AUTOMOTIVE - VINTAGE: Mercedes' Conquering 1914 Racer

One of the highlights of the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in August was the Mercedes, Benz and Mercedes-Benz feature that marked the 125th anniversary of the motor car. Among the historic collection was this Mercedes 18/100 Grand Prix that had been meticulously prepared for the 1914 French Grand Prix.

Equipped with a sophisticated four-valve head and boasting a relatively small displacement, the Mercedes' four-cylinder engine was the first that could rev over 3,000 rpm. No fewer than five were entered in the prestigious race where it faced rivals from Italy, France and Great Britain in a rather more peaceful encounter than the looming war.

This race car headed the 1-2-3 victory for Mercedes at the grand prix that was run just before the First World War. (Photo: Wouter Melissen) Christian Lautenschlager headed a 1-2-3 Mercedes victory in this very example. One of the sister cars was later sold to the United States and driven to Mercedes' only Indy 500 win by Ralph DePalma. The design was so sophisticated that in modified form, the surviving cars were raced well into the 1920s. Our feature car is one of three survivors and has been meticulously restored to its French Grand Prix winning configuration.

Mercedes had suspended the company's competition program following the victory in the 1908 French Grand Prix, with the Paul Daimler-led engineering team instead focused on the development of aero engines. During this period, valuable lessons were learned about lightweight materials and construction. These were applied when the German manufacturer decided to ready new cars for the 1914 French Grand Prix at Lyon.

Leaving little to chance, Mercedes built several experimental six-cylinder cars for the 1913 Grand Prix de la Sarthe. Considering the new-for-1914 displacement limit of 4.5 liters and maximum weight of 1,100 kg (2,420 pounds), Mercedes figured a four-cylinder engine would suffice.

During Mercedes' absence from racing, Peugeot had come to the fore with hugely sophisticated twin-cam, four-valve-per-cylinder engines. These cutting-edge machines had taken victories in the 1912 and 1913 French Grands Prix and were certainly the cars to beat in 1914.

The advanced four-cylinder designed by Mercedes engineers was able to rev over 3,000 rpm, the highest to date for the company's racing engines. (Photo: Wouter Melissen) Using aero-engine technology, a new straight four was developed built on an aluminum crankcase with separate steel cylinders. Welded on the cylinders, the individual heads sported four valves. Mercedes, keen to do things their own way, used just a single overhead camshaft to actuate the valves. The camshaft was driven from the crankshaft by a shaft that was fitted at the rear of the engine. The crankshaft itself was counterbalanced and forged in the highest-grade Austrian steel.

Designed to run at twice the speed of any Mercedes engine that had come before, lubrication of the new four was vital. An intricate system was fitted that combined a wet sump with a high-pressure pump. No piston rings were fitted, so by the design, the engine used oil. Additional oil could be fed into the system by a manual pump to be operated by the riding mechanic. To prevent the plugs from fouling, as many as four plugs could be fitted, although the cars raced with three. These were powered by two separate magnetos to ensure reliability.

The ?M 93654? engine was fed by a single Mercedes up-draft carburetor. The first competition engine to rev over 3,000 rpm, the four produced its peak power of 106 horsepower at 3,100 rpm. This was quite an achievement considering no other Mercedes/Daimler engine built up to that point could safely rev over 1,500 rpm. A separately mounted four-speed gearbox was used. This was connected to the rear wheels not through the chains previously used but by a drive shaft to save weight.

The chassis of the new Grand Prix racer followed convention with a cross-braced, pressed-steel frame suspended by semi-elliptic leaf springs and solid axles. One of the things carried over from the 1913 experimental cars was the V-shaped radiator and tightly wrapped aluminum body complete with belly pan. To reduce drag even further, even the front axles were streamlined. Unlike most of the rivals, the Mercedes 18/100 featured brakes only on the rear axle and an additional transmission brake.

Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/vintage-mercedes-conquering-1914-racer/

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Iran says it's easy to close Strait of Hormuz

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's navy chief says his country can easily close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the passageway through which a sixth of the world's oil flows.

Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told state-run Press TV Wednesday that the navy is in control of the vital waterway and can readily block it. It was the second such warning from a senior official in two days.

Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened Tuesday that Iran will close the strait, cutting off oil exports, if the West imposes sanctions on Iranian oil shipments to punish Tehran for its nuclear program, which the west suspects is aimed at making weapons.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-28-ML-Iran-Oil/id-97e6e4791ea7470e8d77166f2f7f2651

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Gaming Shares Rocket Higher As Online Gambling Inches Towards ...

The gaming sector traded up sharply today on reports that a Department of Justice opinion could open the door to legalized online gambling.

The Department of Justice's opinion was sought as New York and Illinois seek permission to bring their lotteries online.

"Because the proposed New York and Illinois lottery proposals do not involve wagering on sporting events or contests, the Wire Act does not prohibit them," Virginia Seitz, assistant attorney general responded.

Though most U.S. pure-plays in gaming, like Wynn and MGM, are focused on brick-and-mortar casinos, a changed ruling could represent a large new revenue stream ? although off-shore competition would likely intensify.

Five companies saw share gains of at least 3% during the day, led by Boyd Gaming's 10% jump.

• Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD): Up 9.8% to $7.63
• MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM): Up 4.6% to $10.42
• Pinnacle Entertainment (NYSE: PNK): Up 3.0% to $10.38
• Trans World Corporation (PINK: TWOC): Up 9.3% to $2.95
• Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN): Up 3.2% to $113.53

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/gaming-casino-shares-wire-act-2011-12

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Dino-chicken: Wacky but serious science idea of 2011

Paleontologist Jack Horner has always been a bit of an iconoclast. In the 1970s, Horner, the curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., and his friend Bob Makela discovered a Maiasaura nesting site, painting the first picture of dinosaurs as doting moms and dads. He's also been at the forefront of research suggesting that dinosaurs were fast growing and warm-blooded.

But Horner's newest idea takes iconoclasm to a new level. He wants, in short, to hatch a dinosaur.

Or something very much like one, at least. Horner, who served as a technical advisor for the "Jurassic Park" movies, has no illusions that the technique in that movie ? extracting dino DNA from mosquitoes in amber ? would work. DNA degrades too quickly, for one thing. Dinosaur DNA has proved impossible to extract from actual dinosaur bones, never mind blood-sucking insects.

"If you actually had a piece of amber and it had an insect in it, and you drilled into it, and you got something out of that insect and you cloned it, and you did it over and over and over again, you'd have a room full of mosquitoes," Horner said in a February 2011 TED Talk in Long Beach, Calif. TED, or Technology, Entertainment and Design, is a nonprofit focusing on "ideas worth spreading."

So Horner has another idea: Use the living dinosaurs among us to recreate creatures dead for millions of years. Anyone who's seen "Jurassic Park" knows that birds are dinosaurs, part of the evolutionary line containing those toothy Velociraptors. What's less known is that organisms carry their evolutionary history with them. Human embryos, for example, have temporary tails, which are absorbed by the body during development. Rarely, babies are born with vestigial tails, the result of scrambled genetic processes that prevent the tail from getting re-absorbed. These evolutionary remnants are called atavisms.

Enough atavisms have been discovered in birds to make the idea of "reverse-engineering" a dinosaur out of, say, a chicken possible, Horner says. You wouldn't be adding anything to the bird to make it more dinosaurlike; all the ingredients are in its DNA. Horner's goal is to figure out how to wake up those ingredients.

LiveScience talked with Horner about his "chickenosaurus" plan and what sort of dinosaur he'd like to keep as a pet. [ Infographic: How to Make a Dino-Chicken ]

LiveScience: What was the genesis of this chickenosaurus idea?

Horner: Knowing that birds descended from dinosaurs and knowing the changes that occur from dinosaurs to birds, we know that the changes that did occur occurred because of genetics.

A friend of mine, Hans Larsson at McGill University, was studying some of these changes and looking into how it was that dinosaurs lost their tails in the transformation from dinosaurs to birds. They also transformed their arms from a hand and an arm to a wing. I got to thinking, if he discovered the genes that were responsible for both of those transformations, we could just simply reverse evolution and reactivate the tail, and possibly make a hand back out of the wing.

And then what we would have by doing those two things, you'd actually take a bird and turn it into an animal that looked a lot like one of the meat-eating dinosaurs. It seemed like a good idea.

LiveScience: What kind of animal would chickenosaurus be?

Horner: It's still a chicken. It's a modified chicken. You'd really have to mess with the DNA to make it something different.

The most important thing is that you cannot activate an ancestral characteristic unless the animal has ancestors. So if we can do this, it definitely shows that evolution works.

LiveScience: You've mentioned in the past that you see this dino-chicken as a teaching tool to help people understand evolution. Do you see that working?

Horner: Of course. You bet. There are people who are misinformed, and there are people who are uninformed [about the validity of evolution]. If people are uninformed, this will probably get through to them. If they've been misinformed and don't mind being misinformed, then they probably will continue to be misinformed.

LiveScience: Either way, it'd be a pretty awesome thing to take into a classroom.

Horner: Yes, it would. Exactly.

LiveScience: Starting with a chicken, how close could we really get to what a dinosaur looked like?

Horner: We're working with an animal that has all the right stuff. It's more about subtle changes, adding a tail or fixing a hand or possibly adding teeth, what we would think of as being relatively simple changes rather than messing with physiology or something like that.

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A bird is really a dinosaur, so we're pretty sure that the breathing apparatus of a bird evolved from the breathing apparatus of a dinosaur, and is therefore completely different than a mammal. The physiology of a bird is evolved from a dinosaur and not from a mammal, so it's not like we're trying to take a mammal and turn it into a dinosaur.

LiveScience: Would chickenosaurus teach us anything about dinosaurs we can't learn from fossils?

Horner: It's not really about understanding dinosaurs at all. Once we learn what certain genes do and how to turn them on and turn them off, then we have great potential of solving some medical mysteries. There are a lot of ways to think about this, but it's not really about dinosaurs other than solving Hans Larsson's problem of figuring out how birds lost their tails. [ Tales of 10 Vestigial Limbs ]

LiveScience: What do you see as the biggest challenge of making chickenosaurus happen?

Horner: The biggest challenge, first off, is to find the genes. We know that in the development of a tail, there are a variety of things that have to happen, so there are a couple of ways to possibly go about this.

One, as we know, when a chicken embryo is developing in the egg, just like basically all animals, the embryo actually for a time has a tail and then the trail re-absorbs. So if we could find the gene that re-absorbs the tail and not allow that gene to turn on then we could potentially hatch a chicken with a tail.

The other method would be simply to go in and discover what Hox genes [the genes that determine the structure of an organism] might be responsible for actually adding tail vertebrae, and then to see if we could add some, either by manipulating the Hox genes or by using temperature. There have been some experiments done showing that adding heat will add a vertebra here or there.

LiveScience: Where are you in this process now?

Horner: Right now, mostly I'm looking for a postdoctoral researcher. An adventurous postdoc who knows a lot about developmental biology and a little bit about birds and has done some work about chickens to work in our lab here in Bozeman.

Me, I just go through the literature, looking for anything that might give me a clue as to what genes might be responsible for tail absorption or tail growth or something that might help me with hands.

LiveScience: The comparisons to "Jurassic Park" are easy to make, but have you ever seen the movie "The Birds?" Do we really want chickens with extra teeth and claws running around?

Horner: You can't really compare it to either movie. First off, you can go out in the Serengeti and there are all kinds of animals that will eat you, but if you're driving around in your Jeep, you're just fine. The lions and cheetahs and leopards are not going to try to get into your Jeep when there are plenty of plant-eaters out there to eat that aren't inside of a metal cage.

That's the funny thing about " Jurassic Park," right? All these dinosaurs want to eat people no matter how hard they are to get.

So we don't have to worry about "Jurassic Park," because that's just fiction. Animals don't act that way. They're not vengeful. And birds aren't vengeful either.

LiveScience: So if you could bring a dinosaur back ? the real thing, not a modified chicken ? what species would you choose?

Horner: A little one. A little plant-eater.

LiveScience: No T. rex for you?

Horner: Would you make something that would turn around and eat you? Sixth-graders would do that, but I'd just as soon make something that wouldn't eat me. And you could have it as a pet without worrying about it eating the rest of your pets.

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter@sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45804325/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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GOP campaign for Iowa caucus enters final week (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? An Iowa caucus campaign that has cycled through several Republican presidential front-runners entered its final week Monday, as unpredictable as the day conservatives began competing to emerge as Mitt Romney's chief rival.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, released a new television commercial for the state in which he cited a "moral imperative for America to stop spending more money than we take in. It's killing jobs," he said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry countered with an advertisement that said four of his rivals combined ? none of them Romney ? have served 63 years in Congress, "leaving us with debt, earmarks and bailouts."

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who has invested more time in Iowa than any other contender, was the only one in the state during the day.

That changes Tuesday, with bus tours planned by Perry, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, all eager to energize their existing supporters and attract new ones.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul arrives Wednesday. Recent polls suggest he is peaking as caucus day approaches, and in some surveys is tied with Romney or even ahead.

The result figures to be a short but intense stretch of campaigning through small towns and even smaller towns, the sort of one-on-one politicking that has largely vanished in the electronic age.

Failing that, it will pay tribute to the types cuisine that prosper in early 21st century America.

The Perry bus will belly up to Doughy Joey's in Waterloo and to the Fainting Goat in Waverly, an establishment whose website says "After 10 p.m., we are the type of place your mothers warned you about." Perry also will visit a vineyard and winery in Carroll.

Bachmann will make an early-winter stop at a Dairy Queen, as well as Pizza Ranch establishments in Harlan, Red Oak and Atlantic, three localities with a combined population of 17,282.

It's not all about the food, though.

Perry has a stop arranged at the Glenn Miller Museum in Clarinda, population 5,301, where the great bandleader was born.

The Texas governor also has a distinction that none of his rivals can boast, a town that shares his name. Thus, Perry will visit Perry.

There were signs of strategic shifts as candidates struggled to stand out in advance of the straw poll next week that inaugurates the round of primaries and caucuses that will pick a nominee to oppose President Barack Obama next fall.

Perry's new ad shows images of Gingrich, Paul, Santorum and Bachmann as it criticizes Congress and renews the governor's call for halving lawmakers' pay and time spent in Washington.

Despite the commercial's implication, Gingrich and Santorum were out of Congress when the multibillion-dollar financial bailouts of 2008 occurred. Paul and Bachmann voted against the legislation.

Still, the approach taken suggests the Texas governor is more concerned with outpacing Paul, Bachmann, Santorum and Gingrich on caucus night that he is in defeating Romney.

The former Massachusetts governor, making his second try for the White House, has a well-funded and well-organized campaign nationally and in Iowa, as well as allies who are spending heavily on television advertisements through an independent organization known as a super PAC.

While others have periodically risen to challenge him, Romney has kept his support from seriously eroding in the polls, consistently remaining near the top.

A victory in Iowa does not necessarily translate into the Republican presidential nomination. Yet history suggests that contenders who finish farthest behind next week will quickly drop out, underscoring the significance of the struggle to emerge as Romney's chief rival.

The most recent presidential hopeful to surge and then falter is Gingrich. The former House speaker's campaign imploded last summer and still shows the after-effects: a shortage of funds to counter attack ads in Iowa, and failure to qualify for the primary in Virginia in March.

After insisting he would run a purely positive campaign, Gingrich let it be known he was about to attack Romney on one of his presumed areas of strength, his economic proposals.

R.C. Hammond, a spokesman for Gingrich, said the candidate would make the case that Romney has advanced "very timid ideas that will do little to get people back to work."

Gingrich favors an end to taxes on investment income and dividends, while Romney wants to end them only for individuals with incomes of $200,000 or less.

Gingrich also has proposed an optional 15 percent flat tax on income. Under the plan, taxpayers could stay in the current system, which has a top tax rate of 35 percent on taxable income above $379,150, or switch to the new flat rate, which would apply to income at all levels.

Romney favors retaining the current graduated income tax system, with lower rates than currently exist.

Gingrich is at least the fourth front-runner to falter since the campaign began in earnest in Iowa earlier this year.

Bachmann, who won a straw poll at the Iowa State Fair last summer, was briefly atop polls in the state. So, too Herman Cain, who subsequently suspended his campaign after a woman claimed they had a long-term extramarital affair.

Santorum has yet to experience the type of sudden surge that others in the race enjoyed, but has doggedly campaigned in all 99 of the state's counties in hopes of rallying social conservatives to his side.

___

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_el_ge/us_gop_campaign

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Police: Girl, 9, dismembered by 'trusted' babysitter

FORT WAYNE, Ind.?? A babysitter and trusted neighbor confessed that he bludgeoned a 9-year-old girl to death with a brick and then dismembered her, hiding her head, hands and feet at his home and dumping the rest of her remains nearby, police said Tuesday.

Allen County sheriff's investigators said in an affidavit that Michael Plumadore, 39, admitted he killed Aliahna Lemmon last Friday.

The girl and her family lived in the same trailer park as Plumadore. Another resident said the family had moved there so that Aliahna's mom, Tarah Souders, could help take care of her dying father, a convicted sex offender.

The park was teeming with convicted sex offenders, with one living at nearly every occupied trailer home.

Souders worried about neighbors with sex offense records who had been helping her father get by, according to trailer park residents. And before she arrived, she even asked her father if her children could be at risk for abuse from two specific men ? including Plumadore.

"He said, 'No. They will not touch your children. They're doing everything they're supposed to do,'" said Greg Shumaker, one of 15 convicted sex offenders who live at the park and the other man that Souders had inquired about.

Shumaker said Aliahna's family moved there to help take care of 66-year-old James E. "Shorty" Lemmon, who also was a convicted sex offender and died Dec. 3. He said Lemmon was "getting old" and "had trouble breathing."

Shumaker said he introduced Plumadore to Lemmon shortly after Plumadore moved into the trailer park, and Plumadore moved in with Lemmon a few days later. Shumaker said he knew Lemmon because they were both sex offenders and were in jail together.

Sheriff's department spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel confirmed that Lemmon was a sex offender. Indiana Department of Correction records show he was convicted of child molesting in March 2006.

Plumadore is not on Indiana's registered sex offenders list. But he has been on the run for 11 years for battery of a Florida law enforcement officer in 2000.

Florida Department of Correction records show that Plumadore fled the state after he was sentenced to a year in prison in May 2000. Details of the incident in Miami Beach weren't immediately available. (Read the fugitive warrant.)

No motive reported
According to the affidavit, Plumadore told police that after beating Aliahna to death, he stuffed her body into trash bags and hid her in the freezer at his trailer. He said he later chopped up her body and stuffed her remains into freezer bags.

Police said Plumadore told them he had hidden Aliahna's head, feet and hands at his trailer and that he had discarded her other remains at a nearby business. Police obtained a warrant to search his trailer on Monday and found the body parts.

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The affidavit does not provide details about why Plumadore killed the child.

A judge ordered Plumadore held without bail or bond at an initial hearing Tuesday. He has yet to be formally charged in Aliahna's death.

Aliahna and her two younger sisters were staying with Plumadore, a neighbor, for about a week because their mother had been sick with the flu.

Plumadore told The Journal Gazette on Sunday that Aliahna disappeared from his home Friday morning while he was sleeping after having gone to a gas station about a mile away to buy a cigar. Authorities have said the store's surveillance video shows him there about that time.

More than 100 emergency workers searched for her Saturday around the rundown mobile home park where Aliahna and Plumadore lived and FBI agents were there Monday.

A Facebook profile belonging to a Michael Plumadore in Fort Wayne, Ind., had a photo album called ?The kids,? which included apparent photos of a smiling Aliahna and other children. The profile, which could not be verified as belonging to the suspect, suggested he was originally from Charlotte, N.C.

Richard Patee, 58, whose trailer is next to where Plumadore was living, said he didn't think it was odd that Aliahna's mother had him watching the girls for an extended period.

"They had known each other for somewhere of three to four years, I know that, and he took care of their grandfather," Patee said. "I didn't see any reason to question it at all. I talked with Mike on and off for the past two-and-a-half years and he never had a cross word."

The discovery of her remains late Monday was a heartbreaking turn for the girl's relatives, who considered Plumadore a family friend.

"He was a trusted family friend," Aliahna's step-grandfather, David Story, told The Associated Press late Monday.

Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries said Plumadore told investigators on Monday where the girl's body could be found, ending the hopes of authorities that Aliahna would be found safe.

"It did come to a horrible conclusion," Fries told WANE-TV. "We have somebody in custody now who can pay the price for it."

Aliahna had emotional, physical problems
Souders told The Journal Gazette on Sunday that her daughter had vision, hearing and emotional problems and suffered from attention deficit disorder.

Aliahna and her sisters were staying with Plumadore because their mother had been sick with the flu and Aliahna's stepfather works at night and sleeps during the day.

"This was a child with the face of an angel," Story told the newspaper. "She truly believed everybody had good in them, it just had to be found."

The sheriff said Plumadore was arrested after being interviewed by detectives for several hours Monday ? and was also questioned Friday and Saturday.

"The story just didn't make sense to our investigators or to me when I first heard it," Fries said. "I thought this is the guy we needed to focus on. If we are going to find her, he's going to be the one who has the answers for us."

Elizabeth Watkins, who lives nearby, said residents are cautious and keep to themselves in part because of the number of sex offenders living in the mobile home park.

According to a state website, 15 registered sex offenders live in the park that numbers about two dozen homes. Watkins and she didn't know Plumadore and was shocked when told of the girl's death.

"I'm numb, I'm totally numb. I don't know what to think," she said.

This article inlcudes reporting by The Associated Press and M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45795486/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Man jailed in baseball-bat attack on girlfriend

By David Breen, Orlando Sentinel

3:57 p.m. EST, December 24, 2011

A Flagler County man is in jail today after authorities say he attacked his girlfriend with a baseball bat.

James Branningan Jr., 39, faces a domestic violence charge of aggravated battery with a weapon, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. He was being held on $20,000 bail.

Brannigan's 38-year-old girlfriend suffered a fractured hand and a possible broken nose in the early-morning attack, the Sheriff's Office said.

The victim told deputies she awoke to Brannigan hitting her with the bat. The victim's two daughters said they saw Brannigan grab their mother, choke her and then hit her with the bat.

The woman was taken to Florida Hospital Flagler for treatment.

A 3-foot-tall marijuana plant was also found in a closet in the home, the Sheriff's Office said.

dbreen@tribune.com

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/orlandosentinelbreakingnews/~3/Uc9hsliqtmc/os-man-accused-in-bat-attack-20111224,0,6529383.story

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Clashes between sect, police kill 61 in Nigeria (AP)

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria ? Fighting between a radical Muslim sect and paramilitary forces in Nigeria has killed at least 61 people over several days of violence in the nation's northeast that has left churches bombed and people hiding in fear, authorities said Saturday.

In hard-hit Yobe state, where at least 50 people died, the government ordered a dusk-till-dawn curfew following attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram. In Maiduguri, the capital of neighboring Borno state, bombs reduced at least three churches to rubble and raised fears of further attacks by a group that claimed Christmas Eve bombings last year that killed dozens.

The fighting began Thursday in the two states, with gunfire and explosions heard into the night and the following day in an arid region that borders Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and the town of Potiskum bore the brunt of the violence.

In Damaturu, residents fled their homes near the city's central mosque ahead of a combined attack by soldiers and the federal police's feared Mobile Police, known as "kill-and-go" for their propensity for violence. The paramilitary forces raided the area in armored personnel carriers and tanks, with heavy gunfire marking their arrival.

"We were able to kill 12 of the Boko Haram armed sect and bombers," local police commissioner Lawan Tanko said. The police commissioner said officers also recovered Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and explosives.

In Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, a mortuary official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter told The Associated Press at least 11 bodies had been brought in from the violence. Authorities blamed Boko Haram for firebombing at least three churches around the capital, attacks that killed one pastor and his young child.

This is just the latest in a series of bombings over the last year by Boko Haram. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, wants to implement strict Shariah law across a nation of more than 160 million people that is home to both Christians and Muslims.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state's capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.

While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties. The sect is responsible for at least 465 killings in Nigeria this year alone, according to an AP count.

Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say. That, as well as its increasingly violent attacks, have some worried the group will carry out further attacks around Christmas and New Year's.

Last year, a series of Christmas Eve bombings in the central Nigerian city of Jos claimed by Boko Haram killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 74 others.

With those attacks in mind, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria's capital of Abuja issued a warning Friday to citizens to be "particularly vigilant" around churches, large crowds and areas where foreigners congregate.

Analysts say the government's response remains strained as President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the country's south, remains worried about alienating the country's predominantly Muslim north with heavy-handed tactics. In 2009, a military and police crackdown following rioting by Boko Haram members in and around Maiduguri left 700 people dead.

Yet since Thursday, authorities have been using paramilitary police and soldiers more freely. Tanko, the Yobe state police commissioner, said joint patrols by the military and police would continue.

"When you are fighting people you don't know, you cannot say that's the end of the exercise," Tanko said. "We are trying to ensure that will be the end, but we are monitoring what is going on. But we know we cannot specifically say that will be the end."

___

Jon Gambrell reported from Lagos, Nigeria and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_violence

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Royals to visit UK's Prince Philip after heart surgery (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Queen Elizabeth's 90-year-old husband Prince Philip had a "good night" after being rushed to hospital for heart surgery and will be visited by members of Britain's royal family on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said.

Britain's longest-serving royal consort, known for his outspoken and sometimes brusque manner, needed an operation to fit a small tube to clear a blocked artery after suffering chest pains as the royal family prepared to celebrate Christmas.

"The Duke of Edinburgh had a good night," a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said. "There is an expectation that some of the royal family will visit this morning."

Philip had been due to spend Christmas with members of the royal family - including grandson Prince William and his wife Catherine, accordingly to British media - at the Sandringham royal estate in eastern England, but he may have to spend the holiday in a hospital bed.

Philip, who married Elizabeth in 1947, was taken to Papworth Hospital, one of Britain's main heart and chest centers, about 60 miles away in Cambridge on Friday.

"The Duke of Edinburgh was found to have a blocked coronary artery which caused his chest pains," the palace said. "This was treated successfully by the minimally invasive procedure of coronary stenting."

He would stay in hospital "for a short period" under observation, it added.

The hospital declined to comment although, with members of the royal family visiting him on Saturday, it appeared unlikely he would be discharged until at least Christmas Day.

Philip had attended a lunch for staff a week ago and had been on "very good form," the BBC reported.

"He has had these chest pains before and I don't think it's anything untoward, but given his age they are being safe rather than sorry," former royal press spokesman Dickie Arbiter said.

Despite his age, Philip generally has been in good health and has continued a busy round of charity work and social engagements, recently visiting Australia and Ireland.

A pivotal figure in the House of Windsor, Philip has a reputation as a fiercely loyal consort who prefers outdoor pursuits to introspection.

Britain's tabloid newspapers have delighted over the years in recounting his many public gaffes.

He once told British students in China: "If you stay here much longer, you'll be slitty-eyed."

Born on the Greek island of Corfu in 1921, Philip served in Britain's Royal Navy before marrying Elizabeth. They have four children, including the heir to the throne, Charles.

(Reporting by Matt Falloon and Peter Griffiths; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111224/wl_nm/us_britain_royal_philip

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Payroll Tax Extension Sparks GOP Candidate Debate (ContributorNetwork)

After a prolonged partisan stalemate, House Speaker John Boehner announced on Thursday that congressional leaders had reached a deal to extend the payroll tax cut.

The New York Times reports that the plan extends both the current level of the payroll tax and unemployment insurance benefits through February, and on his Twitter account, President Obama declared that "because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut--about $1,000 for the average family."

Still, many Republicans, including some of the contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, have called the proposal a gimmick and a temporary band-aid.

Here is what they have said, specifically, according to recent ABC News and CNBC Republican debate transcripts:

* Michele Bachmann: "This tax cut shouldn't have been put in the first place, the payroll tax extension, because last December, I fought against this. And I encouraged my colleagues not to go down this road. This is President Obama's plan, a temporary gimmick, not permanent solution. ? The reason why this is so detrimental to the economy as well is that this blew a hole, in other words, it took away $111 billion away from the Social Security Trust Fund. This is a very real issue for senior citizens, because we have to pay the Social Security checks that are going out."

* Ron Paul: "I want to extend the tax cut, because if you don't, you raise the taxes. But I wanna pay for it. And it's not that difficult. In my proposal, in my budget, I wanna cut hundreds of billions of dollars from overseas. The trust fund is gone. But how are we gonna restore it? We have to quit the spending. We have to quit this being the policemen of the world."

* Newt Gingrich: "I'm not prepared to raise taxes on working Americans in the middle of a recession that's this bad. But let me put Social Security in context. In 1968, in order to fake a balanced budget, Lyndon Johnson brought Social Security into the general budget. And ever since politicians have hid behind Social Security.

I think the first step is you take Social Security off the federal budget and you don't try to solve the budget deficit problem on the back of working Americans and retirees."

* Mitt Romney: "I don't wanna raise taxes on people, particularly people in the middle class that are suffering right now under the Obama economy. It's a temporary tax cut, and it'll help people in a very difficult time. But let's recognize, this is just a band-aid. ?I'm not looking to raise taxes. What I'm looking to do is to cut spending. And that's why this last week I put out a plan that dramatically cuts spending in Washington, that gets us to a 20 percent cap, and makes sure that we have a balanced budget thereafter."

* Rick Perry: "We're either gonna have a serious debate on how to fix Social Security, and we're not gonna do it by taking resources away from Social Security to pay benefits. So I'm all for tax cuts ... I'll welcome the president to sit down with Republicans in Congress to work on a tax cut that's gonna create growth in the economy. But to take the Social Security Trust Fund that is so sacrosanct to the Democrats when it comes for election time and then to use that as a tax and then try to beat up Republicans for not supporting the tax cut is absurd. You either care about Social Security and you wanna fund it, or you don't."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111225/pl_ac/10741275_payroll_tax_extension_sparks_gop_candidate_debate

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Christmas bonanza decks streets, storefronts of New Delhi

The Christmas 'blitz' is a relatively new phenomenon in New Delhi, but it's a big one.?

After nearly four years living in India, I?m still amazed at what a huge celebration Christmas has become. From the gigantic reindeer that straddles the newly-constructed megamall near my house and hundreds of kids bargaining off light-up Santa hats on the street, to the roadside shops selling all things Christmas, signs of the holiday are everywhere. Though this ancient country of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists, and many other religions has a long history of celebrating each other?s festivals, the blitz of Christmas is still a relatively new phenomenon.

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?When I was a kid we used to sell real pine trees from the Himalayas and fruit cakes,? says Shareel Goyal, the third-generation owner of Kriti Creations, a magnificent gift shop that brims with human-sized Santa Claus statues and reindeer neck ties in Khan Market, a bustling shopping area. ?But after India opened up to foreign imports in the early 1990s, Christmas started booming. We now have everything from custom Christmas trees and nativity straw to every kind of ornament you can imagine.?

Shopping in Mr. Goyal?s little store feels like WalMart on Black Friday. The Christmas music is merry, but the murmurs from shoppers that the place is a "mad house" are hard to miss. However, what makes the scene so unique is that most of the clients are non-Christian Indians. Fascinated by why so many Indians would be interested in Christmas, I ask a mother and daughter who just bought a wreath and big golden horn why they celebrate the holiday.

?We just like to decorate our house for Christmas,? says the mother. ?More and more of our friends have been doing this in the last five years so we like to also.?

Outside, Megha Joneja, a bright-eyed mother of two, selects a four-foot-tall Christmas tree. ?Christmas is mostly a party for us,? says Ms. Joneja. ?But one of the reasons I feel it is so important to celebrate other people?s religious holidays is because I want my children to be exposed to as many different religion?s customs as possible.?

Though it appears the pandemonium so typical of Christmas in the states has now spread to India, essentially, the holiday is still an incredible example of religious understanding and cultural intelligence. Sometimes the spirit of Christmas finds you when you are least expecting it. Such was the case with me this week, when I got a visit from Mr. Singh, a jolly middle-aged Indian man who brings big jugs of drinking water to my house each week.

?This is for you, madam,? says Mr. Singh with a huge smile, handing me a tiny plastic Christmas tree. ?Merry Christmas.?

Thousands of miles away from the place I grew up, my family, and the traditions that are most familiar this time of year, Singh?s gift was a reminder of what Christmas is really about.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/zaoBOlw5rPY/Christmas-bonanza-decks-streets-storefronts-of-New-Delhi

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Defense says Manning victim of military overreach

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, left, is escorted from a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, after closing arguments concluded in a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, left, is escorted from a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, after closing arguments concluded in a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, right, is escorted from a security vehicle to a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, for what is expected to be the final day of a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted from a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, after closing arguments concluded in a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, left, is escorted from a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, after closing arguments concluded in a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) ? (AP) ? A seven-day hearing into the biggest national security leak in U.S. history ended Thursday with defense lawyers insisting that the accused soldier was a victim of overreaching by a military that didn't even follow its own rules for safeguarding sensitive information.

The government argued that it had made its case for a court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning, a troubled young intelligence analyst who prosecutors said aided the enemy by leaking troves of documents.

Lawyers for the prosecution and defense gave closing arguments in the preliminary hearing at a military base outside Washington to determine whether Manning should be tried for allegedly sending hundreds of thousands of diplomatic documents and Iraq and Afghanistan war zone field reports to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

??? The presiding officer, Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, has until Jan. 16 to recommend whether the 24-year-old Crescent, Okla., native should be court-martialed.

??? Speaking for more than an hour, the chief prosecutor, Capt. Ashden Fein, methodically recounted evidence supporting each of the 22 charges, illustrating his arguments with several dozen slides projected on courtroom screens.

??? "He did this during a time of war," Fein said. Laid bare on the Internet last year were military procedures for providing air support for ground troops and procedures used to fly the injured out for medical treatment, he said. Leaked documents also included names of units, intelligence sources and methods, as well as tactics used by troops in general, including secretive special operations commando forces, he said.

??? "He wrongfully and wantonly caused the information to be published on the Internet" knowing that "enemies of the United States use the Internet," Fein said.

??? Manning was trained and trusted to provide intelligence that battlefield commanders needed, and he abused that trust while serving in Iraq from late 2009 to mid-2010, the prosecutor said.

??? Defense attorney David Coombs spoke for about 20 minutes and never denied his client had leaked the documents.

??? But he said the Army had failed Manning as he repeatedly struggled with emotional problems, and that the government is now piling on charges in an attempt to strong-arm Manning into pleading guilty.

??? The defense says Manning was nearly paralyzed by internal struggles over his belief that he was a woman trapped in a man's body. They suggest he should not have been sent to the war zone to begin with and say his chain of command failed to suspend his access to classified data despite clear signs of emotional distress, including his statement to a supervisor that he had multiple personalities.

??? "This is my problem," Coombs quoted Manning as writing in a letter to one of his supervisors. Manning said it had hurt ties with his family, distressed him all the time and that he "thought a career in the military could get rid of it."

??? Instead, Manning said in the letter, the emotional turmoil had "worn me down ... makes my entire life feel like a bad dream that won't end."

??? As for security in the intelligence unit where Manning worked, Coombs called it a "lawless unit" where there was a "critical breakdown" in standards. Witness testimony revealed soldiers were allowed to load personal music CDs onto their workplace computers and play music, movies and video games stored on a network meant for classified data.

??? Coombs said the government needs "a reality check" for bringing such serious charges, which carry combined maximum penalties of more than 150 years in prison.

??? "Thirty years is more than sufficient" as a maximum punishment, Coombs said, asking Almanza to dismiss most of the charges, including the most serious, aiding the enemy.

??? Coombs rebutted remarks from Obama administration officials, including last week's statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Manning's alleged acts had hurt U.S. interests. He said the repeated assertions about damage done was like Chicken Little crying that the sky was falling.

??? "The sky is not falling, the sky has not fallen and the sky will not fall," Coombs said.

??? And he challenged the government's original decision to classify as "secret" the material WikiLeaks published.

??? "Why are we here when all this information is out in public?" Coombs said.

??? Prosecutors noted that although the material has been published, the military still considers it classified.

??? Manning's supporters say the information published by WikiLeaks exposed war crimes and triggered the wave of pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East.

??? Almanza's recommendation will go to Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, for a final decision on whether Manning's case will go to a court-martial. Linnington has no deadline to respond.

???

.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-22-Manning-WikiLeaks/id-e19f73e0e53b4490b7689c68f03fe6b5

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Court backs stripping Chinese tire import duties (AP)

WASHINGTON ? An appeals court has ruled that Chinese-made goods shouldn't be subject to certain kinds of import duties imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington upheld a ruling Monday that the duties, called "countervailing" duties, can't be applied to Chinese-made goods because it doesn't have a market economy. Chinese goods are still subject to anti-dumping duties.

Chinese tire makers GRX International Tire Corp., Hebei Starbright Tire Co. and Tianjin United Tire & Rubber International had challenged the imposition of countervailing duties. Countervailing duties are intended to tax items whose sale price when exported is subsidized by a company's home government.

The Commerce Department sought to impose the duties in 2007. The court ruled that congressional moves in 1988 and 1994 barred them.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_bi_ge/us_china_import_duties

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WatcH NCAA FOOTBALL TV TCU vs Louisiana Tech Live POINSETTIA BOWL game online on PC

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Eagles rout Jets 45-19, stay alive in NFC East

New York Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes (10) loses control of the ball as he is hit by Philadelphia Eagles middle linebacker Casey Matthews (50) and strong safety Kurt Coleman (42) in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker picked up the fumble and ran for a touchdown. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

New York Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes (10) loses control of the ball as he is hit by Philadelphia Eagles middle linebacker Casey Matthews (50) and strong safety Kurt Coleman (42) in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker picked up the fumble and ran for a touchdown. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker (75) runs with a recovered fumble for a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

New York Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes, right, fumbles the ball as he is hit by Philadelphia Eagles middle linebacker Casey Matthews (50) in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 in Philadelphia. Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker picked up the ball and ran for a touchdown. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick is tackled by New York Jets outside linebacker Calvin Pace (97) and Jets free safety Eric Smith (33) as Jets defensive end Mike DeVito (70) looks on, in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy (25) ties a franchise record as he scores a touchdown between New York Jets free safety Eric Smith (33) left, and free safety Brodney Pool (22) in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? The NFC East is up for grabs and the Philadelphia Eagles are back in the mix.

LeSean McCoy ran for three touchdowns to set two team records, and the Eagles routed the New York Jets 45-19 Sunday to stay in the playoff chase.

The Eagles (6-8) have won two straight for just the second time this season and somehow still have a chance to repeat as NFC East champions despite underachieving most of the year. But they have to catch Dallas (8-6) and the New York Giants (7-7).

The loss snapped New York's three-game winning streak, dropping the Jets (8-6) into a tie with Cincinnati for the final wild-card spot in the AFC. The Jets hold the tiebreaker advantage over the Bengals with a better record against common opponents.

Michael Vick threw for 274 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for a score in his second game back after missing three with broken ribs.

McCoy ran for 102 yards and surpassed Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren with his 19th touchdown of the season and 16th rushing TD in the third quarter. Juqua Parker returned a fumble for a score, and Brent Celek had a career-best 156 yards receiving.

The Eagles scored 21 points off three turnovers en route to building a 28-0 lead, and didn't let up after the Jets got within 28-13 at halftime.

When the Eagles last played at the Linc, fans booed them off the field and yelled "Fire Andy!" at coach Andy Reid following a lopsided loss to New England on Nov. 27.

It was far more festive this time around. Reid didn't hear any boos, even with Rex Ryan ? son of beloved former Eagles coach Buddy Ryan ? standing on the other sideline.

The Washington Redskins kept Philadelphia's division hopes alive with a 23-10 win at the Giants earlier in the day. Then the Eagles did their part by beating the Jets for the ninth time in nine tries.

Now it comes down to this: The Eagles can only get in the playoffs by winning the division. They must win at Dallas and home against Washington, and get some help. The Giants have to lose to the Jets and finish with a win at home over the Cowboys.

None of that would've mattered if the Eagles didn't beat the Jets for just their second home win this season and second in their last 10 home games, including a playoff loss to Green Bay last January.

Mark Sanchez, who was outstanding during the Jets' winning streak, completed 15 of 26 for 150 yards and two TDs. He was sacked four times and threw two interceptions.

Philadelphia went ahead 7-0 when Parker picked up Santonio Holmes' fumble and returned it 47 yards for his second score this season. Holmes caught a pass for a 7-yard gain before the ball was stripped by Kurt Coleman.

The Jets got a break when a punt that returner DeSean Jackson let bounce went backward and hit off teammate Curtis Marsh. Ellis Lankster recovered it at the Eagles 14. But Asante Samuel then intercepted Sanchez's pass at the 4 and returned it to the 23.

Vick connected with Celek for a 26-yard TD pass to put Philadelphia up 14-0. Celek made an outstanding catch on a ball thrown ahead of him. He reached out to tip it with his right hand, corralled it inside the 5 and tumbled into the end zone.

The Eagles extended that lead to 21-0 on Vick's 11-yard TD run early in the second quarter. A roughing-the-passer penalty on Marcus Dixon ? the second time the Jets were flagged for hitting Vick late ? contributed to 15 of Philadelphia's 57 yards on that drive.

Vick scrambled down the left side and dived headfirst, stretching his hand just over the pylon for his first rushing score of the season. He had 10 last year, including one in the playoffs.

Sanchez fumbled when he was hit by Mike Patterson after running on a busted play on New York's next possession. Joselio Hanson recovered at the Jets 21, and McCoy ran in from the 9 to make it 28-0.

But the Jets wouldn't go down easy.

Nick Folk kicked a 39-yard field goal. Dion Lewis fumbled the kickoff, and the Jets started at Philadelphia's 24 after Lankster made his second recovery. Sanchez fired a 25-yard TD pass to Holmes to cut it to 28-10.

Another turnover gave the Jets the ball back. McCoy fumbled at the end of a 12-yard run, and Brodney Pool raced 33 yards with it to the Eagles 27. It was McCoy's first lost fumble in 490 touches, dating to last season.

Philadelphia's defense stiffened and the Jets settled for Folk's 28-yard field goal to get within 28-13.

McCoy's 1-yard TD run in the third quarter broke Van Buren's team records. Van Buren had 18 total TDs and 15 rushing TDs in 1945.

McCoy padded his total with a 33-yard TD run in the fourth quarter that made it 45-13.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-18-FBN-Jets-Eagles/id-475a3fda15aa45078d31b87dafe443a4

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Storm, floods in south Philippines kill nearly 200

Residents are rescued by volunteers following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Erwin Mascarinas)

Residents are rescued by volunteers following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Erwin Mascarinas)

A resident rummages through debris following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

Police rescue trapped residents following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

Police carry the body of a victim by a flash flood that hit Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

Trapped residents, perched on rooftops, are rescued to safety following a flash flood in Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Flash floods triggered by a tropical storm have killed nearly 200 people and left scores of others missing in the southern Philippines, officials said Saturday.

Cagayan de Oro city councillor Alvin Bacal said 107 people had died in his city alone in the flooding.

Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan city said 79 bodies were recovered there after more than 12 hours of continuous rain from Tropical Storm Washi swelled a river and sent muddy floodwaters cascading down from nearby mountains.

About 150 people were missing after the storm swept through the Philippines' Mindanao region from Friday night into early Saturday, Cruz said.

Disaster officers said three people drowned in Zamboanga del Norte province, west of the two cities.

Teddy Sabuga-a, a disaster officer in Misamis Oriental province, said 60 people were rescued in waters off El Salvador city, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Cagayan de Oro, after they were swept to the sea by a raging river, and about 120 more were rescued off Opol township, closer to the city.

He said an island in the middle of the Cagayan de Oro river was inundated, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or people missing.

Cruz said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river.

The floodwaters were waist-high in some neighborhoods that do not usually experience flooding. Scores of residents escaped the floods by climbing onto the roofs of their homes, Cruz said.

Those missing included prominent radio broadcaster Enie Alsonado, who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Cruz said.

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro said that about 20,000 residents of the city had been affected and that evacuees were packed in temporary shelters.

Television footage showed muddy water rushing in the streets, sweeping away all sorts of debris. Thick layers of mud coated streets where the waters had subsided. One car was shown to have been carried over a concrete fence.

The chief of the national disaster agency, Benito Ramos, said that officials were still getting reports from the field and that the number of casualties would likely rise.

"Massive flooding had been reported over the region, especially in Iligan city and Cagayan de Oro city," Ramos said, adding that tens of thousands of people sought shelter on high ground.

Strong winds toppled trees onto the rain-saturated ground in Polanco township in Zamboanga del Norte province. An 80-year-old woman drowned after being trapped in the first floor of her flooded home. A 30-year-old man and a 10-year-old boy also drowned, said provincial disaster officer Dennis Tenorio.

Washi, the 19th storm to hit the Philippines this year, came ashore in eastern Mindanao and blanketed the region with thick rain clouds 250 miles (400 kilometers) in diameter.

It quickly cut across the region overnight and was over the Sulu Sea by midmorning Saturday, packing maximum winds of 47 miles (75 kilometers) per hour and gusts of up to 56 mph (90 kph). It is expected to blow out of the country late Sunday, forecaster Raymond Ordinario said.

Back-to-back typhoons in September left more than 100 people dead in the northern Philippines.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-17-AS-Philippines-Storm/id-b1e6a77306204b4c84bc94866a892bb3

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Democratic senator tells Reid to turn down his rhetoric [VIDEO] (Daily Caller)

On MSNBC?s ?Daily Rundown? Wednesday morning, Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill told host Chuck Todd that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should turn down his rhetoric and work with Republicans to solve the payroll tax impasse.

?Let?s hope we can negotiate something,? McCaskill said. ?I think if I were going to critique Harry Reid this morning, I really wish we would stop with this ?dead-on-arrival ? not going to go there,? and begin to have language like, ?We?re going to take a look at it and see if there?s anything that we can agree on here,? and over the next couple of days try to come to an agreement.?

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?That?s what?s really going to happen,? she concluded. ?And I don?t know why this place is so set on looking like were combative all the time.?

The debate over extending a year-long U.S. payroll tax holiday continues as both parties work to tie additional legislation to its passage. Most recently, Republicans have attached language to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring crude oil from Canada to the United States.

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Democratic senator tells Reid to turn down his rhetoric [VIDEO]

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Review: "Sherlock Holmes" sequel full of "Ka-Blams!" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? You're not going to find the word "KA-BLAM!" in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's chronicles of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but it's a term that must pop up on about every other page of the screenplay for "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," director Guy Ritchie's second desecration of the corpse of one of literature's great characters.

Detective work with some occasional fisticuffs and gunplay thrown in may be all well and good for people who still actually read books, one imagines Ritchie thinking ... but to make Holmes relevant to 21st century audiences, there has to be post-"Matrix" slo-mo sequences devoted to kung fu and/or heavy artillery, interspersed with constant cacophony and occasional gadding about.

Sadly, the first "Sherlock Holmes" was a hit, despite the fact that Ritchie's big-screen interpretation of the legendary sleuth resembles Conan Doyle's creation as much as the hero of the low-budget thriller "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" calls to mind the protagonist of the New Testament.

There are moments when it feels like "A Game of Shadows" is getting Holmes right, only it's Mycroft and not Sherlock -- the titular gumshoe's brother is played by Stephen Fry, whose periodic appearances in the movie feel like a wonderful visit from someone who's actually read the books.

Would that this film were about Mycroft, then, and not the man he calls "Sherlie."

Robert Downey, Jr. returns as the detail-oriented, socially awkward detective, who has begun piecing together the far-flung threads of a conspiracy being woven by the nefarious Professor Moriarity (Jared Harris). The dastardly professor has turned himself into a one-man military-industrial complex, setting out to do what all military-industrial complexes do: start a war so that the cash will come rolling in.

Moriarity proves himself to be a formidable foe for Holmes, quickly dispatching Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) -- admittedly, one of the film's smartest moves is getting rid of this character in a hurry -- and sending his goons to kill Dr. Watson (Jude Law) and his new bride Mary (Kelly Reilly) as they attempt to honeymoon in Brighton.

Holmes and Watson, aided by a Romany fortune-teller (Noomi Rapace, of the original Swedish "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and its sequels), pursue Moriarity to the edge of Reichenbach Falls in an attempt to prevent the academic from starting World War I several decades early.

In its favor, "Game of Shadows" gives us a sinister plot that's a notch or two smarter than most of the schemes hatched by 007's nemeses (even if it feels all too familiar), and there are occasional moments when Ritchie has fun with period spectacle, whether it's a roomful of waltzing diplomats or an elaborately-staged production of "Don Giovanni" at the Paris Opera.

If only the CG-heavy evocations of 1891 London or the dwelled-upon internal mechanics of firearms had the heft or the simplicity of those opera singers dressed up like singing statues or devilish minions -- time and again, the film assaults the eyes with cartoonish visual trickery and deflates the story with its obvious artificiality. (A game of shadows, indeed.)

When the film slows down enough to let us enjoy the interplay between its talented cast members or to allow us to pick up on little clues along the way that let us attempt to join Holmes in solving the mystery, this new "Sherlock Holmes" offers moments of vitality that are all too quickly crushed by the next exploding set piece.

Two hours of Downey and Harris sparring over a chessboard would have provided many more thrills, but neither Ritchie nor the suits at Warner Bros. would have any idea how to make or market a Sherlock Holmes movie featuring the actual character rather than some pipe-smoking, 19th century James Bond with a weakness for coca leaves and jiu jitsu.

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