(Reuters) ? Citigroup's chairman, Richard Parsons, is considering giving up the position to focus on other interests, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the situation.
According to the report, Parsons, 63, is expected to decide by early March whether he will continue in the role. Regardless of his decision, the company is expected to keep the posts of chairman and chief executive separate, the Journal said.
Citi officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Parsons was named chairman of the bank in 2009 when the bank was reeling from the financial crisis. He has been a director at Citigroup since 1996.
Parsons previously served as chief executive and chairman at Time Warner, where he stabilized the company after its disastrous merger with America Online.
(Reporting By Michael Erman; Editing by Matt Driskill)
OSLO (Reuters) ? A Norwegian of Chinese Muslim origin with alleged links to al Qaeda was convicted Monday of plotting to blow up a Danish newspaper that had printed cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammad, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Mikael Davud, who was accused of leading a bomb plot, had admitted he intended some day to attack Chinese interests like the Chinese embassy in Oslo but he was charged only with plotting to bomb the Danish newspaper.
Prosecutors had earlier recommended an 11-year prison sentence for Davud.
A co-defendant, Iraqi-Kurd Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, was also convicted and sentenced to three and a half years in prison while a third defendant, David Jakobsen, an Uzbek with Norwegian residency, was convicted on a lesser charge and sentenced to 4 months, which he has already served.
It was Norway's first terrorism case with alleged international links. Under Norwegian law a charge of planning to commit a terrorist attack requires proof of a conspiracy between two or more people.
(Reporting by Walter Gibbs; Editing by Giles Elgood)
DAKAR, Senegal ? An Associated Press reporter saw police tussle with international pop star Youssou Ndour, who was pushed back by police when he tried to enter a police station where a leading opposition figure is being detained.
Ndour had come on Saturday to the Criminal Investigation Division as part of a large crowd of opposition supporters who wanted to show their solidarity with Alioune Tine, a well-known human rights activist who is being questioned by police.
Tine was the organizer of a demonstration Friday that turned violent following the decision of Senegal's constitutional court to allow the country's leader to run for a third term. The legal body approved President Abdoulaye Wade's third term bid, even though critics say the constitution allows a maximum of two.
This week, while in Davos for the World Economic Forum, I watched President Obama deliver what was a great State of the Union speech... for 2009. Proposing the establishment of a financial crimes unit in January 2012 is like waiting three years before sending firemen to the scene of an inferno. The speech was full of good proposals that will never happen in a year dominated by electioneering. The president's pre-speech embrace with Gabby Giffords took me back to last January, and that horrific Saturday in Tucson -- a tragedy that led to widespread agreement that what we needed as a country was, as Pima County's Sheriff Clarence Dupnik put it at the time, "a little soul searching." Unfortunately, in the year since then, our collective soul has gone largely unsearched -- and the gulf between our leaders' rhetoric and the reality millions are struggling with everyday has continued to widen.
Add your voice to the conversation on Twitter: twitter.com/ariannahuff.
NEW YORK ? After years of experimenting, the top video destinations on the Web are suddenly flush with original programming: documentaries, reality shows and scripted series.
Over the next few months, YouTube, Netflix and Hulu will roll out their most ambitious original programming yet ? a digital push into a traditional television business that has money, a bevy of stars and a bold attitude of reinvention.
The long-predicted collision between Internet video and broadcast television is finally under way.
No one is suggesting that the quality on the Internet is close to that of broadcast TV, but it's becoming easy to imagine a day when it will be.
And even though critics question whether new media can rival a business that's been around for about 70 years, the video sites have sought partnerships with seasoned professionals. And they benefit from the different economics of global Web-based entertainment.
Either way, what's happening now is just the first wave.
"This convergence is now," says documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who created "The Failure Club," a series about people trying to do the things they've always feared, for Yahoo, and "A Day in the Life," a series documenting 24 hours of someone's life, for Hulu.
He says the quality still varies, but viewers will soon see talent and production values begin to change.
On Feb. 6, Netflix will premiere its first scripted show, "Lilyhammer," in which Steve Van Zandt ("The Sopranos") plays a New York mobster in witness protection in Norway. Later this year, it will release "House of Cards," a highly anticipated adaptation of the British miniseries produced by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey. Next year, it will debut new episodes of the cultish comedy "Arrested Development," which originally aired on Fox.
Hulu plans a Feb. 14 premiere for "Battleground," a mock political documentary. The site will later release "Up to Speed," a six-part documentary by Richard Linklater about "monumentally ignored monuments of American cities."
Hulu, which has some 30 million monthly users and 1.5 million for its monthly subscription service Hulu Plus, is co-owned by the parent companies of NBC, Fox and ABC.
Yahoo has sought to capitalize on its enormous search audience of nearly 180 million unique monthly visitors by drawing viewers to its original programming, including a slate of women-focused shows launched last fall and comedy programming planned for February. Its first scripted entry will be "Electric City," a futuristic animated series produced by Tom Hanks, who will also voice a character.
YouTube recently launched an entire catalog of original programming, spending $100 million on the gradual rollout of more than 100 niche-oriented channels.
The channels don't have the pressures of a 24-hour schedule and instead focus on short-form, on-demand programming. Partners vary from the Wall Street Journal to World Wrestling Entertainment to Madonna.
At the recent consumer electronics trade show CES, YouTube's global head of content predicted that by 2020 about 75 percent of channels will be transmitted by the Internet. And video will soon be 90 percent of all traffic.
"Over time, you will see more and more television properties, television channels distributed over the Internet," Robert Kyncl said. "Everything in its due time."
Internet delivery allows programming that is "much harder to fulfill through traditional distribution means...because we have a global scale," Kyncl added.
And online systems can serve niche audiences that would be difficult to sustain any other way, and do so at lower cost.
YouTube plans to expand to hundreds of Internet channels, just as television went from a few networks to dozens of cable channels. In the next few years, "most of your interests will have channels on YouTube," Kyncl predicts.
Netflix, which streamed 2 billion hours of video in the fourth quarter of 2011, is already operating under the assumption that video networks ? whether streaming or televised ? are converging. Just as Web video is undertaking original programming, TV networks are experimenting with systems such as TV Everywhere, which allows viewers to watch channels on the Web and on mobile devices.
"You can think of us as a cable-TV network, but we like to think we are at the center," says Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix. "We are an Internet TV network, and then they are going to become like us. But it's the same thing, really."
Hastings offers a comparison between Netflix and HBO: "We are becoming more like them in doing some originals, starting that journey, and they are becoming more like us in creating an on-demand interface like HBO Go," which allows viewers to watch channels on the Web and on mobile and tabulate devices.
HBO declined to comment.
Production schedules will vary widely at the sites, but Netflix plans one notable difference: All its episodes will be released at once.
James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, says the fact that Hanks is making a series for the Internet shows how the traditional TV system is "ready to unravel.
McQuivey says the disruption in video will "unfold in front of us like a slow-mo replay of an accident."
"The new content won't be as good as what you watch Thursday nights from 9 to 10 p.m., but it's going to get closer to that quality," he adds. "And it's certainly as good as what you watch on Thursday from 3 to 4 in the afternoon or Saturday morning from 10 to 11."
Hulu and Netflix both want to use original content to entice viewers to their much larger libraries of older content. For Netflix, that's movies and old TV; for Hulu, that's last night's TV and older series. Hulu executives say any new original series has to be match up to traditional content.
"If you're ever going to do anything original, it's got to stand up to that," says Andy Forssell, senior vice president of content at Hulu. "That can't be `Web video,' it's got to be TV quality."
Original content remains a small percentage of the budget for Hulu, which plans to spend $500 million on content in 2012.
Erin McPherson, head of original programming at Yahoo, likes to call Yahoo "the fifth network." Its Yahoo Studios production house in Los Angeles produces as many as 30 originals a month, often partnering with production companies such as Reveille (NBC's "The Office"). Its original programming attracted more than 26 million unique visitors in November, according to comScore.
"The time is right," says McPherson. "We're finally here."
___
AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report
A Slovakian youth team and a former NHL star were forced to flee when the building?s roof collapsed onto the rink. TODAY?s Natalie Morales reports.
>>>a
close call
caught on tape in a newly-built
hockey rink
in slovakia. the roof came crashing down onto the ice under the weight of reportedly heavy snow as former nhl player, richard zednick and a
youth hockey
team scramble to
run for cover
, no one fortunately was hurt.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States and Egypt will develop an action plan to boost trade and assist the Arab world's most populist country through a difficult transition, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Tuesday.
"In the wake of the extraordinary changes underway ... we want to help Egypt empower individuals to make their own economic, as well as political choices," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.
The announcement came on the first anniversary of the start of a popular uprising centered in Cairo's Tahrir Square that drove former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power.
Kirk met last week with Egyptian Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mahmoud Eisa, who was in Washington to court badly-need foreign investment.
The Obama administration is "actively working to broaden and deepen commercial links with Egypt - and other countries in transition - because we are convinced trade and investment liberalization will help drive the economic growth that is so critical to Egypt's and the region's future," Kirk said.
USTR said the action plan, which the two governments plan to finalize in coming weeks, will have three main objectives: boosting exports, expanding investment and supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises, with a focus on creating jobs.
One key element could include developing a work plan to expand the use of "Qualifying Industrial Zones" in Egypt, which provide U.S. duty-free treatment for Egyptian goods made with Israeli components, the trade office said.
The two sides will explore other ways to expand trade, including encouraging Egyptian companies to make greater use of the Generalized System of Preferences program, which provides duty-free treatment for many developing country goods.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pressed the United States and Egypt to consider launching talks on a free trade agreement to stimulate trade and encourage U.S. companies to increase investment in the fragile democracy.
"Today's announcement is a good first step but trade officials should now think boldly and look longer-term at seriously pursuing free trade negotiations with Egypt," said Lionel Johnson, vice president of Middle East and North Africa affairs, at the U.S. Chamber.
Two-way trade between the United States and Egypt is relatively small. Last year, the United States imported about $2 billion worth of goods from the Mideast country. It exported about $6 billion worth of goods to Egypt.
(Reporting By Doug Palmer; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Brands and businesses can track their reputations online and connect with consumers through social media. But what about in the real world? One of the biggest prizes in Startupland will go to whoever can figure out how to connect real-world shopping to brands and businesses. Steve Carpenter is going after that prize with his latest startup, Endorse. Carpenter has been incubating the company for a year as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Accel. (He sold his last company, Cake Financial, to Etrade in 2010). Endorse just raised $4.25 million in a Series A led by Accel, with SV Angel also investing. His co-founders and team include early employees from YouTube and Paypal (Erik Klein, Mayrose Dunton, and Franck Chastagnol).
It's official: Supermodel and "Project Runway" host Heidi Klum and singer Seal are officially separating after seven years together.
TMZ first reported on Saturday that Klum was going to file for divorce as early as this week. On Sunday night, the pair confirmed the split in a statement to People.
"While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate," the?pair told the magazine.?
"We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart. This is an amicable process and protecting the well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during this time of transition."
Klum and Seal have three biological children together, and the singer adopted the model's eldest daughter, Leni, from a previous relationship.
"They've had a very rough road lately," a friend of the couple told Us Weekly on Saturday.?"They're either madly in love or having? crazy fights."
The driving distance between Phoenix and Dallas is getting farther. It?s a minuscule difference ? not even a millimeter a year ? but it?s a tangible phenomenon, and you can blame on the middleman: New Mexico. The Rio Grande Rift, the fault line that bisects the southwestern state, is bursting at the seams, pushing apart New Mexico?s borders and stretching the land around it.
But don?t expect to straddle the fault line and have your legs ripped out from under you, unless you have centuries to wait:? the state is getting just one inch wider every 40 years. Scientists calculate the Rio Grande Rift?s pace of expansion as approximately 1.2 nanostrains per year. So it?s less an expanding waistline than a stretchmark. Still, it?s having an effect on hundreds of miles of surrounding terrain. According to the group of seven scientists from New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, who studied the Rio Grande Rift for more than four years before releasing their findings in the January 2012 issue of Geology Magazine, the pull of the canyon isn?t a localized problem.
(PHOTOS: Along the Rio Grande, Scenes of a Tense Border)
?We didn?t expect it to be so spread out,? University of Colorado geophysicist Anne Sheehan told the Albuquerque Journal. Indeed, the rift?s movement hasn?t been absorbed into the land directly around it, leading to a widespread stretching and rucking that has affected terrain in a radius of hundreds of miles ? and maybe even more, stretching not just New Mexico but Texas and Arizona as well.
The research team calls it a ?distributed deformation,? but we prefer to think of it as an America-shaped piece of taffy stretching endlessly, slowly but surely. And that should give you an idea of what will happen if this rifting phenomenon keeps occurring.? It?s hardly a visible effect, but it?s an unexpected feature of the ever-changing landscape. The scientists plan to continue monitoring the 25 GPS units they?ve set up in the region to see if the pace keeps up. They?re not yet sure if the rifting puts the geology of the region in peril. The stretching of the Earth?s surface is easier to see at the edges of tectonic plates, where there are typically volcanoes or mountains, but movement on an continental rift is more mysterious. Fortunately, at the paltry rate it?s happening, scientists will have centuries, if not millennia, to come up with a game plan for dealing with it.
Electric vehicles partsmaker has string of California projects delayed or canceled for lack of cash. But research center for electric vehicles and other green power is funded and operating.
Winston Chung came to Southern California two years ago like a standard-bearer for the new China, a wealthy Hong Kong entrepreneur with visions of creating an?electric?vehicle industry by reviving struggling manufacturing firms.
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Some dreams rolled out as planned. The battery scientist and clean-energy promoter bought control of four Southern California specialty vehicle makers. The University of California-Riverside renamed a building as Winston Chung Hall, saying that the $13 million he provided for green power research was the biggest donation in campus history.
But other ventures skidded off course, the biggest failure being a bid to step into the social spotlight by purchasing the Balboa Bay Club and Resort, a Rat Pack-era landmark where Republican power brokers mingled and John Wayne tossed back Conmemorativo tequila.
The $174.5 million deal for the combination yacht club and hotel and its sister Newport Beach Country Club was called off earlier this month. Chung never came up with the money as agreed, forfeiting what city documents show was a nonrefundable $4 million down payment.
"We were told he was having difficulty moving money out of China," David Wooten, chief executive of the clubs, said Monday. The deal could be revived if Chung produces the cash, but for now, competing offers will be considered, he said.
The Bay Club deal is one of at least three stalled ventures.
A seven-figure deposit Chung made in June on a Newport Harbor mansion once owned by actor Nicolas Cage is in jeopardy because he never came up with the money to complete the purchase.
And a plan to increase manufacturing at a Riverside motor home company, with the four-year goal of selling $5 billion in tour buses and campers to newly wealthy Chinese consumers, has been on hold for a year while awaiting approval from Chinese regulators.
Chung, 53, whose companies in the south China boom town of Shenzhen make products such as?electricvehicle power trains and storage batteries for power plants, insisted early this month that the setbacks in Southern California would be temporary.
He blamed the delays on Chinese government reviews. Cash for the Balboa Bay Club and the waterfront estate was being held up by China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Chung said. His plan to sell U.S. motor homes in China was waiting approval from the country's Ministry of Commerce.
In telephone interviews, he said Chinese authorities had assured him that approvals would be forthcoming in time for him to buy the properties and to start manufacturing motor homes in March.
"One hundred percent certain they're going to go through," Chung said of his pending deals. A spokeswoman declined to comment further Monday.
Aaron Brickman, a U.S. Commerce Department official overseeing a program to stimulate foreign investment, said difficulties in getting funds out of China are not surprising. Unlike major Western countries, China controls the outward flow of cash as well as money coming into the country.
"China is still becoming comfortable with its own evolution regarding capital flow and investments," Brickman said.
The setbacks are bad news for Brad Williams, chief executive of MVP RV Inc., the Riverside maker of motor homes and trailers.
Williams said that about $30 million from a Chinese investment group that included Chung rescued his idled company in 2010. Among other things, the backing enabled MVP to buy a 24-acre Riverside manufacturing complex from bankrupt RV giant Fleetwood Enterprises.
But an additional $310 million in funding that Chung had pledged to jump-start production appears to be in jeopardy. At the very least, it won't flow until Chinese authorities approve the design of the tour buses and campers that MVP hoped to sell in China.
Williams, who had talked of generating 1,200 jobs in California's economically battered Inland Empire _ a deal the White House praised as an emblem of U.S.-China cooperation _ expressed frustrations in an interview last year.
Investors placing their bets for 2012 are faced with the classic dilemma. Stick with market sectors that performed best last year, or search for value in beaten-down names?
The question is especially tricky considering that 2011 was a turbulent ride of mixed economic news at home, worse news abroad and painful sell-offs that tested even seasoned traders. Investors? reaction was textbook ? dive into stock mutual funds stuffed with big, dividend-paying companies known for relative stability in good times and bad.
That meant top-performing funds focused on utilities, consumer staples and health care companies. On the other hand, mutual funds heavy on financial stocks were among the worst, sideswiped by Standard & Poor?s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and continued financial turmoil in Europe.
With the U.S. economy showing more signs of strength, now might be a good time to move some money into depressed sectors.
But is that strategy a good policy for personal investing in 2012? Here?s a look at the sectors that analysts are watching:
Financials flop ? Mutual funds that focus on banks and brokerages are certainly trading at prices well below a year ago, but many analysts are not yet ready to jump in.
The S&P 500 financials were crushed in 2011, falling 18 percent amid Europe?s tumult and lingering trouble in the battered real estate industry. Not surprisingly, mutual funds that are heavy in financials got battered last year. Analysts say the banking industry remains under pressure, especially with no sign that the European debt crisis is ready to let up. There are a number of reasons to be concerned about the sector.
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?You?ve got other factors, like regulation, Dodd-Frank, that are crimping the way large banks do business,? said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. He also pointed out that low interest rates hamper the sector.
Defensive moves ? With the state of the global economy in doubt, as it was for much of 2011, investors flocked to defensive stocks, companies that produce things people buy whether or not the economy is thriving. Utilities were the top-performing sector in the S&P 500. Consumer staples jumped 10.5 percent.
Many of the year?s top-performing funds focused on the utilities sector, including top-ranked ProFunds Utilities UltraSector, which returned nearly 26 percent. But some experts say defensive sectors such as utilities and consumer staples now are a little too expensive.
Health care stocks remain promising despite last year?s run-up, several analysts said. That?s because even after a 10 percent gain for the S&P health care stocks in 2011, the sector is still far below historic highs. And even with uncertainty in Washington about the future of health care, an aging population will increasingly need medical care.
Technology boost ? An anticipated jump in business spending may make technology ? a flat sector last year ? a good bet in 2012.
Since the financial crisis in 2008, corporations across the globe dialed back spending and instead sat on their cash. This might be exactly the time when companies begin to replace aging computers and other technology, especially with the U.S. economy looking a bit brighter. Tech stocks in the S&P 500 inched up just 1.3 percent overall in 2011.
PARK CITY, Utah ? Lauren Greenfield's Sundance Film Festival entry "The Queen of Versailles" tells the story of every American in danger of losing a home amid the economic crisis.
The difference is that the home in question was a 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by the excesses of France's Palace of Versailles.
Greenfield's documentary chronicles the financial success of Florida time-share condominium entrepreneur David Siegel and his wife, Jackie, who set out to build the largest house in America at the height of the real-estate bubble.
When the bubble burst, the Siegels had the same rude awakening as millions of others: They had been living easy on borrowed money they now could not repay.
One of the opening-night films Thursday at the Sundance showcase for independent cinema, "Queen of Versailles" presents an intimate portrait of the Siegels' extreme wealth and the hard fall they took as the markets crashed and money dried up in 2008.
"It is a metaphor for what we have all gone through in the economic crisis, and that's what was really compelling to me about the story," Greenfield said in an interview Friday. "It's not a reality show, it's not a gotcha on the 1 percent. It's really looking at their life in the big, kind of epic size that it is, and having that be a window in which to kind of think about what happened to us all."
Greenfield, a photographer whose debut documentary "Thin" premiered at Sundance in 2006, met Jackie Siegel at a photo shoot for fashion designer Donatella Versace. Siegel, who says in the film that she used to spend $1 million a year on clothes, was one of Versace's best customers, and she and Greenfield hit it off right away.
As Siegel described her life ? flying with her eight children on a private jet, building the biggest home in the country ? Greenfield realized the family was an ideal subject for her long-term photographic project on wealth. Greenfield visited the Siegels to shoot photographs and eventually convinced them to let her document their lives and the construction of the house on film.
The documentary starts out like a twist on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," revealing the splendor of the 26,000-square-foot home the Siegels occupied and the gaudy grandeur of the palace they were building that would be nearly four times bigger. Greenfield examines the family business, including its crown jewel, a new time-share tower in Las Vegas, and traces the self-made couple's humble origins before rising to wealth.
When the economy went sour, the Siegels allowed Greenfield to continue her shoot. The film follows them down as they are forced to sell assets, fire employees, fight to avoid foreclosure on their unfinished mansion and struggle to hold onto the Vegas tower.
The marriage grows shaky as the Siegels fight over money. Jackie is unable to rein herself in on a colossal Wal-Mart spending spree, while David balls out the family for leaving all the lights on and threatens to let the power company cut off their electricity.
Jackie Siegel attended the Sundance premiere, but her husband did not. David Siegel is suing Greenfield and the Sundance festival, claiming materials used to promote the documentary are defamatory. Greenfield said she could not comment about the lawsuit.
The indulgence of the Siegels' lives seems absurd, sparking hearty laughter at times from the Sundance audience at the film's premiere. David Siegel proudly proclaims that his reason for building his immense house is simply "because I can," while Jackie Siegel is shown dutifully trying to cut back on expenses by flying commercial and renting her own car, then learning to her surprise at the Hertz leasing counter that the vehicle doesn't come with a driver.
Yet despite their wealth and privilege, the Siegels are sympathetic figures. The strain of trying to hold his empire together becomes apparent on David Siegel's face as his interviews with Greenfield progress. Jackie Siegel visits an old friend in danger of losing her own modest house to foreclosure and sends her $5,000 to help fend off the bankers.
"It's got a human element that I think is unexpected for the viewers going in. I think they thought it was going to be a look at the rich or this kind of reality-show craziness about the building of the biggest house in America, and it starts that way and takes you in, and then takes you on this other path that's really about looking at the American dream ? both its virtues and its flaws, and how we all got caught up in that," Greenfield said.
"I remember David said to me in one of the interviews ? I keep thinking about this, and maybe I should have put it in the movie ? he said, `Money doesn't make you happy. You just can be miserable in a better part of town.'"
SAN FRANCISCO/QUITO (Reuters) ? Chevron Corp (CVX.N) has filed an appeal with Ecuador's National Court of Justice to review a judgment that the U.S. oil company pay $18 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon jungle.
Chevron was ordered by an Ecuadorian judge to pay the damages after a fraught legal battle that has lasted nearly two decades and looks like it will run longer.
The California oil company inherited the case when it bought Texaco a decade ago. Its appeal on Friday argues the lower courts violated Ecuador's constitution by refusing to take corrective action in response to what Chevron calls "extensive fraud and corruption" committed by the plaintiffs' lawyers and representatives.
Chevron said the original judgment, delivered last February by a lower Ecuadorian court in Lago Agrio, was based on faulty evidence and retroactive application of a law, while ignoring releases of liability granted to Texaco by Ecuador in the 1990s.
"Today's appeal gives the National Court of Justice an opportunity to correct the grave injustices that have occurred in this case," Hewitt Pate, Chevron's general counsel, said in a statement.
Plaintiffs have responded to the accusations by citing Chevron's own test data in documenting the pollution and arguing that Ecuador's release for Texaco did not prevent third parties from suing for damages.
In related litigation in New York, the plaintiffs also accuse the company of mishandling soil and water samples during the Lago Agrio trial by maintaining two different laboratories, based on testimony from a Chevron expert.
Along with the appeal in Ecuador, Chevron asked that it not be required to post a bond to prevent enforcement of the judgment during the appeal process, arguing that such a payment would violate Ecuador's obligations under an order issued last February by an international arbitration tribunal.
Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the next step would be to see whether the Lago Agrio appeals court requires Chevron to pay.
"If it asks (Chevron) to pay a bond, and if it pays the bond, then only the bond can stop us from carrying out the sentence," Fajardo told Reuters.
Asked if the plaintiffs were looking at any country in particular where it could seek to collect the damages, he said they would first await the decision on the bond. "We haven't done anything, we don't have any plans yet," Fajardo said.
The entire case may be reheard far from both Ecuador and the United States. The arbitration tribunal in The Hague, operating under a U.S.-Ecuador treaty, ordered Ecuador to take all measures at its disposal to suspend enforcement of the Lago Agrio judgment until the arbitrators have their say.
The tribunal is expected to rule any day on the question of whether or not it has jurisdiction in the case.
(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco, Swetha Gopinath in Bangalore and Eduardo Garcia in Quito; Editing by Andre Grenon, Gary Hill)
Ever wanted a 3D digital copy of all those Little League trophies? Well, the NEK has whipped up something to lend a hand that's a bit larger than another recent scanner. Enter the OrcaM, an Orbital Camera System capable of producing an accurate, digital 3D model of objects up to 80cm (about 31.5 inches) wide and weighing up to 100kg (around 220lbs). Making use of seven shooters simultaneously, the system photographs the object while projecting various light and shadow combinations in order to determine the ware's geometry. The OrcaM is able to reproduce high-quality digital reproductions with a geometric accuracy less than millimeter (nearly .04 inches). As if that wasn't enough, it produces complete color, texture and reflectivity maps so that every minute detail is accounted for. Once your to-be-copied object has been loaded, the OrcaM takes over and is automatic, churning out the completed rendering shortly after the requisite photos are taken. Hit the video up top for a look at the beast in action.
Who?s the greatest coach in NFL history? Any answer would have to consider the likes of Vince Lombardi, Paul Brown, George Halas, Don Shula, Bill Walsh and Chuck Noll. But Patriots owner Robert Kraft says his coach has them all beat.
Kraft said today that he believes Patriots coach Bill Belichick will be remembered as the best coach the league has ever seen.
?I think he?ll go down as the greatest coach in the history of the NFL, because he?s really competing in the era of the salary cap,? Kraft said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. ?When I bought the team, it was the beginning of the salary cap, and I think a lot of great coaches had difficulty understanding how to balance the economics of the game and the budgets. His product knowledge is so great.?
Kraft raises an interesting point about the turnover of NFL rosters these days: Belichick is going for his fourth Super Bowl ring, which would tie him with Noll for the most ever, but Noll did it with the Steelers at a time when franchises could keep the nucleus of a great team together for a decade. The Patriots have only three players on this year?s roster ? Tom Brady, Kevin Faulk and Matt Light ? who were with the Patriots when they won the first Super Bowl under Belichick.
In fact, what Belichick has done in building the Patriots dynasty at a time when there really aren?t dynasties in the NFL is so different than what any of those great coaches of the past did that it?s hard to even compare them. But Kraft has a good point when he suggests that Belichick?s achievement surpasses them all, because it comes at a time when it?s harder to build a dynasty than it ever has been before.
?I think we?re privileged to have him as a head coach,? Kraft said. ?I think he has done an outstanding job.?
And if he earns another Super Bowl ring this year, he may have done the most outstanding job that any coach has ever done.
A look at where natural gas prices are heading as prices are down about 20 percent this year, with CNBC's Sharon Epperson & Cindy Wexler, natural gas trader.
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WASHINGTON ? House Speaker John Boehner says President Barack Obama is breaking his promise to create jobs by rejecting a plan to build an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.
Boehner says Republicans will keep fighting for the Keystone XL pipeline because the project is good for the U.S. economy because it would create thousands of jobs.
The president says he's turning down the project not because it isn't worthy, but because of what he calls an arbitrary Feb. 21 deadline he was given by Congress to make a decision. The deadline was set by a GOP-written provision as part of a tax bill that Obama signed into law just before Christmas.
Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) wipes his face during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) wipes his face during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) shoots over San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard (2) and DeJuan Blair (45) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker (9) passes the ball as Miami Heat's LeBron James, left, looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan (21) looks to pass as Miami Heat's Mike Miller (13) defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Miami Heat's Chris Bosh (1) shoots as San Antonio Spurs' DeJuan Blair (45) defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
MIAMI (AP) ? LeBron James scored 33 points, Chris Bosh added 30 and the Miami Heat used a historic third-quarter turnaround to erase a big deficit and beat the San Antonio Spurs 120-98 on Tuesday night, snapping a three-game slide.
Miami outscored San Antonio 39-12 in the third quarter ? the second-largest differential for any quarter in Heat history, and the second-worst differential for a period in Spurs history. The Heat trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half, 52-35 late in the second quarter.
Mike Miller made his season debut and shot 6 for 6 on 3-pointers, finishing with 18 points and tying his career-high for makes from beyond the arc. And the Heat did it all without Dwyane Wade, sitting out on his 30th birthday because of a sprained right ankle.
"I couldn't let my boy down on his birthday," James said.
Danny Green scored 20 points for the Spurs, who got 18 from Tony Parker, 13 from DeJuan Blair and 12 from Kawhi Leonard and Gary Neal.
The Heat are now 4-0 without Wade this season, 8-1 since early last season without the 2006 NBA finals MVP. And unquestionably, this was the most improbable of those victories.
James was 7 for 9 in the third quarter. The Spurs ? combined ? were 4 for 19. James hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to put Miami up 72-68, and the Heat simply never stopped rolling from there.
The comeback from down 17 matched the NBA's fifth-largest this season. Miami outscored San Antonio 71-35 after halftime.
Before the game, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich summed his team's all-or-nothing record ? 9-0 at home, 0-4 on the road entering Tuesday ? with his usual dry wit. "We're really good at home and on the road, we (stink). That's the biggest difference," Popovich said.
He was half-serious, and it certainly didn't apply to the way the Spurs started Tuesday.
San Antonio made 12 of its first 15 shots, with eight of those makes coming from no more than 11 feet and most of them directly at the rim. James was terrible at the start, missing everything from layups to free throws, and the Spurs led 35-26 after the opening quarter.
They had Green to thank for that margin. Green took an inbounds pass with less than 2 seconds to go, set his feet and connected from the top of the key for a 3-pointer that beat the buzzer and left James shaking his head nearby.
James had the same reaction at the end of the half, and that time, Green wasn't even anywhere near the 3-point line. James had just connected on a 3-pointer to get the Heat within 11, but Green let a desperation heave fly from near midcourt that swished ? sending the building into silence and the Spurs into the locker room up 63-49.
Everything was going San Antonio's way.
And then, well, nothing went the Spurs' way.
NOTES: Miller appeared to get slightly shaken up after taking a tumble in the first half, limped for a few moments, but remained in the game. ... Spurs G Gary Neal not only played through a bruised thigh, but his luck may be changing. Popovich said Neal narrowly avoided getting his vehicle struck by a large truck on the way to the airport Monday for the trip to Miami. ... Duncan has now faced the Heat 25 times. The Spurs are 17-8 in those games.
From field to biorefinery: Computer model optimizes biofuel operationsPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Yates diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, lll. Research into biofuel crops such as switchgrass and Miscanthus has focused mainly on how to grow these crops and convert them into fuels. But many steps lead from the farm to the biorefinery, and each could help or hinder the growth of this new industry. A new computer model developed at the University of Illinois can simplify this transition, researchers say. The model can run millions of simulations, optimizing operations to bring down costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions or achieve other goals.
"Biomass from the field will not just show up magically at the biorefinery," said agricultural and biological engineering professor and department head K.C. Ting, who developed the model with Energy Biosciences Institute research professor Yogendra Shastri and agricultural and biological engineering professors Alan Hansen and Luis Rodriguez. "You have to harvest, transport, store and deliver," he said. The institute, funded by BP, supported the research. Ting, Hansen and Rodriguez are affiliates of the Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois.
Shastri, who built the model, said the goal was to "consider all these operations together and find out the best system, not just the best harvester or the best method of storage, but a system that works together to achieve a given goal."
In this case, the goal was to minimize the cost of the entire system, he said.
The model, named BioFeed, is described in papers in the journals Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining; Biological Engineering; Biomass and Bioenergy; and Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.
The model took into account regional attributes such as weather, crop yield, farm size and transport distances, Shastri said. The model can optimize more than 300,000 variables, he said, including harvest schedules, equipment selection, storage sizing, transport distances and the logistics of moving the biomass from place to place.
As a test, the researchers used the model to optimize biomass production for a 13-county region in southern Illinois. (BioFeed can be adapted to analyze any region of the world, the researchers said.)
A major challenge of the emerging biofuels industry is the need for a vast and steady stream of plant biomass, the researchers said.
"If the biorefinery capacity is 50 million gallons of biofuel per year, you need to deliver roughly 1,500 to 2,000 tons of biomass per day," Ting said. "It's not a trivial task."
"Ideally, the biorefinery is expecting year-round delivery of biomass, and yet the harvesting season is a very short portion of the year and greatly dependent on weather," Hansen said. A January or February harvest, which most agronomists recommend for Miscanthus in the Midwest, means farmers must bring in their crop in some of the worst weather of the year, he said. This can cause expensive delays. BioFeed found that a November harvest would significantly reduce weather-related costs, which must be weighed against the potentially higher fertilization needed the following spring.
The model also found that storing the harvested grasses in a barn or other protected site on the farm would in most cases reduce the overall cost of the system more than if it were stored uncovered on a farm or at a centralized facility.
Each optimized solution will have its drawbacks, however, the researchers said.
"If you reduce costs in one part of the system, you may increase costs somewhere else," Ting said. For example, while on-farm storage can reduce the total expense of harvesting, storing and getting material to the biorefinery, it will increase the farmer's share of the overall cost.
BioFeed allows policymakers, growers, investors, biorefinery owners, researchers and other interested parties to learn from simulations without having to actually build the system first, the researchers said.
"There are so many factors to consider, so many ways to operate, so many scenarios, so many potential policy changes," Ting said. "That's why the optimization tool itself is so important."
"BioFeed is optimizing as if you have control of everything, as if you own everything," Ting said. Individual stakeholders within the system such as farmers or those building new bio-refineries will want to maximize their own profits, however. This drives up the cost of the whole system, "but it also makes everybody more willing to participate," he said.
To study this, the researchers are building another model that considers how farmers and other stakeholders are likely to behave given various economic and regulatory factors. This "agent-based" approach is described in a paper in BioEnergy Research.
###
Editor's note: To contact Yogendra Shastri, call 217-333-1775; email yshast1@illinois.edu. To contact K.C. Ting, call 217-333-3570; email kcting@illinois.edu. To contact Alan Hansen, call 217-333-2969; email achansen@illinois.edu. To contact Luis Rodriguez, call 217-333-2694; email elfr@illinois.edu.
The papers, "Impact of Distributed Storage and Pre-processing on Miscanthus Production and Provision Systems," in the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining; "Optimization of Miscanthus Harvesting and Handling as an Energy Crop: BioFeed Model Application," in Biological Engineering; "Development and Application of BioFeed Model for Optimization of Herbaceous Biomass Feedstock Production," in Biomass and Bioenergy; "A Novel Decomposition and Distributed Computing Approach for the Solution of Large Scale Optimization Models," in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture; and "Agent-Based Analysis of Biomass Feedstock Production Dynamics," in BioEnergy Research are available online.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
From field to biorefinery: Computer model optimizes biofuel operationsPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Yates diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, lll. Research into biofuel crops such as switchgrass and Miscanthus has focused mainly on how to grow these crops and convert them into fuels. But many steps lead from the farm to the biorefinery, and each could help or hinder the growth of this new industry. A new computer model developed at the University of Illinois can simplify this transition, researchers say. The model can run millions of simulations, optimizing operations to bring down costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions or achieve other goals.
"Biomass from the field will not just show up magically at the biorefinery," said agricultural and biological engineering professor and department head K.C. Ting, who developed the model with Energy Biosciences Institute research professor Yogendra Shastri and agricultural and biological engineering professors Alan Hansen and Luis Rodriguez. "You have to harvest, transport, store and deliver," he said. The institute, funded by BP, supported the research. Ting, Hansen and Rodriguez are affiliates of the Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois.
Shastri, who built the model, said the goal was to "consider all these operations together and find out the best system, not just the best harvester or the best method of storage, but a system that works together to achieve a given goal."
In this case, the goal was to minimize the cost of the entire system, he said.
The model, named BioFeed, is described in papers in the journals Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining; Biological Engineering; Biomass and Bioenergy; and Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.
The model took into account regional attributes such as weather, crop yield, farm size and transport distances, Shastri said. The model can optimize more than 300,000 variables, he said, including harvest schedules, equipment selection, storage sizing, transport distances and the logistics of moving the biomass from place to place.
As a test, the researchers used the model to optimize biomass production for a 13-county region in southern Illinois. (BioFeed can be adapted to analyze any region of the world, the researchers said.)
A major challenge of the emerging biofuels industry is the need for a vast and steady stream of plant biomass, the researchers said.
"If the biorefinery capacity is 50 million gallons of biofuel per year, you need to deliver roughly 1,500 to 2,000 tons of biomass per day," Ting said. "It's not a trivial task."
"Ideally, the biorefinery is expecting year-round delivery of biomass, and yet the harvesting season is a very short portion of the year and greatly dependent on weather," Hansen said. A January or February harvest, which most agronomists recommend for Miscanthus in the Midwest, means farmers must bring in their crop in some of the worst weather of the year, he said. This can cause expensive delays. BioFeed found that a November harvest would significantly reduce weather-related costs, which must be weighed against the potentially higher fertilization needed the following spring.
The model also found that storing the harvested grasses in a barn or other protected site on the farm would in most cases reduce the overall cost of the system more than if it were stored uncovered on a farm or at a centralized facility.
Each optimized solution will have its drawbacks, however, the researchers said.
"If you reduce costs in one part of the system, you may increase costs somewhere else," Ting said. For example, while on-farm storage can reduce the total expense of harvesting, storing and getting material to the biorefinery, it will increase the farmer's share of the overall cost.
BioFeed allows policymakers, growers, investors, biorefinery owners, researchers and other interested parties to learn from simulations without having to actually build the system first, the researchers said.
"There are so many factors to consider, so many ways to operate, so many scenarios, so many potential policy changes," Ting said. "That's why the optimization tool itself is so important."
"BioFeed is optimizing as if you have control of everything, as if you own everything," Ting said. Individual stakeholders within the system such as farmers or those building new bio-refineries will want to maximize their own profits, however. This drives up the cost of the whole system, "but it also makes everybody more willing to participate," he said.
To study this, the researchers are building another model that considers how farmers and other stakeholders are likely to behave given various economic and regulatory factors. This "agent-based" approach is described in a paper in BioEnergy Research.
###
Editor's note: To contact Yogendra Shastri, call 217-333-1775; email yshast1@illinois.edu. To contact K.C. Ting, call 217-333-3570; email kcting@illinois.edu. To contact Alan Hansen, call 217-333-2969; email achansen@illinois.edu. To contact Luis Rodriguez, call 217-333-2694; email elfr@illinois.edu.
The papers, "Impact of Distributed Storage and Pre-processing on Miscanthus Production and Provision Systems," in the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining; "Optimization of Miscanthus Harvesting and Handling as an Energy Crop: BioFeed Model Application," in Biological Engineering; "Development and Application of BioFeed Model for Optimization of Herbaceous Biomass Feedstock Production," in Biomass and Bioenergy; "A Novel Decomposition and Distributed Computing Approach for the Solution of Large Scale Optimization Models," in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture; and "Agent-Based Analysis of Biomass Feedstock Production Dynamics," in BioEnergy Research are available online.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
COMMENTARY | Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah and former ambassador to China, has decided to withdraw from the race for president and to throw his support behind Mitt Romney, according to the Washington Post. It was all in all a concession to reality.
Huntsman, though he certainly had the experience in foreign and domestic policy to be president, never quite was able to justify the idea of his being president. He ran as a moderate, a curious strategy considering the conservative nature of the Republican electorate. Romney is considered a moderate by many. Indeed that has been an accusation in campaign ads by his opponents. But even Romney is running to the right, emphasizing cutting government and taxes as his main issues.
The polls have not been kind to Huntsman. Nationwide, he is in the low single digits, according to Gallup Tracking. He is at 5 percent in South Carolina in the latest Rasmussen poll.
Huntsman was an also-ran in Iowa, with 0.6 percent, due to the fact he did not contest the Iowa caucus. He came in third in New Hampshire, getting 16.9 percent behind Ron Paul and Romney.
In the end, there was no path to victory for Huntsman. The smooth, moderate, Mandarin speaking politician lacked widespread appeal, especially in the southern states with primaries coming up. It just took him until today to realize what most people had already concluded.
The question arises, who does Huntsman's withdrawal benefit? The obvious answer would be Romney, who is touted as a candidate who can appeal to the same kind of moderate independents that Huntsman had in his corner.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air doubts Huntsman's withdrawal will have much of an impact at all. His support was almost nonexistent and consisted of disaffected Democrats, some of them who still seem to like Obama and hate the tea party.
On the other hand, those Democrats will remain disaffected with or without Huntsman in the race. Where will they go? Perhaps to Romney in the end. Or they may just stay home on Election Day, not being enthused about any candidate.
Brands and businesses can track their reputations online and connect with consumers through social media. But what about in the real world? One of the biggest prizes in Startupland will go to whoever can figure out how to connect real-world shopping to brands and businesses. Steve Carpenter is going after that prize with his latest startup, 
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Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
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