Ivory Coast's Gbagbo en route to Hague

FILE - In this April 16, 2008 file photo, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, left, meets United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the United Nations in New York. The International Criminal Court on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011 issued an arrest warrant for Ivory Coast's former strongman, who refused to accept his loss in last year's election and nearly dragged the country into civil war in a bid to stay in power. (AP Photos/Bebeto Matthews, File)

FILE - In this April 16, 2008 file photo, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, left, meets United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the United Nations in New York. The International Criminal Court on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011 issued an arrest warrant for Ivory Coast's former strongman, who refused to accept his loss in last year's election and nearly dragged the country into civil war in a bid to stay in power. (AP Photos/Bebeto Matthews, File)

FILE - In this April 11, 2011 file photo, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, center, and his wife Simone, are seen in the custody of republican forces loyal to election winner Alassane Ouattara at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The International Criminal Court on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011 issued an arrest warrant for Ivory Coast's former strongman, who refused to accept his loss in last year's election and nearly dragged the country into civil war in a bid to stay in power. (AP Photo/Aristide Bodegla, File)

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) ? Ivory Coast's former strongman, who nearly dragged his country into civil war in a bid to retain power, is being extradited to the International Criminal Court following the issue of a warrant for his arrest, his spokesman said Tuesday.

The ex-president has been under house arrest in the tiny village of Korhogo over 300 miles (500 kilometers) north of Abidjan since being ousted by internationally backed forces seven months ago.

In Abidjan, Gbagbo's spokesman Kone Katinan confirmed that the former ruler had left the remote village on a special flight headed to The Hague. "He's in the plane," Katinan said. The public prosecutor's office in Ivory Coast said Gbagbo changed planes in Bouake, the regional capital, before continuing to the Netherlands.

"I can confirm that he left Korhogo at 6:31 p.m. GMT. He is passing through Bouake, because the landing strip in Korhogo can only accommodate a small plane."

Gbagbo's Paris-based lawyer Emmanuel Altit said he had filed an appeal to stop the international arrest warrant issued Tuesday through Ivory Coast state prosecutors, but acknowledged that if it's not granted, the ex-president would be transferred overnight.

The development, which comes almost exactly a year to the day after Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election, was applauded by victims of Gbagbo's regime and by rights groups because of the signal it sends against impunity.

Once he arrives in The Hague, Gbagbo will become the first former head of state to be taken into custody by the tribunal since its founding in 2002. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted, though he refuses to surrender, while former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic have been tried there by special ad hoc tribunals, rather than the international court.

The move could further stoke tension in Ivory Coast, however, because it gives the appearance of victor's justice, since grave abuses were also committed by forces loyal to the country's democratically elected leader, Alassane Ouattara, who enlisted the help of a former rebel group in order to force Gbagbo from office.

In the Abidjan neighborhoods that voted in large numbers for Gbagbo, the frustration was palpable. Retired insurance salesman Jack Koutouan, 67, called the move "an abuse of the law."

Leaders of Gbagbo's party, whose members are either under house arrest or else in exile, called the pending extradition an "injustice."

"It's an injustice to judge him alone without judging (Guillaume) Soro," said party spokesman Augustin Guehoun, naming the country's defense minister who headed the armed group that invaded the country in order to install Ouattara.

The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented how the advancing army set fire to villages that voted for Gbagbo, and executed those that could not run away, including the elderly and the disabled, by rolling them inside mattresses and then setting them on fire.

"He is not the only one responsible (for the human rights abuses committed during the post election period)," said 30-year-old Kossonou Agingra. "There were partisans of Alassane (Ouattara) who killed ? and partisans of Gbagbo who killed."

The 66-year-old Gbagbo, a history professor, came to power in a flawed election in 2000. He then failed to hold elections when his first five-year term expired in 2005, and rescheduled the vote a half-dozen times before it finally went ahead in 2010. Among conditions set by the international community, which Gbagbo accepted, were that the results would be certified by the United Nations in order to prevent his regime from rigging the vote.

But as soon as it became clear that Ouattara was leading in the polls, Gbagbo's presidential guard surrounded the election commission, preventing the results from being announced.

The killings began as soon as the United Nations declared Ouattara the winner, and for the next four months morgues overflowed as the military under Gbagbo's control executed opponents, gunned down protesters and shelled neighborhoods.

The turning point came in March when thousands of unarmed women led a demonstration demanding Gbagbo's departure. Tanks opened fire with 50-caliber bullets and the horrific scene that followed was caught on camera phones, and led to condemnation by governments around the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The United Nations helped by French forces began air strikes soon after, clearing the path for Ouattara's soldiers to enter the city, where they seized Gbagbo inside his bunker.

"Today is a big day for the victims of crimes committed during Ivory Coast's horrific postelection violence," said Elise Keppler, senior counsel to Human Rights Watch in an email.

"While the Gbagbo camp fueled the violence through its refusal to relinquish power and its incitement, forces on both sides have been repeatedly implicated in grave crimes," she said. "The many victims of abuse meted out by forces loyal to President Ouattara also deserve to see justice done."

The spokesman for Ouattara's government Kone Bruno said he did not believe the pending indictment could destabilize the nation, which is still plagued by pockets of violence between the two camps. He added that the international court will likely be more impartial than an Ivory Coast court. "If a judgment were made in Ivory Coast, it wouldn't be objective," he said.

In the Netherlands, Gbagbo is likely to be better treated than he has been at home. His lawyer Altit said that while under house arrest in Korhogo the elderly Gbagbo was kept incommunicado and prohibited from going outside.

"He didn't have the right to walk even a few steps outside," said Altit. "At the beginning, he didn't have any clothes, and after two or two-and-a-half months lawyers were able to come see him and bring him some things."

A confidential United Nations document leaked to The Associated Press on Tuesday states that Gbagbo's health "seems to be deteriorating." He was having "trouble standing up," as of Nov. 23.

In The Hague, Gbagbo will likely be held in the same North Sea-facing complex that also houses ex-Liberian warlord Taylor and Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba. Inmates have TVs, access to the Internet and a choice of books to read, as well as regular contact with their attorneys.

___

Callimachi contributed to this report from Kinshasa, Congo. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Paris and Mike Corder at The Hague also contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-29-International-Criminal-Court-Gbagbo/id-7db809fdfa3544879cd2eaaddcd4b031

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No more free infant formula at RI hospitals (AP)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. ? New mothers in Rhode Island will no longer leave the hospital with a free goody bag of infant formula.

To encourage breastfeeding, the state's seven birthing hospitals stopped formula giveaways this fall, apparently making it the first state to end the widespread practice.

State health officials hailed the decision Monday, noting that breastfeeding has been proved healthier than formula for both infants and mothers. Stephanie Chafee, a nurse and the wife of Gov. Lincoln Chafee, called the decision a critical step toward increasing breastfeeding rates.

"As the first `bag-free' state in the nation, Rhode Island will have healthier children, healthier mothers, and a healthier population as a whole," Chafee said. "This is a tremendous accomplishment."

Formula will still be available to new mothers who experience difficulties with breastfeeding.

The new policy isn't intended to force women into nursing their children, according to Denise Laprade, a labor and delivery nurse and lactation consultant at Woonsocket's Landmark Medical Center, which eliminated free formula distribution last month. She said the focus is instead on parental education and helping mothers decide what's best for their child.

"We never make any woman feel guilty about her decision," Laprade said. She said she has received few complaints from parents about the new policy, though she said the older nurses needed a little time to adjust.

Thirty-eight percent of Rhode Island mothers nurse their babies six months after birth, compared with 44 percent nationally, according to a report issued this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

State Health Director Michael Fine said the state hopes to raise the percentage of Rhode Island mothers nursing at six months to 60 percent by 2020.

Public health officials in Massachusetts endorsed a ban on free formula samples in 2005, but the regulation was rescinded by then-Gov. Mitt Romney before it took effect. Getting the new policy in place in small Rhode Island was easier, since it's not a law or regulation and required the agreement of only seven hospitals.

Nationally, about 540 of the nation's 3,300 birthing hospitals have stopped the formula giveaways, according to Marsha Walker, a registered nurse in Massachusetts and co-chairwoman of "Ban the Bags," a campaign to eliminate formula giveaways at maternity hospitals.

Walker said the bags given to new mothers ? typically containing a few days' worth of formula ? amount to a sophisticated marketing campaign by formula manufacturers.

"Hospitals should market health and nothing else," she said. "When hospitals give these out, it looks like an endorsement of a commercial product."

The International Formula Council, a trade group representing formula manufacturers, opposes the end of free formula samples. In a statement, the council notes that sample bags also include "key educational materials" on how to use and store formula.

"Mothers should be trusted to make good choices for their babies," the council said in its statement. "More than 80 percent of U.S. infants will be given formula at some point during their first year of life ... these educational materials are needed by the vast majority of mothers to ensure infant formula is prepared correctly and the baby's health is not jeopardized."

New mom Crystal Gyra said that while the new policy is well-intended, women should have the option of taking home formula samples. The Providence woman said she gladly accepted the free formula she received after giving birth to her daughter Gianna, now 2 months old. Gyra gives her daughter formula.

"It helped me," she said of the samples. "They should leave it up to the women to decide whether they want to take the samples or not. We're smart enough to figure it out."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_on_he_me/us_formula_giveaway

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Former Ivorian president arrives to face ICC (Reuters)

ROTTERDAM (Reuters) ? A plane carrying former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, facing an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, arrived at Rotterdam airport Wednesday, a Reuters witness said.

The Hague-based court, which is also pursuing Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and investigating alleged crimes in Kenya, Libya and Central African Republic, has so far declined to comment on the warrant.

Gbagbo would be the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002.

The ICC opened an investigation last month into killings, rapes and other abuses committed during a four-month conflict triggered by Gbagbo's refusal to cede power to Alassane Ouattara in last year's Ivorian election. The conflict ended only when French-backed pro-Ouattara forces captured him on April 11.

The ICC's silence means there is as yet no information on what exactly Gbagbo is to be charged with.

The Ivory Coast plane landed at Rotterdam airport at 0244 GMT and entered a hangar, the Reuters witness said.

Gbagbo had been flown by helicopter Tuesday from remote Korhogo in northern Ivory Coast, where he had been under house arrest since his capture, and transferred on to a plane, Ivorian military officials said.

(Reporting By Vanessa Romeo)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/wl_nm/us_ivorycoast_gbagbo

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RolePlayGateway?

Preferences

• Post a minimum of three paragraphs, I understand about writer?s block and can tolerate posts that aren?t as long, but even when our characters are interacting there are more things to say than just what their response is, like thought and things the character notices. I don?t want three sentences spaced out as paragraphs either, I don?t count those as paragraphs. The more I get the more I feel like I need to give back, and if I can?t give you back the same amount of paragraphs, I will as close as I can.
• I am fine with blood and gore but I don?t go into detail about sex, and I won?t do that.
• I don?t want any love at first sight kind of things going on, there are times where characters already know each other and have hidden crushes, but I would like to bring out the hidden crush thing, instead of within the first few posts they?ve already decided to date.
• If you have any ideas for the role-play or you want to say ?Hey, how about we do this?? I?m not going to tell you it?s a bad idea, I might even add on to that idea, or we can work something out.
• I am excited to start any of these role-plays so if you are interested please either PM me or post in the thread and I?ll get back to you as soon as I see that you?ve replied.
• I am still a student, so there are times where I won?t be able to respond, and there are times I won?t be able to get to my computer, and I know you?re going to have times like that too, so we?ll both have to be patient, even if it is an exciting part in our role-play.
• In your reply to this thread, please say something about what role-plays you are interested in, if you have any questions and where you would like to role-play this (PMs, threads or email. I?m fine with any of them.)
• If there is anything else you want to know please feel free to ask me, I don?t bite.

Plotline Key
Plotline still open
someone is interested in this plotline
Taken plotline

Plotlines

Immortal Danger
There is a little town, that is often forgotten, yet it?s very peaceful and quiet and probably very boring. The small town though is pleasant for parents that want to see their children safe, this town doesn?t have much things going on, meaning less danger for children and themselves. This town is good enough, with its own school, library and supermarket, but that is about it. If you want to go do something else that is big you have to go into the city, which gladly is pretty close to this small town.

Of course unlike any other small town there are three people living here. No, they aren?t any three people, these three have been living in this small town for a rather long time, yet they all look as if they were teenagers, they consisted of a prince and two people of protection. All three of them are known as immortals, they are only killed if their head is chopped off and they do age, but it is too slow for people to notice. Immortals do stop aging at a certain point though, but that age varies among them all, these three have been teenagers for a long time, but they had grown up to that age, and still hope to keep aging well into their twenties at least.

How come the rest of the town is filled with humans? Well, long ago, there used to be a bunch of immortals under different kingdoms, and the land this town was on, used to be one of them. This kingdom had been in a great civil war, rebellion had broken out and the two protectors of the prince had been assigned to him. One a girl, of great fighting skill and a boy of great magic skill, this boy happened to be part of the rebellion, but at the same time was in love with the girl. He had been careful with anything he released, even to the girl that he had a crush on. The girl though, was in love with the prince and the prince loved her. These two kept their love hidden but when they were alone they acted like a couple.

One day, the magic boy found this out, and was crushed, though the girl seemed relieved that somebody knew their secret, she trusted the magic boy. The rebellion was starting to get stronger and one day the magic boy decided to take advantage of this, he had threatened the girl to marry him and not the prince or the prince would die. Knowing she had to protect the prince?s life and couldn?t let him die, as his lover and as his protector, she agreed to marry him, but only if he agreed to do one thing for her. The magic boy agreed to these terms.

What was the one thing the girl asked of him? She asked him to erase the memory of the prince, not fully though, just the memories of them being a couple. That afternoon the rebellion had stormed the castle, and the girl was forced to fight against the prince, and knock him out as the magic boy erased his memory. The girl?s heart was broken but now her love was safe, now there wasn?t a thing to worry about, until the modern times came about. The prince hadn?t forgotten his feelings for the girl, he still loved her very much, and he still does. He gets jealous every time he sees the magic boy with the girl, yet he can?t do a thing about it. Until memories start coming back, every time something familiar is said or he sees something familiar. The prince doesn?t even remember the end of the rebellion when the magic boy, his other trusted protector, had taken his memories.

Now though, the immortals have died out and are scattered across the land, these three had managed to get through the whole thing and now live in the same house, they already own and are trying to get through another year of high school, for their classmates it is their third year, to these three it has been way too many years of high school. Gladly, the principle happens to be an immortal too, and is able get this all arranged for them. What happens though, when this prince?s memories come back? Will he try and find the truth of these two betraying him? Will he try to get his lover back?

I am looking for someone or two other people to play the two guys, I?m playing the girl. I would be happy with other ideas for this and I want someone that could help make this plot come alive with a lot of twists. I wouldn't also mind doing this with three people.

Fallen Angel
Fallen angels are just angels that have done something wrong, something to get them forced out of heaven. Most go straight to the underworld, others that are lucky enough to get a second chance go to earth. To get back into heaven they must help a human with a corrupt soul become clean again. Well, a fallen angel was forced to earth for a certain thing he had done. Though he happens to be very unlucky, he ends up in a place like Las Vegas, where there are people doing drugs everyday, prostitution is legal and there isn't anything morally right with this city.

He happens to meet a girl that is a part of everything in this city, a girl with a hard and sad past that just got into a worse way of living. This Fallen angel, doesn't think this girl is the one he is supposed to save, he just naturally helps this girl out with her drug issues, and whatever else she does on a daily basis that makes this fallen angel cring. This girl at first doesn't really relize that he is actually helping her in anyway, he just gives her a gentile push every now and then but it seems to be a strong influence.

This is the first time this girl had ever gotten help out of this life, a way out of this place. They begin to fall in love, but of course he is a fallen angel, he has to go back to heaven at some point right? This girl agrees to help him find some person with a soul so corrupt that he can go back, but what happens when their relationship goes too far? What happens when other angels get the word that this fallen angel has fallen for a human girl, or even that this girl knows about what he is? What happens when this girl's soul becomes clean, and the fallen angel leaves? You'll have to find out.

I will be taking the Fallen angel and I need someone to play the human

Make a Wish
A prophecy for told of a child that could do anything. A child that would come in contact with the fantasy world. The girl would be the only one with this and world would be untouchable for anyone else. The girl would have the power to wish for what she wants but it comes with rules, she could wish for things that would include changing the balance of things, she couldn?t wish for someone to love her just because, she couldn?t wish for someone to just drop dead, she couldn?t wish to manipulate time. The girl wouldn?t even know about these powers, until the age of sixteen. Of course it wouldn?t just stop there, two guys were trained for this event. They were supposed to stop at nothing so that the girl wouldn?t use her powers the wrong way, they would be her caretakers. They would the only connection the girl had that would know anything. The guys were there when the prophecy was made and were given an elixir that made them not age until the whole thing was over.

Well it had been a while, one of the guys hadn?t been heard from in a while, and the other guy was stuck at seventeen going through school and running from town to town. The girl that was born wasn?t the only one, the prophecy was wrong at the point that the girl was a twin, the powers were split. Only one guy figured out what was going on and now they have to find the other to see what to do, and his job can?t be that easy, there is someone after the two girls and there is more about the prophecy that hasn?t been told just yet.

((Okay I can be either the two guys or girls, although it would be better if I were the guys for storyline purposes, still it doesn?t matter and I was thinking of maybe adding that both girls have a crush on the same guy and they have a bit of a fight too.)

Realistic Romance Roleplay
Twins of a top company pretty much own the school, one female one male. The male happens to be the school president and the female is the vice president. Two of their friends that are also a part of the student council happen to be the only two that are able to get close to either of the twins. Two students (also, male and female) that were never on good terms, but knew each other since birth, decide to work together even though they don?t like each other what so ever so they can get close to the president and the vice president both having a crush on one of them. They try to get through with the friends and join the student council, to convince the twins to go out with them. One other problem that gets in their way is that the school has always been run by the company the parents owned and how much money the kid had. Will the twins go out with them? Will they ever get through to the council?

Okay I need someone to play the two students, and one of the friends that is on the student council. I will play the other student council kid and the twins, heads of the student council.

Boarding School for the Gifted
There was this legend of an academy that took special children, children with different powers. These children were identified for two things one, they have a twin and two they have an unusual marking on them. This marking was the same thing it was a star that seemed to almost be burned into their skin, but it was always in a different location for each set of twins. These children go through day to day life in this academy with nothing out of the normal, they have never known their parents and most them don?t care. They are all in this academy to learn and they have always been told about how different and how better they are than normal humans anyways.

Now, why are these children special? They have powers that humans do not have, it is different for each child, but they each have three powers. These children have lived in this school for a long time they all know each other very well, and they stay in the school until they turn about eighteen and are there from birth. The children that leave the school normally come back every now and then to talk to their former teachers and students that still stay at the school, but they bring back news of the human world. The children learn from birth how to hide their powers from others and are told that it is for the better not to show how different they are from regular humans.

Well, this school is real, and this school is probably better than any human school out there. The students that go there are pampered very well. These students have the best of the best in everything from technology to the basic needs of everyday life. All the students are given special prizes for doing well in their classes. Now there is a group of four students that are given the best of the best of the best, they are given everything because they are the top students in their classes. They are spoiled a lot and are given anything they want and given even better privliages than the rest of the students.

These four students have their own dorms that are in a different area from the other dorm rooms, their common room is better than the normal student?s common rooms. They even have their own class room because they are better students. These students are the best of friends and know each other really well, they are also known for using their powers whenever they want instead of just when it is necessary. These friends though have their own drama going on, with everyone being so spoiled and great friends things are bound to go wrong somewhere.

Okay, we would each be playing a set of twins, one boy and one girl. I would love to add more to the plotline so whatever you have in mind for this as well, I am open to it.

[COLOR="Lime"]I am also interested in an Ouran Highschool Host Club roleplay, but with our own hosts.[/COLOR]

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

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GOP 2012 candidates walk tightrope on immigration (AP)

AMHERST, N.H. ? The Republican presidential contenders are tying themselves in knots over immigration.

Newt Gingrich is endorsing a South Carolina law that allows police to demand a person's immigration status ? a week after taking heat for advocating a "humane" approach. Rick Perry, though defending Texas' in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants' kids, spent Tuesday campaigning with a hardline Arizona sheriff in New Hampshire. And Mitt Romney is talking tough on immigration in his second White House campaign, though he previously supported the idea of allowing some illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S.

Meanwhile, many voters say immigration won't determine which candidate they'll back for the GOP nomination. Instead, they say they're focused squarely on the economy and jobs.

"In light of the economy, questions about immigration policy are less egregious," said Loras Schulte, an evangelical conservative from northeast Iowa.

So what gives?

The contortions by the Republican candidates illustrate the straddle they're attempting on a complex issue. In order to win the Republican nomination, they must court a GOP electorate that is largely against anything that could be called "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. But they can't come off as anti-immigrant, a stance that could alienate the independents and moderates ? not to mention Hispanics ? they'd need to attract in a general election should they win the party's nod to challenge President Barack Obama.

In 2008, immigration helped shape the Republican presidential race, with John McCain bypassing the leadoff caucus state of Iowa ? and planting his flag in New Hampshire ? after seeing his standing tank when he backed a plan to give some illegal immigrants an eventual path to citizenship. Still, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the caucuses that year despite having backed tuition benefits in his state for children of illegal immigrants. And McCain ended up winning the nomination despite his position.

Exit polls in Iowa that year found Republican caucusgoers naming immigration their top concern.

This year, many Republican voters are focused on an unemployment rate that's been stuck around 9 percent nationally and is even higher in some states. A poll by The Des Moines Register taken last month showed economic and fiscal concerns topping immigration.

"Four years ago it was about who is the best person in the party. And now they are saying, `Who can beat Obama?'" said Susan Geddes, a top organizer in Iowa for Huckabee last time.

But immigration as an important issue has hardly gone away. Gingrich is the latest to wrestle with it.

Enjoying a rise in national and state polls, he called in a debate last week for an approach that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants with longstanding family and community ties. Since then, he has been defending that approach from attacks by opponents who say it would amount to amnesty for millions.

"An absolute falsehood," Gingrich retorted Tuesday while campaigning in Bluffton, S.C. He pressed his rivals to say how they would deal with some 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.

"What is it that you're going to do? Are you really going to go in and advocate ripping people out of their families?" he said.

A day earlier, however, he sounded like an immigration hardliner when he expressed support for a South Carolina law that would require law officers who make traffic stops to call federal officials if they suspect that someone is in the country illegally.

At the College of Charleston, he called the law "pretty reasonable."

In New Hampshire, Perry looked to regain his footing on the issue that his dogged his campaign from the outset.

With Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio at his side, the Texas governor, who opposes a border fence with Mexico, defended anew his signing of legislation to allow in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.

"They are working toward getting citizenship, and they pay full in-state tuition," Perry said. "As the sheriff knows, I've been fighting this illegal immigration issue for a decade. But the people of Texas made that decision."

Arpaio, the Maricopa County sheriff known for his forceful immigration enforcement, endorsed Perry in New Hampshire, praising his experience as a border governor. But he wouldn't comment on Perry's in-state tuition position.

Perry got an earful on that from Alice Bury, a retired nurse. She told him she was "really having a problem" with his tuition policy and described it as a likely deal breaker.

Romney, meanwhile, was in Florida rolling out the endorsements of prominent Cuban-American lawmakers, including Florida Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart and former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. They endorsed him despite misgivings about where he stands on immigration.

"I don't agree with Gov. Romney's position on immigration, but I agree with him solidly on the economy and for me, that's the driving force in this election," Ros-Lehtinen said.

Immigration is among the several areas where the former Massachusetts governor has shifted his positions.

In the months before he formally became a 2008 presidential candidate, Romney supported the idea of allowing some illegal immigrants to remain in the country, saying: "People who had come here illegally and are in this country, the 12 million or so that are here illegally, should be able to sign up for permanent residency or citizenship. But they should not be given a special pathway, a special guarantee, that all of them get to stay here for the rest of their lives."

In recent days, he's assailed Gingrich's position, characterizing it as "a new doorway to amnesty."

"It's a mistake as a Republican Party in trying to describe which people who've come here illegally should be given amnesty, to be able to jump ahead of the line and the people who have been waiting in line," Romney told reporters in Des Moines last week.

And yet, all that shifting by all those candidates may not matter to the bulk of conservative Republican voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, when the three states kick off the state-by-state march to the GOP nomination.

In interviews, several Republicans said that while the GOP nominee must be tough on sealing the border, they'll choose the Republican who can best fix the economy, create jobs and beat Obama ? and that may be good news for Gingrich in particular, given that he's taking the most heat on the issue lately. Few said Gingrich's position was a disqualifier.

"Immigration matters to me, but I didn't get as offended by Gingrich," said Doug Illsley, a college student from Merrimack, N.H.

While immigration remains a GOP priority, its intensity has waned, said Chip Saltsman, Huckabee's national 2008 campaign manager. "The intensity this year is dominated by jobs and spending."

___(equals)

Peoples reported from Amherst, N.H. Philip Elliott contributed from Bluffton, S.C., and Kasie Hunt contributed from Miami.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_el_ge/us_gop_immigration

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Demi Moore?s Thanksgiving Tweet A Slam Towards Ashton Kutcher?

Demi Moore’s Thanksgiving Tweet A Slam Towards Ashton Kutcher?

Demi Moore broke her silence on Twitter by sending out a Thanksgiving tweet to her followers. But many fans believe that her message was directed [...]

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Car salesmen sell a dream to small-town India (AP)

BARABANKI, India ? Out on the edge of town, a few steps from the railroad tracks and across the street from an emerald-green field that stinks of sewage, Sanjeev Saxena sits inside a signpost of a new Indian era. Occasionally, he glances up from his desk to see if anyone is coming through the door.

He's waiting to sell you a dream.

It's a dream about small-town prestige, and air conditioning in the brutal north Indian summer. It's a dream they never thought they'd see in India's millions of villages, and of people who once couldn't imagine clawing their way into the middle class.

It's a dream that comes in 15 models and 35 colors. Financing is easily available.

"I remember when cars were for rich people," said Dharmendra Srivastava, 32, one of Saxena's seven salesmen at the brightly lit dealership with the unwieldy name Bright4Wheel. "Today, everyone in India wants to have a car: the city people, farmers, everyone."

___

Little is changing modern India more than the spread of cars, a four-wheeled reflection of its economic transformation and a window into the aspirations of the new Indian middle class.

The automotive metamorphosis has spread from the upper-class enclaves of India's biggest cities to its countless Barabankis: once-quiet towns now spilling over with concrete buildings, crowded streets and clattering vehicles.

Farmers and schoolteachers now buy cars. The Barabanki shopkeeper selling fluorescent tubes for 150 rupees ($3) apiece has one. The farmer-businessman with the one-room tire store has two.

Saxena, with his smoker's growl and graying comb-over, often tells his team that what they do is about sales technique: about confidence, about treating customers right, about knowing the latest offers.

"You need to learn how to convince people to buy. If you can't do that, you need to ask why," he told them during a recent sales meeting, his voice somewhere between an angry father's and an encouraging teacher's.

It was the first day of a string of autumn Hindu festivals marking the year's biggest shopping season, and an hour before the arrival of the day's first customers. It was three days before the Maruti-Suzuki dealership's monthly sales deadline. Everyone felt the pressure. "We can't lose a customer, no matter what happens," Saxena said.

But behind the technique is something else.

Maruti sells its cars with ads showing an idealized India that barely exists, even in the country's wealthiest enclaves: sprawling houses with white picket fences, highways with no traffic, friendly towns without a hint of litter. Everywhere, there are joyful Indians driving Marutis.

That's the Indian dream they're selling.

___

The fantasy began taking shape in 1991, when the government was facing crushing debt payments and dangerously low foreign exchange reserves. Desperate to save itself, India abandoned socialism and embraced globalization to become one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

Per capita income 20 years ago was $350, one-quarter of what it is today. The literacy rate was 42 percent. Cars were an unimaginable extravagance.

The small middle-class spent years on waiting lists for cars. Then, for the most part, they had two choices: the Ambassador, a ridiculously outdated bubble-topped sedan whose design was borrowed from 1950s Britain; and the Maruti 800, a stripped-down economy model that resembled a metal box with wheels.

What began in 1991, though, has turned India into an economic juggernaut, with a middle class now estimated at more than 250 million people. The country has paved more than 500,000 miles of roads in the past two decades, and car production and sales have skyrocketed. Maruti sells more cars than anyone else, but automakers from Mahindra to Ford to Hyundai have factories here. Customers can now buy anything from a $2,700 Tata Nano ? the dirt-cheap everyman's car that became a sales flop ? to a $712,000 Ferrari FF.

Indians bought 2.5 million cars last year, 25 percent more than the year before.

When sales here do suffer, as they have recently amid rising inflation and spiking interest rates, the results would still leave many Detroit auto executives sick with envy.

In the U.S., a bad year can mean car sales plummeting by more than 15 percent. In India, a bad year means growth of 2-4 percent.

Everywhere, cars are bringing change.

Mohammad Ismail came to Bright4Wheel on a recent afternoon from Kurkhila, his hometown about 20 miles away, for a minor repair.

"Five years ago, my village had just one car," he said. Then the first paved roads came, setting off a cascade of car-buying and more road-building, of friends buying cars to keep up socially with friends.

Ismail, a middle-school teacher who earns $600 a month, had never driven a car before last year. His elderly father, a retired government health worker, had never owned anything bigger than a motorcycle.

But six months ago, after a co-worker bought a car, Ismail decided it was time. His father gave $1,900 for the down payment, and Ismail arranged loan payments of $87 a month.

He brought home an $8,000 Maruti WagonR, a four-door hatchback.

"When I was a little kid, I dreamed that one day I would get to sit in a car," said Ismail, smiling broadly. "Even that seemed like a far-off dream."

___

The new India was made for Saxena's salesmen, connoisseurs of automotive consumerism.

There's Srivastava, who sells cars in his dreams, and Rohan, a quiet man with only one name who comes to life on the sales floor, shyness crumbling as he greets customers. There's Ashwini Gupta, who is saving up for his daughter's education, and Haris Rehman, a strutting 24-year-old with gel-spiked hair hoping to move to America.

There's Dinesh Kumar, a rail-thin 28-year-old who could pass for a teenager. Kumar was born in a nearby farming village, moved to Mumbai to sell ads for an Internet company, ran out of money, came home, and finally moved into a $20-a-month rented room. After three weeks at Bright4Wheel, he hasn't sold a car. He can spend an hour staring at his cellphone, hoping for a miracle buyer to call. Saxena has warned him: Make a sale or you'll be fired.

Misery engulfs him.

"There's a lot of pressure on me," he said, dazed. "I've been unlucky,"

Behind his back, the others suspect he won't make it.

"It's a pressure cooker, what we do," said Gupta, a friendly, twitchy man who seems incapable of sitting still. "Maybe if he had one sale he'd get some confidence. But he's too nervous."

To watch these men sell cars is to see a performance that combines a fierce faith in Maruti with a near-religious belief in the transforming power of cars. Mixed into that are the sales tactics you could find in most any American car lot.

At the Barabanki dealership they'll greet you with a firm, well-practiced handshake, look you in the eye and laugh at your jokes. There will be no talk of uncertain interest rates or market downturns as you look over the cars ? the paradise blue A-star, the beige Estilo ? and are eventually escorted to a faux-leather sofa for the final sales pitch.

It normally focuses on one issue: status.

"A man who sees his neighbor going out every night in his car gets frustrated. He says 'Dammit, I need a car too.'" said Gupta. "In villages, people used to buy land when they had money. But now, if you want to show you're successful you buy a sparkling new car and everyone comes to admire it."

These salesmen have helped transform India.

The cars they have sold have helped link thousands of long-isolated villages to cities and towns. Their cars have given people better access to jobs, schools and medical care. There are customers who talk about the schools their children can now attend and customers like Ismail, the teacher so proud of his WagonR, who says it saved his father's life.

When his father had a heart attack a few months ago, it was Ismail who rushed him to the nearest hospital. Kurkhila, like much of India, has no reliable emergency ambulance service.

"My father would have died without that car," he said.

But for every story like Ismail's, there is the other side of India's automotive miracle, from an explosion of traffic jams to choking pollution to ? by far ? the world's highest number of road fatalities - more than 200,000 a year.

This is a country where horn-honking is ubiquitous and turn signals are disdained. In most cities, someone with no driving experience can get a license with a $10 bribe.

By the middle of the 21st century, India is expected to have the world's largest population, and one of its largest economies. So what happens when hundreds of millions of Indians have cars?

Don't ask.

"I don't worry about traffic and such things," snorted Vikas Singh, a fast-talking finance broker who works down the street from Bright4Wheel, and who regularly arranges loans for its customers. "This is all money for me."

Then he laughed.

"At least two or three times a month someone comes to me and says 'I want a car ? today,'" he said, holding up his hands as if he was holding a bag of money. "And we get them a car that day."

___

Two decades of economic growth are rewriting India's cliches, with snake charmers and destitute holy men giving way to software millionaires and rich housewives trawling through air-conditioned malls.

In truth, both reflect the twin realities of modern India.

This is a country where Rolls Royce is expanding its presence, but where more than 400 million people still live without regular electricity.

It's a country where cars remain out of reach for most car salesmen, struggling near the bottom of India's middle class on salaries that seldom hit $500 a month, and are often much lower.

That's enough for schools for a salesman's children, and a new TV every few years. It's enough for a motorcycle. But it's not enough for a new car.

It's an irony that isn't lost in the Bright4Wheels showroom.

When would Srivastava buy a car? He looked down at the white tile floor.

"I'll get one in two years, maybe. Or four years, or five years," he said. But he needs money for schools, and is hoping to move his extended family ? nine people crowded into three rented rooms ? into a new house. His salary, normally about 10,000 rupees ($200) a month, is far more than his father earned as a lineman for the state electricity company.

But, he added: "There is just so much to buy today."

In many ways, the car salesmen of Barabanki are like the town itself.

For generations, Barabanki has been a hub for hundreds of nearby farming villages. Money came from trading agriculture produce, often menthol oil used in traditional medicines, or in selling cheap household goods to poor farming families.

Today, the choices for its residents have expanded immensely. Its outskirts now reach nearly to the suburbs of Lucknow, the ever-growing state capital about 30 kilometers (20 miles) away, and many townspeople commute to offices there. People who didn't finish high school insist their children go to college. People who speak no English make sure their children are fluent.

Meanwhile, some of those once-poor farmers have stumbled directly into the middle class, with incomes fed by rising food prices and skyrocketing land values. Today, lucky farmers can earn tens of thousands of dollars selling slivers of their fields to developers.

But while farmers can now walk into dealerships with sacks full of cash, this is still a town where bicycles far outnumber cars. And where successful car salesmen ride motorcycles home in the twilight.

___

When it becomes clear that a shopper is about to become a buyer, the salesmen say he is a "murga katega" ? a chicken about to be slaughtered. It's not meant as unkindly as it sounds.

Much to his own surprise, it's a phrase that Dinesh Kumar learned.

With the threat of dismissal looming, Kumar closed his first sale on Sept. 30. He did it by telling the customer his job was on the line, and that the customer would be revered in his neighborhood if he brought home a car.

The buyer signed.

Kumar has sold 10 cars since then.

In Barabanki, the chickens are no longer safe.

___

Associated Press Writer Biswajeet Banerjee contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_bi_ge/as_india_selling_the_dream

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Chinese developer livid at Iceland's rejection of resort (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? A multimillionaire Chinese developer is livid at Iceland's rejection of his plan to build a sprawling resort, saying it reveals western "hypocrisy and deep prejudice."

Foreigners also wrongly assume Chinese companies automatically have ties to China's military, Huang Nubo said in comments published in Chinese media on Sunday.

The Iceland government on Friday rejected a bid by Huang to buy 300 sq km (186 sq miles) on the island nation because it did not meet legal requirements on foreign ownership.

Some commentators had said the plan raised questions over regional security because of Iceland's strategic location in the Arctic where a number of nations are competing for resources, suggesting that Huang could be a surrogate for Chinese expansionism.

"I'm not buying land, I'm investing in tourism infrastructure," Huang said in an interview with Sina Finance, an online news service.

"The difficulties that Chinese enterprises encounter are numerous, like the view that state-owned enterprises represent your country, that whatever your background is you're a military business and touch on national security."

He said unspecified foreigners "use all kinds of such reasons to build an invisible wall to surround and contain you.

"You can come and buy a house, and you can emigrate here and bring your riches with you, or you can buy my luxury goods, but if you want to touch my natural resources, then I'm sorry, I won't let you."

Huang, who is chairman of Beijing-based Zhongkun Investment Group and was 161st on the Forbes list of the richest Chinese in 2010, accused westerners of double standards.

"They come to China and say, 'this isn't open, that isn't open', which just shows their hypocrisy and deep prejudice and unjust nature."

Such western businesses "encourage the opening of the Chinese market while they close their doors to Chinese investments," Huang said in an interview with the China Daily.

"The denial reflects the unjust and parochial investment environment facing private Chinese enterprises abroad," he told the newspaper.

Huang had agreed to pay 1 billion Iceland krona ($8.3 million) to buy Grimsstadir farm in northeast Iceland, where he planned to build a golf course, hotel and outdoor recreation area.

But Iceland's Interior Ministry said on Friday that the deal did not meet legal requirements for land sales to companies outside the European Economic Area, including that company directors must be Icelandic citizens or permanent residents for at least five years, and that 80 percent of shares in purchasing firms should be held by Icelandic citizens.

The deal would have marked the first major Chinese investment in Iceland, which is still recovering from the collapse of its banks in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111127/wl_nm/us_china_iceland_resort

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Drummond Records Career High Seven Blocks Against Florida State

Andre Drummond had 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks in Connecticut's 78-76 win over Florida State in the third place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Drummond is averaging 12.6 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.4 blocks per 36 minutes over his first seven games.

Source: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/216785/Drummond_Records_Career_High_Seven_Blocks_Against_Florida_State

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Arabs impose sanctions on Syria over crackdown (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Arab states voted Sunday to impose economic sanctions on Syria immediately, in response to President Bashar al-Assad's failure to halt a violent crackdown on an eight-month uprising against his rule.

Qatar said that if Arab nations failed to resolve the crisis, other foreign powers might intervene.

Nineteen of the Arab League's 22 members voted for sanctions that include a travel ban on senior Syrian officials, freezing Syrian government assets, halting trade dealings with the central bank and stopping Arab investment.

"The decision should be executed immediately, starting today," Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a news conference after he chaired a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

The Arab League has for decades avoided imposing sanctions its members but has been spurred into action by the scale of bloodshed during Syria's crackdown and by the failure by Damascus to implement an Arab peace plan.

The Arab peace plan called for sending in Arab monitors, withdrawing Syrian troops from residential areas and starting talks between the government and opposition. Damascus ignored several Arab League deadlines.

Arabs have said they want a regional solution and do not want foreign intervention in Syria. France became the first major power to seek international involvement last week when it called for "humanitarian corridors" to protect civilians.

Sheikh Hamad said foreign powers might intervene if they did not consider Arabs "serious" in their bid to end the crisis.

"All the work we are doing is to avoid this interference," he said, adding that the League could itself seek international intervention "if the Syrians do not take us seriously."

Hundreds of people, including civilians, soldiers and army deserters, have been killed in Syria this month, in unrest inspired by uprisings that overthrew leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The new sanctions could plunge Syria deeper into economic crisis, although the League said measures were not intended to hurt ordinary people.

"This is a very sad and unfortunate day for me," the Qatari minister said. "I had hoped the Syrian brothers ... would stop the violence and release the political detainees."

Qatar has been at the forefront of the drive to end the violence, backed by other Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia which have long been frustrated by Syria's alliance with Riyadh's regional rival Iran.

Lebanon, which for years had a Syrian military presence on its soil, voted against sanctions, as did Iraq, which neighbors Syria and Iran. Baghdad had said before the meeting it would not impose sanctions.

"Iraq has reservations about this decision. For us, this decision ... will harm the interests of our country and our people as we have a large community in Syria," Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi told Reuters.

Non-Arab Turkey attended the Cairo meeting. Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said Ankara would act in unison with Arabs.

"When civilians are killed in Syria and the Syrian regime increases its cruelty to innocent people, it should not be expected for Turkey and the Arab League to be silent," Davutoglu said, according to Turkey's state news agency.

"We hope the Syrian government will get our message and the problem will be solved within the family," he said, adding that the region did not want a repeat of events in Iraq and Libya, two states where international powers intervened.

During Libya's uprising, an Arab League call for an no-fly zone led to a U.N. Security Council resolution, which in turn paved the way for NATO air strikes on Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

(Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad, Seda Sezer in Istanbul and Tom Perry in Cairo; Writing by Edmund Blair)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111127/ts_nm/us_syria

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