserters, have been killed as the unrest which the U.N. says has claimed at least 3,500 lives since March continued unabated.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition group, said at least 47 people were killed in Syria Thursday, including 16 soldiers and 17 army deserters, mostly around the city of Homs and Rastan to the north.

"In the case that Syria does not sign the protocol ... or that it later violates the commitments that it entails, and does not stop the killing or does not release the detainees ... (Arab League officials) will meet on Saturday to consider sanctions on Syria," the Arab ministers said in a statement.

Story: Army defectors threaten to transform Syrian uprising into civil war

Possible sanctions, which are not intended to affect ordinary Syrians, included suspending flights to Syria, stopping dealings with the central bank, freezing Syrian government bank accounts and halting financial dealings.

They could also decide to stop commercial trade with the government "with the exception of strategic commodities so as not to impact the Syrian people," the statement said.

Syria's economy is already reeling from the eight months of unrest, aggravated by U.S. and European sanctions on oil exports and several state businesses.

The Arab League suspended Syria's membership two weeks ago, while this week the prime minister of neighboring Turkey ? a NATO member with the military wherewithal to mount a cross-border operation ? told Assad to quit and said he should be mindful of the fate of fallen dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Libya's deposed leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"The Syrian crisis may or may not have entered its final phase, but it undoubtedly has entered its most dangerous one to date," the International Crisis Group said.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to his report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45434540/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Microsoft to improve Xbox Live media search through VideoSurf acquisition (Digital Trends)

Microsoft has announced that it has inked a deal to acquire video searching startup VideoSurf in a bid to improve searching for entertainment content across its Xbox Live platform. By integrating VideoSurf?s technology, users will be able to search for a term (say, ?Spider-Man?) and pull up unified results across games, the Zune marketplace, TV and film entertainment, and potentially even entertainment content from third-party providers like Netflix, Hulu, or Comcast.

?VideoSurf?s content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform,? said the director for Xbox Live?s interactive entertainment business Alex Garden, in a statement. ?This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf?s technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results.?

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed; industry sources put the value of the deal in the $75 million range, but TechCrunch reports the acquisition totalled up to $100 million in cash.

VideoSurf?s technology does more than peer inside videos, assemble key frames, and associate tags with them: it also uses audio and facial recognition technology to automatically tag video content, so searching for ?Alec Baldwin? won?t just turn up hits where the actor is in the cast of a production, but will also turn up interviews or just places he?s mentioned without being specifically credited. Microsoft hopes the technology will enable the company to offer a comprehensive, searchable overview of video content?a service that will become increasingly important as Microsoft lines up more and more large-scale and independent content providers for XBox Live. Microsoft says it?s adding more than 40 ?world-leading? TV and entertainment providers to Xbox Live in the ?coming months.?

VideoSurf was founded by four Israeli entrepreneurs, and backed by a notable tema of investors, including Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (and her husband David Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMOnkey), along with former Vice President (and current Apple board member) Al Gore.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/digitalmusic/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111124/tc_digitaltrends/microsofttoimprovexboxlivemediasearchthroughvideosurfacquisition

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Actress Sienna Miller tells inquiry of media abuse (AP)

LONDON ? Actress Sienna Miller told a media ethics inquiry Thursday that she was left paranoid and scared by years of relentless tabloid pursuit that ranged from paparazzi outside her house to the hacking of her mobile phone.

Miller said the surveillance, and a stream of personal stories about her in the tabloids, led her to accuse friends and family of leaking information to the media. In fact, her cell phone voice mails had been hacked at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.

Miller, 29, became a tabloid staple when she dated fellow actor Jude Law. She said the constant scrutiny left her feeling "very violated and very paranoid and anxious, constantly."

"I felt like I was living in some sort of video game," she said.

She called the paparazzi focus on her terrifying.

"For a number of years I was relentlessly pursued by 10 to 15 men, almost daily," she said. "Spat at, verbally abused.

"I would often find myself, at the age of 21, at midnight, running down a dark street on my own with 10 men chasing me. And the fact they had cameras in their hands made that legal."

Miller, the star of "Layer Cake" and "Alfie," was one of the first celebrities to take the News of the World to court over illegal eavesdropping. In May, the newspaper agreed to pay her 100,000 pounds ($160,000) to settle claims her phone had been hacked.

The newspaper's parent company now faces dozens of lawsuits from alleged hacking victims.

Miller, who looked confident as she gave evidence at London's Royal Courts of Justice, said challenging Murdoch's media conglomerate had been a difficult decision.

"I was very nervous about taking on an empire that was richer and far more powerful than I will ever be," she said. "It was very daunting."

Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry amid a still-unfolding scandal over illegal eavesdropping by the Murdoch-owned tabloid. Murdoch closed down the News of the World in July after evidence emerged that it had illegally accessed the mobile phone voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in its search of scoops.

More than a dozen News of the World journalists and editors have been arrested over allegations of illegal eavesdropping, and the scandal has also claimed the jobs of two top London police officers, Cameron's media adviser and several senior Murdoch executives.

The inquiry, led by Judge Brian Leveson, plans to issue a report next year and could recommend major changes to media regulation in Britain.

Miller took the stand after another witness was allowed to give evidence in private. The courtroom was cleared of press and members of the public as the witness, identified only as HJK, testified about suffering intrusions while in a relationship with a well-known figure, whose identity was also kept secret.

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling is due to give evidence later Thursday about the media intrusion on her life. The tribunal will also hear from former Formula One boss Max Mosley, who has campaigned for a privacy law since his interest in sadomasochistic sex was exposed in the tabloid.

High-profile witnesses still to come include CNN celebrity interviewer Piers Morgan, who has denied using phone hacking while he was editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The hearings have heard allegations of media malpractice and intrusion that extend far beyond the News of the World.

Witnesses have included celebrities like actor Hugh Grant and ordinary people pursued in times of grief, including the parents of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, whose voice mails were accessed by the News of the World after she disappeared in 2002.

Her parents said the hacking gave them false hope their daughter was still alive during the investigation into her disappearance.

On Wednesday, the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann said they were left distraught by false stories and the publication of private information by the tabloid press.

Kate and Gerry McCann told the inquiry they felt powerless in the face of stories, based on concocted evidence, suggesting they had killed their daughter. Madeleine had vanished when she was three during the British family's 2007 vacation in Portugal.

___

Leveson Inquiry: http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_en_ce/eu_britain_phone_hacking

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Anna Brand: Inside a Very Modern Family

My parents separated five years ago. Less than two months later, they divorced, making a quick, though not-so-clean, break from their 18-year marriage. One year later, they started going on dates. Only not with new people, but with each other... and no one else. So how did my divorced parents find themselves in an exclusive relationship, again? I'd like to think I had something to do with it.

Not too long after the messy separation, I found myself sitting across from my father in front of a hot bowl of curry. It was just like any of our other weekly dinners. Only this time, things were different. He had his hands, then dry and cracked from the frigid season, buried in his peppered hair as he asked me if he should ask my mother on a date. "Do you think she'll say yes? " he questioned.

While their divorce was harsh, it wasn't irrevocable. So, being the meddler that I am, I said she would.

"Of course she would," I guaranteed.

And so they began dating. At first, my mom was hesitant. They would see each other sporadically for mundane chores, but soon, it all became much more. Dinner and movie dates turned into weekends biking on the beach. Trips to Delaware to visit my brother at college turned into week-long vacations in Aruba and Greece. And so on, and so forth, until "sleepovers at dad's" became my mom's new Friday night ritual.

The funny thing is, they -- and shockingly, I -- act as if everything is normal. As nosy and troublesome as I am, I never ask the status of their relationship. Not only because they seem truly happy, but also because I don't really want to know all the details. However, I do become... jealous, especially when conversations like this occur:

Me: Hi
Mom: Hi, Anna
Me: So, what are you doing tonight?
Mom: Having dinner with dad, I'm staying over
Me: I thought I was having dinner with dad tonight
Mom: Ask Dad
----
Me: Hi
Dad: Hi, hun
Me: So, you double-booked me, huh?

Ultimately, I am happy for them. I am happy for the innocent way in which they hold hands, kiss each other hello, and flirt at the dinner table. I love that we can have a family outing without the bitterness that exists among so many homes (married parents, or not). Will they move in together again? Will they get remarried? I don't know, and I don't ask. Because truthfully, I don't think they know the answer either (and maybe it doesn't matter).

Watching my parents begin a new relationship in front of my eyes has been the most fascinating experience I've had in my adult life. As perplexing and rare as the situation is, I appreciate their willingness to break the mold and live without the pressures of structure.

At the very least, holidays at this modern family's house are never short of entertainment.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-brand/inside-a-very-modern-fami_b_1105874.html

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