Rules devised for building ideal protein molecules from scratch

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2012) ? By following certain rules, scientists can prepare architectural plans for building ideal protein molecules not found in the real world. Based on these computer renditions, previously non-existent proteins can be produced from scratch in the lab. The principles to make this happen appear this month in Nature magazine.

The lead authors are Dr. Nobuyasu Koga and Dr. Rie Tatsumi-Koga, a husband-and-wife scientific team in Dr. David Baker's lab at the University of Washington Protein Design Institute.

The project benefited from hundreds of thousands of computer enthusiasts around the world who adopted Rosetta@home for simulating designed proteins.

Protein molecules start as an unstable, high energy chain of amino acids. This chain then begins folding into various shapes to try to achieve a stable, low energy state. The end result is its distinctive molecular structure. Rosetta@home volunteers helped the project team to plot this energy landscape from protein structure predictions.

"The structural options become fewer as the interactions that stabilize the protein selectively favor one folding pattern over others," explained Koga.

"This decline in conformation options to eventually achieve a unique, ordered structure is called a funnel-shaped energy landscape," he said, drawing a tornado-like figure on a whiteboard. The researchers came up with guidelines for robustly generating this type of energy landscape.

According to Tatsumi-Koga, these rules require the interactions among the residues in the protein's amino acid chain to consistently favor the same folded conformation in forming its molecular shape. This is made possible, for example, by defining whether a specific unit will form a "right-handed" orientation or its mirror image, and disfavor others.

The researchers, she said, synthesized the proteins they had originally designed and tested "in silico" (on the computer) and physically characterized them through "in vitro" (laboratory test tube) experiments.

They also compared the molecular structures of the computer models with these laboratory-derived proteins to see how well they matched.

Koga stressed that the project looked strictly at protein structure. He smiled as he said his group was striving toward a "platonic ideal," a reference to Plato's theory of perfect forms.

In our imperfect material world, proteins are not always optimized for their stability, but can be beset by bulges, kinks, strains, and improperly buried parts. Many diseases arise from protein malformations.

During this project, the researchers achieved a library of five ideal structures, but since filing their report have added several more.

To make them accessible to other scientists, the designs have been deposited in the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics and the lab analysis of their chemical structure was put in the Biological Magnetic Resonance Database.

The team was not attempting to create specific new proteins that could carry out particular activities.

However, their design principles and methods, according to their report, should allow the ready creation of a wide range of robust, stable, building blocks for the next generation of engineered functional proteins.

Such proteins would be custom-made for the task, instead of repurposed from proteins with unrelated functions. The hope is that engineered proteins will be useful for drug and vaccine development, especially for formidable viruses like HIV or rapidly changing ones, like the flu.

Proteins designed to exact specifications might also prove therapeutically useful in cleaving mutated genes, and for speeding up chemical reactions important in industry and environmental reclamation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Leila Gray.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Nobuyasu Koga, Rie Tatsumi-Koga, Gaohua Liu, Rong Xiao, Thomas B. Acton, Gaetano T. Montelione, David Baker. Principles for designing ideal protein structures. Nature, 2012; 491 (7423): 222 DOI: 10.1038/nature11600

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/Q1RqmNvqLVg/121129093949.htm

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Former SD Gov. Rounds announces run for US Senate

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) ? Former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds said Thursday that he will run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, setting the stage for what will likely be a high profile race between the Republican and the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Tim Johnson.

Rounds, 58, said he has worked well with Johnson in the past and considers him a friend. But he said he and Johnson disagree on some key issues.

"At this stage of the game, it's a matter of the direction of this country," Rounds said.

Johnson, 65, has dealt with several serious health issues in recent years that have slowed his speech and required him to sometimes use a motorized scooter when he needs to get around quickly. He had surgery in 2006 to stop bleeding in his brain caused by arteriovenous malformation, a condition that causes arteries and veins in the brain to grow abnormally large, become tangled and sometimes burst.

But in a statement issued Thursday, the popular legislator dispelled speculation that he might not seek a fourth term.

"I feel great, still have work to do and I fully intend to put together a winning campaign in the weeks and months ahead," Johnson wrote, adding that he'd make a formal campaign announcement next year.

Bob Burns, a retired South Dakota State University political science professor, noted that Johnson won re-election in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote, albeit against a lesser-known opponent than Rounds. He said South Dakota voters seem to be understanding of Johnson's physical challenges.

"We know that his mind continues to be keen. While he may take more time to express himself orally than was true in the past, he nevertheless is able to do that," Burns said.

At a news conference announcing his candidacy, Rounds said he is running because he wants to end gridlock in Washington and help reduce the federal deficit, set good farm policies and protect industry from undue regulation. He also said he wants to get rid of major parts of President Barack Obama's health care law that expand Medicaid and subsidize insurance for some people because he doesn't think the government can pay for it.

Rounds said he learned during his two terms as governor that an elected official can stick to principles, such as controlling government spending, and still get things done.

"We need to become a country of cooperation instead of confrontation," he told a crowd of about 100 who showed up for his announcement.

Rounds was a state senator from 1991 to 2001 before serving two terms as governor from 2003 to 2011. After leaving office in early 2011, Rounds returned to his job as president and CEO of an insurance and real estate company based in Pierre.

Johnson was elected to the U.S. House in 1986 and to the Senate in 1996. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2008. He also previously served in the state Legislature.

The state Democratic Party immediately mounted a defense after the morning announcement. Party Chairman Ben Nesselhuf called Rounds a "nice guy with the wrong priorities" for South Dakota.

Johnson was more complimentary.

"I had an excellent working relationship with (Rounds) during his eight years as Governor, and the fact that he has already re-stated his refusal to take the Grover Norquist 'no tax increases under any circumstances' pledge is a very good sign," Johnson said in a statement.

But he added that he still feels great and has work to do.

"In the meantime, I intend to continue to focus on my important work representing South Dakota," he said.

Burns, the political science professor, said Rounds will be a formidable candidate and Johnson represents the Democrats' best chance of keeping the seat.

Rounds became known as "Mr. Nice Guy," after he won the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary against two other candidates who engaged in a nasty battle of attacks, and Rounds was able to maintain that image through his years as governor, Burns said.

"He left the office of governor without receiving a lot of sharp criticism, but at the same time not garnering undue enthusiasm either," Burns said.

Rounds said he doesn't expect the campaign to begin in earnest until early 2014, but he had to declare his candidacy now to begin building the campaign organization and raising the money needed to challenge an incumbent.

His campaign said his accomplishments as governor included beginning construction of an underground science laboratory at the former Homestake gold mine in the Black Hills, boosting tourism, increasing research at state universities, creating college scholarships, working with the congressional delegation to save Ellsworth Air Force Base from closure in 2005, and helping to make South Dakota a business-friendly state with low taxes.

Rounds said he meant it when he said several years ago he did not want to run for the Senate, but he is running now to make sure his five grandchildren and other young Americans are not saddled with a huge federal debt and have a chance to get an education and good jobs.

"If you can make a difference, you should step forward. That's the reason I'm running. I think I can make a difference," Rounds said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-sd-gov-rounds-announces-run-us-senate-150300389--election.html

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Rice meets with Republicans, fails to win them over

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice failed on Wednesday to win over Republicans opposing her possible candidacy for U.S. secretary of state, and more senators - including a one-time supporter - questioned statements she made after the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi in September.

U.S. Senator Susan Collins met with Rice for over an hour and said afterward she could not back Rice for secretary of state, if she were nominated by President Barack Obama, without more information.

The moderate Maine Republican even brought up a new concern about Rice's record in the State Department 14 years ago in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

Other Republicans have threatened to block Rice's nomination if Obama picks her to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which would require Senate confirmation.

They accuse her of misleading the American people for political reasons in the run-up to the November 6 presidential election by playing down any al Qaeda links to the Benghazi, Libya, attack at a time when Obama was touting his record of successes against the militant movement.

The U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in the September 11 Benghazi attack.

Obama, who has strongly supported his embattled ambassador, gave a show of moral support on Wednesday, prompting applause from his Cabinet - including Clinton - during their first meeting at the White House since Obama's re-election.

"Susan Rice is extraordinary," Obama said, adding he "couldn't be prouder of the job she's done."

Clinton told reporters later on Wednesday that Rice had done a great job at the United Nations, and she hoped a board reviewing the Benghazi attack would complete their review shortly.

"They have been hard at work, we are hoping they will be finished with their work very soon," Clinton said.

Votes from moderates like Collins, who introduced Rice to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Obama nominated her to the U.N. post three years ago, would be needed to overcome procedural obstacles and win confirmation.

"I still have many questions that remain unanswered," Collins told reporters after a 75-minute meeting with Rice.

The top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, Collins said she still wanted more information about the attack on the U.S. mission and a nearby CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.

The controversy raises the unpleasant specter of Obama starting his second term with a nasty confirmation fight. He also risks looking weak if he seems to give in to criticism from the party he just defeated to win re-election.

Obama should nominate Rice if he feels she is the best choice, said Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense, now at the liberal Center for American Progress.

He predicted she would win confirmation, given that the main objection to her was over a political point that Republican Mitt Romney tried to feature in his failed presidential campaign this year.

"The Republicans are desperate for an issue," Korb said. "She's not the issue. The issue is that they want to undermine his (foreign policy) narrative."

PLAYING POLITICS?

Sticking with Rice could also be a potent demonstration of strength for Obama, Korb said, reminiscent of Republican President Ronald Reagan. Reagan, who is revered by his party, won points for winning the confirmation of Al Haig as secretary of state in 1981, despite objections to Haig's ties to the Watergate scandal, he noted.

Some observers have speculated that the Republicans would prefer that Obama nominate Senator John Kerry, leaving the door open for a Republican to win his vacated Massachusetts seat and narrowing the Democratic majority in the Senate.

"I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and will be easily confirmed by his colleagues," Collins told reporters.

Collins said the United States seemed not to have learned lessons from the bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, when Rice was the State Department's Africa region head.

This year's attack in Benghazi "echoed" those attacks, she said. "In both cases, the ambassador begged for additional security," and State turned down both requests, she said.

"I asked Ambassador Rice what her role was. She said that she would have to refresh her memory but that she was not involved directly in turning down the request. But surely, given her position as assistant secretary for African affairs, she had to have been aware," Collins said.

Republicans have openly criticized Rice for initial comments after the Benghazi attack that suggested it was a spontaneous event arising from protests of an anti-Islam film rather than a planned terrorist strike.

Intelligence officials said later the attack was possibly tied to al Qaeda affiliates.

Rice, accompanied by acting CIA Director Michael Morell, also met with Senator Bob Corker, who is in line to be the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

After his meeting, Corker had tough words for the Benghazi attack and the aftermath, which he termed a "tawdry affair" that would add to Americans' distrust of the government.

He declined to discuss whether he would support Rice, but urged Obama to "step back" from the controversy and "take a deep breath" as he decided whom to nominate.

Rice also met for about an hour behind closed doors on Tuesday with Republican Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, who have been among her most vocal critics.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Andrew Quinn; Editing by David Storey and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rice-meets-republicans-fails-win-them-over-011931020.html

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Apple reportedly fires head of iOS 6 Maps team

Apple has reportedly fired the manager in charge of iOS 6 Maps, Richard Williamson. Williamson lead the mapping team that was responsible for the new, heavily criticized maps app that debuted in September. The dismissal of Williamson is one of Eddie Cue?s first major actions since being put in charge of maps in the management shakeup last month. Cue is said to be looking to TomTom to fix its landmark data as well as talking to mapping experts outside of Apple about how to be improve the experience. Apple has been hard at work fixing problems in Maps since the release of iOS 6. In a report from Bloomberg reports:

A team at Apple has been working to fix the mapping mistakes, focusing first on some of the most glaring problems, one person said. The satellite imagery over the U.K. has been improved and labels for popular U.S. landmarks such as the Washington Monument have been corrected.

A shakeup of this kind is not unexpected. When Scott Forstall was ousted last month, many speculated that it was due to the issues with Maps, but ultimately it was more to do with internal politics than one issue with one piece of software, as serious as those issues were. As the leader of the Maps team, Williamson was responsible for making sure Maps was done on time. Yes, Maps is a 1.0 product, but there is a minimum level of quality that a product this important has to have before it?s released to the public, and Maps wasn?t there for a lot of people. The mapping team needs to be able to make improvements to Maps rapidly in order to turn it into the product that it should be, and if Williamson wasn?t the right person to lead this team, then Eddie Cue needed to let him go and find someone that he could count on to get the job done.

Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/raXQrt-XKK8/story01.htm

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A big disconnect as 'fiscal cliff' clock ticks

FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks about the Thanksgiving holiday in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. The White House said Tuesday, Nov. 27, that the president plans to make a public case this week for his strategy for dealing with the looming fiscal cliff, traveling to the Philadelphia suburbs Friday as he pressures Republicans to allow tax increases on the wealthy while extending tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks about the Thanksgiving holiday in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. The White House said Tuesday, Nov. 27, that the president plans to make a public case this week for his strategy for dealing with the looming fiscal cliff, traveling to the Philadelphia suburbs Friday as he pressures Republicans to allow tax increases on the wealthy while extending tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, following a Democratic strategy session. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republicans' newfound willingness to consider tax increases to avert the "fiscal cliff" comes with a significant caveat: larger cuts than Democrats seem willing to consider to benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the president's health care overhaul.

The disconnect on benefit programs, coupled with an impasse between Republicans and the White House over raising tax rates on upper-bracket earners, paints a bleak picture as the clock ticks toward a year-end fiscal debacle of automatic tax increases and harsh cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs.

Democrats emboldened by the election are moving in the opposite direction from the GOP on curbing spending, refusing to look at cuts that were on the bargaining table just last year. Those include any changes to Social Security, even though President Barack Obama was willing back then to consider cuts in future benefits through lower cost-of-living increases. Obama also considered raising the eligibility age for Medicare, an idea that most Democrats oppose.

"I haven't seen any suggestions on what they're going to do on spending," a frustrated Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Tuesday. "There's a certain cockiness that I've seen that is really astounding to me since we're basically in the same position we were before."

Well, says Obama's most powerful ally on Capitol Hill, the Democrats are willing to tackle spending on entitlement programs if Republicans agree to raise income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans ? a nonstarter with Republicans still in control of the House.

"We hope that they can agree to the tax revenue that we're talking about, and that is rate increases, and as the president's said on a number of occasions, we'll be happy to deal with entitlements," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday.

But Reid speaks only in the most general terms, wary of publicly embracing specific ideas like boosting Medicare premiums or raising the program's eligibility age.

At the White House, Obama met with a group of small business owners. Participants described the hour-long meeting as a listening session for Obama, with the business owners urging him to reach an agreement.

"They had one message for the president, which is they need certainty. Please get this deal done as soon as possible. They very much want consumers out there knowing that they're going to have money in their pockets to spend. That's why it's so important to pass the extension of the tax cuts for 98 percent of consumers, 97 percent of all small businesses," said Small Business Administration head Karen Mills.

Obama planned to meet Wednesday with more than a dozen leaders from large corporations, including Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Marissa Mayer of Yahoo!, Brian Roberts of Comcast and Arne Sorenson of Marriott.

Obama hits the road on Friday, visiting a Pennsylvania toy factory and broadcasting his case to extend current tax rates for all but those families making more than $250,000 a year.

Private White House negotiations with top aides to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and others are cloaked in secrecy, with no evidence of headway.

"There's been little progress with the Republicans, which is a disappointment to me," Reid, a key negotiator, told reporters on Tuesday. "They talked some happy talk about doing revenues, but we only have a couple weeks to get something done. So we have to get away from the happy talk and start talking about specific things."

Republicans say it's Obama and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill who are holding back, and they point to a balance of power in official Washington that is little changed by the president's re-election. Republicans still control the House, despite losing seats in the election. Democrats control the Senate.

"Democrats in Congress have downplayed the danger of going over the cliff and continue to rule out sensible spending cuts that must be part of any significant agreement to reduce the deficit," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Just last year, Obama and top Democrats were willing during budget negotiations with Republicans to take politically risky steps such as reducing the annual inflation adjustment to Social Security retirement payments and raising the eligibility age for Medicare, which provides health care coverage to the elderly.

Now, with new leverage from Obama's election victory and a playing field for negotiations that is more favorable to Democrats than during the talks of the summer of 2011, Democrats are taking a harder line, ruling out any moves on Social Security and all but dismissing ideas like raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65.

"The election spoke very strongly about the fact that the American people don't want to cut these programs that actually really sustain the middle class in America and allow people to become part of the middle class," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

"I think they feel somewhat emboldened by the election," said GOP Rep. Tom Price of Georgia. "How could you not when your president is re-elected after running four straight years of trillion dollar-plus deficits?"

Indeed, Obama could be in position to blame Republicans if an impasse results in the government going over the fiscal cliff. Democrats already are portraying GOP lawmakers as hostage-takers willing to let tax rates rise on everyone if lower Bush-era tax rates are not extended for the top 2 percent to 3 percent of earners ? those with incomes above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for joint filers.

"One thing Republicans have to realize ? we're in much better shape in January," said Harkin, referring to a time when taxes would have already risen and Democrats would be offering to cut taxes for all but the wealthiest Americans. "Fiscal cliff? I don't care."

Obama's opening position in the negotiations calls for $1.6 trillion in higher taxes over the coming decade, balanced by just $340 billion in cuts to rapidly growing health care programs, generally taken from health care providers instead of beneficiaries. That balance would have to change for Republicans to sign onto any agreement.

Given the crunch of time and the complexity of issues such as tax reform and wringing savings from programs like Medicare, negotiators are working on a two-track process: an initial "down payment" of deficit cuts next month, coupled with work next year on overhauling the tax code and curbing entitlement programs.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a leading Senate liberal and a member of Obama's special 2010 deficit panel ? which drafted a bold deficit reduction plan blending painful entitlement cuts with $2 trillion in higher tax revenues ? weighed in with a demand that any short-term down payment avoid politically sensitive safety net programs.

"Progressives should be willing to talk about ways to ensure the long-term viability of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but those conversations should not be part of a plan to avert the fiscal cliff," Durbin said in a speech at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank in Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-27-Fiscal%20Cliff/id-de73d0e84b8d4c34802e68c80a989830

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Syrians risk lives in battle to protect ancient sites

Zain Karam / Reuters

A damaged ceiling is pictured in Bab Antakya district of Aleppo, Syria, on October 2, 2012. Aleppo's Old City is one of several World Heritage Sites in Syria that are considered at risk.

By Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

Editor's note: This story includes a correction.

Updated at 9:15 a.m. ET:?Even as civil war tears the nation apart, it seems Syrians can agree about one thing: The need to protect the country?s antiquities and World Heritage Sites that represent thousands of years of human history.

Rebel fighters and ordinary citizens are risking their lives to document the damage being done to Syria?s ancient?treasures and museums, according to Western monitors.

Now Bashar Assad's regime has joined in. Maamoun Abdul-Karim, director general of antiquities and museums, has launched a campaign, called "MySyria,"?(in Arabic) asking communities to help protect the nation?s cultural heritage from the civil strife.

All six World Heritage Sites have now suffered damage as the conflict widens, according to Emma Cunliffe, a volunteer monitor for the non-profit Global Heritage Fund.

One of oldest cities
Destruction includes heavy looting of temples and tombs in the trade city of Palmyra and a devastating fire in the medieval souk in Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in human history.

World heritage body UNESCO?has led the outpouring of international concern.?Aleppo dates back to the 10th century B.C. and the present city is deemed to have "Outstanding Universal Value," by UNESCO.

Reuters, file

Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar Assad in the ancient city of Palmyra on November 18, 2011.

"Pictures and video evidence gathered by people on the ground shows the extent of the damage and prove that none of these sites are now safe from the conflict," said Cunliffe, a postgraduate student at Britain's Durham University.

'Emergency red list' targets Syria's looted treasures

Looting, which led to the theft of many of Iraq's national treasures during the conflict that deposed Saddam Hussein, is also a risk in Syria.

"Large gangs of men turned up at Iraqi sites, totally overwhelming the protection, and looted on a vast scale. If that starts to happen in Syria there will be problems because there's little that can be done about it,? Cunliffe said.

More Syria coverage from NBC News

She said each side in the conflict blamed the other for damage to ancient buildings, but it was not easy to verify the claims.

Cunliffe said many people in Syria made films showing the damage being done to ancient sites.

She said that one man ?who uploaded most of the videos of the damage to the citadel of Qal'at al-Madiq in January to April stopped uploading when the government took the citadel/village in April. I have assumed the worst.?

Osman Orsal / Reuters

A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

New 'intelligence' body set to fight illicit trade in world's priceless treasures

Abdul-Karim hopes to encourage Syrians to prevent the war from causing permanent damage.

?The war in Syria has hit ... all aspects of life, including antiquities considered the common heritage of all Syrians, regardless of their thoughts or political alliances, whether loyalists or opposition,? Abdul-Karim told news website Al Akhbar following the campaign's launch.

He said there was also evidence of antiquities being smuggled out of the country.

'A loss to human civilization'
Dan Thompson, director of global projects at the Global Heritage Fund, said that there was little that could be done until the fighting stopped.

A Cluster Bomb reportedly dropped by Syrian government warplanes has killed up to 10 children as they played in a village on the outskirts of Damascus. Warning: There are distressing images. ITV's Bill Neely reports.

?The continuing damage and destruction of World Heritage Sites and other national antiquities in Syria during the present conflict is not only a loss to human civilization, but also greatly reduces the socio-economic potential these sites offer to local communities and the country as a whole,? he said in a statement.

"At present, unfortunately, the most anyone can do is to closely monitor and publicize the devastation ? and plead for both sides to respect the country?s cultural heritage, as UNESCO has done."

More world stories from NBC News:

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/28/15503498-syrians-risk-lives-in-battle-to-protect-nations-ancient-sites?lite

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Some GOP lawmakers now flout anti-tax man Norquist

FILE -- In this Feb. 11, 2012 fie photo, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. For decades, Norquist vowed to drive Republicans out of office if they didn?t pledge to oppose tax increases. Many signed on, but now, several senior Republican lawmakers are breaking ranks, willing to consider raising more money through taxes as part of a deal with Democrats and the White House to avoid a catastrophic budget meltdown. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

FILE -- In this Feb. 11, 2012 fie photo, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. For decades, Norquist vowed to drive Republicans out of office if they didn?t pledge to oppose tax increases. Many signed on, but now, several senior Republican lawmakers are breaking ranks, willing to consider raising more money through taxes as part of a deal with Democrats and the White House to avoid a catastrophic budget meltdown. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? For decades, conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist vowed to drive Republicans out of office if they didn't pledge to oppose tax increases. Many lawmakers signed on.

But now, several senior Republicans are breaking ranks, willing to consider raising more money through taxes as part of a deal with Democrats to avoid a catastrophic budget meltdown.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker says the only pledge he will keep is his oath of office. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says no one in his home state of Virginia is talking about what leaders in Washington refer to simply as "The Pledge," a Norquist invention that dates to 1986. Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss says he cares more about his country than sticking to Norquist's pledge.

It's quite an about-face for senior members of a party that long has stood firmly against almost any notion of tax increases. And while GOP leaders insist they still don't want to see taxes go up, the reality of a nation in a debt crisis is forcing some to moderate their opposition to any movement on how much Americans pay to fund their government. Republican legislators and Democratic President Barack Obama's White House are haggling vigorously as they look for ways to reach agreement on detailed tax adjustments and spending cuts before automatic, blunt-force changes occur at the new year.

"Oh, I signed it," Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said on Fox News about Norquist's pledge, adding he still supports its goals. "But we've got to deal with the crisis we face. We've got to deal with the political reality of the president's victory."

The naysaying about the pledge is raising the question of whether Norquist ? a little-known Republican outside of Washington ? is losing his position of power within the GOP. It's a notion that he calls ridiculous.

"Nobody's turning on me," Norquist said Monday.

But he indicated he would turn on lawmakers who defy him, starting with Corker, who Monday published an opinion piece in The Washington Post outlining an alternative to the budget breakdown that includes more revenue.

"Corker was elected to the Senate because he took the pledge," Norquist said on Fox News. "He would not be a senator today if he hadn't made that commitment. If he breaks it, he's going to have to have a conversation with the people of Tennessee about his keeping his word. And the same thing with other people who are elected because they made that written commitment to the people of their state."

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that the shifting away from Norquist signaled an opportunity for Republicans to work with President Obama.

"They represent what we hope is a difference in tone and approach to these problems and a recognition that a balanced approach to deficit reduction is the right approach," Carney said.

Norquist, the head of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, opposes tax increases of any kind, whether eliminating deductions, a position some GOP lawmakers say they're open to, or raising rates. He has insisted on hardline positions from lawmakers and, for years, has held outsized sway in the party for someone who does not hold public office. His pledge doesn't allow any change to the tax code that adds a dollar to revenues.

House Speaker John Boehner has called that notion unrealistic and has dismissed Norquist as "some random person."

Nevertheless, Norquist has maintained a certain level of clout for years.

Heading into the 2012 elections, 279 lawmakers had signed Norquist's' pledge, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

But some who have signed the pledge are having second thoughts. And when the new House is seated next year, no more than 212 of them consider themselves bound by the promise.

"I'm not obligated on the pledge," Corker told CBS News. "I was just elected. The only thing I'm honoring is the oath I take when I serve when I'm sworn in this January."

He's not alone in his stance on the pledge.

"When I go to the constituents that have re-elected me, it is not about that pledge," Cantor said on MSNBC. "It really is about trying to solve problems."

Chambliss, a veteran senator from Georgia, said he signed the pledge during an earlier campaign when the country's debt was nowhere near its current $16 trillion level.

"Times have changed significantly, and I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," Chambliss told his local television station. "If we do it (Norquist's) way, then we'll continue in debt."

"I'm frankly not concerned about the Norquist pledge," Chambliss added.

Raising taxes, whether by closing loopholes or raising tax rates, is seldom a vote-winning strategy.

President George H.W. Bush broke his campaign promise to not raise taxes; he ended up losing re-election 1992.

Other Republicans, however, now are willing to put additional tax revenues on the table as a bargaining chip for a deal with Democrats to get changes in Social Security and Medicare and pare down federal deficits.

"I agree with Grover, we shouldn't raise rates. But I think Grover is wrong when it comes to we can't cap deductions and buy down debt," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"I will violate the pledge ? long story short ? for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform," he added.

Rep. Peter King of New York told Sunday's "Meet the Press" on NBC that the pledge is good for a two-year term only.

"A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress," King said. "For instance, if I were in Congress in 1941, I would have signed a support of declaration of war against Japan. I'm not going to attack Japan today. The world has changed, and the economic situation is different."

And Sen. John McCain, his party's presidential nominee in 2008, said the pledge is losing its clout.

"Fewer and fewer people are signing this, quote, pledge," he told an audience recently.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-11-26-Anti-Tax%20Man/id-510cf7886db644ecba0696a127dc034f

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7 Deadly Sins of Social Media | Online Marketing News & Reviews

Sara | Nov 27, 2012 | 0 comments

Growing up you were taught the difference between right and wrong. However, did you always do the right thing? Even if it didn?t benefit you? Just as it applies to childhood?adolescence? doing the right thing should be our motto throughout our adult life. But, do we still strive to be right at all times? If you are reading this you are more than likely a business owner or work on marketing for some type of business, probably through social media. Social Media has revolutionized the way?business?run and generate sales. If used right social media engages your customers and allows you to build a relationship with them, among other things, if used wrong it can be inefficient for your company.

See if your committing any of the 7 deadly social media sins

1. Wrath: Creating an online presence takes time and patience. However, once you have created an online social media presence you are bound to get critics. There are critics that create valuable insight for your company and then there are critics that give your business a less than desirable reputation. Focus on the critics that deserve a response and are worth your time. Never lash out, not only will it empty your energy but it will also make your company look terrible. Give feedback to those that deserve your feedback, this shows you care and value their opinion.

2. Greed:?It?s hard to shake hands when grabbing for their wallet.?Sure, we all create social media accounts for the main reason being, an increased ROI. However, if you choose to focus only on monetary profit you are missing out on the whole reasoning for social media. Social media is an avenue to create long lasting relationships with customers that will continue pursing your products/services. Give them a reason to keep coming back and let them know you appreciate their business. Customers love to feel appreciated and they love to have relationships with their suppliers.

3. Sloth: If you have social media sites but aren?t interactive on them or update them regularly you may be hurting yourself instead of helping. Why have social media accounts if your not posting on them? Depending on your schedule you may only be able to post once a week, but you are posting. It is better to be consistent rather than random so if you only post once a week that?s great! Just keep it consistent.

When receiving direct messages from customers, reply to them. This seems so common but it is commonly ignored. Don?t forget to let your customers know you care and you will take care of them. This builds your customer relationships and let?s you know where you can increase improvements.

4. Pride:?Stay humble.?Simply put, think about your customers, not you. Yes, it is your?business and?you?get to make all the calls and decisions. But you are ultimately striving for acceptance from your customers. Remember: you wouldn?t be where you are today without them. So appeal to them. Keep in mind what social media sites your customers are active on and be active on them as well. Yes, it may be a social media site that you don?t care for but your customers do. So the right thing to do is be where they are. Listen to your customers and you will be amazed at what will happen.

5. Lust: Social media can be a frustrating mess if you aren?t tackling it correctly. Like I said?earlier?building an online social media presence takes time and patience. You may only have a few friends or followers in the beginning but don?t?over think?it. Instead of randomly adding friends and following people that aren?t relevant to your business just sit back and wait. Customers need time to realize you are active on social media sites. Once they realize this they will find you and interact with you.

6. Envy: You may have a competitor that is doing better in the social media world than you are. Rather than wasting time worrying about what your doing wrong and they are doing right, focus on your business. See what your business has that differentiates it from competitors and focus on that. Being honest and humble on social media sites shows your real and trustworthy.

7. Gluttony: Overindulging is a common mistake when it comes to social media. We tend to oversell ourselves and?over saturate?our social sites. It seems common to think, ?The more I add, the better off I am, right?? Wrong. Think about when you are on social media sites. Do you tend to enjoy seeing interesting, real stories or sales promotions? The choice is obvious. Customers are online to gain interesting knowledge, interact with friends and family and as leisure activity. Apply your business to these areas and you will succeed.

Related posts:

1. Utilizing Social Media? the right way
2. Social Media Sites Ahoy!
3. The Freedom Of Social Media
4. SEO tip: Feed the social media beast
5. Social Media Helps Your Business

Filed Under: Internet Marketing ? News ? SEO ? SMO ? Social Media Optimization ? Social Networking ? Traffic Building

Source: http://blog.seowhat.com/2012/11/27/7-deadly-sins-of-social-media/

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Eczema Atopic Dermatitis Treated ? A Miracle Cure or Simply Just ...

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Source: http://articlepdq.com/health-fitness/eczema-atopic-dermatitis-treated-a-miracle-cure-or-simply-just-just-accidental/

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Nintendo's Wii U Starts Strong - NYTimes.com

In its first week on the market, Nintendo?s new videogame console, the Wii U, sold about as well in the United States as the original Wii did at the same point in its life, according to Nintendo.

In an interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, estimated that the company sold more than 400,000 Wii U?s here from the product?s introduction on Nov. 18 and last Saturday. Mr. Fils-Aime said that figure was based on sales data Nintendo collected electronically from retailers. He said total American sales for the product were likely higher.

A more complete sales figure for Wii U will come soon when NPD, a research firm that estimates retail sales, releases data for the product?s first week on the market, Mr. Fils-Aime said. He said 475,000 of the original Wiis were sold during the product?s first week on the market in 2006, citing NPD data.

The results are a good sign for the company?s latest product. The Wii was an enormous hit that outsold competing systems from Microsoft and Sony, but its sales have faded in recent years, putting pressure on the Wii U to help lead a turnaround at Nintendo.

?We are essentially sold out at retail,? Mr. Fils-Aime said. ?As soon as we replenish product to retailers, it sells out immediately.?

It?s important to keep in mind that supplies of new game consoles are often very limited when they first go on sale, as manufacturers ramp up production. Nintendo has a very dedicated audience that craves almost anything new the company has to offer, not unlike Apple?s fans. The real test of the Wii U?s durability will come when the product is in better supply and more casual gamers, who don?t dream about Mario and Zelda in their sleep, can more easily buy it.

Mr. Fils-Aime said another of Nintendo?s more recent products, the handheld Nintendo 3DS, was also selling well, racking up sales of 6.4 million units in the United States during its first 21 months on the market. He said Nintendo had sold one million more Nintendo 3DSes than it did an older handheld, the Nintendo DS, during the comparable time period.

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/nintendos-wii-u-starts-strong/

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Black Friday online sales top $1 billion

15 hrs.

NBC News staff and news services

In a positive sign for the U.S. economy, shoppers took advantage of deep discounts?both online and in?stores over the?Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Black Friday?online sales topped $1 billion for the first time, according to?comScore, which measures online behavior.

Amazon.com was the most-visited retail website on Black Friday. Wal-Mart's website was second, followed by sites run by Best Buy, Target and Apple, comScore noted.

E-commerce accounts for less than 10 percent of consumer spending in the United States. However, it is growing much faster than bricks-and-mortar retail as shoppers are lured by low prices, convenience, faster shipping and wide selection.

More brick-and-mortar stores were open on?Thanksgiving this year, with retailers such as Target, Sears and Toys R Us joining in, while others including Wal-Mart and Gap either extended their operating hours or had more stores doing business.

Traditionally, stores had waited until Black Friday, the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, to make their big push. ?

U.S. retailers' sales over the four-day holiday weekend increased an estimated 12.8 percent, according to?a survey from the National Retail Federation.

More than?35 million Americans visited retailers? stores and websites Thursday ? up from 29 million last year,?according to the?survey. Despite concerns that the early?Thanksgiving hours would cut into Black Friday results, nearly 89 million Americans still shopped on Black Friday -- up?3.1 percent over the 86.2 million who shopped that day last year.

After years of belt-tightening in a tough economy, Americans this year were?apparently in the mood to shop.?An estimated 139.4 million adults visited U.S. stores and websites from Thanksgiving through Sunday, up from 131 million last year, according to?the National Retail Federation. Total spending for the weekend rose to $59.1 billion from $52.4 billion last year.

?From green beans to great deals, millions of Americans found time this Thanksgiving to make the most of retailers? promotions and enjoy a special family holiday,? said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.?

When accounting for people who shopped on more than one day, the total number of visits to stores and websites was 247 million, up from 226 million last year. Shoppers also spent more --?$423 compared to?$398 last year.

The survey, conducted Nov 23-24 by BIGinsight for NRF, polled 4,005 consumers and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percent. The number of shoppers for Sunday is estimated.?

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.?

?There?s no question that millions of people were drawn to retailers? aggressive online promotions this weekend, making sure to research and compare prices days in advance to ensure they were getting the best deal they could,? said BIGinsight Consumer Insights Director Pam Goodfellow in a statement. ?However, with shopper traffic increasing at department, discount, and clothing stores over the weekend, it?s clear that consumers still recognize Black Friday as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, as they have for decades.??

It's not clear yet whether strong Black Friday sales will weaken growth on Cyber Monday, which has been the biggest e-commerce day in the United States in recent years.

"Cyber Monday will be a big day, but not as much of a big day as it has been in the past," said Mia Shernoff, executive vice president for Chase Paymentech, a payment-processing unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. "Faster broadband Internet connections in the office used to drive this. But now many consumers have faster connections at home and smart phones and tablets -- they don't have to wait."?

Information from Reuters was included in this?report.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/online-shopping-black-friday-tops-1-billion-1C7227559

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2014 Ford Fiesta gets MyFord Touch, smarter Sync voice commands

For all of Ford's emphasis on Sync, it's hard to deny that Fiesta drivers usually sit on the bottom rung of the automaker's technology ladder when they're denied MyFord Touch and the related perks of larger vehicles. Pick up the keys to a higher-spec 2014 Fiesta, however, and you'll be in for a treat. The compact will stuff a 6.5-inch touchscreen and MyFord Touch into the center stack, with a few software upgrades over what we've already seen in cars like the Focus and Fusion. The highlight is undoubtedly the more direct voice command system -- the Nuance-driven recognition no longer demands that we specify music categories or radio formats to start playing tunes. Bluetooth smartphone pairing and navigation by address should be streamlined at the same time. Motorists will have to wait until 2013 to reap the rewards, but it could be worth the wait to drive away with Ford's better electronics in an affordable ride.

Continue reading 2014 Ford Fiesta gets MyFord Touch, smarter Sync voice commands

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Source: TechCrunch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/26/2014-ford-fiesta-gets-myford-touch-smarter-sync-voice-commands/

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Rice's big run, Tucker FGs give Ravens 16-13 win

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Fourth-and-29 at their own 37, 1:37 left in regulation and trailing by three points.

Game over for the Baltimore Ravens?

Not so fast. After all, they were playing the San Diego Chargers, the masters of the come-from-ahead loss, and Ray Rice had the perfect play for the seemingly impossible situation.

"Check down, Hey Diddle Diddle, Ray Rice up the middle," the Ravens running back said in describing the unbelievable play that helped the Ravens to a 16-13 overtime win against the staggering Chargers.

Six plays later, Justin Tucker kicked a 38-yard field goal to tie the game at 13 as regulation expired. Tucker made another 38-yarder with 1:07 left in overtime to win it.

But it was Rice's 29-yard gain that saved the day and allowed the Ravens (9-2) to take an even firmer grip on the AFC North race.

Pushed back by a holding call against guard Marshal Yanda and a 9-yard sack of Flacco by Antwan Barnes, the Ravens were down to their last desperate shot.

"I was thinking we needed a miracle," Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs said.

They got it.

Flacco took a shotgun snap, looked downfield and then threw a short pass to Rice, who ran through a big hole in the middle of the field. Three Chargers missed him at the 50 before Quentin Jammer and Antoine Cason finally brought him down.

The ball originally was spotted at the 33. After a lengthy review, the ball was moved back to the 34 and the refs measured. The new spot still gave the Ravens a first down by the length of the ball.

"It was just total will," Rice said. "Once I made the first guy miss when I cut back across the grain, I actually saw the defense had to flip their hip and I kept eyeing the first down. I looked and said, 'Should I keep running to the sideline or should I just keep trying to get up field?' And that's what I did. I just kept getting up field.

"I left it in the hands of the officials and I'm not going to say they owed us one, but I'm glad we came out on top," he said.

Said wide receiver Torrey Smith: "I had a great view. ... That's probably one of the best plays I've ever seen. You won't see too many plays like that. He was the perfect guy for it."

With the Chargers defenders playing deep, Flacco couldn't find Smith open so he went to Rice.

"I thought it might be our best shot at the time ? give it to Ray ? and Ray made a great run and got a little lucky and it worked out perfect," Flacco said.

All the Chargers had to do was get the stop and run out the clock for their first win against a team with a winning record this season.

"I don't know what to say," Jammer said. "A play like that should never happen. You can't give them a chance to execute that play. But we had some breakdowns, for sure."

Up to that point, San Diego's defense had played well.

"It definitely upsets the stomach when things like that happen, but they happen," said defensive end Corey Liuget, who had a sack, a big fourth-down stop earlier in the game and a pass deflection.

"You have to give a guy credit when he makes an awesome play like that. But it was big, the biggest of the game it changed the game. ... Those kinds of plays are never acceptable in the NFL. You have to have somebody make the play."

San Diego (4-7) was pushed closer to elimination from the playoff picture for the third straight season, and with it, almost certainly the end of the Norv Turner era. The Chargers dropped four games behind AFC West leader Denver, which swept the season series against San Diego. In the wild-card race, the Chargers trail Indianapolis by three games and Pittsburgh and Cincinnati by two games.

Baltimore increased its lead to three games over Pittsburgh, which lost to Cleveland, and Cincinnati, which beat Oakland. The Ravens won their fourth straight and for the eighth time in nine games.

San Diego punted on both of its OT possessions. The second punt, a 63-yarder by Mike Scifres, pinned the Ravens at their 11 with 4:56 to go.

On third-and-10 from the Chargers 47, Smith came back and went over Jammer's tight coverage to make a nice catch of a 31-yard pass from Flacco to the Chargers 16. Flacco twice took a knee to set up the winning kick.

San Diego had gone ahead 13-3 on Nick Novak's 30-yard field goal with 7:51 to go in regulation.

This was the third time the Chargers blew a lead of double digits in the second half. They also came from ahead to lose at New Orleans and in an epic Monday night game here against Denver, when they blew a 24-0 halftime lead and lost 35-24.

Philip Rivers was sacked six times, twice by Arthur Jones. Rivers was turnover-free for just the third time in 11 games. He came in with 14 interceptions and four lost fumbles.

Rivers threw a 21-yard TD pass to Malcom Floyd and Novak kicked a 43-yard field goal to give the Chargers a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.

The Ravens struggled offensively until the opening drive of the second half. Flacco threw a short pass to Smith, who made two Chargers miss, then cut inside and deked another defender before being tackled at the Chargers 27 for a 54-yard gain.

The Ravens had to settle for Tucker's 43-yard field goal.

Flacco was sacked five times, twice by Antwan Barnes.

NOTES: Chargers S Eric Weddle sustained a concussion when he was hit by Anquan Boldin on the fourth-and-29 play. Chargers S Atari Bigby and LB Donald Butler both left with groin injuries in the second quarter. ... Ravens TE Ed Dickson sprained a knee. ... The Ravens were 8 of 13 on third-down conversions in the second half and overtime, and 12 of 24 for the game. The Chargers were 3 of 15 on third-down conversions for the game.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rices-big-run-tucker-fgs-ravens-16-13-030230228--spt.html

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Egypt's political foes dig in their heels

CAIRO (AP) ? Supporters and opponents of Egypt's president on Sunday grew more entrenched in their potentially destabilizing battle over the Islamist leader's move to assume near absolute powers, with neither side appearing willing to back down as the stock market plunged amid the fresh turmoil.

The standoff poses one of the hardest tests for the nation's liberal and secular opposition since Hosni Mubarak's ouster nearly two years ago. Failure to sustain protests and eventually force Mohammed Morsi to loosen control could consign it to long-term irrelevance.

Clashes between the two sides spilled onto the streets for a third day since the president issued edicts that make him immune to oversight of any kind, including that of the courts.

A teenager was killed and at least 40 people were wounded when a group of anti-Morsi protesters tried to storm the local offices of the political arm of the president's Muslim Brotherhood in the Nile Delta city of Damanhoor, according to security officials.

It was the first reported death from the street battles that erupted across much of the nation on Friday, the day after Morsi's decrees were announced. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, identified the boy as 15-year-old Islam Hamdi Abdel-Maqsood.

The tensions also dealt a fresh blow to the economy, which has suffered due to the problems plaguing the Arab world's most populous nation since Mubarak's ouster.

Egypt's benchmark EGX30 stock index dropped 9.59 percentage points Sunday in the first trading session since Morsi issued his decrees. The losses were among the biggest since the turbulent days and weeks immediately after Mubarak's ouster in a popular uprising last year. The loss in the value of shares was estimated at close to $5 billion.

The judiciary, the main target of the edicts, has pushed back, calling the decrees a power grab and an "assault" on the branch's independence. Judges and prosecutors stayed away from many courts in Cairo and other cities on Sunday.

But the nation's highest judicial body, the Supreme Judiciary Council, watered down its opposition to the decrees on Sunday. It told judges and prosecutors to return to work and announced that its members would meet with Morsi on Monday to try to persuade him to restrict immunity to major state decisions like declaring war or martial law or breaking diplomatic relations with foreign nations.

Morsi supporters insist that the measures were necessary to prevent the courts, which already dissolved the elected lower house of parliament, from further holding up moves to stability by disbanding the assembly writing the new constitution, as judges were considering doing. Both the parliament and the constitutional assembly are dominated by Islamists. Morsi accuses Mubarak loyalists in the judiciary of seeking to thwart the revolution's goals and barred the judiciary from disbanding the constitutional assembly or parliament's upper house.

Opposition activists, however, have been adamant since the crisis first erupted that they would not enter a dialogue with Morsi's regime before the decrees are rescinded.

Protesters also clashed with police at Cairo's Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the mass protests that toppled Mubarak, and in the side streets and avenues leading off the plaza. The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, said 267 protesters have been arrested and 164 policemen injured since the unrest began a week ago, initially to mark the anniversary of street protests a year ago against the nation's then-military rulers. Forty-two protesters were killed in those demonstrations.

The ministry did not say how many protesters were injured in the latest clashes in Tahrir, but security officials put the figure at 260.

Hundreds of protesters staging a sit-in in Tahrir have vowed not to leave before Morsi rescinds his decrees. The two sides also have called for massive rival protests Tuesday in Cairo, signaling a protracted struggle.

Morsi's office issued an English-language statement late Sunday defending his decrees and repeating the argument he used when addressing supporters Friday outside his Cairo palace ? that they were designed to bolster the country's transition to democratic rule and dismantle Mubarak's old regime.

"The presidency reiterates the temporary nature of the said measures, which are not meant to concentrate powers," it said. The statement also pledged Morsi's commitment to engaging all political forces on the drafting of a new constitution. Secular and Christian members withdrew from the panel drafting the document, alleging that the Islamists who dominate the body have hijacked the process to produce a charter with an Islamist slant.

Nader Omran, of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, said any changes to the decrees were "out of the question" but Morsi might "make pledges, vows or addendums explaining his position to clarify the decrees."

He said Morsi would hand over his legislative powers to parliament's upper chamber once a new constitution is adopted in a nationwide referendum and ahead of parliamentary elections. The presidency did not confirm the claim, but doing so would leave the Egyptian leader with the state's executive and legislative powers until around April.

The move also has caused some internal discord among the Morsi camp, with one aide, Samer Marqous, already resigning to protest the "undemocratic" decree.

Another Morsi adviser Ayman al-Sayyad wrote on his Twitter account that the president met Sunday for the second time in as many days with his 17-member advisory council and three of his assistants.

"I think it (the meeting) produced a genuine realization of the gravity of the situation ... We were candid today in our meeting with the president and we now expect practical steps on the ground." He did not elaborate.

Leading Egyptian democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate and a former director of the U.S. nuclear agency, warned Saturday of increasing turmoil that could potentially lead to the military stepping in unless Morsi rescinds his new powers.

Egypt's liberal and secular groups ? long divided, weakened and uncertain as Islamist parties rose to power in the months after the revolution ? are seeking to rally in response to the decrees as the stakes are high. The fractured opposition came together as the engine of the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak to step down after 29 years in power, bringing millions out on the streets, but they have failed to recapture that energy after months of setbacks.

Morsi, meanwhile, already has backed down twice in high-profile battles with the judiciary in the five months he's been in office. The U.S.-trained engineer failed to challenge the court ruling dissolving parliament's powerful lower chamber and had to rescind his decision to fire the country's attorney-general, Mubarak-era appointee Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud, in October. He fired him on Thursday as part of his edicts.

___

Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-political-foes-dig-heels-220258561--finance.html

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Wall Street rises on Greece deal hopes, retailers gain

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Friday on signs of progress in talks about releasing aid to Greece and as investors bid up retail shares on hopes consumers will scoop up bargains on Black Friday, which heralds the start of the holiday shopping season.

U.S. equity market trading will end early at 1:00 pm ET (1800 GMT) after closing Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. With many investors on holiday, trade volume got off to a slow start.

Greece said the International Monetary Fund had relaxed its debt-cutting target for the country, suggesting lenders were closer to a deal for a vital aid tranche to be paid. But other sources involved in the talks cautioned the funding gap was far bigger than Greece has suggested.

Euro zone finance ministers, the IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) failed earlier this week to agree on how to get the country's debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third attempt at resolving the issue on Monday.

"Anything positive out of Europe related to the sovereign debt ... that can act as a catalyst," said Todd Salamone, director of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The S&P 500 looked likely to break a two-week losing streak, having gained more than 3 percent this week so far. Stocks had tumbled earlier in the month on worries about the impact of tax and spending changes to take effect from January, but hopes that politicians will reach a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff helped the market recoup some of those declines this week.

The index also broke back above the 1,400 level, which could provide support.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 112.71 points, or 0.88 percent, to 12,949.60. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 12.34 points, or 0.89 percent, to 1,403.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 30.32 points, or 1.04 percent, to 2,956.88.

The retail sector rose as investors looked for signs of how much consumers are spending as stores lured them with Black Friday deals and discounts.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, kicks off the U.S. Christmas shopping season for retailers and is often the busiest shopping day of the year. The National Retail Federation expects sales during the holiday season to grow 4.1 percent this year.

Shares of electronics retailer Best Buy Co were up 1.6 percent at $11.76, while J C Penney gained 1.6 percent to $17.53.

Big-name technology companies also climbed as investors added to positions on a day of thin trading.

Microsoft helped lift the Nasdaq, gaining 1.7 percent to $27.41, while Oracle rose 1.2 percent to $30.76.

"Anyone that was on the sidelines waiting for a pullback like the one we just had in some of the tech names, they're looking for any glimpse of strong price action for permission to enter into those (stocks)," said Salamone.

Research in Motion surged on optimism about its soon-to-be-launched BlackBerry 10 devices that will vie against Apple's iPhone and Android-based smartphones. RIM was up 12 percent at $11.49.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-rises-greece-deal-hopes-retailers-gain-155716990--finance.html

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Redskins' RG3 to get a copy of 'Cool Hand Luke'

Associated Press Sports

updated 4:44 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2012

(Eds: Updates with details, quotes. Adds byline. With AP Photos.)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Over five days, Robert Griffin III completed 34 of 43 passes with eight touchdowns to six different receivers and earned the nickname "Cool Hand Luke" from his coach.

Now he'll get to see exactly who this "Cool Hand Luke" guy is.

Mike Shanahan said Friday he's sending Griffin a DVD of the 1967 Paul Newman movie referenced by the coach after the Washington Redskins' 38-31 Thanksgiving win over the Dallas Cowboys. The movie came to Shanahan's mind because he felt that Griffin is the type of player who "doesn't get too upset about anything."

But RG3 had no idea who or what "Cool Hand Luke" is, laughing and telling reporters it must be someone who is "pretty cool."

So Shanahan said he's texted Griffin to explain and that a copy of the movie is on the way - and that he understands why a 22-year-old quarterback wouldn't know anything about a 45-year-old movie.

"I did let him know it was a compliment," Shanahan said.

For any other player, the episode might be a bit of trivia swallowed up in a big victory, but nothing about RG3 is trivial. He is proving worthy of the big stage, and he's stepping up his game at just the right moment, so much so that another three-word description is starting to emerge: "potential MVP candidate."

The Redskins were on the ropes less than a week ago, and the scuttlebutt was that defenses were starting to figure Griffin out or that he had hit the rookie wall after a pair of subpar performances that sank the team's record to 3-6, prompting Shanahan to sound like a coach who had given up on the playoffs.

Then came a perfect 158.3 quarterback rating with four touchdown passes in a 31-6 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, followed by a 132.6 rating and four more TDs in the Redskins' first Thanksgiving win over the Cowboys in franchise history. Griffin is also the first Washington player to throw for four scores in consecutive games.

"We're clicking at this point, and we're clicking at the right time," Griffin said, "because this is what we have to do. Every game is important. Every game could be like the last game of our season."

The Redskins are now 5-6, behind only the New York Giants (6-4) in the NFC East. The Giants host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. If they lose, first place will be on the line when they visit Washington the following Monday night.

The win-or-else mentality has reached the point that Shanahan opted to receive when he won the coin toss Thursday instead of deferring to the second half, as he did earlier in the season.

"It's what I always do in playoff time," he said. "I always take the ball."

Griffin remains one of the most accurate passers in the league, completing 67.5 percent of his passes with only four interceptions. The receivers who were much-maligned a few weeks ago are starting to come into their own as a group. Pierre Garcon, who returned to the lineup Sunday despite a torn ligament in a toe on his right foot, reached backward to snag the ball for a 59-yard catch-and-run touchdown against the Cowboys.

"It's not a finished product by any means, but we're on the right track," Shanahan said. "I think there's definitely a sense of urgency when you know that you cannot stumble."

Notes: Shanahan expects rookie LB Keenan Robinson to be out for the season with a torn pectoral muscle. The coach was awaiting the results from the MRI but said: "Right now, it doesn't look good." ... Shanahan said he didn't expect LB London Fletcher to play because of a sprained right ankle, but Fletcher started, had an interception and played in his 235th consecutive game. "I'm never counting him out again," Shanahan said. Fletcher reinjured the ankle during the game and needs some extra days of rest, which is exactly what the Redskins can give him with 10 days between games.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/49943268/ns/sports-nfl/

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