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Labels: WorldSpare elephants or I'm off to Russia: Bardot
Labels: Technology
PARIS: French cinema legend Brigitte Bardot on Friday threatened to follow Gerard Depardieu to Russia unless two elephants under threat of being put down are granted a reprieve.
In a surreal twist to the saga over Depardieu's move into tax exile, the veteran animal rights campaigner said she would emulate his request for Russian nationality unless authorities intervened to save Baby and Nepal.
The two elephants face being put down because they have been diagnosed with tuberculosis and have been deemed a threat to the health of other animals and visitors to the Tete d'Or zoo in Lyon.
City authorities ordered the elephants to be put down last month but a petition organised by their original owner, circus master Gilbert Edelstein, resulted in them being granted a temporary reprieve over Christmas.
Bardot said in a statement she would be leaving France if the reprieve was not made permanent.
"If the powers that be have the cowardice and the shamelessness to kill Baby and Nepal... I have decided to take Russian nationality and quit this country that is nothing more an animal cemetery," Bardot said.
Bardot, 77, has been a high-profile supporter of Depardieu in his spat with the French government over his decision to take up residence in neighbouring Belgium for tax reasons.
She said last month that her fellow actor, who was branded "pathetic" by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, had been the "victim of extremely unfair persecution".
-AFP/fl
Bill that caused GOP fight up for a vote
Labels: LifestyleBy Ben Brumfield and Tom Watkins, CNN
updated 7:23 AM EST, Fri January 4, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- FEMA warns money is running out of the flood insurance program
- The last House session canceled a vote on $60 billion in aid
- Congress will consider a $51 billion package later
- FEMA urges "timely congressional action"
(CNN) -- The House is poised to vote Friday on a $9.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package after delays over fiscal cliff bickering and a warning from federal officials that funds are running out.
Frustrated victims of the massive October storm in the Northeast watched this week as a vote on a much larger $60 billion package got canceled.
Lawmakers are expected to pass the first portion Friday and weigh in on the remaining $51 billion in broader aid on January 15.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency notified the outgoing Congress on Tuesday -- its last day in session -- that without additional borrowing authority, it will run out of money within days to compensate storm victims under the National Flood Insurance Program.
The large aid package not voted on included more than $9.7 billion in new borrowing authority, according to the federal emergency agency.
It urged "timely congressional action" to meet survivors' needs.
Rep. Peter King blasts his own party
Outgoing lawmakers dropped what seemed like a sure thing for the suffering region into the lap of the new Congress, which convened Thursday. It will now consider it in two parts.
Republicans in the last Congress criticized proposed congressional "pork" spending in the bill that was unrelated to Sandy needs.
Democrat and Republican lawmakers in the region, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, had unleashed a firestorm of criticism at their own party in the House for not addressing the measure as originally planned.
"New Jersey deserves better than the duplicity we saw on display," Christie said, adding, that this is "why the American people hate Congress."
GOP civil war over Sandy relief
Later, closed-door meetings with House Republicans from the Northeast and their leaders Eric Cantor and John Boehner calmed some sentiments.
Boehner is the House speaker while Cantor is the Majority leader.
Democrats were less mollified.
"It's really unbelievable how Speaker Boehner and his party could just walk away," said Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council. "To promise us a vote weeks from now? Why should we believe him at all? It's just shocking."
In a statement, Boehner and Cantor said "critical aid" to storm victims should be the first priority of the new Congress. Both were re-elected and have retained their leadership positions in the new House.
The Senate, which had already approved the larger Sandy plan that the House declined to consider, is expected to sign off on the scaled-back version Friday as well, according to a Democratic leadership aide.
But Senators will hold off on any further action.
Video shows teens joking about alleged rape victim
Labels: Health (CBS) In August, the family of a 16-year-old girl accused multiple Steubenville, Ohio, high school students of raping her while she was passed out during a night of pre-football-season partying.
Read More..
Two Steubenville High School football players have been indicted for rape, and the case is set to go to trial in February. But on Wednesday, a video appeared online that depicts teenage males who appear to be joking about details of the alleged rape.
The nearly 13-minute video posted on YouTube consists mostly of one teenage male hysterically laughing as he entertains an unseen cameraman and others in the room with remarks such as "They raped her harder than that cop raped Marcellus Wallace in 'Pulp Fiction'," and, "They raped her quicker than Mike Tyson raped that one girl."
The New York Times reported last month that photos of the alleged rape victim were posted on social media. In one, according to the paper, the girl "is shown looking unresponsive as two boys carry her by her wrists and ankles."
The case has generated controversy partly because it has been playing out online, and partly because in Steubenville, where the high school football team is a source of great civic pride, the Times reports that some say the incident is an example of the perils inherent in granting teen athletes special stature.
Multiple versions of the video were posted on YouTube on Jan. 2. A group of hackers called KnightSec, who claim affiliation with Anonymous, say they have collected and posted information about the students accused in the attack - as well as those they believe shot and appeared in the video. In an online message, the group threatened to release what they compiled, "unless all accused parties come forward by new years day and issue a public apology to the girl and her family."
The video, which has more than 100,000 total views, appears to have been recorded on the night of the incident. One male recalls seeing the girl vomit, and more than one of the males refer to "that girl" as being drunk. So drunk, apparently, that the teen on whose face the video camera is focused cracks himself up joking that she is "so dead."
"She is deader than Trayvon Martin," he laughs, referring to the Florida teen killed in February 2012.
The teen also makes remarks implying that he may have witnessed at least some of the incident: "You didn't see how they carried her out," he says. And: "They peed on her, that's how you know she's dead."
And also: "She is so raped right now."
The alleged victim is not named in the video and her name has not been released. CBS affiliate WTRF reports that Anonymous plans to rally in support of the alleged victim at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Jan. 5.
Steubenville Police Chief Bill McCafferty did not return Crimesider's calls for comment, but released a statement to WTRF that reads, in part, "The Steubenville police department has been aware of this recent video that was released. Since late August 2012 the subject who made the video was interviewed. This has all been turned over to the prosecutors which are the Ohio Attorney General's Office, who is prosecuting this case."
In the video now being circulated, excerpts of which are above, one voice off camera tells the speaker, "this isn't funny" and that his remarks are "childish."
"That's like, rape," says the unseen male. "They raped her."
"What if that was your daughter?" says another off-camera male.
"But it isn't," says the teen making the jokes. "If that was my daughter I wouldn't care, I'd just let her be dead."
Eventually, someone asks the cameraman, "Are you still videotaping?"
The cameraman replies with a laugh: "Yes."
Additional reporting by Will Goodman
Chelsea Clinton Raises Profile During Mom's Illness
Labels: Business
While Hillary Clinton was in the hospital it was daughter Chelsea -- not the secretary of state or the former president Bill Clinton -- who spoke for the family.
She, along with the State Department, doled out what little information the family wanted to share in a series of tweets and when her mother was released from the hospital, it was Chelsea who delivered the thanks on behalf of her parents, tweeting her gratitude to the doctors as well as those who kept her mother in their thoughts while she recovered from a blood clot.
When Hillary Clinton leaves office, possibly at the end of this month, it will be the first time since 1982 that a Clinton will not be holding a public office.
The watch will be on whether Hillary Clinton makes another run for the White House in 2016, but almost inevitably people will also be watching to see if Chelsea Clinton decides to run for office, too.
"Americans always look for dynasties: Bush, Kennedy, Cuomo, Clinton … it's some kind of continuity. There will always be pressure on her to run for public office," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political strategist in New York.
"She's learning from the two best politicians in recent American history and she understands when to hold them and when to fold them," Sheinkopf said.
That sense of dynasty could also present a significant hurdle.
James Devaney/Getty Images
Secretary of State Clinton: Mystery Health Issues Watch Video
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Undergoing Blood-Thinning Therapy Watch Video
"She's got to A, demonstrate that she has the charisma of her father, or B, demonstrate that she has the policy chops of her mother. And I think like most people she is somewhere in between," a former Hillary Clinton aide from her 2008 campaign said. "People are judging her through each of her parents and it's an impossible standard."
Chelsea Clinton, 32, has inched towards a possible political career in recent statements and has become more politically active.
In an interview with Vogue published in August she was more open to it than she has been in the past, telling the magazine, "Before my mom's (presidential) campaign I would have said no," but "now I don't know."
"I believe that engaging in the political process is part of being a good person. And I certainly believe that part of helping to build a better world is ensuring that we have political leaders who are committed to that premise. So if there were to be a point where it was something I felt called to do and I didn't think there was someone who was sufficiently committed to building a healthier, more just, more equitable, more productive world? Then that would be a question I'd have to ask and answer."
Clinton also spoke of a change in her private to public life:
"Historically I deliberately tried to lead a private life in the public eye," she told the magazine. "And now I am trying to lead a purposefully public life."
Besides her work as a special correspondent with NBC, Chelsea Clinton has taken on high profile roles with her father's Clinton Global Initiative. She sits on several corporate boards and has both moderated and sat on panels discussing both women in politics and childhood obesity, among other issues.
She has also worked toward making same-sex marriage legal in New York last year, as well as gay marriage referendums in Maine, Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington state, all of which were successful in November. She has also been active in superstorm Sandy recovery, most notably delivering aid to the devastated Rockaways with her father.
Are there really 50 Eskimo words for snow?
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Guang Ming Industrial Building at Paya Lebar up for collective sale
Labels: Technology
SINGAPORE: Guang Ming Industrial Building, located at No 65 Upper Paya Lebar Road, has been put up for collective sale.
The freehold industrial 'white site' has a land area of 19,789 square feet.
Its marketing agent Cushman & Wakefield says the site is expected to fetch more than S$58 million.
Among the likely interested parties for the site include small to mid-sized developers and those companies looking for a site to locate their corporate headquarters, adds Cushman and Wakefield.
Developers can build up to a gross floor area of some 70,000 sq ft, including some 20,000 sq ft of retail and commercial space.
This is based on a maximum allowable plot ratio of 3.5.
Cushman & Wakefield's Director of Investment Sales Christina Sim says prime locations like Tai Seng and Paya Lebar will make the building a "hot commodity".
She adds that "the special 'white zoning' of the site will give an added boost to its development potential.
The tender will close on 5 February 2013.
- CNA/de
Argentina presses claim to Falklands
Labels: LifestyleCristina Fernandez de Kirchner during the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war, in Ushuaia, Argentina on April 2, 2012.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Argentina says Britain stripped the Falkland Islands away 180 years ago
- The countries went to war over the islands in 1982, when Argentina put troops there
- Argentina, which calls the islands Las Malvinas, wants sovereignty negotiations
- British government says there won't be sovereignty talks unless islanders want them
London (CNN) -- Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is once again calling on the UK to hand back the Falkland Islands -- known in Argentina as Las Malvinas -- accusing Britain of blatant colonialism.
In an open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron, which was published in the British press, she says that Britain stripped the islands away from Argentina 180 years ago on Thursday's date: January 3.
Read more: Falkland Islands will vote on political status
The two countries went to war over the territory in 1982, when the then-Argentinian military government landed troops on the islands.
Argentina put its death toll from the conflict at around 645. Britain's civil and military losses amounted to 255.
Falklands war wounds still fresh, 30 years later
In the letter, which was copied to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Argentinian president writes: "The Argentines on the Islands were expelled by the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom subsequently began a population implantation process similar to that applied to other territories under colonial rule.
"Since then, Britain, the colonial power, has refused to return the territories to the Argentine Republic, thus preventing it from restoring its territorial integrity."
She quotes a 1965 U.N. resolution inviting the two countries to negotiate a solution to the sovereignty dispute and calls on the British to abide by the resolution.
Read more: Why tensions are rising over Falklands
Located in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 480 kilometers (298 miles) east of the tip of South America, the Falklands have long been coveted as a strategic shipping stopover and potential wellspring of natural resources.
The Falklands, which raise their own taxes but rely on the United Kingdom for defense and foreign policy, are one of 14 British overseas territories and have been under British rule since 1833.
Read more: Chavez, allies call for sanctions against Britain over Falklands
The British government swiftly rejected the idea of negotiations, saying the Falkland Islanders have chosen to be British.
In a statement, the British Foreign Office said the islanders remain free to choose their own futures and "have a right to self-determination as enshrined in the U.N. Charter. This is a fundamental right for all peoples."
The statement added: "There are three parties to this debate, not just two as Argentina likes to pretend. The islanders can't just be written out of history.
"As such, there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falklands Islands unless and until such time as the islanders so wish."
The islanders are due to hold a referendum on their political status this March but were also quick to dismiss the Argentinian position.
"We are not a colony," said Barry Elsby, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands. "Our relationship with the United Kingdom is by choice."
The exchange comes amid rising tension over the islands, which are home to about 3,000 people.
In February of last year, the Argentinian leader accused the British of militarizing the South Atlantic after the Royal Navy sent its warship HMS Dauntless to the region. Then, in June of 2012, Fernandez confronted Cameron at the G-20 meeting and tried to hand him a letter about the islands -- something he refused to accept.
Argentinian leader denounces 'militarization' of the South Atlantic
The dispute flared again ahead of the London 2012 Olympics, when Argentina released a video boosting its Olympic team that was filmed on the islands. The advertisement showed Argentinian field hockey star Fernando Zylberberg training in the streets of Port Stanley in the Falklands. The video ends with the slogan: "To compete on English soil, we train on Argentine soil."
Obama signs "fiscal cliff" bill into law
Labels: HealthHONOLULU President Obama signed a bill late Wednesday night boosting taxes on the wealthiest Americans, while preserving tax cuts for most American households.
The bill, which averts a looming fiscal cliff that had threatened to plunge the nation back into recession, also extends expiring jobless benefits, prevents cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and delays for two months billions of dollars in across-the-board spending cuts in defense and domestic programs.
The GOP-run House approved the measure by a 257-167 vote late Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after the Democratic-led Senate passed it 89-8.
Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii, signed the bill using an autopen, a mechanical device that copies his signature.
"Cliff" deal loaded with special interest tax breaks
The "fiscal cliff" law passed so quickly, many in Congress never realized it was full of special interest tax breaks, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.
One allows auto racetrack owners to speed up their tax deductions. Another tax write off goes to Hollywood -- a $20 million break anytime a TV show or movie is shot in an economically depressed area of the United States.
There's a subsidy for rum made in Puerto Rico, a tax break if you train a mine rescue worker, and a tax credit for every kilowatt of electricity produced by wind.
All told, the fiscal cliff law designed to reduce the deficit, added $74 billion in spending through changes in the tax law.
Senate Swears in a Historic 20 Female Senators
Labels: Business
Today the Senate will make history, swearing in a record-breaking 20 female senators – 4 Republicans and 16 Democrats – in office.
As the 113th Congress is sworn in today on Capitol Hill, ABC "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer has an exclusive joint interview with the historic class of female Senators.
Diane Sawyer's complete interview will air on World News this evening.
"I can't tell you the joy that I feel in my heart to look at these 20 gifted and talented women from two different parties, different zip codes to fill this room," Sen. Barbara Mikulksi, D-Md., said while surrounded by the group of women senators. "In all of American history only 16 women had served. Now there are 20 of us."
Senator-elect Deb Fischer, R-Neb., becomes today the first women to be elected as a senator in Nebraska.
"It was an historic election," Fischer said, "But what was really fun about it were the number of mothers and fathers who brought their daughters up to me during the campaign and said, "Can we get a picture? Can we get a picture?' Because people realize it and -- things do change, things do change."
The women senators all agree that women will be getting things done in this new Congress, a sign of optimism felt for the new Congress, after the bruising battles of the 112th Congress.
"We're in force and we're in leadership positions, but it's not just the position that we hold. I can tell you this is a can-do crowd," Mikulski said of both Democrats and Republican senators in the room. "We are today ready to be a force in American politics."
And while the number of women in the Senate today makes historic, many of the women agreed that they want to keep fighting to boost those numbers. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said that women are still "underrepresented" in the Senate.
"I think that until we get to 50, we still have to fight because it's still a problem," Boxer said. "I think this class as you look around, Republicans and Democrats... I think that because of this new class and the caliber of the people coming and the quality of the people coming, I think that hopefully in my lifetime -- and I really do hope and pray this is the case -- we will see 50 percent. "
No Sorority Here, Even With the Will to Work Together
The cooperation does not make them a "sorority," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., says. There are real differences in ideology and personality and they don't want their gender to define them as senators.
But the women also admit that they believe having more women in the room would help in fierce negotiations, compromise, and legislating on Capitol Hill, traits they say do not come as naturally to their male colleagues in the Senate. That sentiment enjoys bipartisan support among the women of the Senate.
"What I find is with all due deference to our male colleagues, that women's styles tend to be more collaborative," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said by nature women are "less confrontational." Sen-elect Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, says that women are "problem solvers."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., says that women have a camaraderie which helps in relationships that are key to negotiations on Capitol Hill, something she says comes natural to women more than men.
"I think there's just a lot of collaboration between the women senators and... advice and really standing up for each other that you don't always see with the men," she said.
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